Slowly, but surely, the worth of the fixed focal length lens (or prime lens) to the non-professional photographer is being eroded by the increasing perfection of zoom lens technology. The days when you packed your camera bag with trusty 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, and even 180mm lenses are rapidly disappearing. But don`t let that bother you,simply reach for something like Nikon’s all-purpose Nikkor 18-200mm DX VR zoom lens and know that you have both flexibility and optical speed at your fingertips?

The truth is that, while the range of focal lengths may be increasing within a single zoom lens, no all-purpose lens is ever likely to perform at the level of equivalent prime lenses for its full range of focal lengths.

Zooms are engineered with a good deal more glass than is found in a prime lens, and because of this they “swallow” more light than the corresponding lens of the same focal length. Unless you are photographing under very bright light, the required increased shutter duration time of a zoom may make the difference between a good image, and one that is ruined by camera lens wobble.

Even so, there is a lot to be said for carrying one lens, and leaving it attached to your camera, rather than carrying five separate lenses and having to miss photo opportunities that arise while you are changing lenses.

But thinking about fixed focal length lenses can be instructive. When we plunge into photography with a zoom lens, the effortless continuum of focal lengths is apt to blur the distinction between photographs captured at different focal lengths. Historically this just wasn’t a problem. Economy demanded that the lenses you purchased were quite distinct, focal length wise, and so an appreciation of their individual characteristics came easy.

It used to be the case that the kit lens for a 35mm SLR was generally a 50mm focal length lens. The 50mm lens reproduces a field of view that approximates normal vision, with an angle of coverage of around 50 degrees. But this is also partly the reason that the 50mm lens gets only a fraction of the respect it deserves. Because when we look at the scene captured by a 50mm image, we are not going to see something that we could not have seen with our own eyes. This means there are no optical effects to draw us into the image, so the subject material must be strong enough to command our attention.Despite the fact that the 50mm kit lens has been replaced with an optical zoom lens (usually in the range of 28-80mm these days) the 50mm lens has a lot going for it. For one thing it’s generally very fast. My 50mm kit lens (picked up decades ago) is a 1.4 nikkor lens. By dialing up to the largest aperture you can get away with not using a flash when taking indoor photographs in natural lighting. This means that your shots will look more natural, and have a depth to them that washed-out images captured with flash simply cannot match. You’ll also be able to shoot fast. The equivalent focal length on a zoom might be two, or even three, stops slower.

Review Nikkor lens review video below:

Sometimes it can be difficult to create a family portrait that is unique or different. The standard portrait with the family standing in front of some fake, fabricated scene can feel drab and boring. Taking the photo yourself may be impossible, and you probably don’t have a professional photographer in the family. You can add a few creative ideas for some unique and meaningful family portraits that could easily become a family heirloom for many years to come.

 

Add a Pet Portrait to the Family Photo Wall

 

When putting together a family portrait wall filled with individual photos of members of the family, don’t forget to include the member of the family who often goes overlooked – the family pet! While taking a photo yourself, framing it, and putting it up on the wall will do the trick – nothing is quite as eye-catching as a painted portrait created of your much-loved family pet. This is becoming a very popular method of capturing the character and personality of the family pet in a format that is often breathtaking.

The great thing about pet portraits is that they can be done from a photograph – so it is possible to purchase an artwork from skilled artists which is easy to find all over the net whichever is applicable to you.

There’s a lot written about decent studio portraits always requiring five lights. Yes, sure most of us use them from time to time, but it is altogether more satisfying to see how few we really do require to nail all the required elements.

Photographers have been experimenting with one light for quite a while. Perhaps an obvious choice for low-key lighting. They will often use a single side facing main light with a black panel between it and the white background to achieve some quite pleasing results. Add a reflector on the other side of the subject to brighten up those really dark shadows, and it starts to look good.

Low-key sorted, but what about high-key? Impossible? Certainly not! The trick here is to place the subject close to the background and get the main light in close with a large soft box (1m square or larger) and angling down at around a 30 degree angle. Make sure you install reflectors all round the subject. Use one as a kicker, one as a hair light and one either side of the subject to get rid of the tell-tale shadows on the background and hey-presto….high-key lighting.

