It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an iTunes tip here, so I thought I would share something that recently came up for me.

As I’ve said many times before, I listen to lots of photography related podcasts, and I usually listen to them on my iPod Touch. But I was recently trying to catch up on a series of video shows so I had the iTunes Mini Player up on my computer (it’s really not a great idea to watch them while driving your vehicle!).

As always I was trying to get other some work done at the same time and the iTunes Video window kept disappearing behind the window I was working in. This made it very difficult to see the show I was watching! No problem, I’ll just go into the preferences menu and click the box to keep the video window on top. But I couldn’t find it!

I knew that this option had to be there, so I kept looking for it. After searching for way too long, I finally figured out that the option was available, but it was not in the “Playback” tab of the preferences window; instead it was on the “Advanced” tab.

If you want to set iTunes to keep the Video or Mini Player playback window on top of all your other windows, try changing your Advanced Preferences as follows:

1. Click “Edit“, “Preferences…“
2. Choose the “Advanced” tab
3. Ensure the checkbox for the “Keep Mini Player on top of all other windows” is checked
4. Ensure the checkbox for the “Keep Movie Window on top of all other windows” is checked

Keep iTunes Playback Window on Top

You’ve probably heard this advice before, and I’m sure you know that it’s true, but if you’re like most people you ignore it anyway… The single best way to get sharper images is to use a tripod. This is especially true for shooting video with dSLR’s where camera shake is a constant annoyance!

So use your tripod. It’s just that easy. Take your tripod with you, and actually use it. Even an inexpensive, simple, lightweight tripod that has no extra features (other than supporting your camera) will net you far better images on average than not using one at all. You can probably buy one of these at Wal-Mart for $20 or less.

It’s so simple that I don’t think I even need to explain it further.

What Tripod Should I Buy?

I was going to stop there, but because I get asked about it all the time, I’m going to provide a list of 3 really great tripods that you should consider buying. Note that you won’t find a $20 tripod from Wal-Mart on this list, but if that’s really all you can afford you really should go get one. Note also that you actually need 2 things: a tripod and a ball head. The ball head sits on top of the tripod and is the actual part that attaches to the camera. It allows you to quickly and easily point the camera in the direction, angle, and orientation that you want. I like Manfrotto tripods and ball heads, so that’s what I’m going to recommend here:

Tripods for Small Cameras: The Manfrotto 190xProB with a 496RC2 ball head is a great combination for the vast majority of photographers. This will be good for people with entry-level dSLR’s (or even for those bigger point and shoots). It is a relatively small and lightweight tripod that is easy to use and to carry, and you can get this combination for around $250. The max load rating is about 8 pounds, so if you have a big camera and/or lenses (or if you think you will be getting bigger stuff soon) then you might consider stepping up to the next level.

Tripods for Big Cameras: The Manfrotto 055xProB with a 498RC2 ball head is an excellent system for advanced shooters with bigger cameras or lenses. I bought this tripod (with the now discontinued 488RC2 ballhead) when I got my Canon 40D because I knew that I would be using it with some pretty heavy lenses for shooting birds and wildlife. It still works great with my Canon 1D Mark IV, but if I use any really heavy lenses then I’m starting to push its limits. This ballhead is much stronger than the 486RC2m (it supports up to 17 pounds) and the tripod is much heavier and stronger than the 190xProB too. The combination is also taller. I’m 6′ 2″ and I only have to bend slightly while using my tripod with the legs fully extended. I’ve been using this combination extensively (multiple times a week) for over 2 years now and it is still in great condition. This combination goes for around $300.

