NewportRIphotos has started it’s annual Christmas sale pricing and discounts! Use the code “3C2D24″ to receive 20% off your print order. There’s no limits on how many times you can use the code, or the total discount you can receive.

If you have any questions on the print ordering process, contact Chris by email at chris@newportriphotos.com.

One of the most important factors to capturing great images is having a robust selection of tools, and more importantly, knowing how to use your equipment for the best possible results. Often time it’s the smaller, inexpensive pieces of equipment that will allow you to capture unique photographs. Most importantly, it’s understanding how all of your equipment comes together in each unique setting that allows you to rise to any photographic challenge.

Fully loaded up, the bag weighs about 13 pounds, and you’ll notice quite a few scratches, scrapes and dirt on the bag… that’s because I put my equipment through heavy use! Click on the boxes below to see which tools and equipment I’m using, and advice on building your own SLR camera system.

Camera Bag

We’ll start with the bag itself, one of the most important items as it holds the rest of your equipment and is critical in organizing and finding what you’re looking for. I use a Lowepro Fastback 100, which is a light weight, medium sized camera backpack. It has a large central compartment where I can just fit two full size digital SLRs with battery grips attached (without lenses mounted), or one SLR body with a small to medium lens mounted. This is the smallest possible bag I can use while still being able to fit all of my equipment into it at one time. I tend to move around a lot and having good mobility with a small bag is important to me.

The bag also has numerous internal compartments and pockets, with places to store your SD cards, additional lenses, an external mesh compartment for holding items like lens caps or battery chargers, and it has a convenient pocket on a backpack strap which perfectly fits a Canon battery.

The front pockets on the Lowepro Fastback 100.

Convenient SD storage is located on the inside compartment flap.

You can easily squeeze in two SLR bodies without lenses.

Side mesh storage is good for lens caps and items you need to easily reach.

Padded shoulder straps are important when carrying a fully loaded camera bag.

A front pocket allows for easy access to a backup battery.

Additional storage on the front of the bag.

Additional internal compartemnts are handy for keeping smaller items organized.

Digital SLR Bodies

I shoot with two Canon digital SLR bodies, a Canon Rebel T3i and an older Canon Rebel XSi. The T3i fits 18 megapixels on an APS-C size sensor, and is a solid performer in the under $1,000 prosumer SLR market. The XSi is a 12 megapixel body that also has an APS-C sized sensor. The ability to shoot with two bodies is extremely convenient and allows for creative techniques. It also allows for one camera to be setup to shoot stop motion still frames or video on a tripod, while being able to shoot while moving around with the other body. Another advantage is being able to shoot simultaneously with two different lenses attached, allowing me to cover a wide zoom range from 10mm to 300mm without changing lenses.

The new top of the line in Canon's prosumer range, the Rebel T3i.

The backup secondary body, a Canon Rebel XSi.

Lenses + Filters

Arguably the most critical and expensive pieces of equipment are your lenses. They allow you to photograph a variety of subjects and ultimately having more lenses allows you to be a more diverse and versatile photographer. I find it best to cover the extreme ends of telephoto and wide angle lenses first, and I did that on a pretty tight budget. One of my most used lenses is the Sigma 10-20mm, f/3.5-5.0 wide angle. Relatively inexpensive and offering a surrealistic super wide field of view, this lens is great for indoor use (especially urban exploration settings), outdoor photography and anything where a slightly distorted almost fish-eye effect is desired. On the other end is the Sigma 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 telephoto-macro lens. This is great for outdoor photography, concert close-ups and with the addition of macro extension tubes, a pretty good true macro lens as well.

Also in the camera bag is a Canon kit 18-55mm lens, a Sigma 28-90mm and a Canon 50mm f/1.8. A inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 is a great addition to any camera bag, and allows for low light and extreme wide aperture photos, for those great blurry backgrounds. I try to have circular polarizers for all the lenses as well, or at least a UV filter for protection against the elements and drops.

The Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6

The Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5-5 wide angle lens

Two "standard" zoom lenses - a Canon 18-55mm and a Sigma 28-90mm

Macro extension tube for getting true 1:1 marco photos.

Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.

270Ex Flash

I use a Canon 270EX Speedlite flash. This allows to swivel the flash head to do bounced lighting off of a ceiling. This creates a more natural, even lighting effect than pointing your flash directly at the subject. I also use an inexpensive plastic diffuser over the flash head to diffuse and soften the light even more.

The Canon 270 EX Speedlite Flash, with a diffuser.

The 270EX resting on top of the removeable diffuser.

Batteries & Charging

Being able to power your camera equipment is a necessity, so it’s important to have multiple batteries and chargers on hand. Along with SD storage space, battery life is the one other crucial factor in how many photos you can take in the field. Running out of battery life can end your shoot prematurely, and could potentially prevent you from capturing essential scenes.

To prevent running out of battery life I use a Battery Grip on each SLR body, which allows for two full size batteries to be used in each body. I also have an additional spare battery for each camera. With this setup fully charged, I can take photos for days without having to recharge anything. I also have rechargeable batteries for the external flash, as it quickly uses up the AA sized batteries. A car converter to charge your batteries while mobile is also handy.

Battery charger for AA batteries as well as both SLR body batteries.

SD Card Storage

Along with batteries above, SD card storage is one of the crucial factors in how many photos you can take in the field without having to return to electricity and a computer. SD storage has dropped in price considerably over the years, and large 16GB cards are now available for $30 or less. Of course, you will want to get the fastest cards possible, so I have a mix of fast 8GB 45MB/sec cards, and slower 16GB cards. I shoot on the faster cards first, and when those fill up I switch to the larger 16GB cards. Write speed is extremely important if you need to take many photos in a short period of time, so I’ll use my faster write cards whenever possible. With a mix of faster 4GB and 8GB cards, and some slower 16GBs ones as well, you can have an affordable solution to capture 10,000+ high resolution photos.

A range of SD cards, with a total of over 60GBs of filed storage avaialbe.

Tripods

Tripods are essential for low light photography including interior urban exploration and low light outdoor work, and also are necessary for extreme macro shots to avoid lens shake. Getting a good tripod is essential, and if you have the money I recommend getting a $200+ tripod and head kit. I personally couldn’t spend that much on a tripod, so I have two lower price options. The first is a $70 Targus TG-P60T. This is a good solid tripod with independently moveable legs (a great feature and one you don’t find on most cheaper tripods) and relatively smooth action when panning with the head. The second tripod I use is a $50 SunPak 6000PG tripod, with a pistol-grip head. This is a very easy to use and adjust head, as you simply pull the pistol trigger to move the lens angle up and down as well as to pan left and right.

The Targus TG-P60T tripod.

The SunPak 6000PG pistol-grip tripod.

Miscellaneous

In addition to the main pieces of equipment above, there’s also many smaller items which prove invaluable. One of the most practical considerations is keeping your lenses, filters and LCD screens clean and free of smudges. I use three micro-fiber lens clothes, and I keep one extra clean just for lenses, another clean one for filters, and a third more “dirty” cloth that I use on LCD screens, etc.

Another important tool is an external shotgun mic, this is essential when shooting video on the T3i, as the built-in mic is totally inadequate.

The last addition to my camera bag is two remote release timers. I have one wireless system (a Shoot RC300), and another wired release, a Neewer EZa-C1. The wireless system transmits it’s own signal, and does not have to be in the line of sight of the camera’s built in IR sensor. The wired release is also an intervalometer, which allows for stop motion photography to be captured, as well as long-exposure astrological events.

Another important practical consideration is lens and camera body caps. Each SLR body has a cap, and all of the lenses have a front and rear cap. It’s important to keep track of these, as you don’t want to leave either side of your lenses, or especially your camera body open to dust or other elements. Also have extra lens caps on hand and reachable in your camera bag.

Three micro-fiber clothes.

External shotgun mic for video recording.

Wireless Shoot RC300 and the wired Neewer EZA-C1 remote releases.

A variety of lens & body caps.

