L’ apertura è la fase iniziale della partita, e a differenza delle altre fasi (mediogioco e finale), a questa fase non si può scampare. (non sempre il gioco arriva al mediogioco o al finale, può finire prima), quindi questa fase merità più attenzione delle altre.

Se conosciamo la teoria dell’ apertura e il nostro avversario no, al 90% vinciamo la partita.

Principi dell’ apertura

Abbiamo visto l’ importanza di sviluppare i pezzi e di centralizzare. Ma ciò non basta, ai pezzi dobbiamo conferire una funzione importante, niente viene mosso a caso, tutto viene mosso con criterio. Giocando sempre le mosse migliori si arriverà presto alla vittoria.

In apertura le cose da fare non sono molte:

1. sviluppare i pezzi
2. creare una buona struttura pedonale
3. mettere il re al sicuro

e infine creare un piano per l’ attacco (o per la difesa).

Le mosse migliori

E’ statisticamente e matematicamente provato, che le prime 2 mosse più forti per il bianco sono 1. e4 e 2. Cf3 ; perchè questo? perchè in sole 2 mosse il bianco getta al centro una potenza di fuoco micidiale. il pe4 controlla d5 e f5 e nello stesso tempo ferma l’ avanzata di un ‘ipotetico pedone in e5. Mentre il cavallo controlla e5, g5 e h4.

Le case colorate di blu, sono quelle controllate dal pedone, e quelle colorate di rosso, sono quelle controllate dal cavallo. Con questo schema è incredibile notare come 2 pezzi possono avere un controllo incredibile sul centro!

In effetti le case controllate dai nostri pezzi sono. d5, e5, f5, e g5. Se il cavallo fosse andato in h3, non avrebbe potuto aiutare così tanto a controllare il centro.

Andando avanti con le mosse, c’ è sempre la mossa migliore (sempre in base a quello che vi gioca il vostro avversario), solo che i libri non ne parlano esplicitamente, non dicono fra tutto il ramo delle varianti quale sia la vincente e i GM sono gelosi dei loro segreti e quando fanno i libri, li fanno sempre e solo per guadagnare qualche soldo in più.
Probabilmente 3. Ab5 è la migliore, ma nessuno di noi comuni mortali può dirlo.

Riassumendo:

1. Sviluppate i pezzi nel modo migliore possibile
2. pensate ad occupare e controllare il maggior numero di case possibili
3. non giocate per forza di cose mosse standard, ma piuttosto giocate le mosse che vi arrecano un vantaggio, anche se minimo.
4. giocate anche di profilassi (prevenzione),purchè non stiate troppo sulla difensiva!

So, um, like well you upgrade from a Nikon D3 to a D3s – going from one pro camera to another – and find you can’t open images in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, or Apple Aperture.

I know, I know, NEF / RAW support is coming – but jeez this is a pro camera, Nikon should work more closely with the software vendors to get these updates to market in sync with the body release.  Total FAIL Nikon…

Anche da bzz le ricette di Intolleranze Zero! offrono una possibilita’ saporita per chi soffre di intolleranze alimentari e per chi è curioso. Un esempio? Eccola qui: Pasta di farro con salvia, peperoncino e aglio. Un accordo perfetto, come la crema di zucca, cannella e mandole. Se si cerca gli accordi perfetti, quando li si trova, decade il desiderio degli insaporitori o dei grassi. Anche a Salsomaggiore si sperimenta in questo senso. Grazie per averci creduto, e Buona Ricerca! Grazie anche a tutti quelli che mi hanno accompagnato sabato 28.11 eche mi sono stati particolarmente vini durante la scrittura, ciascuno a suo modo

Ma le Terme Berzieri di Salsomaggiore fanno dilatare le pupille: Marmi, mosaici, specchi, oro, liberty dal suolo al soffitto circondano le acque salsobromoiodiche. Ho un déjà vu: l’estate scorsa a Marienbad, mi sono addormentata, facendo le fusa.

How is it going with the depth of field assignment?  Working here in Smithers I have been reminded about a few things with depth of field.  When you look through your camera you can’t tell what the actual depth of field is going to turn out like in your final image. While you compose your image, the camera holds the aperture on your lens open as wide as it can until you take the picture, then as you press the shutter release button it closes the aperture down to the setting you want, opens the shutter and takes your exposure.  Instead of just guessing at what your final depth of field will be, there is a way, on most digital SLR’s to check, the depth of field preview button.  You will likely have to look in your manual for this, but on Canon models the button is on the camera on the lower side near the base of the lens barrel, on the left hand side (when you are taking a picture).

