Digital Photography: Understanding Image Resolution

Good photography remains as elusive and as enticing as ever -- knowing how to optimise it in your digital darkroom will only make it better.

Resolution is a term used a lot in photography these days -regardless which type of photography you do, or which type of camera you use, understanding image resolution, pixels and the different properties attributed to them is so important.

Whether you are printing, scanning or sending an image by e-mail, you need to understand and know how to keep your images sharp and preserve as much detail as possible in your final print. This topic does cause some confusion, so I hope the following will help.

Image resolution explained:

Photography resolution is a measurement of image quality, so you may define resolution by how much detail is in your print. If your print has sharp detail you may consider your image to be of good resolution. If detail is blur in your image you may consider your image to have poor resolution. Good resolution is a direct result of having a large number of pixels in an image.

Pixels explained:

Digital images are made up of millions of small dots - each dot is called a pixel. Each dot contains a small piece of image information, and when added together with the other pixels you'll get your final image.

Print resolution is measured in pixel per inch (ppi) or in dots per inch (dpi) - both hold the same value. 300dpi means that there are 300 pixels per inch or 90,000 pixels per a square inch. But as of the my experience dot per inch (dpi) are commonly use.

What size resolution should I use?

At 600dpi (which is an extremely large resolution) your image will be supreme sharp. You will be restricted with print size.

Printing your images at 300dpi is the standard quality. Image sharpness doesn't get much better. The only setback is that the maximum print size will be restricted - you might need to drop the resolution to get a larger image.

If you need a large print from a small file print your file at 150dpi - your print will lack detail and the pixels may be visible. You should not print an image any smaller than 150dpi.

72dpi is standard with your computer screen. Don't print your images at this size - the pixels will be visible.

Resolution tips:

Scan your images as large as possible; it's easy to resize them later. If you scan an image to small you may have to re-scan at a later date to get a larger print.

If you need a print that's twice the size of the original - scan it at 600dpi and print it at 300dpi.

Try to print your image at 300dpi.

If you use a tripod when taking an image you may be able to push the print resolution lower than the recommended 300dpi - this will enable you to get a larger print.

Photo of the Day

Clear and Bubblies
Taken during B-day Party I attended at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Helping Hands UAE

Last Saturday we meet a couple who ask for a little assistance to give help to some of expatriate who are less fortunate to get a better job with a better salary...

Let me introduce to you all, The Couple...

Roger & Elle Trow are both British, from England, they have been expatriate Brits now since 1972. Roger & Elle have lived all over Nigeria, Niger Republic, Bahrain and now the UAE, and they have travelled quite extensively.

Originally a chartered land surveyor, Roger is now engaged in management of a property in Umm Suqeim and Elle manages him! Roger is also an ordained lay minister and he is Pastor of Grace Covenant Church in Dubai.

They have lived in the Gulf since 1980 and witnessed many changes in the lifestyles of the residents, but the conditions under which the lowest paid workers live and work has always saddened them. In October 2006, they determined that they would "make a difference", and from this resolve was born "HelpinghandsUAE". read more

Photo's of the Day

She is Mrs. Gina Salazar Chairwoman of the Executive Committee who organized the 109th Independence Day Celebration here in Dubai..

109th Independence Day Celebration here in Dubai

June 12 2007, the day that all Filipinos celebrates the 109th year of the Philippine Independence Day... The Day that we are free from the Spaniards...

Singkil Dance

Even we are not in the Philippines and lived here in the United Arab Emirates we also celebrates the said Occasion... A top of it some of our pinoy artist come here to join our celebration's.

Rachelle Ann Go


Dominic Ochoa


Arnel Ignacio


Jaya

LOVE THY DRIVER

Everybody are eager to get a driving license in the UAE. But, are we ready for the challenge that we may face on the road? Or, are we responsible enough to take care the innocent lives?

I still remember my last post regarding the 3 Filipinos died while crossing on the road, that accident happened in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi UAE.... read here

As part of this a lot of precautionary measures had done to prevent it. But still as of today a lot of traffic violators are out there driving their killer monster.

