Picture Styles for Canon DSLRS for stills and video shooting

Picture Style Tutorial - Excellent tutorial on using custom pictures styles.

How to increase the dynamic range of your Canon 7D - All Canon DSLRS tbf (this video shows you how to get custom picture styles on your DSLR)

Picture styles based on film stocks - great for stills but a bit extreme for video

Using the Picture Style editor for colour correction

What I'm currently using for video. There is a version for low contrast scenes, one for high contrast scenes, and another which apes the gamma curves of a Panavision Digital film camera.

The 'famous' Superflat and Extraflat for increased latitude when shooting video.

How to get custom picture styles to work in Video Mode

If you loaded your preset in stills mode already then you it is done, you just have to find it and just have to do this:

You have to remember when you were still mode if you loaded it in user define 1,2 or 3, let say you loaded in user define 3, then:

1. Turn the dial to video mode.

2. Push the menu button, scroll to picture style and push the enter button

3. Push the arrow up and down until you get to USER DEFINE 3

4. Push the DISP. button

5. Push up and down until the red square box is on Picture Style.

6. Push enter button.

7. Push up and down until you see your preset, and that is it.

Thanks to Soma

Let's say you catch someone using your images without permission...

... it's theft, plain and simple. They owe you money. Send them something like this...

Dear Sir/Madam,

With regards to your unauthorised reproduction of my
photograph - screenshot attached for your reference . As
I
am sure you are aware, no permission was sought for the usage, nor was any
compensation for its licence agreed between you and I, therefore you are in
breach of copyright.

As such, please consider this an invoice for
your
past usage of this image, as well as any further usage of this image as
part of
any reporting of this event in the future.

The invoice
breaks down as
follows.

Past and future usage of the image on : £make up a
figure of your choosing
Fee for unauthorised usage:
£insert the same figure,
as a penalty charge
Total: £the two figures
added up
In addition I also
require the image is credited to xxxxxxx

Payment is due no later than 30
days of the date of this email, and
should be paid via cheque made payable to
xxxxxxx at xxxxxxx.
Should
payment not be made within 30 days, the
unauthorised usage fee will double
to £double the unauthorised fee, and action
will be taken in the courts to
recover this sum, for which an additional fee of
£whatever you like will be
charged.

No further correspondance will be
entered into regarding
this matter.

Sincerely
Your name

The f365 Photography Thread n00b guide to buying your first dSLR
by
Nom Nom De Plume (Will) wrote on Fri, 12 November 2010 12:33

Welcome :)

dSLR’s cost a lot of money. You want to make sure you spend it wisely.

Firstly, you need to decide which brand you want to go with. It's a very important choice to make because not only do the brands differ in quality, but each brand has its own specific range of additional lenses & accessories, & so you’d have to trade in all your gear at once if you wanted to switch brands later on down the line. Consequently, very few photographers do switch brands – it’s costly, and it’s annoying. Just ask our leader, Rodney Trotter.

We recommend Canon & Nikon above all other brands for a couple of reasons;
a) they're the best quality, &
b) they have by far the widest range of additional lenses & accessories, which means that
c) you can easily get hold of second hand gear for them, which is obviously much cheaper than buying brand new.

The extra range of available equipment also means you have a much greater degree of flexibility when you reach the point where you want to advance your skills in a specific area of photography (such as macro, portrait, sports, landscape etc.)

Right, now you need to get yourself down to Jessops and check out the Canon and Nikon cameras in your price range. Get your hands on them and feel which buttons\menus feel intuitive to you. (Caution should be had with the very low entry level Nikons as they don't have autofocus in the camera so the lenses are more expensive. Ask the dude (or dudette) in the shop if it's not clear.

Then, having made your decision, thank the dude very much for their time & advice, & walk straight out of the shop. Go home & order your camera on the internet. While Jessops is a great place to ‘test drive’ stuff, it’s also frickin’ expensive, & could cost you hundreds of extra pounds which would be better spent on drugs, guns, and midgets.
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk is a useful price comparison site, although it’s worth comparing prices in google shopping as well just in case price buster isn’t 100% up to date.

Also have a look at www.dpreview.com - it provides really comprehensive reviews of most photography equipment.

Most of us went for brand new rather than second hand; if you do decide to go down the second hand route then make sure you buy from a reputable seller & make sure you get a worthwhile guarantee, although this applies to buying new as well - there are some cowboys out there.

Next, get yourself a subscription to Practical Photography magazine and work your way through the projects. That'll teach you all you need to know in order to use your initiative and do your own thing.

Bryan Peterson's 'Understanding Exposure' is the book that is usually recommended to new guys – it explains technique & science which is essential knowledge for taking good pictures.

Then there's probably the most useful tool you have at your disposal – this thread
Everyone here is really helpful, intelligent, & beautiful, so if you have questions, however stupid, then ask. Between us, we’re pretty knowledgeable about nearly all aspects & niches of photography. And don't forget this thread bible - which contains a whole range of articles on photography (theory, equipment, resources etc.) written by our resident experts who are:

macro - Will
portait/strobist (flash) - L'Cham/Rodders/The Reverend JT/Longshanks
landscape - Rodders
wedding - Rodders/The Reverend JT
spending other people's money - Rodders, Rodders & Rodders, but we're all happy to advise on this ;)

Rodney Talks Weddings

- Yes, it is enjoyable. The high I was on after my first wedding was incredible.
- It's extremely tiring. You will be on your feet for 10 hours straight.
- If you find a couple who provide food for you you've done very well
- Yes, I go to the rehearsals where time permits. Strangely, I'm told I'm in the minority, but I need to know where the best angles are prior to the day.
- Vicars are ace. Registrars are Hitlers. Whenever I've done a church wedding the vicars have said 'Do what you like, but don't be a nuisance', however my most recent registrar was 'No photos whatsoever except for exchanging rings'. Registrars will also stop you from photographing the real register under 'The Data Protection Act'. The register is a public document so they're talking sh*t.
- Make things easier for yourself. Get the couple to write a list of 'must have' group shots so you're not guessing who's important. Get them to assign you a groomsman to round up the people.
- Even with 200mm on a crop sensor you're unlikely to hit the ring shot during the ceremony. Angles will be terrible for you. Retake this after the ceremony.
- Cutting the cake shots can easily be done before the actual moment. Borrow the couple and get them to do a practice run
- Same goes for the shoes, dresses and jewellery. Go to the brides house a day or two beforehand and photograph it all when there are no time constraints
- Get to know your couple. The better the rapport you have with them, the more they see you as a friend than an employee then the more willing they will be to do stupid poses for you!
- If you need to retake some shots then just do it. Once everybody's gone home then it's too late. You can always dress it up as 'I've had a superb idea for the ring shot that I'd like to try - can we just go and do it quickly?'
- Remember - the day is about the couple, not you. You're there to get the photos the couple want for their album, not to create intricate masterpieces for your portfolio (unless that's what the couple have asked for)
- Contract. Have one.
- Contract. Have one (yes, it's that important)
- Camera bodies. Have two. Minimum. Ones that work well in low light.
- Lenses. F2.8 minimum. You may scrape it with a constant f4... but I wouldn't want to be you. Yes, primes are nice, but each venue is different and each shooting point is different. There's a reason the 24-70 / 70-200 combo is standard...
- Memory cards. Have plenty.
- Batteries. Spare for everything. Camera, flash, triggers etc.
- Insurance. Get some.
- Manage your couples expectations. If you're new then tell them. Don't go pretending you're Yervant if you've never done a wedding before.
- And do your research. Buy some books, look at the poses and ideas then rip them off and refine them. Go to http://www.oliver-cameron.com and buy the guide to posing.

