10 Top Photography Composition Rules
The only rule in photography is that there are no rules. However, there are many composition guidelines which can be applied in almost any situation, to enhance the impact of a scene. Below are ten of the most popular and most widely respected composition 'rules'.Rule of Thirds
Imagine that your image is divided into nine equal segments by two vertical and two horizontal lines. Try to position the most important elements in your scene along these lines, or at the points where they intersect. Doing so will add balance and interest to your photo. Some cameras even offer an option to superimpose a rule of thirds grid over the LCD screen, making it even easier to use.
Notice how the building and horizon are aligned along rule-of-thirds lines. Image by Trey Ratcliff.
Balancing Elements
Placing your main subject off-centre, as with the rule of thirds, creates a more interesting photo, but it can leave a void in the scene which can make it feel empty. You should balance the 'weight' of your subject by including another object of lesser importance to fill the space.
Here, the visual 'weight' of the road sign is balanced by the building on the other side of the shot. Image by Shannon Kokoska.
Leading Lines
When we look at a photo our eye is naturally drawn along lines. By thinking about how you place lines in your composition, you can affect the way we view the image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, or on a journey 'through' the scene. There are many different types of line - straight, diagonal, curvy, zigzag, radial etc - and each can be used to enhance our photo's composition.
The road in this photo draws your eye through the scene. Image by Pierre Metivier.
Symmetry and Patterns
We are surrounded by symmetry and patterns, both natural and man-made., They can make for very eye-catching compositions, particularly in situations where they are not expected. Another great way to use them is to break the symmetry or pattern in some way, introducing tension and a focal point to the scene.
The symmetry of this chapel is broken by the bucket in the bottom right corner. Image by Fabio Montalto.
Viewpoint
Before photographing your subject, take time to think about where you will shoot it from. Our viewpoint has a massive impact on the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. Rather than just shooting from eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and so on.
The unusual viewpoint chosen here creates an intriguing and slightly abstract photo. Image by ronsho.
Background
How many times have you taken what you thought would be a great shot, only to find that the final image lacks impact because the subject blends into a busy background? The human eye is excellent at distinguishing between different elements in a scene, whereas a camera has a tendency to flatten the foreground and background, and this can often ruin an otherwise great photo. Thankfully this problem is usually easy to overcome at the time of shooting - look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn't distract or detract from the subject.
The plain background in this composition ensures nothing distracts from the subject. Image by Philipp Naderer.
Depth
Because photography is a two-dimensional medium, we have to choose our composition carefully to conveys the sense of depth that was present in the actual scene. You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the foreground, middle ground and background. Another useful composition technique is overlapping, where you deliberately partially obscure one object with another. The human eye naturally recognises these layers and mentally separates them out, creating an image with more depth.
Emphasise your scene's depth by including interesting subjects at varying distances from the camera. Image by Jule Berlin.
Framing
The world is full of objects which make perfect natural frames, such as trees, archways and holes. By placing these around the edge of the composition you help to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The result is a more focussed image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.
Here, the surrounding hills form a natural frame, and the piece of wood provides a focal point. Image by Sally Crossthwaite.
Cropping
Often a photo will lack impact because the main subject is so small it becomes lost among the clutter of its surroundings. By cropping tight around the subject you eliminate the background 'noise', ensuring the subject gets the viewer's undivided attention.
Cut out all unnecessary details to keep keep the viewer's attention focused on the subject. Image by Hien Nguyen.
Experimentation
With the dawn of the digital age in photography we no longer have to worry about film processing costs or running out of shots. As a result, experimenting with our photos' composition has become a real possibility; we can fire off tons of shots and delete the unwanted ones later at absolutely no extra cost. Take advantage of this fact and
experiment with your composition - you never know whether an idea will work until you try it.
Digital photography allows us to experiment with different compositions until we find the perfect one. Image by Jule Berlin.
Composition in photography is far from a science, and as a result all of the 'rules' above should be taken with a pinch of salt. If they don't work in your scene, ignore them; if you find a great composition that contradicts them, then go ahead and shoot it anyway. But they can often prove to be spot on, and are worth at least considering whenever you are out and about with your camera.
Understanding White Balance
If you come from the world of films, you may remember using filters to correct for incandescent or fluorescent lighting. Most people don't bother and their indoors pictures invariably come out with a yellow/orange or bluish cast. In the digital world, these correction filters are no longer necessary, replaced by a feature found in most -- even the entry-level -- digital cameras called, "White Balance."
Light Colour Temperature
The reason that pictures turn out with a yellow/orange cast in incandescent (tungsten) lighting and bluish in fluorescent lighting is because light has a colour temperature. A low colour temperature shifts light toward the red; a high colour temperature shifts light toward the blue. Different light sources emit light at different colour temperatures, and thus the colour cast.
By using an orange or blue filter, we absorb the orange and blue light to correct for the "imbalance" -- the net effect is a shift in the colour temperature.
In digital photography, we can simply tell the image sensor to do that colour shift for us. But how do we know in which direction of the colour temperature to shift, and by how much?
Manual White Balance
This is where the concept of "White Balance" comes in. If we can tell the camera which object in the room is white and supposed to come out white in the picture, the camera can calculate the difference between the current colour temperature of that object and the correct colour temperature of a white object. And then shift all colours by that difference. Most advanced digital cameras therefore provide the feature to manually set the white balance.
By pointing the camera at a white or gray card (angled so that it is reflecting light from the room) as a neutral reference, filling the screen completely with it, then pressing the White Balance button (or set it in the menu), the camera does its WB calculation.
From then on, any picture taken will have its colour temperature shifted appropriately. It's quite simple, really, and you should not be afraid to try it out and see your indoors
pictures improve considerably (assuming there is enough light for correct exposure). [A "neutral" gray is 18% gray and will reflect all colors equally.]
- Ensure the card is not in shadows, but illuminated by the artificial light in the room - If you are bouncing light off the walls, ensure the card is reflecting the bounced light - Beware of mixing artificial lights -- in this case, you might want to use RAW and adjust in post processing for each light
- Beware of fluorescent light: since fluorescent light does not contain all the spectrum of light, you may obtain unexpected results
Preset White Balance
To help us in those special situations without having to go through the trouble of
manually setting the white balance everytime, cameras provide preset WB settings such as, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Sunny, etc. Using preset WB can improve on a picture, especially under indoors lighting.
