I have seen a lot of sport snapshots that are quite disappointing, like blurry, too dark or too still. Yes, just because a photograph is dead sharp, it doesn’t mean that it’s good if the colours are washed out by flash and everything is so still. Of course by no means I am a professional in sports photography, however I would like to share a tip or two that can help common folks like us take good photographs.

First things first, be prepared the day before, the usual routine: charge up your batteries (bring spares if possible), clear out your memory cards, make sure your camera is in working order. Sports photogrphy is very demanding, a silly tehnical faults such as memory card errors and low battery can bring a lot of grief.

Tools of trade:

• A zoom lens, preferrably one that goes up to 300mm
• Flash, in case we need one
• Monopod (if you have one) – I didn’t us one on the day

The important technique to understand with sports photogrphy is to allow movements to be recorded into you photographs. Your shutter should be fast enough yet slow enough to alow some movement blur (not camera shake). On the day I didn’t use any flash at all, it was bright enough and I use quite a high iso. The reason I didn’t use the flash were first I’m not a fan of flash harsh lights and second I didn’t want to distract the players with the flashes.

Play It manually.

If you are shooting indoor like I do, then chances are that the lights are pretty consistent. Set your camera to manual exposure. You can either use a light meter to do this or simply by trial and error. This way your shots will be consistent in their exposures, less chance of stuff ups due to the camera miscalculating the exposures in fast conditions.

Have depth of field.

With sports photography you want your photos to be focused to the players. Using high aperture settings such as f3.5 or f4.5 will help achieve the depth of field required. The background surrounding will be blurred enough to accentuate your subject but still clear enough to give a sense of location.

Think about who is your subject.

Maybe this does not apply to all sports, but for Kendo, in case you haven’t notice the players wear full faced mask. There is very little chance we can recognize their face easily, that is why they have the name tags. Be sure include the name in some of your shots, but don’t overdo it.

It might also pay off to include some of the surroundings as well. In case of the photo on the left, it was the judges. By including the judges in the background we have set up the serious and tense atmosphere.

Focus, focus and focus

In these situations as I have mentioned above, we will be shooting with zoom lens and high aperture. Therefore your focussing is of utmost importance. Make sure your subject is well focused, missing the focusing even one but will ruin the image. Set your camera to continuous focus or if you are on single auto focusing mode, always try to obtain focus before shooting.

Move it!

Technical details aside, we have to keep in mind that sports is about movements. Your subject will be moving around a lot…and you should be too. I don’t stay in one spot all the time (unless I have to due to limited space, regulations,etc ). There are many things that will obstruct you, never with for them to move away, you have to move away. So stand up and walk to the most suitable spots.

Other important thing to remember would be to shoot in RAW and don’t be stingy, shoot as much as possible and you will have more chance to select your best photographs. So to conclude, sport photography is about capturing the atmosphere, movements and most importantly the players. It can be frustrating, but will be an utmost joy for you and the participants when you have a great results in the end.

I”m now back on pursuing my photography interest after being really pre-occupied with many other things Anyway, on to the subject: handheld night photography. I’m sure many would think that this is absurd, one would need a tripod for night photography right? Well, yes and no. There are variety of factors that would affect our results in handholding the camera.

For me, the main reason I handheld the camera at the time was because upon entering the Luna Park, we noticed that there was a big sign saying “No Tripod”. Hence for the sake of appropriateness and understanding I put my tripod back into the bag. This turns out to be a good opportunity.

So how do we do this? How do we photograph in low light condition without a tripod and expect to get a clear view ?

1. Use a fast lens if there’s any. The lens that I was using was the f 2.8 Tamron.
2. Use higher ISO. If your camera permits, use the around ISO 1600 or higher. Be careful with this since you’ll have to compensate with noise
3. Know your exposure rules. Don’t forget the unofficial rule of thumb: your focal length is around  the minimum shutter speed. So if your lens focal length is 50mm, then your minimum shutter speed is 1/60s. This works most of the time.
4. Be steady, make sure you are holding your camera in a steady stance. Use both hands with elbows close or resting to the chest.
5. Pick the right spot, there are places where you can rest your camera (and your hands) on for steadier shot.

Above are the few points that helped me get the shots that night.

Handheld photography is also made easier if it not pitch black yet, and it adds a lot to the composition.

