77 — Neutral density filters — Graduated neutral density filters — Interview with D. Wiggett

January 29, 2010 By 18 Comments

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #77 fea­tures an inter­view with Dar­win Wiggett where we talk about neu­tral den­sity fil­ters and grad­u­ated neu­tral den­sity fil­ters. Dar­win explains why we use these fil­ters and how to use these fil­ters effec­tively. We dis­cuss hard edge ver­sus soft edge, phys­i­cal ver­sus soft­ware fil­ters, we even talk about reverse grad­u­ated neu­tral den­sity fil­ters. For new­bie pho­tog­ra­phers that have just hatched, Dar­win goes over polar­iz­ing fil­ters as well.

Left - Screw on neutral density filter. Right - The Cokin system

Left — Screw on neu­tral den­sity fil­ter. Right — The Cokin system

Left - Lake with no filter. Right - Lake with polarizer and-2-stop hard edge grad. Notice how much poppier this shot is. The grad reduces the shyd intensity. The polarizer removes the waters reflections thus saturating its colours.

Left — Lake with no fil­ter. Right — Lake with polar­izer and-2-stop hard edge grad. Notice how much ‘pop­pier’ this shot is. The grad reduces the sky’s inten­sity. The polar­izer adds con­trast to the clouds in the sky and inten­si­fies its colour. It also removes the water’s reflec­tions thus sat­u­rat­ing its colours. ‚© Dar­win Wiggett

Left - Tire with Polarizer and-2-stop-hard-grad. Right - Tire with Polarizer plus a 2-stop-hard-edge grad and-a 5-stop solid-ND filter. Note the movement of the foreground brush. This was achieved by using the solid ND filter to get a slow shutter speed

Left — Tire with Polar­izer and-2-stop-hard-grad. Right — Tire with a Polar­iz­ing fil­ter plus a 2-stop-hard-edge grad and-a 5-stop solid-ND fil­ter. Note the move­ment of the fore­ground brush and the soft­ness in the clouds. This was achieved by using the solid ND fil­ter to get a slow shut­ter speed. ‚© Dar­win Wiggett.

The effect of a polarizer on its own. Left - No polarizing filter. Right - The circular polarizing filter lets you see through the water by eliminating the waters reflectivity.

The effect of a polar­izer on its own. Left — No polar­iz­ing fil­ter. Right — The polar­iz­ing fil­ter lets you see through the water by elim­i­nat­ing the water’s reflec­tiv­ity. With the reflec­tions removed, the colour is much more sat­u­rated. ‚© Dar­win Wiggett

Links /resources men­tioned in this podcast:

Seven Rules for Effec­tively Using a Polar­izer
Fil­ters, hold­ers and vignetting: build­ing a fil­ter sys­tem that works with your lenses
The Ter­rific Triple Threat
Fields of Gold (or was that blue?) Three Cam­era Fil­ters all Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phers Should be Using
Fil­ters for Out­door Pho­tog­ra­phy
January’s macro or close-up assign­ment on the Photography.ca forum
Cokin fil­ters at B&H (Dis­clo­sure — Aff links — help sup­port our site)
Singh-Ray fil­ters at B&H
Lee fil­ters at B&H

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Face­book
My Face­book pro­file — Feel free to “friend” me — please just men­tion Photography.ca
My Twit­ter page — I will fol­low you if you fol­low me — Let’s con­nect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t rec­i­p­ro­cate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurk­ing on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly :) Pho­tog­ra­phy forum

Thanks to jack­la­bel, AcadieLi­bre and Mars observer who posted a blog com­ment about our last pod­cast. Thanks as always to every­one that sent com­ments by email about our last pod­cast. Although ALL com­ments are appre­ci­ated, com­ment­ing directly in this blog is pre­ferred. Thanks as well to all the new mem­bers of the bul­letin board.

If you are look­ing at this mate­r­ial on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and pod­cast and get this and other pho­tog­ra­phy info directly from the source. I Sub­scribe with iTunes I Sub­scribe via RSS feed I Sub­scribe with Google Reader I Sub­scribe for free to the Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow | Down­load

Filed Under: Photography podcast Interviews, Photography podcasts, Photography tips, podcasting Tagged With: , , , , ,

What’s Up With Darwin Wiggett?

January 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

Good friend to Photography.ca, Dar­win Wiggett is offer­ing a very rea­son­ably priced 2 day sem­i­nar in Can­more, Alberta on April 24–25 2010.  I’m a HUGE Dar­win fan and I highly rec­om­mend his work. Although I haven’t yet taken a sem­i­nar with Dar­win, I expect to within the next year.

