Photographic apathy 2
September 17th 2008 20:16
Another thing that bothers me is the lack of care people take towards photography. Everyone has the vain streak within them: wanting to have the best photos, from the best holiday all easily accessible on Facebook etc. We all take photos and we all feel great when we get a good one.
But nobody takes the time to understand what their camera is actually doing when it takes a photo. I know its easy to use a point and shoot camera but its also easy to learn how to improve your photography skills. You just have to look at the fundamentals of photography and you can upgrade your snaps instantly.
We’ll leave digital cameras out for the moment and use film as an example but its directly transferable to the digital way once you understand the basics.
It is actually all so simple and logical (and interesting)! Please read on and I will improve your skills in minutes.
OK, 3 things influence whether a photo or rather a negative is exposed correctly
1. Shutter speed – how quickly the shutter opens and closes to let light through the lens (yes, you can control this!)
2. Aperture – how big the hole is in the camera to allow light through the lens
3. Film speed – choosing between the different types of film will give you sharp or grainy effects, depend on what you want
The most important are the first two as they work in tandem with each other to get right exposure.
Here is the logic:
Say for example you have a bright day – you can have a quick shutter speed (the shutter opens and then closes quickly) as the bright sunlight exposes the film quicker than say on a gloomy day. You also don’t need a large aperture as a smaller hole will allow enough light in to expose the film than if it was darker and you needed to open up the aperture to let more light in.
Get it? We use the speed of the shutter opening and closing and the size of the aperture to expose the film correctly. But here comes the MOST IMPORTANT BIT! The aperture determines the depth of field. OK, that’s a pretty random term but what it is referring to is how much of the photo stays in focus.
Let me explain. Ever wonder how in some photos the subject e.g. a person is in focus but in the background it is all blurry? Then you’ll get anther photo where everything is in focus i.e. a panoramic pic where a mountain is razor sharp but so is the flower in the foreground 2 metres away! What the cameraman has done is use differing aperture setting to change the depth of field.
Here are the rules:
A big aperture i.e. large hole is around f3.2, which gives a small depth of field which means the subject will be blurry and the background blurry.
A small aperture i.e. small hole is around f22, which keeps everything in focus
So apertures are called f-stops (don’t know why) but they come in large f3.2 to medium f5.6 or f8 to small f22.
Here is a good link to show all the types of f-stops and some pics of the depth of field
Really Long Link
So now as an example to explain the technique, we have a late afternoon scene of a mountain and we want everything in focus. We need to use a small aperture (f22 or f16) to get everything sharp but we know that with a smaller hole we will need a slower shutter speed to expose the pic properly.
So shutter speeds come in all types of descriptions but basically just describing the length of time the shutter is open.
Super quick: 1/1000th of a second
Quick: 1/500; 1/250
Medium: 1/100
Getting slower:1/60 (this is the slowest the camera shutter can operate whilst you are hand holding it, anything slower and the shutter is open whilst you are moving and you will get blur – this is when you need a tripod)
Slow: 1/2 i.e half a second
Super slow: 1’’, 5’’, B (stands for bulb and this is when the shutter is open for as long as you have your finger on the shutter release – obviously need a tripod for this one!)
When you have the super slow speeds you can get great effects if you put the camera on a tripod e.g. that’s how the do the night trailing lights of cars photos. So you can choose if you want to freeze a subject, like in a sports scene or maybe blur things so they add an artistic effect.
So now you are armed with two very cool artistic weapons – shutter speed and aperture. Always use your aperture to take away background visuals if they are not needed for the main subject. It’s all about making the subject the main focus of the pic and therefore creating a more interesting and engaging pic.
The 3rd thing I mentioned is film speed./ Again it’s a bit back to front as slow speed is something ISO 50 and fast film is ISO 400. Slow film will give you grainy effects, great for is you are shooting in black and white and fast film gives you great clarity for colourful or vibrant photos.
Most of these skills I learnt on a manual film SLR (Single lens reflex). This really gives you a great grounding but obviously things have moved on to digital. Here’s the conundrum. Digital SLRs are great, but to get a decent one can be quite pricey. If you are starting out I would recommend a cheap film SLR to cut your teeth and when you have built up some knowledge you can make the investment into a digital SLR.
