Photo Tips: DSLR HD Video Tips: Shooting Basics From National Geographic

7 Lighting Tips for Shooting Video with Digital SLRs

By Dan Havlik

Cinematographer Alex Buono is one of the early pioneers of using HD-DSLRs to capture video for television. A longtime user of the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D digital SLRs and, more recently, the Canon C300 digital cinema camera, Buono serves as director of photography for Saturday Night Live and has shot dozens of spots for the show using those three cameras. One of Buono’s best-known clips is SNL’s iconic opening title sequence, virtually all of which was recorded on the streets of New York City at night with a Canon 5D Mark II. In an interview with PDN, Buono shares some of his lighting tips on how to get the most out the HD video you shoot with a DSLR.

1. Think Small (but Not Too Small)
Photographers who shoot with digital SLRs for their still photo work actually have an advantage over traditional cinematographers because they’re already accustomed to doing more with less, particularly when it comes to lighting. The main reason is the unique ability of the latest DSLRs to shoot in low light at high ISOs with very little noise.

“In the past, ISO 400 was about the max you could get out of any camera [for video] and the idea of lighting a scene at ISO 1600 sounded like science fiction,” Buono says. “It’s just remarkably different now. The ability to go outside and shoot in ambient conditions at night at high ISOs really changes how you light a scene.”

In the past, a typical night exterior set-up for Buono might have required large lighting instruments—12K HMIs or 20K Fresnels—powered by massive generators to provide the enormous amount of energy those lights require. Nowadays, with the ability to shoot at high ISOs, Buono is able to approach the same night exterior with much smaller lights, such as a 1.8K ArriMax HMI, which requires a fraction of the energy and can be run on house power.

He finds that his lighting package can often be reduced to battery-powered LED lights and Kino Flos. Even when a large soft source is required, the Kino Flo VistaBeam 600 provides plenty of light yet can still be plugged into a wall socket.

“Lighting with house-powered instruments saves money and allows me to be more mobile,” he says. “I can work so much faster, my crew is smaller because the lights are smaller and I don’t need the extensive genie-cable runs.”

HD-DSLR shooters should be wary, however, of believing that because their cameras can produce good results at high ISOs, they can get away with shooting video using no lighting at all.

“The number one misconception is that you don’t need to light your shot anymore. That is not true. I’m absolutely approaching lighting from conceptually the same way I always have. I’m still using key lights, fill lights, backlights, etc. The difference is the units tend to be smaller, require less power and are less expensive.”

2. Consider Color Temperatures
While being able to shoot high-def video at high ISOs at night opens up opportunities, it also presents unique challenges, particularly when it comes to color temperature, which is often a mixed palette.

“With traditional film lighting, the instruments have perfectly matching color temperatures. Tungsten lights are all 3200 degrees; HMI lights are all 5600 degrees. That’s it. On the other hand, shooting night exteriors at high ISOs under ambient lighting, there is such a mix of color temperatures: warm tungsten headlights clashing with cyan metal-halide street lights and green fluorescent store fronts … there’s so much color contrast in the real world.”

Because of this swarm of color, HD-DSLR shooters may need to gel their lights to match the “natural” ambient riot of hues. “I find myself adding colored gels much more often than in the past,” Buono notes, adding that he often chooses gels that simulate the yellowy look of sodium vapor lamps or cool fluorescents.

3. LED and Beyond
One of the biggest innovations for HD-DSLRs is the advent of small, battery-powered devices that provide flicker-free, continuous LED light. (As an example, check out our write-up on the Litepanels Croma in “Objects of Desire” from the July 2012 issue.)

“Prior to LED lighting, there was a dearth of usable battery-powered lights for video,” Buono says. “We used to have these funky battery-belts that could get you a 30-minute blast of light, but that was it.”

Now, with a device such as the Litepanels MicroPro ($315) mounted on a DSLR, you can get 50 foot-candles of light at four to five feet. “It’s amazing. You can run and gun with just an on-camera light.”

Though LED lighting devices—Manfrotto, Polaroid and several other brands also sell LED panel-style lighting—can be expensive, Buono says they’re a must-have for anyone shooting video with a DSLR.