White Balance
AWB Preset WB = Tungsten
In the above example, the picture on the left is taken with the camera set to Auto WB. The indoor lighting is by two ordinary incandescent (tungsten) bulbs from the ceiling. It's not bad, but the fan should really be white. By dialing in a preset Tungsten WB, the image gives a truer representation of the scene.
Usually just selecting a Preset WB setting appropriate for the lighting situation is enough.
Auto White Balance
Since the days of the Kodak Brownie cameras, manufacturers have tried to automate everything for us. Hence, today's digital cameras also all sport an Auto White Balance (AWB) function. Depending on the camera brand, some AWB works better than others. On the whole, though, AWB works very well in sunny and cloudy outdoors, and fine for most indoors situations (a little orange or bluish cast does sometimes contribute to the mood of the picture anyway, e.g. the warm orangle glow of a candle).
Set your digital camera to AWB and take pictures under tungsten, fluorescent, and mixed lighting (i.e. tungsten or fluorescent, plus natural light coming through the window), and see if the results are OK. If they are, you can just use AWB.
Snow
Pictures of snow scenes typically reproduce the snow not as white but with a bluish tinge. Sometimes, the blue adds to the mood of the picture, but at other times you may want to remove the blue.
If your digital camera allows custom WB, then set the White to the snow and the blue should disappear.
Snow - Using Custom WB
AWB Custom WB
If your digital camera does not allow custom WB, then post processing can be as effective. In Photoshop Elements, I used Enhance - Color - Color Cast... to specify the snow as being white, and the resulting image is as good as the one using custom WB.
Snow - Color Cast in Photoshop
AWB Color Cast in Photoshop
Special Effects
Once you've selected a WB setting, just remember to reset this white balance setting when you head back outdoors into natural light, or you may end up with some strange, out of this world, colours.
Let's say you are taking a picture outdoors and you want to make the light warmer, perhaps creating a late evening, sunset effect. To do that, we dial in a Fluorescent WB, in effect telling the camera that the light is too cool. The camera responds by shifting every colour toward the warm, red values. Dial in a Tungsten WB, and the camera shifts all colours toward the cool, blue values. Lots of trial and error recommended here.
RAW File Format
A discussion in WB would not be complete without a mention of the RAW file format available in many advanced digital cameras. When you save an image in RAW file format, you are saving it the way the image sensor sees it -- without applying any adjustments (including white balance) to it. In fact, the camera ignores any WB setting you dial in.
Later, in an image editing software with the appropriate RAW plug-in, you can convert the RAW image to JPEG, and apply any colour temperature shift. Undo your change and try again, ad infinitum, in as fine an increment as you wish, until you obtain perfect colour balance.
Some professional photographers always use RAW file format. Saving in RAW file format comes at a price because it takes so much longer to save a RAW image that it might not be practical in many picture taking situations. Professional dSLRs (and some prosumer models) have internal buffers that allow RAW images to be taken one after the other in quite rapid succession without having to wait for the saving of one image to be completed before you can take the next picture.
If you are taking landscapes, and it's early in the morning or late in the evening, or you are not too sure of which WB setting to use, try it in RAW.
A few digital cameras even allow you to save an image in both RAW and JPEG simultaneously, though time to write to memory card is proportionally increased.
Summary
For most of us, Auto WB is fine and does a pretty good job in diverse situations, outdoors and indoors.
For those occasions when you are not happy with the colour cast of your picture, choose one of the preset WB settings.
If this still does not give you what you want, consider manually setting the white balance by using a white card or sheet of paper (or white T-Shirt, etc.).
And, for ultimate control over white balance, consider shooting in RAW file format, and adjust in post-processing.
What is White Balance?
What is white balance? It all boils down to the concept of color temperature. Color temperature is a way of measuring the quality of a light source. It is based on the ratio of the amount of blue light to the amount of red light, and the green light is ignored. The unit for measuring this ratio is in degree Kelvin (K). A light with higher color
temperature (i.e., larger Kelvin value) has "more" blue lights than a light with lower color temperature (i.e., smaller Kelvin value). Thus, a cooler (resp., warmer) light has a higher (resp., lower) color temperature. The following table shows the color temperature of some light sources.
Light Sources Color Temperature in K Clear Blue Sky 10,000 to 15,000 Overcast Sky 6,000 to 8,000 Noon Sun and Clear Sky 6,500 Sunlight Average 5,400 to 6,000 Electronic Flash 5,400 to 6,000 Household Lighting 2,500 to 3,000 200-watt Bulb 2,980 100-watt Bulb 2,900 75-watt Bulb 2,820 60-watt Bulb 2,800 40-watt Bulb 2,650 Candle Flame 1,200 to 1,500
Note that Kelvin values listed in the table are approximates rather than exact. Moreover, a new light bulb and new flash have higher color temperature than their old and used equivalents, and an electronic flash is designed to have a color temperature comparable to that of average sunlight.
Human brain can quickly adjust to different color temperatures. More precisely, our eyes, with the help from the experience we learned, see a white paper as a white paper no matter it is viewed under strong sunlight or in a room illuminated with incandescent lights. Unfortunately, color films can only correctly record the colors in certain range of color temperatures. Therefore, we have daylight and tungsten films. On the other hand, digital cameras are very different! Digital cameras usually have built-in sensors to
the final result may be close to what we see (with our eyes, of course). But, the algorithm(s) being used may not be accurate enough to make every situation correct. Under some difficult situations when the in-camera algorithm is not able to set the color temperature correctly or when some creative and special effects are needed, we can instruct the camera to use a particular color temperature to fulfill our need. This
adjustment that makes sure the white color we view directly will also appear white in the image is referred to as white balance.
Setting white balance incorrectly may cause a color shift in the image. For example, suppose the camera is told to use a color temperature of sunlight to take an image of an indoor environment illuminated mainly by incandescent lights. The camera will expect excessive blue light and less red light, and set its algorithm to be more sensitive to the blue light. However, in an environment illuminated with incandescent lights, color temperature is low with excessive red light rather than the blue one. As a result, we shall see a reddish or yellowish image. The following shows an example.
Correct white balance Reddish/Yellowish image Click on the image to see a larger one
On the other hand, suppose we set the camera to a low color temperature (e.g., that of incandescent light) and take a photo under sunlight. Because the white balance is set to incandescent light, the processing algorithm is more sensitive to the red light rather than the blue one. Hence, the resulting image will be bluish as shown in the following images.
What is White?
White balance is essentially a corrective procedure in adjusting colors in photographs to ensure that scenes are as neutral as possible. That would mean making sure that white areas are actually white.
Technically speaking, the most important aspect of white balance correction is to make sure certain reference areas of the scene is neutral, so it doesn’t always have to involve the color white per se. In short, a scene filled with colored hues without a single shade of white can still be neutralized and rendered in its correct, real-life color hues.
The white balance scale is based on the thermodynamic scale of Kelvin ratings. The lower the value, the “warmer” or “redder” the scene is rendered, while a high Kelvin setting would mean the scene is “cooler” or “bluer”.
Figure 1: Kelvin Color Temperature Scale
Candlelit scenes – < 2000 K
Household incandescent (tungsten) Lights – 2000-3000K Early sunrise or late sunset – 3000-4000K
Older fluorescent and mercury lamps – 4000-5000 K Most studio strobes and camera flash – 5000-5500K
Newer energy-saving, daylight-balanced compact fluorescent lamps – 5500-6000K Cloudless bright, sunny afternoon – 5000-6500 K
Typical overcast and cloudy sky with sunlight – 6500-7500K Open shade, thick cloudy skies – >8500K
It seems daunting to memorize the scale in our day-to-day shooting, and it could be. However, most camera manufacturers include a built-in white balance meter sensor into our cameras including presets that approximate the scenario we’re shooting. Most cameras will have the following presets, listed from “coolest” to “warmest” color temperature (with the usual graphic indicator).
Different camera manufacturers may label these presets differently, so please refer to your camera’s user manual for specific information about these presets.
Remember that the camera presets are there to neutralize the colors of the scene. If you chose “Tungsten”, for example, it doesn’t turn your image’s color cast warmer, but it neutralizes the warm scene to a cooler scene. Conversely, if you chose a cooler WB preset like “Fluorescent”, the camera doesn’t add a blue tinge to your image, it neutralizes the cool tones in the scene by adding a warm tone instead.
The presets apply a color cast opposite the actual color cast on the scene to neutralize the scene.
Human eyes are incredible in deciphering colors and our brain has also helped us know instinctively if something is a certain color regardless of lighting condition. For example, if we pick up a piece of paper, we know that piece of paper is white whether we’re standing under the sun or underneath an orange street lamp.
Cameras, however, are not as smart as humans are. If you place the same piece of white paper in five different lighting conditions, it will come out as five different shades of white in our photographs. The camera doesn’t have a ability to neutralize color casts automatically and accurately in all lighting conditions.
Daylit Scenes
Here we have a pretty neutral scene with a neutral subject in Figure 2. A glossy white laptop on an off-white paper above a neutral gray cement floor.
Figure 2: Shot with Auto WB
Using Auto WB setting, the camera nails the WB perfectly with no hint of out-of-place color cast on the laptop and the ground.
The photograph was in an open shade around 3PM, which is pretty bright and “white” in terms of the light’s color. In most daylit scenes a few hours after sunrise and a few hours before sunset, the camera’s automatic white balance meter does a pretty accurate job in most cases.
We can easily mimic a late afternoon light by switching the white balance to “Shade” or “Cloudy”. The fact that the actual light condition still falls within what our eyes think is “white”, the slightly warm glow is still an acceptable exposure.
Figure 3: Shot with "Shade" Preset
Artificial Lighting Conditions
Let’s introduce some artificial incandecent (tungsten) light just like we often experience indoors especially in our homes or restaurant lighting.
Figure 4: Tungsten Spot Light
Figure 4 shows us a common spotlight incandecent bulb.In many cameras, auto white balance will not be able correct the strong orange cast by the incandecent lights, and will often treat the scene as daylit, using a setting close to the “Daylight” preset of the camera. The result would yeild a real reddish hue, as shown in Figure 5. Technically, this is acceptable if you want to induce a warm feeling to the photograph, but it’s doesn’t depict the real color of the subject.
Figure 5: Tungsten Spotlight on AutoWB
Remember that setting a white balance on the camera means you’re correcting the actual color cast in the scene. The opposite of the red spectrum would be the blue spectrum, so the camera “cools” down the image and mixes some green and magenta to arrive to “neutral” image. By switching our camera’s white balance setting to “Tungsten”, the camera removes all red color cast in the image and we now have a photograph that depicts the subject’s color accurately (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Tungsten Spotlight on "Tungsten" WB Preset
Mood and White Balance
Now that we’ve seen how to use the presets to correct white balance, we have to understand that “correct” and “accurate” may not be the best color temperature for our image if we have a certain intent or mood that we want to achieve.
With Figure 7, our main goal is to accentuate the colors of the candies. If we use an “accurate” white balance, in this case “Shade” preset (because the photo was taken in a shady area on a late afternoon), the colors are not as emphasized since the white tray and white board where the candies are placed are casting a slight orange hue.
Figure 7: Scenes that Favor "cooler" WB
By using a cooler white balance preset, in this case “Daylight”, we were able to take out the warm sunlight hue and just made the candies pop as the tray and board became a non-factor in our overall image.
In Figure 8 shows the opposite. The photo was taken at around 4PM, at least 3 hours from sunset. The correct white balance made sure that the scene is neutral, the white teacup is white, the silvery gray metal gate is silvery gray. However, the image looks stale and not inviting. By changing our white balance to a warmer “Shade”, our image is now a lot warmer and it turns our image into a moody, relaxing afternoon scene.
Figure 8: Scenes that Favor "warmer" WB
Mixed Lighting Conditions
With mixed lighting condition scenes, the camera will have a harder time striking a balance between the different color temperatures in a scene, so we, the photographers, have to make the creative decision to choose which color cast should be neutralized in a scene.