Through the winter and spring of 2011 and 2012, NewportRIphotos.com will be compiling high-definition time lapse photography of Newport County, Rhode Island. Through the use of specialized equipment and video editing software, NewportRIphotos.com will create stunning high-resolution time lapse video footage of Portsmouth, Jamestown, Newport, Tiverton and Middletown’s scenic areas including Fort Adams, Ocean Drive, Castle Hill, Sachuest Point, Fort Barton, Beavertail Point, Sakonnet Point, Melville Pond and other outdoor locations. The final time lapse videos will be presented in high definition 1920 x 1080 video… look forward to seeing these unique time lapse videos in summer 2012.

Looking out into Newport and 1st Beach from Middletown, Rhode Island. This photo is a HDR image, made from 4 different exposures taken in 2 stop increments.

Here’s an alternate color version of the same photo:

Early morning in the conserved Albro Woods.

A long exposure at Lands End in Newport, RI.

A dramatic sunset at Beavertail Park, Jamestown, RI.

St. Mary’s Farm Land, Portsmouth, RI. There’s currently an active campaign to conserve this land.

Many times photography beginners and enthusiasts alike will feel the frustration of using a camera that doesn’t quite live up to their expectations and needs. Point-and-shoot digital cameras have come a long way since the late nineties, and now offer many of the features once associated with only high end SLR camera systems. However, if you want to capture the best images possible, and be able to do it with a variety of lenses, you’ll need to take the plunge and enter the world of digital SLR photography. Now a days this is easier and more affordable than ever, with all the major camera manufacturers offering a wide variety of consumer and pro level digital SLR cameras. We’ll take a look at some of the advantages of using a digital SLR camera and what to look for when shopping.

Advantages of using a digital SLR.

There are many advantages to purchasing and using a digital SLR versus a point-and-shoot digital camera. Here’s the most important to consider:

1. Sensor Size. One of the most important reasons digital SLRs offer increased image quality, clarity and reduced noise is due to their overall larger sensor size. Most point-and-shoots offer digital sensors in the range of .4″ diagonal, while digital SLRs offer sensors in the range of 1″ or larger. This is important because the more megapixels you squeeze into a smaller sensor, the grainier and less detailed the resulting images will be, and vice versa. Digital SLRs offer large sensors with corresponding larger “photosites” – which results in cleaner, less noisy images with greater detail and quality.

2. Variety of Lenses. When you buy a point-and-shoot camera, you are essentially stuck with one single lens to capture all of your images with. I’m sure we’ve all been in situations where we just can’t get back far enough to capture everything in one shot—or the opposite situation—where we just can’t zoom in far enough to fill the frame with our subject. These are limitations of our lens’ focal length, which is measured in millimeters (eg: 50mm or 200mm). With a digital SLR system, you are only limited by the lenses you have on hand. From a 10mm lens, which offers a view much wider than the human eye, to a 1200mm lens, which offers a zoomed in view almost 24x that of the human eye, there are lenses that will capture nearly any situation.

3. Full manual exposure. Digital SLRs all offer full manual exposure control, which allows us to take full charge of our photos. If you’re shooting with a fixed lens point-and-shoot, often times you will have some control over F-Stop, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity, but these controls are often buried under a complex menu system, or are simply not available on the camera. By gaining full control over your camera’s exposure settings, you have the ability to achieve a perfect exposure by compensating for back-lit scenes, or scenes where the camera is under or over exposing when using the Auto setting. You also gain the ability to achieve special artistic effects, such as a slow shutter speed with a flash sync, which will freeze some movement while leaving other elements blurry. By gaining full manual control of your camera and photography, you determine the ideal exposure settings for the given subject and can intelligently choose which settings are the best for your desired results.

4. Accessories and add-ons. Digital SLRs offer a wide variety of accessories and add-ons for your camera body, allowing you even greater control over the results of your photography. One of the biggest groups of accessories is the huge range of screw-on filters including: circular polarizers, graduated neutral density filters, UV haze, warming and cooling filters, soft focus and more. Other important accessories include flashes, cable and remote releases, lens hoods, battery grips, wi-fi transmitters, eyecups and many more add-ons that will allow you to take more pictures in different ways with better results.

