iPhone is the most popular camera on Flickr

The most popular camera on Flickr is the iPhone.

That’s the news from a just-published report from the photo sharing giant.
In its (2015 report), an analysis of EXIF data by Flickr says the iPhone is responsible for 42% of the photos that make it to the service. It’s followed (at a distance) by Canon EOS cameras, with 27% and Nikon with 16%.iPhones have been the most popular cameras on Flickr for quite a few years. Of course cell phone cameras will always have an advantage, because they are small and most people have a camera with them as a result. That’s certainly not true of DSLRs. You can see that in the Flickr provided breakdown. 39% of all their photos come from camera phones, 31% from DSLRs, 25% for point and shoot cameras, and 3% from the new mirrorless cameras.

I think a lot of iPhone owners own higher-end cameras. I’m a photography buff, and certainly do, with a Canon 6D and even a Fuji 3D camera. Still, the majority of my images are generated by the iPhone. And even when I’m out of town on a landscape shoot, I’m always using my iPhone to send pictures back to family and friends so they can share in the experience.
I think that means the iPhone is ‘good enough’ for high-quality photography, because essentially Flickr is a photo art site, not a ‘let’s get a picture of the kids birthday’ site.
Of course, if you’re here reading this, you know the iPhone camera, especially in its later iterations, is certainly ‘good enough’ for some fine photography. They, of course, are not the best camera out there, but when inspiration strikes, it’s the camera that is with you. We see that not only reflected on Flickr, but we see it in news coverage where we often see some breaking news footage that as often as not, is generated from an iPhone.So we’re seeing the iPhone’s popularity reflected in these numbers and the fact that you can get good results from a camera on a device that originally considered a camera a convenient afterthought.
Apple changed the way photography works with the iPhone. We are all benefiting.

Flickr 2015 Report Click this 

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10 Reasons Why You Should Be Shooting RAW

You’ve probably heard over and over that you should be shooting in RAW. But do you know why it’s so important? And what it really means for your images? Let’s sort it out!

First off, what is RAW? RAW is a file format that captures all image data recorded by the sensor when you take a photo. When shooting in a format like JPEG image information is compressed and lost. Because no information is compressed with RAW you’re able to produce higher quality images, as well as correct problem images that would be unrecoverable if shot in the JPEG format.
And happily many many cameras these days shoot RAW, including point and shoots! So even if you’re using a little camera, you might still be able to take advantage of the RAW file format (just check your camera manual to see!).

So, the benefits of RAW. Let’s list ‘em out:

1. Get the Highest Level of Quality

This is one of the biggest benefits. When you shoot in RAW you record all of the data from the sensor. This gives the highest quality files. And when it comes to your awesome images, you want high quality.
Look at it this way: all cameras technically shoot RAW. Yes, it’s true.
The difference when you shoot in JPEG format is that the camera does it’s own processing to convert the RAW information into a JPEG.
However, your camera is nowhere near as smart as your brain, nor is it as powerful as your computer. When you shoot RAW, you’re able to do that processing yourself. You can make the decisions on how the image should look, and produce way better results.

2. Record Greater Levels of Brightness

Levels of brightness are the number of steps from black to white in an image. The more you have, the smoother the transitions of tones. Smooth is good.
JPEG records 256 levels of brightness, and RAW records between 4,096 to 16,384 levels! This is described with the term “bit”. JPEG captures in 8bit, and RAW is either 12bit or 14bit. That’s what that bit business means!
The effect this has on your images is huge. Those additional steps of brightness let you make more adjustments (expoosure, blacks, fill light, recovery, contrast, brightness) to your image without a significant reduction of quality, because there’s more levels to work with!
It’s also easier to avoid or correct posterization in your images when you shoot in RAW. Posterization is the banding that you often see in bright skies, which really doesn’t look good in prints!

