Canon 50mm f/1.4 vs Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (Kit Lens)

Hello there,

These are actually the only two lenses that I currently own. First, the kit lens that came with the camera and I've had the pleasure to add the notorious 50mm f/1.4 to my possession very recently.

Until I got my Rebella, I had absolutely no clue about digital DSLR and barely anything about photography. But acquiring Rebella forced me to do more research, which led to new discoveries and broaden my understanding about photography. I honestly wished I had done a bit more research prior to getting my camera but that's ok because I'm still pretty happy about it.

So the big difference between the two is the aperture. On the left the 50mm f/1.4 has a much wider opening, which allows more light to come through. This makes the lens perfect for low light situation.
The 50 mm f/1.4 is also a prime lens, which means that it has the same focal length. Whereas, the kit lens is a zoom lens that gives you a range of focal length. It is more versatile.
Why would anyone want a fixed focal length you might say? Well, they are faster and deliver better picture quality. The only problem is you'll have to move around with them.
I wasn't too thrilled when I first tried out the 50mm f/1.4. Don't get me wrong, the picture quality is outstanding but because I am using a cropped sensor camera, taking photos indoor wasn't easy. I always find myself stepping back. Minimum focusing distance for the 50mm f/1.4 is 45 cm or 1.5 ft.
Another nice thing about the 50 mm f/1.4 is that it creates a really nice bokeh.
The built quality on the 50 mm f/1.4 is also much nicer and sturdier. The kit lens is light and has a plastic mount. 

Bottom line is the kit lens is good for general shooting. It's a bit slow at focusing so it works best for still life. Doesn't perform well under low-light. Sharpness and picture quality is average to good.
The 50 mm f/1.4 is ideal for portraits and low light situation. It produces greater image quality though it doesn't have the versatility of a zoom lens. If you love the blurred background effect, this is the lens for you. Maybe inconvenient for indoor shooting, especially on a cropped sensor.

With that being said, I am now debating on which lens to purchase next. I'm considering a wide angle lens or a zoom lens with a wide aperture.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Choosing the Right Light For Photography - Warm Light Vs Cool Light & What You Need To Know

Light is one of the most essential element you need in order to produce good photography. It can come from a few different sources and in different brightness and colors. But for the purpose of this post, I'm just going over the basics of warm light and cool light.

So not long ago, I did a post on my beauty blog about the type of lighting I use. Way before I started blogging, I had a daylight fluorescent light bulb that emit cool-toned light, similar to natural light. And it was probably my luck that I picked it out, lol, because it greatly helped when I was talking pictures for my blog. Well I had thrown away the packaging and the writings on the bulb didn't really do much to help me identify what is it that I have so I went to the store trying to see if I could get the same light bulb because a few people commented that they use similar light bulbs but theirs emit warm light.
Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I literally stood there a good 15 minute trying to figure what I needed to buy. Finally, I picked up a six pack from GE energy smart. It said on the packaging "fresh energizing light" so I thought this is it.

I came home install it on one of my lamp and it wasn't what I expected. The light was yellow....Damn!
So after doing some research, I am proud to report that I have found the answer to what I've been trying to figure out.

So here are some important key word, or should I say unit of measurements, you need to know about light bulbs

Watt

• Definition: the derived SI unit of power, equal to 1 joule per second; the power dissipated by a current of 1 ampere flowing across a potential difference of 1 volt. 1 watt is equivalent to 1.341 × 10 --3 horsepower. Abbreviation: w.
• Power consumed to emit the light

Lumens

• Definition: the unit of luminous flux, equal to the luminous flux emitted in a unit solid angle by a point source of one candle intensity. Abbreviation: lm.
• The brightness of the light

Kelvin

• Definition: the basic SI unit of thermodynamic temperature; the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. Abbreviation: k.
• measures the hue of the light

Every light bulb packaging will tell you the unit of watt, lumens, and kelvin.

The light bulbs on the left (GE) uses 20 watts and have 1250 lumens and 2700k.
The light bulb on the right (Full Spectrum) uses 14 watts and have 800 lumens and 5000k. If you look at the picture of the scale below that falls within the cool tone light appearance.

Translation: the GE bulbs uses a higher energy output, generate a brighter light, but with a warm-toned hue. The Full Spectrum uses slightly less energy output, generates a lesser brightness but with a cooler tone hue.

So the million dollar answer is if you want to purchase a cool-toned light you will need to pick out a light bulb with a unit of at least 5000 k. If you want really bright lights, you will have to check the unit of lumen of that light bulb and go with a higher unit. If you want to save on your energy bill, you need to pick a light bulb that consumes less watt.