More General Helpful Shizzle

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An Intro to Macro - Equipment Basics

Following on from my stream-of-consciousness post on all things macro yesterday, I decided to try and type things up into a more sensible order. My initial intention was to make it shorter and, hopefully, easier to follow. Having got down to things, I’ve certainly failed on the first of my objectives; I’ve tackled a single area so far and ended up with more words than I had in my whole rant. Having completed this section, I’ve decided I may as well upload it in the hope it’s useful to someone. Further sections may follow as and when I have the time and inclination to put them together.

There are a number of options available to anyone wanting to try macro photography, from dedicated macro lenses to close-up filters. In this section I’ll cover the main methods and consider the pros and cons of each.

I think the info is all accurate, but I’ll be happy to be corrected if I have messed up on anything! I have tried to make this relevant to all makes and models of camera but there may be a small amount of Canon bias!

Macro Lenses:

Perhaps the most obvious option, a true macro lens provides a magnification of 1:1 (basically 1x magnification). Some zoom lenses claim to have macro capability, although this is generally at a ratio of 1:2. The most powerful macro lens readily available is the Canon MPE-65 which offers a range of magnifications from 1:1 right up to 5:1 (5x magnification). Macro lenses are available at a variety of focal lengths, starting at around 50mm and going up to around 200mm. The main difference between these is the working distance; the longer the focal length, the greater the working distance. Generally anything around the 50-60mm range is considered most suitable for product shoots – basically anything you need to get close to but isn’t going to move. For insects anything from around the 90mm mark is going to be suitable. Whilst a lenses such as the Canon 180mm or Sigma 150mm are going to give you even more working distance than something like the Tamron 90mm, Canon100mm, or Sigma 105mm, their extra weight makes them a bit more cumbersome and a bit harder to use handheld.

Pros: Probably the most versatile and easy to use option, almost all the well known models offer stunning image quality.

Cons: Pricey

Extension tubes:

These are hollow tubes that fit in behind a lens to take the glass further away from the sensor, effectively increasing the magnification. Because there's no glass in them there’s no loss of quality, but you do lose a couple of stops of light with the full set on. The other trade off is that you lose the ability to focus to infinity. Given you're using them to try and get as close as possible, that's not really too much of a problem most of the time, but there are occasions where it can be a little annoying.

You can use these in two ways. Combined with a true 1:1 macro lens (such as the Canon 100mm macro) a full set of Kenko (a popular make) tubes will give you anything up to a ratio of around 2:1 (2x magnification). You can use them with non-macro lenses as well to increase the magnification. The ratio achieved obviously depends both on the type of tubes and the lens used, but a full set of Kenko tubes combined with most lenses will achieve a ration of around 1:1 (i.e. the same as a macro lens)

When it comes to makes, there are a few options. Probably the most common are made by Kenko. They're fully automatic and cost just shy of £100 off ebay for a set of three. They have electrical contacts in them so you are still able to use auto-focus and change the aperture setting easily.

You can get ones that aren't automatic for a lot cheaper (as little as around £10) but you lose the auto-focus (really not a concern with for most macro work as you will be focussing manually anyway) and the ability to easily change aperture (this isn’t relevant for users of lenses that have manual aperture control rings). This may not sound like much of a problem, but imagine this: you’ve got your kit, complete with extension tubes set up and your (incredibly rare) subject in focus. You take the shot. It’s nice, but you need a bit more depth of field to make it stunning. With a set of automatic tubes, changing the aperture is as easy as it always is, you’re done in maybe a second or two and then you’re ready to go again. With manual extension tubes the process is a little more time consuming. You have to take out the tubes, put the lens on the camera, change the aperture setting, take the lens off without turning off the camera, put the tubes back on and then the lens. By the time you’ve done this, your subject has probably got bored and wandered off.

Both Canon and Nikon make their own brand extension tubes, but these are considerably more than the Kenko tubes but offer the same level of functionality.

Pros: (Relatively) cheap, used with a good lens offer good image quality, a good way to achieve higher magnifications with a standard macro lens.

Cons: Only as good as the lens you use them with, can cost you a couple of stops of light, you lose the ability to focus to infinity, cheaper, non-automatic tubes are very limited in the functionality.

Close-up filters:

These screw on to the end of any lens and enable it to focus closer than it otherwise would. They decrease the minimum distance that a lens requires to focus, the obvious disadvantage with this being it reduces the working distance you have. They are available in a variety of strengths to allow different levels of magnification and can be used separately or stacked, depending on the level of closeness required.

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Image quality may suffer with loss of sharpness and distortion both common problems. Small working distance and inaccurate auto-focus may also become problems.

Raynox DCR-250:

Similar in many ways to close-up filters, but different enough to warrant a separate mention, the Raynox is another popular tool in the world of budget macro. Marketed as a “super macro conversion lens”, it’s basically a magnifying glass that screws on to the end of any lens with a filter size of 52-67mm. Reviews and sample images show it to be capable of producing good quality results, although, as with all the solutions (with the obvious exception of a dedicated macro lens), a large part of the quality of the results will be down to the quality of the lens it’s attached to. Different people seem to offer different opinions of how easy it is to get to grips with, but there’s no doubt, used properly, it’s a very capable product.

Pros: Cheap, image quality is good

Cons: can lead to problems with vignetting, small DOF, working distance can be very small to achieve high magnification.

Reversed lens:

Using a reversed lens is a technique I decided against out fairly early on, so my knowledge about it is (even more) limited. There are a couple of methods of employing this technique but the most common set up is to mount a lens the wrong way round in front of a lens the right way round and attaché to your camera. The first, reversed lens magnifies the image, the second lens then brings the image to the right size to fill the frame.