5. Frames per second. The ability for a camera to take many photos in rapid succession is a big advantage, and waiting for your camera to catch up to be able to take another photo often results in missed opportunities. Digital SLRs offer high FPS (frames per second) rates in comparison to point-and-shoot cameras. This is due to several factors, with the speed of the camera processor and buffer size being most important. Most digital SLRs offer frame rates of 2.5 / fps or faster, allowing you to capture many images in a short amount of time.

What to look for when shopping for a digital SLR

When shopping for a digital SLR, some of the major points to consider include the availability of lenses, price points (consumer level vs. professional), whether or not you need to shoot video with your DSLR, battery life, on-camera flash capability, kit lenses, availability of filters / accessories, warranties offered and memory card options.

Often times great deals can be found on used digital SLRs, allowing you to enter the world of professional photography at a much lower price point. When possible, bring a memory card with you when shopping for a new camera and ask if you can take some shots with your own memory card to examine later at home. Don’t rush, do your research and you will find a great digital SLR from the many brands and models offered. Here’s some good models to consider:

Canon: Rebel Xsi, Xti, 500D and T2i

Nikon: D3000, D5100, D90

Sony: Alpha A390, A580

A pixel is defined as: the smallest discrete element of an image or picture on a computer screen; a single element of a raster image.

Think of a tile mosaic where each individual colored tile is placed in an exact order next to other colored tiles to produce a larger image when viewed from a suitable distance. Each individual pixel represents one piece of color – and when placed together with enough other pixels, an image is formed, that to the human eye appears to be a continuous tone photograph. Whether scanned from film or captured digitally, all digital imaging today is reliant on these small pieces of color that come together to form a larger image.

How deep are your pixels? Understanding bit depth

Bit depth describes the number of bits used to represent each element in an image. A basic rule is that eight bits make up a byte, which will be important later.

Lets start with the most basic of all image types: line art. A true bitmap image of line-art is a single bit image, meaning there is either 100 percent black or white. This is expressed by two values only: 1 or 0, black or white, off or on. There are no shades of gray to a single bit image.

So each bit has two possible values – black or white. Eight (8) bits combine to make a byte – which is 2^8 (2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2), or 256 possible values or shades of gray. This is where the standard 256 level grayscale comes from.

A standard 8-bit RGB color image consists of three over-layed grayscale images, with one representing red, one green & one blue in various levels for each channel. Each channel has 256 possible values x 3 channels (256x256x256) which equal 16.7 million possible values. This is your normal RGB color image that is seen on websites or worked on in Photoshop from a digital camera or scan.

The next step would be an image that is 12 or 16 bit, meaning that instead of eight bits per channel, there are 16 (2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2), which would give you 65,536 possible values for each channel. Instead of 16.7 million possible colors, 16-bit images can contain up to 281,474,976,710,656 (65,536 x 65,536 x 65,536) colors in a single exposure.

Understanding Resolution

Now that you understand what pixels are and how they are made up, let’s move on to how many of them you need for various uses.

Previous to digital imaging, continuous tone prints were a much simpler concept – negatives and slides were enlarged to the needed size and a print was made. In today’s world of digital imaging, many of those without experience are confused by the relationship of incoming resolution (whether from a scan or direct from a digital camera) and output resolution to produce a digital print, a file for publication, or an image to display on a computer screen.

Note: the popular term dots per inch is actually not accurate when describing digital images that are not in print yet. Dots per inch (or DPI) would only describe the circular or elliptical dots on a printed photo or page. As the image exists in a digital file, they are pixels per inch. The more accurate terms PPI and pixels per inch will be used here instead of DPI or dots per inch when describing digital images not yet in print.

First, to achieve a print which appears to be continuous tone (ie: no visible dots), you need at least 200 ppi. Of course, this varies with each individual’s eyes and their ability to view these dots in print. But, as a general rule, 200-300 ppi is sufficient to create the appearance of a continuous tone print. Of course you want the highest resolution possible for any given output, up to about 400 ppi.

