Books Review: 「女の子をかわいく撮る108方法」(Japanese)

As a long and overdue promise, here I am posting my review on 「女の子をかわいく撮る108方法」 (Japanese)

For those of you who cannot read Japanese, the title says “108 ways to take cute pictures of girls”. The book was written by Japanese, gravure/portrait photographer, Masuda Kenichi. You can find more information on him and his work from his website; http://www.makken.com/

This book was launched on December, 2008. It is the first book in this series (so far 2 books have been launched.

Outline

1. Getting to know lights. Shooting under various location – Basic outdoor portrait technique.
2. The effects of different lenses- How to choose the right lens for the shoot.
3. Making a “House Studio”- Turn your house into a studio
4. Retouching and post-production – Basic post-production
5. Communication and Service

Summary

As most of us out there are not pros and cannot afford to rent studios or hire crews, this book really focuses on how you can effectively shoot outdoor portrait by yourself.

The first chapter gives us the ideas of how to shoot in locations such as public park and street portrait. It teaches us how to use lighting equipments such as flash and reflector. It also gives out witty tips, like how to use your surrounding effectively.

The second chapter goes into detail on selecting lenses that will match your models and shooting styles. It also gives you ideas on how to pose your model.

The third chapter gives you advise on how to turn your house into a studio. Clear your room, get a background paper, some lighting equipments (mostly wireless clip-on flashes) and you’re ready to go!

The fourth chapter is about post-production. Editing your pictures, using softwares such as Nikon Capture NX2, Canon DPP, Lightroom 2 or Photoshop Element.

Last chapter tells us the important of communication and services; of course to the models. Other than your camera kits, you also need a picnic sheet; in case the model has to sit or lie down, bug spray and bug-bite cream; in case you’re shooting in parks, umbrella; in case of rain and posing purposes, etc.

Conclusion

Masuda uses words that are very easy to understand, making this book suitable even for people who had just bought their first DSLR. Each chapters are divided into sections (or lesson), making it easy to understand and flip through. Under each pictures are ‘meta datas’, telling you what kind of camera/equipments were used, along with exposure, aperture and focal-range.

However, the tips are mostly typical. More of an “idea” then a “How to”. There are no specific detail on shots; condition, position, or elements. No specific detail on lighting. But, as I’ve mentioned, it’s a book for enthusiasts, and for that it’s highly recommended!

Congratulation Seoyi!

My girlfriend graduation is final! We went to her graduation ceremony on the 15th, took some pictures and then went to a studio, and took some more pictures.

Anyway today it’s not about photography, but it’s about congratulating my girlfriend for her continuous effort through out the years. Hooray for Seoyi! ^-^/

Naming your pictures

When I’ve first started photography, most of the time when I’m about to take a picture I usually worries about things like exposure, depth of field, framing, and a bunch of other stuffs. I usually ended with nice, crisp pictures; no out of focus, or bad exposure. I was satisfied with my pictures…

One day I came across this article about naming pictures. The article said that, photographer should named their pictures before taking them. The writer of the article explained that, by naming a picture before taking it, photographers are forced into realizing why they want to take the particular picture in the first place and naming the picture creates “Theme”.

After I’ve finished reading the article, I realized that I know what I wanted to take, but I don’t really know why. Then I decided to put that tip into work. Everytime something interests me, I’ll stop, look at that something for a while and try to name it. I’ve done this every since. And I think that my skill had improved in one way or another, because my girlfriend, who’s usually hard on commenting my pictures and once said that I’ll never become a pro ;(, said that my pictures are starting to look better…(Booyah!)

Again, I’m not a pro and you might feel skeptical about this “naming” thing, but it won’t hurt just to try right?

How to stop camera shake?

One of the most common problems that occurs when taking pictures is camera shake. This happens when your camera was not held still enough during the period of exposure. If your camera moves during the period of exposure, lights entering through your lens will scatter over the image sensor, making your image blurry like the image above. So, if you want crisp, sharp images you better hold your camera still! The best way to do so is to use a tripod, but if you don’t have one or you are in some place where they don’t allow tripod, the following tips will help you.

Hold your camera correctly

If you are using a DSLR (or an SLR), hold on to the grip with your right hand and secure the lens with your left.

Look at the pictures above. With the viewfinder to her eye, the woman now has 3 points to support her camera. Her left hand, right hand and her face…

After securing the camera in this position, take a deep breath tighten your elbows to the side of your body and press down on the shutter button slowly. Wait until the viewfinder came back and exhale. Secure -> Inhale -> Shoot ->Exhale.  This shouldn’t last longer than 8 seconds or else your hands will start to shake, cause you’ll be holding your breath for too long ;(

Now to hold your camera vertically, look at the next two pictures.

In the picture on the left, the woman’s right hand is on top. Notice that you can see her left eye clearly. This way she can see her surrounding with her left eye. On the other hand, in the picture on the right, her right goes under and her arm is well right beside her body. It’s more secure to hold your camera this way, but then your left eye will be hidden behind the camera.

You might try sitting down too. Kneel down on your right knee and put your left elbow on your left knee for better support.

Use your surrounding

Use your surrounding to your benefit. Lean against a tree, or place your elbows on some hard surface for support. Do anything that will keep your camera steady. The next picture is just to give you some idea.

If there’s nothing to lean against, sit down like the picture on the right. Place your elbows on both your knees for support.

Keep your shutter speed fast

If your lens doesn’t have vibration reduction (IS,VR,OS,VC not sure what else there is), try keeping the shutter speed above 1/125. If you’re shooting indoor, try using lenses with wider aperture or boost your camera’s ISO.

