Cape Town-An Ideal Location For Stills Photography

Cape Town-An Ideal Location For Stills Photography
By Sarah Manners
Fondly referred to as the Mother City, Cape Town comprises a world in one city. Its eclectic locations, wonderful climate and world class facilities are only a few of the reasons why Cape Town has become a playground for stills photographers from around the globe.

Cape Town – An International Film & Photography Hotspot
Cape Town is now a top international film and movie location, cramming an unbridled diversity of mountain peaks, sandy beaches and picturesque vineyards into film productions from around the world. Cape Town truly has it all! Commercial photography and film production in Cape Town is supported by an extensive infrastructure, boasting unmatched location diversity and a cosmopolitan community. Not to mention that favourable exchange rates certainly mean a cost-effective budget for any commercial film or stills producers! Immolating Locations around the World
Possibly one of the chief reasons Cape Town is such a popular destination for stills photography is that almost any location in the world can be immolated. From a bustling city centre or a secluded beach to a lush forest or magnificent mountain range, Cape Town has it all!

Top Photographic Locations in Cape Town
Table Mountain – Perhaps the most famous of all Cape Town attractions Table Mountain stands at a height of 1,073 metres. The flora and fauna are spectacular, as are the panoramic views of the Mother City. What more could stills photographers ask for when shooting with a backdrop like this?

The Cape Winelands – The Vineyards stretch for as far as the eye can see and are intermittently spotted with gorgeous Cape Dutch estates. Stills photography in the Cape Winelands is extremely popular as the pictures appear as if they could have been taken in any wine producing area of the world from France to Australia.

Hermanus – The best land-based whale watching destination in the world, Hermanus is a photographer’s paradise. From the masses of breaching Southern Right whales and pristine beaches to the unique vegetation of the Fernkloof Nature Reserve this could be any sleepy coastal town in the world.

Chapman’s Peak – This world renowned stretch of coastal road between Noordhoek and Hout Bay is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular marine drives in the world and an ideal location for stills photography in Cape Town.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens – This gorgeous haven of natural flora in the middle of an urban area is a true delight for photographers. The landscaped gardens and secret pathways are excellent locations for stills.

Hout Bay Harbour – This quaint harbour is reminiscent of another era entirely. Stills photography here is popular because of the gorgeous sunsets, mountain and ocean views and antiquated fishing boats. For stills photographers’ looking for a military harbour, Simons Town Naval Base is ideal.

Blouberg Beach – Offering sublime views of Table Bay and Table Mountain this stretch of magnificent beach is extremely popular amongst local and international stills photographers. The kite surfers, playful children and dogs all add to the ambiance of the photographs taken here.

One of Cape Town's most appealing aspects for film and photographic productions is that the extremely diverse locations are mostly within a 30 minute radius of the city centre. Nestling between the blue waters of the Atlantic and the warmer surf of the Indian Ocean, the Cape Peninsula, has become a top location for film and stills photographers from around the world.

Prinz Productions is a film and stills production company based in Cape Town offering production facilitation services. Catering to a range of film and photo productions including commercials, catalogues, editorials, advertising, music videos, and the focus lies on providing a professional service to the film and photographic industries.

Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Manners

Read more!

Digital SLR Photography - How To Take Stunning, Lively And Ravishing Pictures

Digital SLR Photography - How To Take Stunning, Lively And Ravishing Pictures
by: Connie Fillmore

Photography is digital SLR photography, at least to any self-respecting photographer. Suggest otherwise, and he is sure to give you a piece of his mind and proceed to praise the virtues of digital SLR photography.

Digital SLR photography uses a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera that uses a movable mirror placed between the lens and the film to project the image on to a focusing screen. Digital SLR photography churns out the most amazingly realistic photographs, in fact much better than the ones turned out by the conventional fixed lens cameras. But its prime appeal to photographers, both amateur and professional, is in the fact that he can work out a large amount of control over how his pictures end up as.

Digital SLR photography is all about customized photographs that are stunning to look at, to say the least. This is because the cameras come with extremely good lenses. This is why the discerning photographers are not miserly about getting a lens, frightfully expensive they may be.

However, digital SLR photography enthusiasts should never think that a swanky Nikon or a Canon is the passport to great photography. The apparatus notwithstanding, good photography depends a lot on the skills of the person brandishing the camera. The basics of digital SLR photography are not hard to pick up.