For example, the shot on the right was taken just after the sunset; the best thing about that time is that its dark enough for us to capture the artificial lights and its still light enough to capture the scene easily without using too higher ISO. So another lesson to add: pick your time carefully.

One last tip before the end of the article: always shoot in RAW format. In case you get underexposed slightly, there is still chance to save your shot. Sure RAW is much larger in file size than JPEG, but with large memory cards these days, it shouldn’t be a problem.

So…to conclude, handheld night photography is possible given the technique and location. Maybe not so recommended, but will be handy when tripods are not possible.

To some people it is a time to have fun and to some people it is an opportunity to practice the night shot. Yes, slow shutter, tripods, lights and fast movements. This year I’m rather pleased with some of my shots, since I actually brought by tripod again. Last year I came out with very little usable night shots simply because I can’t be bothered to bring a tripod (so I can do more things with less hassle).

Slow shutter hand held

That doesn’t mean that without a tripod you can’t take any picture, all you have to do is know your minimal shutter speed, ISO and steady hands. The shot on the left was shot hand-held at 1/30 s, f/3.5 ISO 800. The resulting image shows how fast the movements were and it actually gives a hint of happy people on board the ride. Thanks to the bright lights from the ride itself, the children on board were illuminated quite well!

Here’s another picture (right) that I took hand held, good lighting in the venue really helps with these shots. When it comes to fireworks however, there is no escaping from using a tripod. There are also different pointers and tips that I’d like to share with you when taking picture of fireworks.

Photographing Fireworks

If your camera is capable for full manual control, this is the time to switch it on. Forget about auto-focus and auto exposure, most camera will not be able to calculate the settings correctly. What I did was:

1. Set the focusing to infinity. Auto focusing will be quite hard or impossible since there is nothing to focus in the sky until the moment the fireworks started and it’ll be too late.

2. Set your aperture high to preserve the details (around F16 and above).

3. Set the speed around 2-4 seconds. With this low speed, the fireworks trails can be recorded and more fireworks can be captured.

4. Set the camera trigger to wireless remote (or you can set timer for 2 secs or lower), this was needed to avoid camera shake by hand when pressing the trigger button.

5. Arrive early to get a good (and if possible comfy) spot.

And that should do for the settings. As for the picture taking, I mount my camera on the tripod and adjust the position to where I estimate where the fireworks will be displayed. Then, just enjoy the show while snapping the pic (peering into the viewfinder and adjusting as well obviously).

Moomba Fireworks

The picture on the right was taken using f/25, 4 s, this way the fireworks trails was evident and the smoke appears hazy. There are a lot to learn about photographing fireworks and I’m still learning as I go as well. However the pointers above are the ones that I have learnt and applied for a while. The fireworks was not the only exciting thing however, there was this rock band playing pretty good music too.

Of course because this is a photography blog, I can’t help but to share a bit of phototaking for these kind of situation. A band, low light and glaring spotlights, requires something more than full automatic settings.

I shot those two using spot metering and speed priority mode. In order to get the singer’s face into the correct exposure, spot metering on the face is needed, otherwise the camera will think that the scene is too dark and it’ll boost the exposure. Usually leaving us with very bright white faces…overexposure. On the other hand I left it to the speed priority mode to get a decent hand-held speed (about 1/200 for the above shots) while maintaining the correct aperture settings automatically. Apart from that the iso was set to 1600, a bit grainy, but it does the job.

Hmm…and the last thing, I can’t help but think that some clown statue can be quite scary…they should be made cuter or funnier…

Southern Star Observation Wheel

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to go out and enjoy the festivities of the long weekend on Australia Day, in particular at Docklands. There are bands, attractions, people and lots of stuff to see.

Sand Sculpture at Docklands

Check out the sand sculpture to the left for example, isn’t it amazing? The description said that it took 1 tonnes of sand to make this sculpture, incredible. Also to our surprise, this piece of art can withstand 3 days of rain!

While I was strolling about the complex and taking a few photos, I suddenly remembered the thing about cameras that most people do not really understand how to use, and that’s the metering mode. I have this sudden jolt of idea to put this up in this blog when I took the picture of the interesting entertainer on the right.

Horsemen Underexposed

The picture of this funny “horsemen musicians” was very dark when I previewed it. I was using aperture priority mode (I control the aperture the camera decides the shutter speed) with matrix metering. That’s when I immediately remembered to change the metering mode in my camera to fix this. Of course there is another way to avoid this kind of problem by ensuring the right direction of the light source, checkout the “Frequently Missed Items” post.

