Trying To Be Photographer Part16

One of my Telgu friend invited me to cover Telgu Annual Atlanta chapter meet to celebrate "Bathkama". I accepted it with full generosity without charging him back since this being my first event to show up my talent.

Trying To Be Photographer Part15

Got new filter for editing black and white photo called Silver Efex Pro. Wanted to share some result

Trying To Be Photographer Part14

The concrete trail is about 6.15 miles (10 kilometers) in length. The greenway runs along Big Creek parallel to North Point Parkway, from Webb Bridge Road on thenorth end to Mansell Road on the south end. A soft mulch trail encircles a large wetland between Haynes Bridge Road and Mansell Road. Wildlife such as blue heron, deer, ducks and Canadian geese can be observed in this preserved water setting.


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Trying To Be Photographer Part13

How is this ?

F Stop : F/2.8 Exposoure Time : 1/13sec Focal Lenght :33mm Max Aperture :2.96875

ISO Speed :100

India Turns 61 today

Happy Independence Day Dear India
INDIA which has 31 states, 1618 languages, 6400 castes, 6 religions, 6 ethnic groups, 29 major festvals, but still one country .

Here is the cute Pug who wishes us Happy Independence Day

Awesome performance in Beijing 2008 Olympics

I was trying to find how was the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony went of and found amazing video where the performer is showing amazing art which is mixed with perfection, balance, strength ,flexibility. I was watching this alone in the morning and could not resist to shout "Awesome" . This is "Must to Watch " video. The nice part of entire show was when he tried to balance the other guy on his head. Can you believe it ?

Trying To Be Photographer Part12

Well here is my next photo which I shot during my trip to Smokey. I liked the shot and here are the details about the shot
Focal Length : 16mm
Exposure Time: 1/4000
ISO: 800
Metering Mode : Matrix
Aperture :f/2.8

Trying To Be Photographer Part11

TRIP TO GREAT SMOKEY

On 4th of July myself along with Bikas,Debu,Mansi,Suman,Partho and Anurag started for Great Smokey Mountains. We had two cars and along with that we had two full time (Vikash/Debu) and two part time drivers (Bikas/Suman). We went to see places like Fountana Dam,Cligmans Dome,Cades Cove and Abrams Falls. We booked Hous of Dream from Volunteer Cabin Rental .It was a nice little apartment with all the facilities like Jacuzzi, HDTV,DISH,BILLIARDS and nice living room. We had a nice time there. We return back on 6th of July after driving around 1000 Miles.


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Trying to Photographer Part10

Here is my other creation

Trying to be Photographer Part9

Bowling club get together

While leaving my previous work place I had a great time. Some moments to share with every one who visit my blogs and also to show them that I have started learning “Movies making”

Trying to be Photographer Part8

Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed - The Good Kind of Threesome

PS: I have to admit that I have stolen this from blog site fearing that this information might go sometime

 . I would like to thanks Choln for wonderful tutorial.

Canon 24-70mmL, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 0.125s

I thought I would take a little time and whip up an article about some photography basics. Please, please note the use of the word “basics” in that last sentence. If you’re been shooting for any appreciable length of time then you’re probably not going to get too much out of this. But given that we’re smack in the middle of the present giving time of year, it’s likely that in a few days there’s going to be a glut of new DSLR owners out there. What I’m aiming for is the article I wish I’d found when I first got my camera, to help explain the relationship between three critically important parameters: the ISO speed, aperture (or f-stop number), and shutter speed.

To lead with, the easiest way I think to approach these three things is to understand physically what they mean inside your camera. So, here we go.

• ISO speed: A measurement of how quickly your camera’s sensor absorbs light.

• Shutter speed: A measurement of how long your camera’s shutter is open for when you take a shot.

• Aperture: A measurement of how wide the shutter on your camera’s lens opens up when you take a shot.

For completeness I should note that ISO speed is not specific to digital cameras with sensors. On film cameras, a particular roll of film will have a specific ISO speed that it is rated for. Fortunately for DSLR users like us, we can change the ISO speed without having to change film. All three of these parameters affect how light gets to your camera’s sensor to create an image, so let’s start looking at them in more detail.