The button near the lens base on the right hand side of the picture is the Depth of field preview button, check your camera manual to find yours

Using this button is simple.  Set your aperture, compose your picture, press the button and look through the viewfinder.  Keep in mind, that, if you are using a small aperture your screen may get very dark.  Remember, this is what closing down your aperture actually does — it lets less light onto your image.  But if you look very closely you can see what in your image will actually be in focus in your final picture.

A lot of people are going to get cameras this holiday season, or have them from the last few seasons.  They have a basic SLR and the kit lens.  There’s a lot you can do with these simple combinations, but they’re limiting as well.  I’ve been involved in a few discussion forums for these mid-level beginners and wanted to echo a post here about an individual who was looking to upgrade, primarily interested in wedding photography, but wanted advice on path forward.

“Agree with others, 18-55 kit *can* take a sharp photo, but it’ll be a challenge if you’re handheld, in low light, and don’t have a high-contrast subject that’s moving. The variable aperture also makes using Manual difficult, try Shutter Priority (Tv) or Aperture Priority (Av) first to get comfortable with working your exposure. If using a flash head, try fooling with bounce flash and Program mode (P). If you have an older Rebel without a thumb wheel, then you won’t really be able to use Manual for anything beyond posed shots, because you’ll only have one of three exposure parameters (shutter, aperture, sensitivity) assigned to the index wheel. Oh, thoroughly read the manual for your camera as you explore each setup. Some people are able to know just the basics and get great stuff, some people need to really dig and understand the nuance. Find out which you are and how much effort you’re willing to put into your craft before laying out cash. Regarding upgrades, I’d stick with the Rebel and first invest in glass. That 50 1.8 is a good choice, you can even get them used for $75 or lower, although they are a bit long on a 1.6x Rebel, almost 85mm. It’ll take some getting used to, which isn’t a bad thing. The 50 1.4 is an even better choice if you can drop a few hundred. Zooms, I’d say go for the 17-55 2.8 IS.. it doesn’t say L (no weather sealing, etc) but it’s L-quality glass. Every bit as good as the 16-35, 24-70 or 24-105 for under $1000. And if you don’t have one, get yourself a 580ex or 580exII flash head and rechargeable batteries (I like Ansmann 2700mAh AAs, they’re a bit pricey but pay for themselves over time) or an external battery pack. Learn to use bounce and fill-in flash and your photos will improve dramatically. More light means smaller aperture and faster shutter, which means more sharpness. More light also means greater saturation. I’m of the philosophy that photography isn’t cheap. Yes you can get by, and yes in the end, it’s the photographer not the camera. You can get some amazing photos with a $250 point-n-shoot, I know… but the proper kit makes it possible to get 500 amazing photos in a night as opposed to just 10 or 20. That’s once you’re ready to “go live,” you can learn everything you need to learn on the Rebel with one decent (fixed aperture) zoom, a prime or two, and a flash head. Best of luck and let’s see some of your photos as you progress!”

Click the photo to see Bryan Carnathan’s excellent review of the latest Rebel offering from Canon, the T1i, an incredible bang-for-buck DSLR package.

Ancora novità per il franchising Atzori Sa bellesa, ormai prossimo all’obiettivo dei 40 punti vendita in Italia.
Le aperture più recenti sono quelle di Lariano (RM), Treviglio (BG), Corleone (PA), Bollate (MI) e il secondo punto vendita di Catania.
In programma per il futuro ci sono tante altre novità, come le aperture di Udine, Rimini, Bassano del Grappa (VI), Rende (CS), Bagheria (PA), Giardini Naxos (ME), Foggia e Giarre (CT).

