Chez Spud

CCC is a go-go! Hoorah, we’ve even got a logo which Eliane of Creativity and Inspiration in Ireland sweetly made for us…I will load it up later but wanted to get on with Part 2 of CCC and answer all the questions you’ve asked.  Let’s crack on so we can get to the real business of gossip and cake…

1.  Miss Buckle…will you kill me when I come to Blog Camp 2.0 with my Canon 350D and Sigma 18-200mm?

In truth, it will depend on my mood. Ideally no violence will be involved at Blog Camp and, in your favour, I’m quite well mannered and tend to behave myself when I’m someone else’s guest. I reserve the worst of my behaviour for the sainted MrSpud who has seen it all before and lets it all wash over him. Also, all sharp implements (apart from from my wit) will have been removed from my person by security at the airport so you will probably be fine. Tip: you might want to ask Julocka’s husband to hide his impressive collection of axes.

Or, to be absolutely sure of your safety, trade in the photocopier and buy a real camera Nikon. Or be really edgy and bring a Holga (pictured above).

2. Kirstina…which is your favourite lens and why? If you were to buy a new camera today which would you get? Do you do much processing of your photos?

I think it’s a toss up between my 50mm and the 18-200 VR (that’s vibration reduction by the way. I love the 50mm because it’s a very ‘fast’ lens which is a fancy way of saying you can use it in low light conditions. It’s largest aperture is 1.4 which means I can use it when the light is poor, as well as using it to get a very shallow depth of field. Depth of field is the term used to describe how much of a photo is in focus and how much is blurred. The depth of field at 1.4 makes for some very dramatic shots, with only a very small part of the composition in focus, and the rest is thrown out of focus. There isn’t much margin for error at 1.4, especially in very low light, and I get a lot of ‘duds’ which are hopelessly out of focus. But then I get some ‘hits’ along the way too. This was taken at f1.4, only one flower is in focus…the rest is a blur, a bit like an impressionist painting really. Actually I think this is too extreme, but I took this the day I got the lens and wanted to play with it!

I also love how light and compact the 50mm is. That counts for a lot for me as I take my camera everywhere, I shove it in my handbag which is already crammed full of the paraphernalia of parenthood (nappies, wipes, drinks, gin, Valium etc). Less good, it’s a fixed focus lens. That means it doesn’t zoom at all, it’s 50mm or nothing! More to the point it means YOU have to move to compose the shot as you would like. That’s no big deal with landscapes, still life and all that…but with fast moving subjects, say, Megaboys it can be a problem as those boys move like the wind and don’t believe in posing for photos. Here’s Bertie, taken at f1.4 but in very poor light…no time to stop!

The 18-200 VR is a beast of a lens and is the ultimate ‘walkaround’ lens. Seriously with that lens on you don’t need anything else unless you’re a total photography freak. At 18mm it’s WIDE, you get a huge view of whatever it is you’re snapping and it’s fabulous for landscapes. At 200mm it’s ZOOOOMY  which means you can get really really close up to your subject, and use it like a macro lens. And the VR (vibration reduction) is impressive; it’s an internal working to the lens which means it compensates for movement (which means blurry out of focus shot) to produce sharper images. It’s great for low light (often means blurred shots), fast moving subjects like Megaboys, or action shots (sports etc).  Generally you would need a tripod to cope with the situations I’ve just outlined, but the VR is so good you can ‘sometimes’ cope without one. I took this handheld (i.e no tripod) at 200mm, i.e at the lens’ maximum zoom when you would typically expect a less than ‘sharp’ (ie. focused) shot, but this is pretty good:

If I had to choose one I would go with the 18-200 VR. But I would cry and whine a lot about my lost 50mm….

Processing: I shoot in RAW (a whole post in itself) which keeps the best, non destructive image quality (ie. I can mess around with the file without losing any of the original data). But RAW files always need editing, even just a little brightening and lifting. So, yes, I process everything. I rarely ‘heavily’ process shots of people but I often ‘get in there’ with landscapes. As a general rule I find that the more I need to process a shot, the worse it was to begin with! Or, more positively, good shots only need light editing…poor shots need more of a helping hand and possibly should have been deleted! An example of a shot that should have been deleted rather than processed to within an inch of its life…yuck, nasty, what was I thinking?

