I will get back to this. For now it is a simple post with a nice photo. Shot from the Hotel Croatia in Cavtat at the 6th of June 2006. Shutter speed was set to 15 seconds. The camera stand was the fence on the balcony outside my hotel room.

Update:
After writing this article I have invested in a Canon EOS400D with some nice optics. So now I guess I have to make an illustration to tips number 7 as well… 🙂

Original article:
You don’t find many articles in this blog that is simply a link to a post in another blog. I try to add something when I write about interesting content from other blogs and web sites. Thomas Hawk had an excellent article about digital photography a while ago. And if I am going to link to it I also want to add something. The thing that I immediately missed when reading the article on Thomas Hawk’s blog was the illustrations. I know that Thomas has a huge archive of excellent pictures that could illustrate many of the 10 points. But I also know how much time it takes to find and include the illustrations. When Thomas has spent the time writing the excellent article I can spend a couple of minutes digging for some illustrations. Read the article over at Thomas Hawk’s digital connection and use this post for some illustrations. All the pictures can be clicked to bring up a larger version.

1. ISO, ISO, ISO.
Changing ISO changes the time of the exposure and the amount of noise in the picture. The two pictures below are taken at the same time, in the same lightning conditions but the one to the left is ISO 50 and the one to the right is ISO 400. At ISO 50 the exposure time was simply too long to give me a sharp shot with a hand held camera.

Now if we go in a bit closer we can also reveal the other factor. Noise.

2. Find something to brace the camera on.
Use your creativity. When using a digital compact camera you also have the possibility of not having to look into the viewfinder. When using the LCD on the camera you have very good possibilities of holding the camera against something when shooting.
3. Don’t cheap out on a tripod.
I am not fortunate enough to own a Manfrotto, so I don’t have an illustration for this one… 🙂

4. It’s all about the glass.
Revealing bad optics are best done when examining the edges of a picture or sharp contrasts. Bad optics to the left and better optics to the right. An obvious difference in sharpness.

Going into some more detail it is easy to see some of the other problems with bad optics. The green colour along the sharp contrast between the sky and the metal angle.

5. Join Flickr.
I could add a screenshot from Flickr. But really. Just go there.

6. Know your rights.
This can only be illustrated by Thomas himself. Whit this story and this photo:

7. Shoot in RAW.
Photo. Video. Audio. Always obtain the best quality possible when out in the field. The better the original is the more you can do with it. Personally that means full resolution, higest quality JPG because I don’t own a camera that can shoot in RAW format. Something I would consider the biggest drawback with my Canon S2 IS. That’s why I could not make a nice illustration to show how flexible and sharp an uncompressed RAW picture really is.

8. Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop.
I have used Photoshop since version 2.5 It was truly amazing back then and is even more amazing now.

Edit:
I really hate el-cheapo crippeled scaled down versions of professional software. With one exception. Adobe Photoshop Elements. It is really amazing value and contains all the functions that you really need. I wouldn’t bother considering anything else if you want a relatively cheap but extremely powerful way to organize and edit your pictures.

So for the illustration. Original to the left and slightly photoshopped image to the right.

And some serious Photoshop magic here and here.

9. Take lots and lots and lots of photos when you shoot.
Could have illustrated this with lots and lots of photos. But I won’t. Just follow the advice.

10. Change your perspective.

Simple as that.

I live close to the wonderful Vigeland sculpture park in Oslo. It’s the masterpiece of sculptor Gustav Vigeland and one of the biggest tourist attractions in Norway. It’s free to visit and open 24 hours a day.

When you live close to such an impressive place you start taking it for granted. While people come from the other side of the world and have an experience they will never forget I walk through the park on my way to work.

The park includes 212 sculptures. Most of them showing people of different ages, moods and situations.

I have taken a lot of pictures of the statues, and through the year they change as the light, temperature and surroundings go through winter, spring, summer and autoumn.

During one of our many walks in this park my wife pointed out that it’s interesting to look at the people gazing at the statues.

How they pose in front of them when taking pictures and how they behave when observing them.

So yesterday I brought my new Canon PowerShot S2 IS and snapped some pictures of the real people instead of the statues (more info and experience with the PowerShot in an article here later).

Less than half an hour and I had a lot of interesting images.
(Click the pictures to enlarge)

Comparing the facial expressions of the statues and the people…

Comparing situations in the park with situations in the sculptures…

Or starting to see communication between statue and photographer…

Or simply realizing some slightly amusing situations…

There have been some discussions around the fact that the statues mostly show the so called “Aryan” editions of our species. Who cares? When the park is filled with people this place resembles one of the most international and open places in Norway.

Walking trhough the park on my way home after a late night in the city is of course a totally different experience than walking around with a lot of people in bright daylight. How people use the park during winter is of course totally different from how it is used during summer.

For those of you that want to comment on the individual pictures, see some additional ones or post your own pictures from this park I have made a Flickr Group with my images.

Living so close to the park I guess I’ll have to post back here as this little “The people of the Vigeland Sculpture Park” project evolves…

And for the people that want to bid, it’s on QXL.no as soon as the auction is active. I’ll update this post with a direct link.

(You can click the picture of the camera here to get a better view.)

Update:
Here is the direct linkt to the auction: Canon PowerShot S20 (Norwegian!)

For the people that are not interested, feel free to read this post simply as a couple of very nice pictures…

Some quick specs:
Body: Aluminium / Magnesium alloy
Max resolution: 2048 x 1536
Low resolution: 1024 x 768 & 640 x 480
Image ratio w:h 4:3
CCD pixels 3.34 million (3.14 effective)

Here are some pictures taken with this reliable old camera:
(click the pictures for original versions)
Continue reading “I’m selling my old Canon PowerShot S20” →