In most cases, for photography purpose, you'd want to use cool toned light such as the Full Spectrum bulb because it will keep the colors more true to life as compared to the warm light. Warm light just makes everything look yellow and definitely not something you want to use if your objective is to capture colors that are true to life.

I purchased the GE light bulbs at Wal-Mart. The six pack runs between $15-$20. I can't recall exactly how much. Full Spectrum light bulb was purchased at Menards for less than $5.00.

And below are pictures of the results that supports my findings. Subject on the left was taken with the GE light bulb and subject on the right was taken with the Full Spectrum light bulb. 

Hope you found this post informative :)

Product Photography - The Set Up, The Cheap & Easy Way, No LightBox

I feel like it's been quite a while since I posted anything here. Quite frankly, I've either been working my butt off, shop like no tomorrow, or been busy with my beauty blog.

Speaking of beauty blog, I figure I might as well share with you my cheap set up for product photography. Any of you bloggers out there might find this post useful, unless you already have a set up that works for you. As you can probably tell already, I'm very limited on space and I have stuff piled on top of each other but I just have to work with what I have. If you have a better and tidier workspace, more power to you.

Initially, I only had one lamp and the thing I didn't like was that if I point it on one side, it creates shadow on the other side. I've found a way to remedy that by using my mirror as reflector so I would bounce the light with it on the other side. However, it's not always practical to do it this way since I only have two hands, lol, and holding the mirror on one hand and taking the picture on the other hand was somewhat doable if I use my third hand, aka my tripod.

Basically, you will need at least two light source and what worked for me is using lamps that have a flexible head and stem so you can manipulate the light at any angle and direction. The black one is from Wal-Mart. I can't remember how much I paid for it but I think it was less than $20.00.

I just bought my second lamp from Target the other day. What's great about it is that it doesn't take a lot of desk space and I can clip it at any corner. It also has a flexible head and stem. This one was $5.00, I think.

Many people use a lightbox to take their product photography. You can either purchase it or DIY. If you have no idea what a lightbox is, I suggest google it or click HERE, and you'll know what I mean. There's a lot of fancy looking lightbox out there but do you really need all that gizmo? I guess it will depend on your preference and your budget.

Anyhow...If you want to go the easy route, like I did, all you need is half a sheet of tracing paper for each lamp and tape it to the head of the lamps as pictured, making sure the tracing paper doesn't touch the light bulb. The tracing paper will diffuse the light so you get a soft and pleasant light source. I've use it plenty of times and trust me, it will not go on fire. I started using the tracing paper about a month ago, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. I had a piece of left over tracing paper that I found around my desk. I've used the other half for my DIY flash diffuser. So when I found it, I just had this genius idea to cover it on my lamp, lol. Tada! This solves the idea I had about making a DIY lightbox. Who knew it could be this simple?

As far as background, you can just use plain white cardboard paper or whatever you like. Here I have a bamboo mat. It's flexible yet it can stand on its own. 

First picture is how it turned out straight out of my camera.  As you can see, it's a bit cool-toned, dull, and overexposed. Honestly, it is rare that I take a perfect shot. We all know, or should know, that a picture is never perfect until it goes under edit.

Second picture was retouched slightly but it makes a big difference. If you're not completely satisfied with your picture. I highly recommend that do some simple edits. You do not need expensive software. As a matter of fact, I edited this picture in less than 5 minutes on Picmonkey.com. You don't even need to sign up. Just upload and start editing. It's pretty user friendly too. All I did was crop, resize, fix the exposure, give a bit of vibrancy to the color, watermark, and that's it.

So to sum it, all you need is two flexible and cheap lamps, one sheet of tracing paper cut in half, masking tape, and a background of your choice. This cheap set up works great for me.

Do you use a light box? If yes, did you buy it or DYI. If no, do you think you would prefer a set up similar to mine?

Thanks for reading. :)


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How To Camera Shooting Mode for Canon Rebel T3i

Aside from learning what buttons to push, another important thing you need to know is how to select the shooting mode.
Settings from A-DEP to P are your creative modes, which means they allow you to do some custom settings based on your surrounding and the type of shoot you're going for.
Settings from A+ to Night Portraits are the basic shooting modes. They don't give you the flexibility that the creative modes do. These are fully automatic and preset on your camera so you will give your camera the power to make those judgment calls. Honestly, from my experience, you shouldn't always trust or rely on the camera to make these adjustments for you. Yes, sometimes it gets it right but you will always get the best result when you do your own custom settings.