Which camera would I choose if I were starting over? That’s a tough one, I have a Nikon because I stole it from MrSpud no other reason. I guess I would choose an entry level DSLR, go to a camera shop and see how each ‘felt’ and probably then choose the cheapest so I had more money in my lens budget. It’s worth investing in good lenses as you keep the lenses forever (you buy them to be compatible with a specific camera brand, but not a specific camera), whereas you might upgrade your camera body as time goes on.

3. Otin…all I know is that I press a little button and an image appears! LOL

Yeah that’s pretty much all I know too. But I’m amazingly good at bullshitting….

4. Kristine…I’ve been playing with shutter speeds recently to get a ‘smooth’ effect (like with running water, you know what I mean), but I find that often I end up with a photo that is far too bright; is that just the price I have to pay? Second, what advice do you have regarding photography at night without using flash?

I’m emailing you with some quick pointers, but I’ve asked next week’s guest blogger to tackle them for you in full.

5. Eliane…which lens do you use for close ups? But looking at your kit list I think I found the answer? And what is the photo on your original ‘surgery’ post?

I’m intrigued! Which lens do you think I use? To be honest, the close ups are probably just crops of a larger image. I have tried using the 18-200mm as a macro but I’m just not patient enough. Macro work really means tripod plus manual focus and, ssshhh, I’m rubbish at manually focusing! The photo is of big planters waiting to be sold at a local garden centre!

6. Redbedhead…how do you get sun flare? How do you get bokeh? What processing package does everyone use? Are some easier to use than others? Tips on using the manual setting on your DSLR? Tips on taking shots of children?

OOOOF, so many questions!! All excellent ones…sun flare and bokeh are going to be covered by our first guest blogger, as part of an ‘Introduction to Aperture’ post. Likewise I will do a totally separate post on the manual settings, and I will have a child photographer do a guest blog on taking shots of children. Apologies…you’ve ended up with lots of your questions being shelved, but they are excellent ones which are whole posts on their own. I hope that’s OK?

Processing; I guess Photoshop is the most well known and Elements (the scaled down version of the ‘grown up’ PS) is very popular and much more affordable than the ‘full’ PS. I have PS but have very little idea what I’m doing so I favour Lightroom. I would love to talk to you about Lightroom but I’m still learning how to use it. What I do know is that (a) it’s fantastic for storing/cataloging your photos and (b) it’s much easier than PS for basic adjustments.

Until recently I used Picnic to process my shots and I really rate it. It’s easy to use and it’s free. There is an upgrade, which is worth paying for once you’re comfortable with the basics, but the free stuff is more than enough to be going on with.

Another free application is Gimp but I know nothing about that. Does anyone else want to comment? And what about Picasa? Again I haven’t used that but I know it’s popular, who uses that? Any good?

7. Bee…I’m hoping to get a Nikon for Christmas, which are the most useful lenses and what are they good for?

Ah, so pleasing…another convert. See above…your camera will come with a ‘kit lens’ which will likely be the 18-55VR which is excellent. But ask for a 50mm f1.8 too. It’s not expensive (just under £100) and it’s lovely for everything but especially portraits, flowers, garden shots etc. You’ll find it hard to get it off your camera because it takes such beautiful shots. I love mine for taking photos of children.

8. The Fragrant Muse…how did you get the effect on the photo ‘Blanca and Polly re-entering the Real World’?

Mostly good luck! Which is how I get a lot of my shots…I take a LOT of photos every day and discard vast amounts of them. That photo shows ‘light trails’. I’m going to email you but I’ve lined up a guest blogger to tackle light trails next week as it’s a fun and easy effect, and a very dramatic one.

9. VEG…I am still in photography kindergarten, I am lucky if I can get the shot straight, in frame, and in focus. And all I have is a Canon point and shoot. Am I beyond hope?

I am also lucky if I can get the shot straight, in frame and in focus LOL. That’s why I regularly take 100 plus shots a day, of which 5-10 will be keepers!! So, no you’re not alone or beyond hope. What camera you have isn’t an issue, some of the most AMAZING shots I’ve seen have been taken with a P&S.

10. Helen…How do you manage to turn out such beautiful shots with such frequency with two small boys to contend with? How on earth do you juggle all that kit while wrangling them?

