Additionally, you can “salvage” some really grainy color photographs by making them B&W.

There are quite a few ways to take a color photograph and make it black and white. The Digital Photography School describes several ways, all of which work. Scott Kelby also offers some killer ways to convert color to black and white in his outstanding book series, Photoshop Elements.

How to Convert Color Digital Images into Black and White Ones

Harvest moon,
originally uploaded by billspaced.

Taking photographs of the moon can be challenging, if you don’t know how. However, once you know how, it’s super-easy. You’ll get great results if you follow these simple rules:

1. Set your camera to full Manual mode
2. Set your shutter to 1/250
3. Set your aperature to f/11
4. Shoot on a tripod
5. Use a shutter release or your timer to minimize shake
6. Zoom in as close as you can get (a 200mm to 300mm telephoto lens works well)
7. Set ISO to lowest possible value (generally, ISO 100 or on some cameras ISO 50)

That’s about it. Your image most likely will need some touch up in Photoshop, but it shouldn’t require a lot of modification. If it does, shoot again!

So set up your tripod and start shooting. Recommended: Tripod!, remote shutter release or use the camera’s builtin self-timer. Set your camera to Manual mode and set the f-stop to f/11 and the shutter to 1/250. This should keep everything in focus and give you a good exposure. Of course, try other settings — experimentation is the essence of the art.

Choose burst mode. The second or third bursted photo will usually be much more in focus (i.e., clearer) than the first.

Here’s why: When hand-holding (i.e., not using a tripod or remote shutter release), pressing the shutter button moves the camera, if only slightly. This movement, especially in low light or with moving objects, can really blur a photo. However, when using burst mode, that first shutter press is the only one you’ll need to get 2 or 3 (or more) photos. Since the second and third photos do not require a shutter press, those photos will be clearer.

Half Dome Near Dusk,
originally uploaded by billspaced.

Here’s a photo I took while on vacation with my family. This was taken in the Yosemite valley floor near sunset. Simple set up:

Tripod
Polarizing filter
Tamron 28-300mm zoom
Canon Digital Rebel XT

Fireworks,
originally uploaded by billspaced.

Fourth of July 2005. I took this picture with my new Canon Rebel XT. It’s not a perfect representation of the actual fireworks that took place, but I think it’s a really cool image.

What do you think? Let me know!

Basic list

• Camera. Any kind for now will do. Digital is better. Digital SLR is still better. But not completely necessary.
• A computer.
• If you go digital, and why wouldn’t you — Post-processing software. This is a fancy term for “Photoshop” or one of its “equivalents” like Paint Shop Pro or iPhoto. You don’t need Photoshop. Photoshop Elements is a very handy, yet inexpensive, tool for editing and tweaking your photos.

That’s it, really. Oh, and again, if you go digital, some memory cards (at least one).

You can get an entire basic setup for a few hundred dollars. Anything you want to print, you can deliver it to Costco or one of many fine “photo finishers.” So, initially, you don’t even need a printer.

Some things that are nice to have:

• Camera bag
• Cleaning kit
• Extra camera battery
• Extra memory cards
• Memory card reader, to transfer images from the card to the computer
• Specialized lenses (zooms, telephotos, macros, wide angles, etc.)
• Filters
• Flashes
• Battery chargers
• Printer, maybe even specialized ink
• Special photo paper (it’s not all the same)

The most essential ingredient you’ll need is your creativity. Make sure you take it along with you on any photo trips. I have seen beautiful pix taken with a cell phone and some pretty bad ones taken with a $3000 digital SLR.

The next post will be about framing a shot. How to get that perfect angle/perspective to render the emotion that you envision.