For documentary or newsgathering work, he recommends the 1x1 Bi-Color production light ($2,330) from Litepanels. “It’s such a powerful tool,” he says. “It can be tungsten, it can be daylight, it can be soft, it can be hard, you can turn it into a big soft light: It’s pretty versatile.”

Though he calls Litepanels a “phenomenal advancement,” he says powerful devices such as the Kino Flo Celeb 200 ($2,631), are “the next step in LEDs.

“[The Celeb 200] has such a range of adjustability of color temperature, it eliminates having to carry all these gels around. It’s incredibly versatile, fully dimmable and still packs quite a punch.”

4. Light Modifiers for Still Photography Also Work for Video
Just because a light-modifying tool was designed for still photography, doesn’t mean it won’t work for video. That’s what Buono learned when he was looking to get a classic beauty look for a fake perfume commercial for SNL.

The commercial spoof, for a phony perfume called “Red Flag,” featured comedian Kristen Wiig in a red dress, and Buono wanted to make her look as glamorous as possible. His first instinct was to use a Briese light—a high-end, German-made soft light—but was wary of the fairly expensive rental rate (up to $1,000 a day). As an alternative, Buono’s gaffer, Sean Sheridan, suggested using a seven-foot Westcott Silver Parabolic Umbrella, a modifier designed for the still photography market.

“My gaffer shows up with it and says ‘Trust me. I’ll use a large-filament tungsten bulb and it’ll look great.’ And he was right. We got these gorgeous close-ups of Kristen and it was all done with this umbrella. It’s incredibly lightweight and fast, and you can own it for a hundred bucks.”

5. When in Doubt, Block It Out
While traditionally it’s sometimes a struggle simply to get enough ambient light for a scene, when working at high ISOs with an HD-DSLR, you will often, ironically, find yourself in situations where there’s too much ambient light.

“Shooting at high ISOs [with an HD-DSLR] you end up spending less money on lighting and more money on grip equipment to control spill from existing ambient light,” he says. “For example, you may need to black-out the color-wash spilling from street lights that you would never have seen shooting at a lower ISO.”

He adds that while not having enough light usually isn’t a major issue, excess color from ambient light will be. “We may have plenty of light for exposure but we’re going to have all this color bleeding all over the place, so the ‘gripping’ will usually be more complicated and you have to prepare for that.”

His advice when it comes to ambient light: When in doubt, block it out and then add the lights you want to help get a consistent color temperature in a scene.

6. The Right Tools for the Right Situation
While shooting with a digital SLR lets you be more mobile and, arguably, more flexible, it doesn’t mean you can or should shoot everything with a stripped down “run-and-gun” lighting setup. The benefit of cameras like the 5D Mark II, 7D and now the C300 is that you can do more with less, but you still need to come prepared.

“In the past, the weight and the size of the camera and the size and expense of the lighting was cost prohibitive, but those barriers have been removed. You can now practically light every situation without using a ton of gear but that doesn’t mean you throw out all of the old tools. If I’m in a traditional situation, I may still approach it in a traditional way,” Buono says.

“There’s something about the look of a studio 10K light with that giant piece of Fresnel glass in front of it. You’re never going to get that look out of the latest and greatest LED. Sometimes, the old-school thing is the right way to go.”
  
7. Scout Your Location for Lighting
Speaking of preparation, Buono says it’s vital to scout a location not just for blocking the action, but, more critically, for how the scene will be lit.

“Carefully scouting a scene will save you a lot of money. You have to participate in the location scouting and you have to pay attention to what time of the day the shoot is going to happen. The sun is going to do more for you than any light could ever do. The sun and a piece of foam core is a lighting package. There are a lot of scenes where we’ve location scouted and planned our schedule around the sun’s position so that all I need is a 4 x 4 bounce card. I’ve also rejected locations because the sun’s position will actually hurt us more than help us.”

The same goes for indoor shoots, particularly in large venues where you think you might have to hang lights.

“Sometimes you can’t rig because the location is a hundred years old and the walls are too ornate; other times you just don’t have time to rig.”

If that’s the case, Buono suggests being prepared to bounce as much light as possible. “I’ve had a lot of success lighting large-scale locations just by aiming a Molebeam at a wall 50 feet away and getting this natural bounce that lights the whole scene.”