Lightweight Tripods (that you might actually use): The major problem with tripods is that they are big and heavy, and most people end up not using them because of that. If you want one that’s small enough and light enough that you will actually take it with you then you should consider getting Carbon Fiber. I can highly recommend the Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 or 190CXPRO4 for small cameras, or the 055CXPRO3 or 055CXPRO4for bigger cameras, or. These are essentially the same tripods as I described above, but they come in a couple of different options. The difference between the Pro3 and the Pro4 versions is in how many leg sections (3 vs 4) they have, and therefore the minimum length that they will be when folded down. More sections allows them to get smaller (for carrying in a hiking pack or a suitcase), but also makes them more time consuming to set up. They also get progressively more expensive (in the order I listed them) as you go up the chain, starting at around $400 for the legs alone. The choice is yours. I would use these with the same 496RC2 or 498RC2 ball heads I suggested above depending on the weight of your gear.

This is the next installment in my series of Quick Tips for photographers.

It seems that every photographer wants to have a great image of the moon in their collection. Why? Because it’s there! And because it’s cool!

Most people that set out to shoot the moon expect that it will be hard to do, that you will need to use long exposures, and maybe even a tripod. In short, they expect to have to shoot it like any other night time shot. Using a tripod is always a great idea if you want to make really sharp images, but for the moon it’s not strictly required. In fact, shooting the moon is more like a daytime shot rather than a night time shot.

Photographing the Moon

Although it may be counter-intuitive, the moon is actually very bright. We can only see the moon because it reflects the light of the sun. That means that the Sunny 16 Rule is actually a great starting point to make images of the moon.

The moon is not quite as bright as a sunny day, so you will probably want to add at least 1 stop of light to the exposure that you calculated using the Sunny 16 Rule to get it just right. So instead of 1/ISO at f/16, you might try f/11 instead.

Modified Sunny 16 Rule for Shooting the Moon:
Aperture = f/11
Shutter = 1/ISO

An equivalent exposure that I like to use for shooting the moon is:
f/8 @ ISO 200 and 1/400th of a second

I like these settings because ISO 200 provides a nice clean (noise-free) images for most modern cameras, and 1/400th is easily hand-holdable unless you are using very long lenses.

NOTE – if you want to zoom in tight on the moon then you will need to use an extremely long lens. In that case you will absolutely want to use an equivalent exposure that includes a very fast shutter speed.

For example, I occasionally use my 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter to get an equivalent focal length of 800mm. In that case I want to ensure that I get at least 1/1000th of a second to get tack sharp images. To do so I will typically open up the aperture to f/5.6 and also increase my ISO to 400. Doing so allows me to use a shutter speed as fast as 1/1600th of a second.

An equivalent exposure for shooting the moon with long lenses:
f/5.6 @ ISO 400 and 1/1600th of a second

As in all exposure decisions you will want to salt to taste depending on your particular equipment and environment…

A final word on shooting the moon:

Most people that make images of the moon do so when the moon is full. That’s actually the most boring time to shoot the moon, because the entire moon is lit up and it ends up coming out flat and boring. The most interesting images of the moon are taken when only part of it is lit, which is about 1 week before or after the full moon. In this situation the moon is only partially lit which makes the texture from the craters on its surface really pop because the shadows behind them are visible.

This trick is also true for many other forms of photography.

If you want your subject to look interesting, only light part of it!

This is the next installment in my series of Quick Tips for photographers. This one is an oldie but a goodie…

Sometimes your camera will be confused by the lighting conditions around it. In those cases it’s always a good idea to have a feeling for a good starting point for what the correct exposure settings to use will be.

Way back in the olden days (before histograms and light meters were built into the camera), photographers had to do this in their heads, and they had to do it all the time. They developed lots of rules of thumb to help. Here’s one that you can used to determine the correct exposure on a bright sunny day.

The Sunny 16 Rule

On a bright sunny day, if you set your aperture (or F-stop) to f/16, then the shutter speed required to get a good exposure will simply be 1 / ISO.

Some modifiers for this rule:

• If you are at a white sandy beach or shooting in snow then you may need to stop down by 1 stop to cut glare and reflections.
• If your background is darker or there are important areas of the scene in the shade then you may need to open up by 1 stop to fill in the shadows.
• You may have to “salt to taste” to get an exposure that matches your creative expectation!

