Wildlife Photographer of The Year Exhibition In Oxford

The Natural History Museum in Oxford is hosting the Wildlife Photographer of The Year.

16 July – 22 September Free Admission Details here

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 Grand title winner Winner 2013

Animal Portraits Greg du Toit, South Africa

Joint runner-up 2013 Animal Portraits

Hannes Lochner, South Africa

Commended 2013 Animal Portraits

Douglas Seifert, USA

Opening hours Open daily from 10am-5pm. Admission is free.

Summer Swifts Photo Competition

Wildlife Photographer of the Year comes to the

Museum of Natural History this summer, on display 16 July – 22 September.

To mark the occasion we’re launching a photo competition of our own…

Send us your best photograph of this summer’s swifts on the wing, either around the Museum’s tower or near you. Full details here

Here is an event at the NHM that we are involved with, you might be interested

Sat 20 Imaging Techniques in Modern Natural History – a Hands- On Guide

Day school, Adults 16+, 10am-5pm

A practical course in digital imaging using electron microscopy, 3D laser scanning, multiplane microscopy and macrophotography. This course coincides with the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Museum. Fee: £60.

For more information email

education@oum.ox.ac.uk

Crop Factor Explained: How Sensor Size Affects the Field of View

From Lightstalking

These days, we often hear about the benefits of full frame cameras over APS-C, we are told about four thirds sensors and micro four thirds sensors but what does all this mean to us in relation to the way we take pictures? For this article, we are going to leave aside the differences in image quality such as noise and dynamic range because for most enthusiast photographers the difference is very minimal whatever the sensor.

The biggest difference is in what we call the crop factor of the sensor and to begin to understand that we are going to go back in time a little to the days of film.

For many of us that own or have owned a 35mm SLR film camera, the focal length of a lens seems pretty obvious. Focal lengths less than 35mm are wide angled, from 35-70 is considered a standard lens, as it is roughly similar to our own field of view and from 70mm upwards we are into the the telephoto ranges. The thing to keep in mind is that these are what we perceived to the fields of view on a 35mm camera.

The biggest myth to dispel when we come to digital sensors of less than full frame is that the crop factor magnifies the image. This is not true and perhaps the best way to explain it with the use of an image taken on a full frame camera.

Full Frame and APS-C Sensors: A Comparison

Let’s assume we have taken our shot on a 24mm lens on our full frame camera. We are now going to take exactly the same shot, with the same 24mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera. Most APS-C sensors have what is known as a 1.5X crop factor, and indeed when you take that same picture, it would appear that the image is indeed magnified, i.e. captured at a focal length of 24 x 1.5 =  36mm. However what we are going to do now is take our full frame image and crop into so that we get the same size as the output of an APS-C sensor. Now if you compare the cropped image to that of the the photo from the APS-C sensor, you will see that they are identical. The magnification is exactly the same but the image has a narrower field of view, in other words, compared to full frame, it is cropped.

APS-C is just Full Frame cropped by Jason Row Photography, on Flickr

 

So with this in mind, how does this relate to us in real life photography. Well let’s take a look at the most common forms of cameras that we enthusiasts use.  Go here for the rest of this excellent article