Apart of this precautionary measures, the Vatican made a new commandments, An Article from a local Newspaper (7 days) here in the UAE published this "Love Thy Driver" Spend a minute on this article, to enlighten us.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

Still Life Photography

Still life photography is the practice or products of depicting inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made. Still life is the of small groups of objects, either found or put together for the purpose.

Still life photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Still life photography gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition than do photographs of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture.

Still life photography represents one of the most demanding aspects of photography. In this area the photographer is expected to have a highly refined sense of lighting coupled with superb compositional skills because the photographer is making pictures rather than taking them. Knowing where to look for propping and surfaces is also a valuable trait.

In addition to knowing the fundamentals of photography, successful still life photographers are intimately familiar with the tools of this field: tremendous studio lighting skills, ability to use large format view cameras, a strong visual technique, and distinctive stylistic approach.

Still life is one of the hardest of photographic genres to define. Portraits, nudes, architecture, lingerie, even special effects all raise certain expectations; but still life is another matter. It ranges from advertising shots to the most personal of work; from pictures that can take days to assemble in the studio, to those that are "found" compositions and are photographed by available light in a few moments; from subjects no bigger than the palm of your hand to those which fill a room.

3 Pinoy Died in Car Accident in United Arab Emirates

We are very sad when we heard the News from TV Patrol (TFC) about what happen to our kababayan here in United Arab Emirates... They died because of some reckless driver here...

Three Filipinos died after they were ran over Thursday night while crossing a road on their way to attend Mass in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau reported Monday.

The fatalities were identified as siblings Emmanuel, 23, and Jay-ar Cuaresma de San Jose, 20. Twenty-year-old Charmaine Grace Navarro, Emmanuel's wife, also died.

The three were hit by a speeding four-wheel drive vehicle driven by an unidentified UAE resident on Khalid Bin Sultan Street in Al Ain. read from abs-cbnnews.com and read here from Gulfnews

That's why to all Kababayan here in United Arab Emirates be careful when you are crossing the pedestrian as what we all know that United Arab Emirates are one of having a dangerous road in the world..... And the number one cause of death here are by Road and Traffic Accident.

This Blog "dubaibase" was nominated for "Blog of The Week"

Talksmart of SalasWildthought included buddy-dubaibase on the list nominees for the "Filipino Blog of the Week". Well, If you like this blog and want me to help wear that badge.. then... Please!!! Vote this Blog.

By the way I would take this opportunity to thanks my friend in Kuwait OFWLyft who help me building this blog... (and remind me that this blog "dubaibase was nominated for "Blog of the Week) (I was just a little bit busy in the last few weeks doing my extra source of income and that the PHOTOGRAPHY.)

And Also to SalasWildthought for giving "dubaibase" a chance of this award....

Nikon D200 Guides

As one of Nikon admirer and this camera I love to have one (soon) I will make a little review on how this little monster can do.

The Basics

The D200 is a completely new body design that seems almost a perfect hybrid of the D50/D70 and D2 series. It has the size, pop-up flash, and battery heritage from the D100/D70/D50 progression, but the feature set, button layout, and menus of the D2 series. The D200 body construction is more like that of a D2, including metal framing and gaskets for weather protection, but in your hands it feels much more like the lower-end cameras due to the smaller size and some external construction cues. The one new thing not shared with other current Nikon camera body is the autofocus system, which we'll get to in detail in a bit. Compared to the D100 it replaced, the D200 has gone way upscale. The D200 is better built, better specified, has many more features, and is much more "pro-like" than "consumer." We've got a lot to talk about, so let's get started.
The sensor in the D200 is a CCD made by Sony that appears for the first time in the D200. 10.2 effective megapixels mean 3872 x 2592 pixel images, enough to produce straight-from-camera prints up to about 11x16" without resizing. The base ISO of the CCD is 100, with third-stop increments up through ISO 1600. You can also boost ISO one more stop, up to an effective ISO 3200.

