Photography Over Technicalities

Hello Alpha Sight readers.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but here I am again.

This time I will discuss something that all photographers should keep in mind: Photography over technicalities.

The search for perfection.

This happened during the days of film, but it has become much more frequent to find in the digital era.

Everyone looks for perfection.

Everyone wants their pictures to have the perfect angle, perfect light, perfect grain or noise, perfect exposure, perfect focus.

To these effects, we spend money on DSLRs, accessories, editing software and lenses.

These days, most people consider a picture good by checking all the settings the photo required to be taken and by checking pixel by pixel if the picture doesn't have noise or something out of the ordinary. If the settings are good according to them, its a good picture, if there is no pixel with noise in it, its a good picture, if you edited it with Photoshop, Aperture, or any other photographic processing/editing software, its a good picture, if you used a 1,800 dollars lens, its even better.

Its true you need to know about shutter speed, f number, ISO, etc. All those technical settings affect the final picture you take, and if you want to get consistent results or be able to duplicate them, you need to know what all those things are and do.

But they don't make a good picture on their own.

Message over technique.

No matter what's your level of photographic skill, if you're just a casual snapper or if you're a highly famous wedding shooter, this applies to you.

Photography is an art. May not be as big or even considered one like painting, writing, dancing, or music, but its an art. Photography is the art that led to cinema.

You can have the best camera in the world, the best processing software and computer technology at your disposal, you can have the most expensive lenses in your bag, but if you worry more about the settings used, the kind of filter you will process with, if the lens you're using is better than the other one you can use, then you got it wrong.

Your main concern as a photographer should ALWAYS be the scene in front of you, then you can worry about settings.

In order to take a photograph, you first need a subject to photograph right? You don't worry first if the ISO you use will show up too much on the picture.

A photograph should convey a message or the feelings of the subject(s) in it. Has it ever happened to you that you make a really artistic shot of a statue, but the one people like the most is the one of your dog making a silly face?

And you say: How can they like that one more if I just snapped it, I worked a lot harder on the statue!

That's because the message or the feeling from the dog's picture reaches more people than the statue shot.

When you took the picture of your dog, you worried about taking the expression of your dog, about the moment, whereas on the statue shot, you focused on ISO settings, f number, focal length, and such.

The statue picture can be perfect, but its where your attention is that determines the impact in other people.

You can also have a shot of the statue that reaches people's feelings.

But for that you need to worry first about the message, and then for the settings.

Priorities.

It would be foolish NOT to worry about settings at all. You can't control something if you don't know what does it do. Taking a picture and hope the settings are right is just as fool as going in a car and hope that you wont need to break or park.

It is also foolish to take a picture carelessly and say "It's alright, I'll fix it in the computer".

That kind of thinking is lazy and foolish, not to mention dishonest. That way you will NEVER improve as a photographer, and what you show other people is not what you ORIGINALLY shot.

There are people who like to post process their photographs, and that's respectable, but the original shot doesn't change too much in the end after processing. But taking a bad picture and then work 6 hours on it the computer doesn't make you a photographer. Photography is done with the camera.

When you take a photograph, you should always give priority to what you want to say with it or the feeling you want other people to experience and then you worry about the camera settings.

Otherwise you will end with a perfect shot that doesn't say a thing to people.

If you spend hours and hours checking pixel by pixel in your shot, or worrying that you're using a 200$ telephoto instead of a 1000$ one, or frowning because the noise is visible in your shot, then you're worrying about the wrong things.

If your shot taken with a kit lens gets a reaction out of people (good or bad) instead of a shot taken with an expensive lens, that tells you that you can create photos worth watching with simple tools.

Closure.

You can get expensive lenses, but that wont guarantee a good picture.

You can get expensive cameras, but that wont guarantee a good picture.

You can spend hours on the computer making your picture perfect to a microscopic level, but that wont meant your picture will be liked by others.

Don't worry about the noise in your picture, if the wings of the bug don't have perfect focus, if the lower corner of the shot has color aberration due to the focal length of the lens.

Worry about the message you want to convey, worry about capturing that moment that will make people say "wow" or "awww", worry about getting that moment that truly shows the personality of your subject.

People who aren't photographers look for that kind of stuff, they don't care about what ISO you used, what lens you used, if you used X camera model or J model. They care about the dog's expression, the feeling or moment in your picture, and that's because that's the stuff they can perceive, you could have set a complicated rig to take a certain shot, but people will focus on the result, not on the mechanics needed to take the shot. The best way to know if you're shot has a message, is if people from all educational levels say something about it, from a house builder to the CEO. That means the message is getting across to a lot of people.

I tell you this because it has happened to me.

True photographers can look at both message and settings and offer their suggestions, but it's only the bitter people or those who failed at the subject who do the "settings and composition autopsy", either in photography, music, painting, etc. They worry about the settings rather than the message. And that's because they never managed to say something with their work.

Always keep photography over technicalities.

Status Report

Hello Alpha Sight reader:

The reason why there hasn't been any updates lately is because I was out of town and upon my return I got sick (how's that for irony?).

However, expect an update in the next few days, latest by Friday.

Thank you.

Colaborators Wanted

Are you a Sony Alpha DSLR user?

Do you have any know-how you want to share but don't know how with other fellow Alpha users?

Are you skilled using photographic edition software and you'd like to share your knowledge?