Pros: Assuming you already have two lenses, it effectively costs nothing, potential for good results

Cons: Tricky to set up and fiddly to use, potential to damage a lens is very high, controlling aperture becomes very difficult, metering from the camera is likely to be inaccurate, no autofocus, possible problems with vignetting.

I think this covers at least the vast majority of the equipment that can be used in macro photography. Whilst each has it’s advantages and disadvantages, I think most people would agree that, if you have the budget, perhaps unsurprisingly a dedicated macro lens is the way to go. However, there is certainly a wide range of very capable budget options which give you the opportunity to try macro out before you make the decision on whether to spend big money on a lens.

Will talks about macro work and extension tubes

The tubes go in behind the lens to take the glass further away from the sensor which has the effect of increasing the magnification. Because there's no glass in them, they're just hollow there's no loss of quality, but you do lose a couple of stops of light with the full set on. The other trade off is that you lose the ability to focus to infinity, but TBH, given you're using them to try and get as close as possible, that's not really too much of a problem.

When it comes to makes, there are a few options. The ones I have are made by Kenko. They're fully automatic and cost just shy of £100 off ebay for the set of three. They have electrical contacts in them so you are still able to use auto-focus and change the aperture setting easily.
You can get ones that aren't automatic for a hell of a lot cheaper but you lose the auto-focus (really not a concern with macro, you should be focussing manually anyway) and if you want to change aperture you have to put the lens on the camera, change the aperture setting, take the lens off without turning off the camera, put the tubes on, put the lens back on. Every. Single. Time. Not ideal really
Canon also do their own extension tubes. They're apparently not very different from the auto Kenko ones, except for the fact they cost the same (if not more) for one as Kenko charge for a set of three...

Combined with a true 1:1 macro lens (such as the Canon 100mm macro) a full set of Kenko tubes will give you anything up to about 2x magnification. Any higher than that and it's going to be MPE-65 time TBH (special lens, gives up to 5x magnification). You can use them with non macro lenses as well to increase the magnification - a lot of people use a set of Kenko tubes with the nifty, which gives a fairly effective, cheap macro solution (maximum magnification is about 1x I believe, so the same as a standalone macro).

As far as lighting goes, the ideal for macro is some sort of ringflash/ dedicated dual flash set up. Whilst a lot of people do use ringflashes, I've heard a lot of bad things about them, mainly related to the fact that they produce a very harsh light that is very difficult to diffuse (mainly due to the shape of the unit). I think the preferred method for serious Canon macro toggers is the MT-24EX which is a dual flash which fits at the end of the lens. Because it has two separate heads, rather than one continuous circle, it is much easier to control and diffuse. It's also very expensive though

Because I'm on a tight budget I'm stuck with my cheapy Yong-nuo 465 at the moment. With just the macro lens on, you can just about get away with having it on camera. With the tubes, it's just too far away and at the wrong angle to really be effective, so you have to get it off camera somehow. The preferred budget method (which is also used by a lot of people just using the macro lens with no tubes) is to get a ttl cable and a bracket that screws into the tripod hole of the camera and holds the flash nearer to the end of the lens. I haven't got round to getting one of these yet so I improvise.

As far as diffusers go, most macro toggers make their own, even if they are loosely based around an existing method. You can buy a variety of different types - there's the stofen type (which I use a slightly modified version of - I need to do a lot more work on it though) which is basically just a bit of frosted plastic that goes over the end of the flash. There's lambency/Gary Fong Lightsphere things, which are cone shaped and apparently quite effective. There's also a variety of mini-softboxes and the like. There's quite an interesting thread in the macro section of Talk Photography with pictures of various set-ups people have made. Lots of bits of milk bottle and the like in there, used very creatively. Basically you need some type of diffuser just to avoid blowing out large parts of (normally quite highly reflective insects)

All my shots were done during the day. Most of the time, to get a decent depth of field with the macro stuff, you're going to want to shoot somewhere between about f8 and f16. Generally you'll use low ISO, if nothing else to try and keep noise as low as possible, and a reasonably quick shutter speed (I tend to go no lower than 1/100) which means you have to use quite strong flash just to get enough light. At those settings you're basically going to knock out any ambient light which is why so much macro stuff has black backgrounds. For a lot of stuff it van be very effective. A lot of my moth shots, for example, were taken about 8 or 9 in the morning, but knocking out the background makes it look like they were taken in the dead of night. If you want to avoid it, you'll have to put something close in the background so it gets included in the shot. I know some people put large leaves or even coloured card in the background to give an out of focus green background, rather than a completely black background.

The only other essential part of my set up is a tripod. You can just about get away without one with the macro lens on its own, but with the tubes, it really is absolutely essential.

I think that pretty much covers everything, if there is anything else, just ask

I'll take a photo of my kit next time I've got it all set up


Edit: bloody hell, that's long as the actress said to the bishop

I explain why ND Grads are good

When you're doing landscapes you'll notice that the sky is always, ALWAYS brighter than the ground. Now, each camera has something called a 'dynamic range' - this is basically the amount of stops between dark and light that the camera can record. If you've got a budget camera then the dynamic range will be smaller than a really good camera which would have a larger dynamic range.

What does this mean? Well, you or your camera will meter for the conditions it sees. If you're using spot metering then if you meter off a dark area then the dynamic range thing means that the lighter areas are likely to blow out (not contain any information). If you meter off a light area then you may find that your dark areas contain no data whatsoever. The normal evaluative metering tries to get an average of the whole scene - this may mean your light areas blow out, and your dark areas contain no detail - but it's usually the best compromise.

So - practical example for you to try. Tomorrow, get your camera and put it in spot metering mode. ISO 100, f/8 and aperture priority. Aim at the sky and see what your shutter speed will be... I reckon quite high. Now, without changing any settings, aim at the ground and see what the shutter speed is. It WILL be much slower.

Right - so getting back to why you need grad filters. Basically, what you need to aim for is to get the whole scene within the dynamic range of your camera. The easiest way to do this is by darkening the sky. By using an ND grad, you slide it down in a holder in front of your lens, until the sky part is darkened to your satisfaction - you're aiming to get the sky and ground to around the same brightness so that your sensor can cope. Because grads only have the ND covering over half the filter (please don't bother with soft grads) it lets you darken the sky and bring it back into the dynamic range of your sensor - therefore you don't get blown out areas (or at least much fewer blown out areas), and the ground is exposed nicely and not too dark.