The first and foremost tip about digital SLR photography is to equip yourself with the nitty-gritty of lighting. If you are shooting outdoors during the day it is best to have the sun directly behind you. It is also essential that your subject also does not have to face the sun so that he has to squint. You should know that the best time to film landscapes, buildings and outdoor portraits is either dawn or the twilight hours.

If you want to impart the warmth of the rising or setting sun to your midday photo shoot, then a skylight or a warm filter is your key.

Tips to great digital SLR photography insist on maintaining control over the camera's flash property. To be precise, don't have your camera have the last word about where the flash should come on. Take the reins yourself and ensure that your photograph subjects are not lost in a maze of bright light.

Good photography, digital or analog, SLR or otherwise, is all about being able to use the filters right. You never know when that polarizer or the gradual filter or the skylight/UV filter might come to your rescue at times when the light situations are tricky.

The Macro Mode atop the camera just happens to be the most underrated and under-used feature. But unknown to many, this mode is great for taking enchanting close-ups of tiny objects.

Realistic and stunning digital photography is actually the norm with plethora of controls that come with modern day digital SLR cameras. And photography tips harp on tinkering with the controls to get a hang of the controls and the outcomes they produce.

Experimenting for instance, with really slow (30 seconds) extremely fast (1000th-8000th/second) shutter speeds can produce dramatic results. The ISO setting is another area for experimentation. In fact, high ISO values come in quite handy when you cannot use a flash in low light situations.

Get well up on your digital SLR photography tips and tricks and shoot at sight willingly.

About The Author
Connie Fillmore is a successful writer and publisher of photography related issues, for more informative articles go to http://www.digitalphotographyguy.com.

Read more!

5 Materials and Technologies That Just Might Eliminate Digital Camera Shutter Delay

5 Materials and Technologies That Just Might Eliminate Digital Camera Shutter Delay
by: John Young

Bob pushed the shutter release button and…NOTHING HAPPENED. The football passed into his son's hands and the actual photo he took was one of a cheerleader's pom-pom. Bob missed the touchdown too. He resisted an insane urge to slam the camera to the ground and jump on it. This was his first digital camera, and Bob had just experienced an unpleasant surprise. He had used film cameras all his life, but when his Yashica went into the shop a friend loaned him a digital camera. He naively decided to take some action shots and discovered the most maddening "feature" of digital cameras – the shutter delay.

MADDENING AND FRUSTRATING

Articles on this subject have attributed shutter delay to:

1. The camera's focus system

2. The time it takes the camera to digitally process the image

3. Reaction time of the photographer

Numbers one and three are lag times that most people using digital cameras are accustomed to. Most have used a film camera and know it needs a few milliseconds to focus.

The no-brainer solution is to reduce the aperture of the lens to increase depth of field, or aim the camera at the object you wish to be in focus and depress the shutter button half way in order to "tell" the camera what to focus on, then move the camera to center the image and depress it the rest of the way.

As far as human reaction time, well, it hasn't really changed much for users of film cameras, and people experienced in taking action shots usually get what they want.

So let's look at number 2, the time it takes to process the picture.

TIME TO DO THE PROCESSING

Processing the picture (so the camera can be ready for the next one) comes in several steps to move it from the image sensor to flash card storage:

1. Color corrections. The camera has to examine each and every Charge Couple Device (CCD) element on the photo sensor. It adds green, blue, and red to achieve the right color balance. For a 3 mega pixel camera, the processor has to make 9 million calculations.

2. Sharpening. This boosts the contrast by detecting and sharpening edges.

3. Compression. This process converts the 12 to 14 bits of each CCD sensor to 16 bits by "padding" the information and compressing it to 8 bits. This compresses the file size to 9 megabytes.

These steps require a tremendous amount of computational time. No wonder Bob missed his shot!

CATCHING THE ACTION

There are two ways of capturing action:

1. The "consecutive mode". If the camera has this mode, you can take a series of rapid shots moving through the event. This requires a camera with a large ‘buffer" to hold photos for processing.

2. Anticipating shots by depressing and holding down the shutter release prior to the event. This requires an ability to predict the future, something most of us don't possess.