One aspect of the new CCD that is now controversial (more on the controversy in a bit) is that it supports a four-channel analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to get data off the sensor faster, thus allowing the 5 fps frame rate of the D200. By four-channel, I mean that each of the repeated green photosites as well as the red and blue photosites of the Bayer pattern get dedicated off ramps to a separate ADC. Previous Nikon CCDs used single row transfer mechanisms, meaning that a single ADC processed all information.

It's not known if the CCD is unique to Nikon or whether it will appear in other DSLRs (an important question now that Sony has bought Konica/Minolta's DSLR assets and is about to begin selling DSLRs under its own brand name; both Sony and Pentax have "leaked" that they'll have a 10mp DSLR later this year). However, the four-channel trick appears to be a Nikon-designed one, so it may be that the base sensor appears in other DSLR designs, but not with the high-speed transfer ability. As I write this, the D200 is the only camera using this new sensor, though.

Noise in the D200 sensor stems from four design elements: the four-channel transfers, the smaller APS frame size, the smaller overall size of the photosites, and the lack of in-sensor NR electronics. Had we not had the D2x preceding the D200, there probably would have been a lot of pondering about how well noise would be handled by this new sensor. Specifically, the reduced frame size of the Nikon D200 (compared to a full frame camera) leads to a photosite size of about 6 microns. That works out to about 36 square microns available for light collection. Compare that to the D2h's 9.5 micron size, or over 90 square microns available for light collection. Smaller light capture area means fewer light photons are collected; fewer light photons mean that inherent noise properties of the underlying silicon are higher in relationship to the photon count, which means more noise. On the plus side, CCD sensors tend to have less noise than CMOS sensors, all other factors equal.

Nikon chose to address noise in a number of ways. For example, once again data appears to be kept in 16-bit space right up until the final compression to an 8-bit JPEG (or uncompressed TIFF). Second, data is manipulated in the analog space (electrons) prior to amplification and digital conversion. This is most prevalent where individual channels are amplified prior to the ADC to adjust white balance, but I wonder if it applies to higher ISO values, as well. Finally, the internal digitization engine has a noise reduction component in it (well, actually two different components, one for long exposure noise and another for high ISO noise). When we get to the results section of the review, we'll talk about whether or not Nikon was successful, but note that multiple techniques are once again being employed here rather than a single one.

Other sensor-related items have changed, as well. Once again the anti-aliasing filter seems to have been tweaked. It doesn't seem quite as relaxed as the D70 and D2h, but it isn't as aggressive as the D1 series or D100. The D2x and D200 seem to both be smack dab in the Goldilocks spot of antialiasing: not too much, and not too little. However, note that by not being lax in antialiasing, unsharpened D200 images will look decidedly soft. Meanwhile, the infrared and ultraviolet filtration has been increased yet again--the D200 is a terrible IR or UV camera. Each successive Nikon DSLR seems to have more and more IR and UV filtering. If you want to shoot that type of image, you're either going to have to hold onto those old D1's and D100's, or have a newer DSLR modified to remove that filtration.

Salik the new Toll System in Dubai

I was a little bit confused to what is the real meaning of Salik why because I read two different meaning of it.

(This sticker was attached in my car windshield center top as per instructed in the Kit Set)

First According to RTA ( Road and Transport Athority of Dubai)

Salik, meaning open or clear, is Dubai’s new electronic toll collection system to be launched in July 2007, which emphasizes the system’s congestion management objectives as well as the choice of technology for the toll system.

Salik utilizes the latest technology to achieve free flow operation with no toll booths, no toll collectors, and no impact to traffic flow, allowing vehicles to move freely through the tolling point at highway speeds. Each time you pass through a Salik tolling point, the toll of AED 4 will be deducted from your prepaid toll account using advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Second according to wikipedia:

A salik is a person who engaged in Islamic spiritual path or sufism. The word derived from Arabic word suluk, which means to walk a (spiritual) path (to God). To become a salik, one must follow both the outer path (exoterism, shariah) and the inner path (esoterism, haqiqa) of Islam virtuously.

A salik is also called murid when one becomes a disciple to one particular spiritual teacher (murshid) or a Sufi master.

Now read some updates and reactions of the motorist here in Dubai regarding in this Salik... click here to read more

June 12 The Philippine Independence Day

“Happy independence,” Ambassador Kristie Kenney of the USA said.

“I have a great picture in my office … the Philippine flag going up and the American flag coming down. I think it’s a great symbol of the wonderful friendship we’ve always had,” Kenney said.
The picture she was referring to was of the July 4, 1946 rites when the US formally gave the Philippines back its freedom.

This took place at the Luneta in Manila. The Stars and Stripes was lowered as the Philippine flag was raised in its place.

On Aug. 4, 1964, President Diosdado Macapagal, Ms Arroyo’s father, changed the date of Philippine independence to June 12, 1898, the date Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed freedom from Spain in Kawit, Cavite.

Kenney enumerated the things Filipinos should be grateful for:

“Filipinos are known throughout the world for their hospitality, their innovations, their services, their climbing Mount Everest, their cooking in the White House, their winning boxing matches, their hosting important international summits.“And if I can say on a personal note, I thank all of you. I feel at home here. I consider this my home now. And I know my colleagues would feel the same. That’s never been the case in other countries -- a special place,” she said.

Read the Full Article Here

How to photograph at night

Your first thought in all night photography in particular should always be of your own safety and welfare. Many city areas in particular can be hazardous at night, particularly if you are alone and carrying valuable camera equipment. Isolated areas also have their dangers and you should ensure you have suitable equipment and supplies. If possible always work in a group of at least two people. If you don't know the area you are going to, make sure you ask for advice from those who do.

Dubai Marina

Working at night will also mean standing around for a long time in low temperatures and you need to dress with this in mind. A flask containing hot drink can be almost as important as film! Batteries often lose power very quickly in cold conditions - you should always take spares for all equipment.

Desert Camp in Dubai

The best camera to use for most night work is a simple 35mm camera with manual exposure settings, preferably an SLR and DSLR. Automatic-only cameras are seldom much use; if you have the latest model which does everything for you it would probably be worth looking for a cheap second-hand body or camera. Exposure meters, built in or hand held, are seldom sensitive enough to be of much help, and even if you can get a reading it is unlikely to give satisfactory results without a great deal of adjustment.

A sturdy tripod is really an essential, although good pictures can be made taking advantage of walls or rocks etc on which you can place your camera. You will also need a cable release which has a lock on it to hold the shutter open.

Medium speed or slow film is often the best to use - even a fast film will need long exposures on a tripod, and you may as well use even longer exposures and get the extra quality a slower film provides.

Films differ in their responses to long exposures, but all suffer from an effect known as reciprocity failure. The Law of Reciprocity in photography is what allows us to make use of the idea of film speed; basically it says that exposure depends only on the total amount of light hitting the film and that it is immaterial if this is delivered in a short exposure at wide aperture - such as 1/1000 at f2 - or a longer exposure at a smaller aperture - such as 1/60 at f8. For most films this can be relied on when exposures are between perhaps ¼ and 1/1000 seconds, but outside this range it will start to break down.

With black and white films, this simply means that a longer exposure will be required at low light levels than would otherwise be the case; with colour film it also results in shifts in colour as the different emulsion layers have different reciprocity characteristics. These will differ from emulsion to emulsion, but there are often fairly clear trends by manufacturer. Some night photographers prefer Fuji emulsions (finding they tend to give cooler results as exposure increases) to Kodak (which they say get warmer) but it is a matter of personal choice. Some films are definitely less affected than others.

If you want to use colour, transparency film is generally a better choice as the reciprocity failure in negative films causes problems for most laboratories in making prints, and results are unlikely to be satisfactory. Most films are made to give proper colours in normal daylight, although a few are produced for use with studio tungsten lighting. These will normally give better results when taking pictures using street lighting, but for moonlight it is more a matter of personal preference that you will need to find by experiment. I suggest you start by using your normal favourite film.

