PhotographyBanzai.com

My family and I decided to attend an event Mitt Romney was hosting in Rockford, Illinois at the Machine Shed Restaurant. I took my camera along and tried to get a few decent photographs. This isn’t a political blog, I consider myself someone who is not fond of the 2-party system and not especially fond of either party’s policies. I’d like to see a lot more cooperation and understanding between people. My photo results were not that positive, but it’s good to get some practice in a situation like this regardless of the result. I shoot with fixed focal length lenses most of the time, which makes things like this a big challenge. For this event I brought along the Pentax K-5 and 31mm f1.8 lens. Inside the restaurant it was dark with strong light flooding in through the windows. Without the use of flash, there isn’t a set way to counteract the large difference in light intensity. In addition to the difference, there is the issue of lens flare, which the 31mm suffers quite a bit from. This...

I talk about camera flash communication methods (TTL vs E-TTL i-TTL p-TTL) as well as thyristor sensor based auto mode.  Flash talk Diagram for TTL and pre-flash based TTL methods: TTL and more advanced methods. Standard TTL: This was the original method of flash power control. It happens as the film/sensor is being exposed to light. There is a dedicated sensor near the film that monitors the reflected light off of the film/sensor and eventually tells the flash to “quench” (stop) outputting light. The nice thing about TTL is that it works with any lens and was generally pretty reliable. p-TTL, E-TTL, i-TTL, and similar systems that use pre-flash: This is the newer method that all of the camera manufacturers use now. The flash sends out a pre-flash burst of light (or multiple bursts) and records the results with the standard light meter built into the camera. So this all happens even before the mirror has been flipped up and of course before the sensor Thyristor auto flash: Some flash u...

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) . 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. Watch the video on  Youtube  through the link if you prefer.

Here is another learning series article and video. This time I go over the camera lens aperture. 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 getting through to the camera’s sensor. A lar...

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 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 large aperture value will give you thinner depth of field. The inverse ...

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. 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 As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases! Usually anything within 24 hours of the initial visit.  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 va...

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 look...

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...