Sometimes, especially in macro world, we want to take a picture of something so that the background is soft or blurry but the main subject is completely in focus. Then we use wide apertures to get that effect. But with wide aperture, the depth of field becomes very shallow and not all the main subject may remain in focus. I've read many articles from the internet and found a solution - Focus Stacking.

Focus stacking means that we take multiple shots of the subject so that the focus point on each pictures is at different locations (by moving lens and camera forward and backwards or playing with focus ring on lens). And because all pictures must be as identical as possible to get perfect result, it is highly recommended to use tripod (when playing with focus ring on lens) and a...

[ Read more... ]

I was recently taking pictures outside in a temperature about -30C. I noticed that at such temperature, when you repeatedly take off your lens cap or changing filters without gloves or thin cloves that are warm due to your own body temperature, then it may happen that your filter glass or the front element of the lens (if not using filters) freeze up due to humid and warmth coming from the thin gloves or bare hand. When the the front glass or filter is frosty, then it is highly suggested not to scratch off the ice. You may end up ruining your lens of filter. I used filters (sometimes UV, sometimes CP). Both my filters got frozen because when I took off the lens cap and my palm was too close to the filter. I changed the filter then to CP but same thing again, humid...

[ Read more... ]

Today I found an amusing "article" of the meaning of cold for different nationalities and things.

First of all, as there is very large nationality here in DT, take the following as a joke. I don't want to offence anyone.





The meaning of cold

+20 Greeks put on sweaters.
+15 Hawaiian switch the heating on (if they have it).
+10 Americans are shaking. The Russians are planting cucumbers.
0 American’s water freezes. In Russia, the water thickens.
-5 French cars will not start.
-10 Estonian’s are planning a vacation to Sharm el-Sheik.
-15 Cat climbs into bed. Norwegians put on sweaters.
-17 New York landlords turn the heat up. The Russians last picnic.
-20 American cars don’t start. In Alaska, people...

[ Read more... ]

Finally its Christmas! However, 2011 Christmas isn't that nice as it was a year ago. This year, not a single spot of snow outside, only raining. Last year we were sinking into snow, and I liked it. If I'd only be a rich and the temperature outside were below 0C, I'd fill the streets with snow cannons to have white Christmas :p

And if at your place the weather is difficult, don't forget to help smaller ones.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone! Let's hope the Santa comes with a lot of presents and forget to take the rod with him :)

Ho-Ho-Ho! Happy holidays!

It's just amazing what a single small pocket flashlight can do with images, instead of using onboard flash. One evening I was taking pictures in a dark room. My "model" was a small alcohol glass. When I shoot on tripod, I always use manual focus in liveview mode active. This time the room was so dark that I couldn't see anything on the screen in liveview mode. Despite using autofocus and onboard flash for helping camera to focus, I took out a small flashlight (not a led one. Regula with yellowish tone) and pointed the light from the top to the subject. And when I saw the result in liveview, I decided just to stay on that lightening. The result came out totally different of that what had came out using onboard flash (i don't have wireless flash set up, however, i have one external...

[ Read more... ]

Hi all,

Few months ago I bought an Intuos 4 M tablet. But as I haven't have much leisure time (everyday work + need to make jpg's from RAW's which queue was very, very long), it sat all the time in a drawer. Last week I finally decided to take it out thinking, if I already bought it, then I must use it too. So, I connected the device, took the pen, watching out of window and thinking "Now what?" First I took a photo I captured in the summer, a closeup of a grasshopper. To get a feeling of a pen, I just traced the contours of the insect. Came out like a child drawing :) suitable for children color book (unfortunately I cannot show it as DT didn't find it good enough. It could be true because if you do something first time, it's pretty sure you find it good, due to emotions)....

[ Read more... ]

Did you know summer end today? That's right, it's autumn now. But guess what, autumn is a mushroom season in many areas. I don't eat mushrooms, but I can help others to pick them and of course these are great object to photograph too.
So, I'd like to show you some of what I've captured during previous mushroom seasons. Firstly, here are some of my favourite mushrooms - fly-agarics of course. These are so beautiful and colorful mushrooms.










Next, i've found one pretty interesting, but again non-eatable mushroom again, it's called Shaggy Ink Cap. And as you see black ink is really dropping off the cap.








And then, not so interesting...

[ Read more... ]

Rainy days in a row are sometimes really depressive. Everything is gray and wet. However, once the rain stops, nature may show us wonderful things. That's how it is in the country I live. There is a magic well that revives during high water (snow melting) season or sometimes after several very rainy days. We call it "Nõiakaev" or a "manhole of a witch" in English.

As you know, people make manholes to get the water out from the ground with a pail. Our manhole makes it really easy as the water comes to you. Seriously! You don't have to let down the pail to fill it with fresh water an then pull it back up once it's full. You just have to place the pail on the ground and water flows in :) easy!

Usually the magic happens every spring when the snow is melting....

[ Read more... ]

About a month or two ago I posted a question into DT's forum about ND Graduated filters, Cokin Z-pro holder, wide angle lens 17mm at 1.6x crop sensor and vignetting / dark corners. Didn't receive an answer if there will be any dark corners or not.

To date I've had that set for a while and I thought I post an answer for my own question. So, the quick answer would be Yes, there will be dark corners with that set up!. I've tried several holder set ups by adjusting filter holders moving them from the front to back. No good result. Then I replaced the adapter ring so that the holder would move a little more backwards. Still no good result. Even, if trying without any filters, I still get minor dark corners at 17mm @ 1.6x crop sensor (approx. 27.2mm@35mm equiv.). So, to sum up, the only...

[ Read more... ]