3. Easily Correct Dramatically Over/Under Exposed Images

Obviously you want to get the best exposure in camera, but sometimes things move fast (especially with weddings!) and you wind up with a dramatically over or under exposed image.
With RAW you have additional information in the file, so it’s much easier to correct the image without a drastic reduction in quality. You can also recover more blown highlights and clipped shadows. Good stuff.

4. Easily Adjust White Balance

When you shoot JPEG the white balance is applied to the image. You can’t just easily choose another option. With RAW the white balance is still recorded, but because you have way more data, it’s easy to adjust.
Great white balance and colour are essential to an awesome image, and shooting RAW lets you make the adjustments easier and faster, with better results.

5. Get Better Detail

When you shoot RAW you have access to sharpening and noise algorithms in a program like Lightroom that are way more powerful than those found in your camera.
Plus, these sharpening and noise algorithms are always improving, so in the future you’ll be able to re-visit your RAW files and take advantage of these improvements. And jetpacks.

6. Enjoy Non-Destructive Editing

When you make adjustments to a RAW file, you’re not actually doing anything to the original data. What you’re doing is creating a set of instructions for how the JPEG or TIFF (another file format) version should be saved.
The awesomness of this is that you never ever have to worry about ruining an image, accidentally saving over, or being unable to go back and make changes. You can always reset your adjustments, and start over again.
JPEG files lose quality every time you open them, make adjustments, and save again. True story. It’s what is known as a “lossy” file format. So if you’re making edits to JPEGs you always have to be duplicating the image and saving out a new version if you don’t want to lose file quality. Hassle.

7. Get Better Prints

Because of the finer gradation of tones and colours you’ll get better prints from RAW files. Even though more and more people are shooting digital, great prints are as important as ever (maybe even more so, due to their relative rarity!)
You’ll also get less banding, which is really yucky on a print.

8. Select Colour Space on Output

Colour space is a bit of a complex topic, but here’s a quick tip. With RAW you can choose from any colour space when you are exporting it out, so you can adjust depending on the situation!
Is the image going on to the web? Then output in the sRGB colour space to ensure maximum compatibility among web browsers.
Are the files heading to a client? Save it in the common Adobe RGB (1998) colour space.
Do you want the widest colour space possible? Use ProPhoto RGB.
Basically there are different colour spaces that work best for different situations, and when you shoot RAW you can export a single image in multiple spaces! Sweet!

9. Have an Efficient Workflow

It’s easier to work through large batches of images when you’re using a workflow centric program like Lightroom or Aperture. They’re designed to easily process groups of RAW images. Photoshop is not meant for that kind of thing, it’s built to handle one image at a time.
In order to take full advantage of all the benefits of Lightroom and Aperture you should be shooting RAW!

10. It’s the Pro Option

Professionals should be providing their clients with the highest quality possible. Issues like banding and blown h
ighlights are big deals when you’re offering your clients printed products. Achieving proper colour balance, and choosing the right colour space for the situation are critical as well.
By shooting RAW you take control, and are able to manage these problems to create the best results possible.
Now that some point and shoots are capable of shooting RAW, hobbyists and amateurs can also take advantage of this pro level option, and get better files and prints! Good deal.

Downsides and Solutions

Now, there are always pros and cons to every option, and RAW does have a few downsides. We’ll chat about those, as well as some potential soluations!

Need To Be Processed

A common argument against shooting RAW is that because the files need to be processed, it takes more time to shoot RAW than JPEG. If you don’t do any processing to your JPEGs that might be true.
However, most photographers do some level of processing to their JPEGs so already the argument is getting flimsy.
Then, when you add in the fact that adjustments like white balancing, and recovering highlights and shadows are way faster with RAW files, and it actually begins to looks like processing RAW can be faster than JPEG!!
Then, with RAW, you can easily export to JPEG, as well as convert to various sizes (like web res) at the same time. If you really wanted you could even shoot RAW + JPEG simultaneously!
RAW gives you way more options, and can be processed just as fast, if not faster, than JPEG.

