Five months ago, I bought my first ultra-wide lens — the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 — after holding out for years. I’ve always flirted with the idea of such a crazy perspective, but I kept finding reasons not to purchase one myself. A 24mm lens had worked well as my widest angle for years, and I rarely found myself wanting anything more. Now that I’ve seen the other side, though, Have my attitudes changed? After going on two major trips with the 14-24mm f/2.8, the insane perspective has started to grow on me, but I still have plenty of reservations. Here’s how I’d sum things up, including my recommendations for anyone else considering making such a leap for themselves.
How to Take Sharp Photos in the Wind
Normally, if you’re using a tripod, camera shake isn’t something you’ll have to worry very much about. However, there are some obvious exceptions. If you’ve ever found yourself taking pictures in heavy winds, you’ll know the difficulties of capturing sharp photos — particularly if you’re using a telephoto lens. This seems like an impossible situation; what do you do when a tripod isn’t enough to stop your camera from shaking? Luckily, there are ways to improve sharpness even in windy conditions and come away with photos that are completely usable. I’ll cover some of the most important here.
10 Places to Photograph in Athens, Greece
In this article, I will recommend 10 most scenic places to photograph in Athens based on my three trips to the Greek capital. Everybody associates Athens with ancient temples – notably the Acropolis. I will give you a few tips not only on how to get the best shooting angles for Acropolis but also recommendations on many other subjects that you should not miss. This article is complementary to a great guide on photographing in Greece, where you can find further tips for attractive photographic locations in this country.
Pushing a Small 1″ Sensor to ISO-12800
Like many photographers I like to experiment with my camera gear and push it to see what will happen. Today I went to RaptorFest 2017 in Grimsby Ontario to view the displays and catch some of the animal presentations. The indoor lighting was less than ideal and I decided to do a little test with my Nikon 1 V3 and push its small 1″ sensor to its limits by shooting at ISO-12800 (please see the Reader Note at the end of this article)
How to Create a Panorama in Lightroom
Without a doubt, Lightroom is a powerful software package for editing images. But did you know that it is also one of the most preferred tools to stitch panoramic images? Ever since Adobe released Lightroom 6 and CC, the capability to stitch images into DNG files has been integrated right into the product core. If in the past one would have to either use Adobe Photoshop or third party software such as PTGui to stitch panoramas, with the latest versions of Lightroom, one can easily stitch single row and even multi-row panoramas directly from Lightroom. In this article, we will demonstrate how one can successfully stitch panoramas in Lightroom and explain why the use of Lightroom specifically might be a preferred method when compared to other third party tools on the market.
Postcards From Niagara Falls
So I wasn’t sure that I wanted to write about shooting this location (especially since my last post was about finding local subjects) but I’ve shot a few waterfalls around the world, and plenty at home in the UK, so I thought I might offer some small, meagre insights into capturing their spectacle. Even if the insights aren’t useful to you it may stand alone as a fluff postcard piece. Niagara Falls, whose popularity is undoubtedly due in part to their easy accessibility, are not the most spectacular waterfalls I’ve ever seen. But I did spend a few hours here (on the Canadian side) looking for evermore interesting shots and, of course, in the changing light throughout the day.
How to Find Your Personal Style in Photography
The concept of personal style is a fundamental topic in all art, not just photography. Everyone has their own way of seeing the world, and everything that people create is based upon this underlying uniqueness. In terms of photography, though, even mentioning personal style can seem strange — since our work is inherently based upon the real world, is it even possible to have a unique style? This question is especially relevant for fields like landscape and wildlife photography, which often rely 100% on the scene that nature presents to you, rather than any elements you add yourself. How can you insert your own personality into an image that mirrors the way the world actually looked at one point in time? It’s a complex question. Things get even trickier if you look into all the features that must be copied perfectly in order to produce a convincing forgery (or a benign imitation) of another photographer’s personal style — and, even further, the implications of analyzing and imitating your own personal style. In this article, we will explore the topic of personal style and how you can find it in your photography.
A Walk in the Woods
Well, Postcards From The Woods just didn’t seem appropriate. It’s not all foreign travel for Alpha Whiskey, though (well, mostly it is). Sometimes I’m happy to amble through the forest on a bright and breezy weekend afternoon. And while it was more about the walk than the photography I thought I would try to demonstrate how even the most ordinary of environments can provide interesting photographic opportunities. We can all marvel at stunning vistas captured from a mountaintop at sunrise but that’s been done to death. Real creativity comes from challenging yourself to reveal something different from the places and subjects you see everyday. I’m not claiming to have that creativity myself but I’m willing to give it a try.
The Need for a Universal RAW Format
With so many new cameras being released each year that allow capturing images in RAW format using different compression levels, bit-rates and other proprietary data, it is becoming increasingly difficult for post-processing software to keep up with all the changes and provide full support for RAW formats. Although camera manufacturers have been bundling their own image converters, such tools are often underdeveloped, buggy and lack the necessary features to be able to rely on them for post-processing images. Despite the fact that some post-processing software tools as Adobe Lightroom and Capture One provide frequent updates to support new cameras, it is getting practically impossible to provide full support for every new camera and RAW format features. It is time for camera manufacturers to come up with a single universal RAW format that can be easily supported by all post-processing software and we as consumers need to push camera manufacturers to adopt this format.
How to Remove Modules in Lightroom
In this article, I will show you how you can remove unused modules and sub-modules in Lightroom. Although Adobe Photoshop Lightroom comes with a lot of features, many photographers including myself, have particular modules and sub-modules that never get utilized. Instead of having such modules take up the precious space and clutter up the user interface, it might be a good idea to hide them from your view completely.