Even if you don't own a DSLR camera, most digital camera nowadays do offer a variety of shooting mode and that will vary from one camera to another. It's essential to understand what each mode allows you to do so that you can make an informed decision on which ones to select for your image in order to get optimal result.

A-DEP (Auto Depth of Field) - This mode will allow you chose what you want in focus. The camera will choose the shutter speed and aperture to keep your point of focus sharp and your background blurred. You can choose your ISO and exposure compensation.

M (Manual) - This allows you to have full control over the camera. This mode works best for people are comfortable adjusting their own settings and ideal for advance users.

AV (Aperture Value) - Allows you select the aperture but the camera will adjust the shutter speed for you. Ideal for putting your subject in focus and blur the background.

TV (Time Value) - also known as shutter priority. This mode allows you to choose the shutter speed but lets the camera select the aperture depending on how much light is coming through the camera's sensor. This is ideal for shooting fast moving subjects or for long exposure shots.

P (Program) - Partially automatic. Camera will chose aperture and shutter speed but still allows you some flexibility and to change certain settings such as your ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation.

A+ (fully automatic) - the camera will select and adjust the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO for you. This mode is for people who are new and not very comfortable with adjusting their own settings. Occasionally, if your camera feels like flash is needed, it will automatically fire the flash as well.

No Flash - Automatic but without flash.

CA (creative auto) - this mode lets the camera make automatic adjustments for you but also allows you to adjust the aperture and choose the color tone that you want for your images. I pretty much never use this setting and didn't quite figure it you until recently, lol.

Portrait - camera will select wide aperture and auto correct your skin tone so that it looks more natural.

Landscape - camera will change to a smaller aperture and which will give you a wider depth of field so that everything is in focus. It will also auto adjust saturation of the blues and greens to make them more vivid.

Macro - allows you to take sharp close up shots. I see only a very slight difference in sharpness when I shoot in macro mode and it may have something to do with the lens. I think you would need to pair the macro mode with a macro lens in order to get a true macro picture. One thing that really annoys me when shooting under macro mode is that sometimes the camera feels that there isn't enough light so it might fire the flash unexpectedly.

Sport - ideal for shooting fast moving subjects. The camera will auto adjust to allow you to capture the moment. If you leave your finger on the shutter, it will continuously shoot until you release.

Night Portrait - this is for night portraits and the camera will automatically determine what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is needed. Whenever you are shooting at night or with a slow shutter speed, you absolutely need a tripod in order to avoid blurry images.

Video - for shooting videos.

Once you get more familiar and comfortable with these shooting modes, you will be able to determine what works best for you. Personally, I rarely use the basic modes and the only one I've mostly used there is the Macro mode. Otherwise, I'm always switching around between the creative modes and honestly, the best way to go is Manual because you have full control over your camera. It can be intimidating and frustrating when you don't know what you're doing and which buttons to push but you'd be surprised how much you'll learn through trial and error.

Hope this was helpful. What mode do you typically go for and why?

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Canon Rebel T3i - What Are All These Buttons and What Do They Do?

With a DSLR cameras, you have at your fingertips much more options to choose from to help you get the perfect shot. A better camera doesn't necessarily means that you will automatically take better pictures. You need to understand all the functionality and the capability of your camera in order for you to maximize the quality of your images.

So I'm going to briefly going over the buttons on the Canon Rebel T3i. The first time I got my hands on it, it was a bit intimidating trying to figure out what is what and if you are like me, you probably won't look at your manual, lol, but figure things out through trial and errors.

Even though you don't have this particular model, I think most Canon DSLR cameras have very similar buttons. In future posts, I will go a bit more in depth with the camera settings and give you tips I learned.

On/Off - This is pretty self-explanatory and use to turn on or off your camera.
Shooting Mode - Each of these shooting modes serves as a purpose and you typically would pick the one that works best for you.
DISP. - To turn on and off the display on your LCD screen. I rarely touch this button so I don't know what else it does beside that.
ISO - use this button to select your ISO based on your lighting and camera settings. I use this a lot.
Left/Right Scroll - This is to mainly move your selection left or right on your menu screen.
Shutter - press half way to allow your camera to focus and then completely to take the shot.

MENU - To access your camera's menu
INFO. - gives you several options on what info you want to display your LCD screen
LCD/View Finder Display - allows you chose to view on your LCD screen or through the view finder.
Exposure Lock - I haven't quite played with this feature but it is supposed to lock the exposure on a certain area and allow you to recompose the image and keep that exposure the same. This button will also allow you to zoom out from a picture during preview.
Auto Focus Point Selector - choose which points you want in focus or this can also be used to zoom in our pictures during preview.
AV - allows you to select the aperture
Quick Menu - allows to change some settings quickly without having to go through the MENU.
WB - allows you to select  your white balance.
Drive Mode - single shooting, continuous shooting, or self-timer options.
AF - Auto focus mode
Picture Style - allows you to select a pre-defined picture style, which will alter the color, saturation, contrast, and sharpness of your image.
SET - use to select the settings you want.
Preview - allows you to see the pictures or videos after you have taken them.
Delete - allows you to delete the pictures you don't want.