Dar­win has also just announced a new photo con­test (The Cana­dian Land­scape Photo Con­test) on his blog where the win­ning image gets pub­lished in Out­door Pho­tog­ra­phy Canada.

NMP9850 - Cochrane, Alberta - Frosted tree, fence and field near Cochrane, Alberta

NMP9850 — Cochrane, Alberta — Frosted tree, fence and field near Cochrane, Alberta — © Dar­win Wiggett — All rights reserved.

Finally, Dar­win will also be fea­tured in our next pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast where he will share his insight on neu­tral den­sity fil­ters and grad­u­ated neu­tral den­sity fil­ters. This pod­cast should be recorded, edited and pub­lished next week so stay tuned for more Darwin.

Filed Under: Photography blog entries Tagged With:

What’s Up With Darwin Wiggett?

January 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

Good friend to Photography.ca, Dar­win Wiggett is offer­ing a very rea­son­ably priced 2 day sem­i­nar in Can­more, Alberta on April 24–25 2010.‚ I’m a HUGE Dar­win fan and I highly rec­om­mend his work. Although I haven’t yet taken a sem­i­nar with Dar­win, I expect to within the next year.

Dar­win has also just announced a new photo con­test (The Cana­dian Land­scape Photo Con­test) on his blog where the win­ning image gets pub­lished in Out­door Pho­tog­ra­phy Canada.

NMP9850 - Cochrane, Alberta - Frosted tree, fence and field near Cochrane, Alberta

NMP9850 — Cochrane, Alberta — Frosted tree, fence and field near Cochrane, Alberta — ‚© Dar­win Wiggett — All rights reserved.

Finally, Dar­win will also be fea­tured in our next pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast where he will share his insight on neu­tral den­sity fil­ters and grad­u­ated neu­tral den­sity fil­ters. This pod­cast should be recorded, edited and pub­lished next week so stay tuned for more Darwin.

Filed Under: Photography blog entries Tagged With:

76 — Point and shoot cameras — Review of Canon G11

January 12, 2010 By 4 Comments

Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast #76 talks about point and shoot cam­eras and reviews the Canon G11. We talk about the advan­tages and lim­i­ta­tions of point and shoot cam­eras. We also talk about the most impor­tant rea­son for pho­tog­ra­phers to get a point and shoot cam­era and that rea­son is NOT qual­ity.‚ Finally I give a quick review of the Canon G11. I rec­om­mend this cam­era but I’m also bru­tal about its faults.

Image from Canon G11 — ISO 100, F-7.1, 1/100

Canon G11 man­u­ally focused at ISO 100 — Click to see the nice noise

Canon G11 man­u­ally focused at ISO 800 — Click to see lots of noise

Links /resources men­tioned in this pod­cast:
Canon G11 at B&H (Dis­clo­sure — Aff links — helps sup­port our site)
January’s macro or close-up assign­ment on the Photography.ca forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Face­book
My Face­book pro­file — Feel free to “friend” me — please just men­tion Photography.ca
My Twit­ter page — I will fol­low you if you fol­low me — Let’s con­nect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t rec­i­p­ro­cate because I think you are a spam­mer.

If you are still lurk­ing on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly :) Pho­tog­ra­phy forum

Thanks to Glenn Euloth (Igua­nasan), Fortytwo, Crys­talb, jack­la­bel, Bambi, JuiCe and Yise­haq who posted a blog com­ment about our last pod­cast. Thanks as always to every­one that sent com­ments by email about our last pod­cast. Although ALL com­ments are appre­ci­ated, com­ment­ing directly in this blog is pre­ferred. Thanks as well to all the new mem­bers of the bul­letin board.

If you are look­ing at this mate­r­ial on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and pod­cast and get this and other pho­tog­ra­phy info directly from the source. I Sub­scribe with iTunes I Sub­scribe via RSS feed I Sub­scribe with Google Reader I Sub­scribe for free to the Pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can down­load this pho­tog­ra­phy pod­cast directly by click­ing the pre­ced­ing link or lis­ten to it almost imme­di­ately with the embed­ded player below.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow | Down­load

Filed Under: Photographs, Photography podcasts, Photography product reviews, Photography tips, podcasting Tagged With: , ,

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Happy new year to all the pho­tog­ra­phers that read our blog and lis­ten to the pod­casts! More pho­tog­ra­phy infor­ma­tion is on its way! Feel free to con­nect with me through this blog or our face­book fan page or twitter!

- Join the new Photography.ca Face­book page
– Fol­low me on Twit­ter http://twitter.com/markokulik

All the best in 2010!

Filed Under: Photography blog entries