Law In Action, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 8 June 2010 at 4pm, was quite interesting for both amateur and professional photographers.

The issue of taking pictures in a public space - be that of people or buildings - is raised in terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Other issues such as the use of CCTV and surveillance imaging are also raised.

The first half of the programme has the most relevance to photographers and you can listen online here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sm6ct

It's worth mentioning that photographers do not need permission to photograph buildings or people assuming the photograph is taken from a public space and no other laws are being violated e.g., deformation of character.

For some reason, there seems to be a fear of photographers with security staff, members of the public and (in some cases) PCSOs and police officers simply making up laws (whether they believe them or not) to prevent images being captured. This attitude needs to change. Taking photographs is important not just for holiday-makers taking snapshots or professionals earning a living. It is important in order to create a historical account of our world and society. These false beliefs threaten this form of recording to the detriment of future generations.

I implore everyone to listen to this 30 minute programme and to gain a proper understanding of the law.

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I was asked recently via Twitter if I had any tips on taking photographs in low light situations. Now, I'm no photography expert but here's a few pointers that I've picked up since owning a DSLR.

There are three main elements which control how much light is needed to take a photograph: sensor sensitivity (ISO rating), aperture and exposure time. Each of these settings will have an impact on your picture in ways other than increasing the brightness.

Deciding which settings to use is entirely subjective. It depends on the subject of the photograph, the style of the photographer and the camera/lens combination. It's also a balancing act. If you change, say, the aperture to create a narrow depth of field, you may need to change either sensitivity or exposure to maintain the chosen light level. You may set an exposure time suitable for hand-holding your camera, but this may not allow enough light, so the sensitivity of aperture is adjusted accordingly.

Sensitivity (ISO):

The ISO rating is often given as a number such as 100, 200, 400 etc. Doubling the number increases the amount of light on your picture, but the side effect is more noise. In days of film, this would have been referred to as grain but nowadays digital noise is less pleasant and too much can ruin a picture.

To make things more difficult, the amount of visible noise depends on the camera. Expensive professional-grade cameras tend to have much better performance at higher ISO levels, whereas a cheaper camera may ruin pictures at ISO800 and cause distracting noise at ISO400.

If you have a DSLR, don't assume that it will cope well at the higher ends. I wouldn't take my Nikon D80 above ISO800 - and even that I'd use as a last resort.

Aperture (f-number/f-stop)

The aperture is the size of the opening at the front of the lens. Working in a similar way to the eye, a larger opening means more light will get through to the sensor compared to a smaller opening.

Again though, there is a consequence of opening the aperture. The wider it is, the narrower the depth-of-field. This means that the distance which is in focus is less. It can be used to great effect - you could use a wide aperture to take a portrait photograph with a nicely blurred background for example - but this would not be ideal for landscape photography where it would be more appropriate to have everything in focus.

The aperture is given as an f-number such as f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8. These numbers are 'full stops' - that is each one provides half the light of the previous. DSLR cameras will also allow the photographer to set half-stops or even third-stops.

The size of the aperture is limited by the lens in use. As a rule, more expensive lenses provide larger apertures than their cheaper counterparts. Zoom lenses will generally not provide the same maximum aperture throughout their range.

Exposure

In my mind, this is the easiest element to understand in terms of it's effect and consequences. Exposure simply means the amount of time the shutter is open and the sensor is exposed to light. It is measured in seconds or fractions of a second depending on the length of time.

Perhaps obviously; the longer the exposure time, the more light hits the sensor and the brighter the resulting image. The main consequence of a longer exposure time is camera shake or object movement.

Camera shake occurs when the length of exposure is simply to long for a person to keep the camera still. This effect is magnified for longer lenses and can be resolved by the use of a tripod. The recommendation is to look at the length of your lens and to use this figure as the minimum shutter speed. For example; if I am using a 200mm lens and am hand-holding the camera, I will not set my exposure any slower than 1/200 seconds. For a 50mm lens, the exposure will be 1/50 seconds.

Object movement occurs when something in your picture moves whilst the shutter is open. A little movement looks like an out-of-focus shot. Lots of movement can make objects appear ghostly. This can be used to great effect - think of a picture of a busy train station perhaps, where the building itself and perhaps trains are sharp and in focus, but all the people are blurry images.

Another consequence of very long exposures can be noise which can be introduced when the camera sensor gets hot due to prolonged use. This, however, is usually only seen on very long exposures of minutes rather than seconds.

Artificial Lighting

One other way of dealing with low light may be artificial lighting. The camera flash may be frequently used to make subjects brighter but it's important to consider how effective it will be. For example, when watching concerts you will often see the flashes of cameras going off around the auditorium. Often these are compact cameras or even mobile phones. All the flash will do in this case is illuminate the head of the person in front of you. DSLRs may have larger flashes but they too are limited to a few meters.

External flash guns can be purchased which have more power again, but you're not going to illuminate a landscape! The advantage here is that the flash can be mounted off-camera to create or eliminate shadows around a subject. These units also reduce the risk of red-eye because the angle of light going into the eye is higher. Light reflected from the back of the eye is not sent straight into the camera lens.

Further Reading

The internet is full of useful tips and guides for photography. Wikipedia may be an obvious starting point and I have attached some links to this post which may be helpful. Specialist forums are a good place to ask questions too. I'd recommend Talk Photography - again the link is posted in the 'Related Links' section of this post (see below)

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Since obtaining my first DSLR camera in October last year, I haven't had the opportunity to try fireworks photography. So yesterday I found myself at the Maldon Promenade Fireworks Display fully kitted out to make a first attempt.