Contatta direttamente il franchising Atzori Sa bellesa
http://www.okfranchising.it/

Il franchising Travelbag viaggi e vacanze annuncia con piacere le prossime 9 aperture previste per gennaio 2010: Milano, Milano periferia, Bologna, Ravenna, Firenze, Ragusa, Lecce, Lecce periferia e Rimini.
Il risultato premia la capacità di innovazione e l’evoluzione dell’agenzia di viaggi studiata da Travelbag.

http://www.okfranchising.it/

Okay, so we’ve talked about the basic components of exposure now lets start to look at each in detail.  This week we are going to look at the effects of aperture.  So lets start with a small exercise.  Start by putting your camera into aperture priority mode (on a Canon this is the Av, setting on the dial).  Now, take three objects, about the size of a salt shaker — in fact salt shakers would be perfect. Now place them in a line near one end of a table, one closer to the camera, one about a foot further away, and another a foot further away again.  Now, with your camera set to it’s largest aperture (smallest f-stop number) take a photograph of the three shakers (make sure you can see all three).  Now set the camera to an f-stop somewhere in the middle take another.  Now the smallest possible aperture (largest f-stop number).  Now check the photographs, how are they different?

A lot people complain about loosing images, and I also did loose over 500 images just because of my own lazyness, couple years ago. So I thought this could help to avoid frustration in front of the screen. To me, the most important thing in the whole photo-workflow is: importing / organizing and backup, all the rest comes later in the post-process.

Let`s say I go to a shoot somewhere and get back with a whole bunch of images, they`re all stored on the memory card right? Right.  The first thing I always do just copy those files on my desktop into a quick import folder. After that, I import those files into my photo organizer  ( lightroom / aperture / ps elements or whatever u like to use) btw; I do organize my files by date, like: “2009-11-15″. Anyway, move those files inside in the programm to a new location. I don`t copy `em, I just move it away from my desktop to a new place where it makes more sense. Don`t worry…Im not going thru my whole photoworkflow now, I just want to talk about my backup solution. After moving I do backup those files to a 2nd location, they`re now safe on my internal hardrive, but I need another copy. After that, Im workin on those files, I never work on my original files, that`s why I`ve done a copy of every single image. When Im done with editing, I burn a DVD ( edits and originals ). Just because if something goes real wrong I still have my files on a DVD, and your`re probably safe for more than 15 years:-) Why  burning a disc?  1st: I just don`t trust hardrives, that`s why, and 2nd: I spent so much time with shooting / organizing / editing. So if you really want be sure, two backups aren`t enough! At least two seperate location like internal / external drives and a safe copy on a DVD. Believe me, you will sleep better at night:-) When it`s all done, I got my two copies and the DVD, finally I delete my images on the memorycard. Hope this was helpful, and not to boooring:-) If you love yr photos do backup yr files, Im tellin` yah!

Backupcover easily done in Aperture:

Do you think Photography is cool? Would you like to be able to take pictures like Ansel Adams? Do you even know who Ansel Adam or Anne Leibovitz is? Everybody pretty much likes to look at really awesome pictures. It’s our nature to be attracted to really awesome things, such as smiles and babies. But a lot of us take the process of how those cool pictures were created for granted all the time. Nobody really cares to know how this guy got this shot or what elements make up a certain picture. Well, this is when you will start caring because those basic terms greatly affects the outcome of any of the pictures that you will take after this. I’ve read a lot of internet articles explaining those terms and spent much time sitting in front of the Photography section at Barnes and Noble, but did not truly understand the function and relationship among the technical terms until uhh recently. So if you’re into Photography, but just confused by the definitions and explanations of those books then maybe you’ll understand the explanations of an 18-year-old Asian female.

Before I get into things like Aperture, I would like to take a couple of sentences out of my day to defend the quality and potentials of a compact digital camera as far as Photography is concerned. People think they must have an SLR of any kind in order to learn more about photography and take cooler pictures. However, a great percentage of the time, the camera doesn’t really define your capabilities as a photographer. You don’t have to get a certain camera in order to start getting into taking cool pictures. The quality of a picture, I don’t think, even 100% depends on the camera but more of the lenses. I own three cameras. I have my Canon Powershot SD 750, Nikon Film SLR FM.. something, and Nikon D90. I’ve had my Canon the longest and even though it’s a compact digital camera, it still gave me the freedom that I needed at that time to explore and get used to the important functions of any camera. So my point is get a camera. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy. It just needs to have a Manual option because Automatic is for posers.