Do you know of any tips of use that other fellow Alphanautics should know?

Are you a specialist in a certain photographic area such as journalism, portraits, wild life, product photography, etc. and you'd like to help other people learn the tricks of the trade?

Can you review and/or lenses, cameras, or any gear related to the Alpha mount?

If you said yes to any of the questions above, then Alpha Sight is looking for you.

Alpha Sight is looking to expand its knowledge base for all Alpha users around the world and I'm looking for colaborators. If you said yes and you want to share your knowledge in any area regarding photography and/or use of the Alpha DSLR system, then send me an email to: freeradical09@gmail.com with your article.

Any articles submitted for publishing in this blog will be fully credited to the author, although if your article contains work of other author(s), you need to credit that author(s) as well.

You'll be also listed in our list of collaborators and a link to your personal site/blog/album/etc. will be included.

If you got the skills and the brains, join us!

Flash Off Mode-Or How To Get Away With It In Low Light

The following article discusses a function that applies only to the A200/300/350. (Hey, they also deserve their own exclusivity from time to time ;). If you don't own one of those cameras but a A100/700/900, you can still read to learn some tricks you may not know.

The usual solution.

Here is a scenario for you:

You're on vacation out of your country, you take a guided tour that takes you to a famous museum or church in the place you're visiting. You're well equipped with your Sony Alpha DSLR and set to take pictures of the place.

When you arrive to the museum/church, you start taking pictures right away, but you notice the pictures are coming out dark or poorly lit, so you resort to pop up your flash and shoot away.

But as soon as the tour guide or the museum/church guard notice the strobe light, they tell you its forbidden to take pictures with flash or at all. The worst case scenario is that your camera is taken away from you while you're going through the place and returned to you at your departure.

The usual problem.

Usually museums and churches (or similar places) are lit with soft lights or even candles in some churches. Almost every museum/church in the world prohibit visitors to take pictures with flash or at all. The no-pictures-at-all approach is to prevent visitors to fire the flash accidentally or in purpose.

The human eye has no problem dealing with soft light, you can see well in it, but the camera can not. The reason for this will be explained in an article soon.

Back to the tour, so you've been told you cant use flash inside the building, lets assume that the guard who told you this wont take away your camera.

Since you cant add that extra light the camera needs to take the picture properly, you wont get any visible shots unless you stay behind the group to take shots with a slow shutter speed to allow the camera to gather enough light or you raise the ISO to get some speed back.

Ah-ah, the tour guide tells you that you cant stay behind, you need to remain with the group or else you'll make the guards nervous and possibly risk they ask you to leave for good.

So you cant stay behind and take your time, and the tour guide is going rather fast through the place so you cant switch to Manual Mode and take the pictures with your own settings or you aren't used yet to use manual modes; you rather let the camera handle the situation since you're not that experienced yet shooting under low light conditions.

To do so, you'd have to leave the camera in Auto mode. But guess what? In Auto mode, the camera will ALWAYS fire the flash in a low light situation!

So, this comes down to two scenarios:

1.- Miss the chance to take pictures of the place you're visiting.

Or

2.- Use Flash Off Mode.

What is Flash Off Mode and it's purpose. .

Flash Off Mode is a mode found only in the Alpha 200/300/350.

The reason for this is because those cameras have an in-built pop-up flash that can be either controlled by you or the camera. In Auto mode, it will fire when the camera thinks its necessary and it will pop it up automatically if the flash is in its down position. In other modes you can use it if you think its necessary by pressing the little button below the flash on the left side.

The A100/700 have also an in-built flash, but those are manually raised. Its completely up to the user whether the flash is used or not. The advantage of this is that the flash wont raise and fire on its own even in Auto mode. This is why these cameras don't have the Flash Off Mode.

The A900 doesn't have an in-built flash at all and uses only dedicated flashguns, so the lack of this mode is self-explained.

The Flash Off Mode is Auto's brother. It is an automatic mode, but it will NOT fire the flash.

The purpose of this mode is to get you out of hard situations like the visit to the museum/church.

The main difference and the reason for it.

As previously mentioned, the main difference between Auto and Flash Off modes is the fact that the flash wont be fired in Flash Off. Besides that, it acts just the same as Auto mode.

So why its an extra mode needed to prevent the flash going off?

The Auto mode does everything for you, you just need to point and shoot.

Since you're leaving the decision of what settings to use to the camera, the camera will determine what is the best way to get a properly (according to itself) lit shot.

If the camera determines that the aperture and shutter speed it has selected wont work with the light available, it will pop up the flash in order to increase the light available and use a shutter speed/aperture combination that wont require keeping the shutter open for 1 or more seconds.

The camera will always determine if the flash is needed or not in Auto, and will always raise it when it thinks its necessary.

The slight problem is that you may want to have the camera in Auto but don't want it to fire the flash at all. This poses a problem, since the flash is electronically and manually controlled.

In Auto mode, the camera will raise almost all the time the pop-up flash, unless its REALLY bright. I still haven't seen a museum or church that is so bright on the inside that the Auto mode will think "Flash is not needed here, plenty of light to work with". And probably that will never happen.

The good news is that in your Alpha 200/300/350, you can still use Auto mode without flash and getting away with it, and that's the reason for Flash Off Mode. To provide the benefits of Auto mode but without the flash.

