Sing H. Lin, 林星雄 , singhlin@gmail.com
May Lee 李梅， mayleearts@gmail.com
Photography1

1.Photos of a Main Subject– Shallow Depth of Field
2.Scenery & Landscape - Deep Depth of Field
3.Sport Action Photo and Wildlife Action Photo
4.Compact Super-Zoom Photography
5.Panoramic Pictures
6.Download pictures from camera into computer
Photography2

An Example of Mode Dial on Digital Camera
Each mode is optimized for certain special effect
Auto Mode: Fully Automatic
Semi-Automatic Modes
P Mode
Aperture Priority Mode
Shutter Priority Mode
Sports Mode
Portrait Mode
Night Mode
Landscape Mode
Macro Mode etc.
Manual Mode: Fully Manual Control
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Gorgeous Red Azalea
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Sheer Beauty of White Iris
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Passionate Red Rose
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A Feast for the Eyes
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Charming Purple Wisteria
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Fascinating Pink Azalea
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It is Magical
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Romantic and Seductive
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Amazing
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Fruits of Plunus Mume
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Prunus Mume Blossom in Snow – Harbinger of Spring
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Magnificent Orchid
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Picture of a Main Subject – with Special Effects
Main subject is in focus, sharp, clear, highlighted and emphasized to attract attention
Other stuff in background and foreground are out of focus and blurred to avoid distraction of viewer’s attention from main subject
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Picture of a Main Subject – How to Achieve Special Effect?
Use Shallow Depth of Field to achieve such special effect
Depth of Field ( 景深 ) is controlled by 3 parameters: Aperture ( 光圈 ) Size ,
Focal Length ( 焦距 ) and Distance between camera and subject.
High end, expensive DSLR cameras can achieve such effect by using Large Aperture Size (lower f-stop number) with large photo sensor. Use
Aperture Priority Mode and set maximum aperture size. However, the maximum aperture size of kit lens of typical DSLR camera is still not big enough. You need
Macro lens with very large aperture size (f/1.8, or f/2.0 or f/2.8)
If the lens of your camera is big enough, the Portrait Mode on your camera may be able to achieve such effects
Compact Super-Zoom cameras can achieve such special effect by using Long Focal Length (Long Zoom)
But compact Point & Shoot cameras are difficult to achieve such special effect because of small lens and short focal length .
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Picture of a Main Subject – Using Compact Super-Zoom
Camera
I stand at a distance of 15 to 20 feet away from the flower
I zoom in so that the flower fills up the picture frame
The long zoom with long focal length achieves the effect of
Shallow Depth of Field
Benefit of Long Zoom: If main subject is a bird or a butterfly or other insects, the long distance poses less threat to such main subject and has better chance of getting beautiful close-up pictures of such main subject.
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Flower Picture with No Zoom – No Special Effect
Flowers and background Trees and Leaves are all in focus and visible
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Stand at same position, Zoom in on Flower with Special Effect of Shallow Depth of Field
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Canadian Rocky
Oh my God! This is unbelievable
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Canadian Rocky
Spectacular View of Upper Waterton Lake
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Fantastic View of Honolulu in Hawaii
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Gorgeous Autumn Colors in Holmdel Park
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Stunning Beauty of Moraine Lake in Canadian Rocky
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Rose Garden in Deep Cut Garden in New Jersey
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Landscape Photos of Beautiful Scenery
Everything is beautiful and fantastic in such landscape photos.
We want everything to be in focus, no matter far or near
Use small aperture size to achieve Deep Depth of Field
DSLR cameras, compact super-zoom cameras and compact point & shoot cameras all can achieve such effects by using
Small aperture size.
The Landscape Mode if available on your camera is optimized for such effects, or
Use Aperture Priority Mode and set minimum aperture size.
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Magnificent Osprey in Action
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Majestic bald eagle in the air with a big fish in its talon
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An Osprey just caught a big fish and is coming to land on this pole to eat the fish
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Majestic bald eagle is enjoying eating fish on top of a tree
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An Osprey got something to eat on nest
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Magnificent view of a gannet in the air
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An osprey cruising in the air watching the lake below and is ready to dive if a fish in found
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A pelican gliding just above water surface
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A kingfisher dived into the water and came up with a small fish in its beak
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An egret cruising in the air
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Red winged blackbird in the air
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A red tailed hawk hunting in the air
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A great blue heron cruising gracefully in the air
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I was walking along lake side
A great blue heron suddenly took off into the air
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Colorful mergansers taking off from water into air 。
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Aerial Ballet of Sandhill Crane
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Action Photos Using Sports Mode and Super-Zoom
The camera must be fast
The photographer must also be fast and accurate
Action target is often far away, Super-Zoom is often needed to pull it in for clear view.
My compact super-zoom camera is Canon PowerShot SX50 HS with 50X optical zoom
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Features in Sports Mode in my Compact Super-Zoom
Camera for Action Photos
Can take a burst of 10 pictures in 0.7 second
Auto focus is very fast and accurate
Shutter lag is negligible
Good image stabilizer to minimize the effects of camera shakes
Has 50X optical zoom to pull-in far away target in action
Has Icon of Sports Mode on Mode Dial, just turn the dial to Sports Mode to use it – Very fast.
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Action Photos - Photographer must also be fast and accurate
Photographer needs lots of practice to be fast and accurate
Almost like a western cowboy practicing hard to draw and shoot very fast and accurately
In winter season, some parking lots of shopping centers
(K-Mart, Sears, Costco, Pathmark, ShopRite, etc.) have many
Seagulls flying around – Good place for action photographer to practice.
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Use Viewfinder instead of LCD Screen for Action Photo
For outdoor photography on sunny day, we often cannot see anything on the LCD screen
With viewfinder, camera is supported by your face and two hands with two arms tugged in on your body  more stability to minimize camera shake for sharp pictures
With LCD screen, camera is usually held by two arms extended one or two feet out in front  less stability and more camera shakes resulting blurred pictures
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• Use long zoom to achieve special effect of Shallow Depth of Field
• In sightseeing trips, many photography targets of interest are often very far away. They show up as uninteresting tiny dots without super-zoom
• Standing at long distance and zoom is less threatening to wildlife and safer for photographer to get nice close up pictures
• Compact Super-Zoom cameras are compact, light weight and easy to carry
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Grizzly bears very far away in
Denali National Park in Alaska
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Zoom in for closer views and better picture of grizzly bear in Denali National Park
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Many birds far away in the swamp in Florida, Each bird appears as a tiny white dot because of great distance from boardwalk on Nature Trail
There may be poisonous snakes and alligators in the swamp
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Standing on the same boardwalk on Nature Trail in Florida, zoom in and get nice close up picture of Roseate Spoonbill ( 玫瑰琵鷺 ) very far away in the swamp
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Some Dall Sheep vary far away on mountain slopes in
Denali National Park in Alaska
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Zoom in for Closer Views and Better Picture of
Dall Sheep very far away
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Peaceful Cliffs of Cape Gaspé in
Forillon National Park in eastern Canada
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Zoom in on the far away cliff, What a surprise!
Huge number of seabirds in action near the cliff
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Many wild animals very far away from road in South Dakota
There is no road to get closer
Walking to get closer may be dangerous
GPS 62