Aperture Diagram

The first thing I am going to talk about is Aperture. The picture above is a typical Aperture diagram and this is what’s going on: From left to right. The “f/1.4; f/2; f/2.8; f/4″.. etc are call F stops AKA Aperture. That’s APERTURE. If you see an F and a / anywhere and a number following it then that means whoever is talking about Aperture. The number has something to do with your lenses. So moving a little bit more right you see those weird circles. That’s what your lenses look like when you’re taking a picture. So if you put your F stop to about 1.4 then that’s how wide your lenses are going to be. If you put your F stop as 16 then that’s how small your lenses are going to be. So what does all this really mean? Well, the smaller the number of your F stop is the more focus you have on your subject. So this kind of aperture setting is ideal for portraits. The bigger the number of your F stop is the more of the background is visible. This is ideal for shooting nature like mountains and stuff. When I think about Aperture I think about Focus.

For an example:

The picture on the left is Chris and the picture on the right is Devan. In Chris’s picture, the background of the road and the trees are really blurry and only him and the part of the road close to him and in front of him are focused. I used an F stop with a smaller number. I think  I used like a F stop of 4.5 or smaller. In Devan’s picture, the things behind her, the subject, are detailed and focused just as well as she is. I used an F stop of a larger number, probably like F/8 or around there.

Smaller F/stop number wider lenses. Larger F/stop number smaller lenses. Smaller F/stop number blurrier background. Larger F/stop number more detailed background.

A cool trick that I like to do when using a small F/stop number is stand a little bit farther away from the subject than I need to and zoom in on my subject. Zooming in while using an aperture of f/4.5 or smaller will super blur your background and greatly enhances your subject. It’ll look super cool. It always excites me when I do that.

The second thing that I am going to talk about is Shutter Speed. Shutter speed is super cool. I was in a Photography club in high school and we almost named our club as the Shutter Bugs. When you think of Shutter Speed, think of motion. The higher the number of Shutter Speed, for an example 600, the faster the camera is to capture a certain motion so your subject will be less likely to be blurry. The smaller number of Shutter Speed, for an example 100 or lower, the slower the camera is to capture a certain motion so your subject, if in fast motion, will be more likely to be blurry.

Think of it this way: If it’s fast then use a high shutter speed. If it’s just standing there or slowly moving then use a lower shutter speed. In that picture of the fireworks above, I used a probably high shutter speed. I don’t really remember exactly the number because it was a couple of months ago. But if I hadn’t used a high shutter speed then the fireworks would’ve turned out like a bunch of scribbles instead of what it actually looked like in person.

slower shutter speed with a fast moving subject.

A cool trick that a lot of people use for shooting waterfalls is using a slower shutter speed when capturing a fast moving object. It will create a smooth thing that looks really cool. Trust me.. it’s cool. So go have a blast with that idea.

The next thing that I am going to talk about is ISO. When you think about ISO you should think about light. The ISO setting deals with the light in the environment. This is how I look at it: The brighter the environment is the smaller the ISO number. The darker the environment is the higher ISO number. So if I am shooting around noon when the sun is at its peak and it’s really bright and sunny outside then i would use an ISO of  about 200. But if I am shooting a night scene of a city then I would use an ISO of maybe even 1000 or higher.

For an example:

This picture of the sunset above would not have been possible if I hadn’t used a high ISO. I think I might have used about an ISO of about 800. My camera really litted the sky up for me.

So these are the very three basic terms in Photography. There are a lot more, but I think these are the most important. If you grasp the idea of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO then you will become fluent with any kind of picture. But with all this being said, how do they all work with each other? This is my explanation.

Gosh I feel like I’m in my Art Appreciation class all over again for what I’m about to do to this picture. This is a picture of a seagull, I think, in midair. The background is kinda just a bunch of mountain ranges. The two very cool things about this picture to me, even though it might only look like an average looking picture, are the emphasis on the bird and its motion. The bird sticks out a lot because it’s the only thing in the foreground against a blurry background. What is that? Aperture! Right here whoever probably used a F/4.5 or around there. Aperture works with ISO because they both deal with lights. Since he/she used a F/4.5 then the lenses were able to let more light in and he/she probably used an ISO of about 400 because it seems like it was day time outside. Had he/she used a F/8 or higher then the the background would be a lot more detailed and it’d take away the emphasis on the bird, which also would affect the ISO number because then it would probably have to increase due to the bigger aperture. The second cool thing about this picture is the bird is caught in midair. He’s just flying around and stuff and then he/she took a picture of him and stuff… And I am very attracted to pictures that has motion. So here’s what’s going on. If he/she would’ve used a slower shutter speed than he/she did then the birds’ wings would’ve been blurry and it would change the mood of the picture. I’m gonna be honest and say that I don’t really know how shutter speed ties into aperture and ISO, but just trust that it does. Because they truly all affect each other and the outcome of the image.