In one case, Buono had to shoot in an antique ballroom. Its ceiling was made of Tiffany glass, so hanging lights was out of the question. Instead, he floated Airstar’s The Cloud over the set—a 12 x 12-foot screen filled with helium that resembles a large air mattress. Once it was floating over the ballroom, Buono blasted “a cheap 5K light into it, which gave the whole scene this gorgeous, toppy glow.”

The ability of an HD-DSLR to shoot at high ISOs lets you get away with bouncing light much more than in the past.

“You bounce into a dark-brown, wood-paneled wall and most of the time there’s not enough light coming back off of it for exposure. But if you’re shooting at 800 to 3200 ISO, it becomes this incredibly natural, soft key light. If you can’t rig a light in the right position, just bounce something.”

Cinematographers Who Turned Sci Fi Movies into Art

We have tons of love for great directors — but often, when you're marveling at an especially lovely shot, you're partly admiring the work of the cinematographer who lit it and shot it. Often, the same cinematographer has worked on many of your favorite movies. Here are 10 great painters of science fiction films.

1. Peter Suchitzky (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, all of David Cronenberg's recent films, Mars Attacks!, Red Planet, After Earth)Note: We tried to credit people only for films where they were listed as the sole cinematographer or Director of Photography. Apologies if we accidentally credited someone with a film that had multiple cinematographers.

On lighting the Luke/Vader lightsaber fight: " There was another set in which a sword fight was to take place between two of the characters. When I looked at that set it struck me as being rather like a model for a stage set. In other words, it looked unfinished. It certainly had no walls at all; it was a series of ramps and discs and blackness. I was extremely concerned about that set and I thought about it a lot, about how I was going to make it work and look believable and look dramatic. Then I decided to light the whole thing from underneath, as the floors had been made translucent. In the black areas I placed Brutes and had shafts of light penetrating the darkness. Then the whole set was filled with steam, which made it photographically very impressive, but physically very uncomfortable, since it was like working in a Turkish bath. We were quite high up in the stage and we all suffered for quite a number of weeks, but it was one of those sets which made me fell uneasy before I entered into the shooting of it because it looked so unreal, so unworldly and unlike anything I had ever done before. I was concerned about it looking dull, in fact, because although there seemed to be plenty of material in the set, it was all either on the floor or on the ceiling. The fact is that unless one goes for extreme angles (and you usually can't do that right through a long sequence), the camera is pointing straight ahead and not up or down. There was nothing for the eye to look at straight ahead except blackness, because all the set elements were on the floor or the ceiling. I was concerned about the scene looking interesting and about the eye having something to look at—but, in the end, I think we succeeded in overcoming those problems—all of us working together."

SEXPAND

2. Douglas Slocombe (Rollerball, the Indiana Jones original trilogy)

The great Ealing Studios cinematographer recently turned 100. He shot the India sequences ofClose Encounters of the Third Kind, and then was rehired to work on the first three Indiana Jones movies. Harrison Ford recently recalled that Slocombe "never used a light meter – he just held up his hand and observed the shadow his thumb made on the palm."

SEXPAND

3. Roger Pratt (Brazil, Batman, Twelve Monkeys, two Harry Potter films)

Says Pratt, "Terry Gilliam is one of the most creative people that I’ve ever met. Although he’s not a normal person in some ways! To work with him is an education in what’s possible and what the possibilities are to create something really beautiful and interesting."

SEXPAND

4. Gilbert Taylor (Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars, The Omen, Flash Gordon)

He wasn't George Lucas' first choice for Star Wars cinematographer, but he arguably did a lot to make those effects-heavy sequences work so well. Not to mention the Tunisia sequences. Here he is talking about lighting the attack on the Death Star. On the Tunisia filming, he told an interviewer that the filming was hampered by the first rain Tunisia had seen in three years: "You couldn’t really see where the land ended and the sky began... It was all a gray mess, and the robots were just a blur. I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean; also, I was mindful that there was an enormous amount of process work to be done in America after we finished shooting in England, and I knew a crisp result would help." He clashed with Lucas over how crisply to light the scenes, but the studio wound up backing Taylor. He adds, "I wanted to give [Star Wars] a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre"

SEXPAND

5. Guillermo Navarro (All of Guillermo del Toro's movies, I Am Number Four, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Night at the Museum)

The Oscar-winning cinematographer told an interviewer a while back: "I want to design and create images as opposed to working on a contemporary piece where realities exist right outside your window and all you have to do is register them... I believe in [Guillermo del Toro] as a filmmaker. He is a very visual director and someone that understands the contribution that cinematographers offer is important not only for the creative process, but as a film language."

