Lazy day ....zzzz

Sleepy Reindeer. Shot with Sony DSC-H2 - ISO 80 | Aperture Priority Mode F4.5 | 1/125s

Freezing day....

The Millennium Link. All photos are shot with Sony DSC-H2 - ISO 80 | F3.5

Basic techniques for better images - Focus Lock

Most digital cameras have a two-stage shutter button. When you press it halfway down, it sets and locks focus and exposure. Some cameras beep and illuminate a lamp or frame in the viewfinder when these readings are locked in. If you don't release the shutter button you can then recompose the image and the settings remain unchanged. This procedure normally locks exposure too, but if you first use AE Lock to lock exposure, you can then lock focus independently.

If the camera doesn't take the picture after fully depressing the shutter button, it most probably means that you are too close to the subject for the camera to focus on it (Read the user manual to find out your camera minimum focusing distance). Fix the problem by release the shutter button, stepping back a foot or two, and then pressing the shutter button again.

Step-by-step guide:

1. Look through the viewfinder and position its focus point on the main subject.

2. Press the shutter button halfway down, until the green focus-OK lamp in the viewfinder eyepiece glows steadily or the focus lock beep-signal is heard.

3. Holding the shutter button halfway down, reorient the camera so that your desired composition appears in the viewfinder.

4. Press the shutter button all the way down to take the picture.

5. Done!

Digital Camera - SLR vs Compact

SLR is an acronym for a Single Lens Reflex. The difference between an SLR and a compact camera is that the SLR will allow you to use a variety of lenses with different focal lengths.

Differences Between SLR and Compact Cameras (Basic)

SLR	Compact
Interchangeable lenses	One attached lens
TTL (Through The Lens) viewfinder — when you look through the viewfinder of a SLR, you are seeing what the lens sees. If the image is out of focus, the photo will be out of focus.	The viewfinder is separate from the lens and shows you an image of the scene in front of you. The lens can be out of focus, but your view in the viewfinder will be sharp.
Bulky and heavy	Sleek and small, except the super-zoom camera
The camera of choice for professional photographers	The camera of choice for the average consumer
All can use an external flash unit	Very few can use an external flash
All offer complete manual control	Not all offer manual controls
Capable to capture pictures in RAW or JPEG format , some can capture both in one shot	Mostly capture pictures in JPEG format only, seldom support RAW format

DSLR cameras' sensor are much bigger and consequently much more expensive than the thumbnail-size sensors found in campat cameras. Larger sensors are the secret to why 6 megapixels from a DSLR camera beat 6 megapixels from a compact camera. To spread the same number of pixels over a larger sensor area, the pixels must be bigger. These bigger photosites gather more light, so they produce less-noisy images, capture greater dynamic range, and perform much better at high ISO settings.

Metering Mode

Lightmeters in digital cameras are intelligent enough to automatically determine the correct exposure for most shots so the photographer can concentrate on composing the image. They all work on the principle of measuring reflected light from the subject.

The three most common types are:

Matrix or Evaluative metering divides the image area into many small segments and analyses the readings for the best possible exposure. It is remarkably accurate in most situations.

Center-weighted metering asesses the whole image area but assigns the most importance to the central 40 to 60%. This system is accurate in average lighting conditions, but can be fooled by excessively dark or light areas. Used for general and portrait photography.

Spot metering only evaluates a small area in the center of the viewfinder so you can meter for a specific detail of the scene. Use when photographing a subject against a bright or dark background, also useful for macro photography.

Automatic exposure modes work fine for most scenes, but the meter can only see scenes as neutral gray and compensates for any deviations accordingly. So you should know when to override the meter's results. If the subject contains more than average dark or light tones you should take a substitute reading of an average gray area, lock that exposure and then recompose the image and release the shutter. Green grass or medium blue sky are good examples of average gray.

Focal Length

Focal lenth is the distance from the lens to the image sensor (or film), when focused on something closer than infinity, the lens is moved farther away from the image sensor. This is why most lenses get longer when you zoom In.