There are a lot of other stuff going on with Photography like Depth of Field, Metering, Bracketing, etc blah blah blah. But for now I hope you guys kinda have an idea of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. I suck at explaining stuff, but I attempted to explain those three terms because I want people to start really understanding the concept of picture taking. It’s more than just a click of a camera. That click of the camera was possible because of all these other things. The more you understand how a picture was created and the different aspects that went into the outcome of the image then the more interesting Photography will be. It’s not hard. Anybody can pick up a camera, any camera, and pretty much calls themselves a photographer. The more you mess with your camera manually the more you learn. Try different things. Internet articles written by everyday people like me really helped me out with understanding certain things about my camera so maybe this will help you. So be interested in Photography and just go with it. Just pick up a camera and just do it.

Portraits? Then use a 50mm f/1.8 lens (affordable, fast, sharp) and shoot in Aperture (A/Av) mode with it wide open (preferably by window light).

Look at this recent available-light shot of a student:

This gets you the dual advantages of low-light ability (no flash needed!) and blurry backgrounds. As long as you make sure the closest eye is the sharpest.

So, set your camera to the widest aperture (the smallest F-number), use high enough ISO (indoors this might be 400-800 ISO), and use one focus spot, and aim that spot at the closest eye. Click!

Depth of Field refers to the part of a photograph that is in focus. So a shallow DOF means there is very little in focus and as the DOF increases more is in focus. There are many things that figure DOF, but I will be discussing the aperture and it’s effect on depth of field.

Aperture is the opening in the lens. It’s measured by stops and written by the letter “f” and then a number that corresponds to the size of the opening. f1.4 is a very wide opening and f22 is a small opening. As the f-stop decreases so does the DOF. So an f-stop of 1.4 has less depth of field than f5.6.  For the following test I will simply use the aperture priority setting on the camera and take a few pictures at different f-stops. You will very quickly see how these settings correspond to DOF.

The focus is set  to the center of the bill around George’s head. f2.8 has the narrowest depth of field of this set of images. You can see how the focus tapers off towards the background and the foreground. The further you progress (higher f numbers) a greater part of the image becomes in focus. By the time you stop all the way down (f22 for this lens) almost every thing is in focus from foreground to background.

The general rule of thumb is from the focus point 1/3 in front and 2/3 in back will be in focus and that is your depth of field.

f2.8

f5.6

f9.0

f22

The next definition will be Aperture and we will discuss its effect on sharpness. We will also discuss the difference between sharpness and focus.

I’ve been playing with a digital camera for over a year now, but am still very much a newbie when it comes to understanding how the camera treats light. So, today I started my first, in what I hope to be numerous, experiments to learn about digital photography and light. I can read about it until I turn blue. I just have to take pictures and play with the settings to “feel” the light. That’s my goal pretty much, to feel the light, to just know how it will be translated by the camera.

I’ve been experimenting with the settings on aperture or shutter priority and wondering why when I change the settings the pictures look almost identical in most cases. Today I broke that barrier – I used the M setting on my dial! This was quite an achievement for me. I will be no means understand all the complexities of photography, but I don’t have to in order to set it to Manual. This was liberating. I now understand that when I adjusted a setting the camera compensated to make what it thought would be a good photograph. It really tried to save me from myself, but I don’t want to be saved anymore!

I must admit that what got me started on this weekend is that I finally made it back out yesterday to take pictures (suppose I’ll have to post that, in the meantime you can check my Flickr additions) and was once again surprised. The ones I wanted didn’t come out very well, too much light and the ones I didn’t count on came out pretty well….well hmmm, this is all to do with light and maybe I can do something about it.