With solid ND's you're not really doing much except darkening the whole scene uniformly. Fine if all you want is to lengthen the exposure to create milky water, moving clouds etc., but to keep the detail in the sky and ground when doing sunrises / sunsets you'll be after a grad.

Lightroom Shortcuts by Supamatt

Most Used Lightroom Shortcuts

G - Library Module

In Library Module:
+/- change size of thumbnails
enter - maximise selected photo

D - Develop Module

Tab - Hide/Reveal Side bars
F5/f6 - Hide/Reveal Top and Bottom Bar

L - Dim the lights

X - Flag as Rejected
P - Flag as Picked

F - Full page (removes windows taskbar) Press twice for full screen

JT reiterates the reciprocal focus length rule thing...

i'm assuming that you're using a cropped sensor camera as well - so that 1/50 would be even less, you're probably looking to keep it to a min of 1/70 seconds at 50mm on a cropped sensor to get rif of camera shake, a s arule of thumb.

also it looks like it's focussed well, just on the nose and eye as opposed to the whole eye - at 50mm and 1.8 you've not got a lot of room to manouvre - do you have variable focus points that you can control through a d pad on the camera? if so manually move the focus point to over the eye and it should work fine.

The Reverend JT talks lenses...

ultrawide-wide - usually from 8mm to about 24mm - 8mm you are looking at almost 180 degrees of view from the front of your lens. even make close up things look quite far away. emphasises perspective

'normal' range - mid telephoto lenses - from 24mm to around 70mm, 50mm (in old 35mm or full frame format) is what the eye sees - so makes the shots look very natural as that is how you are used to seeing things.

telephoto zooms - from 70mm upwards - makes things very far away appear to be very close. squashes perspective.

an 18 - 200mm is a very versatile lens!


Macro lenses make the subject appear in a 1:1 ratio, and focus super close.

tilt-shift lenses are used for architecture to straighten lines which bend through being ultra wide.

if you are using for film, i think you may have to focus yourself which may be quite difficult, i'm not 100% sure though

Why choose hard grads instead of soft ones?

Because the soft ones hardly have any density to them other than right at the top, by the time you're a quarter off the top of the filter you've almost lost all the nd effect.

People say you should only go for the hard grads when there's a distinct horizon otherwise you'll get a band of darkness across the image where the cutoff is - but at the TP convention last year the MD of Lee filters got us all to hold up a hard grad to our eyes to mimic what the lens would see, and you couldn't make out any visible banding. In othet words, the MD of Lee filters said "Fuck the soft grads, they're sh*t". That's good enough for me

Filters for landscapers

I once wrote...

But standard fayre for landscapers would be (and I've just done the same thing on TP )

ND4
ND8
ND4 hard grad
ND8 hard grad

The nd4 and nd8 you can leave for now as you can replicate those effects by letting the sky get darker . The grads are essential though - they help get your skies darker while keeping your ground the same brightness - gets your exposure nicely balanced.

Get those in square format and you'll still be able to use them when your lenses get bigger. You basically need a holder (Cokin P type is the most common) and an adaptor for the same mm as your thread size.

Look on http://www.premierink.co.uk. They do a starter pack for around £45 which has some grads and a holder set.

Edit: http://www.premier-ink.co.uk/photographic/square-filters/p-t ype/kood-ptype-filter-kit-58mm-p-1250.html

Recommended Reading

Books used and recommended by us.

Scott Kelbys “Digital Photography Book”
Tackles the most important side of digital photography - how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks top digital pros use. This book shows which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred photographic "tricks of the trade". Each page covers just one trick, one concept that makes your photography better.

Bryan Peterson’s “Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera”
Provides detailed lessons on the elements of exposure and how each relates to depth of field, freezing and blurring action, and shooting in low light, demonstrating a diversity of creative choices in exposing a picture.

Michael Freeman’s “The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos”
The Photographers Eye shows how anyone can develop an eye for seeing great digital photos. The book explores all the traditional approaches to composition and design, but crucially, it also addresses the new digital technique of shooting in the knowledge that a picture will later be edited, manipulated, or montaged to result in a final image that may be very different from the one seen in the viewfinder.

Michael Freeman’s “Mastering HDR Photography: Combining Technology and Artistry to Create High Dynamic Range Images”
Mastering High Dynamic Range Photography explains how to shoot specifically for HDR and discusses, in detail, the software available to combine multiple exposures into a single HDR image. Perhaps most importantly, HDR is revealed as a technology not of soulless automation, but precisely because it breaks with familiar photographic conventions one that requires judgement and artistry on the part of the photographer.

Steven Biver’s “Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting”
This is not your typical how-to book! This is a tried-and-true how to understand book. How to understand and predict the size of light, types of reflections, and the family of angles. Master these principles and you can shoot any portrait, any surface, anywhere!

Ross Hoddinott’s “The Digital Exposure Handbook”
Ross Hoddinott unravels the fundamentals of this fascinating subject and presents it in a clear and easy-to-understand way. This practical, jargon-free guide will be an essential companion out in the field, helping photographers turn theory into practice and to achieve creative control over their images.

Michael Freeman’s Perfect Exposure: The Professional Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs
Clear, direct and guaranteed, Perfect Exposure looks at the way professionals work, and lays out the decisions and sequences with absolute clarity, while incorporating the latest, powerful post-processing techniques. Choosing the exposure for a photograph is both alarmingly simple, and infinitely complex. Simple, because there is ultimately only one dosage of light, controlled as it always has been, by a shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting. But arriving at the perfect exposure is also complex, because it affects everything in the image and its effect on the viewer.

Martin Evening's “Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC
Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers begins with an overview of the Photoshop interface and the fundamentals of how to use Photoshop, followed by how to configure and optimize your computer's performance to run the program and then it dives straight into the essentials of Camera Raw image editing. The Sharpening chapter shows how to use the Camera Raw controls to obtain optimum capture sharpening and noise reduction and the Essentials chapter outlines how to work with all the basic image adjustment tools that are in the program.
Practical workshops show you how to master the essential techniques, such as colour correction, retouching techniques, toning a black and white image, creating composite images and so on.


Martin Evening’s “Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop”
The authors describe in detail how to carry out some of their favourite Photoshop image editing and retouching techniques using examples taken from real-life professional shoots. The techniques described here don't just show you clever things you can do in Photoshop, they show how you can use Photoshop in a professional context, meeting the demands of art directors and fulfilling tricky briefs.