Takes Up More Space

Since RAW files have more uncompressed information they can be 2-3 times larger than JPEG files. This is definitely a concern for many shooters, especially those who create a lot of images.
But over the past few years, the cost of hard drives has really dropped, and they’re incredibly affordable!
Let’s consider a 3TB hard drive.

• A 3TB drive costs about $129
• If a large JPEG file is about 8MB, you’ll fit 375,000 images on the drive, at $0.000344/image
• If a RAW file is about 30MB, you’ll fit 100,000 images on the drive, at $0.00129/image

Obviously you can store fewer RAW files, but the number of images that you can cheaply store is so large for both formats that it’s not really an issue! It’s also probably a good idea to not place so many images on a single hard drive. Don’t put all your photographic eggs in one basket!
Memory cards are the same deal. They’re constantly dropping in price. Remember when a 2GB card was over $200?? Nowadays you can hardly even buy one that small, and 4GB is as cheap as $15. Madness!
Yes, RAW files are bigger and take up more space. But that’s because they’re of higher quality. Go with high quality for the extra $0.00121/image.

Slows The Camera Down

RAW files are larger than JPEGs, so they’ll fill up the buffer of your camera faster. The camera will still shoot the same frames per second, regardless of whether it is RAW or JPEG, but you may have to wait for the camera to write to the memory card if the buffer fills up.
If shooting fast sequences if critical for you, and you want to shoot RAW, you can purchase faster memory cards, or a more expensive camera with a larger buffer.

In A Proprietary Format

RAW files are often recorded in a proprietary format, which means that the camera manufacturers haven’t officially disclosed how the raw data can be converted. Companies like Adobe either need to license software to decode the RAW files or reverse engineer how the files should be converted. (For Canon cameras the RAW format looks like .CR2 and for Nikon it’s .NEF).
The problem here is that you can’t be certain that in 5, 10 or 20 years you’ll be able to easily open that RAW file if you don’t have the proper software to decode it!
A new open source RAW format has been developed in order to overcome this obstacle. It was developed by Adobe and is known as DNG (Digital Negative). Using a program like Lightroom, you can convert your proprietary RAW files into the open source DNG format. It’s an extra step, but it will ensure your files are readable far into the future!
Already the Leica M9 shoots in the DNG format, so look for more camera manufacturers to support this open source format in the future!

Wrap It UP!

Hopefully this look at RAW and it’s benefits has cleared things up a bit! Suggestions that RAW takes too long, or is too much work, don’t really hold water anymore.
These days, it’s super duper easy (and fast!) to process RAW files, and you’ll be able to get the absolute best quality out of those images that you put so much time, effort and love into!

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Five Tricks to Make the Best of Foliage Photography

Falls About to Start .... and now lets talk about Foliage! Well, whether you know or not, they can fill nature with color. And, especially during the fall, foliage can be extremely wonderful. They usually have so many colors that you will remain staring at them for hours together. And so, no wonder foliage makes an exciting subject for nature photography.

Photo Credits: Mike Gabelmann

A large number of photographers prefer going for foliage photography. There are enough reasons for this. It’s quite difficult to get the wide range of colors that foliage offers in any other form of nature photography. Besides, while taking photograph of foliage, it is possible for you to go for landscape snaps as well as close range pictures. This really comes in handy when you are planning to explore various photography techniques. However, you need to keep a few things in mind when you are planning foliage photography.

Find the Right Location

Location is probably the most important thing that you need to keep in mind when planning foliage photography. You have to find the right place where colors are found in plenty. It is always a good idea to start clicking the photos from the higher altitudes. Colors are usually found aplenty there. Check out the internet or read books on the best places that you can visit to find the wonderful colors of autumn. You can check out the state tourism website as well to find the details about the best places to click photographs of foliage.

When is the Best Time?

Well, this is one of the most important questions to ask when you are going for foliage photography. The light plays an important role in ensuring that the photo, that you click ultimately, comes out in a wonderful manner. However, not all places have the same time to click pictures. You need to know when is the perfect time to click the best pictures from that place. This surely will help you get the best clicks from that spot.

