Tuesday, September 20, 2016

5 Tips to Improve Your Halloween Photography

Ghosts and goblins, black cats and witches brew and characters of all kinds—this is Halloween and it will be here again before you know it, so get yourself prepared to snatch all of the creatures that flood from the darkness.
No matter if you are at a party, a parade, or attempt Halloween street photography in your hometown, the following five tips will help you shoot in a way that captures the mood of the haunted night. Also check : Halloween 2016
1. Leave Your flash at Home--Shoot with High ISO.
Unless you really know what you are doing, I recommend that you not bother using your camera’s flash feature.  This might come as a surprise to you since most of your Halloween shots will take place in low light situations, but if you consider how brutal flash lighting can be if used incorrectly, you can probably see in your mind’s eye photographs that have lost that spooky Halloween mood.  There are experts who know how to use their flash features correctly, but I have yet to see many successful examples.  This is why I recommend you choose another path: if not much light is available, try to increase the ISO of your camera as much as you can.
When it comes to ISO, you need to know your camera and at which setting it starts to produce image noise to an extent that is unbearable.  Once you figure this out, simply stay below this number.  Generally, compact cameras with very high resolution tend to show a stronger increase in image noise with increasing ISO numbers.  Besides many other aspects of the camera, larger camera systems, such as SLRs, do a much better job in the ISO department.  Keep in mind that each camera has different characteristics.  
Do a few experiments with night shots prior to Halloween and then study the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data of those pictures.  You will quickly figure out which ISO will be most useful so you will not miss capturing every detail.
2. Use a Fast Lens
A fast lens is a lens with a large aperture.  These lenses are built to allow a large amount of light into your camera's sensor.  How much light your lens is letting in at a time will be a crucial factor when you are out there during Halloween night.  The more light, the shorter you can set the exposure time.  The best practice is to set your camera to aperture priority mode.  This mode allows you to choose the aperture so that you can set it to the largest possible (the smallest f-number).  In this mode, the camera automatically chooses the right exposure time for you, which is very convenient.
If you have a little bit of experience, you also know that a large aperture can help you to isolate your subject from the background.  This is an important cornerstone for appealing portraits regardless if you shoot at day or night.  To give you some numbers, I have successfully been using prime lenses on the streets at night.  These lenses had focal lengths between 30mm and 85mm, and maximum apertures between f/1.4 and f/1.8.
3. Shoot RAW
Using the camera’s RAW format over the processed and compressed JPEG format is a particularly good choice when you want to post-process your images.  The reason is simply that there is more information in each pixel of a RAW image.  In many cases, you may not physically see a comparable difference, but your computer sees much more in these pixels than your eyes.  When you process your image, the computer has more material to work with, therefore giving you more freedom when pushing the sliders on your image editing software.  The kind of processing I mostly do on nightly Halloween pictures is the use of noise reduction filters and exposure compensation to brighten up the scenes.
4. Move Around
Because you will not be using your camera’s flash feature, you are very dependent on the light that is available.  By changing your position and experimenting with various angles, you will eventually find useable light that will be good for the type of images you want to create.  Once you find a good position, stay there and keep shooting for a while.  Take advantage of it, but at some point, move on to a new location.  By changing your position your images will show a variety of backgrounds, which not only keeps you entertained during the shooting process, but also will later hold the attention of those viewing your images.  
5. Dress Up and Become Part of the Crowd
Be part of the festivities.  Your subjects will play their character roles with more authenticity when you become part of the crowd rather than being perceived as an observer.  If you are able to interact naturally with your subjects, they will also appear natural in your photographs.  Dress up, be funny, and have fun!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Flash Season 3 Premiere: Flashpoint Synopsis Released

After months of speculation and lots of chatter about the implications of the show's title character mucking with the timestream, The CW has finally released the synopsis for "Flashpoint," the season three premiere of The Flash. Also check : The Flash Season 3 Online
In the comics, Flashpoint was the name of a crossover "event" miniseries in which Barry Allen's attempt to save his mother's life resulted in a mangled timestream where the world teetered on the brink of armageddon. "Ripples in the pool" of time even reverberated backwards to impact events like Superman's landing on Earth (he was found by the government and hidden from the sun in a cell) and the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne (instead, they survived the loss of their son).
In the TV series, the changes will be more localized to Barry -- but that doesn't mean they aren't significant.
"Barry doesn't have any regrets at this point. Barry's been in this timeline for a few months when we start 'Flashpoint,'" series star Grant Gustin told ComicBook.com at Comic Con International: San Diego in July. "He's still living in a complete state of bliss with both of his parents alive. There's a Kid Flash running around as The Flash, so Barry doesn't have to be The Flash and he's okay with that. He still has his powers, but he's starting to forget the other timeline. He's got new memories that are emerging, like graduating high school or college or moments with his parents, and they're replacing old memories. And I think it's when he starts to realize that's happening, that's when he starts to realize how selfish this kind of was, how messed up it was. It's affecting not only him and his family's life, but everybody connected to him and -- who knows? -- countless people across the globe potentially. So the incredibly indecisive Barry Allen is going to try to fix things again once he realizes how much this has affected everyone's life."
You can check the episode synopsis out below.
WHAT WOULD YOU SACRIFICE TO HAVE EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED? — Barry (Grant Gustin) is living his dream life – his parents are alive, he’s asked Iris West (Candice Patton) on a date and he can finally be a normal guy as Central City has another speedster, Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale), running around saving the city. When Barry starts forgetting parts of his old life, the Reverse Flash (guest star Matt Letscher) taunts his nemesis and tells him that there will be serious repercussions for Barry and the ones he loves if he continues to live in this alternate universe. In addition to losing his memories, his powers will also start to fade. When disaster strikes, Barry must decide if he wants to continue to live in this world as Barry Allen or return to his universe as The Flash.
The Flash season three premiere, "Flashpoint," will air on October 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
Jesse Warn directed the episode, with story by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, and a teleplay by Brooke Roberts.