ISO Speed

The ISO speed changes how quickly the sensor absorbs light. Lower numbers mean less quickly and higher numbers mean more quickly. Now, the thing to keep in mind is that at high ISO speeds, you will introduce some graininess into your image. Therefore, the basic rule of thumb is that you want to shoot at the lowest ISO speed that you can get away with given the environment you are in. For example, if you are outdoors in the middle of a sunny day, you can probably shoot at a very low ISO speed like 100 or 200. Conversely, if you are shooting indoors or at night (or both) you will probably need to shoot at a high ISO speed in order to properly expose your image.

Shutter Speed

This one is probably the easiest of the three to get your head around. It’s exactly what it sounds like: the length of time that the shutter is open and light can get in through the lens to your sensor. Shutter speeds on Canon cameras are displayed as inverse numbers against one second. So, if your camera’s shutter speed is set to 125, that means that the shutter will be open for 1/125th of a second. Therefore, higher numbers mean that the shutter is open for less time. The effect this has is on the sharpness of the image. If the shutter is open for a very short amount of time, then even if the thing you are shooting is moving you will be able to get a sharp image of it, because it won’t have time to move around before the shutter closes again. The downside is that if the shutter is only open for a instant, then not a lot of light can get in to the sensor.

Aperture (or F-Number)

The third and final member of our roster here is the aperture. This is a measurement of how wide the shutter opens up when you take the shot. In terms of the F-Number, it can be a little bit confusing at first. You’ll see lenses listed with specs that read like “35mm f/2″ which doesn’t mean too much at first, so let’s take a look at that. The “35mm” part is the focal length of the lens, in this case fixed at 35 millimeters. Now, the “f/2″ part means that the ratio of the focal length to the maximum width that the shutter can open up to is 2. Confused? Let’s use some real numbers. This is saying that on this 35mm focal length lens, the maximum diameter that the shutter can open up to is 17.5mm. So, the smaller the F-number is, the wider the lens can open up relative to its focal length.

Understanding the effect this has on your image is a little more complex than with the others because two different effects come into play. The first is the depth of field in your shot. I’ve personally always thought that the term “depth of field” is a bit, well, wrong for what it’s used to describe. In my opinion, a more accurate description would be “plane of focus” so I’m going to run with that. Here we go. Imagine you are taking a picture, and that there is a magical plane of glass somewhere in front of you that is parallel to the front of your lens. “Magical” because it can pass through other objects, like the ones you’re taking pictures of. Everything within the plane of glass will be in focus, and things that are in front of or behind the plane of glass will be blurred. Got that? Good. Now here’s the neat trick: the wider your lens opens up when you take the shot (low F-number), the thinner that plane of glass becomes. Conversely, if your lens opens up only a teeny amount (high F-number), then the plane of glass becomes very very thick. So, a very high F-number means that probably everything in your shot will be in focus. A very low F-number means that only a thin plane will be in focus in your shot.

Still not quite making sense? It’s a little hard to visualize at first. Fortunately, Ryan’s taken a great shot at a wide aperture that should help make things clearer.

Canon 100mm macro, f/4, ISO 400, 0.001s

As you can see, with a wide aperture, the caterpillar is in focus but the areas both in front of and behind it are a bit blurred out. This is often used to make objects in the foreground pop into sharp relief by blurring out the background, which is a standard portrait shooting technique shown here.

Canon 50mmL, f/2, ISO 1000, 0.013s

So the first of the two effects is related to which parts of your shot are in focus and which aren’t. The second again relates to light. The wider your lens opens up, the more light gets in to the sensor. So shooting with a wide open lens can help you in low-light situations. On the other hand, if you have tons of light, then you can shoot with much smaller apertures if you so choose.

Putting it Together

Now you should have a good understanding of what these three numbers are actually doing on your camera. Let’s talk a little bit about how the three are interrelated. All three of them share a common trait, namely that they affect how light gets into your camera to produce an image. This is one of the reasons that you’ll read over and over that lighting is the most important thing in photography. Let’s look at a few scenarios, starting with a situation in which you are doing social shooting in very low light. In this case, you will typically want to set your ISO speed very high at something like 1600, and you’ll want to open your lens up as wide as it will go (low F-number.) Then, you will set the shutter speed as fast as you can get away with while still getting a reasonable exposure. A good rule of thumb for the shutter speed is it’s the inverse of the focal length of your lens. Meaning, if you’re shooting with a 50mm lens, try to have the shutter speed 1/50th of a second or faster. Practically, I get away with a slightly slower shutter speed than this rule dictates all the time, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind.