Click from Different Ranges

Decide the distance from where you are planning to click the pictures. If you are planning to click foliage and if you are at the right place, you will find colors all over. Use the long range shots initially. Then you can go for close range ones as well. Click a single leaf with multiple colors or a number of trees that show the colors of fall in the best possible manner. The different ranges from where you are clicking the pictures will help to give it new dimensions. This will surely be one of the best ways to click the pictures. It will help you to win appreciations and besides, will surely make the picture a perfect one.

Look for Reflections of Foliage on Water Bodies

If you are planning to click foliage images during fall, you can get some wonderful clicks. But for that, you should not look for forests and trees only. Instead, search for a lake with trees surrounding it. These lakes can usually be excellent components of foliage photography. The colorful leaves look wonderful when they reflect in the waters of the lakes. So, you should look for such reflections in places near to your house. Once you get such a frame for your photo shoot, it is sure to become a big hit among the photography experts.

Look Around as Well

If you think the colorful trees are the only places to get the best pictures of the foliage, think again! Just keep your eyes open and look on the forest floors. You will find a large array of colors scattered in form of dry leaves there. Click them and get the best pictures there.

No matter what kind of photo you are clicking of the foliage, creativity is the key to it. It is important for you to know from which angle you should click a picture. This is going to help you get the best clicks of foliage photography. You can also use digital or film camera. But make sure you remain focused during the development of the photo to help reflect maximum colors in it. This will make the image richer and a truer reflection of the nature outside.

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Three Portrait Photography Tips Every Beginner Should Know

Portrait photography and family photography in UK and Nepal are markets that have a lot of photographers wanting to take advantage of the field. People are always looking to capture memories of their family in any way possible, and photography is still one of the most nostalgic ways available. If you want to become a photographer in this field, you need to make sure that you get everything right in order to stand a chance of being a success. Here we will explore a few tips of what to consider when doing portrait photography.

Photo Courtesy: Kuster & Wildhaber Photography via flickr

3 Things to consider while doing Portrait Photography

1. Using Window Light is Important
If you are an amateur, the chances are that you do not have a studio that can take advantage of expensive lighting arrangements. Normal lighting is not the best for photography, which means that in-home photography will always look worse than photography in a studio. However, using the natural light through a window is a great solution for portrait photography as the light is subtle rather than vivid. This allows the image to be much more suggestive, something that is often welcomed with portrait photography.

Photo Credits: Martin Gommel/Flickr

2. Never use Flash for Portraits
The flash on a camera is great for some picture types, but not for up close portrait photography. Unless you have a good lighting setup with flash (or flashes) like softbox, diffuser etc., don’t try to use flash light as the primary source of light. As the flash is often lined up above the lens, you end up with ‘flat light,’ which means that the picture turns out not as good as it could. Some professionals choose to use an external flash solution. However, many professionals think that using no flash and getting the natural lighting right makes for a better picture.

Photo Credits: Dan Foy/Flickr

3. Be Different
The picture of a smiling child waving at the camera is a cliché. In a way, even though they may be the ‘cutest’ pictures too many, once you have seen one you have seen them all, which makes them boring. Try something different with your portrait shots, like introducing spontaneity. Many professional photographers use props to make their portrait photographs stand out from the others. Furthermore, when you introduce props, the person that you are photographing becomes more relaxed, which makes for a better portrait picture.

Photo Credits: Keiko S. Dowell via 500px

Portrait photography may look easy, but the reality is that there is so much detail involved in a great picture that any photographer will have to study this field for a long time before they have a chance to become established in this market.

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40 Beautiful Photos Taken With 50mm Lenses

In one of my previous posts, I gave you the reasons why you should own a 50mm lens. After posting the article, I thought you should see some photographs taken with a 50mm lens so that I can prove my point :). So I have collected 40 beautiful photographs that are taken from 50mm lenses. I am sure that these photos will blow your mind away, and you will be tempted to buy one.