THE FUTURE OF FASTER SHOOTING

Obviously this would all be simplified if micro processing were faster. Even with large buffers, the speed in which data is transmitted to the processor is prohibited by the rate at which data is conveyed from the CCD. Micro processing speed is the next bottleneck.

Faster clock rates and data transfer speeds would reduce or even eliminate "shutter lag" time. There are several technologies in the wings that offer hope:

1. Nanotube and nanowire technologies. These are both the offspring of "nanotechnology", the ability to make tiny machines at the "nano" level, a billionth of a meter in size rather than a millionth of a meter (micrometer) and offer hope for a 500 GHz clock rate or more.

2. DNA Yes, you heard me right. Computing based on DNA strands in which information is stored and processed.

3. Other materials

• Gallium Arsenide with much a faster speed has been used for years for military purposes.

• Silicon-Germanium chips increase the transfer of light signals to silicon. These traditionally have worked best at ultra cold temperatures, but many computer simulations have shown that they may be made to approach 1000 GHz (1 THz) at room temperature.

• Indium-antimonide. Much faster than silicon

•Optical transistors. A glass material known as chalcogenide becomes a switch as its refracting properties are changed. No need to translate those photons into anything else.

• Coated Viruses. The latest research involves coating viruses with a conducting material. Much higher speeds at the molecular level can be obtained. This will give a new meaning to the term "computer virus".

4. Parallel Processing As we've noticed lately with the war between Intel and AMD over the number of parallel processors crammed into a CPU, digital camera processing would benefit from parallel processors handling the focussing, sharpening and squeezing.

In addition, improvement in instructional efficiency by reducing the lines of code would make the whole process more efficient.

HOLD ON AND WAIT FOR THE FUTURE

The REAL solution to this maddening shutter delay appears to be in the material the processor is constructed of, as well as advancements in the software.

But we've got awhile to wait for it. Although a few alternate materials have been around for awhile, everything else is still in the research and development phase. Even when it finally trickles out of the labs, it will probably make your future digital camera cost around $10000 - $15000.

Quite a price tag for the ability to take pictures as fast as a film camera! Still…

Except for the lag, the digital camera has it all over film cameras, once the photo is captured by the memory card. The new technology will be worth the wait.

Digital camera owners are known for their ability to wait…as they desperately punch the shutter release trying to grab the fleeting smile of their new baby, or the football that lands in his hands eighteen years later, when he scores the winning touchdown.

About The Author
John Young is a writer and editor with a technical background living in California with his wife and cat Bear. Take a look at his new ezine “The Digital Zone” at http://www.pcreveal.com/digitalcamera.

Read more!

Digital Cameras- Which One To Buy?

Digital Cameras- Which One To Buy?
by: Philip Russell

Make sure you know what you need from a digital camera before you buy!

You might be thinking about making the leap from a regular camera to a digital one but are unsure of what you need. This article should be able to clear up some of the finer points to help you make the best possible purchase for your money and needs. First, when looking at digital cameras, think about what you really want out of it. Do you want to save time and money on developing costs? You will definitely benefit with just about any digital camera on the market here.

Second, you may or may not know that digital cameras are the best way to go for most any household. The range of features available make a digital camera very cost effective and more than likely you can find the exact type of camera for your needs.

If you are not the best photographer and often end up getting back your developed pictures to find out that you have cut the head off your Aunt Mary, then relax, the digital camera is here to help. For this type of photographer, you will want a camera with a wide screen on the back. This way you see what you are taking a picture of and the best part about it is that you can see the picture seconds later instead of waiting until they are developed, which saves time and money.

If you were looking to print out your pictures to hang on the wall or send to relatives then you would want a digital camera with a high resolution. This is especially important if you tend to have your pictures enlarged.

On the other hand, if you tend to share picture by viewing them on your computer or only on the web, then you really don’t need to be concerned with buying a high resolution camera.

The Macro Feature would be something to look for in a digital camera if you tend to take close up pictures or love to shoot pictures of bugs, coins, or very small objects.

Another consideration is if you are going to be taking pictures of high speed objects or at sporting events. Then you would want to look for a fast burst rate. In addition if you are taking many pictures at night then you would be looking for ISO equivalents or sensitivity settings.

