Tag: Shutter

by Leland Richardson on November 10, 2021 0

Toshiba Camileo S30 Review

Toshiba’s Camileo S30 camcorder records 1080p HD video in the H.264 format to SDHC/SDXC memory cards. The $179 camcorder features a 3-inch touch screen display and 8-megapixel still photo capture. Full specs for the Camileo S30 can be found here.

Toshiba Camileo S30 at a Glance

The Good: Slim design, good features for the price

The Bad: Touch screen can be unresponsive

Video Quality

The Toshiba Camileo S30 records 1920 x 1080p video in the H.264 format via an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor. It has additional options to record at 720p at 30 frames per second (fps) or at 60fps for capturing fast-moving subjects.

The video quality is definitely passable for a budget camcorder. You’ll notice a bit of over-exposure in bright sun and high contrast areas, but otherwise the S30 holds its own with other low-cost models on the market.

The S30 does offer a video light, which isn’t typically found on models at this price point. It’s useful for closeups but doesn’t have much power beyond that. Plus, it’s placed almost directly where your finger wraps around the camcorder, so you’ll have to be careful to nudge your finger down before activating the light.

In addition to movies, the Toshiba S30 can snap 8-megapixel still photos. However, most of the shots I snapped suffered from a good deal of blur, even when holding the camcorder steady.

Toshiba S30 Optics

The S30 does not offer an optical zoom but there is a 16x digital zoom. However, like all digital zooms, the quality degrades as you use it, so it’s better to avoid it all together. There’s also digital image stabilization, although it’s ineffective for the stills and only marginally useful on the video.

Design

The S30 is one of the few upright camcorders left in the market. At .75 inches, it’s slimmer than a pocket camcorder and has a larger, swing-out LCD display (3-inches) not found on pocket models.

However, it’s a bit larger than some of the smaller models on the market – at 2.3 x 4.3 x .75 -inches. Nevertheless, it’s quite portable.

The controls of the S30 are clustered on the slender body of the camcorder, although they are responsive. At the top is a large shutter button, followed by a lever for the zoom and controls for menu and the video light. Flip open the display and you’ll find large buttons for power (opening and closing the LCD also powers on and off the camcorder), switching between photo and video mode and web button for uploading videos from the camcorder to the Internet when it’s connected to a computer.

Feature Set

The Toshiba S30 has a nice set of features for a camcorder at the price. There’s a motion detect mode, which will begin recording when the camcorder sees motion. There’s also a slow motion option, which will record lower quality video at slower speeds (good for capturing baseball swings to view on the computer but not great for viewing on the big screen). A pre-record function will start recording a few seconds of video before you actually press the shutter, to help you catch all of the action. Finally, a time-lapse feature will capture short bursts of video over pre-set intervals so you can capture change over time.

Menu & Display

The nice thing about the Camileo S30 is its large, 3-inch display. It’s a touch-screen so most of the camera’s features are accessibly through there. Unfortunately, while the menu icons are large enough, the display isn’t all that responsive, nor well executed. Each icon needs a double tap to enter a specific function and sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether you’ve turned something on or off. There are enough features on the S30 that you’ll need to scroll down on the screen with a flick of your finger, but it often takes several flicks to get there.

On the plus side, once you press an icon once a text description of what it is will pop up on the display, but the process of navigating around the menu is more clumsy and time-consuming than it should be.

Memory

The S30 records to SDHC and SDXC memory cards (up to 64GB) which provides ample storage for your video-taking needs. It contains 128MB of internal memory, which is enough for about a minute of HD footage, so a card is a must.

Toshiba Camileo S30: Bottom Line

If you’re in the market for a good budget camcorder, the Toshiba Camileo S30 is a nice choice. Unlike some of its pocket camcorder competitors, it has a larger, swing-out display, which makes it easier to frame your videos. The menu interface needs improvement, and you shouldn’t be expecting ultra-high quality high def recording, but the S30 makes up for it with a nice feature set and a slender, portable design.