Canon 50mmL, f/1.2, ISO 1600, 0.025s

You definitely see the grain here due to the high ISO setting of 1600. Also, you’ll note that while the subject’s left eye is right in focus, her hair over her right shoulder is a bit blurred. This is due to the very wide aperture of f/1.2. The shutter speed was 1/40th of a second, and fortunately she wasn’t moving very much so I was able to get a sharp shot. This was despite the fact that there were only a few tea light candles to illuminate this frame.

Let’s look at a more extreme kind of shot next. Low light, but where you want a low ISO to avoid the grain, and a reasonably small aperture so things are in focus. If that’s the situation you are in, then in order to get enough light into the camera to get the image, you have to have a very, very slow shutter speed.

Canon 17-85mm, f/8, ISO 100, 25s

In the shot above, taken by Ryan, the ISO speed is very low at 100, and the aperture is at f/8. In order to get the exposure correct, the shutter was open for 25 seconds. Obviously, in order to do this effectively, you need to be using a tripod or some sort of stabilizing device to keep the camera still so that the image comes out sharp.

Let’s look at one more that’s not in such an extreme low-light situation.

Canon 24-70mmL, f/2.8, ISO 100, 0.001s

This photo was taken in the late afternoon when there was a reasonable amount of ambient light out. The ISO speed is set very low at 100 so the image isn’t grainy. I have the aperture open quite wide at f/2.8, so Demian’s head is in focus but the background is nicely blurred out. The shutter speed was 1/1000th of a second in this shot, so I didn’t have to worry about movement from Demian or the camera affecting the sharpness of the shot.

Do I really have to worry about all of this?

At this point hopefully you have a better understanding of why these three magic numbers are important for your photography. Nonetheless, you may also be there thinking “Seriously? Do I have to worry about all of this stuff all the time?” The answer in this day and age is “no, you can make the camera do at least some of the work for you.”

If you’re just getting into your DSLR, you’ve probably noticed that it has a variety of different shooting modes. When I first started learning about all of this, my more experienced friends advised me to use Aperture Priority mode when taking pictures. I recommend that you do the same. In Aperture Priority mode on my Canon rig, you select an ISO speed and the aperture to use, and the camera will pick out the shutter speed for you. This is convenient because you don’t have to constantly readjust the shutter speed as you’re trying to get your shots. There’s also a Shutter Priority mode, which I’ve barely ever used, and it does more or less the opposite. In that mode, you pick the ISO speed and the shutter speed, and the camera will select the aperture for you. I know that on some cameras like the new Nikon D300 there are modes that will also select ISO speeds for you, but I don’t have a rig that has this functionality personally so I don’t know too much about how to use it.

At any rate, shooting in Aperture Priority mode is a great way to start out since it lowers the number of things you need to concern yourself with. And you can always see what the camera is recommending for you in the viewfinder, or by looking at the EXIF data later on when you’ve processed the image. I’ve personally been shooting in fully manual mode a great deal as of late, but that’s mostly because I keep finding myself in very dark situations and I’m generally insistent on getting a sufficiently fast shutter speed so that the shots are clear. That said, for normal daytime shooting, myself and many of my friends use Aperture Priority mode a great deal of the time.

In Conclusion

I hope this serves to clarify some of the jargon that you may be absorbing. There’s definitely a learning curve with photography, but once you get the basics down it’s an incredibly fun endeavor. If anybody has questions please ask them via comments and I’ll do my best to answer them. Happy Holidays!

Trying to be a Photographer Part8

Finally I got my EF 16 - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Finally I got my EF 16

Trying To Be a Photographer Part7

There are 4 main "settings" when taking any photo with any camera. Some extremely simple cameras set most (or in some cases all) of them for you, but your Canon DSLR is a fully functioning SLR that allows you to go as automatic or as manual as you want.

The first setting is your Focal Length. This refers to the amount of "zoom" or "reach" your lens has. There are two types of lenses with regards to this. "Zoom" lenses ... do just that, they zoom. Your 18-55 is a zoom lens. It's focal length at its widest angle of zoom is 18mm. It's focal length at it's shallowest angle of zoom is 55mm. The other type of lens is a "Prime" lens. Prime lenses come in all different focal lengths but they do not zoom on their own ... you must move your body closer-to and farther-away from your subject to change what's in your picture.

The second setting is your ISO. ISO refers to the sensitivity your camera's digital sensor or film has to light. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive to light. What this means, is that for a specific amount of light, a higher ISO setting will be properly exposed quicker than a lower ISO setting. ISO on most Prosumer Canon DSLRs moves in 1 full stop incremets. What this means, is that for every notch of ISO you move up (100 -> 200, 200 -> 400, 400 -> 800, etc) ... the amount of time your sensor must be exposed will be cut in half. Conversely, if you move ISO down 1 notch and leave all other settings the same, you will double the amount of time the sensor must be exposed. Now, the simple solution is ... set the camera on the highest ISO setting possible and leave it. However, you must always keep in mind that the higher you set your ISO ... the more "grainy" your finished photo will be. Digial cameras increase the sensitivity of the sensor by pumping more power into it. This increase in power creates digital "noise" that can be visibly seen in pictures. On some of the older Canon DSLRs, there is a very noticible difference between ISO 200 and ISO 800. Ideally, you want to use the lowest ISO setting you can for any situation. This will produce the cleanest, smoothest photo.

The third setting is your Shutter Speed. Shutter speed is the amount of time you expose your sensor to light. You are human, you are not made of stone. Your body will shake as you take a picture. Your subject, whether it be leaves, or stars, or people, or birds will move while you take a picture. For this reason, we want to keep the amount of time the shutter is open as short as possible. The quicker the shutter opens and closes, the less time you have to shake the picture into blurryness.

Shutter speeds on your camera are represented in two ways. For shutter speeds represented in seconds ... it will read a number followed by a quote (ex. 1"). For speeds represented in fractions of a second, it will show you the denominator of the fraction. In other words, a shutter time of 1/500th of a second will be represented on the camera as "500" (no quotes). The higher the number (assuming there is no quote), the shorter the amount of time the shutter is open and the less likely you will be to "shake" the picture.

It is important to remember that as focal lengths increase, the amount of shaking is exponentially increased. If you've ever looked through a pair of binoculars or a rifle scope, you know that it takes a very steady hand to keep the view stable. The same will hold true for a 300mm focal length as compared to a 50mm focal length. There is a general rule in photography that says you should always be shooting with a shutter speed faster than 1 over the focal length. So, if you're shooting a 200mm focal length, your shutter speed should be at least 1/200th of a second or faster. That rule was accepted decades ago, back when all 35mm cameras shot film. Your Canon D30/D60/300D/350D/400D/10D/20D/30D has a "crop factor", you've probably seen that term around. The sensor on your camera is smaller than a 35mm film negative .... as such, your sensor is only exposed to a smaller portion of the image that comes through the lens than a 35mm film negative would be using the same lens. The cameras mentioned above have a crop factor of 1.6. For the record, a Canon 1D has a crop factor of 1.3 and the Canons 1DS and 5D have no crop factor (their sensor is the same size as a 35mm film negative).

You should always be shooting with a shutter speed faster than 1 over your focal length times your crop factor. So, if you were using a 200mm focal length as indicated on the lens you were using at the time ... you'd want to use a shutter speed of at least 1/320th of a second assuming a 1.6 crop factor (200 * 1.6 = 320).

In general, when handholding the camera (as opposed to it being supported by non-human means like a tripod or table), try not to go below 1/60th of a second if possible, regardless of focal length. Sometimes its not possible to use faster shutter speeds because there isn't enough light ... but don't expect a perfectly sharp picture if you handheld a shot for 1/10th of a second and you've had a 20oz Coca-Cola in the last hour. Also, know that there are many reasons to want a slower shutter speed ... "freezing" action isn't always desired.

The fourth setting is your Aperture. So far we've controlled how sensitive our camera is to light, we've controlled how long we expose our sensor to the light, the aperture controls the AMOUNT of light we expose to the sensor. The aperture itself is something like a door that sits inside the lens. Think of a space station door from a cheap sci-fi flick ... round, and it opens from the middle in a circular pattern outward. The amount of light an aperature allows through to the camera body is noted by a number called an "F stop". The smaller the number, the more "open" the door. The higher the number, the smaller the door is and the less light we allow through.