Unless you work within a few days either side of the full moon, exposures may extend into hours rather than minutes. Many photographers supplement the moon light by using a number of flashes from a hand held flash unit, a technique known as 'painting with light'. You can also use movie lights or powerful torches. When these are used through coloured gels you can get some vivid colour effects - which you may or may not find to your taste. Avoid directing these light sources towards the camera.

One feature that you will get with long exposures is star trails making arcs across the sky; if these offend you then you will have to avoid having the sky in your pictures (or resort to digital manipulation of your results.) You'll also get light streaks from other moving light source - cars, planes, which you can make use of or attempt to avoid. When taking pictures by roads you may need to hold something in front of the lens if car lights would otherwise shine directly into it at times during the exposure.

BOOKS Recomended

Bill Brandt, Behind the CameraBrandt, BillSuperb analysis of Brandt's work, well illustrated Paperback

Naked City, Quality Paperbacks SeriesWeegee, Arthur F. The classic work from Weegee - brash and direct portrait of New York. Paperback

Weegee, Masters of Photography SerTalmey, AlleneOverall view of Weegee's photography with well-chosen examples of his work. Hardcover

Capturing the Night With Your CameraCarucci, JohnSubtitled 'How to Take Great Photographs After Dark' Paperback

Night & Low-Light Photography: A Complete GuideGibbons, Bob / Wilson, PeterAnother good guide to the subject Paperback

Pinoy Visit Visa sa Dubai ( Ang Katotohanan)

Tourist or "visit visa". sa mga hindipo nakakaalam, ang "Visit visa" ang pinakauso ngayon sa pagpunta sa Dubai , kung saan parang turista na pupunta dun ang isang pinoy, at dun na syamaghahanap ng trabaho. usually 2 months ang limit, at kung hindi kamakakakita ng trabaho in two months, wala kang magagawa kundi umuwi na lang na bigo o kaya mag-exit, Okay sana ito, ang kaso, NAPAKARAMING pinoy na ang nasa Dubai ngayon.

At halos NAPAKARAMI na rin ang nasisira ang buhay dahil pupunta sila sa Dubai umaasang makakakita ng matinong trabaho, pero wala na pala dahil sa bawat trabahong available, 20 or more pinoys ang nag-aagawan sa iisang position. imagine,makapunta lang dun, magsasangla ng bahay o magbebenta ng kalabaw ang isangtypikal na pinoy, at paniwalang paniwala syang madali syang makakakita ng trabaho dun at mababayaran ang utang nya, pero dun na lang sa dubai nyamadidiskubre ang mapait na katotohanan.ang masama pa, halos manyakin ng mga employer dun ang magagandang pinay naaplikante; kunwari maliit lang ang offer sayo, paglabas mo ng opisina, saka ka tatawagan na may offer na mas malaki, pero may kasama ng indecentproposal.

At dahil sa sagad na kagipitan, ilang kababayan na ba natin angnapilitang lunukin ang ganitong alok?ang masama pa, malaki ang kasalanan dito ng mga kapwa natin pinoy na nasa dubai ngayon. sila yung mga nagrerecruit ng mga pinoy na gustong pumunta ng Dubai .

Dati mo silang ka-officemate, o kaya ka-barkada, na "nag-o-offer" saiyo ng visa assistance papunta dun; hindi nila sinasabi ang tutoo, hindi nila sinasabing halos napakarami nyong maghahati hati sa iisang kwarto, nanapakahirap maghanap ng matinong trabaho ngayon dun, na halos gabi gabikung makikinig ka, puro impit na iyak ng mga pinay na "napasubo" sa pagpunta sa dubai ang maririnig mo. nakakaawa.ang mga pilipino recruiters na ito, sila ang Makapili ng panahon natin ngayon. mga traydor sila. BAKIT? kasi malaki ang porsyento nila sa bawat pinoy na mapapapunta nila sa dubai . isipin mo na lang na typikcal na ibabayad mo for a visit visa ay P50k to P80k--samantalang kung tutuusin,nasa P35k lang talaga ang fees.

