Safety shift has existed in some form as far back as the original EOS 1D. Its options have changed slightly over the years and though varying cameras but the intent is the same. The function, unfortunately, is somewhat cryptically labeled, potentially leading many to skip over enabling what can be a rather useful function. Safety [...]

 April, 2010 Canon’s Safety Shift

Creative uses aside, accurate white balance is critical to insuring the proper reproduction of colors in a photograph. In cases with difficult lighting conditions frequently we create and turn to custom white balances to insure the color in their images is correct. However using the common copy or printer paper, which usually contains optical brighteners-chemicals [...]

 July, 2009 Custom White Balances: Why Not to Use Printer Paper

We’ve all had to deal with it, dust spots in images. The more stopped down the lens is and uniform the scene is in texture the more of a problem it is. The way I see it, dealing with dust is a three-part process. Cleaning the camera and sensor, minimizing the dust that can get [...]

 February, 2011 Dealing With Dust: Cleaning Your Gear

The following table provides a list of approximate hyperfocal distances for a verity of common landscape focal lengths on APS-C and full frame cameras. Hyperfocal Distances for Common Wide angle Focal Lengths (in feet) Focal length F/8 F/11 F/16 Full Frame APS-C/DX Full Frame APS-C/DX Full Frame APS-C/DX 10mm 2.2 1.6 1.1 12mm 3.2 2.2 [...]

 April, 2010 Depth of Field: Hyperfocal Distances for some Wide Angle Lenses

Image stabilization is becoming an increasingly common feature in digital cameras and lenses. The question is, is a faster lens better than a slower one that has image stabilization? The answer isn’t always a simple yes, read more to find out why.

 September, 2010 Fast Lenses vs. Stabilized Lenses

For most Canon cameras, exposure bracketing is straightforward to setup and use, there are few options, and changing them has little impact on the results. That changes with Canon’s 1-series DSLRs starting with the Mark 3s and newer. The following is a, as complete as possible, list of settings and how they affect auto exposure [...]

 December, 2010 Guide to Bracketing on Canon DSLRs

Professionals and serious amateur photographers alike know that lens hoods are an important part of the lens. A properly designed lens hood shades the lens’s front element or protective filters, from stray non-image producing light. The stray light can bounce around inside the lens and reduce contrast as well as create flare (if sufficiently close [...]

 June, 2009 Lenses, Lens Hoods and Crop Bodies

There are two ways the magnification of the lens is generally described. The ratio form gives the ratio of image size to object size. In other words, if a lens has a maximum magnification of 1:4, then at that magnification the object will be 4 times larger than the image. The decimal form is simply [...]

 January, 2010 Lenses: Magnifications

A quick test of the practical implications of diffraction, at 1:1 and web resolutions.

 January, 2009 Quick Diffraction Test

If you’ve ever read any introductory material on photography, you’ve probably seen the hand holding rule of thumb. The rule of thumb suggests that to avoid camera shake, the shutter speed should be at least 1/focal length of the lens or faster. So for example, if you’re using a 100mm lens, you need a shutter [...]

 May, 2011 The Hand Holding Rule of Thumb for Digital Cameras
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