Review  Unique Family Portrait Video Example Below:

Even more confusing than the process of deciding which model of digital camera to buy is the process of selecting a memory card for your camera. This is compounded by the fact that often your first digital camera will not come bundled with a memory card, and you will need to purchase it separately.Important characteristics for a memory card, beyond whether or not it is compatible with a given digital camera model, are the file storage capacity (generally measured in gigabytes), and the file transfer rate (the higher the better). As an example of the numbers involved, a 6 megapixel resolution camera can store about 320 high resolution JPEG images on a 1GB memory card. A 2GB memory card would hold 640 images, and so on. But note that if you store images in the camera’s RAW image format as well, your memory card will accept a significantly smaller number. This is why high-capacity memory cards are favored when you can afford them.

The wide variety of memory card types and makers reflects the relative immaturity of the field of digital photography. The different companies are still battling for market dominance, and no standard has yet been established for memory cards.

However, there are presently two main types of memory card that seem to stand above the others. These two types are known as Compact Flash (or CF) and Secure Digital (SD). For the remainder of this article I shall restrict my discussion to these two card types. Most digital cameras will support only one memory card type, though the very high end digital SLR models, like the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and the Nikon D3 support both CF and SD memory cards for maximum flexibility.

Compact Flash, which is currently the most popular memory card type for digital cameras (due to its historically superior capacity and reliability), was introduced by SanDisk in the mid nineties, so it has been around for a while. All the major digital camera brands employ CF memory cards on at least some, if not most, of their models. SanDisk produces memory cards that can hold up to 8 GB in file size.

For people who need to reel off a great number of shots in order to get the one or two great ones (sports photographers come to mind here), the high capacity cards are extremely convenient. Transfer rates are specified in term of the incremental “1x” rate of 150 KB/s. A “12x” card would therefore be capable of a maximum file transfer rate of 1800 KB/s. CF memory cards come in one physical size only, though with two possible thicknesses, designated as Type I and Type II, with the second being the thicker. A Type II memory card will not fit into a Type I slot, so be sure to get the correct Type when selecting CF memory cards.

Review A Format Error Fix For Memory Card On A Sony Camera Below:

 

Memory. It is the first important word in pre-wedding photography. Started by a simple wish of a man and woman to have a series of memorable photos before they are married.The pre-wedding photography trend is booming in the photography business market. This chance, of course, becomes a great moment for photographers who are willing to learn commercial photography, especially wedding photography. Beside its less risky, it obviously does not need a lot of capital and it needs flexible time. In this digital era, everyone can hold a camera and claim him/herself as a photographer. Admittedly, the smallest risk will be taken, for the sake of a new hobby which is slowly grading into a weekend side jobs.

Small Risk: A photographer who wants to start a business on pre-wedding photography sees that this kind of photography is less risky because of its simple packaging – from its preparation to its final product packaging;for example to simply choose and pick a client. A photographer can freely choose everyone to be his/her clients: his/her colleagues, partners, ex-classmates, etc.Or in other words, a photographer can pick every couple to be his/her “try-out” to present pre-wedding photos.

With that kind of photographer-client relationship, the risk of failure is smaller and so is the possibility of complaint. Here, pre-wedding photography becomes a stepping-stone, before finally, a photographer moves to a more serious level; not only pre-wedding, but also the other commercial photography. As a matter of fact, this business is so simple. Generally, there is no exact parameter in the success of art, so is in the pre-wedding photography.

There are some important elements need to be paid attention to in the preparation stage of pre-wedding photography so that the result will be (categorized as) successful. Theme is usually what the couple expect so that the story pictured from the photos will be a never-ending memory. Some couples request an old-fashioned theme, daily activity theme, sports, etc.

The photographer’s creativity or meticulousness becomes a very important factor in transforming those themes, in order not to make his final photos as only an ordinary documentation of a few man and woman. Ideally, a theme will be given by the couple, and the photographer will then examine and actualize it into a photo creation. But sometimes, there is no particular request or description from clients. If no themes requested then in this case it should not be a problem. The photographer can explore deeper into what things can be exposed from the couple.

One of the most satisfying forms of photography, and one of the easiest to master is macro photography.

A practical way for defining macro photography is by the strength of the lens, or how nearby it can focus. For true macro photography, you’ll want to have a lens that focuses down to a 1:1 range. For example,for 35mm film,your camera has to have the ability to focus on an area at least as small as 24×36mm ,because this is the size of the image on the film.After having the film developed,the picture of the subject on the negative or slide will be exactly the same size as the subject photographed.

What makes macro photography seductive is the level of detail that you see, sometimes for the first time – familiar objects become unusual and abstract and unusual objects become even more interesting.