A quick look at the metering modes

At the very basic level, most of modern cameras would have: matix metering, centre weight metering and spot metering.

When using matrix metering, the camera estimates the amount of light needed to capture an image by averaging the light intensity in different parts of the image. So if you have a camera with say 15 dynamic areas metering, it means the camera basically divided the current scene into 15 areas and uses them to average out the light needed. The downside of using matrix metering is when the subject is dark and the background is very light, the camera is fooled into thinking that there is enough light needed, like the horsemen underexposed picture.

The solution that I decided to use is setting my camera into centre weight metering where the camera uses the centre part of the image as an average area of reference for its calculation. You can normally see the area used for the centre weight metering calculation through your viewfinder; ie. the round marking in the middle.

Horsemen Centre Weight

After using that metering, there result is as “Horsemen Centre Weight” picture. The camera is no longer fooled by the light background.

Another more accurate solution is the spot metering, with this activated, the camera relies on a certain point in the scene as the point of reference. Normally this can be seen in your viewfinder as the smaller circle or the square right in the middle of the scene. I used this metering to take a picture of the band below. The scene was tricky because the subject moved around and most of the background was very light.

Band Underexposed

Band Right Exposure

I locked the spot exposure on one of the band personnel, compose the scene and took the picture.

More festivities

Mini Children Tennis

As I moved on, more interesting attractions are scattered along the area. Even the excitement of Australia Open can be felt here, from the big screen and from the children playing.

I’d have to say that this area has become much more alive than it used to be a few years ago. Lots of shops, restaurant and of course the Southern Star Observation Wheel are now in business. With the weather as nice as today, it was indeed a great day out for recreation!

Docklands Shops	Festivities at Docklands
Melbourne Sunny day

If you own an SLR Camera and an existing lens:

You can use magnification lenses for macro photography if you already own an existing lens. This is by far the cheapest possible solution to get macro shots.

Magnification Lens

Magnification Lens

The amount of magnification with this lenses varies with their power. The bigger the number the stronger the magnification. In the image example above I have the +1 lens coupled with a +3 lens which makes up to +4 magnification.

There are trade-offs when using these lenses however:

1. The more magnification lenses you put in front of your lens, the less light getting through the lens. Which means your camera speed will be lower than normal. Say in a certain condition you have 1/100s speed, when you screw on these lenses you might end up with 1/60s speed.
2. The depth of field will be shallower than a true macro lens. With these lenses its slightly harder to get the background of the object sharper without losing the speed.

As I said previously, this is the most affordable quality solution.

If you are planning and have the budget to get a new lens:

Dedicated Macro Lens

Then get the true macro lens. These lenses offer very high magnification and incredible detailed result. Depending on your budget, you might want to look at third party providers as well. I use Tamron macro lenses myself and to date I have been very satisfied with its results.

With this lenses, you will have full control of the aperture, speed and focus. Many of these lenses have fixed focal lens, meaning that you will not have an option to zoom in or out. That’s okay, considering you don’t get that far or close from your macro subject most of the time.

If you want to get a semi-slr:

Macro in Compact Camera

Don’t forget to consider and semi SLR camera with macro capability. My old DiMage A1 did very good macro before I switched to the SLR. It gave good details when printed up to A4, above A4 however we might start to see the compression noise. This is because of the nature of Semi-SLR that has smaller image sensor than the true SLR. Ont he other hand, as technology grows, the semi SLRs are getting better and better in its quality. Best way to find out is always to check out the sample shots for a particular camera.

Reverse lens technique:

This a technique that can also be explored if you feel adventurous. Basically you use the other end of your lens to be attached to the camera body, then you will get massive amount of magnification. Of course you will have to buy the converter to do this. The downside of this technique and why I never use this as my permanent solution is that you might get your bottom end of your lens (the body connector part) scratched.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to start doing macro shots. I wouldn’t recommend those macro settings in a compact pocket camera however because of their lack of control and their depth of field is never shallow enough.

The Melbourne Motor Show, always a good place to admire cool and interesting cars…and of course, taking photographs of them.

One of the thing that interests me a lot is that many of the concept cars in there are hybrid cars. I guess most of the car manufacturers are going green due to the global movement towards “less carbon emission”… anyway, this is a photography blog so I’m not gonna to the whole environmental discussion

A spark of different addition is the participation of Bolwell, the Australian “Ferrari”. Nice looking car with a smaller engine than most of the exotic cars.