SEXPAND

6. Claudio Miranda (Oblivion, Life of Pi, Tron Legacy, Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

On why he was hired for Life of Pi, the movie he won an Oscar for: "I believe I was hired because Ang [Lee] liked Tron and Benjamin Button. It’s a combination of those two films that he wanted to instill Life of Pi with: the 3D of Tron and digital not-looking-so-electronic onBenjamin Button." And read this interview where he talks about how they lit Oblivion using pure projection in many shots, and avoided the problem of excessive bluescreen on sets.

SEXPAND

7. Wally Pfister (All of Christopher Nolan's films, plus the underrated Scotland, PA)

Pfister is soon to be directing his first movie, Transcendence, but he's best known for working on all of Christopher Nolan's movies. Talking about his collaborations with Nolan to Moviefone, he said: "You analyze the script and what's going on in that scene, what the actors are doing, and you say, "Okay, what is the best way to bring forth this emotion in what I'm doing?" You know, is it with lighting? Is it with camera movement? And then it becomes discussions with the director, and Chris and I have fantastic conversations about 'what does it mean to be moving in? What does it mean to be moving left or right? What does it mean to be completely static with the camera? Should we go long lens? What does that mean?' So that's where it is my turn to get involved in the storytelling in visual terms, and that's what they pay me for, really, at this level is, to be the visual translator of the film, of the director's vision."

SEXPAND

8. Dariusz Wolski (The Crow, Dark City, Prometheus, Pirates of the Caribbean)

He got his start with the Bangles' "Eternal Flame" music video, and went on to create moody, distinctive, dark visuals. On his collaboration with Ridley Scott, he said: "The more you get into the visual effects world, people rely on it but in the wrong way. They put up a green screen and say they'll make their minds up later. Any time something requires more thinking, building a set, they say let's just throw up a green screen. Then they're stuck with shots that just look artificial. Also, because you can, you sometimes go to the point where it's unbelievable - you can create some impossible stuff behind them. Ridley still comes from 'whatever I can see, that's what I photograph'. That's inspiring, because no matter how good the visual effects are, the creative process is basically castrated because you're doign half of the job and the rest is being done later. If you're making a film in a real set, in real places, there's a certain logic to it, you can put a light in a certain place. There's a lot you don't see, and that's what beautiful about it."

SEXPAND

9. Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, I Am Legend, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Last Airbender, Babe)

On the differences between the first two Lord of the Rings movies: "For The Fellowship of the Ring, I was very conscious of modeling with light, applying a black-and-white philosophy in using the tonal scale to create separation, rather than [doing so] through color. For The Two Towers, I decided that the light should be less controlled. I was able to follow the travails of each group and decide what was appropriate for the mood at any particular moment. Middle-Earth is descending into a very dark time, and the characters are battling to find light at the end of the tunnel, so the film needed to be more realistic and aggressive than The Fellowship of the Ring. The overall feel is less magical, and the story has become fractured and splintered."

SEXPAND

10. Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A Space Odyssey, Zardoz, Superman and Superman II)

Unsworth was the man George Lucas actually wanted to hire for Star Wars, but he wasn't available. Those sweeping camera shots in the first Superman movie? Those are totally Unsworth's creations. In 2001, Unsworth and Kubrick developed a system of studying the gray tones of black and white polaroids to figure out the right lighting for each scene.

Article by: CHARLIE JANE ANDERS 

12 Tips for Shooting Better Video with Your Camcorder

Creating compelling home videos takes practice, and we've put some tips together to get you started. They'll help you record more watchable movies that you and your family can enjoy for years to come.