In 35mm photography, lenses with a focal length of 50mm are called "normal" because they work without reduction or magnification and create images the way we see the scene with our naked eyes. Focal length less than 20mm are called "Super Wide Angle", 24mm - 35m are called "Wide Angle", 80mm - 300mm are called "Tele" and beyond 300mm are called "Super Tele".

Attached eight photos were taken from the same place with Panasonic DMC-FZ8 digital camera by using different focal length from 36mm to 648mm, the 8th photo is taken with 4x digital zoom. (Digital zoom is not really zoom in the strictest definition of the term. What digital zoom does is enlarge a portion of the image, thus 'simulating' optical zoom. In other words, the camera crops a portion of the image and then enlarges it back to size. In so doing, you lose image quality.)

What is ISO in digital camera?

(Shot with Panasonic DMC-FZ8 - ISO 400 | F2.8 | 1/8 s)

What ISO denotes is how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the image sensor and therefore the possibility to take pictures in low-light situations.

ISO Speed & Exposure

ISO speed affects the shutter speed / aperture combinations you can use to obtain correct exposure.

Suppose your digital camera's light meter warns you there is not enough light to correctly expose a scene. You could use the on-board flash, but let's suppose again it's not allowed (like in a concert or indoors recital). You would then need to use a higher ISO. Set on "ISO Auto" mode, your digital camera will automatically select a higher ISO. Otherwise, you can manually select the next higher ISO and see if the increased sensitivity allows you to obtain a correctly exposed picture.

Similarly, if you find the camera is using a shutter speed that is too slow (1/60 sec. and slower) to handhold the camera steady and shake-free (thus resulting in blurred pictures), and you cannot open up the aperture anymore, and you do not have a tripod or other means to hold the camera steady, and you want to capture the action, etc. -- then you might select the next higher ISO which will then allow you to select a faster shutter speed.

ISO Speed & Noise

when you boost the sensitivity of your image sensor by selecting a higher ISO, the image sensor is now able to record a fainter light signal. However, it is also true now that it will record fainter noise, where noise is any signal that is not attributed to the light from your subject.

ISO Speed & Image Sensor Size

The size of the image sensor determines the ISO speed range that a digital camera can use without suffering from undue noise. One reason for this is because the pixels on the larger image sensor can be larger and therefore receive more light, and thus have a greater signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio.

Tips:

* Using the lowest ISO possible on your digital camera will give you the best image quality your digital camera is capable of.
* If you want to take pictures indoors where light may not be sufficient and in other low-light situations, then you would need to supplement existing light with flash or studio lights. Either that, or select a higher ISO. Bear in mind, a higher ISO may mean a noisy image.
* If you are printing mostly 4x6 in., you may find the noise is not evident in the prints (and so you don't need to worry about noise at high ISO) though they may be visible at original sizes on screen.

Meadow Stadium Bonfire Night Fireworks Show

The biggest fireworks show in Edinburgh on Bonfire Night held in Meadowbank Stadium. This video is captured by Panasonic DMC-FZ8 on Carlton Hill (It was windy and freezing on the carlton hill). After converted the original MOV format of video to AVI format, the quality drop quite a lot, so did the file size.

JPEG, TIFF or RAW?

Most medium to high-end digital cameras will offer you a choice of file formats in which to save your images. The most popular formats are JPEG, TIFF and RAW.

TIFF files will always be higher quality than JPEGs, and JPEG files will always be smaller than TIFFs. The main problem with TIFF files is that they are huge, which will cause your camera to slow down when trying to write your images to the memory card, it means the number of images you can capture in 1 minute will be much less with TIFF than with JPG. However, if you're going for the highest quality image you can capture, the RAW format is a much better choice than TIFF, because it is much more versatile and often smaller. RAW files contain the most information - like capturing 4096 shades of gray instead of only 256, and allow for the most versatility when it comes time to open your image in Photoshop. *Bear in mind that Raw files are just the raw sensor data, it isn't a picture until it is processed further.

Choose JPEG when you either need to fit a large number of images on a storage card or when capturing fast action. Only choose RAW when you need the highest quality possible and don't mind having to spend some time in Photoshop adjusting the images and no need to shoot as rapidly as with JPEG. Choose TIFF only when there are no choice of RAW format but required higher quality than JPEG.

