UPDATE!

So Edward and I both have been MIA from this place for quite a while now...maybe like 2 or 3 months? The reason for that is because I had exams back in December, and Edward has exams right now. BUT that doesn't mean we haven't done anything photography!

I will let Edward update you guys if he wants, but as for myself, I FINALLY got my website done! Along with that my business cards as well! Over the winter break, I got the help of three very good friends to help design me a new logo, a business card, and my website. Needless to say, they did an AMAZING job, all three super smart people, and extremely creative.

Since I got my website up, I have actually been contacted to do an event, which is very exciting! So for the next little while, I will be trying to expose myself more, and at the same time still experimenting on many different things.

Also I will be purchasing a new camera in the VERY near future...a Canon 7D! I cannot wait especially to film, because a long with photography, I've always wanted to film. I actually have a script written up already, ready to be filmed sometime within the next year. It is my first time directing anything, so there will be a lot of problems that I will encounter, but it is all a lesson! So yeah, watch out for that coming out soon!

That's basically all for now, I PROMISE we will start posting more often again soon.

Thanks for all your support,
-Forster

P.S. here is the link to my website: http://www.forstercphotography.com/

Photography Tips - Part 1 - Landscape Photography Basics

ISO 100 17mm F/11 63sec - Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD IF

Landscape Photography isn't the genre of photography that photographers usually specialize in, especially in a a city like where I live, Toronto. The reason for this is because it not only takes a lot of expensive gear to take proper landscape photos, but it also takes a lot of experience.

I'm not bashing photographers that use manual or auto point and shoots, but what I'm saying is that it takes certain things that will make your photos seem more natural. Here is a photo that I took a while back, before I obtained my DSLR.

ISO 80 F/5.6 5mm 1/250sec - Canon PowerShot SD880 IS

As you can see here, it doesn't take a DSLR to take a decent photograph. All it takes is an eye for composition and camera.


"Wow!, I can take such photographs with a point and shoot? Why would I ever need anything else?"
The reason why you would need more gear to take landscapes is because you will not always have the same lighting as I had in the photo of Peyto Lake that is shown above. In landscape photography, the lighting will always be different, and the only way you will be able to take perfectly exposed photographs is to manipulate the light using filters, a tripod and a camera which allows manual control of ISO, the size of the aperture, and the shutter speed.

ISO- ISO is important because this states the light sensitivity of your camera's sensor or film. For landscape photos, using a low ISO (like ISO 100-200) would be best because in many landscapes, exposing your sensor for a longer period of time may produce amazing results. Also, another reason is because of the level of sharpness. The lower the ISO, the sharper it is because there is less noise. Noise is the grainy stuff that you will notice when you take photographs in dark environments with a fast shutter speed (Noise isn't as aesthetically pleasing as film grain).

Aperture- Aperture controls the amount of light that reaches your sensor/film. It also controls the depth of field (DOF) of your photo. Depth of field is the area of your photo that is in focus. The larger the aperture, the less DOF, the smaller the aperture, the more DOF. A smaller aperture also sharpens your photograph! So that's a plus. Though make sure you don't make the aperture too small, or you will be able to see dust on your sensor, and your photos will lose sharpness!

*Note: The larger the aperture, the smaller the F-stop, the smaller the aperture, the bigger the F-stop. (F-Stop is scale used to represent the size of the aperture ex: F/2.8). If it's hard to understand, think of it this way. If F=Focal Length, the aperture size is equal to Focal Length divided by the number. If the number increases, the focal length is divided even MORE because it is divided by a larger number, therefore, the size is smaller. For example: If F= 50, 50mm/2.8 = 17.8, 50/8=6.25. This is why math is essential to take photos!

Shutter Speed- Shutter speed is important because changing the shutter speed will change your photo drastically. With a fast shutter speed, everything will be still, but with a longer shutter speed, you will notice the motion of things like the clouds, the water and grass. The shutter speed also controls the amount of light going through the lens, therefore, it is essential to use a proper shutter speed to perfectly expose your photograph.