Collins’ “Complete Photography Manual”
Everything you need to know about photography, both digital and film, written by a team of experts. This comprehensive and superbly illustrated guide covers all aspects from basic composition to the latest digital know-how and digital darkroom techniques. Practical, inspiring and informative, Collins Complete Photography Manual takes you from choosing the right camera and understanding what different lenses can achieve, to creating the best possible composition. In addition, key techniques, such as image manipulation, are illustrated with stunning images and accompanied by easy-to-follow jargon-free text. There are separate sections on different themes, such as landscapes and nature, still life and sports shots, architecture, weddings, animals, and how to take a good portrait. In addition, professional tips throughout help you to avoid potential problems and show you how to get the best out of your camera and raise your level of photography.

Joe McNally’s “Hot Shoe Diaries”
In The Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe brings you behind the scenes to candidly share his lighting solutions for a ton of great images. Using Nikon Speedlights, Joe lets you in on his uncensored thought process—often funny, sometimes serious, always fascinating—to demonstrate how he makes his pictures with these small flashes. Whether he’s photographing a gymnast on the Great Wall, an alligator in a swamp, or a fire truck careening through Times Square, Joe uses these flashes to create great light that makes his pictures sing.

Julie Oswin’s “Contemporary Wedding Photography”
This user-friendly manual reveals the techniques needed to produce this contemporary style of wedding album, for professional photographers looking to update their methods, or for aspiring photographers wanting to break into this lucrative market. It includes all the advice you need, from preparation and planning before the wedding, to digital manipulation of your images and presentation to the couple after the event. It features comprehensive checklists, professional tips, tried-and-tested templates, advice boxes and step-by-step sequences to provide endless inspiration and guarantee successful shooting.

Cheat Sheets

Although we don't like to admit it, we've all been noobs once. Although there are lots of great tips out there it's not much good to you when you're stuck in the field. So, hopefully these 'cheat sheets' that can be printed out onto A5 or 6x4 and popped into your field bag.

Basic Guide


Neutral Density Filter Guide



Photoshop Shortcuts

General helpful shizzle

LEARN ABOUT YOUR CAMERA! We all hate reading manuals, but learning what does what, how it does it, and why it does it is essential if you want to be a good photographer. Also - look at other people's photos, and try to work out why you like them and why you don't like others - and it sounds silly but take lots of photos - obviously the quickest way to learn!


Definitely shoot in RAW if you have a big enough memory card - gives you power to process your own photographs and has much more scope for cropping/post process work.


Use a UV filter on your lens most of the time where possible - it costs £10 to replace as opposed to hundreds/thousands if you need a new lens.


Follow the Rule of 3rds! There is a section on it in a previous post on this blog below.

Hosting your photos on a website like http://www.flickr.com/ will allow you to share and catalogue your photos for free (or if you decide to go pro, at a small cost) - you can join groups which will boost your confidence when nice people say nice things about your photos, and you can see stats like how many people have looked at your photos, where they are being posted by others etc. It does make an OK backup source for your photos, but use something else like an external harddrive as well in case your house burns down - although your photo collection might be the last thing on your mind if your house burns down.

Shoot with a polarising filter outdoors. look at the post on filters for what a polarizer does and how/why - but a quick synopsis is it makes skies very blue, and foliage very green - also allows you to see under the surface of water (light reflected from water is polarized), but does not absorb reflected light from metal, just so you know.


Canons- The less numbers in the name, the better the camera.


Nikons- The more numbers in the name, the better (except the D3/D3x - best camera in the world, up yours cannon)


If you're shooting moving objects/panning - TURN OFF VR OR WHATEVER YOUR VIBRATION REDUCTION TECHNOLOGY IS! Also, same goes for it you are shooting on a tripod, the tripod is your VR, turning VR on will actually introduce shake, much the same as if you start taking anti-psychotic drugs when you're not mental will make you hallucinate. Sort of.



If you have an onboard flash indoors at a party for example (not a big group or if the subject is far away), and no flashgun/strobe - then try putting a bit of tissue paper over the front of it. You'll look like a bit of a mentalist, but it will soften'diffuse the light a little and will look better in the end (unless you are after hard light in which case don't bother)

Slappybag's Polaroid section

Photoshop CS4 - Help and tutorials

Watermarking in CS4:

rodney trotter - big up yourself:

In its simplest form it's a new text layer in photoshop, text white, slight
drop shadow with opacity anywhere between 20-50% (depending on the photo).I've
made the text layer into a gif (transparent background) and set up a custom
action so when I hit CTRL-F12 it loads it up, copies it, switches to the
previous tab, pastes it and sets opacity - saves the repetitiveness.If you
follow that then cool

in a bit more depth: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/09/cs4-03/create-action-watermark-images-photoshop.html

Some great and helpful tutorials:

http://www.layersmagazine.com/category/tutorials/

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/category/tutorials/

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials.htm

http://psdlearning.com/

http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-warholphoto.html

Strobist Photography (flash photography for non nerds)

Flashguns, speedlights, strobes... all fancy words for a flash. A lot of papparazzi, wedding togs have the flash mounted on top of the camera as it is much easier and quicker, although if you want to get some interesting and beautiful shots without using ambient light, you need to learn about the direction, quality and quantity of light used in your photos.



other than the flashgun (which there are many types of), the following equipment is also used for the typcal strobist:



wireless triggers - transmitter and receiver pairing which allows your camera to talk to your lighting equipment (flashgun etc)



Lightstand - attache your flashgun to this to allow you to shoot light from wherever you want.



umbrella - can shoot through the umbrella, or reflect onto the inside of a reflective mirror to diffuse the light from your flashgun (makes the light softer, gives less harsh shadows)



Snoot - directs the light towards one specific point in a tube type format

For setting up a DIY studio for macros:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

Photography terms

Macro - Macro photography is close-up photography. The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject (i.e. in a 1:1 ratio)

Metadata - A digital SLR camera will record all of the settings and all of the information available when taking the photograph, and embed it into the image. Generally right clicking and going to 'properties' will show you the metadata, or looking at the properties in the software you use to edit/view the photo.

Rear-curtain flash - There are two curtains on your shutter - one at the front of the shutter and one at the back. The length of time for shutter speed depends on how long the gap is between the front curtain opening and the rear curtain closing - that's how the shutter works. Using 'rear curtain flash' or 'slow synch/rear synch' - means your front curtain opens, lets ambient light in, and just before the rear curtain closes, the flash goes off. This means you can get cool blurry movement and nice ambient colors, whiclst still 'freezing' a picture of whatever your flash shoots at over the top of it. Alternatively you can have front curtain flash (this is default or normal flash setting) which freezes the subject and then puts the ambient colours and blurriness over the top of that frozen image. have a try.