Figure 9 and 10 are identical, however, Figure 9 uses Auto WB and the camera used the large span of gray and white sky and neutralized that area. Notice that the warm artificial light tube’s (upper right corner) color cast is exaggerated further.
Figure 9: Mixed Lighting - Auto WB
In Figure 10, we manually picked to neutralize the warm light tube and chose the
“Tungsten” WB preset. The result clearly shows that the encircled area is well neutralized but the whole outdoor area turned blue.
The reason is that we shifted the whole color spectrum “cooler” to accommodate the warm light, so the previously neutral outdoor areas of the image are now pulled towards the blue spectrum.
Figure 10: Mixed Lighting - Tungsten WB Preset
To summarize, in most situations, we should concentrate on achieving accurate color reproduction as possible. We must keep in mind, however, that there are scenes that simply appear much better with “moody” colors than accurate colors. Just like metering for exposure, the correct settings would be ideal for most photographs, but adding little adjustments from the correct settings can turn a purely technical photograph into a personal creative artwork.
Read more: http://www.howitookit.com/white-balance-and-color-cast.html#ixzz16kye55Mo
Levels
Digital Photography is more than just using a digital camera; it also entails some post processing in an image editing software to the image you captured with your digital camera. And it is often not as complicated as you might think it is -- or as some make it to be. In this tutorial, we look at "Levels" and cover the basics of what you need to know about adjusting levels in Photoshop Elements. It's a simple 3-step process that takes barely a minute to perform but that can help you bring back to life pictures you thought forever ruined.
Adjusting Levels
You've read the notes that accompany some pictures: "Some adjustments to levels
peformed" and have probably been mystified as to what exactly that entailed.
Adjusting levels is a 3-step process: 1. Adjust for the shadows; 2. Adjust for the highlights; and, 3. Adjust for the midtones.
Let's look at a picture that seems "ruined," in this case, it seems under exposed, i.e. too dark:
If, in the past, you have just thrown up your hands in the air and bemoaned how bad your digital camera was, perhaps you were a bit too hasty. We will recover this picture using our 3-step levels adjustment process.
[If you want to follow along with this tutorial, download the above picture now and open it in Photoshop Elements.]
In Photoshop Elements, select Enhance - Brightness/Contrast - Levels... A histogram pops up on your screen and looks like this:
Don't panic! The histogram is simply a representation of all the pixels in the picture. A quick glance at it tells us that most of our pixels are toward the shadows (to the left). Along the horizontal axis, there are 3 triangular markers (really, sliders): use the black one at the left to indicate where the darkest group of pixels start in your picture; use the white one at the right to indicate where the brightest group of pixels start in your picture; and use the shaded one in the middle to indicate the midtones. It's that simple!
Let's apply our 3 steps:
1. Adjust for the shadows. We want to move the black marker to the first group of dark pixels. In this case, since the black marker is already pointing to the first group of dark pixels, we will leave it where it is, i.e. at the 0 mark.
2. Adjust for the highlights. We want to move the white marker to the first group of bright pixels. In this case, we move the white marker to the left to a point where we feel the first bright group of pixels start, around the 172 mark:
By doing this, notice how the picture has changed already for the better, with "true" highlights:
3. Adjust for the midtones. Click on the shaded marker and drag it to the left or right until you are satisfied with the result, in our case to somewhere around 1.98 (adjust to your own personal preference):
Click OK and save your "restored" picture. Nothing wrong with this picture now -- expect for the clutter on my desk, that is!
There, that was easy, eh? Get into the habit of bringing your picture into levels and adjusting it for shadows, highlights, and midtones before you apply sharpening to it (another easy process):
Four Facts About High ISOs—07/12/10
What you need to know to get the most from today’s amazing
high-ISO settings
By William SawalichThere sure is a lot of talk about high ISOs these days. Some folks even say high-ISO shooting is the new frontier of digital photography. Camera makers seem to be focusing their efforts on producing better, cleaner, less noisy images, and that translates directly into improvements at high ISOs. Here are four facts about high-ISO speeds that may make you a better photographer—especially when working in low light.
1. High ISOs can have minimal noise.
Sure, back in the film days it was true that working at high ISOs and pushing film processing often translated into so much grain that it became hard to make out details (especially in the shadows) of negatives. But with the advances in noise reduction from today’s digital cameras and RAW
converters, higher ISOs produce image quality unparalleled by high ISO films. Not only that, digital high ISOs are so low noise these days that many
photographers are putting them to use in ways they never considered before—like nighttime exposures that are short
enough to render starry skies without blurring, or photographing in dark interiors without the need for fill flash illumination. Photographers today know
they can pull detail out of the darkest of shadows, and much of that is thanks to the same improved signal-to-noise ratio that makes high ISOs so darn attractive.
2. Digital ISOs aren’t contrasty like film.
When working with fast film speeds, photographers often found themselves pushing exposures by underexposing in camera and overdeveloping in the darkroom. While this process did provide higher-working ISOs than the film was rated for, it also introduced some major drags on the image quality—both the grain mentioned previously as well as a whole ton of contrast. So much contrast, in fact, that high-ISO film images could
sometimes look like abstract art. Imagine a grainy image with very little detail in the shadows and highlights—and none available to be pulled from the negative. That just doesn’t hold true today when working with RAW files. RAW is especially capable of rendering detail in very dark shadows, and the only processing that eliminates shadow detail comes from underexposed files. If you can overexpose a digital image even
slightly, you’ll be amazed at the detail that remains in the dark tones without any contrast gain at all.
3. High-ISO performance matters even at low ISOs. You only shoot at ISO 400 or less, so why should you care about better performance at higher ISOs? Because those low-noise/high-detail qualities are carried across the entire ISO sensitivity range. In layman’s terms, ISO 400 from today’s D3 looks a lot like ISO 100 did in the D1 of yesterday. If you like image quality, you like to see advances in ISO capabilities due to better signal-to-noise ratio. Those gains will show
up in your low-ISO images too. So when you hear of new cameras reaching new high-ISO low-noise heights, it’s good news for you too.