Flash Off Mode will override the camera's impulse to raise the pop-up flash and let you take pictures in low light while just pointing and shooting.

How to invoke it and notes of use.

To use this mode, just switch your Mode dial from Auto to Flash Off, that's the icon with the flash icon crossed inside a circle and voila, you're ready to go.

This mode is useful even in situations of plenty of light, because sometimes you may want the shots a bit underexposed in order to preserve detail or certain bright subjects. If the flash is fired, it may just blow out the picture completely. This mode is also useful if you're at a party or event and want to take pictures of people without the flash burning their retinas.

However, this mode was considered mostly for those situations in which you CANT use the flash, such as the museum or church.

When shooting in low light, the camera will select a slow shutter speed (will take longer to take the picture in order to allow more light reach the sensor) a big aperture or raise the ISO, but it will tend to select slow shutter speed most of the time.

The trade-off is that, with slow shutter speed, camera shake is more prone to be recorded, making the final shot look blurry. The trade off of a big aperture is that less of your subject is in focus. The trade-off with high ISO is that noise is increased.

In photography its a guarantee you will be always trading a setting to get another one. Either you bite the bullet and choose a setting or you don't get pictures at all. Think of the following when shooting under low light circumstances.

Benefits of slow shutter speed: It will allow you to take a properly lit picture of your subject without the use of flash or raising the ISO, keeping the noise levels controlled.

Downsides of slow shutter speed: Longer time required to take a picture. Camera movement is recorded while the shutter is open, requires that you hold the camera very still or you use a tripod/monopod. If camera movement occurs, picture will be blurry.

Benefits of a big aperture: It allows more light to pass through the lens, it will help to increase the shutter speed if required, picture wont need a long time to be recorded.

Downsides of a big aperture: Less of your subject is in focus, the risk of overexposing the shot is increased if the user doesn't know aperture value changes well enough.

Benefits of high ISO: Sensor becomes more sensible to light, requiring less of it to take a picture. Shutter speed can be increased and/or aperture can be closed down to have more of the subject in focus. A high ISO and a fast shutter speed wont take a long time to take a picture.

Downsides of high ISO: Noise levels are increased, this translates in color blotches all over the picture, even in places where no color is seen. Loss of detail and focus sharpness can also be lost as a result of using high ISOs.

Work-arounds for these issues:

Slow shutter speed:

Use a tripod/monopod: There are light and cheap available, as long as it keeps the camera steady, it will help.

Lean against a wall or in your knee: By doing this, you make your body more stable and you can hold the camera better to reduce shake. If you're standing, grab the camera's grip with one hand and support the lens from below with the other one, lightly tuck your elbows against your body. If you're kneeling down, hold the camera as mentioned and place the elbow of the arm holding the lens over your knee.

Use the SuperSteadyShot function: By using SSS, the camera will compensate for camera movement by moving the sensor the other way in order to keep it still. This will allow you to reduce the speed a few more seconds. Keep in mind that how good it works depends on light conditions and lens used (and how much you move, if you rattle like a dry leaf, it wont do much).

Use the self-timer: You can set the camera on a steady place and set the self-timer to 2 or 10 seconds. Press the Drive button (the one with a clock and several squares in line) and look for self-timer option. This will give you time to set the camera and avoid hand shake of being recorded.

Use a remote control: You can use this or this one to release the shutter without touching the camera.

Use a cord: (You need a long piece for this to work) Wrap a piece of cord or string around the lens and then stretch the string or cord down until you can step on it to make it tight. The tension this will create should help reduce the shake. BE CAREFUL NOT TO STRETCH THE STRING TOO MUCH OR MAKE IT TOO TIGHT OR YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR LENS.

Use editing software: You can take a picture with fast shutter speed and try to fix it using photographic editing software, but be careful, if the picture is too dark, there may not be any information recorded to bring back.

Bite the bullet: Increase the ISO or/and open the aperture of your lens as much as possible to gain shutter speed.

Big aperture:

Use editing software: You can use photographic editing software to artificially focus the areas of your subject not in focus or to fix the light levels if your picture came out overexposed or underexposed.

Bite the bullet: Increase the ISO or/and reduce shutter speed in order to close down the lens.

High ISO:

Use editing software: The most common technique used to remove noise from pictures, is to use photographic editing programs and/or dedicated noise removal programs. They will remove almost or all of the color blotches and bring back the lost detail.

Bite the bullet: Increase shutter speed or/and open the aperture of your lens.

Closure and a truth revealed.

Now you know whats Flash Off Mode is and the use for it.

I'm sure that you aren't too pleased to have to trade something in order to get something else when shooting in low light, but that's how it is. Trade-offs are inherent in photography as problems are to life. The advantage you have is that now you know what options you got and the advantages/disadvantages of them.

And if you think that tradeoffs stop with enough light, you're wrong. Tradeoffs never stop occurring.

If you still wonder why museums or churches (or similar) are so poorly lit and wont allow you to take pictures with flash, the answer is simple:

Flash light burns paintings, metals and stone. Obviously they will not catch fire with a flash, but think of this:

A flash strobe is a sudden burst of light, intense light. If you place a sheet of paper, a piece of metal or a stone (especially if its porous) in the sun for a long time, they will turn dark, dry and their colors will be lost. The paper will become easier to crack or rip as well.