Zoom in for Closer Views and Better Picture of powerful bison
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Many wild animals very far away in Wyoming
GPS 64

Zoom in for Closer Views and Better Picture of
Wild Horses far away
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A Picture of Me with My Compact Super-Zoom Camera,
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS and My Monopod
Camera costs $400
Has 50X optical zoom
Monopod is used both as hiking stick and for photography
My monopod is SLIK Pro Pod 600
(Mfr# 615-600 , B&H# SLPP600 ).
Compact, light weight,
Easy to carry in sightseeing trips
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http://shltrip.com/Hawaii_Pano_Views.html
http://shltrip.com/Grand_Teton_Pano.html
http://shltrip.com/Panther_Valley_Scenic_Overlook.html
http://shltrip.com/Panoramic_Views_in_Eastern_Sierra.html
http://shltrip.com/Montreal-Pano.html
Digital Photography 70

• New generation of cameras, smartphones and tablets provide highly automated and easy way to take panoramic pictures almost instantly
• The panoramic picture is available on the spot almost instantly. Can be shared with friend immediately.
• We will see more spectacular panoramic pictures in the future
• Devices, like Google ChromeCast, can stream anything on your smartphone or tablet or PC onto large HDTV screen in your home
• We can enjoy more spectacular panoramic pictures on large screen HDTV in the future
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• Tap camera Icon on screen to use camera
• Tap Panorama Icon (among 4 options for using camera) to take panorama pictures
• Tap Panorama Start Icon to start the process
• Pan (rotate) the Tablet in the direction indicated by the pointer on the screen
• The tablet camera takes a series of snapshots as you pan (rotate) the tablet
• Tap Check Mark on right side of the screen to complete/stop the process
• Your panorama will get stitched automatically in the tablet and be ready to show/share in less than 1 minute
• In case if the first picture is not good enough, you can do it again on the spot to get a better one.
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1.
Turn mode dial to Panorama Mode or Stitch Assist Mode
2.
Set up tripod and camera carefully so that camera can turn horizontally for the entire angular range of interest
3.
Take a series of several sequential pictures at various angles to cover the angular range of interest
4.
Must have about 30% overlap between successive pictures and successive pictures must be aligned properly
5.
Come home, download the set of several pictures into PC
6.
Use special software tool on PC at home to stitch this set of several pictures into a seamless panoramic picture
7.
The panoramic picture is not available on the spot.
8.
If the stitched panoramic picture is not good, you are out of luck because you are at home may be thousands of miles away from that spectacular spot
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• Use software from camera manufacturer
• However, such software often stops working after a few months
• Use Card Reader
• Take memory card out of camera and plug it into suitable slot in card reader
• Plug card reader into USB port in PC
• PC can read and manage everything in the memory card
• Drag and drop the entire folder of pictures from memory card into a new file folder in PC
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http://shltrip.com/Benefits_of_Compact_SuperZoom.html
http://shltrip.com/Action_Photo_Test_SX50.html
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