Stock photography: Stock photography sites let you sell your images to companies/individuals that need certain pics but don't currently have them for £xamount a pop.(like if you were asked to make a leaflet for hedgehogs, in the middle of winter, you could go on the site, buy the rights to use a photo of a hedgehog/whatever for use in the leaflet...without being sued)

Tilt-shift - The term used for photography which makes the photo look like a minature village/toy city. I think the term is used from lenses which are used for architecture which stop the photograph having converging lines when shot from below, so the building looks like it's being photographed from the middle and not from ground level! examples of this type of photography below

http://www.flickr.com/groups/tilt-shift-fakes/discuss/72057594073050904/

Useful links

screen calibration:



http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php


http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/viewing.htm




Freeware for making panorama pics:



http://download.cnet.com/FxFoto/3000-12511_4-10304500.html?t



http://download.cnet.com/Panorama-Perfect-Lite/3000-12511_4-%2010459396.html?tag=mncol



Reliable Internet source of brand new Equipment:




http://www.warehouseexpress.com/




ND filters group on Flickr:



http://www.flickr.com/groups/neutraldensity/



Printing your digital images:



http://www.togsprint.com/




General photo goodness:

http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/

http://www.bighugelabs.com/








HDR Tutorial:





www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/


Help with Smoke photography:

http://photocritic.org/artsmoke-photographing-smoke/


Lens hire:

http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/

How to set up your own macro strobist studio:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html


iphone apps for photographers:

http://www.photoradar.com/reviews/buying-guides/top-10-iphon e-apps-for-photographers

Post Processing (plus handy CS4 shortcut sheet)

I use Photoshop CS4 (soon to be CS5) but there are lots of different bits of software out there that can do a job - i've listed a few below:
Aperture
Photomatix Pro - Much better than CS4 for making HDR images, in fact pretty much best of all for HDR as far as i can tell.
Lightroom series - Great for organising your photos and has all the features you'll need for most of the adjustments you'll make to your pictures and it's all set out very nicely.

Here are a few shortcuts for CS4 - kindly supplied bybuckajack2.0:

Photographic Techniques

Contre Jour: Contre-jour, French for 'against daylight', refers to photographs taken when the camera is pointing directly toward the source of light. An alternative term is backlighting.
Contre-jour produces backlighting of the subject. This effect usually hides details, causes a stronger contrast between light and dark, creates silhouettes and emphasizes lines and shapes. The sun, or other light source, is often seen as either a bright spot or as a strong glare behind the subject. Fill light may be used to illuminate the side of the subject facing toward the camera. (Thanks wiki)

Photographing smoke trails: - thanks to Uhuqle:

black background - - smoke - - camera

- - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ light ^

Just make sure the light is bright enough and not shining on the background or back at the camera. Ideally an external flash is best because you want good contrast but I just used some desk lights. When you process the picture invert it to get the white background and then play around with the colours.I didn't have an incense stick so I rolled up and twisted tight some paper towel, light it and then put it out and let it smoulder. Produced really good smoke trails. Hope that helps.

Candid Photography:

There's a number of ways you could approach it.

1) A 300mm lens, hide across the road, photograph people doing what they do, crop.

2) 50mm, right in their face, laugh about it with them afterwards

3) Find a tramp, give him a quid to take his photo, B&W the hell out of it, win.

4) Go to a party, introduce yourself as a photographer, explain you'll be taking photos. After 5 minutes they'll have forgotten about you. Take candid photos.

5) Shoot from the hip (in other words, aim the camera when it's by your side - don't raise it to your face)

There's a few ways you could do it without getting decked.Or, you could do the permission based version - 'Portraits'

Equipment Part 3 - Accessories/Filters

Big up to Rodney Trotter on 365 - the jedi master at long exposures

As Diego says, B+W is a manufacturer of filters. German if I remember correctly. That means you're getting Teutonic Deutsch Efficiency and a top quality product. They're not cheap though - so make sure you get the biggest one you can afford otherwise you may be fooked later...I'll explain that further - when I started out, all my lenses were 58mm filter thread. So I bought the 58mm ND110. No problem with that - I didn't have any bigger threaded lenses.Now though I have a 5DMKII and I'll be buying a lens purely for landscapes - but that has a 77mm filter thread (I think). My B+W won't fit and I'll need to buy a 77mm ND110 You can buy 'step-down' rings which you can attach to your filter to get it to fit a smaller diameter thread - so you can make a 77mm filter fit a 58mm thread... but you may need to remortgage to get a 77mm B+W ND110.Yes, it was me who had some extreme waterscapes taken with it... but I've not done a 10 minute exposure yet... basically the 10 stop filter takes away 10 stops of light meaning you have to expose 10 stops longer to get a correct exposure.

In real world terms - if your camera meters a correct exposure of 1/125th at f16 without the filter on, the correct exposure with the filter on is only 8 seconds at f16. (And so on)Now, to be fair - if you're doing sunsets and whatnot then light is going to be fading fast and you may find that an ND4 or ND8 may give you the results that you want. If I remember rightly, an ND4 is a 2 stop filter, the ND8 is a 3. Normally this is plenty for already low-light shots, and it's what most of the sunset at the coast type pictures you see on the front of photo mags are taken with. These are cheaper than the ND110!Where the ND110 comes in handy is for daylight shots where you want the long exposure to smooth out the water, or blur a waterfall... Otherwise an ND8 or ND4 may work fine...Then you have the choice of whether or not you want a screw in filter (attaches to the front of your lens - the B+W only comes in screw in form) or a slot in one.

The slot in ones (usually Cokin 'P' series - or something labeled 'P type' - for amateurs) have one benefit in that they are square/rectangular and slide into a holder - meaning that no matter what thread size you have on your lens you can use the filter!You do need to buy some bits though... you need a holder for the filters, and a mounting ring for the lens. You buy a mounting ring to match the thread size of the lens you're using, screw it in, attach the filter holder, then slide your filter in. If you have different size thread lenses you just buy different mounting rings - everything else is the same... You do get a much more varied range of filters though...The Kood series (compatible with the 'P' format), while cheap, is quite good - have a look at http://www.premierink.co.uk/ for pricing.

Finally you have the ND Grads. These are filters (again ND4, ND8 etc) which are grey one half, the other half clear. These are typically used for landscapes - as the sky is usually much brighter than the ground if you use an ND grad with the grey bit over the sky then you can get nicely detailed clouds without blowing the highlights. As there is no filter over the ground then that exposes perfectly as normal.In my camera bag I have...Cokin P filter holderCokin P 58mm mounting ringCokin P ND8Kood 'P' ND8 gradB+W ND110

More on ND Filters:

Ahh - but it depends on what you want your filter to do.