The same happens with flash, except that its a sudden burst, not over a long time. Sure, if you fire your flash once, nothing will happen with the picture or statue, but think of all the people who think the same, its a big number. Imagine a painting that its seen by a lot of people in one day, if all of them take 1 picture with flash of that painting, that will accelerate its decay. Think of how much people have a camera and visit that museum of church, if 300 people shot daily a painting with flash, the picture would be rendered useless and beyond repair within a year or less.

Light is a form of radiation, its intensity its a ratio of how fast it accelerates decay in matter.

Thats why museums and churches use low output light bulbs or candles to lit the area, it protects the contents inside them. If they used 100 watts lightbulbs and allowed flash pictures, the damage to the objects in display would be accelerated and maybe repairs wont fix the damage suffered.

There will be museums/churches where you wont be able to even turn your camera on, and in those cases there is not much you can do but to enjoy the place with your own senses.

But for those that will allow pictures with no flash, you can get away with it by using Flash Off Mode in your A200/300/350.

See you next time.

AF Area-Or How To Place Focus Where You Want It

A familiar scenario.

It may have happened to you that you came across a sight worth taking a picture of, you framed your subject, half pressed the shutter, made sure everything was set, and fired away. And you got a nice picture to show around.

However, that scenario not always plays itself that way.

You may have come across a sight you wanted to take a picture of, you framed the subject, half pressed the shutter and...the camera focused on something else. This happens especially if youre shooting in low light or low contrast conditions.

But why does it happen?

Meet the focusing sensors.

Your Sony Alpha DSLR (and every other camera brand DSLR) has focusing sensors.

The focusing sensors are those little stripes in the viewfinder that light up red when you focus with them. NOT to be confused with the thin black stripes on the very corners of the frame, those are to compose when shooting in widescreen mode (16:9 format)

Those focusing sensors are the camera's aid to correctly focus automatically on your subject. They work by detecting contrast, or how strong is the difference of the light values in your picture. Try shooting the blue sky with nothing else in frame and then with a subject in frame, like a leaf. Since the blue sky wont offer another light value for the sensors to compare, they will get confused and wont focus, but if you got another subject, they got something to compare against and one of them will focus.

When a sensor detects more contrast above all others, thats the one that turns red and you got focus lock, and thats the one the camera uses.

The camera's hard choice.

The problem is that sometimes the sensor the camera picked isnt the place where YOU want the focus to be at. The camera may have focused on the farthest sensor to the right and you actually wanted to use the upper left corner sensor.

This can ruin your shot and potentially make that you lose the moment.

The camera has to guess which sensor to use depending on which sensor is covering the subject. Most of the time it will guess correctly, but there will be times when you need to intervene directly.

AutoFocus technology has improved a lot since it was introduced in 1985, but there are still times where it wont do what you want it to.

This is why the Sony Alphas have a function called AF Area.

Know your AF Sensor count.

Before moving on to what AF Area is and how to use it, lets first list the AF sensors available to the Sony Alphas so you can know how many you have at your disposal.

Alpha 100: 9 focusing sensors, 8 lines and 1 center cross sensor.

Alpha 200: 9 focusing sensors, 8 lines and 1 center cross sensor.

Alpha 300: 9 focusing sensors, 8 lines and 1 center cross sensor.

Alpha 350: 9 focusing sensors, 8 lines and 1 center cross sensor.

Alpha 700: 11 focusing sensors, 10 lines and 1 center cross sensor.

Alpha 900: 9 focusing sensors, 8 lines and 1 center cross sensor plus 10 assist sensors.

By lines I mean the single line sensors around the viewfinder, the center cross sensor is the middle one, the square shaped sensor, its called center cross because its made of two sensors that run parallel to each other, this sensor is designed for apertures of 2.8 and larger. This sensor has more advantage over the others to acquire focus due to its double capacity to detect contrast.

From what Ive read about the A900, the 10 assit sensors are available when you use Wide AF (this setting will be covered in the next section). Its featured also in one of the videos about the A900 I posted in this thread.

AF Area explained.

The AF Area is a function that allows you to tell the camera to pick which sensor to use or you tell it which sensor YOU want to use.

There are three options you can chose with this function:

Wide: The camera has all the sensors available to pick from. In this mode you can compose a group shot and the camera will pick a sensor to focus with.

Spot: In this mode the camera will ONLY use the center cross sensor, nothing else.

Local: In this mode you can select any of the sensors in your viewfinder by moving the Controller (A100/200/300/350) or the Multi selector joystick (A700/900).

If you press the center button of the Controller or press the center of the Multi selector, it will force the camera to use the center cross sensor. This is a handy feature if you need a focus sensor picked NOW or to override a wrong sensor choice made by the camera.

Have it in mind that by doing this, you skip the part of half pressing the shutter, since the camera will achieve focus lock. In this case, press the shutter completely after achieving focus lock.

How to change AF Area selection.

A100: Turn your Function (Fn) Dial to Focus, half press the button in the dial and use the controller or the control dial to browse and select AF Area. There you will have the 3 options displayed.

A200/300/350: Press the Function (Fn) Button, select the AF Area window and select your desired option.

A700/900: There are two ways to access AF- Area with these cameras.