When we refer to an image being taken wide open, we're talking about the aperture and referencing the fact that the aperture was at it's largest opening (lowest F number) when the photo was taken. Obviously, it's always nice to have a lens that allows as much light to get to the sensor as possible. This lets us use a faster shutter speed since we won't have to expose the sensor for as much time. It might also let us use a lower ISO setting since with more light, the sensor won't need to be as sensitive in order for us to get an acceptable shutter speed. For this reason, the maximum amount of light a lens will pass through itself is represented on the lens itself.

There are two types of lenses with regards to maximum aperture. There are Constant Aperture lenses ... which is, as you change the focal length (zoom) of the lens ... the maximum aperture remains constant. The Canon 70-200mm F4 lens is a zoom lens that is able to achieve F/4 regardless of whether you are at the 70mm focal length, the 200mm focal length, or anywhere in between.

The other type of lens (regarding apertures) changes its maximum aperture setting as the focal length changes. The standard kit lens, the Canon 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 is one of these lenses. At 18mm, the lowest F/value that lens is able to achieve is F/3.5 ... at 55mm, the lowest F/value that lens is able to achieve is F/5.6 (less light). The reasons behind the change in the amount of available light has to do with the internal contruction of the lens, the size of the lens, and the ultimately, the cost of the lens.

So of course, the ideal situation here is that you leave your lens "wide open" all of the time to allow the maximum amount of light through to keep the shutter speeds as fast as possible (reduce likelyhood of shake) and to keep the ISO setting as low as possible. There are two problems with that.

The first problem is simple. Lenses do not always perform at their best when wide open. Many aspects of image quality are affected, but each individual lens is different in how well it performs at it's different aperture settings. It is highly recommended that after you have some time behind the camera, after you understand exposure and the many different ways with which to set it ... you spend a little bit of time evaluating each of your lenses at different F/stops to determine the image quality difference between each stop.

The second problem is the Depth of field. Now, this is a big one. If you're head's already hurting from everything you've read so far. Stop now, take a breather, bookmark this page, come back later.

You still here?

Okay. Depth of Field refers the distance in front of and behind your focus point (the exact point of focus you locked onto) that is also in focus. There are 4 things that affect your depth of field.

The first is the size of your sensor or film. This is easy because unless you buy a different camera, you can't physically change this. With all other things being EXACTLY the same, a 35mm film camera and a large format view camera will have very different depth of fields.

The second factor is your distance from subject. This is easy to see. Go look through a photo album. Find a picture you took of some sort of scenery. Maybe a mountain that was far away, or a city from atop a high perch ... whatever. Assuming it's a good picture (not blurry all over and incorrectly exposed) I'll wager a good amount of money that there are hundreds of yards worth of trees/grass/buildings that are in focus and can be recognized. Now find a really close-up picture you've taken of someone's face .... no, I mean really close-up .... you'll notice that objects even a few feet behind your subject are out of focus to the point where you probably can't even identify them. Here's an example:



Notice how although his eye is in focus, his ear is not. Now, this is an extreme example and in this particular shot I was looking to achieve that affect ... but the point is that if he had been standing 10 feet away from me as oposed to the 10 inches he actually was .... getting a depth of field that shallow using that lens would not have been possible.

The third aspect of a lens that affects the depth of field is focal length. With all other things being an equal ... a longer focal length will have a shallower depth of field. So if you were shooting a picture of a person standing 10 feet away from you and you were using an 18mm focal length ... more of what is in front of and behind that person will be in focus than if you zoomed the lens out to 55mm and took shot.

And of course, the fourth aspect that affects depth of field is the aperture. The lower the F/number (the more light) ... the shallower your depth of field. In the picture I posted above, I used my "fastest" lens (fast refers to the amount of light the lens is capable of passing through) and I used the lens wide open {lowest F/value, in this case F/1.8}

Here's another example of a very shallow depth of field:



This photo was also taken with the same lens as the one above. The lens in question is the Canon 50mm F/1.8. To recap, that means that it has a constant 50mm focal length (it doesn't zoom) and its maximum aperture is F/1.8.