If I remember correctly, an ND8 = 0.9 which is about a 3 stop of light reduction. The ND110 = 3.0 which = 10 stops of light.So, if you're shooting at night, and want to go a bit longer with the exposure an ND8 will probably suffice, it'll get you a 30 sec exposure. But - if you want a daytime long exposure your ND8 won't do a damn thing. The ND110 will give you around a 30 sec exposure into bright sunlight, minutes elsewhere during the day. Sunsets you're talking minutes as well. But it depends on what you want to do with it. If you're after late eve - night time 30 sec exposures flattening out water, ND8, maybe two stacked together is the way to go. Obviously if you buy 3 of them and stack them you're getting close to a 10 stopper...If you want daytime long exposures then get yourself a 10 stopper The prices for the 110 are expensive - but it gets the job done

10 stop - Removes 10 'stops' of light. Basically means exposures take 10 times (or more) longer than when not using it. Allows you to do really long exposures and completely smooth out the ripples in the water. Rodney Trotter's (in 58mm thread size) cost £41 incl next day delivery from Warehouse Express (B+W ND110 if you're going to look for it) http://www.flickr.com/groups/nd110-filter-group/

Basically, that filter gets rid of 10 stops of light and you've got to get
them back somewhere in order to have a correctly exposed photo. So, you could up
the ISO, have a larger aperture or slow down the shutter speed.What I do is
compose the shot with the filter off and make a note of the readings. Then I put
the filter on, camera to manual focus and manual settings. I make the aperture
the same as I took the reading from, the shutter 10 times slower than before and
take the pic.Then I check the histogram to see if there's a nice even spread or
any blown out or underexposed areas. If so I adjust accordingly.It's not an
*exact* science and it's all down to experimentation

Polarizing Filters:

Polarizing filter removes reflections and increases color saturation without affecting the overall color balance. It’s the most useful filter for landscape photographer, followed by the graduated neutral density filter, which could be replaced by the high dynamic range technique. Polarizer filter reduces haze and reflected sunlight. It has the most effect when shooting at a 90 degree angle from the sun. Get the best result when sun is overhead or behind you and close to the horizon. Polarizer filter has an attached rotating ring for orienting the polarization angle, rotate the ring will adjust the effect. There are exceptions, when the field of view is too wide, you will see uneven blue in the sky, or, you are taking multiple exposures for photo stitching, polarizer filter should not be used in these cases. (cheers to photo 96.com)

Equipment Part 2 - Lenses

Lenses come in all shapes and sizes - listed below are some types of lenses and what they do, I will talk as if you have a cropped sensor as most people who need advice on lenses and focal lengths will probably be using a cropped sensor body:

Wide angle lenses - from 10mm - 50mm. those at 10mm-15mm are usually 'fish-eye' lenses where they are so wide, you'll struggle to keep your feet out of the frame. have a very wide angle of view - sometimes up to 180 degrees and beyond

'Normal' lenses - around the 35mm mark (50mm on a Full Frame) - see roughly what the human eye sees, hence photos have a very natural feel about them

Portrait/Short telephoto Lenses - The photography gods say that a good portrait length is roughly between 50mm and 105mm on a full frame camera, so roughly 75mm to 113mm on a cropped sensor. This sort of focal range is good for portraits, weddings and as a general walkabout lens. usually 18-55mm would be a short telephoto, alternatively 24-70mm etc etc

medium/long telephoto lenses - These are generally for wildlife and sports photography, although 200-300mm top end can also be used as a wedding/portrait lens. They tend to be very heavy, and the better/faster lenses (constant F/2.8 aperture) are very very heavy and very very expensive. Someone aptly described them somewhere as a 'paedo lens', cos they look quite noncey.

Prime / fixed focal length lenses - do not zoom at all, hence you have to 'zoom with your feet', but they generally offer excellent picture quality (even the cheaper primes), and they are generally extermely fast (opening up to 1.8/1.4/1.2 in expensive lenses). You can get primes lenses at all types of focal lengths, and photogrpahy 'purists' often only use these and not zooms, although the quality of zooms now is such that you don't need to have lots of primes, unless you are a poncy geek.

MAKE SURE YOUR LENSES ARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE MAKE/SENSOR ON YOUR CAMERA!







Compatability with cannon 5D lenses:




Thanks to Rodney once again!


Trust me, I did so much research on what lenses were Full Frame compatible when I made the switch! Avoid Sigma DC and Tamron Di II!







Right. Firstly sell the 10-20 unless you want extreme vignetting!



For wide angle, look at the Canon 17-40 f4L. That will almost be as wide as your Sigma. Try for 2nd hand as they are costly.The 24-105 covers your walkabout range The macro is a good macro A 70-200 f4 (is) would be good - they're fairly cheap (explore the sigma option if you want it cheaper) And you can't go wrong with a 50mm f1.8 on Full Frame.

Cannon 50mm 1.8 'nifty fifty' - An absolute no brainer if you have a cannon DSLR - £75 quid new, just buy one already

Cannon 'L' Glass - Top of the range lenses from Cannon - built like brick shithouses, fast as you like (constant f/2.8 throught the focal range) and crisp across the focal range and wide open. Will potentially get you divorced due to the massive cost, but you get what you pay for - i.e. great photos and envious looks from the proles.

I have attached a link here for ALL Nikon lenses in existence - if you can't find it here, it doesn't exist:
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html if you visit this website and it's helpful please thank the guy or click on his ad links please

Here is a similar list for Canon Lenses before i get shouted at:

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/best_canon_eos_lenses.html

again, if this is helpful to you please click on the guys ad links or say ta if you can

Equipment Part 1 - Camera Bodies

A few quotes as to who you should go for and reasons why/why not:









Question: I want to get back into photography, dont mind splashing out on a DSLR. Any good pointers for a camera? Willing to spend upto £400, is that enough?Also want to get to know how to use my camera effectively, any good guides?









Supamatt:

I'd personally go either the nikon/canon route. They're market leaders for a
reason, but i know others have brands they're happy with. If you really get the
bug and want to upgrade, i dont think any of the other manufacturers
camera's/lenses are as good. There probably isnt a great deal of difference at
entry level though.I'm a canon user so would happily recommend them. A 2nd hand
camera would be fine and you could easily pick one up for under £400, possible
with a couple of lenses too. But i'd personally go for a camera with live view,
where the picture you're about to take is shown on the LCD, and older cameras
tend not to have it. I dont have it on mine and its something i think would
really come in handy.