Menu: To select which AF-Area setting to use by going through the Menu:

Menu->Recording (camera icon) menu 3->AF Area->Wide, Spot or Local

Using the Fn button: Press the Fn button and using the Multi selector move to the third box of the second row from the top. That will be the AF Area window. You can either change it while using Quick Navi and the control dials or by pressing the center of the Multi selector to go to Exclusive screen.

Uses for the AF-Area settings.

This is a quick guide of scenarios in which you can use the 3 settings of AF-Area.

Wide: When taking group shots or shooting a moving object. The Wide setting will give you plenty of space to move and there will be a sensor that can be used if your subject goes to the frame's edges or the center.

Spot: Portraits, if youre shooting centered portraits, or product shots, this one will spare you the time the camera will take to chose a sensor to use. If youre shooting something in the center, this is the sensor to pick.

Local: When your shooting pictures where the focus has to be precisely at one point in particular, you use Local. It will allow you to set the focus anywhere you want within the sensor range. If youre shooting a portrait and you want the focus to be in the person's eyes and one of your sensors is over them, you chose this one.

The only drawback from this setting is that it takes longer to set (although Im talking of seconds or faster than that) than Wide or Spot. I suggest you use this on subjects you can take your time to shoot or when doing pictures with focus placed in a specific place.

The good news is that the Controller or Multi selector are pretty quick to use and set which sensor to use.

Closure.

The Sony Alpha DSLRs do a good job of guessing the focus point of your pictures most of the time, the problem is that sometimes the system will not be able to resolve the situation and youll have to intervene.

Now that you know what AF-Area is and what are its possibilites, you can overcome those times where AF wont find a focusing spot or when you want to place the focus on a particular point in the frame, due to artistic or practical intentions. You may want to blur a part of your subject and place the focus someplace else, or you may want to avoid the hassle of changing the sensor each time or waiting for the camera to do it, or you just want the camera to do it itself.

Whatever your intentions when taking a picture, now you have another piece of know-how that will improve your control of the camera and maybe make the difference between a shot that looks good but its not what you want and a shot that is what you wanted in the first place.

Practice with this setting if you havent, it may help you on those situations where the human input is more accurate than the camera's.

Until next time.

Protecting Your Photographic Gear-Addendum #1

If you've been reading this blog for a while now, you may have seen this post in which I list 10 things you can do to protect your gear from being stolen.

Most of those suggestions apply more when youre shooting in the field (outdoors).

Reading through this thread in DPR Sony SLR Forum, I found another item to include in that first list, and came up with another one myself. The two new suggestions are:

11.- Record the serial numbers of your gear and lenses. This is a simple procedure that will surely be useful in case your gear gets stolen, either from your car/home or office/or you directly. Thieves will try to sell your items, if they're stupid enough to sell them on internet, you can ask them to send you the serial numbers while posing as a potential buyer, if they match your recorded numbers, you can proceed legally. Even if they dont sell them through the internet, you can still provide those to the police so its easier for them to track them down.

Write those numbers down and keep them in a safe place. I suggest you write them down like this:

Item
Item model number
Serial number

Example:

Sony Alpha DSLR A700
DSLR-A700
2001201020613001 (fictonal number for explaning purposes only)

This tip applies to EVERYTHING, camera, vertical grip if you own one, case, lenses, filters (if they have it), EVERYTHING.

(The idea of recording serial numbers is credited to DPR Sony SLR forum user metfoo)

12.- Buy or build a locker. This applies mostly for home use. You can get a locker or a storing place to put your gear in and keep it out of sight, how big is up to you. Doing this will create a dedicated space for your gear that will keep all in one place and safe from other people or things (like pets). How concealed you want it to be its up to you. You can get an already made locker or you can build yours in the basement, in a wall (like a vault) or ground or anywhere you want/can.

You can go to stores like Home Depot or Sam's Club or anything similar and have a look at the lockers they offer. If you buy a locker already built, DO get a good lock for it. That will prevent unauthorized access to your equipment.

If you build one, make sure it wont affect the structure around it, you dont want to make a wall collapse or affect the stability of the place by doing a hole where you shouldnt...

That's it for now, if I find/think of more suggestions to add to this list, they will be published in further addendums.

Remember to be safe when shooting and see you next time.

P(rogram) Mode- Is There Any Use For It At ALL?

The answer is: YES, there are plenty of uses for it.

If you're new to the DSLR world (or the photography world for that matter) and you own a camera that has the letters: P A S M on its mode dial, means you have access to a camera with manual modes (or modes that allow you to chose the settings you want the camera to use).


This article will cover the P letter of your mode dial, one of the most overlooked modes of all. The Program Mode.

The weakness of Auto Mode..

Your Alpha DSLR has an Auto mode, and this is a mode you use if you dont want to worry about anything else but to pick your subject and pressing the shutter. Just like a pilot would use autopilot when flying his 747 over the Atlantic.

However, the thin line between human intelligence and artificial intelligence is the fact that humans can make decisions without following a parameter or protocol, and machines can't, no matter how advanced they get, they will still be following a set of rules programmed into them.

Therefore, you may be in the zoo, and there is the tiger yawning while waking up and you take a shot of it. Your camera is set to Auto and when you review the subject, you realize that the shot didnt quite showed up the way you wanted it to and youll have to spend time fixing it on the computer or the shot is just useless. Or maybe you want the camera to use different settings than the ones it used.

If you dont have much experience handling a DSLR and making changes on your own like you would in M(anual) Mode or you want to have the camera do most of the thinking for you but still be in control, you should use P Mode.