4. Sometimes it’s better to choose a higher ISO even if you don’t have to.
Generally speaking, this one appears as if it might be awful advice. But let’s say it’s a fairly low-light situation in which you’re working, and you need a fast shutter speed of 1/125th of a second to keep the subject from blurring. The lens only opens to ƒ/4 and you’ve maxed it out, and you’re at ISO 400. Still, you’re just barely getting the correct exposure. One way to ensure you’re getting an even better exposure is to boost the ISO to ISO 800. Why? Because if you capture RAW you’ve got the added benefit of being able to pull extra detail out of shadows from slightly overexposed image files. That can produce an image with more detail across the spectrum from shadows to highlights. As long as highlights aren’t blown out in the capture, an overexposed RAW file will actually produce a higher-quality file after image processing than a “correctly” exposed RAW file would.
Some might say boosting the ISO offsets any noise gains that come from overexposure, and that could very well be true. But in terms of shadow detail, there’s no doubt: the extra detail that can be pulled from brighter shadows is awesome. This holds especially true in low-key images full of dark tones where you’re more likely to keep from blowing out highlight detail.
White Balance
Use a simple device to get perfect color in all of your shots
By The EditorsLabels: How To, Solutions
This Article Features Photo Zoom
ExpoImaging ExpoDisc
White balance is an adjustment that accounts for the color temperature of the light in a scene. All light sources emit light at a specific color temperature, which is expressed in Kelvin. As the light travels, it may pass through particles in the atmosphere or a filter on the lens, which filters some of the wavelengths. For example, a sunset is usually around 3000-4000K, while bright, midday sun is about 5000-6500K. The sun is always the sun, so the change in color temperature from midday to sunset is due to the amount of atmosphere and particles like smoke or dust through which the light travels. When we adjust the white balance on the camera, we’re essentially telling the camera to account for the color temperature to make the colors more neutral. Whites will look white, greens will look green, reds will look red.
WhiBal White Balance Card Datacolor
SpyderCube Brno baLens
Reflective-Style White Balance
If you have a neutral subject like a white piece of paper or a gray building, you can key off of that. In nature photography, however, we seldom have a white sheet of paper in the scene to use as a neutral point, but you can carry something with you and use that to balance the scene.
The WhiBal White Balance card (www.rawworkflow.com) is a neutral gray card that you can use to set white balance in the field or to make adjustments to a file when you process the RAW files (those of us who shot film and used handheld spot meters will find the WhiBal reminiscent of a traditional gray card and it’s used in roughly the same way). The WhiBal is designed for low reflectivity, it’s perfectly gray, and it doesn’t respond to UV light any differently than the visible spectrum. Place the card in the scene and key off of it, or take a picture with the card in the scene (then remove it for your “real” exposures) and use your processing software to get the proper color temperature setting. You then can apply that color temperature to all your other images shot under the same lighting conditions.
The Datacolor SpyderCube (spyder.datacolor.com) looks like a black-and-white
Christmas ornament with a small shiny ball on it. The cube’s surfaces are white, gray and black, and each surface is spectrally neutral. One face of the SpyderCube has a hole that acts as a black trap to give you a control point for shadow detail. You can use it to set the proper color temperature while you’re shooting, or take a picture, remove the
SpyderCube and use the image with the cube to set the color temperature for the series when you’re processing the images in the computer.
Incident TTL-Style White Balance
A different way to get your white balance set is with a device that sits on the front of your lens and lets you auto-white balance off of it. Available in most standard diameters, the Brno baLens (www.hpmarketingcorp.com) simply snaps onto your camera lens, and you can attach a neutral or a warm-colored dome to it to get the results you want. The baLens also can do double duty as a lens cap.
ExpoImaging (www.expoimaging.com) makes a few different on-the-lens-type, white-balance tools. Designed for DSLRs, the ExpoDisc snaps onto your lens with a pressure-release friction mount. Press the button and it pops off, leaving you ready to shoot. The
neutrality in the visible spectrum. That neutrality, of course, is critical for getting the most accurate white balance possible. There’s also an ExpoImaging white-balance tool for video, as well as one for point-and-shoot cameras.
Another on-the-lens white-balance tool is the Lally Cap (www.lallyphotography.com). It’s unique as a one-size-fits-all solution that can be used on just about any lens. The fabric “cap” slips over the lens sort of like a small sock, you set the white balance, and then you can just pull it off and stuff it in your pocket.
All of the devices mentioned in this Solutions article can fit into your gear bag and weigh almost nothing. The point is that
you should always carry at least one of them in your bag. You’ll be ready with the perfect white-balance tool when the perfect day for shooting comes along.
Focal Length Facts—06/28/10
A beginner’s guide to focal lengths and how they affect
photographs
By William Sawalich
This Article Features Photo Zoom
In the good old days there wasn’t much to know about lens focal lengths. A 100mm lens was a 100mm lens; the only thing you needed to know was
whether that lens was a telephoto (as it would be on a 35mm film camera), a normal lens (like on a medium-format camera) or a wide angle (as it would be on a 4x5 view camera). Most people quickly learned what the focal lengths represented for their particular camera format. But these days, with so many digital camera sensor sizes and other lens peculiarities, the millimeter measurement of a lens’ focal length tells only part of the story. Many other factors go into determining the effects a particular lens will produce—from magnification factor to zoom range and much more. What follows is a lens focal-length primer, with several key points that will help you understand focal lengths as they relate to your camera and to the pictures you use them to make.
1. The focal length of a lens is the measurement of the
distance from the center of a lens to the point at which its image is focused. The longer
the distance, the longer the lens. The longer the lens, the more telephoto it’s considered. The shorter that distance, the wider the angle of view. The most common measurement of lens focal lengths is in millimeters, although some old-school photographers still refer to large format lenses in inches. (If you’re interested, you roughly can convert inches to millimeters by using a 1:25 ratio. An eight-inch lens approximates a 200mm lens.) 2. A full-frame digital sensor is equivalent in size to a 35mm film frame, making this the standard focal length baseline that today’s lenses are measured against. Smaller formats often have shorter focal lengths (say, a 10mm wide angle that seems unbelievably short) but in “equivalent” terms they’re much more akin to more familiar focal lengths (say, a 17mm lens that is the equivalent to a 28mm lens in 35mm equivalent terms).