In general, prime lenses are faster (allow more light in) than similarly priced zoom lenses covering the same focal length because there are less mechanical components inside the lens (less parts = more space = more light).

Some misc ramblings:

As with ISO, with each stop of a lens, the amount of light either doubles as the aperture opens (lower number), or it gets cut in half as aperture closes (higher number). The amount of light your lens passes through at F/4 is exactly half of the amount of light it passes through at F/2.8.

While we're here ... the "standard" stops of light are:
F/1.0 - F/1.4 - F/2.0 - F/2.8 - F/4.0 - F/5.6 - F/8 - F/11 - F/16 - F/22

Most Canon DSLRs are able to adjust the aperture of any lens mounted to it in 1/3 stop increments. So for instance, with my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens on my Digital Rebel .... if I were to click up the aperture values one click at a time, I would see F/2.0 -> F/2.2 -> F/2.5 -> F/2.8.

Moving onto the dial on the top of your camera. For anyone using a DSLR who wants to have total control over their picture, you must use the camera in one of the 4 modes: P, Av, Tv, or M

P = Program mode. Essentially, it tells the camera that you're serious about wanting control and the camera now allows you to set your own ISO setting (the camera doesn't let you do this in any of the automatic modes), it will allow you to change the shutter speed and aperture settings, and it will not popup the flash unless you tell it to do so. When you select P mode, the camera will select an aperture for you based on some sort of internal logic and then select the correct shutter speed to accompany that aperture. P mode will not adjust the ISO setting, if you wish to change it, you must do it yourself. When you half-depress the shutter button while in P mode, the camera will show you the aperture and shutter speed settings it is going to use for the picture ... if you don't like these settings, rotating the dial next to the shutter button will move the exposure settings (aperture value and shutter speed) around until you've reached something you do like.

Av mode = Aperture priority mode. In this mode, you are telling the camera exactly what aperture setting to use and the camera is finding the correct shutter speed that will expose this picture properly for you. Aperture priority mode is great for situations where, for instance, you have little light and your highest priority at all times is achieving the fastest possible shutter speed to avoid motion blur in your pictures. You set your aperture value at the lowest possible number and from that point on, your camera will be using the fastest possible shutter speed (because it is now receiving the largest amount of light possible) for whatever your are shooting. Aperture priority is also good for situations where there is more than enough light, but you'd like to be able to control depth of field very quickly. Just turn the dial a few clicks in either direction and you will change your depth of field.

Tv mode = Shutter priority mode. In this mode, you are telling the camera exactly what shutter speed to use and the camera is finding the correct aperture value that will expose this picture properly for you. Tv mode is good for situations where you need a very specific shutter speed. Maybe you're shooting a baseball game and you know from experience that if you want to get a shot showing a nice blur of the baseball bat as the hitter swings ... you have to shoot at around 1/60th of a second. Just set the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second in Tv mode and the camera will pick the aperture value for you that will properly expose that photo. Perhaps you're at a car race and you want to set a shutter speed that isn't too slow, but isn't so fast that the wheels don't look like they're moving: Experiment for a few shots until you find a shutter speed that works for you, and then lock that shutter speed in and let the camera pick the correct aperture value for you.

M mode = fully manual mode. In this mode, the camera sets nothing. We've had a recent discussion about M mode vs. Av/Tv mode that had very good arguments for both side of the equation, so I'll stay out of it here. It's a very good discussion in my opinion and you can find it here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=239183

So going very simple here. Let's say that for a particular subject, you set your camera to Av mode, you are using the Canon 85mm F/1.8 lens. You want as little noise as possible because you plan on making a big print of this photo so you set your ISO to 100. You want a very sharp picture so you set your aperture to F/4. You half-depress the shutter button and the camera tells you that with the amount of light hitting your subject right now, you will get a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second.

Now, you're using an 85mm lens on a 1.6 crop body. Following the rule of thumb for handholding, you know that you want to be using a shutter speed of at least 1/136th of a second (1 over 85 * 1.6).

So you know that this lens is still sharp if you open it up 1 stop. So you make 3 clicks of the dial and now you've set the aperture at F/2.8. You've doubled the amount of light which means that the amount of time the shutter must stay open has been cut in half. So now your camera tells you that the shutter speed will be 1/125th of a second. Now, you may determine that you are a steady enough person that this is a fast enough shutter speed and you're going to take the shot. But maybe you REALLY need this shot to be sharp and you dont' want to chance it.

