The JustShowMeHowTo.com Digital Photography Blog

Best Cameras and Products 2007 - American Photo

American Photo has put out their annual list of best new products - everything from Pro SLR's to Ultracompact Cameras and Accessories - lots of great info, give it a look!

Controlling Light in Your Pictures/LightSphere II

As you become a more sophisticated photographer, there are dozens of different tools out there that you can use to control light.  Diffusers, reflectors, umbrellas (in various colors and sizes), ring flashes, the list goes on and on.  It can be very hard to know what effect each of those will actually have on the quality of light and the quality of your pictures.

Here's a very interesting and useful site from Visatec, a lighting products company, that shows the differences between the many types of lighting control products they sell.

For example, this image (click to enlarge) shows the difference between a silver umbrella and a sun (gold) umbrella.  There are dozens of other choices in the menus ranging from snoots to just plain lamps.

Recently, I added a light controlling gadget to my bag of tricks, the Gary Fong Lightsphere 2.  I was finding that I was taking a lot of flash pictures of my daughter inside, and wasn't happy with the quality of the regular flash, or even bouncing my Speedlight SB-600 off the ceiling, so I looked around for another option and am giving the Lightsphere a try.

Here are a couple of different images taken with the different light sources.

This one was taken with the flash from my D200.

 

This one with the Lightsphere - I find it quite a bit more pleasant overall, with better balance and softer highlights.

 

I'm still just a few dozen shots into the Lightsphere, so we'll see where it goes.

For more tips on taking great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

Visatec link courtesy of Photodoto.

 

 

Making Pictures Look Older in Photoshop

This is a very interesting old picture of a rooster.  Or is it?  It must be - just check out the color scheme, the grain, and the blurring.

But then what's this?  Well, it's the original picture, of course.  But how'd they achieve this very effective aging effect?

Digital Photography School has a very interesting article on Antiquing Digital Images in Photoshop.  It covers using a variety of techniques available in most versions of Photoshop to give that antique look to just about any image, including color removal, grain and blurring.

For more tips on taking great pictures, check out www.justshowmehowto.com!

Now that's a workstation!

This may be the wildest workstation I've ever seen...

2 G5's, 3 30" monitors, 6 TB of external storage, and more...

All this is for crunching RAW files for a Flickr user named washington_dc_photographer, which certainly describes the sort of person who'd need this much horsepower.

Check out his photostream on Flickr.

Reviewing the Best Point and Shoot Digital Cameras

David Pogue of the New York Times takes his annual look at the best point & shoot cameras in this article.

Comparing 11 of the most popular consumer models, he singles out the Canon A630 as having the best picture quality and the Fuji FinePix F30 (my point and shoot of choice) as having the best low-light pictures.

More, in the article!

For more tips on taking great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

How To Buy A Digital Camera

Digital Photography School has a very good article on the 9 Steps To Buying a Digital Camera.

Those steps take you through the kinds of questions you should ask and things you should think about before you buy your next camera.

For example...

6. Optical Zooms are King

Not all ‘zooms’ are created equal.

When you’re looking at different models of digital cameras you’ll often hear their zooms talked about in two ways. Firstly there’s the ‘optical zoom’ and then there’s the ‘digital zoom’.

I would highly recommend that you only take into consideration the ‘optical zoom’ when making a decision about which camera to buy. Digital zooms simply enlarge the pixels in your shot which does make your subject look bigger, but it also makes it look more pixelated and your picture ‘noisier’ (like when you go up close to your TV).

Check it out!

To learn how to take better pictures with whichever camera you choose, go to www.justshowmehowto.com!

 

New Lowepro SlingShot 300AW Bag

Lowepro has added a new bag to their excellent SlingShot sling bag series - the SlingShot 300AW.  Larger than the 100 (which I use) and the 200, the 300AW is alrge enough for a full-size pro SLR and 5-6 lenses.

As Lowepro puts it...

Carried comfortably on the back, it easily rotates to the front so you can get to your camera quickly. The SlingShot 300 AW holds an Pro SLR with zoom lens attached 5-6 extra lenses, cables and accessories and has a full access lid to make loading it a snap. This feature-rich bag also includes a built-in memory card pouch, micro fiber LCD cloth and two generous organizer pockets.

These sling bags are my favorite style, and really do make a difference over backpacks, shoulder bags or waistpacks, I think.  With the 300AW Lowepro now has the sizes for just about any sort of photographer.  At about $100, well worth checking out.

To learn more about taking great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

New Pentax K100D DSLR Reviews

Lots of terrific new digital SLR cameras out these days, and here's another on the hit parade - the Pentax K100D.

Unlike some of the other new digital SLRs, this model only has 6 megapixels, but as they say, it's not what you have, it's how you use it, and the K100D makes the most of its sensor with clear, sharp images.

It also has high-ISO (up to 3200) capabilities and in-camera anti-shake, and can run on AA batteries or CR-V3 lithiums, very useful on trips or other places where AC power isn't readily available.

Here's DPReview's "Highly Recommended" take on the K100D.
PopPhoto weighs in here. 
Imaging Resource gives the K100D a thumbs up.
DCResource also gives the K100D a strong recommendation, saying "...this entry-level digital SLR won me over with its excellent photo quality, built-in image stabilizer, and low price."

Lots of very good things said about a camera with a street price just over $600.  If that's still a little too much for you, Pentax also makes the K110D - basically the same camera without the in-camera vibration reduction and priced $100 lower.

Engadget Summarizes the Olympus E-400

Uber-gadget-blog Engadget has put together a summary of the new Olympus E-400 digital SLR and what reviewers think of it.

To summarize their summary:

While we're always skeptical when there's high praise across the board, the E-400 truly seems like a solid offering through and through; its ease of use (in auto and manual modes), pocket-friendlier size, "excellent" image quality, and exceptional versatility seemed to deliver in all the areas that make or break a DSLR.

Check out more of what Engadget and lots of others had to say in their post.

To learn more on taking great pictures with any camera, check out www.justshowmehowto.com!

Picking the Perfect Camera Gift with CNET

Our good friends at CNET have out out a couple of interesting things this week, including their Holiday Gift Guide for Cameras and Camcorders.

They break things down into Affordable, Midrange and Expensive and lay out which models might just be right for that special person on your gift list.  You can also check out their Holiday video and audio podcasts.

To learn how to take great pictures with all this fun gear, check out www.justshowmehowto.com!