PhotographyBanzai.com

A friend wanted to try out his new Sony NEX-5N camera, so we went out today to take some photos. I decided to go light and use the K-5 with FA 31mm f1.8 lens. That lens is one of the best lenses for most situations because the focal length equates to around 46mm on APS-C. EDIT: I'm keeping this article live for the sake of history, but know that walking around train tracks is a very bad and dangerous idea. Especially if you are preoccupied with something like photography.  Graffiti covered structure Don't do what we did, it's dumb and dangerous. A bad idea to take a photo like this.

I’m on a roll here with learning based videos. I’m hoping to make a lot more, but of course it takes time to record, and especially edit, the videos. This video is about compositional guidelines like the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds (3rds) . Watch the video on  Youtube  through the link if you prefer. They can help you with your framing and overall composition of you photographs. The rule of 3rds is at its most basic your frame divided into 9 (approximately) equal boxes with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines.  Gridlines with photography examples below. Golden ratio positioning. The intersection of those lines is where your subject should be placed. For the Golden Ratio, forgoing the complex math, we result in a ratio of 1:1.618. You place your subject on the single vertical line that splits up the frame into that ratio.

Here is another learning series article and video. This time I go over the camera lens aperture. Youtube video link: The related video. The camera lens aperture is the variable opening inside the lens that lets more or less light into the camera. A small aperture has a larger number. See a full technical description of aperture on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture Also important is the f-number that explains what the aperture number means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number f-number = focal length / diameter of the entrance pupil So if we want to know the entrance pupil size of an 100mm f4 lens we calculate it like this: Diameter = 100 / 4 Giving us a 25mm front lens element. An 85mm f1.4 lens results in a 60.7mm front lens element (85 / 1.4 = 60.7143). Aperture size vs. depth of field. The most important statement I didn’t cover in the video is “the aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,” so a small aperture has very collimated rays of light gettin

This was partly taken from my most recent book titled: “The Handbook of Photographing Arizona,” but I just made a Youtube video to supplement the information. I want to do a lot more learning and tutorial based videos in the future! Let’s take a look at the exposure triangle. The video on Youtube: The related video on the exposure triangle. The exposure triangle: All current cameras can manage exposure pretty well, so it isn’t bad to let your camera manage the details while you focus on proper composition. However, taking full control isn’t that difficult with enough knowledge. Images speak louder than words, therefore the graphic above should be very helpful in explaining the relationship of three key camera settings: ISO value, shutter speed, and aperture size. Each camera setting is also responsible for different properties you can expect to see in resulting photos. For example, a high ISO value will have more image noise, a slow shutter speed will cause more motion blur, and a larg

I’ve used Linux on and off for many years. Although, the last few years my primary desktop computer is Linux only (On Kubuntu at the moment). The big issue with Linux is that many large commercial applications (and games) don’t offer a native build for Linux or even acknowledge that it exists. I spend a good deal of time producing content such as photos or videos. This is a problem. I’ve settled with Kdenlive for video editing. It’s good enough for what I do at the moment and my experience with commercial NLE was not that extensive, so I don’t know what I’m missing (I own a copy of premiere 5.1 and Sony Vegas Platinum). The biggest issue is Photoshop, because I can’t find anything to replace it. What I do now is open up batches of RAW files in Adobe Camera Raw, tweak them by hand and save the changes, and then run a batch process in Photoshop itself. The whole process works alright. I would use Bridge for the editing step, but that doesn’t work well at all in WINE (Windows emulation).

I completed my second large book titled “The Handbook of Photographing Arizona” that should be a bit more generally appealing than my first. Here is a video I made for the book: A related video about the book. Book description (color print version): If you are planning a trip to the Southwest, interested in learning more about taking photos in Arizona, or even just photography in general, this book is for you! I go over the technical basics of photography and how they relate to the conditions and situations you might face in Arizona, all from a Midwesterner’s perspective and packaged in a nice portable 5.5″ x 8.5″ handbook. This book gives visual enjoyment with over 35 photos as well as important knowledge on photographic tools and information about various places in Arizona. All of the places it is available: Full Color Print on Amazon.com B&W Interior Value Print on Amazon.com Amazon Kindle E-book Apple iTunes Store Lulu Book Market E-book

Already another question and answer post! Keep them coming. 🙂 Sharing information is a great way for everyone to learn. Edit: I have to say, I like the way he thinks. Why waste money on an inferior lens if you will eventually replace it? Opting to start with that 50-135mm f2.8 lens was a good idea. I’d say, If you have the cash, it is often a good idea to truly consider the high quality equipment for your given system of choice. On the other hand, the most expensive lens isn’t always the best. In my response, I go over some issues I see with the 31mm lens, but it is still one of the best lenses out there. The initial contact: I bumped into you on Youtube, have been following your channel for a while now. Great stuff! I’m in dire need for some advice, and I have a hunch I came to the right place. I recently got into photography and bought a k-5 and a DA 50-135mm. That’s my only lens (I spent my last buck on it:P, and I’m loving it) so now I am looking for something wider. I re

