New Year Fireworks

I think fireworks are Standard Operating Procedure to welcome in the New Year regardless of where you are in this world. In Kuala Lumpur, there were many, many fireworks displays just as the clock struck Midnight.

As soon as I heard the "wheee, boom, hiss, Boom, boom" of the fireworks, I ran to get my Canon 400D while the Lovely Wife and my son watched the explosion of colours from our window. My daughter was exhausted and had already fallen asleep - so sound asleep in fact that the noise failed to waken her. I'm still not certain which fireworks spectacle we were treated to but suffice to say that it was one of the smaller ones.

These are some of the shots I managed to capture of the fireworks display. It was rather hard timing the shutter to coincide with the explosions but for a first effort at capturing fireworks, I am really, really pleased!







I used a full manual setting for my shots and set the exposure at various times ranging from 0.5" to 2". I only wish I had a larger zoom to get more detail. The pictures here have been cropped of course!

Once again, Happy New Year everyone!

Macro shots, Diopter Filters and Flowers in my Garden

I'm having so much fun with my new camera! I'm able to take shots like never before and sure, I'm still learning how to get the most out of the camera, but I think my photos have improved tremendously.



I was brought up to believe the old proverb - "A poor workman blames his tools". But it must be said that having the proper equipment greatly improves things! Then again, I don't want to or rather can't run down my trusty Powershot that gave me great pictures for the last 6 years. However, one thing the Powershot couldn't do very well is take close up or macro pictures. More often than not, I had to stand far away and zoom in - sometimes even resorting to digital zoom and thus sacrificing resolution.




My 400D takes amazing close up shots - even with a flash. The flash adjusts itself by using TTL (Through the Lens) metering and adjusting the amount of flash required. This means that I don't get glary shots or flares.



I was contemplating getting a macro lens to improve my closeup picture taking. Unfortunately, after spending a bomb on my 400D, I can't quite afford the macro lens yet. What I did decide to do was to spend a 100 bucks (that's in Ringgit) on a diopter filter. A whatopter? A Diopter.



Basically, this is a magnifying glass type of filter that greatly magnifies the object. (That's why it's called a magnifying filter!)These filters are measured in diopters, and funnily enough are the reason they are called dipoter filters. (Okay, okay, I'll stop trying to be funny)

Diopter Filters come in +1, +2, +3, +4 and +10 and the diopter indicates the refractive capacity of the lens. What this means, quite simply, is that the higher the diopter, the greater the magnification. You also have negative diopters - for reduction obviously.




Magnification and diopters are related through this simple formula

magnification = dipoters/4 + 1

This means that a +2 diopter filter will give a magnification of 1.5 based on this calculation

magnification = 2/4 + 1
= .5 + 1
= 1.5

I bought a +4 Diopter filter so using the same formula above, I get a x2 magnification.

Bear in mind that a diopter filter only magnifies at a close distance, unlike a zoom lens. Just like a magnifying glass only works at a close distance and if you looked at an object a distance away, it would be all blurry.





As a result, using Diopter filters means that your depth of field is severely restricted and becomes very, very shallow. You may also find that your autofocus doesn't quite work as well. Neither does the flash metering, so the best is to use good light for diopter shots - and macro shots in general. Increasing the aperture number (i.e a narrow aperture) can also give you slightly more Depth of Field.



All the pictures you see here have been taken with a +4 Diopter Filter at Close-Up mode on my Canon 400D. I love it!