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by David Burgess on May 24, 2018 0

Portrait Photography Tips ~ Use A Canon Rebel T3i For Portraits

How To Take Portraits (For Beginners)

GREAT NEWS!!
You do not need a professional digital SLR camera to take awesome portraits.
You can get super portraits with an inexpensive (cheap even) DSLR camera. In fact, if you own a Canon Rebel T3i, you have in your hands an excellent tool for portrait photography.

The technology that Canon has built into its newest Rebel cameras is improved by leaps and bounds over what was available even a couple of years ago. Combine this inexpensive digital SLR with a even a so-so Canon Portrait Lens, and you have a combination that will get you some great portrait shots as well as lots of happy feedback from those you photograph.

Getting Ready To Take A Portrait

Begin with the basics.
Portrait Mode The first thing you MUST do is take your Canon Rebel T3i off the Auto setting (a gasp is heard from the crowd)..

Really! You might get lucky and get a decent portrait in auto mode, but if you want the best results, you will have to take drastic steps.

There are two choices here. First, you can use the Portrait Mode supplied by the camera, or you can use Aperture Priority (Av).

Since the simplest way to get started is to use the Portrait mode setting, let’s start with that.

Set your camera on Portrait Mode. See the picture on the right. When you do this, your Rebel will automatically use the largest aperture available for the lens you have attached to the camera.

Photo by RebelT3iOwner

Say What?? (I am psychic; I know what you are thinking.)

Don’t worry. You don’t even have to know what an aperture is if you use the portrait mode.

The next thing to do is compose and take the shot. When you review your shot, you should see that the background is blurry. That is the sign of a good portrait.

So what if your background is not blurry? Well, here is how to make the background blurry.

First, use a lens with a longer focal length and step away from your subject (you can also accomplish this by using the zoom on your lens at its highest setting – on the kit lens, zoom to 55mm).
The second way to help out your background is to move the subject of your photo farther away from the background. In other words, put more space between the person you are photographing and the background. Do not have them standing with their back against a wall, for instance.

Using a tripod
If there is plenty of light, you can usually have good success with hand-holding your T3i, as long as you use good camera technique. However, using a tripod is never a bad idea for a regular portrait.

Tip For Getting Great Shots
Take shots when your subject is not expecting it. Most of us announce the timing with “Say cheese.” But if you want natural expressions, try taking spontaneous shots. Or, take several shots in succession after you do the “say cheese” thing. One feature that is enabled when you use Portrait Mode is Continuous Shooting. So, if you just hold down the shutter button, you will be taking up to 3.7 shots every second. Try it. You will get some surprisingly good shots that way.

Portraits Using Aperture Priority

Feeling adventurous? Try this.

Using Aperture Priority for Portraits When you take a portrait shot with you Canon Rebel T3i in Portrait Mode, the camera does all the thinking for you, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO.. all of it. That’s why the settings on “that side” of the dial are called Basic settings. The camera does all the thinking; all the photographer has to do is select the basic setting.

The settings on the “other side” of the dial are called Creative settings. This simply means that the photographer can take more control of what the camera does on a particular shot.

Taking portraits works very well when you choose the Av, or Aperture Priority, setting. Once in that position, simply select the “f-stop” you want to use (f-stop basically means Aperture setting). The one thing you have to remember here is that larger numbers mean smaller apertures and smaller numbers mean larger apertures.

Basically, you want to set your f-stop at the smallest number you can for the lens you are using. If you are using the kit lens (18-55mm), and you zoom to the 55mm length, you will choose f/5.6. Your Rebel will not let you choose a number any smaller than that. If you are shooting with your zoom lens at the 18mm length, you can choose f/3.5. This is because the lens has a variable aperture (the smallest aperture changes as the lens zooms to higher focal lengths).

OK, enough of the geeky stuff. Why would someone want to use Aperture Priority rather than Portrait Mode?

The simple answer is that there are those of us who believe that having as much control of the camera as possible gives us better final results (pictures). In aperture priority, you can set your own ISO in order to increase the shutter speed. You can also change the exposure compensation to add more or less contrast to the image.

Finally, and this is a real control thing, you can shoot in RAW rather than JPEG. If you choose to do this, you will definitely have to do some post-processing of every image in some photo editing program like Photoshop.

