Welcome to the Richard Brown Photography Blog
This is a weekly blog of my photographic activity. I post the shots that I took but didn't find interesting, or good enough to add to a gallery. I make comments about the location, content and the quality of the photos. I encourage comments on my Blog to help me improve both the quality and diversity of the content.
From time to time, I will post interesting web links and PDF's of photo techniques or reviews that I found useful.
Thanks for your interest.
Richard
Full Frame versus APS-C DSLR's - what your missing
When: September 2013
Where: Richmond Olympic Oval and Fraser River
Comment: Now that Canon and Nikon are finally making full frame DSLR's that are even remotely affordable for ordinary mortals (e.g. Canon EOS 6D at $1400) it is worth revisiting why full frame sensors are so much better on DSLR's. The bigger image above was taken with the original full frame "sensor" namely a film SLR with a 24mm-70mm lens at 24mm. The inset image was taken with an ASP-C sensor DSLR with the same lens in the same place. As you can see, not only can't the Oval (building on left) be captured with the bridge in the same image, there is over 230% more footprint captured with the full frame. The size of the area cropped is usually not mentioned, only the lens focal length crop factor (1.5). Full frame sesnors have bigger pixels menaing less noise. The also allow closer shooting of objects and headshots to give better bokeh. It would require an expensive 17mm lens to be able to capture the bigger image with an ASP-C sensor. So unless ASP-C DSLR's start coming down significantly in price, you get considerably more value out of your lenses with a full frame sensor. Of course, you could always buy a fully automated EOS film SLR on ebay for less than $50 to get the same effect.
Surfing in Maui, Hawaii
Where : Ho'opkipa Beach, Maui, Hawaii
When: 16th February, 2015
Comments: This beach is better known for windsurfing. The north shore winds create big exciting waves, but they often break too fast and create too much foam, hence the preference for windsurfing. I happened to be there on the Presidents Day holiday so there were a higher number of good surfers than normal. I sat in the shade on the beach to take shots. The surfers were out about 200 meters from my camera. I used a Canon EF-L f4.0 70mm - 200 mm lens on a Canon EOS 60D (i.e. not full format). I set the ISO at 200m and the shutter speed at 1/1250 sec, then used shutter priority mode to let the aperture change to make sure the exposure was correct. I knew that I had enough shutter speed to capture most of the motion without too much blur. I knew that I would have to crop a great deal so I didn't want to go too high with the ISO to create too much noise and compromise the colour. I think I got the balance about right.
Bokeh and compact or point & shoot cameras
What : Cowslips at Terra Nova park in Richmond
When: 14 May 2014
Comment: This image was shot with a Canon EOS 60D DSLR using an EF70-200 mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm and f 4.0, ISO 100, 1/1600 sec. It is impossible to achieve the out focus blur or "bokeh" shown in this image with a compact camera. Good bokeh can be produced with some compact cameras but only if the main subject is less than 20 cm from the camera - hardly a versatile capability. This ability of a DSLR in fact may the the only reason left to use a DSLR for web publishing along with maybe the use of a hot shoe for flash and remote triggering. The reason that compact cameras don't produce good bokeh are as follows:
- Point and shoot cameras have very small sensors. The size of the camera sensor is directly related to depth of field (the area of the image that appears sharp or “in focus”) – the smaller the camera sensor, the larger/greater the depth of field. When compared to film or full-frame digital cameras, point and shoot cameras typically have sensors that are 15+ times smaller in size. Because of this, the area that appears sharp is much larger in size than what it would be on a DSLR camera, making it harder to isolate the subjects.
- The lenses in point and shoot cameras are not optically designed to create good-looking bokeh and are very limited in terms of minimum and maximum apertures and focal lengths. Generally, lenses in point and shoot cameras are wide-angle and have short focal lengths to cover as much of the area as possible, which puts most of the scene in focus. Cameras with optical zoom lenses typically change apertures to a larger number when you zoom in (thus increasing depth of field), making it even harder to separate the subject from the background.
- Most point and shoot cameras are designed to put everything into focus, so that the pictures people take do not turn out to be blurry due to focus issues. That’s why most of focusing in point and shoot cameras is automated, with face and scene recognition systems specifically designed to automatically acquire focus on the right target.
Please visit https://www.photographytalk.com/beginner-photography-tips/7356-a-beginner-s-guide-to-aperture-and-depth-of-field
for further information on DOF and aperture
Honda CX650 1984 Reprise
What: Honda CX650 1984
Where : "Home' studio
Comment: I used to have a Product gallery when I posted previous CX650 blog posts. So I thoought it would be good to post this original "product" version to complement the previous blog photos
Winter Sunsets
Where : Steveston Harbour, BC overlooking Vancouver Island
When : 5th December, 2013 approx 5:00PM
Comment :
Sunsets are criticized as cliche and boring. So one needs to go the extra mile to make any impression. The winter sunset is more appealing since the colour gradations are more subtle and the red is not so overwhelming. The addition of some light in the clouds and a foreground like this fishing boat hopefully make this classic sunset less cliche. A compact wasused at 200 ISO , F2.0 and 1/1600 sec apperture and shutter speed.