LCD or Viewfinder?

Should we use the digital camera’s LCD screen or viewfinder to frame the shots? Lets check it out:

* Convenience - Perhaps the main reason that people use the LCD is convenience. Switch the camera on and from almost any position you can snap a shot.
* Size - Digital cameras have very small view finders.
* Instant Playback - shooting with the LCD means that after you take your shot you will immediately see the shot you’ve taken flashed onto the screen.
* Framing Inaccuracy of Optical Viewfinders on Point and Shoots - one of the most common complaints about using the viewfinder on digital cameras is that what you see through it is slightly different to what the camera is actually seeing as the view finder is generally positioned above and to the left of the lens which means it is slightly different (a problem called parallax).
* Electronic View Finders (EVF) - another type of view finder that is found on some point and shoot digital cameras is the EVF one. This overcomes the problem of your viewfinder and camera seeing slightly different things by giving you an exact picture of the scene you’re photographing in the viewfinder. This happens simply by putting a little LCD in the viewfinder.
* Glasses Wearers - if you wear glasses you might find using the viewfinder of your Digital camera more difficult. Many these days do come with a little diopter adjuster to help with this.
* Battery Killer - the LCD on your camera chews up battery power faster than almost any other feature on your camera.
* Camera Shake - when shooting with the LCD as a viewfinder you need to hold your camera away from your body, this increased the chance that your camera will be moving as you take the shot which will result in blurry shots.
* Competing Light - one problem that you will often have with framing your shots using the LCD is that for many cameras, shooting in bright light will make it difficult to see the LCD - leaving it looking washed out. Using the viewfinder instead of the LCD will generally overcome the problem.

Hoever, the ultimate choice in using the LCD or viewfinder will come down to personal preference.

Polarizing Filters

These deservedly popular filters, also known as polarizers, use the inherent polarization of atmospheric scatter, glare and other unwanted reflections to remove such photographic pests selectively and prospectively from the light entering your camera. If you shoot much outdoors, the ability to mount a polarizer is reason enough to invest in a filter-capable camera and the required adapters. No single filter type will deliver more benefit in routine photography than a properly used polarizer.

Linear vs. Circular
Polarizers come in two main types, linear and circular, identical in use and effects and differing only in camera compatibility. Specifically, linear polarizers are incompatible with cameras that rely on split-beam optics for functions like metering and auto-focus. High-end digital SLRs may require circular polarizers, but the less expensive linear polarizers will work with most digital cameras, SLRs and rangefinders alike. When in doubt, get a circular.

Benefits and Use
Used properly, polarizers can darken the blue of the sky, highlight clouds, suppress unwanted highlights and improve general color saturation by suppressing atmospheric scatter and color-robbing reflections off water, glass, sunlit foliage, vehicles and even bald heads. (In wide-angle shots showing lots of sky, however, you may get better results with a GND.)

Polarizers are admittedly more complicated to use effectively than one might hope, but once you develop an understanding of the ways in which scattering and reflection add polarization to light in the photographic environment, polarizers become very simple. Digital rangefinder users often complain that they can't see their rear LCDs well enough in bright sunlight to adjust a polarizer properly under TTL (through-the-lens) control. But as long as you're after maximum effect, you can easily learn to adjust a polarizer reliably without TTL control.

Polarizers always require substantial exposure compensation. In strongly polarized ambient light, a polarizer can easily cut to 3-4 stops or more. In the absence of polarized light or when set at 90° to the prevailing target polarization or target directions—most polarizers end up acting as 1- to 2-stop (0.3-0.6) neutral density filters.

Digital cameras with limited dynamic range can benefit greatly from the selective suppression of excess contrast. It's often best to reduce exposure to preserve highlight detail and work to bring up the shadows in post-processing—for example, using tone curves or gamma adjustments. You may well end up with noise in the shadows, but that's usually preferable to blown-out highlights. The more you suppress the highlights with a polarizer beforehand, the fewer problems you'll have in the shadows.