Question: Evening gents, I don't want to hi-jack this thread but I've got a really quick question. If I'm not a pro photographer and don't want to be will I be able to tell the difference in quality between the likes of the D90, 1000D and the D300, 7D?I just need to be able to justify the extra cost!

If you don't want to be, then start off with something like a 1000D (or better a 450/500D) and then if you get into it you can move up to a 7D or something tasty like that - the lenses will still fit... (unless you buy EF-S lenses and try to
put them of a full frame camera - but you don't need to worry about that yet).If you prefer Nikon then go for a D60 or D5000 to start with - but I can't help you out with those as I'm a Canon 500D user (who will be upgrading to a 7D in April)
Edit - watch out with Nikons, the D60/D40 and D5000 don't have autofocus motors built in, you need to buy lenses with af motors in them instead - otherwise you'll have to manually focus everything. - Rodney Trotter

Canons: Effectively. x00d's are the beginner - amateur range, x0d's are serious amateur -semi pro and xd's are the daddies.Depending on budget, look at the about to be released 7d. Looks like it's the replacement for the 40/50d but on steroids - Rodney Trotter

Theory for beginners Part 2 - Reciprocal rule and Rule of 3rds

Once again thanks to Redharzo for the sterling work

Reciprocal rule: how to minimise camera shake when you don't have a tripod.

Ok, this is just a general purpose rule. We need to start back in olden days when film was still used. The rule states:- you can handhold a camera with lens of length X mm provided your shutter speed is 1/X or quicker

NB - this is without a tripod.
eg: you're using a 100mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/100
eg: you're using a 200mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/200
eg: you're using a 300mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/300

However, that only works for full frame. Most digital camera sensors aren't as big as a 35mm negative. The usual multiplier is 1.5x or 1.6x. We'll use 1.5x for simplicity of counting.

So when a film lens is used on a digital camera body:-
a 100mm lens is effectively 150mm-
a 200mm lens is effectively 300mm-
a 300mm lens is effectively 450mm

Therefore: -
rather than using your 100mm lens at 1/100, you must use it at 1/150-
rather than using your 200mm lens at 1/200, you must use it at 1/300-
rather than using your 300mm lens at 1/300, you must use it at 1/450

So, in summary - for a digital body with a film lens:- you can handhold a camera with lens of length X mm provided your shutter speed is 1/1.5X or quicker




The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

FOLLOWING THE RULE OF THIRDS WILL MAKE YOUR PHOTOS LOOK MUCH BETTER - A LOT OF PEOPLE IGNORE THIS INITIALLY AND REALISE AFTER A WHILE THEY SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THE RULE OF THIRDS - TRUST US.

Theory for Beginners - Noobalicious deliciousness

Thanks to Redharzo on 365 for the following advice

Basic terms:-
Aperture; literally the measure of the hole in the front of a lens. Units: f stops.-
Shutter speed; the length of time that the film or sensor is exposed to light. Units: seconds.-
ISO - the sesitivity of the sensor on your camera to light
Depth of field; how ‘deep’ into a picture everything is focused.-
Zoom lens; lens with a variable length. Units: mm.-
Prime lens; lens of fixed length. Units: mm.

Most important concept: taking a photograph is like baking a cake.-
In cake making you have two variables: heat and time.- In photography you have two variables: aperture and time.
Think about taking a photo as ‘baking with light’.- Sometimes you want to use lots of heat/light for a short time.- Sometimes you want to use a little heat/light for a long time.The situation you are in and the effect you are trying to achieve will help us decide the balance of light and time necessary.

Camera settings (will vary slightly from camera to camera):-
P: program mode – camera sets both aperture and shutter speed-
A: aperture priority – you set the aperture, camera calculates shutter speed-
T: shutter priority – you set the shutter speed, camera calculates aperture-
M: manual – you set both manually


Always remember: combination of two variables. How much light and how much time to ‘bake’ the image.

To reiterate the basic idea:
If we use a short time, we need lots of light.
If we use a long time, we need a little light.
If we have neither, we can up the ISO (sensitivity of the sensor)

ISO is something that began in film cameras.
ISO refers to the speed of the film, or rather it's sensitivity to light. The faster the film is the 'faster' it is to expose correctly to light (it is more sensitive).
ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization and is basically a standard for measuring it.
In a digital camera, you generally get ISO settings 200, 400, 800 and sometimes higher. The higher the number, the more sensitive the camera will be to light. Obviously, a higher ISO can be a great help in low light situations. However, if at all possible, a longer shutter time should be used instead of raising the ISO. Unfotunately, this is not always possible (action shots would be blurred etc). The reason longer shutter should be used over ISO is that the higher the ISO level, the more noise, or distortion is introduced into the image (making the image seem fuzzy). Use the lowest ISO you can unless you have no other option

How do you decide on the combination of light and time?
Let’s focus on time first.
Ok, you’re at a football match and you’re taking pictures. You want to get a nice, crisp, sharp shot of a good save by the goalkeeper. In this case, we want to freeze the movement of something moving quite quickly (the goalie diving). So we’ll need a short length of time to prevent blurring.-
To freeze action, we want short time. - Short time needs to be balanced by lots of light.

How do you decide on the combination of light and time? Part 2
Let’s focus on time again.
Ok, you’re at a waterfall high in the mountains somewhere. You want to try to convey the flow of the water with a little bit of blur rather than freezing the water. In this case we want to use a lot of time to blur the water and give a nice effect.- To blur action, we want long time. - Long time need to be balanced with little bit of light.

Depth of field: how deep into the picture is in focus.
A new memory aide: depth of field is like water in a hosepipe.- if the hosepipe is narrow, the water goes far- if the hosepipe is wide, the water doesn't travel- if the aperture is narrow, the depth of field is deep- if the aperture is wide, the depth of field is shallow

How do you decide on the combination of light and time? Part 3.
Let’s focus on aperture for a little bit.Ok, you’re up in the mountains and you've found a flower that you want to shoot. But you only want the flower in focus, not everything behind it, so that the flower stands out.- For shallow depth of field, we want a wide aperture.- Lots of light needs to be balanced by shorter time.

Big aperture = More Light = Low F number = Small Depth of field

Small Aperture = Less light = High F number = Large depth of field

How do you decide on the combination of light and time? Part 4.
Let’s focus on aperture for a little bit.
Ok, last one; you're still in the mountains. You've found a great scene and you want everything in focus; the flowers in front of you and the mountains behind. We need deep depth of field.- For deep depth of field, we want a narrow aperture.- Little light needs to be balanced by longer time.

You have 4 options when working out the balance of light and time. Decide which of the 4 is most important:-
freeze the action-
blur the action-
have shallow depth of field-
have deep depth of field

Pick one and work from there!