Thank you for the compliment! In short, I don’t juggle kit while they are around…I stick one lens on and don’t change it when I’m out and about with them. Mostly I choose the 50mm because it’s light and small. Also, they mostly amuse themselves and I am free to snap, snap, snap! It’s much harder if I just have one of them as they demand my attention constantly…but as a pair they are low maintenance. Also, as above, I take a LOT of shots and delete most of them.

11. B…I want to start playing with the different manual settings on my camera (A, M, S, P) but I’m not sure when to use which?

Excellent question. I think we need a separate post for this as it’s so important, understanding what they are, how to use them and, in the case of A and S, the relationship between them. Argh, so many things to understand! Forget it, stick it on ‘auto’ and get clicking. Just my little joke…

To get you started, the letters stand for Aperture priority (where you set the aperture, the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed), Manual (where you select both the aperture AND the shutter speed, scary), Shutter priority (where you set the shutter speed and the camera selects the appropriate aperture) and Programme (where the camera selects both the aperture and the shutter speed, but won’t use the flash…it’s like ‘auto’ except it switches off the flash). The letters used are slightly different on a Canon so, ahem, you’ll have to read the manual…

For now I would ignore M (manual) for now. P (programme) won’t help you learn, but it’s a great setting for when you need someone else to take a photo (like when we were at Stonehenge and wanted a group shot? I set it to P and handed over my camera) or when a GREAT shot presents itself and you don’t have time to fiddle with the settings. So that leaves A (Aperture) and S (Shutter). Personally, I shoot on A about 99% of the time as I find this easier to understand. Using Aperture priority allows me to control the depth of field, and adapt to the prevailing light conditions (ie. if it’s dark, I use a bigger aperture which let’s in more light to stop the shot being too dark…if it’s bright, I use a smaller aperture to let in less light to stop the shot being over exposed). I don’t know if this is ‘right’, I’m just sharing what I find easiest at this point.

But I think we could delve a lot deeper in to those settings don’t you?

12. Nancy…I suppose those of us who don’t have the beloved Nikon or the evil Canon are really in trouble. What about Lumix owners??? Will we be laughed off planet Spud, or gasp, even planet Earth?

Nope! For all my teasing about Canons it really DOES NOT matter what camera you have. I had a P&S for a long time and still use it for macros as I don’t have a macro lens. Also, I use the rubbish camera on my iphone and love some of the results I get.

13. Julochka…on the D300, i often have trouble with overexposure and have a helluva time getting it back to “normal,” since I don’t know what it is that i’ve done to make it wash everything out so badly…what am i doing wrong? ISO i have down and it’s not that. it’s something to do with that little square with the +/- symbol on it (i’m sure that’s the technical term for it – ha!) and the little dial-y things. problem is i never know which direction to go.

OK this is complicated. I am guessing the issue is the setting you are shooting on? Have you tried shooting on P (ie camera is doing everything for you). If it’s still overexposed you can use the ‘exposure compensation’ button to ‘turn down the lights’ a bit by selecting -0.3, or 0.7 etc etc. To get technical, the exposure compensation button lets you tell the camera to expose the shot as if you had set a smaller (dial it down to a minus number) or larger (dial it up to a positive number), but without actually changing the aperture setting (which affects the depth of field). URGH, complicated!!!

My best advice is to shoot on Aperture priority, use the ‘blinkies’ on the LCD screen on the back which will show you if huge parts of your shot is blown out (ie over exposed) and check your histogram too. If it’s all out of whack you need to adjust the aperture, if it’s just a bit ‘off’ then the exposure compensation button is what you need.

That’s all folks, phew long post. Next edition of CCC will be a guest blog, but please keep the questions coming and I will tack on a Q&A at the end. Nearly forgot…’Quick Tip’ to round off with:

Quick Tip!

Don’t take every shot at eye level, which is what every one does. Get down and shoot (crouch, kneel, lie down and get filthy), get up on high and shoot (on a wall, up steps etc) and get a different perspective and something different from the usual. Or, put your camera on the floor and shoot for something ‘really’ different.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Camera Club: Backing Up
• Camera Club: Special Edition…what I learnt this week
• Camera Club…roll up for a Photo-A-Day project in 2010
• Camera Club…RAW v JPEG
• Camera Club: Uncle Bob Blues or How to be the Perfect Wedding Guest