Our shooting tips fall into two categories — honing your technique for engaging movies and general suggestions for improving your shots.

Tips for engaging movies

1) Go light on the zoom. Overuse of zoom is a common problem, and can result in video that looks amateurish, or even worse, can make people dizzy. If you need to zoom in and out, take it slow and steady, and don't zoom out again too soon. And you may want to avoid the use of digital zoom — it's pretty much only good for giving you a closeup of some dancing pixels. While optical zoom won't get you as close to your subject, you'll appreciate the higher video quality when you review your recordings.

2) Frame your shots well. Fill the frame with your subject, and don't be afraid to place him or her slightly off-center. For example, when filming kids at the pool, it tends to be more visually interesting to capture the children talking, laughing, or diving a bit to the left or right of center.

Framing your subject off to one side lets you capture more of the environment and atmosphere in your shot.

3) Use wide shots sparingly. You may want to rely on a wide sweeping shot of the setting to establish location, but after that, get a little more specific. Focusing on small details, like red lanterns hung on a Chinatown street or a single sun-bleached boat on a tropical beach, can do more to convey atmosphere than wide, general shots of a busy street or a long stretch of beach.

4) Shoot from several different vantage points. Recording an entire Little League game from the bleachers could be a bit dull to watch later. Footage captured from beside first base, the top of the bleachers, and the dugout can result in a much more interesting mix of shots, and can heighten the drama of important moments. Also, use the most effective shooting angle: kneel down to get on the same level as your subject, when appropriate, or climb up high to survey a scene.

Being on the same level as your subject, especially children, creates a much different effect than towering above them while recording.

5) Avoid backlighting. Just because we can see people's faces when they're backlit doesn't mean the camera can. Too often, backlit shots result in uncomfortably bright light haloing a dark figure with no visible features so you miss out on the great facial expressions of loved ones. You can improve a backlit situation by moving to one side or another. Some camcorders even have a feature that lets you reduce the effects of backlighting.

Backlighting makes a big difference in the appearance and tone of your recording.

6) Unless you plan on editing, record only the important moments. If you're going to edit your footage, go ahead and record every single second of your cousin's wedding. If not, then remember that footage of the DJ testing the mike or of waiters going in and out of the kitchen may have historical merit, but offer little viewing enjoyment.

7) If you have a widescreen TV, record in widescreen. Many of today's digital camcorders offer a 16:9 widescreen recording mode. This lets you record footage that matches a widescreen TV, without stretching or distorting the picture. You may want to take advantage of this option if you have an HDTV at home. (However, if you're recording footage to send to fond grandparents who still have their trusty RCA from the 70's, you may want to switch back to the standard screen shape.)

Shooting video that matches your widescreen TV allows you to capture more of the action.

8) Don't overuse special effects. It's cool that you can "solarize" your footage or make it sepia-toned, or try any number of other fun recording settings. But steer clear of the fun features when you're filming important scenes. After all, if you decide later that part of the video really should have been shot in black-and-white, there's easy-to-use movie editing software (sometimes free with a computer) that'll let you make that change. Record the wedding in full color and then test out effects later on. This way, you'll be able to preserve your original footage while you experiment with artistic effects and edits.

General suggestions for shooting

And now let's take a look at a few general tips which can improve picture quality and make using your camcorder more convenient.

9) Try out a tripod. Shaky handheld shots are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to bad home movies. Although many camcorders come with various image stabilization technologies, these in-camera features can only do so much to correct handshake. Shooting from a flat surface or, better still, a tripod, is a good way to remedy this problem. And you may be surprised by how affordable and portable small video tripods can be.

10) Keep plenty of memory cards, tapes, or discs on hand. Running out of recording space in the middle of filming is no fun, so you'll want to make sure you have more media available. Be sure to pick up extra discs, tapes or memory cards, even if your camcorder also comes with built-in memory. And if you're traveling, don't count on buying extra media at your destination — many tourist spots sell a limited variety of memory cards, tapes, and discs with heavy mark-up.

If you do start to run out of space, and don't have spare media on hand, you can switch to LP (long-play) mode. This isn't something you'll want to do often, since it saves you space on your media at the expense of image quality. But if your child's football game goes into overtime, for example, you may want to switch to LP mode so you can record more of the final moments.