Read: Top 8 reasons why you should buy a 50mm lens

Photographs taken from 50mm lenses 

Photo Credits: Gunnar Gestur Geirmundsson/500px

 

 

 

  Photo Credits: Ton Abraham/500px

Photo Credits: Irene Mei/500px
Photo Credits: Mitsuru Moriguchi/500px
Photo Credits: Subodh Shetty/500px
Photo Credits: Eddie Cheng/500px
Photo Credits: Joakim Kraemer/500px
Photo Credits: Vanessa Paxton/500px
Photo Credits: Marco Marotto/500px
Photo Credits: GAZ ./500px
Photo Credits: eastandsthlm/500px
Photo Credits: Beauty/500px

Photo Credits: Alex Greenshpun/500px
Photo Credits: Tetsuya Blues/500px
Photo Credits: Maksim Lysyuk/500px
Photo Credits: Benjo Arwas/500px
Photo Credits: Kevin Corrado/500px
Photo Credits: Julia Kuzmenko/500px
Photo Credits: Sebastien Manoury/500px
Photo Credits: Anton Jankovoy/500px
Photo Credits: Mitsuru Moriguchi/500px
Photo Credits: Andrea Hubner/500px
Photo Credits: Daria Pitak[/caption]
Photo Credits: Beauty/500px
Photo Credits: Ryan Pendelton/500px
Photo Credits: Ben Torode/500px
Photo Credits: Will Burrard Lucas/500px
Photo Credits: Simone Conti/500px
Photo Credits: Yannick Lefevre/500px
Photo Credits: Daniel Cheong/500px
Photo Credits: Jinna Van Ringen/500px
Photo Credits: Kevin Corrado/500px
Photo Credits: Leo Pocksteiner/500px
Photo Credits: Langlang Jagad/500px
Photo Credits: Lothar Adamczyk/500px
Photo Credits: Bruce Noronha/500px
Photo Credits: Sarah G./500px
Photo Credits: Taylor McCutchan/500px

I am sure you are inspired after going through these photographs! Feel free to share your 50mm shots with us.

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Top 8 Reasons Why You Should Buy a 50mm Lens (The Nifty Fifty)

Why do you need a 50mm lens? Because it is awesome. Believe me on that. I have been using my 50mm lens for more than 2 years now, and it has never let me down — not even once. I am going to tell you a story. If you think that it is yours, you should read the rest of this post about the renowned 50mm lens.

You have bought your first DSLR camera, and you are happy about it. You probably got a lens along with it — the kit lens.  You will be happy with that lens for a while. But when your experience grows, you feel like you need an upgrade. So, decide to buy a new lens. But, it is not that easy. Here is what usually happens: You are in a shop, and you are wondering which one you should go for it. And, definitely, you are confused, whether you are shopping online or in a shop, as you see a myriad of lenses displayed infront of you. Yes. You will be in a dilemma. Even the salesperson cannot give you a straight answer for your question — ‘Which lens I should buy? ‘

You are going to buy your first lens, and you do not want to be disappointed. If you are new in photography, you will be utterly confused. You probably ask the salesperson, or some of your friends, to suggest you the best lens in the market. But you don’t get an answer. Then the biggest question – ‘Which one I should buy?’ — haunts you. You start looking for an answer, and that is why you are here.

My answer is — Go for a 50mm lens. And here is why?

Top 8 Reasons To Buy a 50mm Lens

Reason #1: It is cheap: Yes. When you are going to buy a lens (or anything) the first thing you ask is its price. As you may know, anything with a photography tag does not come cheap. But, fortunately, 50mm is really cheap; you can get one for 100$. NOTE: There are various versions of 50mm lens available in the market (regardless of the make). Here, I am talking about the ‘Nifty Fifty’ — the nickname of the entry-level 50mm lens (50mm f1.8)

Reason #2: Professional quality: Okay. You know that 50mm lens is cheap. The next thing you want from a lens is good image quality. 50mm lens is a prime lens (Prime lenses are fixed focal length lenses). They give very good quality images. For its price, the quality 50mm lens gives matches a professional lens. Since it is a prime lens, you will experience the ‘actual’ or capture sharpness. A 50mm lens makes tack sharp images, especially for its price. The colour rendition a 50mm lens gives you is way better than that of a kit lens.