There are many factors in buying a digital camera and like so many events that take place in life, there seems to be a digital camera to match. Read up on the camera that you are considering buying before making the purchase. You just might save yourself some headaches by doing a little research before you buy.

About The Author
Philip is a logistic consultant and owner of http://www.discount-tech.com where you can find the best quality and price for wholesale electronics sold to the individual or company.

Read more!

Basic Skills In Digital Photography

Basic Skills In Digital Photography
by: Low Jeremy

Photography blends science with art. The photographer is the artist who engraves his creation with light and shade. Science has gifted the artist a technically advanced digital camera for him to captivate life with it. But he must know to decipher the codes of light

And, Let There Be Light...

Natural light sources like the sun and the moon are considered the best light sources. These lights often invade indoors and make natural shots come alive. Men have created artificial lights like the ordinary bulb, the tungsten halogen lamp or the bright photoflood.

There are various types of lighting, the photographer can employ. The most common is the Directional lighting provided by flash, tungsten or several sources and can be used from the front, back or side.

Front lighting is the most in vogue but it reveals every detail. The light is at the back of the photographer beaming at the face of the subject highlighting every detail. This often results in an unexciting and flat look of your subjects. Another technique is to mystify your subject by lighting up from side. The main illumination from side adds interest and vigor with presence of dark shadows.

In Back lighting the source light remains in the rear of the subject shining in the face of the camera. So, you must be very careful while using this mode otherwise the subject will appear like a silhouette. The main advantage here is, you will be able to capture the natural expressions of your subject in an outdoor shoot, as he will not squint facing bright light.

You can employ Cross lighting where strong directional light comes from both sides. But this method is only suitable for studios with bright flash or tungsten lights.

Lighting For Digital Photography

Digital cameras may offer a wide range of easy lighting modes but there are challenges for the artist in his path to perfection. You must adopt the trial and error method and acquire the knowledge of lighting.

Most digital cameras have preset digital photography lighting modes or 'scenes' for different lighting situation. There is the indoor mode to click without flash, which is particularly useful in art galleries or museums, the night and portrait mode allows you to take pictures of your subject with a gleaming backdrop at night using a slower shutter speed.

The digital cameras provide an automatic setting for white balancing .You can determine the baseline white in your image against which, other colors will be rendered. Your camera may have a histogram to evaluate exposure in different digital photography conditions. Most cameras have various options like daylight, cloudy, tungsten and more.

What Is Auxillary Lighting?

If you want to create art using light and shadow, the Flash unit alone is not enough. Here, auxiliary lighting comes in. If you decide to shoot portraits or product shots in a studio then auxiliary lighting is not optional but necessary.

For great results use head and kicker lights. Flashlights do not generate heat like floods and spots, so are more suited for portraits. Make sure the flash suits your digital camera. If you want to shoot still shots or product shots, continuous tungsten light is the cheapest and best. A range of wattage bulbs and reflectors will help you control the intensity and direction of light too.

If you don't have money you can rent lights. Top studios have various assortments of flash units, flood and spotlights.

How to use light

Light is made up of all colors. If seen through a prism it bursts into different colors. You are free to experiment with the rainbow. Artificial lights have their own characteristics. The photographer can utilize different light sources. You can alter white setting for a different effect. Most digital cameras have color setting modes to achieve accuracy of the colors.

Direction of light is important in digital photography. People look best in diffused sidelights and backlight produces a halo effect while overhead lighting produces sharp contrast of light and shadows. Strength of light is also an essential factor. You can have placid effect from diffused lighting and sharpness from strong light.

Indoor lighting gives you ample scope to shoot nice pictures. You can assemble light as per your choice and can even harness sunlight when it enters your house to soften your image.

Outdoor shots are more challenging. It leaves you at the mercy of Mother Nature. While landscape looks good in soft light, the wildlife is captivating with fine details in bright light. So photographers try to capture wildlife just before dusk or before dawn.

In digital cameras, you do not need to worry about ISO film speed. Most digital cameras have preset ISO setting. However, experimentation is the perfect way to curb imperfection. So inflame your imagination and hone your skill. You are ready to enter the luminous empire of photography.

About The Author
Connie Fillmore is a successful writer and publisher of photography related issues, for more informative articles go to http://www.digitalphotographyguy.com.

Read more!