Other sport cars includes the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Ford and of course other familiar players like Ferrari.

Star of the Show

Located in a modest corner of the exhibition without is the promoted star of the show, the Bugatti Veyron. This fastest car in the world stopped only for 3 days, which no doubt attracted some of the crowd to visit the exhibition sooner. Deviating into photography topic a bit, notice that I take a picture of the information board in order to tell the story through the picture.

The Veyron is not the only star as far as I can see. I think the car on the left, the Lexus LS600hs is much more interesting. Its ability to automate parking procedure is quite an advancement in the car industry. Notice on the left that the lady didn’t even touch the steering wheel while the car is parking. I was at the right place and time to take a quick snap when the demonstration happened .

The Other…

The motorbike on the left is considered the “other”, I have no other words. Standing tall like a monster truck this motorbike is the biggest motorbike in the world. Apparently this motorbike is being used in destruction shows, where it flattened different normal cars.

Interesting addition to the show. Anyway, it was pretty hard to get a whole shot of this thing due to its size although I was using an 17mm lens.

It was great going to the car show, it is very interesting to see the technologies out there.

Photography Take Away

By going to shows like this one, there are a couple points that we can learn from photography stand point.

1. Be on the lookout for interesting demonstration.
2. Be patient when photographing, there are hundreds of people in the arena and they will most likely walk in front of you.
3. Take your time, don’t be hasty, there are plenty to look at. Refrain from going home in the first 30-60 minutes. This is important as demonstrations are done on particular times only.
4. Look at the exhibition booklet in order to properly understand the arena.

This group was created to be the central meeting place for all who are interested in Photography, both from the technical side and the business side of it. Join up and exchange photographic information with other. Learning together and exchanging information will be much better and more fun than trying to learn it all by yourselves.

To view and join the group, click here: (Learn Photography Melbourne), if you have a Facebook account, you can login and join the group, otherwise you need to create a Facebook account first.

Without further ado, click away and start discussing photography techniques, events, gadgets and more!.

In this post I’ll be talking about my recent visit to Bali, since there’s quite a bit to talk about, I have separated the story into 3 parts. Along the way I’ll be mentioning bit by bit here and there different photography explanation. As usual, all images are click-able for larger sample.

One of the thing that intrigues me most when I first arrived is their markets, which is one of the main tourist attraction around there thanks to the large amount of affordable “Bali culture” souvenirs.

Market mixed varieties

That picture above is one of the main markets around, called Sukawati Art Market. This market is visited by tourists from around the world, it almost seems that there are more tourist than locals in the area. I think it was truly one of the remarkable experience to be able to see so much merchandise. Here’s a tip that I kept remembering (and forgetting sometimes), every time we visit a crowded place like this, never forget to take picture of the place and crowd.

Sukawati Art Market is not the only markets out there being visited by many, this is one of the other markets that I have visited, quite an interesting structure I must say, the whole area was packed with different kinds of merchandise.

Crowds and Photos

Let’s just say that with all the excitement of this merchandise, it’s quite hard to stay focus and remembering to take a photo. The thing that captures my eye to take the picture on the right is the fact they are hanging display clothes on the ceiling of their extended roof. It gives the impression of a pattern, almost like the clothes are standing on top of the customers. Well, anyway, there’s always so many things to capture in this kind of places.

More on crowds…

Here are some other pictures depicting the crowds:

Colors of the market

The other aspect that interests me was the colors. There’s so many interesting colors in the market. Take a look at the vibrant colors that I took at the market.

The bags were taken in a different market. In many situation, especially when the situation is crowded and full of different things, there’s alwas interesting colors to look at and photographed.

Cultures and tradition

It was interesting to see that local practices are still being done; as seen in the picture, the young woman was giving her offerings. Apparently it was being done in a regular manner, a pity that I didn’t have the chance to find out what the offering was about and why it has to be constantly renewed.

Another apparent cultural merchandise in Bali Markets are masks , so many different kinds are sold all over Bali, not only in markets but also department stores. Well, we’ve just had a little taste of Bali market places and its beauty. Next time I’ll talk more about different places to look at and as usual accompanied with quality shots.

Don’t forget to check my tutorials through the links on your right hand side