Lens Hacks - Part One

Freelensing

As the name may suggest the lens is used whilst detached from the camera body, the technique requires you to hold the lens in your left hand, up to the open lens mount of your camera. By then tilting the lens slightly you can affect the depth of field, in the same way, as a tilt shift lens would work.

The drawback is to free the lens, it will be further away than normal, so infinity focus is unfortunately out of the question. However you will be able to get some interesting portraits, and close-ups this way.

Reversing Lenses

This is the same freelensing technique; except with the lens facing backwards, you don’t need anything complicated just a 50mm prime that most people will already have. It’s a little easier if you have manual control over the aperture however it’s not essential. This will instantly give you the ability to get some really big magnifications for the small stuff.

Above: When you don't haven't made plans to take macro shots, reversing
your lens can get you that shot when the moment turns up.

Why I love (and hate) the 645Pro app

I'm aware that this is years after this app first appeared, however I wanted to review together with writing about the use of phone cameras. Nowadays our mobile phones have become more and more advanced and are capable of producing some truly impressive images. I am not here to discuss phones that are designed around cameras, but more focus on the type of phone an average person may have that means fixed (around 28mm) lens, with 5-8mp sub-16mm film size sensors.

Above: Even some surprising subjects can be captured. Using a camera without any focusing capability can help with speed.

The best camera is the one you have with you – Chase Jarvis

Not all phones are made equal

Photography Hacks

This has been written for a photography group that I participate in, called Birmingham Flickrmeets, where annually we hold a “contraptions meetup” where we would experiment with forms of photography that perhaps we wouldn’t otherwise consider. This made me think about projects and hacks that could be done at using little or no expenditure at all.

The industry has zero interest in promoting this kind of project, there is no benefit for them to promote people to spend less money. However for the typical photographer, being able to try new techniques without a huge investment is useful. When I started exploring photography I did not want to make huge financial commitments into equipment in subject areas I wasn’t sure I had an interest in, so often finding hacks became a fun challenge, often forcing me to really think about the photography.

Hacks for Portrait and Product Photography

In the first of these posts, I’m going to explore the hacks involved in portraiture and street photography. Sometimes you may find you’re out and about and just need that little extra zing, or perhaps you want to try something before you make a big financial commitment.

Make Your Own Reflector

The Rules of Photography

Here are just some of the rules of photography:

1) Rule of thirds
2) Always leave space for subjects to move into
3) Fill the frame
4) Use a fast shutter speed for action shots
5) Portraits need telephoto lenses
6) Don’t use direct flash
7) Shoot from low down, high up, just anything but eye level
8) Don’t shoot landscapes at midday
9) Avoid shooting into direct sunlight
10) Don’t blow out the highlights

That you can break, photography is an art form, as such we should avoid seeing rules as hard and fast laws, and instead as guidelines that often make for the best aesthetics. Great photographic works often stand out by breaking the rules.

This is a series where through analysing photographs that have defied convention to produce powerful results, which have been highly praised and awarded, we will show you how to have some fun breaking rules.

For this first article I shall discuss possibly the most often talked about "rules", which pertains to composition. We often ridicule those who mindlessly point the camera and shoot with the subject slap bang in the middle, but should we not also ask the same questions for those who unquestioningly put all our subjects on the thirds of a frame.

'Oh wow nice hat!'

‘Oh wow nice hat! I think we should encourage more people to wear hats again…’ that’s what lead to this photo.

Welcome to our blog

Welcome to Ken and Chao’s photography blog, and we love to take photographs, and despite being professionals, we also want to use our experience to help you have more fun with your hobby. We also feel that informing people about photography is beneficial for the art of photography as a whole.

As the blog develops, there will be a series of guides, anecdotes, and mini-projects for you to have a go with. We know not everybody will be at the same skill level, so we apologise in advance that not everything we post will be to everyone’s taste. Nonetheless we hope you will follow us and enjoy the blog.