Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 13, 2008 in
Photography,
Releases 
A couple of weeks ago ShutterVoice was announced in a beta testing state where only a few were chosen to test it. Now it’s finally out for you to buy with a price tag of 30$.
For those of you who aren’t aware of what this software can do here’s a quick summary. Shutter voice enables you to control you camera (that’s connected to your computer) by voice, through the Canon EOS Utility. It allows you to change a whole bunch of settings just by telling that to your camera. Unfortunately it can be used only by Canon owners. Here’s more information and don’t forget to watch the video demonstration. This software is excellent when you are testing different light setups and the only model available is you.
I would like to add that among those few people chosen to test ShutterVoice I was chosen as well. Played a couple o hours with the software and I have to say that I was pretty amazed of what it can do. But, you must have a very goo microphone and you must be able to speak clearly so that the computer understands what you want. You might want to know if I was that impressed that I would want to buy it, the answer is YES, but I won’t for know until I upgrade my Canon 40D to a camera that can automatically focus in live view mode. That is because my 40D can’t automatically focus so still i have to go back an forward to my camera to focus.
Tags: Camera Gear, DSLR, Photography, Release, Software
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 11, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography,
Tips & Tricks 
Taking sharp photographs is the dream of every photographer. However taking crisp, clean images can be quite challenging. I would like to share with you guys some tips on how to get razor sharp photographs, but before that let’s see what are the common causes for lack of sharpness:
Wrong focusing. The most common cause for blurry photos is not focusing right. Often happens to focus on the wrong part of the image, or using a very narrow depth of field, or taking the photo quick without checking if it is in focus, and all of this helps in throwing your subject out of focus and obtaining blurry photographs.
Low value of the shutter speed. This causes 2 sets pf problems: Camera shake and Subject movement. This two makes blurry photos because your shutter speed is too low to freeze the action.
Noise. Sometimes using high ISO values might get you results with lack of sharpness. Although since cameras evolve so quickly these days, higher ISO values might still get you very sharp images.
Here are 9 ways of improving your photographs sharpness:
Read more…
Tags: Camera Gear, Canon, DSLR, Editing, Lenses, Nikon, Photo Test, Photography, Photoshop, Tips & Tricks
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 9, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography 
Surfing the web I have came across a very neat gadget. It’s a lens accessory that has a cut-out on the side and a precision mirror inside. This enables you to shoot left, right, up, or down (it swivels 360 degrees), all looking like there were shot straight ahead. The concept? Point your camera 90 degrees away from your subject – and the mirror inside the attachment reflects the image to your lens.
This is an excellent accessory for shooting shy people, afraid of being photographed, or for street photography without being noticed.
It’s called (very funny) “Super-Secret-Spy lens” and it’s sold by Photojojo.com.
Specifications:
- Works with any SLR lens: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, etc.
- You need lenses with diameter of: 37mm,46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, and 77mm. It has an adapter for each size.
- Works with zoom lenses (at least 50mm). If you use wider lens you will encounter heavy vignetting
- Swivels 360 degrees to let you take 90° candid shots in any direction
- You can use AF an any other lens or camera functions without being limited.
Be sure to check the images and video to see how it works.
Tags: Camera Gear, Lenses, Photography, Release
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 7, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography 
I was recently asked by a friend of mine these couple of questions: “Prime lens? Zoom lens?”. He wanted to buy a new lens and was a little confused by these 2 terms. After I explained to him, I decided to share this “lesson” with the rest of you. So here it goes.
What is exactly a Prime lens?
Well, a prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal lengths. Some examples of prime lenses: 14mm, 15mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm, 600mm, etc. (There are a lot more that i have missed). So bottom line there is no zooming involved. These are similar to our eyes, you cannot zoom with your eyes, you can only distinguish things at a relative close distance and depending on the size. And if you want to see something more clearly, you get close, exactly what you have to do with your camera that has a prime lens mounted on it.
What about Zoom lens?
The zoom lens it’s a different story. It has a range of focal lengths available in one lens. So you can have a wide and telephoto lens in just one lens. So you have the ability to zoom and take a shot. Some examples of zoom lenses: 18-55mm, 17-40mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 18-200mm, etc (There are hundreds of lenses with different combinations).
Now I will try to put a ruff list of the advantages and disadvantages of these 2 types of lenses. Some people might disagree with me since this is more of a personal choice and you can see a lot of contradictory discussions around the web about how one outperforms the other (like Canon VS Nikon “wars”).
Read more…
Tags: Camera Gear, Canon, Lenses, Nikon, Photography
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 4, 2008 in
Color Management,
Personal,
Photography 
So finally I have finished my Photo Blog. Here I will try to post at least one photograph a day, so you can admire any new photographs. For now I will post some old photographs for you as well, so that this photo blog will act as a gallery as well.
The whole purpose of this photo blog is to show my wok in a controlled environment and especially to receive from you guys any comments or rating regarding my photographs.
Also you can see any updates of the photoblog on this blog on the sidebar under “New Photos”.
Some info about this photo blog:
- Every photo will have it’s description
- The photographs will be sorted in categories
- You can find my camera settings for every photograph that was captured ( Aperture, Shutter speed, ISO, Focal Length, Flash)
- You can rate my images with ratings from 1 to 10
- You can comment my images
- You can subscribe to email notification or to RSS
Hope you’ll like my work, and I am waiting for my photos to be rated and commented.
photo.constantinchirila.com
Tags: Constantin Chirila, Gallery, Photoblog, Photography, Release
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 2, 2008 in
Photography 
GPhotospace it’s a Firefox Plugin made by Google to complement the Gmail email service. This plugin offers you a space of 7GB and growing ( it increases based on how long you use the service) to store your photographs and share them with your contacts/friends/relatives/clients or keep them private.
I will try to point put some pros and cons:
Pros:
- A lot of space to be used as a space to back up your photos
- Amazing speeds in uploading photos (it took me like 2 seconds to upload 5 photographs)
- It’s a free service
- Secure sharing
Cons:
- You don’t have a personal web page to share it with the world (at least until this version)
- It work with Gmail, so you have to register for a Gmail account
- You can only share the photos by sending emails to your friends
- There is no community like Flickr has.
Bottom line is that it’s an amazing service to use it to present photographs to your friends/relatives, and has an even greater use for businesses by having a quick way to present a bunch of photographs to your clients through email.
Seams that Google try to compete with Flickr. Even if its not rising to the expectation, i still give Google a chance. They have a history of improving their services so that its clients are happy. And lets not forget that it’s a FREE service 
You can learn more about GPhotospace’s features here and you can create a Gmail account here.
Tags: Google, Photography, Release, Software, Web
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Nov 29, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography 
Nikon has leaked their own announcements themselves by mistake. How did this happened? Well, it appears that they released their magazine named “Nikon Pro Magazine” in Europe to early, before they could launch the “official announcement”.
The new Nikon D3x is a full-frame DSLR camera with a 24.5 megapixel 16-bit EXPEED image processor. Here are some more specifications:
- 24.5 megapixel the highest resolution seen in a Nikon DSLR to date
- 16 bit EXPEED image processor (35.9 x 24mm)
- 51 point autofocus system
- 5fps continuous shooting (or 7fps at 10 megapixel)
- ISO range 50-6200
- Extra High Active D-Lighting
- Live preview shooting mode
- 3 inch LCD screen with 922000 dots
- Extremely durable magnesium construction with economically optimized and weather-sealed
- Dual CF slots
According to cameraworld.co.uk the price of the D3X camera is expected to be around £5500 (they even take pre-order deposits of £20). And it is said that will be released in December.
I wonder if it’s worth buying it. Beside the high megapixel number there is not much improvement compared to D3. I guess that this D3X it will be a relief for fashion/portrait/product/etc. photographer , but a disappointment for wedding and sports photographers photographers where they need speed and god image quality at very high ISO. But we will wait and see how it will present itself.
You can read more here or here.
Tags: DSLR, Gear, Nikon, Photography
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Nov 28, 2008 in
Photography,
Tips & Tricks 
Often happens that when we copy the brand new photographs from the camera on our PC and look at them we, see a lot of “very good photographs”, but when we show it to others we find that are quite not that good. That is because our photograph has a lot of visual and compositional mistakes and doesn’t tell a story ( being a wide subject I will talk more about the composition in another post ). This facts can make your photo very unappealing. We are often fooled by the fact that we know the whole story of a photo because we were there, but our viewer wasn’t there so he must understand from the little point of vie caught in your photo (We have a subjective look on our photos and might block us from seeing the mistakes). But it’s always a good idea to have a “fresh eye” so don’t be afraid to ask for opinions.
So here are some advices to follow that will improve your skills in taking better photographs:
Read more…
Tags: Composition, Photography, Tips & Tricks