The intent of this article is not to be an entire photography course, so, let’s suffice it to say that if you want to venture into the realm of learning more about photography, use Aperture Priority. At least use it when the stakes are not too high. You can possibly mess up a photo op and not get the picture, so maybe save your experimenting for times when you can patiently learn how Aperture Priority works.

The photo above was taken using Aperture Priority. The light coming from the window gave some interesting effects. Using Portrait Mode gave would not allow me to take this without a flash, another reason to try Aperture Priority.

Photos by WRasku

Portrait Lenses For Canon

These lenses will go a long way toward making your pictures look GREAT!

Recommended focal length for portraits is about 75mm (plus or minus), but on a Rebel a 50mm lens is roughly equivalent to that because of something called the “crop factor.” So, any one of these lenses will qualify as an excellent choice for your future portraits.

Portraits With Props

Add Interest to portraits by adding unexpected items.

Canon Rebel T3i Portrait Sometimes you can get a great shot that grabs lots of attention by simply adding a hat or scarf. Simple things add so much interest if used in a way that develops a story along with the excellent quality of the Canon Rebel and the portrait lens you choose.

Recently, we were browsing in a downtown gift shop that had lots of hats, scarves, jewelry, and other great photo props. We ended up with some pictures that we normally would not have even thought to shoot.

..don’t stop after you get one shot. It sometimes takes a little time for the subject to start to relax..
Let your subject use her imagination when it comes to props like this. She will know what looks good on her (and, more importantly, she will know what she does not want to be seen in). The subject will also feel more at ease if he or she has some input into the setup of the shot. This can work very well with children as well as adults.

And don’t stop after you get one shot. It sometimes takes a

little time for the subject to start to relax and get into the mood. Also, don’t hesitate to show her (or him) the photos you are shooting. When she sees how good the pictures are turning out, she will be much more enthusiastic about the idea.

Another excellent way to generate excitement in this type of situation is to bring together two or three people who are friends. They will feed on each others excitement and enthusiasm.

You can even get good portraits in public places. In fact, this type of photo can add much more interest than using a standard photography background. Photographers use this quite often in senior portraits when the take their subject to stand by a tree or a covered bridge, but you can do the same thing at a restaurant or public square.

Photos by WRasku

Pet Portraits

Love taking pictures of your best friends?

Pet Portrait With Canon Rebel T3i Pets could be one of the most popular portrait subjects. After all, don’t we all love our dogs, cats, turtles, parakeets, etc, etc?

Yes we do!

The problem is, sometimes our beloved friends do not know how to cooperate.

In situations where getting the pet to look in the right direction, or just stay in one place long enough for you to get the shot, you will need a couple of things.

First, you need patience. Chances are you will have to take quite a few pictures before you get The One.
Someone to help you would also be helpful. You can enlist the help of another person who in intimate with the pet. (This is especially true if you are doing this for a friend, and the pet is not your own.)
This is where a good, fast lens comes in handy. Point and shoot cameras may get some good pet photos, but your Canon Rebel will shoot rings around a point and shoot in this situation, simply because you can choose the right lens for the shot.

Some other things that can help here are treats and toys. Most animals (even cats) respond to goodies. They also show interest in their favorite toys.. see the picture of Colby here.. he was looking intently at a treat.

Photo by WRasku

A Nifty Trick For Pet Photos

Pet wide angle portrait

Take a pet photo with a wide-angle lens.

This is Colby again. He is not the best model – hates to have his picture taken when he knows it’s going on the Internet. He’s so vain.

I did this with the kit lens at the widest focal length – 18mm. I got up really close – as you can see, his nose is out of focus, but the eyes are sharp. Sharp eyes are what separates an OK picture from one that has the possibility of being a WOW picture.

What happens in a picture like this is something called distortion. The lens distorts the actual image so that it looks a bit wonky. It will not make your wife (or husband) look like a super-model, but it’s fun for animals.

This one is not in the WOW category, but I was dealing with a moving target. You can take this technique and use it with your own pet. Farm animals like pigs and cows work perfectly with this method. Your fans, friends, and family will love it.

Using Your Canon Rebel T3i for Self-Portraits

Getting a bit lazy here. Rather than write about self portraits, I made a video.