Before this event, my only other tries at photographing fireworks was by using handheld compact cameras. This time I had my DSLR, 18-55mm lens, tripod and remote release.

The worst element was deciding where to set up. By the time I arrived, the venue was already busy, so I choose a spot behind a bench (useful to protect the camera from knocks and bumps). Unfortunately a tree was right in front of me, but not having attended this event before, it really was guesswork for determining where the fireworks would launch from. As it happens the tree was directly between me and the fireworks but for the most part I don't think it mattered.

As the event started, I found myself franticly adjusting the position of the camera. I soon learnt that despite the stability requirements, I wouldn't be able to tighten the tripod too much as I'd need to frequently re-adjust for high up rockets, and lower fireworks.

Timing was another interesting variable which I had to learn fast. I was using the camera on bulb mode, so the shutter was open as long as I held the release. Early on I'd figured out a rough idea of how long to open the shutter, only to have that scuppered by brighter explosives. Throughout the evening I did spot checks to ensure that the pictures I was taking were coming out. Due to the fast nature of fireworks I couldn't check every picture.

So I've now been through the images and out of 166 taken, I've settled on 49 that I will keep. That's not to say that others were technically poor (although some were), but I was releasing the shutter so frequently that there was many similarities between some pictures.

In summary, from this one event, these are the tips that I am giving myself for next time:

• Use a tripod to ensure the camera is stable.

• Use a cable release so that the camera doesn't shake when the shutter is opened.

• Anticipate the best location to set up, being mindful of potential obstacles like trees and other people. Find a place where the camera/tripod is less likely to be knocked.

• Set the focus to manual so that the camera doesn't have to auto focus each time the shutter is released. Pre-adjust the focus so that this is ready before launch.

• Try and aim the camera before the first fireworks go up to minimise the amount of time taken to get that final position. Quickly use the first fireworks to confirm that the focus is sharp.

• Remember that brighter fireworks need a shorter exposure time than darker ones. I had exposure times varying between 2 seconds and nearly 10 seconds in a few instances.

• If using a digital camera, do spot checks on the pictures to ensure that the timings are good. Don't check every picture.

• Check through the viewfinder from time-to-time to ensure that fireworks are in-frame and to re-adjust the focus if necessary.

So for the most part, I'm quite pleased with my results. Therefore, I've published the selected 49 photographs in an album which can be found in the photography section, or by clicking on the link below.

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With a holiday coming up, I decided I couldn't put up with marks on my pictures taken with my old Sony DSC-P200 digital camera. That's why today it got replaced.

This marks the end of a little over 3 years of photography with my older camera which can claim the title of my first film replacement digital camera. I like to think that I've learnt a lot about picture taking during that time, and having clocked up over 5000 images that's a lot of trial and error.

Never-the-less, when things start showing the signs of wear and tear (there are two main faults with the camera - it has dust in the lens, and the zoom buttons are failing), they must be replaced. So the Sony will be confined to a drawer to be taken out for times when the risk of damage, loss or theft is at it's highest, or should I need a backup camera.

So after looking over a few websites for fairly cheap cameras, I couldn't find any I liked the look of. So a trip to one of my favourite review sites (trustedreviews) was in order. After searching for compact cameras priced up to £150, I came across the Casio Exilim EX-Z1080 with a glowing review and a score of 9/10. Other reviews confirmed it's place of praise so I went on the hunt for one which Comet provided at a mere £79 (on offer, down from £149 - bargain!)

It's a fair bit different from my Sony. It's black for a start (I've gone off silver), takes SD and SDHC cards instead of memory sticks (cheaper memory - yay!), has 10.1 megapixels compared to the Sony's 7.2MP, features a higher range of ISO ratings (up to 3200 where the Sony went to 400) and features widescreen video recording. I'm still limited to only 3x optical zoom but that's not too bad considering the likely camera shake experienced from anything more.

It does lack a few features of my older camera, but hopefully I won't miss them too much. The Sony does have manual control over exposure times up to 30" where the Casio is automatic with a maximum of 0.5" although it does allow +/- 2EV and the Sony featured limited aperture control where the Casio does not. My aim is to one day complement my compact camera with a digital SLR, so for the situations where I would like more manual control that larger camera would fulfill those needs.

It does appear that digital camera technology has moved on in these last 3 years. When I bought my Sony, it was pretty much top of the range at least as far a megapixel count goes. 7 megapixels was rare for an everyday point and shoot, with a limited number of models appearing at the end of the range in the Argos catalogue. Now I see compact cameras offering 12MP, with features such as face detection (the Casio has that too), anti-shake technology reasonable quality video footage. I've even heard of a WiFi enabled camera.

Assuming this Casio lasts as long as the Sony, my next compact camera will be in 2011/2012. By that time, will 15MP sensors be the norm, with top-of-the-range cameras boasting 17MP? Will they pack any more technology (automatic scene optimisation perhaps) to allow people who don't want to know anything about photography take the perfect picture?

On a final note, I looked back at my early blog entry in April 2005 where I logged my purchase of the Sony DSC-P200. I noted that I must find lots of things to take pictures of. I think after approximately 1797 pictures per year, I fulfilled that ambition which now continues with what I will classify as my third generation of compact camera (1st = film, 2nd = Sony, 3rd = Casio).

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