P for Program.

Program mode is one of the most overlooked modes of all (being guilty of this charge myself...). Why does this happen? Because both Auto and P mode behave the same, they select the settings for you, which makes a lot of people think: If Auto does this, why should I bother with P Mode at all? and they discard it.

But there is a thin line that makes a huge difference between Auto and Program. The ability to program the camera and make it remember your changes. Ergo, P Mode, and P for Program.

Auto vs. Program.

Auto and Program modes select aperture and shutter speed for you, among other settings. Thats the reason why many people think these modes are the same, and in theory they are the same, but at the same time theyre not.

In Auto Mode, the camera selects every single setting according to its calculations (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, White Balance, whether to fire the flash or no, DRO use, what metering mode to use, etc.). You can change or adjust the settings, BUT (and this is important) it will NOT remember your changes if you change the mode dial to something else or turn the camera off.

And here is where P mode makes its heroic entrance through the glass roof.

Program mode could be called the Auto mode of the manual Modes. This is because it will select shutter speed and aperture for you, but it has a lot more room to move around than Auto.

The reason why this mode is called Program is because you insert into the camera your selection of settings for the camera to use, you're PROGRAMMING it in other words, just like you would program a microwave to heat something for 20 seconds by pressing 2, 0, Start.

The advantage of this mode over Auto is that it REMEMBERS your changes, no matter if you go to Auto, Portrait, Sports or Landscape Mode or even turn the camera off. This is something Auto doesnt do. Auto resets everything when you turn the mode dial to something else or turn the camera off.


So why should I use P Mode?

Strictly sticking to use Auto mode wont give you the experience and know-how of what the camera will do in the conditions youre shooting at. Auto mode is like the Point & Shoot mode: you point and you shoot the picture, camera does the rest. Using Auto all the time is, in my own personal opinion, a complete waste of DSLR capabilities. DSLR gives you immense control and options to craft your photographs like YOU want them to look, sticking to Auto will just make them look like snapshots taken by a point & shoot camera, and it may not pick the settings YOU want.

Program mode is the perfect place to start learning the capabilities of your Alpha DSLR by manually changing them YOURSELF while still having the camera decide what other settings to use that you havent mastered yet. Or if youre a skilled photographer and you want the camera to move within the paramaters YOU want, you should use this mode as well.

Sure, the Program mode selects both shutter speed and aperture for you, but you can OVERRIDE that.

Program Shift

You can either change the shutter speed or the aperture when using P mode. This is called Program shift and it has two modes:

Ps Shift: You can change the shutter speed and the camera selects the aperture.

Pa Shift: You can change the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed.

This is how you invoke it:

1.- Set camera to P Mode (duh! what are we talking about? ;) ).

2.- While looking through the viewfinder, half press the shutter and the aperture and shutter speed will be displayed.



3.- When those values are displayed, you can change one of them by moving the Front and Rear dials of your camera (in A700/A900), the value changed will depend on how you've set the dials (Front: shutter speed, back: aperture or viceversa).

In a A100/A200/A300/350 you can do Program shift,but it has a twist. The default setting for the shift is set to Shutter Speed, so whenever you move the dial, it will control the shutter speed. You can go to Pa Shift by changing your dial setup.

Menu->Custom (clockwork icon) 1->Ctrl Dial set->Aperture

Keep in mind that you should pick the one you use the most, since you cant change both at the same time.

Once youve set the Program shift, you will be able to control one or both of the values and the camera will chose the proper setting for the one youre not controlling.

Keep in mind that you cant use the flash and Program Shift together. If you pull the flash up, program shift will be cancelled. You cant use it either if the flash is up already.

ISO behavior in P Mode.

You can either set ISO to Auto and let the camera pick the one that works best according to it, or you can select a fixed value for ISO.

In the A700/A900, you can determine how high or how low in the ISO scale the camera can go when using P, A or S mode.

The A700 allows you to set the minimum ISO at 200 or 400. The maximum ISO can be 400, 800 and 1600.

The A900 has a more intelligent approach, giving you ranges. You can select ranges going from:

200-400
200-800
200-1600
400-800
400-1600

To configure the ISO you allow the camera to use:

Menu->Recording (camera icon) 2-> ISO Auto Max/Min (A700)

Menu->Recording (camera icon)2-> ISO Auto Range (A900)

For A100/A200/A300/A350 users, you cant select this. You got to either set the ISO value yourself or let the camera do it. On the bright side, the cameras have a very good Noise Reduction on high ISOs, so dont be afraid to use them.

Using the flash in P Mode.

You can also use your in built flash in P mode, but keep something in mind.

Whereas in Auto mode, the flash fires when the camera thinks its necessary, in P mode the flash will fire ALWAYS. So dont expect the flash to fire like in Auto mode, and dont forget to change your White Balance to flash as well!

Closure

If youve read this far, now you know whats the P mode for. Take advantage of it and dont discard it as just some repeated mode in your mode dial.

Program Mode gives you more playing space when taking pictures, and its a good point to start controlling the camera and becoming the photographer in control of the situation. Whereas Auto is pretty simple to use, it may not yield the results youre looking for. In my personal experience in a A700/A200, the Auto mode tends to underexpose the shots by selecting fast shutter speeds and wide apertures. It does it in an effort to have the shots properly focused and not blurry, but the trade off is that you got to spend time infront of a computer fixing the shots.