Pero dahil ang karaniwang pinoy ay hindi nakakaalam ng mga ganyang sistema, maniniwala na lang sila sa lahat ng sasabihin ng recruiter nilang "kaibigan.

Okay lang magpunta ng Dubai , kung dadaan ka sa isang employment recruiter sa Pinas yung Ligal at may employment contract na.

INUULIT KO, okay lang magpunta ng dubai kung bago ka pumunta dun, may job offer ka na. pero WAG na WAG kang pupunta dun on a Visit Visa.kaya kung may kaibigan ka, o kakilala, o kamag-anak, na nagbabalak magpuntasa dubai on a visit visa, please, ipadala mo rin sa kanila ang email na ito, at baka-sakaling mailigtas mo sila. sana makarating ang email na itosa lahat ng taong dapat makaalam bago mahuli ang lahat at maibayad nila saagency ang P80k nila

Photos of the Day

One of the Oldest Mosque I've seen here in Dubai, located at Satwa Area

Photos of the Day

Safety of the Airport:

Due to Miscalculation of Cargo Loading for this Cargo Plane.

This Picture taken June 05,2007 at the Dubai International Airport, Dubai Ariport Freezone Area.

Shooting Fireworks Part 2

As almost always in photography, the most important part is finding the right place to stand. Unfortunately you can often identify it at firework shows by the line of tripods already in place! If you want to get the same kind of pictures as the others you may need to get there several hours early to bag your tripod space.

Research in advance may enable you to find some other, less obvious places. Some of the best pictures are taken from balconies, roofs, bridges and other high viewpoints, often not readily available to the general public, but which you may be able to get permission to use. Sometimes just standing back a bit from the crowds watching the show will give you a perfect viewpoint.

Images which just show the bursts of the display in the air against a dark background can be taken from almost anywhere in the vicinity of the show. If you want to do more than this, you will need to start by thinking about what you want and to choose your position more carefully.

Shooting Fireworks Part 1

EQUIPMENT YOU NEED

SLR /DSLR Camera
Needs to have a B or T setting. (B for Blulb and T for Timer)

Lenses
70-210 zoom, 50 mm, 24 mm. Lens choice depends on the kind of pictures you want to take.

Film if you will used film
EI 50 or EI 100 colour negative film (use transparency film if you are shooting for stock or other client that requires transparency.)

Cable release
Must have a lock to hold shutter open.

Tripod
Use the largest and most solid you can find.

Flashlight
A small low power flashlight (pen light). This helps setting aperture, checking film loading etc and is always useful when photographing at night.

ALSO USEFUL
Flash unit (not for the actual fireworks!),
dark hat or card
an assistant.

A very Sad Comment from Indian person...

Last May 25, 2007 a group of Filipino gathered for the reason that one mother came for help for her son suffering from leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant in order to live.
I post an article last 21st of May in this blog regarding with these, in order to make a little awareness to whom who may visit and read my article. And on last 24th of May an article come out from one of the news paper here in Dubai it was in "Gulfnews" and I decided to post it in UAEBlog community to add a little awareness.

Now during the said date a lot of people come to give help not only Filipinos but also other nationalities like Arabs, British, Americans, Pakistan, Lebanese, Indians and so on... and we raised a some of money it not big but enough to give a little support...

And to recieved a comment like this in the article I post in the UAEblogcommunity "No comments about the records of Indian Nationality Leave here in UAE": "screen shots"

Click here to view the actual comments:

I really don't know why they make a comment like these, "filipinas /filipinos are filthy people!indians are the best! "... Maybe he /she had a bad experienced with one or two Filipino, but to mentioned all Filipinos he/she was very wrong... As of my stay here in UAE I meet a lot of nationalities including Indian people... and I can say that in all nationalities there have also filthy person.

But during this time I think we need to shared a little to give hope... My Question is this to this person hope that it will not come to his / her family. If the same problem will come in your life What will you do?

Some photos during the events: