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Sunny 16 Rule

How Many Shots Have I Taken? How To Capture For HDR

Blurry Viewfinder?

Failed Memory Card Recovery

6 7 8 9 10

Shutter Speed Starting Points

Using Your Dominant Eye?

When To Turn Off IS or VR

Using A Polarizing Filter
Lightweight Camera Manual

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Sunny 16 Rule
Occasionally we may not be sure what manual exposure setting to use for a given situation. Of course, theres the trial-and-error method, but who has time for that? A better way to establish an initial manual exposure, if youre outside, is to use the Sunny 16 Rule. We are very spoiled with all the bells and whistles on our cameras today. It wasnt that long ago that cameras didnt have LCD preview screens. Go back a little further and many cameras didnt ever have a built-in light meter. Imagine that, no LCD or light meter. You would essentially be working blind during a shoot, process your film, and hope for the best. Well these photographers knew the Sunny 16 Rule would always get them close to the right exposure. Start with your aperture set to f/16. Then set your ISO. Finally set your shutter speed to equal your ISO. For example ~ f/16, ISO 100, at 1/100 sec In bright daylight, this setting will produce an evenly exposed image with good detail. EXAMPLE

f/16, ISO 200, 1/200 sec.

VARIATION FOR FASTER SHUTTER SPEED (same exposure, slightly faster shutter speed)

f/8, ISO 200, 1/400 sec.

VARIATION FOR SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD (same exposure, wider aperture for shallow depth of field, side effect faster shutter speed)

f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/800 sec.

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How Many Shots Have I Taken?

Have you ever wondered how many photos your camera has taken? Or have you ever sold or bought a camera and asked how many photos have been taken with that camera? Some cameras do have that info in the menu screens, but many dont. Heres how you can tell. This website allows you to load one of your images. Click here to get started. Be patient, it can take a long time for the metadata from the file to pop up. Its well worth the wait, as youll see data you never dreamed of. Once it appears, scroll down and look for Shutter Count. If youre shooting with a Canon, look for the File Index number. There you have it. That is the number of photos captured by that camera when that image was shot. NOTEYou can also view some of this data in files youve uploaded to Flickr. Select a photo > go to Actions > View EXIF info. Note: you can block this info from being viewed by others by changing your profile settings.

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How To Capture For HDR

High Dynamic Range images are popping up everywhere, and theres a good reason. The camera can only capture a small portion of the tonal range that our eyes can see. When you are faced with a brightly lit outdoor scene, the tonal range between shadows and highlights is too extreme for any camera to capture. This is a great time to create an HDR image. THERE ARE A fEW THINgS TO KEEP IN mINd WHILE CAPTuRINg ImAgES fOR AN HdR PHOTO. First, you will need at least three images. One image shot at what the camera is calling the correct exposure, one shot thats two stops under-exposed, and then one shot that is two stops over-exposed. Also, be sure to use a fixed aperture and adjust your shots by changing the shutter speed. If you adjust the aperture, the images will be distorted from one another and not align easily. Following these steps for capturing a great HDR, and later you will be able to use a software package like Photoshop CS5 or Photomatrix to assemble the final HDR image. 2 Stops Cameras Light Meter Exposure +2 Stops

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Blurry Viewfinder?
Most people dont have 20/20 vision. Well, luckily theres an easy fix for this on most cameras. Its called the Dioptric Correction Adjustment. Look next to your viewfinder on your camera and you should see a little dial or perhaps a sliding adjustment. If you wear glasses and have troubles seeing through the viewfinder, this should change things for you. HERES WHAT YOu NEEd TO dO: Simply take off your glasses Hold the camera up to your dominant eye. Press halfway down on the shutter release to auto-focus the camera Adjust the dioptric correction dial until the image looks sharp, and thats it I know several people who have accidentally moved or adjusted their dioptric correction adjustment without knowing and couldnt figure out why the viewfinder was blurry. Now you know. Before you panic or send your camera in for repair, check the dioptric correction adjustment setting on your viewfinder.

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Failed Memory Card Recovery

Memory cards are hard drives, and what do we know about hard drives? Yes, they will all fail at some point. Other than losing your camera, the next worse thing is losing the images you worked so hard to create. If...scratch that. When a memory card fails, you need to be prepared with a plan of action. The card will usually cause a conflict with your cameras operating system and produce an error message. If this happens, remove the card and mark it so you know it has caused an error. Once back at the computer, using a card reader, I attach the reader/card to the computer. Typically it wont show up. Dont panic. Personally I use PhotoRescue software to restore the images from damaged cards. PhotoRescue is an advanced data-recovery program for digital photography media. Whether youve erased your pictures, formatted your card by mistake, or youve experienced a serious crash, PhotoRescue can help. You can test the recovery of your memory card with a free trial version: Download Free PhotoRescue 3.2 Demo for MAC OSX Download Free PhotoRescue 3.2 Demo for PC

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Shutter Speed Starting Points

