San Francisco Cable Car

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

A Lesson for New Photographers: Do Not Chimp

Wikipedia defines chimping as "The habit of checking every photo on the camera display immediately after capture".

Needles to say, this is bad.

See, when you chimp, there is a great chance that you will miss the action happening just in front of you.

So, learn how to use your camera, train your eye, and you will be able to use your camera instinctively without looking at pictures each time you press the shutter. This way, you won't miss the shot. :)

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Shot made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Happy MLK Day

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Shots made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Magnificent Mile in Retro

A little piece of home...

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Shots made  with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM. Post-processing done in Adobe Lightroom 3. Want to know about my favorite backpack, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW? Check out my reviews here and here.

Dilemma in Photography Land

All things considered, I am still relatively new to photography. Even though I used a film-SLR about a century ago, I only had my first DSLR at the tail end of 2008. As the years progressed, I upgraded my kit lens, replaced my DSLR, won another, got a telephoto zoom lens, got a couple of speedlites and accumulated a plethora of lens filters, camera bags...

But now, there is a dilemma simmering in my head. And it all started with Trey Ratcliff.

In this blog post, Trey said that DSLRs are a dying breed. While in one, Scott Bourne posted his agreement.

As I've said, I am still a newbie when it comes to photography.  So, I still need to gather some stuff for the photography that I want to do. For example, I want to do some macro photography but my currents lenses cannot accomodate that. All professional photographers say that you should remove your flash from your camera because off-camera flash is the best for portraiture; and you cannot do that unless there is a way to control your flash units when they are not attached to your DSLR. (It's a good thing that my Canon 7D can control my off-camera speedlites but the infrared remote won't work outdoors...) I've still got to have light modifiers, light stands... The list goes on and on...

I even have my wish list at the ready here.

Now what about what Trey and Scott said? Well, these guys are titans in the world of photography and what they say definitely carry weight. Now, if the DSLR is a dying species, how come camera makers are still churning out the big cameras left and right? Well, companies are like that, it's in their DNA and they would want you to buy their stuff even if they know that the next phase is already here.

Now, here is the real dilemma:

I still want to do macro photography and I still want to get a real macro lens - and at 100mm, it'll also be a great portrait lens. I still want to move my speedlites off camera so that I'll be able to make beautiful portraits. So the question is, do I still want to expand my DSLR collection knowing that, five to ten years from now, DSLRs will just be used by those who absolutely need them, if at all? (Note what Scott said about fast sports and wild life photography.)

If point-and-shoot cameras can shoot something like these now...

...imagine what they can do five years hence?

And the future is here! A point-and-shoot with the size of a sensor almost as big as my 7D?!? Well, if it can be called a "point-and-shoot"...

Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma...

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Both photos shot, yes, with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

Unbearable Lightness

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Shot made with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 IS USM f/4L lens. Want the best backpack for your DSLR? Check out my review of my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW, here and here.

Jelly Fish at the Shedd Aquarium

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All photos shot by the wife using a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of the camera can be found here. Want a really good case for your point-and-shoot? Check out my review of the Lowepro Dublin 20 here.

Happy New Year from the Windy City

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Fireworks at the Navy Pier shot with an iPhone4 and post-processed using Instagram.

Holiday Show at the Shedd Aquarium

 

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Photos shot with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L. Want the best bag for your DSLR? Check out my favorite, the Lowepro Versapack 200AW. My reviews of the bag can be found here and here.

Cheap Alternative for Getting Your White Balance Right

You just got a DSLR this Christmas... Now what?

Well, one of the things you should know is to learn how to get the white balance of your photos correct. Why is that? Well, you can get some pictures that are more yellow than others, sometimes more blue than what you like, and you should learn how to correct for that. (For a more general discussion of white balance, check out this wikipedia entry.)

Check out my picture below:

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II

My subject is supposed to be color white but because of the color of the light source, my picture has a really warm tone. So, if I want to produce the white "dress", I would need to have something to correct for the warm tone.

There are a lot of choices out there but I saw this cheap alternative that still gives magnificent results. It's the Polaroid White Balance Lens Cap 77mm. (I got this since the filter size of my "biggest" lens is 77mm.)

So how do you correct your white balance?

First, you have to do a calibration shot. This is done by knowing what the light falling on your subject is like:

If this is how I shoot my subjects...

...then this is how I do a WB calibration shot.

Essentially, "shoot" the location where you would take the picture. That's it!

Well, first, I should mention, you should set your DSLR to the Program (P) or Aperture-Priority (Av) Mode. Then set your camera to manual focus - with the WB cap on your lens, the camera won't be able to focus onto anything. Then, as in a Canon DSLR, take a shot, set that shot as the WB reference, and set your WB mode to Custom. (For shooters with a different brand, please consult your User Guide to change your WB. The important thing is how to get the shot for reference.)

After this, simple process, shoot away!

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II

Perfect! I got the white balance that I wanted!

And if your point-and-shoot can do custom white balance, then just use the same lens cap to get the proper setting.

These two photos were shot using the Canon Powershot SX230 HS.

And for less than $10, you've got yourself a really good deal!

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Photos made by the Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L lens and a Canon Powershot SX230 HS.