There are many applications for macro photography: flowers,plants,butterflies, minerals,snowflakes… Your own backyard, a local garden,beach or forest can provide you with hours of fun with macro photography.

Review Macro Video example below:

 

Shoulders

When the shoulders are square to the camera, they will appear artificially broadened, and give the portrait a very static look. It is usually best to position the subject so that the line of their shoulders is about 30° to the the subject/camera axis. The easiest way to do this is to sit the subject on a chair placed at an angle of 30°.

Use a chair without arms, because the subject will automatically use them, and this tends to make clothes ride up, affecting the shoulder and neck lines. The best shoulder line is produced when the hands are placed in the sitter’s lap, or the far hand place on their knee (the idea here is that the near shoulder should always be higher than the far shoulder).

Depending on the subject, a good pose can be obtained if the subject sits facing away from the camera (i.e. back to camera with shoulders still at about 30° to the the subject/camera axis), and looks back over their shoulder.

Head

When the shoulders are at 30° to the the subject/camera axis (facing the camera), the head can rotate through an angle of about 100°. The head can also be tilted either side of the vertical axis. The exact degree of rotation and tilt will depend on the subject, and require some experimentation (and you may need to adjust your lighting) . If the head is turned too far, it can produce unsightly neck wrinkles.

Generally, very formal portraitures are produced when the axis of the ****** features is vertical (i.e. it is not tilted to either side). This is often a good option for more mature subjects. Tilting the head to either side creates a diagonal axis to the features. This suggests movement an vitality, and is often best for younger subjects.

If the subject has a weak chin, get them to tilt their head back a little, which will make their chin stick out. If they have a strong jaw, have the subject tilt their head forward reduce its prominence.

Care needs to be taken with 3/4 portraits (i.e. the face is at an angle of about 45° to the subject/camera axis). The tip of the nose should not coincide with, nor cut through the profile of the cheek.

Reportage means “news” and it is reporting things as they are in an unbiased manner. In photography this translates to taking photos of things as they are, with no fixed poses or direction from the photographer. A reportage photographer must think on his feet and use his ability to take great images to tell a story in pictures.

Reportage photography is becoming increasingly popular for weddings because of it’s informality, creating a set of more relaxed, fun and contemporary images. A wedding reportage photographer aims to capture the action and intimate moments, being unobtrusive to the subject. A reportage photographer usually attends the ceremony and the reception, but is is also common for him/her to come to the preparations and take photos beforehand. This is most popular for the bridal preparations, as there are generally more special occasions to capture. For the ceremony, provided there is permission, the images will cover the arrival of the groom’s party, guests, the arrival of the bride, the ceremony and the signing of the register. At the reception, the normal photo opportunities will generally be covered, such as the cutting of the cake, speeches and the first dance.

You might feel that a complete reportage wedding album is not for you, so many reportage photographers will line up some particular group shots at your request.

Reportage wedding photography aims to be innovative and challenging, whilst capturing your special day in all it’s fantastic glory. It is important to all photographers that they capture the emotion and the feelings of your wedding day, and reportage photographers aim to do this with an extra contemporary twist and an eye for the smaller details of the event.

The service usually involves an initial consultation and loading of your photographs onto an online site for viewing. You then get options with different services, such as wedding albums, DVD presentation, reprints etc. Some photographers have an assistant who will assist them with aspects of the shoot, such as spotting opportunities. So do compare your additional services when choosing a wedding reportage photographer.

Landscaping photography captures some of the most stunning images in the world. The actual photographers that specialize in landscaping photography are highly skilled in their craft and usually possess a special passion for the moments captured with their tools. Landscape photography shows magnificent mountains and crystal clear channels. The most majestic forests and deserts are captured in photographs by the very best landscape photographers. These photographers also capture the unique flora and the brilliant wildlife that inhabit the images captured in landscape pictures. The great artists associated with landscape photography capture the sun and rain that influence the scenery caught in these pictures. Lighting storms and tornadoes provide dramatic additions to the standard landscapes.These images are preserved for the future through the skill and artistry of great landscape photographers. The forests that existed a hundred years ago might have disappeared but the current populace can view these fantastic sights that have been preserved by landscape photography. The prairies that are now made into housing advancements are present in landscaping photography produced many years ago. The streams running down mountain passes that are packed with campers now were photographed years ago once they were pristine. Wonderful landscapes that exist today might be made into housing advancements next year, but the designers of landscape photography will preserve these in pictures for the next generation.

Review Landscape Video Shoot Example Below: Review latests digital camera .