Good Photography Tips 4

Still on the issue of correct focus...

Normally in auto focus mode, the camera will blink the selected square focus point in red, and when focus is completed, the red square will turn green.

If you are taking close up shots or macro shots, and the focus point does not change color, or you are not hearing the familiar click which indicates focus completed, then one of the common reason is the camera lens is too close to the subject.

Every lens in a dSLR has a minimum focus distance. You need to find out what is the minimum distance to stay away from the subject. If you suspect that is the reason that the camera is not focusing properly and resulting in an unsharp photo, then all you need to do is back up away from the subject a little bit, until you hear the click sound when focusing, then you will know that the auto focus mechanism is working properly.

It's a small tip, but sometimes you can get caught up and move too close to the subject, and find that the camera focus is not working properly..

Good Photography Tips 3

Alright, assuming you have been following Tip No. 2 and moving away from green box auto, and playing with Program mode for a while, well what next ?

This tip is to encourage you to move away from auto focus point selection. It is called different names by different brand of cameras, and often the name is confusing, such as AI (artificial intelligence), AF (auto-focus) etc.. but basically it is a function where the camera decides the focus point automatically.

Here's a little story. A friend of mine complained that pictures are not as sharp as it should be. I was quite puzzled as the camera used is mid level DSLR (digital single lens reflex) and the lens on it is high quality too !! After browsing some of the photos taken with that camera, it soon dawned on me that the focus point selection is automatic ! That explains why the focus wasn't sharp, because by using the camera in auto focus point selection, nearly all the time, the camera will choose objects nearest the lens to focus on !! That is certainly something you don't want to do always.

When the camera selects the focus point, it could be one, or many.. and mostly these points will be on the near object. If you are using the Creative mode at the same time, i.e. Program, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority or Manual, it could mean an incorrect exposure photo or a photo that turns out unsharp. Hence it is best that you choose the focus point manually rather than let the camera decide.


In the photo above, the focus point selected by the camera is unpredictable. However, what do you want the focus point to be ? Is it the spoon, or the plate of vegan food, or anywhere on the buffet tray ?

So the first thing to experiment is to move out of automatic focal point selection. Read up the camera manual for some help as the procedure to do this depends very much on the make and model.

For the Canon 40D for example, to move away from auto focus point selection there are 3 steps. First, press the focus point selection button at the top right of the camera's back. Next, unlock the wheel selector by flipping the switch from "ON" position to the "wheel" position. Finally, you can now turn the wheel and it will scroll through the 9 AF points one by one as seen through the view finder.

Good Photography Tips 2

If you are moving from a point and shoot camera to a higher end compact camera or DSLR camera, then you should be very familiar with the "Auto" shooting mode, or the Green mode as it is called sometimes.

In the Auto mode, everything is pre-arranged by the camera, all you need to do is point the camera and press the shutter button, hence it is called point-and-shoot.

In this mode, there is minimum control and minimum fuss. You just trust the camera to do the work for you, select the right focus, exposure etc. Most of the time it will do a proper job, but on occassions it will miss the mark.

The various scene modes commonly found in P & S cameras, such as night scene, portrait, sports, landscape etc are also special Auto modes. They assume that you are going to shoot the subject indicated and the camera will arrange certain parameters suitable for those conditions.

So if you are moving up to a better camera, it will also be time to explore other features of the camera by moving away from the "Auto" mode, such as using the Program Mode. The program mode is the bridge from complete Auto to the creative, or more manual modes.

Play around with the Program Mode, and learn to shoot in this mode, until you grow out of it, then you can explore the other more "advanced" modes such as Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority and full manual.

In the Program Mode, you can explore taking photos with different exposure values, by simply turning the dial, and you will find the exposure values are equivalent for the same scene. This means the photos should come out more or less the same brightness but each time you turn the dial, a different apperture and speed combination is used.

Hsihu Beauty 西湖美景

The new book Celestial Art commemorates the 20th Anniversary of the founding of Hsihu Center. This series of posts will introduce you to the beauty of hsihu and its varous landscapes. In the beginning, the Hsihu Center was a farming outpost with nothing but tall, wild grasses in its early days, and having been transformed through the hard work of Supreme Master Ching Hai and residents there into such a beautiful place it is now..

The transformation is nothing short of miraculous and visitors are full of amazement at the tremendous beauty and spiritual peace which exist in the air..

Good Photography Tips 1

In this series of posts we offer some photography tips for taking great photos. Some basic knowledge of photography is assumed. We try to avoid photographic jargon as much as possible.

The first tip, there are 3 major areas that contribute to a great photo.

They are : exposure, focus and color.

1. Exposure - A big area to explore, but in the main, three big factors determine exposure, which is aperture (opening of the lens), shutter speed (speed of opening and closing of iris to allow light into the camera), and iso (sensitivity of film to light). In the context of digital cameras, iso is the gain or threshold that is determined by the camera. The higher the iso, the more digital noise will be introduced into the picture.

2. Focus - another big area, the major important factor to look out for is the aperture and depth of field. Depth of field determines which area of the photo to look sharp and which area to be out-of-focus.

5. Color - a major consideration, especially white balance. If the white balance is not right, the photo will have a color cast that can be difficult to remove after the picture is taken.