Due to the limited UV sensitivity found in most digital cameras, polarizers also provide a welcome and effective alternative for haze control at favorable camera-sun angles.

Infrared Filter

An infrared filter is a filter to remove visible light and only pass infrared light in different wavelengths. In infrared photography, the image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Usually an infrared filter is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (and thus looks black or deep red).

When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive sensors, false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect." The effect is mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow.

The pictures posted at the top was taken with a Hoya-72 Infrared filter on my Panasonic DMC-FZ8.

Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filter

A graduated neutral density filter, also known as a graduated ND filter, split neutral density filter, or just a graduated filter, is an optical filter that has a variable light transmission. Typically half of the filter is of neutral density which transitions, either hardly or softly, into the other half which is clear. It is used to bring an overly-bright part of a scene into the dynamic range of film or sensor. For example, it can be used to darken a bright sky so that both the sky and subject can be properly exposed. ND filters can come in a variety of shapes and sizes and densities and can be used in all types of photographic applications from still photography, motion photography and scientific applications. Center filters are ND graduated filters that are slightly opaque in the center and are clear at edges. These are used to compensate for light falloff that is natural with large optics.

Although its importance may have lessened with the advent of the modern digital darkroom, it is still an important tool for professionals because a digital sensor that is "blown out" or "washed out" - i.e. reading maximum values (white)- captures no usable data and cannot be corrected with later processing.

Neutral Density (ND) Filters

Neutral density filters reduce the light entering your camera without introducing color biases. When the effect is meant to be uniform across the camera's field of view, round NDs are perfectly adequate.

In bright ambient light, an ND will allow any camera to reach

• a slower shutter speed to enhance motion blurring, or
• a larger aperture to enhance subject-background separation or image detail.

On the digital side, you may be able to accomplish the same thing by selecting a lower ISO setting, with the added bonus of reduced image noise. But when you can't lower ISO enough, an ND (or stack of NDs) can get you where you need to go.

NDs address two practical limitations stemming directly from the small physical CCD sizes typical of consumer-grade cameras—excessive depth of field and diffraction-limited resolving power at smaller apertures. Thanks to the latter, digital cameras seldom offer apertures smaller than f/8. Under bright conditions, that aperture floor can be a real hindrance, but ND filters can fill the gap.

Slowing Down
Forcing a slower shutter speed at a given aperture and ISO enhances motion blurring when that's the goal—say, when photographing flowing water in bright sunlight. Suppose your smallest available aperture is f/8 and your slowest ISO is 100, as is commonly the case on the digital side. At ISO 100, the bright scene will probably require an exposure of ~1/400 sec @ f/8 by the sunny f/16 rule, but you'll need to slow down to 1/25 sec to get the desired blurring. Stacking a 3-stop (0.9) and a 1-stop (0.3) ND filter will nicely bridge that 4-stop gap in shutter speed.

Opening Up
Selective focus enhances subject-background separation by blurring the background to draw the eye to your well-focused subject. By forcing a wider aperture (smaller f-number) than would otherwise obtain at a given shutter speed and ISO setting, an ND filter promotes background blurring by reducing depth of field, which can sometimes get too deep on the digital side, especially in portrait work.

ND filters also allow you to stay near your camera's resolving power sweet spot (often f/5.6 or wider) in bright ambient light.

UV Filter

UV, skylight and haze filters all block ultraviolet (UV) light to varying degrees. UV filter nomenclature is a bit confusing. The term "UV filter" by itself usually refers to a neutral (untinted) filter blocking the shorter wavelength UV-B (320-280 nm) and UV-C (10-280 nm) bands while letting a good bit of the UV-A (320-400 nm) through. Haze and skylight filters are UV variants that often carry a tint. Haze filters block more UV-A than regular UV filters but also take a bite out of visible blue. Skylight filters also cut some blue but are no more effective in the pesky UV-A band than regular UV filters.

The optical role for UV filters in digital photography relates to an artifact known as "purple fringing". Purple fringing is most commonly seen in digital images but also occurs in film images. It typically appears as a multipixel band of bright purple surrounding the peripheral edges of dark objects cast against a bright background. Central edges are spared. Backlit leaves set against a bright sky are a common purple fringing scenario.

