Photography 101: Photograph Silhouettes with Nikon D40

To achieve a silhouette effect:

1. Set the AE-L/AF-L button in the menu option (only for Nikon D40, choose this lock button to lock AE only).
2. Set your camera to Spot metering mode.
3. Focus on the sky or the bright portion and lock the exposure by pressing on the AE-L button with your thumb, OR, on non-nikon D40 camera, simply focus on the sky and press the shutter button halfway.
4. Keeping the AE-L/AF-L button pressed (or the shutter button pressed halfway), recompose your photo and shoot.

   Screen capture for all the setup mentioned above..
   Step 1.
   
   
   
   Step 2.
   
   
   
   Step 3.
   

   Below is my first attempt..
   

   
   
   (2008-07-27 22:24:52 SGT) [say cheese] Permalink
   
   
   

DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 3

Singapore Japanese Garden.. i've NEVER been to this place, either.. err, mabbe yes when i'm 10years old.. i remembered i came with my grandma, mother and 2nd sis.. heh.. but I can't remembered was it Chinese Garden or Japanese Garden we had been to or Haw Par Villa.. I just remembered there was a picture of me with water lilies in the background..

Here are my selections, all taken with my Nikon D40 + 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX lens:
26th July - General Photography: Singapore Japanese Garden

My 3 personal favorites out of those 28 images are:

For the last picture, I was trying silhouette.. err, what a tongue twister.. i can't pronounce that word.. somehow, it's not as nice as i thought it would be..

See also:
1. DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 1
2. DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 2

DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 2

Singapore Botanic Garden.. imagine.. i'm in singapore since 1999.. and i've NEVER been to this place.. heh.. suaku bo?

Here are my selections, all taken with my Nikon D40 + 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX lens:
19th July - General Photography: Singapore Botanic Garden

My 2 personal favorites out of those 68 images are:

See also:
1. DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 1

It's the moon..

taken without tripod.. while waiting for my "soccer-dad" or rather "photography-daddy" to fetch me.. he was my "cake-daddy".. heh..

DSLR Photography Lessons for Beginner using my Nikon D40.. Outing Part 1

I've started taking a short course in photography called "Beginning Photography" with Fred and Boen-Hian.. So, yesterday was our first outdoor lesson..

12th July - General Photography
Singapore Zoo. Please meet near ticketing booths. We pay our own entrance. Please bring your longest lens for this outing: 200mm would be good. If you have, please bring teleconverter. It is an opportunity to use speed priority exposure and test out your camera dynamic focusing. Mosquito repellent and longs recommended.

Here are my selections, all taken with my Nikon D40 + 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX lens:
12th July - General Photography: Singapore Zoo

My 2 personal favorites out of those 50 images are:

See also:
1. Photography 101: Diffractive Starburst effects on sunlight taken with Nikon D40 without starburst filter

Photography 101: Diffractive Starburst effects on sunlight taken with Nikon D40 without starburst filter

To achieve a starburst effect, without using any special filter:

1. Source of the light must be small.
   
2. Set the aperture of your camera to f/16 or smaller (Small aperture = small opening = BIG F number).
   
3. Depends on the image you are taking, if it's too dark due to the object casting a shadow, you may want to set to Spot metering on your camera. After setting to Spot metering, focus or your object such that it will not cast shadow (optional step).
   
4. Look into your view finder, move around a bit, see the starburst, take a shot.
   
5. Good luck.
   

The below are my 3 attempts in sequence.. the last 2 with some orangey dots/spots/blobs are causing sun glare / lens flare.. so-called undesirable and can be prevented using hood.. but i hate my hood.. so i didn't bring it out.. :P.. The long explanation on star effects are quoted below.. read them if you want to understand on what cause this star effect..

There are two ways that light is caused to be bent. One is refraction where the light passes across the surface between transmitting media of two different densities and the other is diffraction where light bends when it passes across the edge of an object.

Refraction occurs in a lens as light, moving through air, enters the glass material where it bends toward the perpendicular to the surface. When it exits the denser material, it bends away from the perpendicular. This effect can be seen in prisms and is a very important property of carefully designed lenses.

Diffraction, on the other hand, not only bends the light, but the light is usually scattered some because of the microscopic imperfections in the object's edge.

A lens opening of f/8 is considered the optimal aperture for a normal 50mm lens. As apertures become smaller, diffraction becomes more pronounced and begins to degrade the image significantly (although depth of field will increase). This is a physical limitation and is caused by reducing the ratio of the area of the aperture (that affects refraction) to the aperture circumference (that affects diffraction). Diffraction begins degrading the image at apertures smaller than f/8 for a 50mm lens, but diffraction does not achieve the same effect for a longer focal length lens because the physical size of the f/8 aperture is much larger. For example, the critical aperture for a 200mm lens would be f/22 and smaller.

The effect of diffraction is noticeable when photographing point light sources in a dark background, or even just very bright light sources. Most obvious is the starburst effect caused by diffraction. This may occur even at the larger apertures because of the high contrast between the light source and the rest of the scene. The starburst is caused by the fact that the aperture is not perfectly circular, but is made up of several blades, each having a straight or nearly straight edge. Thus, at the corners of the aperture, the light that is bent and scattered by one blade gets reinforced by the light that is bent and scattered by the adjacent blade to increase the exposure in that area and form the point of the star.

The smaller the aperture, the more accentuated the starburst will become. A special filter is not necessary to create the starburst effect, selecting a smaller aperture will accomplish the same result. In high contrast situations, you may not be able to eliminate the starburst even when using the widest aperture available on the lens.

Note: Small aperture = small opening = BIG F number

Reference:
http://www.photo-artiste.com/existinglightguide.html