This has just been a quick introduction but it’s worth finding out more on how to take better pics now that you have a basic understanding of how the camera works
But nobody takes the time to understand what their camera is actually doing when it takes a photo. I know its easy to use a point and shoot camera but its also easy to learn how to improve your photography skills. You just have to look at the fundamentals of photography and you can upgrade your snaps instantly.
We’ll leave digital cameras out for the moment and use film as an example but its directly transferable to the digital way once you understand the basics.
It is actually all so simple and logical (and interesting)! Please read on and I will improve your skills in minutes.
OK, 3 things influence whether a photo or rather a negative is exposed correctly
1. Shutter speed – how quickly the shutter opens and closes to let light through the lens (yes, you can control this!)
2. Aperture – how big the hole is in the camera to allow light through the lens
3. Film speed – choosing between the different types of film will give you sharp or grainy effects, depend on what you want
The most important are the first two as they work in tandem with each other to get right exposure.
Here is the logic:
Say for example you have a bright day – you can have a quick shutter speed (the shutter opens and then closes quickly) as the bright sunlight exposes the film quicker than say on a gloomy day. You also don’t need a large aperture as a smaller hole will allow enough light in to expose the film than if it was darker and you needed to open up the aperture to let more light in.
Get it? We use the speed of the shutter opening and closing and the size of the aperture to expose the film correctly. But here comes the MOST IMPORTANT BIT! The aperture determines the depth of field. OK, that’s a pretty random term but what it is referring to is how much of the photo stays in focus.
Let me explain. Ever wonder how in some photos the subject e.g. a person is in focus but in the background it is all blurry? Then you’ll get anther photo where everything is in focus i.e. a panoramic pic where a mountain is razor sharp but so is the flower in the foreground 2 metres away! What the cameraman has done is use differing aperture setting to change the depth of field.
Here are the rules:
A big aperture i.e. large hole is around f3.2, which gives a small depth of field which means the subject will be blurry and the background blurry.
A small aperture i.e. small hole is around f22, which keeps everything in focus
So apertures are called f-stops (don’t know why) but they come in large f3.2 to medium f5.6 or f8 to small f22.
Here is a good link to show all the types of f-stops and some pics of the depth of field
Really Long Link
So now as an example to explain the technique, we have a late afternoon scene of a mountain and we want everything in focus. We need to use a small aperture (f22 or f16) to get everything sharp but we know that with a smaller hole we will need a slower shutter speed to expose the pic properly.
So shutter speeds come in all types of descriptions but basically just describing the length of time the shutter is open.
Super quick: 1/1000th of a second
Quick: 1/500; 1/250
Medium: 1/100
Getting slower:1/60 (this is the slowest the camera shutter can operate whilst you are hand holding it, anything slower and the shutter is open whilst you are moving and you will get blur – this is when you need a tripod)
Slow: 1/2 i.e half a second
Super slow: 1’’, 5’’, B (stands for bulb and this is when the shutter is open for as long as you have your finger on the shutter release – obviously need a tripod for this one!)
When you have the super slow speeds you can get great effects if you put the camera on a tripod e.g. that’s how the do the night trailing lights of cars photos. So you can choose if you want to freeze a subject, like in a sports scene or maybe blur things so they add an artistic effect.
So now you are armed with two very cool artistic weapons – shutter speed and aperture. Always use your aperture to take away background visuals if they are not needed for the main subject. It’s all about making the subject the main focus of the pic and therefore creating a more interesting and engaging pic.
The 3rd thing I mentioned is film speed./ Again it’s a bit back to front as slow speed is something ISO 50 and fast film is ISO 400. Slow film will give you grainy effects, great for is you are shooting in black and white and fast film gives you great clarity for colourful or vibrant photos.
Most of these skills I learnt on a manual film SLR (Single lens reflex). This really gives you a great grounding but obviously things have moved on to digital. Here’s the conundrum. Digital SLRs are great, but to get a decent one can be quite pricey. If you are starting out I would recommend a cheap film SLR to cut your teeth and when you have built up some knowledge you can make the investment into a digital SLR.
This has just been a quick introduction but it’s worth finding out more on how to take better pics now that you have a basic understanding of how the camera works
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