Reason #3: It’s compact and light weight: You don’t want to feel that you can’t take your camera out because it’s heavy. You want it compact. That’s another reason you should buy a 50mm. Since there are only fewer elements inside a 50mm lens, they are lighter than other primes.

Reason #4: It is a ‘normal’ or ‘standard lens’: Don’t let the words normal standard mislead you. By normal it means perspective rendered by the 50mm matches the human eye. So it gives a natural look to the images. Why this is important? It is useful, especially for beginners, because you won’t feel that you are looking through a lens.

Reason #5: It is a fast lens: Fast lenses are those which have f-numbers f2.8 or lower. They are so called because it allows you to use faster shutter speeds since wide apertures let more light in the camera. Kit lenses are opened upto 3.5 – 5.6 range. At 55mm, the widest aperture you can use is f5.6. But in a 50mm f1.8 lens, you can open upto f1.8. That’s a 3 stop difference, or 6 times more than the amount of light a kit lens can let inside a camera. So the advantage is obvious — it helps you in shooting in low light conditions. You don’t need to increase the ISO, which creates noise, as when you use a kit lens, while shooting in low light situations. You can use faster shutter speed in low light situations, thus, taking blurry free images. 50mm comes with various wide apertures – f1.8, f1.4, f2, and even f0.95!

Reason #6: It is a versatile lens: If you are looking for a ‘Any situation’ / all-rounder lens, 50mm is what you want. With 50mm you can take —

Portraits: I feel 50mm gives great portraits especially if you are using a cropped sensor DSLR. When you use it with a cropped sensor DSLR, the 50mm ‘acts’ like a medium telephoto lens. So, it is an excellent portrait lens for such DSLR for its price. You will get good results in a full frame sensor, too, although you will experience a little distortion.

Macros: If you reverse mount your 50mm lens on your camera, you can take macros at 1:1 magnification. You can take photos with that magnification only with a macro lens (which costs you around 500$). Although you can reverse your kit lens for macros, the quality will be poorer when compared with that of a reversed 50mm.

 Street Photographs: For street photography, I use my 50mm rather than kit lens. As I mentioned before, its field of view matches the human eye. So I can shoot what I see with my eyes and the images look natural. Another reason is that the frames from a 50mm are much more compact than from the frames of a wide-angle lens. So there will be least information in the frames, and it is a good thing since it avoids clutter. NOTE: I am not saying it is the lens for street photography. My point is that it is not a bad lens for street photography.

 Landscapes: Why not? You don’t have to use wide-angle focal lengths for landscapes every time. Try some with a 50mm, too. Thus, 50mm is a walk-around lens; you can go out with just a 50mm and come back with a variety of shots.

Reason #7: It gives you great bokeh that everybody loves: I just love this aspect of the lens. The bokeh is incredible. Apart from letting more light into the camera, wide apertures create a shallow depth of field. You can make ‘dreamy’ effect in your photos; that, you don’t have to rely on photoshop, or any other photo editing software, to create it. I mean, who doesn’t love the out of focus circles and blur background in their photographs, right?

Reason #8: It will help you to know what you want: One of the disadvantages of having a DSLR is that you have to buy various lenses, and that is expensive. Like I said, 50mm is a versatile lens. You can try different genres of photography – portraits, street, and macro – with a 50mm.Eventually, you will find your taste in a particular type(s) of photography, and, thus, you can streamline your equipment upgrade.

What are you waiting for?

To summarize, 50mm lens is a low light beast; gives tack sharp images; a walk-around lens;  versatile etc. So, why don’t you grab one?Have fun shooting!

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