So, today I happened to be reading an article on the Digital Photography School’s website about exposure! Cha ching! I hit pay dirt! Exactly what I need to understand. In it, Darren Rowse talks about the Exposure Triangle and suddenly things started to click in my brain (I admit I am a bit thick-headed). Now it’s time to experiment, and for me that means to the extreme, after all, I want to feel the light. I admit that I still have a long way to go, but now I feel like I’m finally on that train to the place of understanding.

Unexpected Lessons with Aperture

I’ve been experimenting with aperture to blur the background, to place the foreground into focus. But today’s lesson taught me that when adjusting the aperture, you are adjusting the light too. This is the part I’m still working on, but I made some progress today. With a larger aperture (f/5.0), shallower depth of field, more light is let in because the opening in the lens is larger. The following picture illustrate this.
Both photographs: 1/800 ISO 200

f5.0

f/11.0

Here’s one more set. Both photographs: 1/125 ISO 100

f/5.6

f/16

Experiments with Shutter Speed

Although I read about adjusting shutter speed for action or in dark light, I needed to see what happens in normal daylight. So in the following you’ll notice that the shutter speed indeed affects, in a rather dramatic way, the amount of light – even in daylight. Now I think I’ll have to do this about 1,000 times to fully get it, but here’s to a start.

1/400

1/1250

Quelli di bzz sanno cogliere i cambiamenti, percorrendo i sentieri inconsueti che ogni trasformazione porta con sé.
Inconsueto l’orario: dalle 19.00 alle 4.00 chiuso il giovedì;
Inconsueta la carta: cambia ogni 4 giorni;
Inconsueta l’insegna: dice “biliardi”;
Forse per questo, quelli di bzz, hanno accolto l’idea di una settimana di proposte ispirate ad un libro di ricette per chi soffre di intolleranze alimentari:
Intolleranze Zero! di I.Binaghi e F. Pincini edito da Tecniche Nuove, 2008.
Naturalmente, quelli di bzz, ci hanno messo del loro nel rivisitare i piatti in chiave sperimentale.

Per informazioni:
bzz - Salsomaggiore terme via Petrarca, vicino alle Terme Tommasini. L’insegna dice “biliardi”.
bzz@flavioferri.it Cellulare: +39 334 8143750

Bella Forza! Ci credo che sono inconsueti quelli di bzz: prima di dedicarsi a fornelli Flavio viveva di musica e Giulia di danza classica.

Photography is all about light.  Three controls affect the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor: aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity. Each one also has a creative impact on the image.

And now for the fun bit.  Some smart folks have divided each of these three controls into “stops” as shown in the following table. Each stop up doubles the light. Each stop down halves the light. This allows the photographer to change the creative effects while maintaining equivalent exposures.

The following four images have equivalent exposures.

With the above tools and some knowledge of artistic composition, you are on your way to great photos. Now go and have some fun!

and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here

Exposure – The Absolute Basics of Photography.

I often talk about specific areas of photography in this blog, but sometimes, I forget to cover the basics.  This post it is time to get back to the basics and make sure you remember the elements essential to good photography.  The most important thing to understand in photography is exposure.  It is essential that we capture the right amount of light to create a good photograph.  This is true in both film and digital photography; the rules apply equally to both.

Several components come together to create a proper exposure.  Although our cameras today can do terrific things with exposure in automatic mode, we’re here to help you understand how to do that on your own.  By learning to control your camera manually you’ll be able to be far more creative with your photography than running in auto mode will ever allow. 

For digital photographers it’s more important for you to get a good understanding of exposure than it is for a film photographer.  In digital you do have the ability to edit your photos before they’re printed, but it’s critical that you have good data in the image you capture.  That’s where it becomes essential to understand exposure and apply that knowledge to record a good quality image in the first place.

One rule above all others can help you learn to adjust exposure readily while you’re out shooting, the Sunny 16 Rule.  The Sunny 16 Rule: with your subject in full sunlight, use an aperture of f/16, at a shutter speed of 1/ISO.  By using this rule as a starting place for setting your camera, you can be very flexible in making well-exposed images, while maintaining your control over creativity.  This takes practice, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t learn it right away.