NOTE – If you need a refresher on Aperture, F-stop, Stop Down, or Open Up, then check out my earlier post on Apertures and F-stops.

For the Advanced Class

f/16 at 1/ISO should be considered to be your starting point, and you can always add salt to taste if you want to change the look of the image (Tip – use the histogram on your LCD to check your exposure). You can also use that exposure information to calculate a whole series of equivalent exposures depending on the creative decisions you want to make.

For example, if you want to blur the background then you might want to use f/2.8 instead of f/16. In this case you simply need to figure out how many full stops brighter f/2.8 is than f/16, and then take away that much light be increasing the shutter speed or decreasing the ISO.

Every time you move either the Aperture, the Shutter, or the ISO from one of the standard settings in the table above to the adjacent setting to the left of it, you are “Stopping Down” your exposure by 1 full stop, which means you will use half the light of the previous setting. As you move to the right you “Open Up” by 1 full stop, which means you will get twice as much light. If you Stop Down the aperture by one stop, then you must Open Up the Shutter or the ISO by one stop in order to maintain the equivalent exposure.

A practical example: Moving from f/16 to f/2.8 is 5 full stops more light. To achieve an equivalent exposure you would have to take away 5 stops. You could do that by Stopping Down the ISO or the Shutter. Changing the ISO from 3200 down to 100, or increasing the Shutter Speed from 1/4 sec up to 1/125th sec are equivalent moves.

NOTE – Modern cameras allow many more choices for Aperture, Shutter, and ISO. They generally allow adjustments in half, third, or even quarter stops. It is very important that you understand how much you have to change to affect your exposure by a full stop! And as always, practice makes perfect!

This is the next installment in my series of Quick Tips for photographers.

New photographers often get confused about terms like Wider Aperture, smaller F-stop, Stopping Down, and Opening Up. So here is a series of explanations for what some of these terms mean.

The thing is, photographers that know this stuff just know it, and they don’t even have to think about it. When a new person comes onto the scene and they hear terms like Stop Down, Open Up, Fast Glass, and Maximum Aperture, they often have no idea what language is being spoken. It’s really not obvious what any of these terms mean, and it can be very confusing to figure it out unless someone explains it clearly and simply.

Here are some key points to remember:

• A small F-stop means a large aperture.
• A large F-stop means a small aperture.
• Large apertures (small F-stops) let in more light than small apertures, so you can use faster shutter speeds to get the same exposure.
• “Stopping Down” means to use a smaller aperture, which is a higher F-stop.
• “Opening Up” means to use a larger aperture, which is a smaller F-stop.
• “Fast Glass” means using lenses with a very low f-stop (such as f/2.8 or smaller) which let in lots of light. More light means faster shutter speeds, hence the term Fast Glass. Fast glass is good.
• “Maximum Aperture” means the largest aperture, or smallest F-stop, that a lens is capable of. See “Fast Glass” to figure out why this is important.

This can be very hard to remember until you’ve used your camera so much that it just comes natural to you and you don’t even have to think about it. For many people, simply memorizing the table above will be enough to make this all work flawlessly!

More Detail for the Advanced Class

For some people it helps to think about what the numbers mean. If you don’t want to know, just stop right here, and go back and finish memorizing the terms above!

The F-stop is really just a ratio between the size of the lens opening (called the aperture) and the focal length of the lens you are using. The size of the aperture is simply the focal length divided by the F-stop number.

The important part is that no matter what lens you are using, if you divide the focal length by 4, you will get a larger number than if you divide by 16; this means that at f/4 you will have a much larger aperture than at f/16, and therefore the lens will let in much more light at f/4 than at f/16.

For example, if you are using a 100 mm lens:
- At f/4 the size of the aperture is 100/4 = 25 mm
- at f/16 the size of the aperture is 100/16 = 6.25 mm

You can see that the aperture at f/4 is significantly bigger than at f/16, and therefore the lens will let in way more light at a smaller F-stop.