Condensation!

 I hate condensation! In my case, I bought an USB lens heater and I put that on my lens few minutes before I take my lens outside. That fixes the issue for me. But here is something that will not cost you a penny. 

 

Wildlife photography tips

Meet Chelsea Northup, a wildlife photography enthusiast with a wealth of experience. Her tips and tricks are a treasure trove of knowledge that will elevate your photography skills. 

Using Flash at night and outdoor

David Bergman's videos from Adorama are a great resource for learning photography. In this video, he explains how to use flash when shooting at night and outdoors.

 

Using On-Camera Flash at Events

 Here is a video illustrating how is done. 

The only thing I do differently is that before shooting with flash, I adjust the camera settings—specifically ISO and shutter speed—to get the background looking the way I want. Once that’s set, I let the flash, using E-TTL, take care of the rest.

At events, I usually use a modifier, unless I’m shooting in a living room with a low ceiling or walls painted white or a similar light color.

Here’s one of my photos taken using flash.

This guy is my favorite model. He knows how to work with the camera. Is not it?

Here is a bonus tip:

 

Shooting Indoor Events

Shooting indoor events comes with its own set of challenges. You have to consider that these events often take place in large rooms with poor lighting. In such cases, having a good “fast” lens is probably more important than having a high-end camera—but how fast is fast enough?

In my opinion, f/2.8 is the sweet spot. You might think that going with f/1.8 or even faster would help more, but it usually doesn't. That's because most of the time, you're shooting with a zoom lens—and aside from the fact that zoom lenses with an f/1.8 aperture are practically nonexistent, such a wide aperture results in a very shallow depth of field. This increases the chances of getting out-of-focus shots, especially when photographing multiple people performing at the same time.

An f/2.8 aperture gives you a better balance—more of the scene stays in focus, which is particularly useful when you're capturing groups of people on stage.

Considering all of this, I love bringing my old Canon EF 70-200mm L lens to these events. (If you can afford the RF version—even better! Otherwise look at the used market where you can find very affordable options for good quality glass).

A full-frame camera is a must—and if it performs well in low light, even better. In my case, I use the Canon R6 Mark I, but the R6 Mark II or the R3 would also work very well. All of them are well known for handling low-light conditions exceptionally.

The photos in this article were taken during a recent event in a church, and my ISO ranged between 2500 and 4000. This range can easily be cleaned up using most post-processing applications available today. In my case, I used DxO PureRaw, and I have to confess—this software has freed me from worrying about shooting at high ISOs, even as high as 12,800 or more.

Shot at 12800 in a very dark room without flash.

For Sharpening I use Topaz Photo AI. Recent features added to this software such as Face Recovering help a lot to achieve the highest quality in your pictures. 

As you can see, post-editing is just as important as having a good lens and a quality camera. Most of the time, you’ll spend twice as long editing your photos as you did actually shooting the event. Of course, if you're a professional sports photographer, you may not have that luxury—so having the best gear possible becomes essential.

In conclusion, taking great photos is not an easy task. When you see photographers charging a high price for covering an event, consider the cost of their gear, the software they use, and the hours spent on post-processing. If someone is offering extremely low prices, chances are they’re not investing the time or tools needed to deliver high-quality images. You get what you pay for. 

For new photographers, lenses are more important than cameras and post editing can fix the lack of quality you may get from your cheap lens and camera. A good lens and camera will save you time in post processing.

Faking Sunset

 This is an idea for your next photoshot. You can fake the sunset at anytime. 

 

Sport photography, my tricks

This is how I do it. In my opinion, in sports photography, there are two main things to consider to achieve the result you want in your photo: Do you want to completely freeze the motion, or do you want to capture some motion blur? For example, when shooting karate—if I'm photographing a kata—there’s often a moment when the person's body is still, but their hands or legs are moving very fast. In these cases, having some motion blur in the moving parts is perfectly fine. It helps convey the action.

Here’s an example where the subject’s face and part of the body are sharp, but the kicking leg is blurred.

To achieve this, I set the camera to Aperture Priority mode, selected an aperture of f/2.8, and let the camera calculate the shutter speed and ISO. In this case, the shutter speed was 1/320 and the ISO was 1250. A shutter speed of 1/320 isn’t fast enough to freeze the motion of his leg. I could have used Manual or Shutter Priority mode with the same 1/320 shutter speed, but using Aperture Priority allows me to control the depth of field and achieve a better blurred background.

From experience, I know that using the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 in Aperture Priority mode, under the typical lighting conditions at these competitions, usually results in a shutter speed that isn’t fast enough to freeze the action. This is why it’s so important to know your lens and its capabilities.

When shooting fights I love to freeze the image and in that case I set the camera to use Shutter Priority Mode using the speed of 1/800 to 1/1200 with Auto ISO. In very little occasions I set the speed at 1/2000. All depends on how bright is the room where I'm shooting. 

Here is a picture using these settings.  

In this case, the shutter speed was set to 1/1000 to freeze the motion. The ISO ended up at 12,800, which years ago was considered high and often resulted in noisy images. However, thanks to applications like DxO PureRAW and the camera’s excellent dynamic range, this is no longer a significant issue. 

