Camera-less!

Well, here I am again. It's been several months since I posted anything. I just recently sold my camera :( It was hard to part with the Canon Rebel Xti but I think I am going to invest in a Nikon next. I want to be able to experiment with both brands and see which one I like better. It may have been a mistake when I sold the Canon but the good thing is that these gadgets maintain its value pretty well. If I find that the Nikon isn't right for me, then I'll just go back to Canon. Someone once told me that Canons are great at capturing sports/moving photography and Nikons are great at capturing still images. I'm not sure how valid that statement is but I'm determined to find out for myself.

Anyways, here's a photo that I took of my girlfriend. It was taken with the original kit lens on my Canon Rebel Xti. I grayed out the background to put all the focus onto her. All I did was increase the contrast and brightness of the photo.

Way to be creative!

Here is a shot of my girlfriend's attempt at using my camera. I have to say, it was very creative of her to snap the shot through the side view mirror of my car. I think she's even better than I am :) Enjoy!

Spring is here!

Wow... it's been a long time since my last post. My camera has been sitting in my room collecting dust for the past couple of months. My goal for this season is to use my camera every chance I get. Here are a few shots of my first attempt for the season. I apologize in advance for taking more flower shots. I have to get back in the vibe before I attempt to be creative with other things :)

The shot of the purple flower below was my attempt at getting as deep into the flower as possible. However, I didn't have a tripod so it was very difficult for me to get a decent shot without the blurriness. Hopefully, I'll be a little more prepared the next time :)



Of all the shots throughout the day, I like the shot of the yellow flower the most. The background is really dull, boring, and lifeless but I think it really creates a nice contrast. It forces the flower to stand out since it's the only colorful object in the picture. I guess it shows that beauty can be found even in the dullest places. (Yea I know... That was corny).

Another Look at HDR

Back in September, I briefly talked about HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. Just to reiterate on what HDR photography is, it's basically taking photos at different exposures and combining/merging them into one image. The end result is an image that is often exagerated and surreal. Here are examples of some beautiful images I found that use HDR techniques:

Aren't these pictures incredible? HDR makes all of the bright and dark colors stand out more. When doing HDR, I think that if you capture a photo with clouds present, it tends to make your picture look 10 times better.

There are many programs that make it easy for you to produce HDR photos. I am almost certain that all versions of Adobe Photoshop (CS2 or later) has features that allow you to create such images. Personally, I have never used the features in Photoshop to create HDR images. However, I have used a program called Photomatix. Photomatix is a simple program that is actually designed specifically to create HDR images. I highly recommend this program if you are just learning. Here is my first attempt at creating an HDR image using Photomatix:


Obviously it's not as fine tuned as the pictures above. However, you can definitely tell that it's not a photograph taken from a regular camera. In this photo, I took a total of 5 photos at different exposures ranging from lowest to highest. The challenge is to change the exposure settings on the camera without moving the actual camera. You want the position of the images to all be identical. Ideally, you will need a tripod and a remote to control the camera, which I did not have. The cool thing about Photomatix is that if your photos aren't aligned correctly, it will automatically align it for you. I'm pretty sure you can do this in photoshop as well but I haven't had the chance to test it. That may be my next project. Not bad for my first attempt right?

I personally love HDR photography. However, there are those that hate the whole idea. The hardcore photographers who love doing things the old fashion way will say that all that is needed to get a good photograph is to adjust the sharpness, contrast, and brightness. Personally, I think you cannot compare HDR photography to traditional photography. They both require different techniques to achieve results. I think traditional photography is capturing an image exactly the way it looks in reality. HDR is an abstract image that looks surreal and almost cartoonish. They are two different animals.

My Youngest Brother

It has been a while since I posted. With everything going on right now, I barely even have time to sleep :) Anyways, here is a shot I took not too long ago of my youngest brother. This shot reminds me of a kid's clothing advertisement of some sort. Of the 30 shots I took of my younger brother, I like this one the most. Sometimes when taking photographs, you have to capture the object or person at different angles. Also, you don't always have to center the object or person. For example, in this picture, I aligned my brother more towards the right of the picture. I also tilted the camera a little bit to somewhat give a playful perspective. I did not use any flash in this picture. I feel that flash tends to ruin the true colors of the photograph. The only drawback with not using flash is that you'll have to hold your hands very steady. I would recommend using a tripod whenever possible. If you're in a well lit area, you really wouldn't have to use a tripod. If you're taking night shots or if you're in an area that's not well lit, then a tripod would probably be best. The lens I used for this photograph was the 50mm (my favorite lens, the nifty fifty!).