P Mode will spare you this hassle if you use it properly.

I suggest you try it out and learn to use it, it may be the perfect solution for those days where you dont want to adjust every single setting but still be in control of the result the camera will yield.

Until next time.

Alpha System Publicity Extravaganza!

Hello fellow Alphanautics.

I was reading the DPR Sony SLR Forum (as I do most of the time) and I came across a thread that talked of the HVL-FAM58 flash, there was a link to an animation of how it works, and one thing lead to another and I found a lot of videos about the Alpha range of DSLRs. Maybe you've seen them before, maybe you havent, but they are nice to watch, they give you a better idea of what kind of equipment you own.

A700 Flash Trailer



A700 Japanese advertisement (soundtrack in Japanese, duh...)


Sony DSLR Alpha range (This is more an ad for the A350, but it also refers to the rest of the family).


A100 (The one that started everything)





A200 (In chinese)


A300/350 Ad (I loved the soundtrack of this one and the mirror idea)


A900 (a.k.a. Mr. Big Guns)


A900 (This one explains a lot better the capabilities of Mr. Big Guns)


And finally, a commercial for all the Sony range of cameras: Alpha, Cyber-shot, Handycam:



Have a good weekend!

Shooting In Low Light, Where Did My 5fps Go?

The following is a problem that affects the A700 when shooting in low light.

On this thread at DPR Sony SLR Forum forum member JUMPH asked a question that I think its worth to post in here for future reference if anyone else has the same problem.

He mentions problems with his A700, when shooting in low light conditions (he lists sunset or indoors at night as his examples) the camera wont fire at 5fps, but at 2fps.

He mentioned how he tested the camera using shutter speeds from 1/60 to 1/8000 and shooting with no memory card. In theory the speed he tested the camera at its enough to achieve 5fps, but he couldnt get them.

He shot this video to show how the camera would only go to 5fps if he used a bright light source pointed at the Eye-Start sensors.

Originally I thought that the problem was the shutter speed used or the memory card. But I was wrong.

According to forum member Ken_5D, the problem is that the AF is taking longer to confirm focus in low light. This makes sense since digital sensors do not see light as the human eye does, so a low light for us is dark to them.

He mentioned two possible ways to get around this problem:

1.- Use Manual Focus
(I told you, you will need to learn how to use it ;) )

Or

2.- Set the shutter to Release

Or

3.- Point a light source to the Eye-Start sensors.

So now you know, if you come across this problem, these are your options to get those frames per second back.

Finally, there is a thread in Dyxum forum that talks about this problem in great extent

Until next post!

DOF Button-What Is It And Why You Should Use It

The following article is about a function that applies only to the A100/A700/A900.

If you're new to the DSLR world, you may be having a hard time learning how to predict the behavior of the camera when you use a scene mode or one of the P(rogram) A(perture) S(hutter) M(anual) modes, especially when changing the aperture, your pictures may be coming out well illuminated but not eveything is in focus or maybe you wanted to isolate the subject from the background but actually the whole picture turned out in focus.

Its true that you can actually achieve pictures with focus or defocused backgrounds by learning the changes that will occur when you change the aperture, but the A100/A700/A900 have a button that makes this task easier and gives you more control on the outcome of your picture before you take your shot.

Thats the D(epth) O(f) F(ield) button.

But lets take a look about why this button exists in the first place.

The Why for the DOF Button.

If youre familiar with the concept of Depth Of Field, you will know that the amount of focused subjects or how much of a subject is properly focused in your picture depends on the aperture you use.

Using a big aperture (ie 1.4, 2.0, 2.8) will give you a shallow depth of field, where a minium portion of the picture or subject will be properly focused, and the rest will have a smooth focus or completely out of focus.

Using a small aperture (ie 8, 11, 16) will have a lot more things in focus and the background may be a bit or a lot more focused than using big apertures. This depends on the aperture selected of course.

If you are shooting macros or portraits and you want a small portion of your subject focused and the rest not, you use a big aperture. And if youre shooting a scene, landscape, etc. that you want all in focus, you use a small aperture.

You should know and remember that increasing or decreasing aperture has an effect on the overall exposition of the photo. A big aperture will allow more light in and a small light will allow less. If you over do it, you may end up with a blown out picture (horribly overexposed) or a nearly impossible to see shot (horribly underexposed).

Think of the aperture as the light intensity control. The more you allow in, the brighter the picture, the less you allow in, the darker. Along with shutter speed, you need to combine both to get a properly shot picture.

Now, back to the DOF button.

If you're taking shots and you need or want them to have different grades of focus, you need to change the aperture to have this changes take place.

The thing with DSLRs is that usually you can't see the effects take place until you take the shot, why? it's simple. In order to provide the photographer with the maximum light possible to compose a shot, even in low light, all the lenses are opened to their maximum aperture. If this wasnt done, you wouldnt be able to see through the viewfinder if youre using an aperture of F20 in low light.

The lens closes down to the aperture you selected when you press the shutter to take your shot, but it wont before that. After you take the picture, the lens opens again all the way. So if youre using a 50mm 1.4 lens, it will be always open at 1.4 until you take a picture.