The elements that we must consider for creating a proper exposure are: 

• Amount of light on our subject. -  Sometimes we can control how much light is on our subject, and others, we’re going to deal with whatever light is available.
• F/stop (Aperture) – How much light we allow to come through the lens is controlled by our f/stop.  The f/stop is simply a method of controlling the size of the aperture (opening) the light is passing through as it comes through the lens.
• Shutter Speed – How long we allow the light to come through the lens.  We want to control the length of time we expose a shot to capture the right amount of movement, or to stop the action.
• ISO Speed – The speed at which our camera is recording the image.  ISO is directly tied to the quality of our images and we want to keep it as low as possible (i.e. 100) to maintain the best possible quality.  If we have very little light available and need a fast shutter speed, we may need to increase the ISO.  Just keep in mind that this will have a negative affect on the quality of the image.

I talked previously about using the correct f/stop for your subject (to control depth-of-field) and the correct shutter speed (to deal with motion), so this column is intended to help you bring it all together. 

If you want to make a portrait, you want to have very little depth-of-field, so you’ll want to use a wide open aperture, like maybe f/4.0.  So if you set your camera to Aperture Priority mode and set the f/stop to f/4.0, you can use the camera to take a meter reading on your subject.  Get near enough to your subject to NOT cause a shadow, point the camera and push the shutter release half-way down.  This will display the shutter speed in the viewfinder for you, so make a note of that display (yes, you need to read your manual to understand everything in that display).  Then switch your camera to manual mode, set the f/stop to f/4.0 and the shutter speed to whatever the meter reading provided on the display.  If your meter reading showed a shutter speed of 1/100^th of a second, then set the shutter speed to 1/100^th of a second.  Step back to where you want to shoot from and start shooting.  This will make your shots far more consistent than using an auto, or semi-auto mode.  Do the same thing with Shutter Priority mode if you want to use a particular shutter speed.  Once you’ve practiced this technique for a while you’ll learn to make adjustments on the fly fairly quickly, and you will be more comfortable over time.

The illustration I’ve included here might help you understand what you’re seeing inside your viewfinder.  Although this is a typical Canon display, it should be easy to translate to whatever appears in your particular display.

I recently had yet another chance to travel to Sydney and stay for a while whilst working. Sydney’s weather didn’t treat me too well but apart from that, it was a good time had by all, I shopped, partied, hung out with friends and family, explored new places, met some amazing new friends, and set some awesome things up that you’ll see in the future. Aside from all that I got two days of shoots in for the lovely Asia Power’s 2009/2010 summer capsule range of which you’ll see the finals for within the next few days…

So here are a few test shots, and setup shots from the two days of shoots enjoy while I sort through everything and get it up on my Flickr and the blog, there are many more shoots to edit and upload so keep your eyes peeled enjoy…

Photographer: Jason Paparoulas.
Model: Shara Gomez.
Make Up Artist: Allyce McDonald.
Designer and Stylist: Allyce McDonald.
Assistant: Allyce McDonald.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Strobist Info (this ordering may or may not have changed throughout the shoot):

- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot bare camera left behind
- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot through softbox camera left
- 1 x Bowens Travelpacks – powering 2 x 500WS strobes each

- Canon 5D Mark II w/ BG-E6
- 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Triggers

Finally finished editing all the photos and work that has backed up from the last couple of months, it’s so easy to get distracted and work on other things and soon enough one thing after another isn’t finished.
Anyways, this is a little shoot I did for friend and designer Allyce McDonald she designs pretty amazing stuff, and you should definitely keep an eye out for her name and her stuff. Rest assured you will see more of her stuff up on my blog here, and flickr here in the coming month, as I am heading down to Sydney for more work which just might include a couple of shoots with her, and a couple of shoots from up and coming designers so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers to the lovely girls Shara and Allyce, for modelling, stylising, make-up, and putting up with us for most of the day, and showing me a little bit of a good time in a city I’m not so used to anymore.