11) Keep a spare battery around. Backup battery power is just as important as keeping extra tapes or discs on hand. Some spare batteries offer longer recording times than the battery that came in the manufacturer's box, so be sure to check out your options before you buy.

12) Back up your video. Tapes and discs can store your footage for years, but if something happens to them, you're out of luck — there go Junior's first steps or that fabulous vacation in the Rockies. So please remember to back up your video — either to additional discs or to an external hard drive. We recommend against using your computer's hard drive to store everything long-term, because uncompressed digital video takes up a lot of space — approximately 1 gigabyte for every 5 minutes of footage — and because computer hard drives are susceptible to eventual failure. Check out our article on watching, sharing, and editing your home movies for more tips on ways to save your video.

By: Tara W. Crutchfield Labs

10 Essential Photography Tips from Cnet UK

Whether photography is a hobby or a profession, you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you understand how it works. With a firm grasp of aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity and focal length, the ratio of truly great to merely mediocre shots you download at the end of an expedition is all but guaranteed to climb.

Here we present CNET UK's 10 essential shooters' tips. Don't uncap your lens without them.

Aperture

1. Understand aperture
The most fundamental element any photographer should understand is aperture. The aperture is the physical opening within your lens that allows light through to the sensor (or film in an older camera). The wider the aperture opening, the more light can pass through, and vice versa.

The size of the opening, which is regulated by a series of fins encroaching from the edge of the lens barrel, is measured in so-called f-stops, written f/2.8, f/5.9 and so on, with smaller numbers denoting wider apertures. If you find this inverse relationship tricky to remember, imagine instead that it relates not to the size of the hole but the amount of each fin encroaching into the opening.

A narrow opening is regulated by a large amount of each fin encroaching into the barrel, and so has a high f-stop number, such as f/16, f/18 and so on. A wide opening is characterized by a small number, such as f/3.2, with only a small amount of each fin obscuring the light.

Picture the size of the fins, visible here inside this lens, when trying to understand the concept of f-stops.

2. Aperture measurements
Lenses almost always have their maximum aperture setting engraved or stamped on one end of the barrel. On a zoom lens you'll see two measurements, often stated as f/3.5-f/5.9 or similar.

Rather than being opposite ends of a single scale these describe the maximum aperture at the wide angle and telephoto (maximum zoom) lens positions respectively. Always buy a lens with the smallest number you can afford in each position.

3. Avoid using aperture to compensate for poor lighting
Changing the aperture has a dramatic effect on the amount of light coming into the camera, as we have already said. You'll notice this is the case when shooting landscapes with a narrower aperture (higher numbered f-stop) as your camera will often want to take a longer exposure -- so much so that you may have to use a tripod to avoid motion blur.

You should avoid using the aperture scale to compensate for unfavorable lighting, however, as it also changes the amount of the image that remains in focus, as we'll explain below.

The image on the left was taken with a wide aperture and so has a shallow depth of field; the image on the right was taken with a narrow aperture and so has a long depth of field.

4. Use a wide aperture for portraits
Anyone with a cat knows that when they're hunting or playing their irises contract to enlarge the size of their pupils. This has the same effect as widening the aperture in a camera lens: it makes the subject they are focusing on very sharp while causing everything behind and in front of it to blur. We call this a shallow depth of field. This is perfect for portrait photography, as it draws forward your model within the scene, making them the central focus while the background falls away. Choose f/1.8 or similar wherever possible.

This image of a chicken was taken with a wide aperture to keep the subject in focus while blurring the background.

5. Use a narrow aperture for landscapes
For landscapes, on the other hand, you want to have everything from close-at-hand foliage to a distant mountain in focus. This is achieved by selecting a narrow aperture. If possible stray towards f/22, or whatever the tightest setting your camera allows.

This image of a Moroccan campfire is taken with a narrow aperture to maximize the depth of field.

6. 'f/8 and be there'
Static models and immobile landscapes are easy to shoot as you can predict with a great deal of certainty which aperture setting you need to get the best out of either. Reportage and street photography, weddings, Christenings and so on are less predictable as your subjects will be moving in relation to the frame. In these circumstances, adopt the pro photographer's adage, "f/8 and be there".

