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
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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment