hiya! we have been organizing a give away and the prize is a car! (e-commerce) naturally it should look like a gift. but instead of setting up a gift ribbon for the car which would be really hard, we came up with an idea; -prepare a gift ribbon on a toy car -take a picture of it -isolate the ribbon -cover the real car image with isolated ribbon -enjoy the result! so the process was interesting and hope you guys like it too. note: green ribbon was for a try-out. used red one, once we figured its doable, we started using the red one. (compressed pics, anything is possible quality-wise :)) peace.
since its not only a camera, iphone is the best camera you can carry around all the time which is great to capture anything instantly. so it has to be super-fast.
i myself got over 3000 photos on my iphone with 165 applications. so sometimes starting camera could take more than 1-2 secs. to fix that, i have found an application called "snappy". unfortunately its on cydia which means you can only get this application on a jailbroken iphone.
snappy basically launches camera super fast which means that aperture animation of iphone camera goes away almost instantly. you can simply have the camera ready in 0.5 secs. plus you can set shortcuts for it via activator (which is also an essential jailbreak app) like launching snappy holding down vol button or holding down status bar, taking photos by pressing vol buttons, these kinds of shortcuts. it also works on ios5, tho works on ios4+ better.
oh btw you can launch the snappy from anywhere even while using an application.
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my photo app folder
you got an iphone, then you know what instagram is. keep reading so you can learn about few apps which will improve your photo experience on iphone. there are loads of apps to improve, edit, manipulate photos on iphone. most of them are waste of money&time, and useless since most of better apps works as "all in one" and few of them are great. these are the apps im using for editing shots. i will mention some apps i mostly use.
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first of all, a rotating & cropping tool is a must for an instagram user. im using an app called "IGCropRotate" found it on an instagram users profile page. frankly can't remember that guy's name (thank you tho). anyway its quite simple, helps you to rotate and crop photos and opens it directly on instagram so you can upload it easily.
also you can upload your non-square photos with white borders on instagram without sacrificing any part of your photo.
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this app is great. its like a small photoshop where you can remove stuff you don't want in your photo and works like clone tool of photoshop. you gotta watch the video!
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this app will help you to create some DOF on your photo. kinda faking big sensors dof effect. you should watch the video.
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and ofcourse camera+ its a must have.
lots of awesome effects you can use including most common ones like lomo, bw, sephia and stuff.
camera+ ss
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and most stupid yet most useful tripod i made for my iphone. very useful for taking 3+ shots to make hdr's. also helps while using cinemagram and stopmotion. will explain them later.
nikon's new flagship D4. the best DSLR that has ever been produced? imo yes.
creating videos with dslr cameras became really popular thus nikon finally made some proper improvements on video recording. this thing can shoot 1080p movies at 30, 25 or 24 frames per second with autofocus and it allows you to change aperture while shooting. Video is mono by default but ofcourse you can plug in some mics to improve sound recording.
higher resolution; 16.2MP CMOS sensor and its new expeed 3 chip offers insane range of ISO; 100-12,800 and extendable from 50 – 204,800.
another great thing about this camera, comes with new carbon fiber shutter so the shutter life is over 400k. (used to be around 150k)
lcd slightly bigger. 3.2"
new focusing system got classic 51 points and 15 of them are cross-type which makes focusing really precise and fast.
it has an ethernet socket! Its just crazy seeing a camera with wireless and ethernet sockets and yes you can reach the camera via wireless without instally any software whatsoever. the web interface allows you to control multiple cameras simultaneously, including the ability to release their shutters simultaneously. you can even autofocus anywhere in the scene, simply by touching your iphone/ipad screen. because this is all web-based, you don't have to be physically close to the camera. and as usual it has GPS chip aswell.
this dslr is just awesome and its price is great too. its just 5800€ ^^ (probably every lens+camera i've ever owned would worth less in total)
macro photography always interests me but it's hard to find the right stuff to shoot. especially when it comes to nature, you'll have to deal with tiny creepy insects which is really hard for a guy like me who can't get over insect phobia.
got few shots here. i know some are cliche but.. well enjoy. some d80- some d90
are you one of those photoshop haters? well you came to right place coz i prefer paint shop pro ^^
jokes aside, there are some ways to take your shots from good to awesome. so are you kind of a person who presents his shots without any post-production or even without any quick photoshop edits whatsoever? well if so, that sucks imo.
iam sure cleaning some unnecessary stuff from your shots wouldn't kill ya. i myself still not great at cleaning up but i
usually
create whats enuf for me.
check out some shots i got. (after and before cleaning) looks a bit better. wudn't you agree?
sigma 70-200 f2.8 @ f2.8 200mm, iso400 1/200
it's not that great but still makes your target pop! some clone brushes, usual stuff and extra DOF effect thats all
sigma 70mm macro f2.8 @ f2.8 iso100, 1/2500
clone brush and usual stuff thats all.
cudn't resist. fish tank 20lt water and sunlight with some reflectors, no fancy stuff.
don't slack and go clean some of your photos. they might look a lot better once you show proper care. peace.
i've had a great week, thanks to my dearest friend R. (fashiononboard.blogspot.com) wouldn't hurt sharing some shots i took from our little trip before me getting wasted.
ok having well focused shots is one thing, and sharp shots another. so i'd like to share some hints with you to get your shots sharper. some of them will fix your out of focus shots aswell. (i'm not gonna get into photography for dummies 101 like slow shutter speeds cause blur images bla bla here.)
ok, most of mid level photographers are familiar with these hints but those of you who are not, listen up!
before you start reading make sure you SLR is properly calibrated.
- get a proper tripod would be better if its not made in china. like a basic model of a Manfrotto will do the job. you need to keep your camera still. say you dont have a tripod for the moment, try holding your breath before hitting the button, rest the camera on your face, and rest your body on a wall or desk i dunno just try not to move.
if you got image stabilizer on your lens or camera, and wondering why that on/off switch exists since it always good keeping it on, well this time its not. IS,VR and stuff like that will go crazy on a tripod. so that switch actually works here. you need to turn image stabilizer off.
- get a remote controller most of nikon model's IR codes can be found on the internet so you can set up your universal remote controller for shutter control. or get one from dealextreme for any camera brand for like 3$. whats the point of keeping camera still with a tripod if you are poking shutter button with your finger while trying to get the shot. ok this time you got a tripod but no remote. then use self-timer for the delay so by the time it goes of, tripods movement will be ceased. so you'll get a clear shot.
- use lower iso well, since we are talkin about tripods, remote controllers who needs ISO then? no need to ruin your shots noisy. lets say you don't have a tripod with you. then read above and use less iso. try not to exceed iso 1000.
- go get some prime lenses and try them if you wanna use your SLR as a point and shoot camera, dont try prime lenses. get a tamron 18-270 or sometin, hell you should even stop reading.
you have to use your feet with prime lenses. they got no zoom at all. a focus ring and thats it and i'll keep this brief and not gonna get into pros and cons of a prime lens.
if you want your pics sharp, use proper zoom lenses which are usually expensive, or try some prime lenses. like start with 50mm f1.8 which costs less than a crappy mp3 player. if you are little bit interested in macro shots, go for macro lenses, you'll be shocked how sharp they are for normal uses. so.. no zoom usually means sharper photos. ofc there are some crazy zoom lenses, thats why i just used word "usually".
- use higher f-stops try to use high aperture numbers like f/7.1 - f/8. longer focal lengths will be less sharper comparing to short focal lengths. lets say we got a 18-70mm lens. lens will provide sharper pics at 18-35 comparing to full zoom 70mm. as shot gets softer you could make it more sharper by increasing the aperture number.
ok, most likely 70mm will give you f/5.6. now take the pic, take a look and now set it to f8, make proper adjustments to get enuf light. take another pic. check it out on lcd at %100 crop and you'll notice its much sharper than the one you took at f5.6
another important note, don't dont think higher aperture means sharper pics. most of lenses stop giving sharp photos after f/11. becomes worse at f/22. so its best keeping it around f/8-f/11. yes background will be leless diffused, theres no way to prevent it except a good post-production.
btw f8 is just a number that usually gives best results but all lenses got their best aperture value which is the sharpest point of that lens.
here some test shots i got with a cheap 70-300 lens. great lens for starters but terrible after a point. no need to give names. check out F numbers, as it gets higher, photo gets sharper!
lens: 70-300mm
left f/5 @ 200mm
right f/11 @ 200mm
so unless you are after a really shallow depth of field, boost your photos with some sharpness by giving some aperture numbers. you got a f/1.8 lens? try setting it to f/3.2 instead of f/1.8
- apply some sharpness use photoshop or a simple image editing software to give some little sharpness to your photo. don't ruin it with ridiculous numbers. it will cause noise. a sharpen brush would help alot. but an out of focus shot is still an out of focus shot, giving sharpness will only make it worse!
- and last step soft pics are great too!! don't forget that.
