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 4, 2008 in
Photoshop,
Tips & Tricks Many people asked me how come I have so sharp images. Well, beside the fact that I do my best to keep my shutter high and keep my camera steady, I retouch the photos in photoshop. You all might think “Ohh, the unsharp mask”, but i have to tell you that you are wrong. The alternative method I use for sharpening is the High Pass Filter method. This method provides good sharpening while minimizing image degradation.
Read more…
Tags: Editing, Photography, Photoshop, Tips & Tricks
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 Dec 1, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Tips & Tricks If you own a DSLR you have probably spent a lot of money on the camera, lenses and other accessories. That is why protecting your gear must be a mission for you. Here are some tips on how to do that.
- Invest in cleaning tools. Investing in proper and good quality cleaning tools it’s the first step into be more careful with your camera. It is a relatively cheap investment compared to the price of your gear. You can get rid off with paying just 15 to 40$. Don’t risk ruining your gear by cleaning it with the wrong set of tools. There are 2 set of tools: one for you camera exterior interior and lenses and one for you image sensor.
- Cover your lenses. Covering you lenses with an UV filter it’s another way o protecting it from scratches, dust, smudgy hands, and even dropping, since you don’t damage your front element of the lens but you will damage your UV filter which it’s way less expensive than your lens. An UV filter it’s about 10 to 100$ depending on your lens diameter and of the quality of the UV filter. But be aware that buying a cheap filter might change the way your photographs come out that being in a negative way Read more…
Tags: Camera Gear, DSLR, Photography, Tips & Tricks
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 1, 2008 in
Camera Gear 
A few days after they leaked by mistake the new D3x, Nikon released the brochure of the camera. It contains some test shots and the full specifications list of the camera.
You can check it out here.
Tags: Camera Gear, DSLR, Nikon, Photography, Release
