The JustShowMeHowTo.com Digital Photography Blog

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.

 

 

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.

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!

Nikon D40 DSLR Preview

Continuing our look at new Digital SLRs, here are some reviewers' takes on the new Nikon D40.  The D40 is the successor to the D50 as the entry level Nikon DSLR.  At $599 (list price) for the kit with an 18-55 lens it is a remarkable value for a camera with its featureset on Nikon's quality level.

Here are some reviewer thoughts:

From DPReview.com's hands-on preview of the Nikon D40:

On the plus side you get ISO 3200 equiv. (HI 1), the ever useful customizable Auto ISO, a larger viewfinder view, shorter shutter lag and viewfinder blackout, a larger LCD monitor, a considerably nicer user interface, SDHC support, a new image processing engine, unlimited JPEG continuous shooting, in-camera retouching (including D-Lighting) and of course a smaller and lighter body. It would not therefore be fair to describe the D40 as a 'dumbed down' D50, far from it, the range of improvements and new features out-weigh those which have been removed or reduce, which would most likely not be missed by the average D40 owner.

Ken Rockwell also has his look at the D40.  His conclusion seems pretty simple:

The D40 is designed for normal people who just want great pictures, and if that's you, I'd just get one and not worry about the rest of my details below.

Nikon has also put out the Speedlight SB-400 as a complementary flash to the D40.  External flashes are a great accessory if you're serious about your pictures, particularly portraits, so you may want to check it out as well.



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

Comparing the Sony Alpha/Canon Rebel XTi/Nikon D80

In the last few months 3 major camera manufacturers have released their new digital SLR's - The Sony A100 Alpha, the Canon Digital Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80.

All of these are next-generation 10+ megapixel wonders, with dozens of features to help you take great pictures.

So which one is for you?  Let's read what a couple of respected reviewers had to say:

DPReview.com has their reviews of the Sony Alpha, Canon Digital Rebel XTi and Nikon D80 - all were "Highly Recommended" - their best rating - but each had different strengths and weaknesses.

DigitalReview.ca has this face-to-face-to-face showdown of the 3 cameras - they prefer the D80 over the other two.

CNET has a shootout between the Rebel XTi and the D80 - the D80 wins this one hands down.

 

Overall, the D80 seems to be the winner in most of these reviews, but the Rebel and Alpha are also great cameras.  If you're looking for a new DSLR, head down to a shop, pick up all of them and use them.  I've held all three and they're all very different to hold and shoot with, so find the one that's right for you!

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

New Nikon Digital SLR - The D80

DPreview has posted their preview of the new Nikon Digital SLR - The D80.

Many of the photographers at Just Show Me How To.com and Blue Pixel are Nikon shooters, and this camera promises to be another terrific entry in the DSLR world.  Check it out.

For more on how to take great digital pictures, check out Just Show Me How To.com.

Where to do photofinishing?

Consumer Reports has done some research into photofinishing and where you should do it, based on what your key criteria are. 

Here's one of their conclusions:

If quality matters most, go online. In our tests, the best online photofinishers produced excellent prints more consistently than the best in-store services. Just make sure you have access to a broadband connection; it’s painfully slow to upload photos using dial-up access.

Read the rest of the article to see where you should go for speed and price, best quality and more.

For tips on getting the most out of your pictures and your digital camera, visit us at www.justshowmehowto.com.

Let's Talk About Straps

Let's talk about a piece of photo gear that's not talked about much - the camera strap.  Most of us just use the one that's included with our cameras, but that's not usually a comfortable OR stylish choice.  Here are some other options:

Photojojo points out a couple of manufacturers of snazzy looking camera straps in this article.

UPStrap makes some high-tech (and high-price) non-slip straps that get VERY high marks for comfort and are available in all kinds of sizes for small cameras, SLRs and camera/laptop bags.

And, our good friends at Lowepro make neoprene camera straps that combine good comfort and reasonable cost as well.

Camera Bag Reviews

Ever wondered about all the different camera bags out there, and which one might be right for you?

Well, after you check out our video on Choosing the Right Camera Bag - take a look at the reviews at www.cambags.com.

This site has several hundred reviews from users of different kinds of camera bags, including shoulder, backpack, sling and other bags.  It's a useful resource if you're wondering about which bag is rtight for you.

Personally, I still love my Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW, but since I've just moved to a larger digital SLR, I'm reading reviews to see if there's another bag that may suit me better.

DealNews

DealNews is a terrific deal-finding website that I look at on a daily basis, and their camera section often has amazing deals, coupons and links to great sales on cameras, memory and accessories. 

I subscribe to "20 latest deals" blog via RSS and hardly a day goes by when I don't see something that I'm at least tempted to buy, if I don't actually pull the trigger.