So check it out…
and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here

Photographer: Jason Paparoulas.
Model: Shara Gomez.
Make Up Artist: Allyce McDonald.
Designer and Stylist: Allyce McDonald.
Assistant: Allyce McDonald.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Strobist Info (this ordering may or may not have changed throughout the shoot):

- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot bare camera left behind
- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot through softbox camera left
- 1 x Bowens Travelpacks – powering 2 x 500WS strobes each

- Canon 5D Mark II w/ BG-E6
- 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Triggers

Finally finished editing all the photos and work that has backed up from the last couple of months, it’s so easy to get distracted and work on other things and soon enough one thing after another isn’t finished.
Anyways, this is a little shoot I did for friend and designer Allyce McDonald she designs pretty amazing stuff, and you should definitely keep an eye out for her name and her stuff. Rest assured you will see more of her stuff up on my blog here, and flickr here in the coming month, as I am heading down to Sydney for more work which just might include a couple of shoots with her, and a couple of shoots from up and coming designers so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers to the lovely girls Shara and Allyce, for modelling, stylising, make-up, and putting up with us for most of the day, and showing me a little bit of a good time in a city I’m not so used to anymore.

So check it out…
and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here

Photographer: Jason Paparoulas.
Model: Shara Gomez.
Make Up Artist: Allyce McDonald.
Designer and Stylist: Allyce McDonald.
Assistant: Allyce McDonald.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Strobist Info (this ordering may or may not have changed throughout the shoot):

- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot bare camera left behind
- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot through softbox camera left
- 1 x Bowens Travelpacks – powering 2 x 500WS strobes each

- Canon 5D Mark II w/ BG-E6
- 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Triggers

Finally finished editing all the photos and work that has backed up from the last couple of months, it’s so easy to get distracted and work on other things and soon enough one thing after another isn’t finished.
Anyways, this is a little shoot I did for friend and designer Allyce McDonald she designs pretty amazing stuff, and you should definitely keep an eye out for her name and her stuff. Rest assured you will see more of her stuff up on my blog here, and flickr here in the coming month, as I am heading down to Sydney for more work which just might include a couple of shoots with her, and a couple of shoots from up and coming designers so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers to the lovely girls Shara and Allyce, for modelling, stylising, make-up, and putting up with us for most of the day, and showing me a little bit of a good time in a city I’m not so used to anymore.

So check it out…
and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here

Photographer: Jason Paparoulas.
Model: Shara Gomez.
Make Up Artist: Allyce McDonald.
Designer and Stylist: Allyce McDonald.
Assistant: Allyce McDonald.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Strobist Info (this ordering may or may not have changed throughout the shoot):

- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot bare camera left behind
- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot through softbox camera left
- 1 x Bowens Travelpacks – powering 2 x 500WS strobes each

- Canon 5D Mark II w/ BG-E6
- 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Triggers

Finally finished editing all the photos and work that has backed up from the last couple of months, it’s so easy to get distracted and work on other things and soon enough one thing after another isn’t finished.
Anyways, this is a little shoot I did for friend and designer Allyce McDonald she designs pretty amazing stuff, and you should definitely keep an eye out for her name and her stuff. Rest assured you will see more of her stuff up on my blog here, and flickr here in the coming month, as I am heading down to Sydney for more work which just might include a couple of shoots with her, and a couple of shoots from up and coming designers so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers to the lovely girls Shara and Allyce, for modelling, stylising, make-up, and putting up with us for most of the day, and showing me a little bit of a good time in a city I’m not so used to anymore.

So check it out…
and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here

Photographer: Jason Paparoulas.
Model: Shara Gomez.
Make Up Artist: Allyce McDonald.
Designer and Stylist: Allyce McDonald.
Assistant: Allyce McDonald.
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Strobist Info (this ordering may or may not have changed throughout the shoot):

- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot bare camera left behind
- 1 x Bowens Gemini Esprit 500WS – shot through softbox camera left
- 1 x Bowens Travelpacks – powering 2 x 500WS strobes each

- Canon 5D Mark II w/ BG-E6
- 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Triggers

Finally finished editing all the photos and work that has backed up from the last couple of months, it’s so easy to get distracted and work on other things and soon enough one thing after another isn’t finished.
Anyways, this is a little shoot I did for friend and designer Allyce McDonald she designs pretty amazing stuff, and you should definitely keep an eye out for her name and her stuff. Rest assured you will see more of her stuff up on my blog here, and flickr here in the coming month, as I am heading down to Sydney for more work which just might include a couple of shoots with her, and a couple of shoots from up and coming designers so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers to the lovely girls Shara and Allyce, for modelling, stylising, make-up, and putting up with us for most of the day, and showing me a little bit of a good time in a city i’m not so used to anymore.

So check it out…
and alternatively feel free to stalk my life here