Michael Reichmann has published a very interesting article called “Understanding Mirror Lock-Up” on his Luminous Landscape website. The article strongly encourages you to use the mirror lock-up function on your camera (if it has it) to ensure optimum image sharpness. Despite this being accessed through a number of menus as a custom function on the Canon EOS 10D, I intend to follow Michael’s advice in the future. But I won’t be trying this test:

“Here’s a small test that you can do. Set your camera on a firm support, such as a tripod, and then place a small glass of water on the hot-shoe (balance it carefully). Set the exposure time to about 1 second, and once the water is very still press the shutter release.

What you’ll likely see are ripples on the surface of the water. This may be caused by your touching the camera to press the shutter and / or the mirror flipping upwards. If you know how to set mirror lock-up on your camera body, do so, and then do the experiment again, but also instead of pressing the shutter release manually, use a remote release, cable release or the camera’s self timer. See any difference in the ripples?”

Website: Understanding Mirror Lock-Up

Vincent Oliver, editor of Photo-i.co.uk, has published an interesting look at the role of digital cameras in stock photography, using two of his own images as examples.

“A successful stock image should be able to convey many messages, a good art director will be looking for images that create a mood or visually deliver a story line. Our image could be used for a number of conceptual ideas, ideas that may not always be obvious at the time of shooting - so take lots of pictures. For this picture I used a 2.1 mega pixel Canon S10 digital camera.”

Website: Photo-i - Taking Stock

Luminous Landscape have published the 3rd article in a series of 9 from Alain Briot. The series as a whole is looking at the subject of “Aesthetics and Photography”. This latest article is called “How to Choose the Best Lens For a Specific Composition” and focuses on the relationship between lens choice and the depiction of a scene, specifically landscape photography.

“Choosing the right lens for a specific photograph is an important decision. This decision follows your previous decisions about how to compose the scene, and composition follows what you saw in this scene, what you want to photograph in the first place. In short, each of the steps involved in taking a photograph, from seeing to composing are related.

With lens choice we now start talking about how we can photograph the scene in front of us. We move from visualization to creation in a sense, and, for the first time, we are going to actually going to use a camera. We are almost to the point were we will actually take a photograph!”

Website: How to Choose the Best Lens For a Specific Composition

Photo.net have posted a new article by Bob Atkins, in which the author claims to have found a technique that replicates the effect of image stabilisation lenses; sharper photos at slower-than-normal shutter speeds whilst handholding the camera. IS are typically heavier and a lot more expensive than non-IS lenses, so the article is worth reading and the technique worth trying if you want to save some cash.

“The technique itself is very simple: simply compose your image in the viewfinder and take a series of consecutive frames ? as many as your camera will allow or is economical. On my 10D I take a burst of nine frames. Now while this may sound simple to the point of being totally obvious, there is a twist. My handholding technique is fairly poor, I can barely use the 1/focal length rule and have in fact resorted to shooting a least a stop higher than this ?rule? in the past after discovering that any less would sometimes result in soft photos in my case, as clearly my technique is lacking.

However after trying out the method outlined above I have not only been able to get consistently great results at the 1/focal length setting, but in fact can also get very good results two or more stops slower, which is comparable to the results people have been getting with IS lenses ? but without IS and with all types of lenses, including the shorter focal lengths that IS isn?t designed to cater for. As an aside I have found that the 1/focal length rule doesn?t seem to be affected by the DSLR cropping factor, in my case anyway.”

Website: Photo.net - The Poor Man’s Image Stabilization

The second article by Alain Briot in a series of nine looks at the tricky subject of how to compose a photograph.

“Composing a good photograph is not easy. Teaching others how to create interesting compositions is even harder. In fact, composition is one of the most difficult areas of photography or of any visual art for that matter, so much so that my teacher, Scott McLeay, refused to teach composition. His only ?guidance? in this matter was brief and succinct. He would simply explain that, in regard to composing a photograph, ?each part of the image is equally important.?”

Website: Luminous Landscape - How to Compose a Photograph

Here are a couple of websites that offer informative lessons in digital photography techniques, such as sharpening and creating custom borders. Definitely worth bookmarking and browsing during a coffee-break or two (found via digicamera.net and Photexels).

Website: Petteri’s Photo Lessons
“By popular request, here is the web version of Petteri’s Photography Classes. These lessons were first published on the Minolta Forum at Digital Photography Review. For the web work, I’ve edited the texts, cleaned up some of the graphics, and set up this framework into which to plug them. Enjoy!”

Website: Russell Brown - Tips and Techniques
“Welcome to the official, and experimental, Russell Brown Tips and Techniques page. This is your one stop shopping location for the latest in hot new tips right off the silicon wafers. In the effort to stay on the cutting edge of technology were offering QuickTime movies of some of my favorite tips. In some cases we will also offer a PDF document to accompany the movie. Beware, the movies are large and will take time to download when using a slow connection. These movies have been optimized to download as fast as possible and still look good in most cases.”

As well as the many informative equipment and software reviews that Luminous Landscapes publishes, there are often interesting articles about the process of photography, such as this new one called “On Reflection - An Essay on Seeing Photographically”. Now, I don’t personally like the photograph that Michael Reichmann has chosen to illustrate his point, but nonetheless the article gives a good insight into what makes a particular photograph successful.

Website: Luminous Landscape - On Reflection

Luminous Landscape are posting a series of 9 new articles by Alain Briot which look at various aspects of the topic Aesthetics and Photography. The first article is entitled “Part One - How to See Photographically”.

“This article is the first in a series of nine essays focused on the aesthetic aspects of photography. The overall goal of this series is to help you create a photograph which is aesthetically pleasing: a beautiful photograph.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Aesthetics and Photography

Just stumbled across what promises to be a thought-provoking article entitled “Making Photographs” (as opposed to Taking Photographs) by Philip Greenspun at Photo.net. The article is split into 5 sections: Light - Lens - Film - Exposure - Camera.

Here’s how the Camera section begins:

“We’ve arrived at the last and, to my mind, least important chapter in the text. As noted on the cover page, this is where most photography textbooks start. Generally your choice of camera will not have much effect on the final image. Certainly the brand of camera that you choose will have virtually no effect. However, if you’re a nerd like me, there is a certain satisfaction in knowing what tools are available to the photographer and how they work.”

Website: Photo.net - Making Photographs

It always interests me when photographers comment on exactly how they took a particular photograph, especially when they supply more detail than simply listing the aperture and shutter speed used. Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape fame has just posted a short article which explains the thinking behind 2 of his recent photographs. It’s a good insight into what the professionals’ do…

Website: Luminous Landscape

“When people write with feedback on The Video Journal location segments the one request that I receive more than any other is for my commentary on the “how and why” of the making of my photographs. I do this now as much as possible, but sometimes there are interesting images and situations that don’t find their way into The Journal. This page therefore contains two recent (October, 2002) photographs and a description of their making. I hope that you find this to be of interest.