Here is another example where I used a shutter speed of 1/1250 to totally freeze the image. 

 

I see many professionals using Manual mode when shooting sports, but I don’t find it comfortable to adjust three settings while photographing such fast-paced action. What works for me is either Aperture Priority with Auto ISO or Shutter Priority with Auto ISO. Manual mode with Auto ISO is another option, but I prefer using the C1 to C3 custom modes. These allow me to quickly switch between Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, each preconfigured with the aperture and shutter speed I plan to use throughout the event. That's my last trick, use the C# custom modes.

 

Wildlife Photography Tips

 Here is an article that I found very useful for those already into wildlife photography. 

For decades, OM SYSTEM Ambassadors Joe and Mary Ann McDonald have traveled the globe, documenting wildlife in its natural element through their photography.

This husband-and-wife team photographs birds, reptiles, mammals, and marine life across all seasons and continents. Their extensive experience, from photographing bison and wolves in Yellowstone to penguins in Antarctica, has yielded invaluable insights. The photography team shares practical tips that have helped them improve their wildlife photography, especially when tackling challenging conditions.

Why you should shoot in RAW format

The answer to this question has been debated so much that, for a moment, I hesitated to post this note. Then I thought, "What the heck—this topic never gets old. After all, there's probably someone out there picking up a camera for the first time, eager to start shooting and wondering what to do to get nice pictures". So, here’s an article that will help you find an answer.

Got a Macbook Air for Photo Editing? Read this.

It's no secret that Apple sells the entry-level MacBook Air at a lower price, knowing that the hardware specifications on these machines are not optimal for advanced users or those looking to run more resource-intensive applications, such as video and photo editors.

For example, the entry-level MacBook Air comes with just 256 GB of storage, of which around 120 GB is used by macOS and preinstalled applications, leaving you with only 140 GB of free space. If you are a video editor, an hour of 4K video typically requires around 20-30 GB of storage, and editing that video can require twice that amount to handle the task—quickly consuming half of the available space on your internal SSD.

If you are a wedding photographer, you can come back home with 1,000 photos from a single event. To store 1,000 photos, each 40 MB in size, you'll need approximately 40 GB of storage space. Editing these images can easily require at least 25 GB of free space. If you shoot two events in one week, you’ll quickly run out of storage. And if you're capturing both photos and videos at a single event, you'll run out of space even faster.

Basic Math. 

Buying the MacBook Air M4 with 512 GB of storage will cost you $200 more. If you choose the 1-terabyte option, which I believe is the optimal SSD size, it will cost you $400 more! But what if I told you that you could get 1 terabyte for a little over $100 without sacrificing performance?

The solution is to use external SSD storage—specifically, a Thunderbolt 4 external SSD. This will maintain read and write performance nearly identical to working from the internal SSD. One caveat with this solution is that a 1-terabyte Thunderbolt external SSD will cost you around $130 to $150, which is a savings of around 70% compared to upgrading the internal SSD.

An alternative to this solution is to buy an enclosure like this one and a Crucial P310 1TB 2280 PCIe Gen4 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD. You don’t even need a tool to put these two together, and you'll pay less than the average external SSD. The advantage is that if you need more space in the future, you can simply buy a higher-capacity SSD card.  

Here is a video showing how to install the SSD card and how this solution works. 

Learn how to pose in few minutes

If you aspire to be a successful model, mastering posing is essential. I've spent countless hours browsing the web for inspiration and fresh ideas. Among women, it’s common to see the same leg and body positions repeated over and over. One typical pose involves resting the body weight on one leg, with the other leg (usually the front one) bent, and the foot poised on the toes.

While this pose can be effective, relying on it too often may cause your photos to lose appeal. Repetition can make photographers lose interest and stop engaging with your portfolio. Diversifying your poses keeps your work fresh and exciting, ensuring you stand out.  

Another common mistake I often notice among beginner models is standing still and waiting for the photographer to provide all the posing instructions. 

Here is a very short video that shows how to pose.

 

Notice how the model continuously changes positions. It’s the photographer’s job to capture the shot during the brief pauses between movements. Watch the video and practice some of the poses demonstrated by the model. Diversify your posing—don’t stick to the same repetitive, boring stance for every photo! For sure your online presence will become more appealing to photographers and friends. 

Practice on front of a mirror and soon you will posing like this:

 

PS. A professional Model is like a dancer. She performs a dance for the photographer. 

What can you do to protect your camera when traveling?

If you’re traveling with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, it's natural to be concerned—they're expensive, and may attract thieves. So, how can you protect your investment?

This video offers a few helpful tips.

R-Body Charging Tips

 I recently found this interesting post at Canon Community. A good reading for those who own or planning to buy a Canon camera or any other brand that allows charging the battery via the USB port of the camera. 

...how my camera seemed to have infinite battery life since I had only swapped one battery in an R7 in a 15 hour day of shooting bazillions of pics.  I told them I did only 'change' the battery once but I'd been charging it all day between stops and while it was in my bag over lunch.  They asked how I pulled off that magic and I showed them the gear in the pictures.

Keep Reading here.