Adventures into Amateur Photography

Weekly Photo #19

nmoody — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:58:15 +0000

Here is my first attempt at shooting the moon. This was a “supermoon” which is the closest the moon gets to the earth in full moon form.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 300mm
Focus Mode: AF-S
AF-Area Mode: Wide Area
VR: OFF
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/100s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Macro photography and Extension Tubes

nmoody — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:28:28 +0000

There are a few different ways to preform macro photography. The most obvious and most expensive way is to buy a macro lens. This is a hefty investment for such a limited use lens. Another option is using attachments on your currently lens. These can include attaching magnifiers to the end of your lenses, reverse lens adapters and extension tubes.

I went the route of extension tubes which doesn’t really degrade the quality of the picture and is reasonably priced. There are tons of cheap extension tubes out there but be careful. Some don’t have contacts which allow the camera to still communicate with the lens and most of them have plastic mounts which can break if you are using heavier lenses like lets say a 70-300. Because of this I went with the Kenko extension tubes.

This is how the extension tubes are used:

In this example I have three extension tubes stacked between the 18-55 kit lens and the D3100 body. If you don’t want to focus so close you would just remove one or two of the extension tubes.

Focusing is done in manually as well as your aperture, shutter speed and ISO selections. Because you are adding space between the lens and the camera body you will need more light than you would normally. Due to this I highly suggest you use a tripod due to the very slow shutter speeds you will be using to make up for the light loss. In this example my shutter was open for 8 seconds, aperture set to 22 and ISO 400 to get a correct exposure. Adding a speedlight would also help, but most likely not add enough for you to ditch the tripod.

Here is a picture of the clementine that was shown in the example above:

You can see how closely focused we are with just the 18-55 lens. Normally this lens would never get a good focus on anything closer than 0.28 m/0.9 ft. But in this case I am about an inch away due to the space added between the lens and the camera body by the extension tubes.

Here are some more examples I took with the above setup:
Sponge (scrubby side):

Cork:

Quinoa (small grain):

Pink Envelope:

Cheap dish towel:

Weekly Photo #18

nmoody — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:38:03 +0000

For my birthday I recieved some Kenko extension tubes. Without going into too much details, these put more space between your lens and camera body enabling you to focus on very close up objects. In this case it is a clementine. Because of this the exif data does not show all the information but I did use the standard 18-55mm kit lens.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens:
Focal Length: 0mm
Focus Mode: Manual
AF-Area Mode: Single
VR:
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/0
Shutter Speed: 8s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Center-Weighted
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400

Weekly Photo #17

nmoody — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:31:52 +0000

This is from the Sunnyvale Recreation Center. They look to have a crazy amount of chemicals in the water which make is very blue. Other than a few clones of bird poop its exactly how it came out of the camera.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 70mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1/60s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200

EXIF data and web browser plugins

nmoody — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:36:38 +0000

Trying to figure out how a picture was taken can be a challenge sometimes just by looking at it. Luckily almost all the digital camera’s of today leave detailed information within a photo called EXIF (exchangeable image file format) data. I find EXIF information very handy when trying to figure out how a picture was taken and with what hardware was used. You can read more about EXIF data here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format

Most photo programs can view EXIF data already but when you are browsing forums or websites its sometimes too much of a hassle to download the picture just to see what settings were used. Most common internet browsers will have plugins that can view EXIF data by just hovering over a picture or right clicking on it. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome all have plugins for EXIF data.

I personally use Google Chrome as a browser of choice and have tried a few different EXIF plugins over time. This one specifically is my favorite:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lplmljfembbkocngnlkkdgabpnfokmnl

Weekly Photo #16

nmoody — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:32:41 +0000

Went to go take a picture of a hedge that interested me and this caught my eye. Not sure what it is but sure looked neat.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 35mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/30s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200

Weekly Photo #15

nmoody — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:02:02 +0000

Taken just outside our new apartment. The two tree canopies clashing made an awesome contrast. Simple and very pretty.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200

Weekly Photo #14

nmoody — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:00:46 +0000

Also taken in the development I live in. I found the flower vine and clump of flowers nice so I blurred the background to draw attention to them.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Weekly Photo #13

nmoody — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:03:02 +0000

Taken in the development I live in. These flowers bloomed the other day and really caught my attention. Especially since its early February.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 22mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Weekly Photo #12

nmoody — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:37:30 +0000

This is an edit of last weeks picture. Still playing around with editing, I think its better but I need a lot more practice.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 70mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/800s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400