The WCC Weekly Roundup

Composition

Most of us spend way too much time worrying about gear, learning editing techniques, etc when we should really be spending more time either shooting or learning photography techniques. If you have some time, I really recommend these two lectures about composition. I really learned a lot from both of them. Amazing how they both talk about the same subject but they come at it from a completely different angle. They about an hour each but well worth the time...

First one is called "Better Photographic Composition- Beyond the rule of thirds".

Second one is "Scott Kelby's Crush the Composition"

Magic Lantern

Ok, so if you watch the videos above you can worry about gear again... This is a free one, and not for everyone... So what is Magic Lantern?

Basically Magic Lantern is a third party program that runs alongside the Canon firmware. All you have to do is load the program on the SD card you shooting with (its very small) and start the camera. Then by pushing the 'trash button' you get an extra menu that adds new features to the camera. While Magic Lantern offers no guarantees, the latest version is a stable version and has been tested by many users.  

For now, its only available for the following Canon cameras: 5Dmk2 2.1.2, 50D 1.0.9, 60D 1.1.1, 500D 1.1.1, 550D 1.0.9, 600D 1.0.2. I'm sure more cameras will be added as the popularity increases.

Magic Lantern's main focus is to add functionality for video capture but they have some really cool photography functions too. A few are:

1. Built in intervalometer for shooting timelapse. This saves you having to buy a remote to do time lapse photography and they offer a lot more functionality than typical remotes.
2. FPS control. This allows you to change the video capture rate to as slow as 0.2 frames per second.
3. Bulb ramping - this allows the capture of a time lapse that gradually changes exposure, compensating for the transition from day to night. 
4. Extend the bulb timer up to 8 hours.
5. Motion detect triggering.

These are just a few...for a full list of functions click here.

There are loads of tutorials on how to load and use this great tool. Have a look here if you want to download it or learn more about it.