With the general rule of 200-300 ppi in mind, we can start looking at input and output resolution. The input resolution is the actual pixel size of an image. Regardless of the output size, the pixel size does not change. For instance, if you scan in a 2.25”x2.25” transparency at 1000 ppi, this will give you an image with a pixel size of 2250×2250. Keep in mind that a digital image has no absolute size or resolution. The number of pixels per inch is proportionate to the reproduction size in inches. At it’s scanned size of 1000 ppi, the image is 2.25”x2.25” at 1000ppi. At 500 ppi, the image would have an output size of 5.5” x 5.5” (1/2 the resolution = 2x the output size). Whenever you increase the output size, you decrease the resolution by the same percent.

Let’s take a real world look at this with a common file size, 
one from a 6MP digital SLR (DLSR).

When you open your image in Photoshop, you will adjust the output size and resolution by going to Image>Image Size. When you open the Image Size dialogue box, first make sure that ‘Resample Image’ is unchecked.

The native resolution of a 6MP image is 3072 pixels by 2048 pixels. At 72 ppi, this photo has an output size of 42” x 28” – and while that’s large, the resolution is far too low to produce a continuous tone print. When you enter a resolution of 200 ppi, the output size changes to approx. 10” x 15” – which is the largest output size you can have using the native resolution of the file. At 300 ppi, the file has an output size of 10” x 7” – which would be about as large as the file could go for traditional offset printing on a four-color press.

To reduce the image and the actual pixel size for web use, you are then resampling the image. To understand the best method for reducing the pixel size, lets first look at how the pixels are arranged within the file.

An exact grid is used to keep the pixels in order, which is determined by the native capture of the digital file. Preserving this grid is very important, as resampling the image on an odd multiple will force Photoshop to redraw the entire gird structure of the image, which can result in a “fuzzy” or degraded quality image.

If you have a grid that is 8 pixels wide by 8 pixels tall and you divide the grid by two, you’ll then have a grid that is now four pixels wide by four pixels tall, preserving the original structure of the grid.

But what happens if you divide the grid by 2.7? Then you will have a grid that is 2.692962962962962 pixels wide. The problem is there is no such thing as a half a pixel, or a 1/15th of a pixel – there is either a pixel or not. Photoshop is then forced to redraw the entire grid structure of the image, instead of just reducing the size of it. To preserve the original grid structure and achieve optimal image quality for web images, you must reduce you images by exact multiples of one-half (50%) or one-quarter (25%). Reducing a 6MP image to fit on a standard monitor at a reasonable size, you would reduce the image by 25% – which would give you a final pixel size of 768×512.

Photoshop CS5 uses advanced algorithms to resample images on odd multiples, which are designed to preserve image quality. However, many photographers and prepress technicians still believe the best method for resizing images is based on using exact multiples of one-half. Also, it is widely accepted to perform the resize in one single step, as opposed to multiple resizes on the same image. When decreasing an image in CS2 and higher, under the resample image box, use the option of “Bicubic Sharper.”

Going up

Along with reducing the image size by checking the resample image box, you can also increase the image size. When “ressing up” an image, care must be taken not to degrade the image quality to the point where pixelization will be noticeable.

As a general rule, a well-exposed, sharp 6MP image has enough raw pixel information to be increased by 200%. Using high quality lenses and a tripod will also help result in sharper images when resampling to a larger resolution. Any problems with the image, such as being slightly out of focus or poor lens quality, are going to be magnified as the size of the print increases.

At an output size of 8” x 12” a 6MP image has a resolution of 256 ppi, an acceptable resolution for a print of that size. But what if you want to produce a print twice that size? At it’s native resolution, a 6MP image would have a resolution of 128 ppi at 16” x 24” – not acceptable for a continuous tone print.

With the resample image box checked, choose “Percent” from the drop down menu that currently says “Inches.” Entering a value of 200 for the percent and “Bicubic Smoother” will now give you an image that is 16”x 24” at 256 ppi. After resizing, check the image at a 50% view and a 100% view. If the image appears too soft, then you can apply an Unsharp Mask filter to increase edge contrast and bring back some of the perceived detail.