How to keep your eye balls

This is something new I've started doing to all my cameras. Fast and simple. All my camera straps seem to have about an inch of strap which tends to poke my eye when I rotate the camera. Ouch. I know this sounds silly, but it happens.

Finally it frustrated me enough. I grabbed my Gaffers tape and went to work. For a 2 second fix, I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.

Here is a picture of the fix.


BTW: if you don't have any gaffers tape, buy some now. It's the best stuff in the world. It tears easy so you don't need scissors, its super strong like duct tape, and it's removable and reusable without leaving a residue. Duct tape used to be my tape of choice, but not any more.

How to control the orange.

When photographing indoors we are faced with many challenges. One of those challenges is low lighting. This is where the flash comes in. However this flash presents another challenge... Orange backgrounds.

Various lights output different colors. Florescent lights output green, and your typical incandescent light bulb puts out orange. The flash on your camera is designed to be closer to natural daylight, but even that is variable.

So when you take a picture using flash in a room with a lamp, you have to make a choice. The surfaces being lit by the lamp can look orange, or the surfaces lit by the flash can look blue. If your camera is set to auto, it will automatically favor the flash.

So how do I fix it?

• Use one type of light.
• Turn off the lamps and just use flash (the space that would have appeared orange will now be close to black.)
• Turn off the flash and just use the lamps. You will need a good fast lens and high ISO settings.
• Make the flash match the lamps
• You can put orange plastic on top of the flash to make it match the lamp color. Then you force the camera to use tungsten (usually a little light bulb icon) The orange plastic sheet is called a gel.

If you are dealing with florescent lights all the same applies but you will use a green gel instead.

Here is a photograph of my flash with the Gel on it.


I made the gel myself. (sorta) I bought the plastic in a large sheet. I cut it to fit and I put Velcro on it.

Here is a photo of how I store my gel so it is always ready to go.


That's it. When I need it, I put the Gel over the front of the flash. On my flash I have a velcro strap for attaching accessories. Its not glued to the flash so it is easily removed if needed.

There are many more pictures showing my equipment here including close-ups of the gels, and other configurations.

Stay tuned. Over the next several days I am posting practical photography tips.

The big photography question.

I have many people ask me what they should buy for a digital SLR or for a lens. If you are new to SLR photography or if you care about your budget, I recommend the Canon Rebel XSi.

Why Canon?
Because they are generally cheaper than the other manufacturers. Sure you can get a good deal on a body from other manufacturers but you will start to pay for it later when you want to expand. Another benefit from using Canon is more choices. Canon has more lens options and accessories than any other manufacturer.

Why a Rebel XSi?
If you are bothering to ask what to get, it means you don't know what you need. Until you know you need a very specific feature and you know you will actually use that feature, don't buy it. The easiest thing you can do is over buy on the body and skimp on the lens. Don't buy a Canon 50D or 5DII if you don't know what truly makes it different in a practical manner. Your pictures will NOT look better and your wallet will be much lighter. The other rule is don't get sucked into megapixels. 3 Megapixels can make a decent 8x10 and after 5 megapixels it will be hard to tell the difference between that and an 8x10 from a similar quality 22 megapixel camera. The rebel XSi is an outstanding camera. It's pictures will look just as good as the pictures from a 50D or a 5DII which is why the others are a waste.

Video?
I don't buy still cameras for video and I don't buy video cameras to take stills. These cameras aren't made for that. The controls and handling are messy, memory is limited, and battery life won't hold up the same. In the end, I just say don't buy camera x because the manufacturer also decided to put video into it. There are videography enthusiasts who buy some of the recent SLRs just to use them for video. But those people are buying only for the video and not the still. It's different, they have a very specific need and they have researched enough to know how one of these SLRs will help them and in which ways they will hinder them.

Which lens?
If you have the money (because you decided to save money and buy the XSi) I would put money into the lens. The first thing a beginner wants out of an SLR is super telephoto zoom. They see some gigantic lenses on an SLR and assume that they really 'zoom' in. This is not always the case. Lenses get bigger as their 'quality' improves. They also start to cost a fortune! Either way, here are some recommendations:
If you don't have extra money, just stick with the kit lens until you have money and know what you are missing.

• Wide Zoom - Canon 10-22
• Standard Zoom - Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
• Telephoto Zoom - Either Canon 70-200 f4 or Tamron 70-200 f2.8

Also popular once you figure out why you need them:

• Canon 50mm 1.8
• Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro
• Canon 85mm 1.8

If these prices scare you, perhaps you should consider staying with a high end point and shoot camera. One of my favorites is the Canon s90. For photographers, all the lenses above are considered inexpensive. Some readers may notice a slight contradiction between my lens recommendations and body recommendations. Yes many people get outstanding pictures from the pure consumer lenses like 70-300 or 18-55, etc. However if you really want to do some of the more creative work with photography you need to avoid buying your lenses at big box stores.

Investing:
Also lenses are more of an investment. They don't loose value like a Camera will and you will generally keep them longer than your camera. I have had a lens which I bought for $800, used it for an entire year, and sold it to someone for $750 on ebay. Basically I paid $50 to rent a $800 lens for an entire year. And no it wasn't luck. Lenses can go up in value too. Exception: The cheap kit lenses, ie 70-300, always drop in value the instant you buy them.  Camera bodies always drop in value in relation to how many newer models there are from the same line.

Enjoy your camera.