Learning how to photoshop

I'm slowly trying to teach myself the editing techniques of Adobe Photoshop. It's hard because the language used in photoshop is hard to understand if you haven't been taught the definitions. I'm still learning step by step, slowly but surely. For the photos above, I tried to make the actual object (my car) stand out more than the rest of the picture. I wanted the background to look unreal. So basically, what I did was increase the contrast and sharpness of the object. Then I outlined and copied only the car itself. After I created a layer from my copy, I changed the contrast and saturation of the original image. After that's done, I pasted my copy of the car (2nd layer) over the original image that I just edited. This ends up being a perfect fit because the copy was taken from the original image. This is just a brief explanation of the process. There's a little more to it of course.

As you can see above, the top two photos are the original. They were taken with my girlfriend's point and shoot camera (Canon SD400). The picture quality of the SD400 isn't as good as the Rebel XTi but that's left for another discussion.

You can see the results of the photoshop in the bottom two pictures. My goal was to make the object stand out and make the background look unreal. I think I somewhat accomplished my goal.

There's a technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR) that can make your images look unreal. It's basically merging the same images taken at different exposures to bring out the color of your image. I think I will mess around with that technique next.

The Nifty Fifty!

I don't have much experience with camera lenses but I think the canon 50mm 1.8 lens is the best bang for the buck! You cannot go wrong with this lens at $80! It is a prime lens so that means that you lose the ability to zoom. However, this is a perfect portrait lens. I swear, this lens make any amateur look like they've been taking photos for years. It feels cheap and small compared to others but don't let that fool you. The picture quality on this bad boy is amazing. I guess that's why people call this lens the "Nifty Fifty." I highly recommend it if you're looking to add to your collection.

Dont look at the sun!

I am posting this shot because I thought it was very interesting. My girlfriend and I were having a picnic at the lake and I decided to take a snapshot of the sun. The photo somewhat looks like it was taken at night.

A few flower shots.

Here are some macro shots of a few flowers that were in my apartment complex. Flowers are probably the best subjects because they don't move! :) I have no idea what the names of these flowers are. My favorite picture would probably be the last one. I like how the green leaves in the background forces the flower to stand out. Right now, I'm just focusing on getting clarity in my macro shots. My next goal will be to take a photo of a water droplet after a rainy night. I've seen those shots on the Internet and always thought that they looked amazing.

Fire Red Dragonfly

This is my most favorite macro shot so far. It was taken on the Sigma 70-300mm lens. I finally learned how to use the macro feature. The auto-focus on the camera doesn't work too well so I had to use the manual focus to quickly get a clear shot. Now I find myself rarely even using the auto-focus. Sometimes, the auto-focus doesn't catch the actual subject but the background instead. I like the contrast and bokeh of this picture as well.

Fast Little Hummingbird

Here's a shot with my new zoom lens. The lens is a Sigma APO 70-300mm. It's a little better than the kit lens that came with the original camera. The price wasn't too bad, I bought it used on ebay for less than $200. However, it does seem a little soft at full zoom. I love this shot because I rarely had opportunity to see hummingbirds where I use to live (Sacramento, CA). These little guys are really quick. It was very hard just to get a decent shot. I think out of 15 attempts, this was the only decent one.

My New Hobby

I just recently bought a new digital camera because I've always loved photography. It's a Canon Rebel XTi. This is only an entry level SLR camera but I think it will suit my purposes perfectly. Currently, I'm still learning how to use the features it offers. I like the way the photos turn out without the flash on but you have to be really steady on the hands for the picture to turn out clear. I can see myself get better with every shot but there is still a lot to learn. Hopefully, I can make photography a life-long hobby. Who knows, maybe one day my shots can end up on the cover of a magazine (yea right!) The picture above is of my girlfriend and my little yorky.

I'm thinking about maybe taking a couple photography courses at a local community college. I want to learn everything there is to know about photography. The one thing I've always wondered was why photographers always use that horror-movie-like red light in the dark room to develop the pictures? I'm pretty sure there's a good explanation for it. I'm just too lazy to look it up on google :)

Here's a picture of my new camera.

Official First Blog

Well, this is my official first blog on blogger.com or any blog site for that matter (With the exception of Myspace of course). My goal for the rest of the day is to get familiar with the settings in this place, which shouldn't be too hard (I hope!). In today's day and age, I think even an elementary school student can figure out how to use something online if they play with it long enough. Even my little brother is more computer savvy than I am. I guess all of that online browsing, emails, and instant message has it's benefits after all. Well, time to get to work.