Image by SharkD / Used under the GFDL
In photography, there’s a common misconception that focal length determines the perspective of an image, but the only thing that
really determines perspective is where you put the camera.
For example, the telephoto lens is often said to “compress” your scene and make everything look flat. But, it’s not the focal length that’s doing this. It’s actually because you’re so far from the scene you’re photographing (which is how telephoto lenses are commonly used: to photograph something far away). And, it’s because of this great distance that the scene looks “flat” in the final image.
As you move farther and farther away from something, you lose visual depth. For example, if you stare at someone’s face when you’re only a foot away from them, you’ll be able to see all the curves of their face pretty clearly, but as you step farther away from them, their face will begin to look “flat.” [read more…]
As a photographer with a science background, I’ve always been on the lookout for a good book on the science behind photography. Although Ansel Adams got pretty technical in his excellent books, they left me wanting to know more about how cameras, lenses, and sensors work.
So, I started searching for the right book, and immediately found the comprehensive works of Rudolf Kingslake. But, his books turned out to be a little too technical for me.
Just when I thought my search for the perfect book had ended in failure, I ran into Charles Johnson and discovered his wonderful book, Science for the Curious Photographer. I’ve already read it twice, and I must say it’s the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand how their camera works. [read more…]
With mobile phones getting more and more powerful these days, they’re starting to become some pretty useful tools. They’re not just phones anymore. Many of them allow you to install different “apps” that can significantly help you take photos while you’re out on the trail.
For example, here’s a list of some great apps available for the iPhone:
I’ve discussed this app before (it also has a free desktop version): it’s the ultimate iPhone app for landscape photographers. It’ll tell you sunrise and sunset times, moon times, azimuth and elevation of the sun/moon at a specific time (useful for planning landscape shots), and tons more stuff.
The app easily lets you switch between dates, so you can see what time of the year the sun will set where you want it to, and all of this is projected on top of a Google map, making it super easy to visualize where things are going to be. [read more…]
Photo by anttler (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
Every year between July and August, you can observe the
Perseid meteor shower in the night sky. This year it’s supposed to peak around
August 12, which is just a few days away, so I thought it’d be nice to put together a collection of links that offer some tips on photographing meteor showers.
I’ve only tried photographing a meteor shower once, and didn’t have much success, but one thing’s for sure: you need very dark skies. If you live in a fairly large city, you’ll probably have to drive out a bit to get away from the orange glow (also known as “light pollution”). This past weekend, while camping in the middle of the California desert, I saw about one meteor every couple of minutes, but when I got back to the orange glow of the Los Angeles sky last night, I couldn’t see any.
Anyway, here are a few great resources I’ve found around the Internet that help explain how to photograph meteor showers: [read more…]
In a previous post, I explained how you can use an extension tube to focus closer with your lens. Using one of these hollow tubes can help you fill the frame when doing close-up photography of things like flowers or butterflies.
Well, when you’re also using a teleconverter on your lens, it’s important to attach the extension tube in between the teleconverter and the lens (so, the teleconverter should be closest to the camera body). This is a little trick that I just learned from an article by Arthur Morris in the latest issue of Nature Photographer Magazine.
I was interested to find out just how much the order matters, so I did a few tests with my Canon 300mm f/4L (a lens that I love to use for close-up photos) and a 25mm extension tube. Here’s a table that summarizes my results: [read more…]