The problem people may have is that they see the focus and defocused parts of the frame on that aperture, but cant see what will REALLY happen once they press the shutter with the aperture set to F 16 (or any aperture that's not the maximum for the lens you use)... unless you're using an Alpha 700 or Alpha 900.

(If you have one of these cameras, now it would a good time to get it with you if you havent already).

What does the DOF Button do and why you should use it.

If you look at the camera from the front side, you will notice a small black button on the lower left side of the mount. On the right side is the focusing mode lever so you cant mistake it.

That little black button is the DOF Button.

The purpose of the DOF Button is to close down the lens to the aperture youve selected BEFORE you take the shot. By pressing this button, you will see the focused and defocused parts of your shot and decide if thats what you want, if you want less parts in focus or more and adjust accordingly before you press the shutter.

There is one thing that will also happen that shouldnt disconcert you or confuse you. When you press this button, a screen will appear in the viewfinder, making what you see through it dark, how dark will depend on the aperture selected, the smaller the aperture is, the darker it will be. This function simulates how much light enters through the lens at the selected aperture, bear in mind though that it will not represent the final outcome of the picture, since shutter speed or ISO arent taken in account here. This is just the lens closing the aperture blades.

The good thing of the viewfinder going dark is that you can actually see the things that the aperture you select will have in focus. If you look at edges in your frame, you will see how they become sharper when you press the DOF button.

Since this button works on your command, there is one neat trick to it. If you want to see how the focus changes when going through aperture numbers, keep the button pressed and at the same time move the dial youve assigned to aperture, you will see and hear how the blades open or close as you move the dial. This will help you decide which aperture you want to use before taking a shot.

There is one thing you have to keep in mind about this button, it will only work when you use small apertures, if you use for example, F2.8, the lens wont close down, you will hear the mechanism trying to close it but it wont.

Since lenses are not the same and all of them vary in aperture, the range at which you can start using the DOF button varies from lens to lens.

Example:

If you use a 18-200mm 3.5.-5.6 lens, at 18 mm the max aperture will be 3.5, if you press the DOF button, nothing will happen. If you close it down to, F7 or higher, the button will work. If you extend the lens to 200 mm, the max aperture will be 5.6, pressing the button wont work either until you move the aperture to around F8 or smaller.

Like I said, the range at which the lens will close upon pressing the DOF button varies on the aperture range your lens has.

The use of this button will guarantee you get the shot the way you want it everytime regarding how much of the shot is in focus.

If you're shooting pictures of a leaf and you want its edges to be sharply in focus, you select a small aperture and check using the DOF button and adjust accordingly. The button will help you in any kind of shooting.

Finally, there are two tips you can use with this button.

1.- To overcome the darkness that occurs in the viewfinder when pressing this button, you can use a flashlight or any light source you can control. This will lit the scene and give you more light to check the focus of your shot without letting go of the button.

2.- You can achieve focus lock while pressing the DOF button, either half press the shutter or press the Multi selector (the joystick) to get focus lock and keep the DOF button pressed to check the shot before taking it, if its what you want, press all the way the shutter.


Now that you know whats that little black button on your A100/A700/A900, go out, use it and improve your photography!


Until next time.

First Month With My A700 And Alpha Sight

Today I have one month with my A700 and I would like to share some thoughts.

Initially I was somewhat scared with it, mostly because its a DSLR and I had no experience using a camera that only used the VF to frame, letting go of LiveView was hard the first days...

When I first got it, 5 out 10 pictures I took were good (in the sense that I got the shot I wanted), right now Ive managed to move that to 7 out of 10. I know it may sound a bit cocky (or maybe too...) but thats how I personally feel.

I must admit that reading Gary Friendman's guide for the A700 (read previous post) REALLY cleared things for me regarding the A700's capabilities and practical uses. When I started reading the book, I was all confused and scared, after I was done with it, I felt more secure and with a lot of ideas.

Ive been shooting a lot lately with it and my handle of the camera's behavior is improving, feels like the A700 and me are getting in the same channel. The thing I need to work on right now is the use of different lenses, especially the Lensbaby 3G...

Another thing Ive realized is that I really missed a lot by pushing flash photography aside when I used my H1. I didnt want to use the flash back then because of how ugly it made the pictures look, but I never thought something could be done about it! After reading Mr. Friedman's book, Ive realized how wrong I was and ever since then Ive been playing with a Minolta Program 3500xi flash and a sheet of paper attached to it, and Ive been having so much fun! The results Ive been getting with that combination werent possible to me according to my wrong idea. Ive even used the principle of using the sheet of paper as a diffuser on my H1 and Ive got a great result with it for my blog Out Of Place, the issue #38 was shot using flash but diffused, and it looks so much better that way than without it.

DSLR is truly an amazing, flexible and infinite world to explore!

And now I got to keep learning.

Today is also the first month of existance of Alpha Sight. Ive been posting as much as Ive been able to about topics I've seen are needed by the Sony Alpha user community.

I would like to thank to the people who participated in my poll, letting me know they have found information here useful to them. Im really pleased to know Im being of service to you and that this blog has showed you information you needed or didnt know about. Thank you!

Remember you can always submit information of topics worth for other Alpha users to know, be it you write the article or you leave that job to me, be sure to send me an email to freeradical09@gmail.com with your submissions. You can also request information about a certain topic of your interest to that mail as well, I will either look it up myself or get help from other users to have an article about it.

Until next post!