Since your maximum aperture on this lens is larger (lower number) than F/2.8 ... you can open the lens up another stop. But at F/2.0, the depth of field is going to be really shallow and this particular lens might not produce the most crisp image possible at that aperture. You can bump the ISO up 1 stop from 100 to 200. This doubles your camera's sensitivity to light. Because you are in Av mode and the camera will not change the aperture value by itself (remember, in Av mode, only you can do that) ... the camera will adjust the exposure by cutting the shutter speed in half for you automatically and now you're exposure will be 1/250th of a second @ F/2.8 using ISO 200.

That's a very basic, fairly general introduction to photography but the information contained here is universally transferable to all cameras regardless of size.

Trying To Be a Photographer Part6

I was trying to shoot directly into the sun with different combination and permutation but without any luck. During this trial I learned one thing, if you keep your object under exposed (With my DSLR I can go till 1/4000) you can have success. Seems like it is a difficult shot. I also learned that my DSLR has aperture of 5.4F. Not sure if this is OK. When I discussed this my college who is suppose to be a good photographer with SLR told that it is one of the difficult SHOT. He feel may be lens or photographer software can help to get me shot, not sure. I googled and seems like possible. Sounds like I got something to play with J . Let me try this. I got some example from net J

Trying To Be a Photographer Part4

Canon Lens Aging - How Old Is That Lens?

Beside the rear lens element of many (but not all) Canon lenses is a date code (as seen above) in the form of "UR0902". This code is also present on many other Canon products including camera bodies.

The first letter, "U", indicates that the lens was made in Canon's Utsunomiya, Japan factory. Prior to 1986, this letter is moved to the last position of the date code.

U = Utsunomiya, Japan
F = Fukushima, Japan
O = Oita, Japan

The second letter, "R", is a year code that indicates the year of manufacture. Canon increments this letter each year starting with A in 1986 and prior to that, A in 1960 without the leading factory code. Here is a table to make things simple:

A = 1986, 1960
B = 1987, 1961
C = 1988, 1962
D = 1989, 1963
E = 1990, 1964
F = 1991, 1965
G = 1992, 1966
H = 1993, 1967
I = 1994, 1968
J = 1995, 1969
K = 1996, 1970
L = 1997, 1971
M = 1998, 1972
N = 1999, 1973
O = 2000, 1974
P = 2001, 1975
Q = 2002, 1976
R = 2003, 1977
S = 2004, 1978
T = 2005, 1979
U = 2006, 1980
V = 2007, 1981
W = 2008, 1982
X = 2009, 1983
Y = 2010, 1984
Z = 2011, 1985

* assumption of continuation being made for future years.

The first two numbers, "09", is the month number the lens was manufactured in. Month 02 is February, month 11 = November. The leading zero of the month code is sometimes omitted.

The next two numbers, "02", are meaningless in determining how old a Canon lens is. This is a Canon internal code (that is occasionally omitted).

You now know the manufacture date for your lens - But - You cannot know how long the lens was in inventory, in shipping transit and on a shelf until it was originally purchased (without having the original receipt or a reputable person accurately informing you).

The Canon lens date code in the sample picture indicates that this Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L Lens (I know because I took the picture - not from the date code) was made in Utsunomiya, Japan in September 2003.

Trying To Be a Photographer Part3

About F-Stop

When I was trying to explore more about DSLR I came across the F-STOP from one of the blog . Some one wrote the comment about F-STOP like this
What is meant by f-stop?
A. The focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture (as seen from the front). It is also called an f-number, and is written like f/8, which means the aperture diameter is 1/8th the focal length.
The term is used both in regard to the maximum aperture of a lens and in regard to the aperture selected in a specific situation. The brightness of the image on the film is inversely proportional to the f-number squared. The depth of field increases but diffraction is worsened when using a large f-number. The effective f-number for all 3 effects changes if the lens is focused extremely close. The term "stops" purportedly comes from old technology in which the aperture was selected by turning a wheel with various sized holes in it, each one of which let in twice the light of the preceding one. Thus the phrase "open up a N stops" means to change to an aperture allowing in 2^N times as much light, and conversely with "stop down N stops".