Filters-  Filters used in landscape photography are usually Neutral Density (ND) Filters and Polarizers. Neutral Density Filters are used to decrease the light going through your lens. This is used to allow a longer shutter speed in situations where there is too much light. There are also Graduated Neutral Density Filters (GND), which are used to only decrease the light from the sky because usually if you expose the sky correctly, you will underexpose the foreground, and if you expose the foreground correctly, you will overexpose the sky. These GND's require a filter holder system that holds rectangle filters, rather than the traditional circular filters.

Tripod- You must have a tripod to take long exposures. If not, then your photograph will be VERY blurry.

Alright that's about it for the basics. It might be a lot to take in, but through experience, you will get used to it. Experience is the key to taking great photographs! Don't think that you will take great photos with just knowledge about the basics. Go out and shoot, because you will encounter unexpected situations where you will be required to put all this knowledge into one photo. Here is an example:

ISO 100 F/29 8sec 17mm - Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 Non-VC w/ Cokin P.121 Graduated ND Filter

For this photograph, I had less than 10-15 minutes to take this because I was 45 minutes late for the golden hour (Sunrise and Sunset hour). In these 10-15 minutes, I had to run and look for places to shoot, put all my knowledge into the settings and setting up the shot. If I didn't have experience with landscape photography, I probably wouldn't be able to capture a great moment like this!

I will make more posts on landscape photography and other tips in the near future! If you would like to keep up with the blog, please subscribe by typing in your e-mail into the box on the top right of the blog. Thanks!

If you have any questions, please leave it in the comments below!

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

ISO 100   18mm   f/8.0   0.5sec - Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II - Canon 30D

The "Nifty Fifty" is what some people call it. It's a 50mm lens with a wide aperture of 1.8 made by Canon. This lens is one of the most lightweight and compact lenses in Canon's arsenal, and is a favourite for many amateur photographers.

Note that the nickname has "Nifty" in it. This lens costs about $120 CDN, which compared to other lenses, is amazingly cheap. I'll be honest, you don't get what you pay for; you get more. This lens is fixed at 50mm, which is the preferred focal length by many photographers. Also, many people use this lens as a portrait lens or a everyday lens. Although I don't prefer this as a portrait lens (I have a 70-200 for this), I do believe that the focal length is great for them. As for the use as a everyday lens, I think it is perfect. It's very lightweight and compact so it's really convenient to carry around. Additionally, the lens is fairly sharp for the price. The level of sharpness this lens delivers is, in my opinion, on a totally different level than the kit lens.

Although this lens is a 50mm, it is actually a 80mm on most cameras because most cameras are "crop cameras" (I'll also touch up on this topic in upcoming posts). The focal length on lenses are based on full frame cameras, so unless you camera is a full frame camera, you multiply it by usually 1.6, or some other close number like 1.5.

So from all the pros that I've talked about, you might be wondering "How can a lens that costs $120 be so flawless?". The truth is, it has many flaws. This lens feels like a plastic Tonka truck that a child plays with. It feels as if you dropped this lens, the glass would shatter into a million pieces. The autofocus on this lens can be slow and the thread doesn't even allow a hood. Also, at F1.8, the lens is substantially softer. You would have to reduce the size of the aperture by two or three stops for the lens to reach it's full potential.

From all this, what I have to say is that this lens is awesome. Not just awesome but awesome. It's cheap, sharp, compact, therefore, in my opinion, it's definitely worth the grab.


*Side Note - Forster talked about this in a older post, about two posts down. You might want to check out that post, as it also talks about the 50mm.

ForsterC Photography

THANK YOU to my friend's brother Raymond Tran for cutting out some stickers of my logo from his work place. I saw a picture of him with a sticker of his stuff on his laptop, and i thought it would be a great way to help get my name out there. I have a few more as well to give out to my friends so they can put it somewhere where everybody would see it. It looks like this:

1s exposure, f/8, ISO 100, using my 17-55mm f/2.8 at 17mm

 I also took the opportunity to show you guys the sticker, and add in soem stuff to kinda show you my stuff. I have some gear on the side, and a picture of myself in the background (as seen below in the into to myself).