With the Canon Rebel T3i’s articulating LCD, you can see yourself before you take the photo. All you need is a cheap remote shutter button.

Portraits That Tell A Story

The Canon Rebel T3i can capture the action.
Action Portraits With A Canon Rebel T3i Great portraits are not always a result of someone sitting on a stool in front of a photography backdrop with the camera man saying, “Cheese.” You can use a good digital SLR like the Canon Rebel T3i to capture some nice candid portraits like this one of the guitar player.

The truth is that your subjects will love the pictures when you are able to capture the personality of the moment. As the viewer looks at the photo, there is a story that emanates from the picture, or maybe it will be a question. But in either case, the picture gets the viewer involved, and that is one of the signs of a good photo.

Photo by WRasku

Use A Fast Canon Portrait Lens

Wide apertures help to blur the background.

Use A Fast Canon Portrait Lens Notice how the background is blurred in the photo above. The way that was accomplished was to use a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens set on Aperture Priority with the aperture set to f/2.8. This not only guarantees a blurry background, but it also gives you the fastest shutter speed possible in an indoor situation.

Nothing is worse than taking a killer picture of a great subject and having it totally messed up by some distracting background item that you didn’t even know was there.

Sometimes you can’t avoid background clutter, but you can blur it out using a wide aperture lens. One desirable feature of a Canon Portrait lens is a wide aperture.

Of course, it may also depend on the focal length of the lens to know whether an f/4.0 lens is wide enough to get that blurred background. If you can secure a lens with f/2.8 as its widest aperture, you will pretty much guarantee a nice blurred background.

Photo by WRasku

Edit Your Canon Rebel Portraits

Post processing adds punch to a photo.

Canon Rebel T3i Portrait Cropped Almost all digital photos can be “helped” with a little post-processing. You don’t need the most expensive photo-editing software to do this either. You can even use free online photo editing sites like GIMP or PICNIC to get your portraits looking good.

Sometimes all it takes is changing to black and white or a bit of cropping to make your portrait a real show-stopper.

Photo by WRasku

Keep Your Canon Rebel T3i In Plain Sight

Don’t be shy!
Don’t be shy with your Rebel T3i When you are at special events, you are in prime territory for portrait shots.

This shot was taken at a Civil War Re-enactment. These guys love interacting with their audience and having their photo taken. They will also give you all the details of their costume. It is very enlightening and rewarding.

The thing that will hinder you is your shyness. Even if they say “no,” which they won’t do, the worst thing that can happen is you don’t get to take their picture.

On the other hand, it is always a good gesture to ask if you can make their picture. Asking permission will not only get you the great photo, but you can also use it online when you have their consent. As a gesture of gratitude, you might even offer to send them a copy.

Group Portraits are awesome when there is a theme. At the Civil War demonstration, these gentlemen were very cooperative for the photographers. Then I took the picture into my editing software to add a vintage look to the photo. So much fun!

Photos by WRasku

Take Family Portraits

Family photos with Canon Rebel Every year, I use my Rebel for family photos that end up on or in Christmas cards.

This is one of the ones that was chosen.

Here is the data for this picture:
Camera lens: Tamrom 28-75 f/2.8
Mode setting: Av (Aperture Priority)
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/320sec
ISO: 400
Focal length: 42mm
Flash: off

In-camera Effects

Edit Your Photos Without Expensive Software

There are several Canon T3i in-camera editing effects that you can use right in the camera. Once you select an effect, the software will generate a separate file so you don’t lose the original. Essentially, you can create many photos from a single shot.. without a computer!

The effects are:

Grainy Black and White
Soft focus
Fish-eye effect
Toy camera effect
Miniature effect

Example of Grainy Black and White

Example of Fish-eye Effect

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Soccer is My Life, My Experience Taking Photographs of Live Soccer Match

Pride, Fight, and Glory – A Story of a Soccer Match

As a big fan of soccer (we call it “football”, but I use the term “soccer” in this lens to avoid ambiguation), I was very happy to get the chance to take photograph of live soccer match. It was a final match of International Students Tournament in Hyderabad, a clash between two countries, Iraq versus Somalia. As I had no experience taking any photo in a live sports match before, I found this opportunity was challenging because I had only two types of lenses which were not suitable for taking picture of a sports match. At that moment, I didn’t have enough money to buy a new lens, then I decided to do whatever I could do with those two lenses. In the end, the result was very satisfying. I was able to capture the drama of the football match, as you can see in this article.