3. Lenses have various classifications based on focal length and the field of view they provide. A wide-angle lens provides a much greater field of view, and is generally considered to be any lens 40mm or shorter (again, in full frame equivalent terms). A normal lens—on a full frame DSLR—is the distinction given to any lens that ranges roughly from 40mm to 65mm or so. These lenses are “normal” because they provide an angle of view that approximates that of the human eye. Telephoto lenses on full-frame cameras usually are lenses longer than 70mm, and they range upwards of 300, 600 and even 1000mm. The longer the telephoto, the narrower the angle of view and the greater the magnifying power it provides. That’s why wildlife and sports photographers so often use 600mm and longer telephotos. Most amateur users, though, tend to top out around 300mm lenses for most uses.
4. The effect that a smaller sensor has on a lens of a given focal length is called a crop factor or magnification factor. This is because a smaller sensor produces a similar effect to cropping a larger sensor—effectively magnifying the image. Some photographers object to this narrowing of the angle of view because they’re used to a lens of a certain focal length producing a certain corresponding angle of view. Other photographers actually prefer a crop factor because it has the effect of making a long telephoto lens behave like an even longer telephoto lens. If you photograph sports or wildlife, a 400mm lens placed on a camera with a 1.5 magnification factor would behave more like a
600mm lens. That’s a heck of a telephoto bonus.
5. Some lenses are called prime lenses, which means they have a fixed focal length. Other lenses are zoom lenses, so they can be adjusted across a range of focal lengths. Some zooms fit within a particular classification, such as wide-angle zoom, normal zoom or telephoto zoom. Many lenses actually zoom from wide to normal, or normal to telephoto. Extreme zoom lenses actually encompass all these qualities in a single lens—say a wide-angle 30mm lens that can zoom all the way to a 300mm telephoto. These extreme zoom lenses are prized for their portability since they offer such a wide range of focal lengths in a single package. The downside is that some extreme zooms are more prone to vignetting and chromatic aberrations when used with wide apertures and zoomed to the extremes.
lens descriptors such as 2X, 3X or 10X. This isn’t actually a representation of the precise focal length of a lens, but rather the zoom range that lens covers. A 2X lens, for example, doubles its focal length from its widest to its longest setting—as in a 35-70mm lens. A 3X zoom triples the focal length (like 35-105), and a 10X zoom multiplies it by a whopping factor of ten (as in a 35-350mm lens). The bigger the X factor, the larger the range of focal lengths covered by a lens. Remember though, just because two lenses offer 2X zooms doesn’t mean the lenses have the same focal length. For that, you’ll have to compare actual millimeter measurements in 35mm equivalent terms.
7. The longer the focal length of a lens, the shallower the inherent depth of field that lens will produce. The shorter a lens, the greater the depth of field will be even at wide apertures. In practice that means you have to be more precise when focusing a telephoto lens, whereas wide- angle lenses have such depth of field they can be very forgiving of improper focus. Many photojournalists for years have utilized this “benefit” of wide-angle lenses in difficult shooting environments, not only because they take in more of the scene and provide context, but because they have so much depth of field to provide focus from near to far.
8. The longer the focal length of a lens, the more difficult that lens will be to handhold. This is true not only because longer lenses tend to be physically longer and heavier than wide-angle lenses, but also because subtle vibrations and camera shakes are amplified dramatically when using a telephoto lens. A good rule of thumb is to use a minimum shutter speed equivalent to the focal length—for example, when handholding a 500mm telephoto lens, be sure to set the shutter speed no slower than 1/500th of a second. 9. Some lens designations mean that even though the focal length may be the same, the lens won’t perform the same. A macro lens, for instance, can focus extremely close, allowing for great magnification of small objects and fine details. One 100mm lens may be designated macro, while another is not. You’re bound to pay a premium for the added capabilities, but if making big photos of little objects is important to you, it’s well worth the investment.
10. Many photographers utilize special devices to change the effective focal length, or at least the performance, of a lens. Teleconverters are popular among wildlife
photographers and those who want to double or triple their lens’ focal length (with a 2X or 3X teleconverter) without carrying an additional, and often quite expensive,
supertelephoto lens. Extension tubes are a similar device, but rather than changing the lens’ effective focal length they simply change the focusing range—making a lens focus much closer and behave more like a macro lens would. Like macro lenses, extension tubes are used to allow close focusing are ideal for flower photography and other close-up uses. The downside with both extension tubes and teleconverters is that each requires a sacrifice in available maximum aperture—often as much as two full stops that turn an ƒ/2 lens into an ƒ/5.6. Worth it, though, if you’re working at smaller apertures, with flash or if you simply need the close focusing or telephoto extension effect.
Wedding Photography; Two “Camps” Of Style And Vision
By Lorraine A. DarConte • April, 2010There was a time when all wedding photography was pretty much the same. Well-trained photographers worked from “shot lists” and used high-end, medium format equipment. They took wedding portraits (many in-studio) whose hallmarks included great color, sharp details, beautiful lighting, and well-posed subjects. Wedding albums were filled with 8x10”, 8x8”, and 5x7” prints of carefully posed images of couples, their families, and the bridal party, all smiling nicely for the camera. These traditional photographers often took charge at the wedding and everything unfolded on their timetable so each shot would be as perfect as possible. The wedding party also spent considerable time posing for photos before, during, and after the event.
© 2010, Tony Hewitt, All Rights Reserved
The less-controlled photojournalism style took hold about 12-15 years ago when
photographers such as Denis Reggie and Bambi Cantrell began to photograph weddings like photojournalists, often using 35mm cameras. They captured the event as it unfolded without asking people to pose or stop and smile for the camera. There are no hard and fast rules for “wedding journalism” as it is all about documenting the day in an
informal/artistic manner. Wedding journalism—and digital cameras—also opened the door for many more photographers, some as skilled as the traditionalists, some not, which created more competition for photographers, but also more options for the public.
Two Camps?
Today, when describing their photographic style, wedding photographers typically label themselves as either photojournalists or traditionalists. Former newspaper photographers
LaCour (www.lacourphoto.com), and creators of ShootQ (www.ShootQ.com), a studio management solution for photographers, made the switch from news journalism to wedding journalism in 2001. Their approach to photographing a wedding is the same as a news event, which is to follow the story as it happens and allow it to unfold before their eyes. The couple document weddings in real time using a hands-off approach, which, Andrew notes, is the closest thing to their training.
Photos © 2010, Tony Hewitt, All Rights Reserved
“We feel the pictures we’re making are really treasured by the families even though [the images] have a very small audience as opposed to magazines. We really feel we are doing something very important for our clients.”
Though the way they earn their living has changed, the Niesens say their photographic style has not, except for some minor tweaking. For instance, they’ve adapted their approach from pure photojournalism—where it’s all about the moment—to
photojournalism that’s something their clients want. “With photojournalism,” Rachel explains, “we were capturing top news events and dealing with a wide range of subject matter. We realize that sometimes the more bizarre ‘artistic images’ that we appreciate as photojournalists may not be appreciated by many of our clients.”
© 2010, LaCour, All Rights Reserved
The Niesens originally pursued photojournalism as a career so they could be witnesses on the front lines of history. However, they feel good about trading their front row seat to world history for a smaller one in family history. “In a lot of ways it’s just as powerful and more meaningful work because each family will treasure those photos for
generations,” Rachel concludes. “It’s a special feeling to know the pictures we’re making for our clients will be used as a foundation for their family legacy for generations.” Robert Lino (www.robertlino.com), a portrait and wedding photographer for the past 35 years, believes the more traditional style lost favor when it became overly complicated. There were too many complex backdrops and too much time was spent in the studio away from the wedding. “I believe that’s one reason the photojournalism style became so popular,” Lino reiterates, “because brides didn’t want to spend the whole night in front of a painted background.”
Lino says his work can be described as formal and elegant, with feeling. “My images are very controlled and very directed in order to look very natural,” Lino explains, who says he developed his style partly through observation.
© 2010, LaCour, All Rights Reserved
“I also learned from the masters and all the photographers who broke the rules; but I gave it my own twist and my own interpretation.
“For many years people hired professional wedding photographers. Now, we’re in an era where anybody can shoot a wedding.” Lino believes taking a little more care with
images, such as making sure the couple holds the knife correctly when cutting the cake, and taking a few formal pictures in front of a nice background (not a backdrop, but a pretty window, etc.), would go a long way in getting people to hire professionals instead of having a bunch of people with decent cameras shooting thousands of pictures in the hopes of capturing 20 good ones.
Film Vs. Digital
A look at some of the differences between shooting in Ansel
Adams’ era versus today
By Jon Sienkiewicz
Labels: How To, Solutions
This Article Features Photo Zoom
When we examine legendary photographers like Ansel Adams, we realize that, by today’s standards, the equipment they used was more of a handicap than a secret ingredient. Half a century ago, serious photography was performed in black-and-white, with a great deal of patience and deliberateness using a 4x5 (or larger) view camera on a sturdy tripod. Images couldn’t be reviewed until after the film was developed—and then, initially, as negatives. Today, we shoot digital images in millions of colors at 10 frames per second and edit the “keepers” while still at the scene.
The two approaches resist comparison. It’s difficult to derive objective, scientific understanding when we compare film-based, silver-halide photography to digital imaging. The technology someone like Adams used 50-plus years ago when he was
professional shooting with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, a Nikon D3S, an Olympus E-3, a Pentax K-7 or a Sony Alpha 900. In many ways, it’s like comparing painting with a brush and monochrome palette to spray painting with every color in the rainbow. In other words, almost every element is different.
More Variables
During the reign of silver-halide photography, the type of film and how it was processed made all the difference in the world. Even if a scene was predetermined to be shot in black-and-white, there still were many choices to be made—film speed, brand, spectral response, grain structure, format and, in some cases, emulsion batch. Matching the appropriate developer to the film was another huge challenge, and results varied widely depending on the choices made.
But in truth, it didn’t end there; that was just the beginning. Photographers had to decide more variables—the right combination of developing time and developer temperature, for instance. How much agitation? Swishing the film around too much during development could block shadows, cause streaks or blow out highlights. What type of stop bath to arrest the development process? Could the fixer (sodium thiosulfate) dissolve grain size and, if so, how soon should the film be rinsed clean? And keep in mind that nearly the entire process had to be conducted while the film was in absolute darkness. Last but hardly least, film was fragile and could be irreparably damaged by careless handling.
Film Vs. Digital
A look at some of the differences between shooting in Ansel
Adams’ era versus today
By Jon Sienkiewicz
Labels: How To, Solutions
We’ve succeeded at making things easier today. Not to diminish the skill and
accomplishments of today’s digital photographers, but zipping through RAW images by clicking a few presets can’t even begin to compare with the intense labor required to coax the full dynamic range from a 4x5-inch black-and-white negative while making a contact print on sensitized paper. Once again, the variables were overwhelming—paper type, developer, exposure time, dodging and burning, etc. It’s a miracle that so many wonderful, masterful prints were created under those circumstances.
Clearly, we’ve gained so much by going digital. Digital photography is immediate. It has given us the ability to replicate images with 100% accuracy and consistency, and has dramatically created new avenues to share images. And perhaps the biggest gain of all— the technology has expanded the art form and has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to create high-quality results with little or no formal training.
But we’ve lost some things, too—at the very least, some of our ability to visualize how a scene will appear as a monochrome print. Thanks to the immediate feedback provided when we review images on a three-inch LCD, we no longer require that level of perception. We’ve also become less deliberate. We can shoot and shoot, and even fill cards with 1080p video at 30 fps, and then delete 95% later. In the old days, every shot counted. Today, the question is less about what to shoot and more about which images to
keep.
Getting Digital Colors Right
When film was the medium of choice for photography, and transparency film, in particular, color management was something that the lab took care of by making sure your slides were processed in good chemistry at the right temperature and by using your filter of choice on your lens. If you took your film to a good lab, you got predictable results. With digital technology, to get your best output, color calibration is a necessity. Calibration ensures that the colors you record in-camera are the same colors that display on the monitor and, in turn, the same colors that you get in your print. If the system isn’t calibrated, predictable results are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, and you’ll waste time, energy and money trying to fine-tune your prints. With products from companies like Datacolor and X-Rite, “what you see is what you get.”