Shutter speed control can allow us to stop action or blur motion, but what if we want both? PANNINg is the technique where the photographer moves the camera along with a moving subject and fires the shutter while moving. The desired effect from panning is to make the moving subject appear relatively sharp while the background is blurred. If the shutter speed is too fast, everything appears stopped. If its too slow the moving subject and background both appear blurred. Of course everything moves at different speeds, so we need to experiment with various shutter speed settings to see what works best. Also, the aperture setting and amount of available light will effect these settings. Here are some images and their corresponding captured shutter speed time to use as a guideline or starting point. Race Horses SHuTTER SPEEd 1/30 of a second

Bicyclist SHuTTER SPEEd 1/15 of a second

Race Car SHuTTER SPEEd 1/50 of a second

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Using Your Dominant Eye?

Okay many of us take this one for granted. However, in a recent class, a student asked me which eye am I supposed to look through the cameras viewfinder with? The answer is your dominant eye. We all have one eye thats stronger than the other, or that we prefer more than the other. Not to worry, your eyes arent going to have to battle it out for superiority or anything like that. Believe it or not, theres a very easy way to determine which of your eyes is your dominant photo eye. HERES HOW YOu dO IT: Extend your arms out in front of you with your palms facing out Bring your hands together to form a small triangular hole Look through this hole at a fixed object across the room or open area Keep looking at the object (not your hands) with both eyes, through the triangle hole Slowly pull your hands to your face, still looking at the object Bring your hands all the way back to your face You just discovered or confirmed your dominant eye

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When To Turn Off IS or VR

Believe it or not, that great vibration reduction (VR) or image stabilized (IS) lens might actually be hurting your images. You need to know when this may occur and what to do, to avoid the problem. Vibration reduction uses a very sophisicated internal mechanism that moves glass and various elements in the opposite direction of external movements. So, in other words, when youre hand-holding the camera youre making little small movements and the lens is countering them with opposite movements. This has the effect of making the image more stable when you capture it to the sensor. In order to sense these movements, the internal lens elements themself arevv moving and looking for motions to react against. HERES THE PRObLEm When you lock down the camera to a tripod, its very stable and not moving, but the internal vibration reduction components continue to move and look for motion. Because of this searching, the lens can actually ADD motion or blur to a shot while its on a tripod. So, turn off the VR or IS when your camera is very stable on a tripod or other firm surface.

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How To Use A Polarizing Filter

The polarizing filter is a great addition to any camera bag, and can remove glare and increase color saturation. Polarizing filters are designed to allow light to pass through in certain directions, but not in other directions. Circular polarizing filters that screw to the front of your lens are the easiest to use. You will need to purchase them based on the thread diameter of the front of your lens. If youre not sure, check the specs of your lens. This filter rotates on a swivel once its attached to the lens. You will need to rotate the filter to dial in the desired about of filtering youd like. At the filters maximum intensity, the effect is usually too much. Just dial back a bit and your good to go. Experiment with different camera angles and various filter intensities to find what works for you. ImPORTANT TO NOTE: The polarizing filter works best when your camera angle is 90 from the light source (see illustration). When facing towards or away from the sun (or light source), the polarizing filter has little effect.

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Lightweight Camera Manual

Who wants to read their camera manual, let alone drag it along to a photo shoot? Especially if you have a more elaborate camera, the manual can be pretty thick. The camera manual is the last thing you want to bring, but the first place you will go if trouble crops up. HERE ARE A COuPLE IdEAS TO LIgHTEN THE LOAd Trouble is when youll wish you had the manual with you. So lets focus on that alone. Making a simple photocopy of the troubleshooting section of your manual will probably take care of 80% of your needs for the manual. Another option to consider bring a digital copy of the manual along on your computer or iPad. The quickest way to find this is to do a Google search for your camera make and model, plus the words manual PDF. This will bring up sites that have a PDF copy of your manual. Some of these sites try to sell the manual, just search around and youll find it for free.

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Im Kent Weakley and I started my venture in photography many years ago as a kid playing with the family camera. From there, I earned a degree in advertising design, and started my own graphic design and advertising firm. Im able to intergrate my photography skills within my business and I especially love to create photographs, both professionally and personally. Now I blog about photography, share free photo tips and videos because I love helping others learn more about photography. And for the truly adventurous photographers, ready to grow their knowledge, I offer online eClasses which help photographers put all the information together in an easy to understand and very thorough manner. Curious? Heres what eClass students have said.

Im thrilled you have joined my email membership. I will be sending you weekly updates about the blog, featured photographers, photo contests, upcoming eClasses, eBooks, and much more. And because youre an email member, YOu will be among the first to receive all this great photographic information. I subscribe completely to the Ansel Adams quote,

we dont take photographs, we make photographs.

Its subtle, but profound. The art of making photos involves, knowledge, preparation, planning, and most importantly seeing. Come join me, and it will be my honor to help you reach your photography goals! Thank You and Happy Shooting,

Kent Weakley

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