David’s Simple Photography

by David Tong

“There’s nothing for me to shoot, there aren’t anything interesting around me”

“You’re so lucky! You live in an interesting place where there’s so much going on!”

“If I only have a better lens, I can shoot nice pictures like him”…

We’ve all said the same things one time or another, especially when we think we don’t have enough camera gear or opportunity to travel, etc. We all know the simple fact that the reasons were telling ourselves are merely excuses, nothing more. Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

This article is for beginners or for those who haven’t bought an expensive telephoto lens or wide aperture lens.

For many, a photograph where the subject is sharp while the background is completely out-of-focus is what they consider an “advanced” photograph that can’t be done with consumer cameras or lenses. Many people assume that you’re required to own either a long telephoto lens or a very wide aperture lens in order to do so. That premise is partially correct, owning either or a combination of those two lens features will give you that look you’re after, but without the knowledge of how it is achieved, you’ll be spending needlessly for something that can be done with your existing equipment.

You can get a blurred background with a sharp subject even with a point-and-shoot camera or your DSLR’s standard kit lens as long as you understand the physics involved. The only difference is, with longer and faster lenses, you can induce more blur than basic equipment. Once you understand why and how to “separate” the background from the subject by controlling depth-of-field, you can apply this knowledge to other forms of photography like macro, still-life, etc. regardless of camera type.

By definition, depth-of-field (DOF) is the area from front to back where the scene is acceptably sharp. Areas that are no longer sharp are known to “fall out” of the DOF. The larger the lens opening (aperture), the shallower/thinner the DOF, the smaller the lens opening, the deeper the DOF. Controlling DOF means to control how much of your subject should remain sharp. Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

Image courtesy of Canon UK.

When we speak of lenses of legendary status, we usually refer to rare and/or expensive lenses that has come and gone throughout the years. Rarely can we find a lens that’ll give us great images that we’re willing to buy without giving up a year’s worth of gas money. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Mark II will not only give you great images, it also cost less than half a week’s worth of gas money! Now that’s legendary in my book.

From Canon:

Features

* Diagonal Angle of View: 46°
* Lens Construction (elements/groups): 6/5
* No. of Diaphragm blades: 5
* Minimum Aperture: 22
* Closest Focusing Distance (m): 0.45
* Maximum Magnification (x): 0.15
* AF Actuator: MM
* Filter Diameter (mm): 52

Compact and high-performance, standard lens

This is the lightest EF lens of all at a mere 130g. Compact and high-performance, standard lens. Its Gaussian optics provide sharp delineation from near to far focusing distances. The color balance is excellent for a standard lens. Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

Level: Advanced

While most people do shoot RAW and can tinker their white balance settings (WB) by GUI sliders from their software (such as Lightroom, and PhotoShop), sometimes, it’s beneficial to know how to do it from scratch as well.

Of course, it’ll be best to make sure your WB is accurate to begin with, but the world is not perfect, hence image editing software are made available.

Portraits, in general, require a certain level of color accuracy to make the skin of the subjects flattering. Light skinned subjects has a tendency to look too pink with wrong WB, while dark skinned people can be too orangy.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Note, article was updated due to content inaccuracy - note to self, don’t publish when heavy on medication!)

None actually…

A very, very common myth you’ll read around forums especially when discussing lenses of different focal lengths are the statements “just zoom with your feet”, “just take a couple of steps forward/back”, the idea was, moving with your feet gives you a similar image - it doesn’t.

Perspective of a scene changes when the subjects or the camera position moves towards or away the subject in relation to the background. However, merely zooming in and out from the same camera position will not alter perspective.

Take a look at this series of photographs (they are lousy examples, but I want to get the article out before I lose my train of thought, I’ll change them as soon as I get the chance).

Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

Level: Intermediate

High Pass sharpening is pretty easy to do and reduces the chance of noise being sharpened unnecessarily while sharpening the tones that viewers usually put more emphasis on viewing as well. I’m sharing something I’ve just learned from Martin Evening’s PhotoShop for Photographers training book - High Pass Sharpening targeting the mid-tones only.

This actually works better for landscape shots but I don’t have one available so I’ll use a portrait instead.

The main difference versus the standard high-pass technique will only be the mid-tone blending. You can skip all this and use masking if you want to, I’m just presenting a different approach (and in my opinion, an easier way to replicate for future photographs). Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

Level: Intermediate

Most good landscape shots relies on dynamic range. The amount of details in the highlights and shadows play an important role with the shot. Not all of us (myself included) are readily equipped with filters that’ll help balance out the exposure and while high-dynamic range (HDR) photography seems to answer that issue, most HDR attempts attempts by newbies result to very unrealistic effects that look downright tacky. It takes a lot of skill during capture and post-processing to create HDR photographs.

Naturally, it’s important to capture a proper image to begin with. It’s best to retain highlight details when using a digital camera or slide film while it’s better to retain shadow detail if you shoot with negative film. Regardless, we’ll attempt to balance out a single exposure from a high-contrast scene and get a more balanced and dynamic photo with this simple post-processing technique. Read the rest of this entry »

by David Tong

Macro photography is interesting where everything seems to be magnified and the viewer gets into this surreal environment that we’ve never seen before even though the subject is mundane and common.

The ability to see the details, colors, shapes, and textures opens up a photographer’s creative vision beyond what the eyes can see. In order to capture subjects with such magnification, however, special equipment are required, specifically, special lenses.

Normal lenses cannot magnify subjects beyond 35-25% of the actual subject size. Macro magnification, in general, should yield at least 1:1 ratio or life-size magnification or larger.

There are a lot of great macro lenses available for all kinds of cameras, but most macro lenses are costly and unless you do macro and detail-specific photography often, the investment seem to be unjustified for pretty limited use.

Luckily for those who don’t have deep pockets, there are cheaper ways to try out macro photography without breaking the bank. The solution is simple, and you merely have to look back before auto-focus lenses were invented. Knowing how light travels and making use of simple contraptions to magnify subjects before it hits the film/sensor plane.

I recommend the using the extension tube and/or reverse mount approaches over any other option if cost is a big factor. Read the rest of this entry »