The Background Story about Soccer and My Life

The reason why this sport insprires me very much
The Warm-Up Session of Iraq Team

I remember my first live soccer match I watched on TV. It was between England versus Tunisia, in a preliminary round of FIFA World Cup 1998 in France. Since that match, I spent my childhood by looking up to those famous soccer stars such as Ronaldo, Michael Owen, Gabriel Batistuta, Dennis Bergkamp, and Zinedine Zidane. I dreamt to play alongside them, scoring a lot of goals and securing glory.

Among all of those great players, my favorite was Gabriel Batistuta. He was a very strong striker from Argentina. Batistuta was very dangerous and could easily convert a chance into a goal. He had very powerful shooting power and very deadly as a striker. Batistuta was named as “Gladiator”, and feared by most defender in the world. I was literally crying when I heard his decision to retire from soccer in 2005.

After the retirement of my favorite player, I start to be able to enjoy soccer more thoroughly. Maybe it is caused by the fact that I am no longer rooting for any particular team or player. Since 2005, I enjoy football purely as a spectator, not as a supporter.

Soccer and Photography

Two things that I really enjoy in my life
A pride supporter of Somalia

I was a committee member of Foreign Student Association (FSA) Hyderabad in 2012. As I have some knowledge in photography, I decided to use my skill to contribute to this voluntary association. The association runs a lot of events for foreign students in Hyderabad, such as graduation party, workshops, and sports matches.

In November 2012, FSA held a country-wise sports tournaments. I was lucky to be in Hyderabad at that time, so I could record those amazing moments in the tournament. The photos in this article were taken during the final match of the tournament between two strong countries from two different continents, Iraq and Somalia.

Although it is called “soccer”, actually it was only a “mini-soccer”. The field was only half of the real soccer field, and there were only eight players including the goalkeeper for each team. I used two of my best lenses (standard kit and fifty millimeters lenses) to take pictures. As the zoom magnitude of this lenses are very limited, I should stay exactly on the sideline in order to take good pictures. It was very challenging, but I really had so much fun.

The match ended with 1-0 victory for Iraq. The winner’s celebration was very great. The players and the supporters danced together and sang a song in Arabic. The best moment was when the captain of the champion received the trophy. They took the trophy, passed it from one player to another, and gave it to the supporter. It was almost like a world cup winner celebration. Luckily, I was able to take some of good photos before, during, and after the match.

Tips to take photos in a soccer match

The Runner-Up Use a tripod and zoom lenses
This is the correct way of taking photos in a football match. You need to have a tripod and a good lens with great zoom magnitude. This type of lens is called as “tele-photo lenses”, and the price ranged from two hundred bucks to two grands. It would be better if you can also get a tele-photo lens with image stabilizer, as it will make your photos to be less blurry.

Set your shutter speed as quickly as possible or leave it to your camera
Fast shutter speed means that you can “freeze” the action. With fast shutter speed, you can capture a high quality image in a sport competition. If you are not sure about the adjustment of the shutter speed, just set your camera in “Sports Mode”, and it will automatically do the work for you.

Shoot in continuous burst mode
It means that when you press and hold the shutter button, the camera will constantly take photos and will stop only if you release the button. The number of frames that could be captured per second depends on the type of camera. The more expensive the camera, the higher the number of frames can be captured in one second.

Don’t forget to capture the moment outside the match
The drama of a football match is not only about the events on the field. You can also capture a great photograph of various objects outside the field. The supporters, the officials, coaches; sometimes they are even more interesting than the soccer match. Thus, remember to point your camera to the opposite direction of the field.