AF/MF - let's you choose to auto-focus or manual focus.
Image Stabilizer - helps reduce camera shake and blurring in pictures.
Focus Range - let's you know the focusing length that your camera is using.
Flash - This button with force the flash to pop up. Some shooting mode won't allow you to force the flash.
Lens Release - allows you to remove your lens from the camera.
Depth of Field Preview - allows you to view in real time the depth of field of your image.


So this is it for my quick take on the camera buttons. I hope this was helpful in some ways. I think my next project, would be to go over the shooting modes.

Canon Lens & Camera Compatibility + How to Mount Your Lens

This may seem like a silly post but believe it or not, that was not something I figured out until some time later after I had owned my camera. As a noob, at first, I used to just place the lens on the camera and just move it around until I feel like it's clicking, lol.

Well, the proper way to mount your lens is to connect the dots. Your Canon lens will have either a white square or a red dot.

Step 1. Align the dot or square from the lens to the camera
Step 2. Turn the lens clockwise until it stops and you hear a click. This means that it is locked.
Step 3. To remove your lens, press on the lens release button and turn your lens counterclockwise at the same time.

With that said, you may wonder what's the difference between the red dot and the white square.

EF (Electrofocus) lenses are mainly meant to be used on Full Frame bodies and comes with the red dot, whereas as EF-S is meant for use on Crop Sensor bodies (low to mid-range) which comes with the white square. If your Canon DSLR camera comes with both a red dot and white square, it means that it is compatible with both EF and EF-S lenses.

The only disadvantage of choosing an EF-S lens is that if you plan to upgrade to a full frame body camera, aka professional camera, then you will not be able to use the EF-S lenses.

Hopefully, I have not confused you. So to summarize what I just mentioned, Canon full frame bodies are only compatible with EF lenses. Canon crop sensor bodies are compatible with both EF and EF-S lenses.

Tis The Season To Be Jolly

Hello! You can actually see my reflection on the ornament holding the camera

What I love most about Christmas is the beautiful and colorful decorations but it's been a few years now that I've stopped putting up the Christmas tree and the lights. I don't even know what Christmas is all about anymore. I just know I'm broke as hell when Christmas rolls around. I get mixed emotions of happiness and sadness but one thing is certain, I always keep myself busy and distracted...A full time job, 3 kids, 2 blogs, and a shopping addiction...Damn, life is good (I think).

Anyways, my sister called me up last weekend and ask me to take some Christmas photos of her little family. Of course I said yes...I'm a noob who needs practice and friends and family is always a good start.

I made the mistake of arriving at her house without taking my tripod, LOL...I didn't even start and I failed already! But I'll make sure that this is on my checklist for next time. To be honest, I don't use the tripod very often cause it can get in the way but I've learned from this experience that I could've taken much better sharper pictures. Most of my pictures were a little fuzzy cause I couldn't keep a steady hand. 

As far as lighting, I had nothing fancy but gotta do with whatchu got, right? So it was pretty much just indoor lighting, some daylight coming through the windows and lights from the Christmas tree. I am hoping that in the next few months, I have a better lighting equipment for indoor shooting.

I thought I was shooting Raw, which is something I wanted to try, and again I failed, LOL. I did not get my settings right so I ended up shooting Jpeg. I'm definitely taking note as I learn from these stupid mistakes.
I find small children very difficult to photograph cause they can't stay still. Don't even talk about group photos because if one kid looks alright, the other is looking away or moving around. Photographing kids will take a lot of trials and errors for me to get it right.

By the way, this is Max, my sister's dog. He's a rat terrier. He's not very photogenic. He didn't want to even look at me or even pose. He just laid there minding his own business. I guess I should've offered some treats huh.

All these pictures were taken with Canon T3i, 50mm f/1.4 lens...Aperture f 1.6, Shutter Speed 1/20 sec, and 400 ISO.

At last, I managed to make the final touches on these pictures by fixing the light, contrast, and colors using Adobe Lightroom 4.2 and Photoshop 7.0. I say they look pretty decent. I'm still learning so I am hoping that in the next year or so when I look back at my older pix, that I see a significant change in the quality.

Happy Holidays! May you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.