Well that’s it’s folks. If you have anything to add feel free to. Remember Secure -> Inhale -> Shoot ->Exhale

Aperture 3 Speed-issues update

A little update on the speed issue. It seems to be working better if you create a whole new library. The one I imported from Aperture 2 seems to be the reason that the whole thing run so slow…

I really need to know if anyone’s been experiencing the same problem. Please post your comments here if you do, or if you have any other suggestions to resolve this issue. THX

Nikon D300s Impression

The Nikon D300s is a Nikon-Proclaimed DX format flagship, released  August 28, 2009.  It came into my possession around last month, This will be my impression after 6 weeks.

At first I got the D90 to use along my old Canon 40D. Both are great. I love the image of the D90, but the response of the 40D was way better. So, I’ve decided to sell both and go for broke

Build

So, hand-on impression. The body was made of magnesium alloy, with high-end plastic casing and soft rubber grip. It feels rugged in every way. It also comes with weather sealing, so you shouldn’t be worry about shooting in slight rain or snow. I’ve used it to shot in both circumstances and it came home fine. Note though, you should have a proper lens filter (UV maybe?) on your lens for a better protection. I had a Kenko UV filter on my 18-70mm.

Viewfinder

Next is the viewfinder. According to the specs written by Nikon: Approximate 100% frame coverage and approximately 0.94 magnification, pentaprism. This means that you’ll see a very big, and bright image through the viewfinder and then get to capture almost exactly what you see through it. I’ve read from a Japanese magazine once that it’s actually 99.5%, really I can’t tell the difference. And the 0.94 mag. is really cool. It’s very easy for me to check the focus point of my image. Nikon D300s also has the function that will show grids in the viewfinder. This really comes in handy when shooting landscape. Overall I’m very happy with the viewfinder.

Handling

Next I’ll talk about handling. I’m not going talk about how it fits in my hand, because I don’t think your hands and mine are the same. I’m going to talk about the accessibility to shooting options and I’ve got to hand it to Nikon, it is impressive. The D300s comes with a lot of buttons. You don’t need to access the menu to try to change things like ‘autofocus mode’ or ‘image quality’. You don’t have to do that double-buttons pressing thing like in Canon to adjust ‘exposure mode’. The buttons are all there, you just switch the button and you are ready to go. It’s that simple. It’s even easier to use than the D90.

Autofocus and Exposure

One of the reason that I bought the D300s is because of its 51-points autofocus.  I’m not saying that you’ll need that much of focus points, but to me, the more there is the better. As you can see on the image of the viewfinder, the focus area of the D300s extends almost throughout the viewfinder’s frame. You can easily pinpoint a focus point on your model’s eye when shooting portrait.

The D300s house a 1,005-pixel RGB sensor, that will produce superior, and more accurate autofocus and auto exposure. You can use the ‘Aperture Priority Auto’ to deal with the exposure setting automatically and still get decent pictures. For the autofocus however I still do not recommend the ’3D tracking’, because it tends to get lost if there are other objects with the same color with the one you’re focusing on.

Image Quality

Another thing that you would probably want to know about is the image quality. The 12.3 mega-pixels sensor produces stunning IQ. If you’re not thinking of printing something larger than A3 size, there’s no need to get higher pixels than this.

Noise

I didn’t actually make a through comparison over the issue of noise, but normally I’d recommend up to about ISO800. From ISO 800, the color noise become more noticeable. Don’t expect great IQ at anything over ISO 1600. Here’s an example of something I took with ISO 3200, developed with Nikon NX2, which turns out to be really great in noise reduction.

Conclusion

D300s VS. D90

Get one, lol If you’re currently using something older than D90 and feels that you need a step-up. If you’re using D90, then probably not a call for an update. Other than differences in White-balance (D300s being warmer), saturation(D90 being higher) and handling(D300s>D90), there’s no telling which images are from the D90 or the D300s. If you own a D90 and feels there’s no need to shoot sports or wild life, you won’t be needing the 7fps continuous shooting the D300s is offering.

D300s VS Canon 40D

As for comparing D300s to my late Canon 40D, the handling is much more similar than the D90. Rugged magnesium body, great balance in my hands. Again you should try holding the cameras before you decide to buy one. The shutter release of both cameras are top-notch, way superior than the D90. That’s one of the reason why I upgraded to the D300s. If you’re a Nikon fans go for broke people. If you’re a Canon fan and you don’t need to shoot in low light situations, or printing something larger than A3, stick to the Canon 40D.

That’s all folk! If you need me to comment on some other issues, I’ll be happy to do so. Just leave your comments, and I’ll get back to you.

Aperture 3.0.1 hand-on impression

Apple has released an update to fix bugs and stability problems for its newest professional photos editor, Aperture 3.

My first hand-on impression was that the speed had definitely improved over the last patent. I’ve rapidly (continuously) used brush tools over a picture, to see if it can handle the stress. It pulled through. The application starts instantly, which was very impressive compared to the last patent. Lupe is smooth, press “Z” and it’ll pull a 100% preview on you picture. Again let me remind you that I’m currently using an iMac”24 Core 2 Duo 2.66 with 4GB of ram, with a lot for images and videos packed inside – -;;.

One problem that really bothers me is the preview is still slow. It takes sometime, mine was 5-40 seconds,(Lightroom 2/ACR time was around 1-3 seconds) to produce enough pixels for a 100% preview. This actually took longer for heavily edited images, especially when you used a lot of the brush tools.

Anywho~ it’s a minor “fix” here. It has shown some speed improvement, stability is absolutely getting better, but still for someone like me who’s using a consumer hardware, it could be a bit stressful to use.