Tuesday February 17
 
13:47
 
Transition

The first Prunus mume are blooming, soon to be followed by the Sakura. In a month’s time there wont be a single cell phone in Japan which doesn’t have a photo of cherry blossoms in it.

In this photo, the blooms are barely visible. That’s deliberate. I wanted something which shows the cold of winter transitioning into spring. While the new flowers show that subtly, it’s the “reaching out” of the branches, almost lurching forward through the air into brighter light, which gives the real impression of transition, movement, activity, and life. It conjures up images of a winding tree from a Studio Ghibli manga.

When the blooms come out this year, challenge yourself to take something which isn’t just another flower or full tree shot.

Tuesday February 10
 
15:26
 
How Has My Photography Improved?

I know a number of people now who are new to DSLRs and are asking me how they can improve their skills, so I’ve thought back over my DSLR life and asked myself this question: “What are the basic things that I did which really improved my photography knowledge and skills?”

This is the result: How To Improve Your Photography

If presents the four basic things that I’ve done which I think have helped my photography progress the most. Hope it’s useful to people.

Friday February 6
 
13:26
 
Infrared Remote For Nikon – $4!

At 20 bucks, it was one of the most useful cheap things I bought for my DSLR. But at $4 including worldwide postage – that’s crazy talk. Of course mine is official Nikon and this is OEM, but heck, it’s only one button.

Works with the D60 and D90, perfect for group shots or avoiding camera shake.

Thursday February 5
 
15:45
 
Interactive Wireless Flash Demo

If you’ve been wondering why I’ve become so interested in wireless flash recently – enough to get the D90 – take a look at this excellent interactive CLS demo from Nikon. You can control up to four flashes and see the resultant effect on the photograph – very neat.

Of course I only have one SB-600 at the moment, and I’ve still to work out why that behaves differently on the D90 to the D60. Prime suspect is the different metering system of the D90. I actually prefer the D60 output so I need to discover how to match that with the D90 before I buy an SB-900 or a couple more SB-600’s. If you look at the price of the units, you’ll see why I was less concerned about buying a D90 – if I’m going to get into CLS, I have to expect that there’s expense.

Wednesday February 4
 
23:00
 
Confused

Look at these two photos. Both are ISO200, 1/60s, f3.5, with SB-600 using TTL BL.

The D60 photo comes out significantly better than the D90. The D90 photo is darker overall, but more than that – it is much darker at the bottom than the top. The D60 has less variation.

I’ve tried to adjust the exposure in Lightroom and the result is the same, the D90 is darker at the bottom than the top, more than the D60.

I’m confused as to why (a) the D90 image is darker overall, and (b) why there’s more top-to-bottom variation on the D90. Is the ISO on the D90 less sensitive (unlikely)? Or is TTL metering differently?

D60

D90