Monday Showcase: Nikon AW 1 Photo Examples

Don't have thousands of dollars to spend on an underwater housing for your DSLR?  Want a camera with a little more oomph than the standard underwater point and shoot cameras?  Lighthaus Camera is proud to present the Nikon AW 1.

Nikon's AW 1 is a nod to its past Nikkonos cameras.  This camera is the world's first digital camera with interchangeable lenses that are waterproof to 50 feet and shock proof from about 6 feet.  The AW 1 has three different underwater  options: standard, scuba, and macro.  The easy access menu has a lock function to prevent accidental setting changes when wearing diving gloves and the camera has a built in electronic compass, altimeter, depth gauge, virtual horizon and location data settings to create dive logs.  The AW 1 is a 14.2 MP camera with 1080i video recording at 60 frames per second and has two waterproof lens options.  The Nikkor AW 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6 and Nikkor AW 10mm f/2.8.  There is even an exclusive filter (AW 40.5 NC) for the lenses that will help prevent fogging underwater.  The SB-N10 underwater speedlight is scheduled for release in the spring of 2014.

Don Slocum, the person who shot the photographs in this post had this to say about the Nikon AW 1:
"Feels solid like the Nikonos, especialy the lens. Quite durable. Zoom is manual by rotating the lens barrel. Macro is awesome!!!. Has RAW, first UW camera to have it, big plus. Image quality is very very high. The zoom is a little cumbersome, can't wait for the 10mm. Best to use the auto ISO feature U/W, these were on the 100-800 range and there is also 100-1600iso and 100-3200iso."

Lighthaus Camera has four locations to serve your photographic needs.  If we don't have an item you are looking for in stock, we can order from the manufacturer or get items from the other Lighthaus Camera locations.  When items do come from other LHC locations, it usually takes about a day or two depending on when the item is shipped (weekends may take longer).

Saturday Showcase: What shot are you chasing?

Is there a shot that you've always wanted to take? For me it would be the full moon rising from the depths of Haleakala. A few years ago while my mom was visiting, that shot appeared on a crisp & clear summer evening. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the way the moon lit up Haleakala was amazing. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me that night. I've been chasing the shot for a while now but I still did not get it due to conditions not being right, forgetting that it was a full moon and not having the right lens with me. I will not give up! Please post any PG rated photographs you've been wanting to take in the comments below.

Look for my upcoming post on how to tackle manual mode on the camera.

Saturday Showcase: What is depth of field?

Depth of field is the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp in a photograph. Factors that can affect the DOF can be the aperture & focusing distance, camera type, size of print and camera settings. You can actually see how the depth of field changes in the video. The acceptable focus range starts at 20/21 then moves up the measuring tape to about 31/32. As the depth of field moves, you can see how the few inches before and after the sharp points of the focal range are blurred. That blurriness is what the Japanese call bokeh. And bokeh is what really makes portrait photographers clamor for the faster lenses. The larger the aperture, means the more blur your lens can make. The number of aperture blades and shape of the blades helps determine the shapes of your bokeh too.

Lighthaus Camera has several large aperture lenses for sale. Among them the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 version II, the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 ED VR version II, the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM, etc.. If we don't have a lens in stock, we can order it for you. Lighthaus Camera has four locations to serve your photographic needs.

Sunday Showcase: What is a histogram?

Sunday Showcase: What is a histogram?

In short a histogram is a representation of tones in any given photograph.  Moving from left to right indicates the tonal range being its darkest on the left to its brightest on the right.  The "mountain range" represents the amount of pixels in the given ranges.  In that photo, most of the pixels are below the mid range (18% gray) with a few pixels in the mid range and even fewer pixels in the brightest tone range.

Depending on the type of shot or mood you are looking for, most people want to have a relatively even tone range throughout their photographs.  The histogram would have peaks in the mid tones then they would taper off towards both the left (dark) and the right (bright) sides of the histogram.  If you were taking silhouette type shots, the histogram would have peaks on both the left and right with little in the mid tones.

Thank you for taking the time to ready my post about histograms.  Should you have questions about photography or need to purchase equipment, feel free to contact us at Lighthaus Camera.  We have four locations across the island chain to serve your photographic needs.

Saturday Showcase: Blurred Photgraphs

Last week my wife and I attended a pre-halloween party. I will not bore you with any of those photographs but I will show you examples of some of those recreated blurry photos.

The equipment I brought that night was my 5D Mark III and a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. That's it. When I first gave her the camera to shoot with I had forgotten to let her know that the lens was set in manual mode. Several shots later she came back to me asking why the picture her friend took of her was blurry. Since the background was in focus but she was not, we determined that her friend focused just behind her. That is what the second photo represents, a wrong focus point. The last photo in this post is a representation of her last photograph before she gave the camera back to me. That photo turned out blurry not because of the focus point or being in manual mode. She used the live view mode and took a shot that was almost in focus. Being in live view mode at night and hand held, the slightest movement of the camera caused her photograph to be slightly blurry.

The above three examples of blurry photos can be fixed easily. The manual mode error: turn the lens's auto focus feature on or turn the focus ring until your subject is sharp. The wrong focus point: compose your shot, press the shutter button half way to focus then take the shot. When looking through the view finder, the square represents where your focus point will be, the beeping sound indicates you are in focus. If your subject moves, just recompose the shot, focus and fire away. Camera shake: in my wife's case using the view finder instead of the live view can help correct camera shake. In most cases live view the camera operator is holding the camera with arms extended somewhat. Any slight movement will create blur. By using the view finder and creating a more stable platform by bringing your elbows into your chest will more than likely create sharper images.

Other types of out of focus shots may be because of the subject moving while the shutter is being pressed. This can be corrected by increasing the shutter speed to freeze the action. Another situation may be that your camera's aperture is wide open. Having that bokeh in portrait photography is super cool but other times you may want to close that opening, so increase the aperture to at least f/8 to get sharper images. 

As I said before, neither my wife nor I are professional photographers. We make mistakes and through those experiences, I hope I can help you learn a few things about not just taking photographs but recording life's memories.

Next on the wife's wish list is the Canon 70D. This new camera system has a dual processor, so the focusing system is just amazing. Stop by any one of Lighthaus Camera's four locations to see how fast it really is.