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Sounds a little more plausible than "fenestra", doesn't it?
Then other guy explained in more interesting way

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After searching on this for hours, I have to go with it being a math equation for Focal Length ("F") over ("/") diameter. A lens with 14 inch "focus" (focal length) which is four inches in diameter he is talking about an f /3.5 lens -- (14 / 4) = 3.5 It's origins appear to go back to the mid 1800's and was used in a letter from Irving Pobboravsky to John William Draper. In it, he gave the above formula with an accompanying detailed explanation of what the F/ on the new lens stood for ("focal length over diamter").
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This is what I read in a magazine recently. The f stands for fraction of the focus length of the lens. In the old days when a 50mm lens really was 50mm physically, an f/2 is an aperture 1/2 the size of the focal length (not sure its diameter or what).So for the same light gathering power, ie same f stop: f/2 of a 50mm lens, the aperture has to be 25mm large f/2 of a 200mm lens, the aperture has to be 100mm large Of course modern optics meant focal lengths no longer need to have a direct relation to the physical size. The f number is now only a indication of light gathering power. However, a longer lens still requires a larger aperture than a shorter lens, which is why it fast telephoto lenses costs so much

Trying To Be a Photographer Part2

Finally I started learning photography. When I was in collage (1995-1999), I shot some nice photographs and my friend told I do nice photography. Humm may be from that time I got interested in photography. Let me think if that is true NO. That is not true , from my childhood I was interested in nature. I love to watch sky and greenery surrounding me. I love to watch sunset touching lake near my house. Yeah may be that time I developed some interest. We got our first camera Casio and I started trying my skill with that. Not much luck and then my brother bought a camera accidentally, how? that is another story. But it was a nice SONY powershot camera. I tried my little luck with that. When I got my job I always dream of buying a expensive camera using which I can try my talent (If I have any). When my room mate bough a manual SLR , I got little more inspired by looking at that SLR camera. I am not sure if I ever shot any nice photo with that manual SLR. In 2007 we were expecting our baby and my wife wanted me to buy a nice camera so that we can capture all the memorable moment of our new baby. So I gave this job to my wife to do some research and let me know what she understood. I can not claim that my wife is equally talented as me J but I have to admit that she sometime shoot a nice shot. I already had made up my mind to go only for DSLR. My wife chooses CANON Digital Rebel XTi which was a basic model from CANON in DSLR series and finally we bought that. I am not sure for past one year I am using and still trying to learn. Downloaded couple of CBT J (Yeah they have CBT for this) to learn it and I even knew that this is not something which you can learn from CBT. But to know the DSLR you need to understand terminology like ISO,Noise, Exposure, Zoom, Overexposed etc. Then I came to know college of mine knew photography well and was using same DSLR as mine. One more distance college was an amateur photographer who was using EOS and was using lens. I started talking to those guys as a beginner and they were very helpful to make me understand some basic (which I was missing). I thought it is a good opportunity to learn and try to develop my hidden skill ( hahahaha.) . I got so imbaraced when friend of mine ask what does SLR stand for (hahaha). Not that I did not know but I could not recall. So thought let me put this thing one my blog and tell who ever ask full form of SLR. Yes SLR stands for single-lens reflex.

Currently I am owning CANON Digital Rebel XTi/Tripod Stand/EFS18-55mm lens/2GB Compact Flash (CF) card from Kingston/. Now the question how should I proceed further? May be I continue watching some CBT and reading some nice blog. How should I start collecting my all arms and ammunition to enhance my hidden skill (Stop making fun of me)

Beauty of Nature - Place around Pune

Ratnagad
100 kms from PUNE

Place in India

I like this photographs

Trying To Be a Photographer Part5

May be I can become a good photographer.

Yesterday I was speaking to one of my friend and he happen to be a expert in SLR camera. He shown me his 3500USD camera and I was like OMG , can I ever buy such camera in my life time. My client team leader was passing by and she asked is that Vikash camera? . I told I am not that rich to buy such camera till IRS (Internal revenue service which is supposed to do my US tax return) help me. My friend told he will teach me basic so that I can start learning at my own. Why not , I can do it. Its not a bad idea to become amateur photographer ? Lets see if my family approve me to buy such a expensive lens?

EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM