70-200mm : The Arrival

I totally forgotten that i snap some pic with my 70-200mm when it first arrive last week to test it.The lens doesnt impress me so much as I'm more impressed on how a small box and polystrene foam can make a little boy so excited..enjoy

Adam : A Day At The Park

Adam become more and more curious nowadays which is good.As a parent we encourage this behaviour and when he's interested in bubble,we didnt think twice and bought it for him on our way to the park and as a photographer I saw moment coming soon..so here goes..enjoy..

Photography For Dummies : Bokeh

Bokeh, also known as “Boke” is one of the most popular subjects in photography. The reason why it is so popular, is because Bokeh makes photographs visually appealing, forcing us to focus our attention on a particular area of the image. The word comes from Japanese language, which literally translates as “blur”.

So What is Bokeh?

Basically, bokeh is the quality of out-of-focus or “blurry” parts of the image rendered by a camera lens – it is NOT the blur itself or the amount of blur in the foreground or the background of a subject. The blur that you are so used to seeing in photography that separates a subject from the background is the result of shallow “depth of field” and is generally simply called “background blur”. The quality and feel of the background/foreground blur and reflected points of light, however, is what photographers call Bokeh. 

The lens cap is in focus and sharp (which means that it is inside the depth of field), while the background is out of focus (which means that the background is outside the depth of field). The small or “shallow” depth of field is the result of standing relatively close to the subject, while using a large aperture. See those round circles of different color on the right side of the image? Those are light reflections and they are circular because that’s how the lens rendered them. In this case, the soft “feel” of those circular areas is what photographers would call “good bokeh”. While some photographers argue that bokeh is just about the quality of the circular light reflections, many others, including myself, believe that bokeh is about the quality of the entire out-of-focus area, not just reflections and highlights..

Good and Bad Bokeh

Remember, bokeh is rendered by the lens, not the camera. Different lenses render bokeh differently due to unique optical designs. Generally, portrait and telephoto lenses with large maximum apertures yield more pleasant-looking bokeh than cheaper consumer zoom lenses. For example, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D lens produces exceptionally good-looking bokeh, while the Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G DX lens produces poor bokeh at the same focal length and aperture – all due to differences in optical designs of both lenses. Again, I am not just talking about the background blur; all lenses are capable of producing out of focus blur, but not all lenses are capable of rendering beautiful bokeh.

So, what is a good or beautiful bokeh? A good bokeh pleases our eyes and our perception of the image and therefore, the background blur should appear soft and “creamy”, with smooth round circles of light and no hard edges. Here is an example of beautiful bokeh rendered by the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens:

Pay attention to the smooth background behind the child’s face. The out-of-focus areas look creamy and the edges are soft with beautiful transitions between the blurry areas. That’s exactly what you would call good bokeh!

How about bad or ugly bokeh? Although a lot of people argue that there is no such thing as a bad bokeh, I still call whatever distracts my eyes “bad”:

This pic over here is not really a bad bokeh if its not because of the contrast of the birthday party hat at the background..distraction right?bad creamy bokeh..

Bokeh shapes

The shape of the reflected light in out of focus areas depends on the lens diaphragm. Many older lenses such as Nikon 50mm f/1.4D have 7 straight blades in their diaphragms, which results in heptagon-shaped bokeh(refer to pic above,the one with lens cap)

Most new lenses, now come with 9 rounded blades, which render round bokeh like my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 APO DG HSM.

How to get good Bokeh

So, how do you get a good bokeh in your images? As I have pointed out above, bokeh depends on the type of lens you are using. While lower-end consumer zoom lenses will yield unpleasant bokeh, fixed (prime) lenses and most professional zoom lenses with fast apertures yield good-looking bokeh. Do you know if your lens produces good bokeh? Try this: focus on an object from a very close distance (as close as the lens will allow, keeping the object in focus), making sure that there are no objects at least 5-6 feet behind it. Make sure to be on the same level as the object itself, so that you are not looking down on it. Do not use a plain wall as your background – try to find a colorful background, preferably with some lights on it. A Christmas tree is a perfect background for a bokeh test. Once you find a good test subject with a suitable background, set your camera to “Aperture Priority” mode and set your aperture to the lowest number. On most consumer zoom lenses, the lowest aperture is typically f/3.5, while on prime and professional zoom lenses, it can be between f/1.2 and f/2.8. Once the aperture is set to the lowest value, take a picture of your subject and take a look at the rear LCD of your camera. The subject should be in focus, while the background is blurred. If you have a good lens, the bokeh should be soft and fuzzy, looking pleasing to the eye as shown in the example above. The circular reflections should be round and soft, with no hard edges.What you say my friend?no prime lens?no expensive zoom lens?its ok,try with you kit lens.How you ask?follow the instruction above but a lil bit different,zoom to the max,focus  on the closest subject and make sure the aperture value is at its widest.same goes here make sure no obstuction behind the subject and you should be able to get a good bokeh.Its all trial and error..so some tweaking of setting might be needed if you dont get the result you wanted.

Theres another picture with christmas tree in focus and the bacground filled with bokeh but the size of the pisture is too big.I upload this instead..just plain bokeh from the christmas tree.

What lenses create great bokeh?

There are many lenses that create great-looking bokeh. Most fast prime lenses with round-blade apertures such as Nikon 85mm f/1.4 or Canon 85mm f/1.2USM create exceptionally good-looking bokeh. The lower-cost version of the same lens – Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and Canon 85mm f/1.8USM also produce beautiful bokeh. One of my favorite lenses for beautiful bokeh is the Nikon 50mm f/1.4, but be careful about the older Nikon 50mm f/1.4D or the 50mm f/1.8D, since they both produce heptagon-shaped bokeh as shown above. There are too many lenses to list, so I recommend doing some more research on different lenses, based on your photography needs.Dont be lazy Google up the information..

I hope all the pic and video clip help..Go and experiment,you might cought yourself drooling by just watching your own snapshot.

Photography For Dummies : How To Capture Subject Face(Potrait)

I personally enjoy potrait photography..who dont like to capture emotion thru the lens right..so today we're going to talk on how to capture good photo of face

In most portraits, the focus of the subject is on her face – the eyes in particular. Studies have shown that, even as infants, we prefer looking at faces. Babies’ interest, measured in length of time they will look before turning away, is exponentially greater for faces than for non-face images.
But there are ways you can pose and position your subject’s face in a way that flatters your subject. And some universal rules to follow.

Never shoot up your subject’s nose. 
Aim to make the nostrils look like lines instead of circles. With older children and grown ups, simply remind them to bring their chin down. For babies, you’ll need to gently position the heads down yourself or reposition your camera angle.

Chin out and down! 
When getting their picture taken, people have a tendency to lift their chins and tilt their heads back, thinking it will remove their double chins or make them look leaner. The opposite is true. Instead, tell your subjects (and try this yourself in the mirror!) – lean your chin out, then down. This will create a long, lean neck, and position the face over the chin. Your subject will look thinner.


Women turn heads toward the higher shoulder. Men toward the lower. 
The female body form looks more feminine when she leans over the shrugged shoulder or the shoulder nearer the lens. So does the male. So when posing men, if not straight up, have them turn away from the higher shoulder, or tilt away from camera to look masculine.

Photography For Dummies : 1 Over Focal Lenght Rule

My 70-200 lens that arrive recently doesn't gave me problem except good picture with good creamy bokeh.But this might be because my hand postition and the way I hold the camera have improve significantly over the past few year but I know that if I gave the same exact lens to someone new that dont know how to hold the camera,all the pic will just end up with camera shake unless you are a human tripod – in which case I will be totally jealous – there is still one universal rule that will help you get sharp images, regardless of what lens you choose. It’s called the “one over focal length” rule.

Don’t shoot any slower than the focal length of your lens for sharp images.

If you have a 50mm focal length, this means try to shoot faster than 1/50 second.

If you have a 200mm focal length, you’ll want to shoot faster than 1/200th second.

Keep in mind, this rule can be broken artistically at your choosing, and applies to hand-held images. You may find that you are steadier than the rule the rest of us have to abide by. Or if you’re like me, you may find that bending this rule results in soft focus.

My experimentation has shown me I can’t hand-hold much slower than 1/30 second. Even with my 50mm. Even at a focal length of 24mm. I am not steady enough to pull off those shots without a tripod.

What does this mean? Generically speaking, it means the longer the lens, the faster you have to shoot it to get tack sharp images.

Try it. Get your longest focal length lens, and see how slowly you can shoot and still nail focus. Come back and let me know how your experiment went!

Photography For Dummies : 2 Simple Rule For Posing Potrait

Want to pose people to achieve certain look?her are the 2 tips you can follow :

1.Wrists, elbows, knees – these are bendable joints. Keeping them locked and stiff looks awkward and unnatural. Bend them.

2.2 arms, 2 hands, 2 legs, 2 feet: if you pose them identically, it will feel weird. Make them different.
Voilà! Quick, easy tips for more natural-looking portraits. And look at that! A short post, too.