I received a message recently asking for some suggestions about a new lens to supplement his 18-55mm kit lens. Check out the conversation below because it might be helpful to you as well. I like helping people out, so feel free to send me messages if you have similar questions and think I would be able to help. I might feature it on the site as well. His initial message: Hello Scott Great reviews. I purchased the Kr Pentax and the 18-55 DAL lens came with it. Can you please recommend a lens for Portraits. I think taking portraits will help me make the money I would need for a better lens. Right now I would like to spend no more then 200.00 US Thanks again My first response: Are you only interested in new lenses? If so, you options are limited at $200. Pentax has a DA 35mm f2.4 AL around $200, but that is too wide angle to be considered a true portrait lens (zoom your current lens to 35mm to get a feel for the focal length). If that focal length agrees with you, the DA 35mm would

I just finished editing my first collaboration video titled “A Low Cost Camera Flash or Lens First?” It’s not live on Youtube for your viewing enjoyment. 🙂 Youtube video link : This was one of my larger projects video wise. We shot the video portions on Sunday and I’ve been spending a good deal of time since then putting all of the pieces together. Here is a simple work list: Extract the audio from the recorded clips and clean it up. I did a good deal of audio editing this time to remove unwanted background noise as well as equalising the voice levels. I also fixed a few words, but missed one where I said “TLL” instead of “TTL” … Post-process the sample photos in Adobe Photoshop and create all of the still frames that the video needed. Do voice over work for the result photo descriptions and clean the audio up too. Create additional graphics like the name bars that show up at the beginning of the video. Edit everything together and adding all of the text as overlays. Review the v

So CP+ is under way and the announcements are starting to roll in. There is a lot being announced, so I’ll just talk about a few of the more interesting items. Sigma: They are starting to get it. Well starting to at least. Sigma SD1 – There is talk of a MSRP price reduction to $3300 by way of re-branding the camera “SD1 Merrill” edition. The problem is that they probably still won’t make much ground at that price, even though it’s considerable cheaper than $6900 they are currently charging. The street price could potentially be $2300. They mention giving some type of points to existing SD1 users to make up for the price drop making their camera worth substantially less (…or more if collectors decide the original model is special somehow). The camera is lacking compared to considerable cheaper semi-pro cameras (I’ll call them S.P.C.). Those cameras are now in the $1200 – 1500 range. For example, – 98% coverage viewfinder. All S.P.C. have 100% coverage. – An LCD screen with about

The last time there was a World Pentax Day, I took some macro photos. This time I went with action self portraits. Levitation: Jump split, aka. “Riding the imaginary horse.” “Pushing the imaginary lawn mower.” Handstand splits: Quite a set, eh? I’m thinking action bases photo are one of my favorite styles. I’d like to get more into this style in the future. I was thinking about using flash, but didn’t. In Av mode with a wide aperture around f1.8 – f2.0 and had the ISO fixed to 400 or 800. I pre-focused by putting a twig on the ground and zooming in on that in liveview. I didn’t bother using a wireless remote, so I ended up running around a lot taking various poses with the 12 second timer. I could use the exercise anyway. 🙂

Now that the K-01 is officially announced, here are my thoughts… They almost made something special, but not quite. I’ll go over details below. I’ll probably be editing this as more information becomes available. Edit, the PDF spec sheet on Pentax Forums confirms some things). Design: As I’m sure you already know, they contracted out a popular designer named Marc Newson to design the camera. They probably did this to generate media interest. I’m somewhat at odds with the final result because I see form trumping function in some aspects. I think the Pentax design crew might have done a better job. They did an amazing job on the K-7 and K-5… I don’t buy a camera as a fashion statement or a piece of art to be placed in a room and not used (take note of Marc’s “Lockheed Lounge” that is all form and no function). I think Marc is stuck in a position where he is expected to sacrifice some aspects to wow people. That’s too bad in my opinion. EDIT: It looks like the body casing is pla

EDIT, my opinion of the camera here: http://photographybanzai.com/2012/02/02/my-thoughts-on-the-pentax-k-01/ In about 24 hours, we will find out what this new Pentax K-01 is all about. Until then, I’ve been trying to figure out what it might be like. You have tons of information on Pentax Forums . As well as places like here (Club Snap) and here . From Club Snap: They say that the only viewfinder is the 3 inch LCD as the K-5 and that the body design should be rugged. -“The camera body is compact and trim whilst preserving all the functions of a professional camera.” -“The materials convey quality and honesty.” -“Machined aluminum and rubber provide user with a tactile and durable piece of technology.” I’ll give it a +1 for mentioning professional camera and +1 for aluminum body. Maybe this will be to Pentax what the iPhone was to Apple? EDIT: It looks like the body casing is plastic, which is a negative in my opinion. I find it odd why Pentax doesn’t mention this. I could see this as