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by David Burgess on April 25, 2018 0

Lotus – My Photography Work with Mirrorless Camera

Capturing the Beauty of Lotus

Lotus is one of my first project in the world of photography. When working on this project, I don’t even know some most basic terms such as exposure, aperture, or shutter speed. I merely worked with my instinct and try to manually tweak the lighting. I was very surprised to find out that the result is not as bad as I thought. However, I found a lot of weaknesses that should be improved in my photo. Through this lens, I would like to share my experience working on one of my first photography project. Hope you will enjoy it. I am looking forward for your feedback and comments.

The Concept of “Lotus”

The idea behind the photo shoot
The idea was actually very simple. I wanted to finish this project assignment as soon as possible. The lecturer assigned me to work with Pema, my beautiful friend from Bhutan. At that time, I was very busy with exam preparations and my final research. Thus, I wanted to do a project which I could finish in one day. I didn’t think I am good at poetry or painting, so I decided to do photography.

Surprisingly, this project was my first step to the world of photography. Because of this photo shoot, I developed an interest to photography and digital art. I finally found my passion to create something beautiful for the society.

The title, “Lotus”, came from the translation of the model’s name, “Pema”. “Pema” is a common name that we can find in Bhutan. In Bhutanese language (Dzongkha) it means “lotus”. I also borrowed some concept from a Pearl S. Buck novel’s titled “A Good Earth” where there is a very beautiful character with that name. As I had no experience working with a model before, I just told her to dress with something that can make her look mysterious, beautiful, and graceful at the same time.

The Photo Shoot

My first experience as a photographer
As I already had the concept, at first there was only one thing in my mind: to finish this work as fast as possible. I still had a lot of things to do, and I felt that this thing kind of slowed me down. I didn’t expect that later I really enjoy working as a photographer.

As I arrived in the location, I immediately started my work. During the first ten minutes of working, I felt an excitement that I have never experienced before when making a painting, writing a poem, or in any other art related activities. At that moment, I realized that I fell in love with the world of photography.

The next two hours of working was very fun for me. I enjoyed the moment when I framed the model into different scenes, took her photos from different angles and composition, as well as directed her to pose to fit with my concept. We tried different locations and outfits, and I even did some experiment with some simple properties that I found in the location, such as books, playing cards, and mirror.

I worked with my Sony NEX-3 digital camera, which I am very satisfied with its performance. It can take beautiful images, almost as beautiful as DSLR camera and significantly more stunning compared to point and shoot camera. It also can be operated easily and requires very less knowledge in the world of photography. I set everything in “Auto Mode” as I was really blind about the basic concept such as exposure, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and so on. Later when I have complete understanding of those terms, I found that the image quality of “Auto Mode” for this camera wasn’t disappointing at all.

I completed my work in about four hours, with ten minutes break every hour. I spent about three hours to do little work with post processing. The result was satisfying. We got an “A”, and later some of the photos were featured in Bhutanese Girl Fashion Page.

Tips and thougts to do a photography with mirrorless camera

From an amateur point of view
Don’t hesitate to get a mirrorless camera
Because of the price that is significantly higher than point and shoot camera and slightly lower than DSLR, some people prefer not to buy this type of camera. Believe me, getting a mirrorless camera is a good investment. The image quality is comparable to DSLR, and it is much easier to operate. Moreover, it is cheaper and smaller. So, if you want to take good photos but don’t want to learn too much about technical aspects in photography, mirrorless camera is a perfect choice for you.

Use tripod
The image stabilizer in mirrorless camera is not as good as in DSLR, so using tripod during the photo shoot would significantly improve the quality of your photos. Some cameras such as Sony NEX series also hard to hold (as their center of gravity is in front part of the lens) so that you can get blurry and shaky images if you don’t use any tripod.

It is okay to use the “Auto Mode”
Especially if you are a beginner and don’t understand about when you should use flash, or when you should lower the ISO. The Auto Mode works very well in most of digital camera. Maybe later when you started to understand about some photography concepts, you can do experiment with Semi-Auto Mode or even completely Manual Mode.

Be confident
Although you have very less knowledge about photography, be confident that you can create good photos. Be confident with your camera, no matter how bad it is the quality. And, be confident to your model, trust her, and keep believing that both of you can create a good artworks. Believe it or not, this kind of positive thinking will influence the quality of your photos.

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