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// August 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography Gift Ideas
It’s my anniversary in a few weeks, so I was browsing around online for some gift inspiration, and happened upon Anniversary Gifts By Year. One of the present ideas that struck me as being rather a good idea was a digital photoframe that can receive photos instantly via email – called the Kodak Pulse (available at Amazon US and UK).
// July 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography Book Reviews
If you’ve just splashed out on the brilliant Canon T2i (knows as the 550D in Europe), then you may be a little bewildered with all the controls and functions your new camera has to offer. If you’re anything like me, and you devour any reading material to do with photography, then you might want to look into getting the Digital Field Guide for the T2i, available at Amazon US and UK.
One of the best things about buying a book made specifically for your camera model, is that everything the book talks about is designed just for you – there are no ‘general’ settings and exposure talk, instead each feature, such as aperture and shutter speed, is explained according to the T2i’s buttons and dials.
// April 6th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Photography Book Reviews
If you’re into your photography (and the odds of that are pretty high since you’re reading this!) then you have probably heard about this book by now, as, apparently, it is the best-selling digital photography book of all time. This is a statement which is proudly displayed on the book’s cover, and, to be honest, it’s pretty easy to see why it has sold so well – because it really is that good.
Basically, if you’re just starting to dip into the world of photography, or even if you’ve been into it for years, if you haven’t read this book, go get it now! You’ll see why I rate it so highly throughout my full review below, but if you can’t wait to read it all, just pop over to Amazon US or Amazon UK and order a copy – trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
I like to approach my photography book reviews by letting you know just what each particular book has taught me, showing some examples of how it has improved my photos, and thus how it can improve yours. There are just so many tips and advice nuggets found within The Digital Photography Book that it would be impossible for me to list everything I learnt, so I’ll just try to include a sample of the varied practical things this book showed me.
// March 7th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // Photography Book Reviews
Understanding Exposure: Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson (available at Amazon US and UK) was one of the first photography books I read, and I thoroughly recommend it to any budding photographer. The title of the book sounds dry, like it’s going to be very technical and hard to read – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s actually written in a very down-to-earth way, with lots and lots of helpful tips and exercises for you to put to test what you’ve just learnt. And you’ll learn a lot…
At the crux of this book is the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO (although there is a lot more on the first two aspects than the latter). These are the three elements under your control that result in how the photo turns out – the ‘exposure’.
// February 22nd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Gear Reviews
With Canon’s new 550D now unleashed (available at Amazon UK via this link or Amazon US here, where it’s knows as the T2i) I thought I’d do a ‘real world’ comparison of how this new model compares to the existing 500D, which I have. This will be a ‘real world’ comparison in the sense that I won’t just be listing the various features of the cameras; instead I’ll be talking about what each difference means to us, as photographers, and what it will mean for our photographs.
All the comparisons are based on the information from Canon, and my own thoughts/analysis on how the camera will thus differ from the 500D (known as the T1i ‘over the pond’) – and, more importantly, what this will mean for our photos and videos.
The new 550D (known as the T2i in the US market) sports a class-leading max resolution of 18MP, which is around 20% higher than on the 500D (T1i). That’ll mean photos as large as 5184 x 3456, compared to the 500D’s max of 4752 x 3168.
Well, although the increase in Megapixels looks good on paper, and is an obvious selling point, it doesn’t actually mean your photos are going to look that much – if at all – better. In theory it means you will be able to record more detail, and print out larger prints – but you would only need this extra resolution if you were printing larger than A2! If you never print larger than A3 (have you ever printed larger than that?) then you wouldn’t notice a difference.
However, one plus point for the extra resolution is that it means you can crop more of a picture whilst still retaining a lot of quality – handy when you can’t compose the best possible shot at the time, so you can crop and make a great composition at home.
// February 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography Gift Ideas
OK, it may not be the latest SLR, or even a superzoom compact – but look – it’s a LEGO Camera!
It’s a proper, fully working, 1.5″ LCD, 3 Megapixel digital camera – and though it seems apt to say ‘perfect for your kid’, I think I’d like to get one as well! Retro, nostalgia…call it what you wish. I think it’s pretty nifty.
Currently available at Amazon for £39.99 (£20 off the RRP).
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