Black & white photography

Photography is a diversified field of creating a spectral variety of art. It is a specialization that deals with different experimentations with colors, however it is also a fact that only shades of black and white can also do wonders in this zone of creative art. With advent of digital camera scope of this wonderful business has opened up new horizons for users and photographers who seek to explore new lands and trod ground of innovative creation and thus it can be aptly said that black & white can become more creativity with boon of digital photography and digital camera. This discussion is primarily aimed at exploring incipient information regarding blessing of digital camera in black & white photography so that novice as well as expert photographers can become richer in knowledge!

The exploration can be further extended in defining that a lot of modern digital cameras contain a series of mono modes in advanced menu settings. These can be used to become more creative with digital photography and in areas of black and white too. For example some of modes are as follows: Black & White that takes black and white photographs encompassing of a spectral range of gray tones. This gives black and white photographs a serious and ethereal look with richness and grandeur of past, present and future captures in just two tinges! Another mode is Sepia that again takes pictures in varying tinges brown tones. Looking into a matter a bit more technically, it can be stated that as digital camera is switched into any of these modes then color LCD becomes grayscale. The technology proceeds as in process pictures are taken color signals get recorded by CCD, but image is later de saturated when processed to remove all color.

A lot of interesting points exist in area of black and white photography using digital cameras. For example shooting in black & white becomes more interesting with use of filters. Experimentations can be done by enthusiastic photographers as to how a particular color would appear in black & white. This can be demonstrated by fact that perhaps a red filter placed over lens lightens any red color in picture making them appear as lighter shades of gray in comparison to other colors like blue green. This process can be very challenging and in same time very interesting! It is true that digital black and white photography can be used often for purpose of portraiture and taking pictures of landscapes and can also become very effective in abstract shoots offering a graphical view of subject to be photographed. The ultimate truth is that black and white digital photography can make world look complete different from what it is through human eyes.

Choosing The Right Digital Camera For You

Let's get something straight right out of box. If you're looking to buy a new digital camera, you don't really have to be an expert in pixels and mega pixels and all that kind of stuff. If you expect to find that kind of deep technical discussion here, you're in wrong place. Actually, there's a whole lot of stuff you don't really need to know before tackling daunting task of choosing right digital camera for you. First of all, forget all high-tech jargon. It's mostly a lot of sales hype anyway. Choosing a good unit is pretty simple really...pretty much all you have to remember is that higher mega pixel rating on front of camera, bigger picture you can make without it breaking up into little chunks (called pixels) and most likely more cash it's likely going to pry out of your pocket. Each model has an array of techno-widgets that go by different names but they all have same basic focus, to help you take a better picture. I have a quick (and admittedly simplistic) overview of pixel story. The shot on left on my web page http://www.great-nature-photography.com/digital-cameras.html is one I took with a high pixel rating and one on right was with a much lower rating. They've been enlarged way beyond what you would normally do, but I do have a point to make here. If you look carefully you can see there's a terrific difference in way they look or, in 'resolution'. The image on right has already broken up into small pieces (pixels) (I hope) you can readily see. The picture on left was magnified several times more than one on right which should give you an idea of how big you can enlarge it and still retain a fairly decent result. By way, these shots are of a very, very small piece of a picture I took of snapdragons in our front yard. A camera with a 5.0 mega pixel rating or higher can produce a decent 16X20 print but one with a 2.0 mega pixel rating or lower should be restricted to a maximum of 4X6 prints. For most part, you won't be happy with pictures any larger than 4X6 from lower rated camera. Okay, Let's Pick A Camera... Well, I have my favorites and my not-so favorites. When I looked at all digital cameras available, I was more than a little astounded at vast selection of available equipment. It seems that every company that’s ever heard word “computer” has jumped on bandwagon. It seems they lay their hands on some lenses, wrap a computerized box around them, added a few techno-widgets and bingo, instant digital camera! Where did I start? Well, I went back to my tried and true method of buying a film camera that I talk about later. It’s always worked for me and didn’t let me down this time either. My personal digital camera finally wound up to be an Olympus C-5050. By way, Olympus did not do themselves or their customers any favors in my opinion by dumping f1.8 lens on C-5060. I chose this camera for fast f1.8 lens and ease of use. I'm lazy at best and wanted a unit that's going to do most of work for me while leaving me with option of doing what I want to do when I want to do it. This unit has all automatic features I'll ever need but I also have ability to set up camera completely manually. I can still do minimum depth-of-field work among other things. I never want to completely lose control to a mindless computer although they do have their uses at times. The first thing I did after I opened box was print off user manual - all 265 pages of it! I figured I had done my duty by it and promptly ignored it. After very quickly killing my first two sets of “high-capacity” alkaline batteries, I sprung for a couple sets of Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) rechargeables. Not only did they last longer but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing alkalines every darn time I picked up camera. It boils me to have to admit this but I actually had to go back to user manual. I wasn't getting results I wanted and there was also some 'stuff' on camera I had no clue about using. The moral of this story is that you're gonna have to at least have a nodding acquaintance with your user manual. Sorry, but that's just way it is. Back to choosing a camera... Throughout years I've learned that if a camera 'fit' my hand it worked well for me. It may sound a little strange at first but just think about it. If you're handling something that feels awkward, your results are going to look like it. I had a Mamiya RB-67 for a lot of years. It was a big, ungainly unit but it was a good 'fit' for me and produced a great image. I also used a Hasselblad for quite a while but I much preferred Mamiya and it gave me better results than Hasselblad. (Don't tell Hasselblad lovers I said this, they'll kill me!) So, rule of thumb...if it fits your hand nicely, if main controls are handy to your fingers, if it has mega pixel number you want and falls within your budget, you can be pretty confident this will do job you want it to do. Oh yes, if it's a brand you've never heard of before, be very, very wary. It may work well and it may not. If it doesn't, there may not be any tech backup for you to be able to access. The major camera companies spend lots of money developing new photo technologies. Although latest techno-widgets go by different names, they all have same goal, to make your pictures look as good as possible. Pretty well every company in world that has even come close to producing a good digital camera has gotten into "SLR Wars". Single lens reflex cameras dominated photo market for years until digital technology hit market. Because of design and price limitations, SLR technology has not been widely available in digital cameras until last year or so. The furious pace of technological developments has completely overtaken market and even professional photographers are being boggled trying to keep up. Remember old Nikon F2? It was major link in Nikon chain of professional cameras for over 10 years! This was pretty much norm until computer hit photographic industry big time. Changes used to come slowly and deliberately and it wasn't hard to keep up with latest and greatest when major new developments came along only two or three times in a decade.