Besides, you can use this filter full time in order to protect the front element of your lens from scratches and dust.

Optical Filter Benefits

With sophisticated image editing tools like PhotoShop readily available, why bother with optical filters? Given enough time, talent and patience, you probably could emulate most filter effects in post-processing. Post-processing is no substitute for the filter types listed below — at least when they're properly applied.

Polarizers	Among other things, polarizers can easily save you from fatal white-outs due to bright reflections — not just off water, glass and car paint, but also off foliage. (Foliage reflections are a serious but commonly overlooked problem in landscape work.) The hard fact is, there's not good post-processing cure for white-outs, especially those complicated by CCD blooming. Polarizers can help you control excess contrast in other ways as well. They also improve color saturation in ways hard to reproduce at post-processing.
Neutral density (ND) filters	ND filters allow you to achieve slower shutter speeds or wider apertures than would otherwise be possible in a given scene. (Note that polarizers make decent 1-2 stop ND filters in the absence of polarized light.)
Graduated ND (GND) filters	GNDs allow you to reduce excess contrast in scenes that would otherwise be impossible to capture in a single shot. Yes, there are effective post-processing techniques for excess contrast control, but they're not without their challenges, and most require multiple perfectly registered exposures — which means a tripod and remote triggering.
IR pass and UV pass filters	Even if you could simulate the surreal luminance relationships found in the near IR (NIR) in post-processing — you'd never be able to fake the phenomenal atmospheric clarity found at NIR wavelengths. Nor would many be able to fake the odd world waiting to be discovered at UV-A wavelengths.
UV cut filters	In theory, UV filters add clarity by cutting UV scatter in high UV environments — e.g., at extremely high altitude (well over 10,000') or in long shots over water, but most digital cameras are too UV-insensitive to benefit here. Post-processing can suppress or sharpen a hazy blue channel to good effect, particularly in B&W work, but an effective UV filter (most likely a haze filter) might allow you to improve clarity while preserving blue channel data in your color images.

Digital Camera - MegaPixels vs Printable Size

"I'm buying a digital camera - how many megapixels do I need?"
The number of pixels you need depends on the use you are making of your pictures. The chart below shows the recommended size an image should be printed according to the resolution of the camera.

Megapixels	Pixels Resolution	Print Size @ 300 ppi	Print Size @ 400 ppi
3.0	2000 x 1500	6.67" x 5.00"	5.00" x 3.75"
4.0	2309 x 1732	7.70" x 5.77"	5.77" x 4.33"
5.0	2582 x 1936	8.61" x 6.45"	6.45" x 4.84"
6.0	2828 x 2121	9.43" x 7.07"	7.07" x 5.30"
7.0	3055 x 2291	10.18" x 7.64"	7.64" x 5.73"
8.0	3266 x 2449	10.89" x 8.16"	8.16" x 6.12"
9.0	3464 x 2598	11.55" x 8.66"	8.66" x 6.50"
10.0	3651 x 2739	12.17" x 9.13"	9.13" x 6.85"

Note: 300 ppi (pixels per inch) becomes roughly 150 dpi (dots per inch). 300 ppi is the accepted standard for printing photographic quality images, but 400 ppi is highly recommended.

Edinburgh Fireworks Concert 2007

The Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert was at 9pm on Sunday 2nd September 2007. It is recognised as one of the world's greatest fireworks concerts, performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh Castle and forms the climactic finale of the Edinburgh International Festival. There are 5 parts altogether. Enjoy!!!

Hurray !!

Today is 31st August 2007, Malaysia Independent Day!! ~ Hurray! ~
And todays also is my blog new opening day!! ~ Hurray!~

Today I'm not in Malaysia, I'm still in Edinburgh, Scotland. But there is a "Malaysia Pavilion Edinburgh Festival 2007" event held in Castle Street, so I still can taste the Malaysia tastiest food such as chicken satay, roti Canai, Char Kueh Teow and Teh Tarik, see the demonstration of Songket-Weaving, Pewter-Making and Batik-Painting and cultural performance.