I thought about putting this up on the blog, so i took a pic of the set up trpid, and how little room i had to move. Yes...my room is REALLY messy...don't judge! Haha.

Go ahead and check out my sites! (I will have a website up and running by January 1st, 2012)

Flickr

Tumblr (my tumblr is more of a personal blog...go ahead and like/reblog to help me out! THANKS!)

-Forster

Basic Beginners Guide to Photography as a Hobby.

Photography is an expensive hobby. So if you ever plan to get good at it, or even be at least decent, in my opinion, it should be your ONLY hobby.

I’m telling you right now, that if you don’t have the passion or the drive to do it, you really shouldn’t waste your money on a DSLR. Often times, when I walk around school, malls, other public places, I see way too many people that have one just for the sake of having one, and claim to be a photographer.

With that being said, this post will basically focus on what my views are about beginners, and my own personal story as well as experiences with beginners.

So I always had a thing for photography, but I never really perused it I got my first phone in grade 9, then it took another year for me to actually convince my parents that I was serious and wanted to do photography as a hobby, which is how I got my first DSLR. As a beginner, the body is not too important, just getting a lower end, entry level DSLR will do the job. For Canons, it would be the Rebel line (though I feel like their move into the t1i and onwards is starting to get a lot more serious), and for Nikons, entry level cameras are the Dxxxx, or Dxx (around 60 or under). For me, my first camera was the Canon Rebel XS. Now that you have your DSLR, you will eventually learn about settings such as ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. My tip here, if you’re really serious and want to get good faster, is to use the M setting, and learn to adjust the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture accordingly. This will teach you when to use what settings for the best outcome of the picture, as well as give you an eye for guessing what settings would be best in a certain environment to get the photo that you want.

As for lenses, the kit lens is good enough for now, when you learn about how to use the camera and its settings well, your pictures will still come out amazing. I had a kit lens for a very long time, and to be honest I didn’t even think about getting a second lens until someone asked me about it. Even then, I did a lot of research before I purchased one (my first lens was a Canon 50mm f1.8). My advice for lenses is that you should be 100% sure you want to commit yourself to photography before thinking about getting a lens, because all lenses (except the 50mm f1.8, for both Canon and Nikon) are extremely expensive (well…I guess it really depends on your definition of expensive haha). As for deciding on a lens, at this point in time, you can just pick a relatively cheaper one, also with good quality, which is why I picked the 50mm f1.8, which I also recommend for those beginners looking for a second lens.

As for everything after this, I feel like it should be at your own digression, since you should know enough about your own photography, and what you like and want out of your pictures to know what to do next.

This was just brief explanation and advice for what I think is best for photographers starting off. I have told my friends that also want to start off, very similar things. I actually tend to try to talk them out of it, to see how bad and how far they’re willing to go with this…because like I said, it is a very expensive hobby, and you’d be saving a ton of money if you didn’t get into it at all without the motivation. I’m like this because far too often do I look up photography companies and professional photographers and find the pile of garbage they produce…I’m not saying my stuff is amazing, but I feel that I can most definitely do better than them (I’m sure Edward agrees on me for this one).

But yeah, that’s all, if you have any questions about other beginner’s tips, or if you have trouble contemplating over things, leave a comment below!

All the things I talked about in here are just MY personal opinions and advice through experience, it does not reflect what Edward’s personal opinions on this matter (though I know he agrees with most of this stuff because we’ve spoken about this before).

Now I will go to sleep…LOTS of studying to do ahead of me...exams will be the death of me!

-Forster

Introduction: Forster Chan

Heya,

My name is Forster Chan, 18 years old, also a photographer. Likewise to Edward, I will also be posting up photos of my own stuff, adventures I go on and a detailed description along with each post.

I don't have a website up yet, but you can check out my flickr or you can go like and reblog my photos on my tumblr (which is more of my own photography blog).

-Forster

Introduction: Edward Cho

Hello,

My name is Edward Cho, 17 years old, photographer. I will be posting photographs that I take and will include descriptions on how I took them and all that other technical stuff. I will be also posting about my photography adventures. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how this blog is going to turn out. We'll see.

Please check out my website at Echo Photo

Edward