science

The Focal Length is often neglected, changed to frame a shot out of convenience. This is a nasty habit that we need to break. We’ll tell you why and motivate you to be a stronger photographer.

Cropped sensors impact our photography more than one would think. It’s time we took some of the classic rules-of-thumb and updated them for cropped sensors. In this article, we discuss these updates as well as the science and logic behind them. Then we discuss how to adjust for your sensor.

If your camera didn’t cost you a whole month’s salary, you quite possibly have a smaller, “cropped” sensor as compared to a full-framed sensor. A “crop factor” is used to explain and compare the limits of these sensors. As a photographer, you should know your camera’s crop factor and you should know how to use it in your planning. In this article, we intend to cover all of that so that you can become better photographer.

Technology is incredible.  To see how far we’ve come in the past several years – especially in the photography world – is astounding.  Digital cameras seem to be capable of nearly anything, especially if money is not a limited resource.  But for every technological feat that we’ve accomplished, there is still one very incredible image sensor that is unmatched:  The human eye. All across the web, there are hundreds of debates about the capabilities of the human eye.  How many frames per second (fps) can the human eye see?  What’s the maximum resolution (a debate made no more clear by Apple’s so-called “Retina Display” on their latest iPhone)?  What’s the ISO equivalent of the human eye?  These things are much debated because we’re comparing apples to oranges, and that’s not quite fair.  But until there’s truly a way to measure the human eye’s capabilities in a way that is comparable to your camera sensor, the debates will continue. What really matters is that no camera has yet exceeded the capabilities of the human eye with respect to focusing speed, color range, depth of field or it’s ability to see wide ranges of light levels.  In photography, this matters because your …

I’ve just happened upon a very well-written article over at Black Star Rising written by John Sevigny.  The article, Some F-Stops Are More Equal Than Others, discusses the natural flaws in lenses (flaws being unavoidable) and about how even the best lenses will have f-stops that aren’t as clean or clear as others.  This is an incredibly important fact to know as a photographer, and you should understand your lens’s limitations.  Though you may choose to ignore this fact as well (some of my best shots are from these poor f-stops). For you pocket camera users – you may not have control over your aperture, but the same holds true for you.  So I would encourage everyone to spend a few moments and read Sevigny’s article:  Some F-Stops Are More Equal Than Others

Niel Creek brings us another iteration in his popular Photography 101 Article Series:  Photography 101.8 – The Light Meter.  If you are unfamiliar with the series, it is basically a discussion of photography basics starting from the science side.  It’s a great series, and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of their current skill level.

I learned a really interesting fact today:  The focal length of the human eye is equivallent to 17mm ~22mm.  That means that a photo taken with a standard lens less than 17mm ~22mm will appear distorted compared to your normal vision.  There are exceptions, of course.  Most wide angles, despite their focal length, will also distort the image because of its angle of view. Remember to take your camera’s crop factor into account.  Those with a Nikon DX format camera (D40, D60, D80, D90, etc) have a crop factor of 1.5 which means your  50mm lens acts like a 75mm lens and so on. For more reading about the human eye’s optical characteristics, check out the Notes on the Resolution and Other Details of the Human Eye over at Clarkvision Photography. Edit – further research seems to lead me to believe that the focal length of the human eye is closer to ~22mm.  The 17mm is actually based on studies of light coming out of the eye (the inverse)…as if you were to turn your lens around backwards on the camera.  Of course the more I learn about this, the more I think that this isn’t such an exact number …

We’ve all seen the technical diagrams of your compound lenses. And I’m sure you’ve looked inside your camera at least when you’re cleaning your sensor. But to better appreciate how your camera really works, you really need to look at a camera that has suffered the ill fate of being cut in half. Thanks to Wired’s Gadget Lab, we now have such photographic evidence of what our camera and some of our lenses might look like. Visit the Gallery of Sawn-In-Half Cameras at Wired’s Gadget Labs

One of the things you hear all the time is that cloudy skies are great for photography. The first question a beginning photographer might ask is: Is this true? Which would then be followed by the obvious question: Why? In this short article, I plan to answer both of those questions. But the answer to each depends on the type of photographs you’re taking. Cloudy Skies and Portraits Cloudy days are, in fact, quite good for portrait photography. Bright sunlight causes hard-lined shadows. The last thing you want in a portrait is a hard shadow. Soft lines are ideal for portraits. It gives a softer touch to your subject. In a studio, where we can control the light, we use diffusers to prevent harsh shadows. Outside, we don’t have such luxuries. Clouds, on the other hand, act as a natural diffuser. So pray for cloudy skies. Cloudy Skies With Other Types of Photography With Landscape Photography, shadows can may be part of your photograph. Depending on your goals, you may want harsh shadows, which means you want bright sun and blue skies. Hard-lines upon the leaves of a tree helps to give it depth. For that matter, cloudy skies won’t …

Today was the first installment of the Photography 101 article series written by Neil Creek (of the Fine Art Photoblog). His series will trace us through all of the basics of photography starting with this article which outlines the science behind a pinhole camera. As new installments of this series come up, I will make sure to link them here. The series is looking like it will be beneficial to new photographers and novices alike. It serves as a great reminder of what we all should have learned and retained from our photography classes. It’s always good to have a refresher now and then.