Use good films only!

On film, You've got only one opportunity to take the shot, I've made few Superia 200/400 films and am so unhappy about it!! Crappy colors, bad resolution - some shot woul've been great if they were better quality.

You can buy expired films like Reala, Portra etc. and they still will be better choice than cheapo stuff. You can always alter Your pics, but You just can't make them better if shot on wrong film.

How to make a good photo of Your bike?

I am a big bike-hobbyist. What I always had problem with was how to do a nice-looking photo of my bicycle. I tried many times with the same effect: flat, dull, unexciting.

Only recently I managed to find a proper technique: IT'S ALL ABOUT DOF!*

*depth of field

Remember: this shot was made with Canon S2IS, which is a cheap 5mpx superzoom digicam and 2.7-3.5 lens.

What I did was:
- waited for a perfect light (CLOUDY DAY! - almost no shadows!)
- chosen possibly non-distracting background
- kept distance between me and a bike AND bike and background - I had to zoom in to fit the bike in the frame!
- shoot in Aperture priority mode and set the largest aperture possible

This is the final effect:

In the details I managed to squeeze even shallower DOF/ stronger 3d effect!

"Das neue Lehrbuch der Fotografie" - book recommendation!

"Das neue Lehrbuch der Fotografie" by Günter Spitzing

If You read in German - this book is a extremely useful source of informations for those, who search for some basic to intermediate photographing tips. It contains not only usual hardware-using tips, but also elements of psychology of photography.

Publisher: Laterna Magica

First edition: 1988

Series: "Information foto"

Why bother with phone pics?

You just can't always have a proper camera with. Using build-in mobile phone camera actually helps You to make better photos with normal size camera, especially in ways of seeing things and better framing.

You also learn to value other focal lengths, more resolution, color reproduction, or low light abilities. Every time when You shoot with phone and think something like "I wish I had a short telephoto now*" - You actually learn when to use a short tele.

* can also be wider lens, brighter, tripod, etc

Nice contrast, simple colors and forms is everything what makes this photo.

Pimp my ride - more on bw conversion

Here's a simple snapshot of a car parked by my house. Did it with Minolta XD7 and 35-70 lens.

The reason why it's converted to bw is, that the car on the right (background) was actually YELLOW - and was distracting the viewer from the main photo subject. There isn't much color in winter landscapes at all - that's why black & white winter pics looks so good.

Symptoms of the Gear Acquisition Syndrome

You should be concerned, if at least 2 of listed habits meets Your behavior:
- You spend Your time in Internet reading gear reviews and not watching actual photographs
- You spend more time playing with Your gear than making photos
- You are more active in gear-related forums than in photo-forums
- You are deeply concerned about technical abilities of Your camera
- You aren't using most cameras from Your collection at all
- You have many gear related books and no photo albums
- You have no idea who Edward Weston was, instead You know all the upcoming camera models

Why shoot diapositive film? Why shoot color?

Diapositive films have two major advantages over negatives:

- you can make dia-show (obviously)
- easier to get good colors when scanned

Color films have two major advantages over bw films:

- if you shoot bw you can never have this photo in color
- if you shoot color, you can easily convert it to bw AND get better results!! (see my next post!)


Photo made with Minolta XD7 + Minolta 35-70 f3.5 lens on Kodak Elite Chrome 100 film (10 years expired), scanned with cheap Plustek scanner.

Some of the most important RULES OF PHOTOGRAPHY

In 1967 Edward Weston wrote:

"...few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it."


and:


"...the task can be made immeasurably easier by selecting the simplest possible equipment and procedures and staying with them. Learning to see in terms of the field of one lens, the scale of one film and one paper, will accomplish a good deal more than gathering a smattering of knowledge about several sets of tools."


This is a photo I made in 2005 with my first SLR camera - Nikon F60 (with some crappy plasticky zoom lens). Film: Kodak Gold 200. I decided later on to convert it to bw:

Your camera doesn't matter?? Mr Rockwell and Co.

"Your camera doesn't matter" - I do think everyone know the (in)famous Ken Rockwell and his website - mostly one-sided, but fun to read articles about photography.
IMO all such websites are crap. Whatever You read, listen or watch - You should always try to put it through Your own reasoning - only then You'll be able to develop Your own, recognizable photographic style. There is NO golden rule of photography. The best thing You can do to improve Your skills is to take camera and go out.

I've made this picture with 1.3 mpx mobile phone (without even proper lens!). The only thing important here is COLOR - and that's whats really important in color photography.

Here are some basic composition rules.