Set your aperture to f/8 for a practical, manageable balance of fairly fast shutter speeds and broad depths of field, allowing you to spend more time thinking about composition within the frame than you do about optical algebra. When shooting indoors without a flash, and depending on the lighting conditions, you may need to increase your camera's sensitivity setting at this aperture, but be careful not to push it so high that you introduce grain into your images, unless you are chasing that specific effect.

Filters and lenses

7. What does the ø symbol on my lens mean?
After the focal and aperture ranges, the other measurement you'll see on most dSLR lenses is preceded by ø and describes the diameter of the screw mount on the front of lens barrel. Check this number each time you head out to buy a filter or hood as you can't guarantee that it will be the same for each lens in your collection, even if they are all designed to be used on the same camera.

Check the diameter of your lens when heading out to buy a new filter.

8. If you only buy one filter...
...make it a circular polariser. This is the perfect beginner's filter, and one that will have the biggest effect on your day to day photography, giving holiday skies a vibrant blue tone and accentuating the contrast between the sky and passing clouds to afford your images greater texture. Although you can add blue to your images in Photoshop or a similar post-production editing tool, the effect is never as believable when done that way as it is when shot using a lens.

Invest in an inexpensive circular polariser to improve the blue of skies in your images.

9. Don't confine it to skies
Polarising filters also cut through glare and reflection. Use it to shoot through windows and water.

We used a polarising filter when shooting this frame to cut through reflections on the surface of the water.

10. Look for lenses where the zoom control doesn't change the filter orientation
Rotating a circular polarising filter changes the strength of the polarising effect, making skies deeper or lighter, and changing the amount of reflection they cancel out. If you plan on using such a filter then wherever possible buy lenses where turning the zoom control doesn't simultaneously rotate the end of the lens, and with it the filter, as this will change the effect. If you have no choice, set your zoom first and adjust the effect afterwards, being careful not to throw the lens out of focus in the process.

New York's Orchard Beach Photo Essay

Post by Wehlage Pictures.

10 Halloween Photos From Around The World

Halloween is here, and with it a slew of ghosts, pumpkins, witch hats, and candy filled tote bags! Though the western-style Halloween is believed to have originated in Ireland, the spooky holiday is now celebrated in countries all around the world. In Mexico, the celebration combines elements of the European holiday with ancient Aztec and Mayan traditions, resulting in the beloved Dia de los Muertos. In Germany, Nov. 1 marks All Saints Day, the Christian holiday celebrating all saints, known and unknown.

Take a look at some epic photos of Halloween celebrations around the world.

1. Taiwan

Children in costume check each other's candy collection while celebrating Halloween in a local neighborhood of Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

2. Philippines

Filipinos wear ghost costumes as they join a Halloween Parade in Marikina city, east of Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Hundreds of residents and government employees joined the parade as the country prepares to observe All Saints Day on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

3. United States

Zombies and princesses abound as children attend the annual Halloween costume contest on October, 26, 2013 in Takoma Park, MD. The zombies' are twin brothers Milo and Luki Lutzky, 7, of Takoma Park.
(Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

4. Mexico

Revelers dance through the streets in traditional costumes at the start of the Day of the Dead festival known in spanish as Dia de Muertos October 30, 2013 in Oaxaca, Mexico. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

5. Canada

Elaborate Halloween decorations on the front lawn of a house in the Beaches. Toronto, October 29, (David Cooper/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

6. Japan

People clad in costumes take part in a Halloween Parade on a street in Kawasaki, suburb of Tokyo. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

7. France

A girl poses for a photograph as she arrives for a Halloween party, on October 30, 2013, in Nice, southeastern France. (VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

8. Hong Kong

A woman lights candles amid decorations on Halloween night in Hong Kong, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

9. Spain

A storekeeper attends a client next to Halloween decorated pumpkins at Madrid's La Cebada food market, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Pumpkins are traditionally bought and decorative faces carved out of them before masked costume parties at night to mark Halloween. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

10. China

Children dressed in their Halloween costumes gather outside a neighbor's apartment waiting to get candies the night before Halloween in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)

From Huff Post World.