Missing Pages: Aperture and Shutter
Priority
Tips for Using Your Camera Creatively by Jon Sienkiewicz
Introduction | I: ISO Setting | II: Program AE | III: Aperture & Shutter Priority | IV: White Balance | V: Depth of Field | VI: Bracketing | VII: Megapixels | VIII: Flash Modes
The Missing Pages column is a collection of all of the information that should have been
included in your camera’s Owner’s Manual—but somehow got left out. This is a hybrid assortment of short articles that delivers the know-how you need to derive the maximum enjoyment—and creative expression—from your equipment.
It’s sort of a juiced-up User Guide for creative people who are not necessarily technical. Each part will teach you how to use one of the camera features or functions that you previously ignored or left set on Auto. And each will include a Creative Project so that you can try some scripted experimentation.
We will explain complex technical subject matter a way that everyone can understand. And if you happen to be a technical expert yourself, we’re including “Nerds Only” sidebars just for you. That way you can dig in deep—or just straddle the edges—of the technological stuff. It’s your decision.
Installment III: Aperture & Shutter Priority
Definition: exposure modes that provide more control than Program
AE but less than Manual mode.
Shutter Priority is an auto exposure system in which the camera achieves correct exposure by selecting the aperture after the user has selected the shutter speed.
Conversely, Aperture Priority is an auto exposure system in which the camera achieves correct exposure by selecting the shutter speed after the user has selected the aperture. Each system has its own set of distinct advantages and disadvantages. But to fully understand Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority you must understand the fundamentals of exposure. Please refer to the preceding segment (Program AE) if you need a quick review.
Today’s digital SLR cameras (and a few high-end compact models like the Canon PowerShot G10) offer both Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority automatic modes in addition to Program AE. There was a time, however, back during the era of Canon AE-1
popularity, that 35mm film cameras offered one autoexposure system or the other. And each method had its own passionate group of proponents—and detractors.
The Canon (Shutter Priority) crowd argued that it was better to set the camera’s shutter speed and allow the camera to respond by setting the appropriate f/stop. They claimed— and rightfully so—that by choosing a fast shutter speed it was easier to control camera shake and to stop subject movement. Minolta, Nikon and Pentax (Aperture Priority) followers insisted that setting the aperture was the preferred procedure because it gave the user full control over the depth-of-field and allowed the user to preselect the optimum aperture for any lens.
Both sides were correct, of course, each in their own way. In retrospect, this issue was one of the most polarizing disputes among camera enthusiasts, no pun intended. One might have expected a different outcome to this hotly debated argument, but the final result was the development of Program cameras that set BOTH the shutter speed and aperture, essentially leaving the user out of the equation almost entirely. Better cameras offered all three: A mode, S mode and Program AE. The Minolta XD-11, which debuted in 1977, was the first camera that could claim “Dual Mode” by offering both A and S modes.
Use Aperture Priority to control the background.
Aperture Priority
Sometimes called “Aperture Preferred” because that term more accurately describes what’s in the user’s mind when they make decisions about the camera settings; and labeled “Av” (Aperture Value) by Canon and others; Aperture Priority allows the user to control depth-of-field (that zone of sharpness that extends in front of and behind the actual point of focus). Because it’s often indicated by an “A” on the control dial, some people mistake the setting for “Automatic.”
Having control over the DOF is very important in more situations than not. When shooting portraits, for example, it’s desirable to force the background to blur by using a large aperture. This effect separates the subject from what’s behind them and gives the appearance of accentuated sharpness. It also allows you to deemphasize distracting backgrounds by making them fuzzy and indistinguishable. Controlling DOF is similarly important when you want a larger zone in focus (greater DOF), such as when shooting close-ups or certain landscape scenes.
Controlling the aperture allows you to select the “sweet f/stop” that delivers the sharpest images. There are rare exceptions, but most lenses perform better when stopped down two or three f/stops. A 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor, for example, will yield better results at f/4 than it will at f/1.4. And contrary to intuitive logic, using an f/stop like f/22 that’s quite small introduces diffraction, which robs the image of sharpness, despite the extended depth-of-field.
Use Shutter Priority (and a high shutter speed) to stop action.
Shutter Priority
Known as “Tv” to Canon (for Time Value), there’s a lot to be said about the efficacy of this system—particularly in light of the fact that all camera makers recognize the detrimental effects of camera shake and are moving toward some sort of Image Stabilization to reduce it.
In S Mode, you set the shutter speed and the camera does the rest. Well, not quite. The argument that the Aperture Preferred crowd often made was this: if you set a shutter speed that’s too high (1/250s indoors, for example) you’re likely to get no picture at all. As a countermeasure, many cameras will warn you and then shift to a slower speed when it’s impossible to achieve correct exposure at the speed you selected. And some will even adjust ISO (although that’s really a case of relinquishing control over the final outcome to the camera and hoping for the best).
Controlling the shutter speed means you can help prevent camera shake and more importantly, freeze subject movement. If you’re shooting a track and field event, for example, or a little league game, you can use a very fast shutter speed to stop motion. This theory works well indoors, too. For any given lens you should know the minimum shutter speed you can successfully handhold without shake. I call this the “SBA” or “Shake Begins At” shutter speed (ungrammatical but easy to remember). With a 50mm lens equivalent, for example, most people can shoot at 1/60 of a sec or so. General rule of thumb is “1 over the focal length” as in the fraction 1/focal length. So the equivalent to a 135mm lens would require a shutter speed of about 1/125 or higher for safe, jiggle-free results. (Remember that this old rule came to be before digital, so you must account for the lens multiplier when calculating.) In Shutter Priority you can set the camera at your SBA and blaze away with little fear of camera shake.
A Mode allows you to control Depth of Field.
Creative Project
Do you have a favorite lens? One that always seems to yield the sharpest images? With that go-to lens in mind, what range of apertures delivers the absolute best performance? You really need to know. For the sake of having an example, let’s say you’re a Nikon D90 shooter and your favorite lens is the 50mm f/1.4. (Not a bad choice, by the way, in that it translates to a 75mm f/1.4 on your DSLR, which gives you a nearly perfect portrait lens).
Exercise 1
Get out the tripod, find a subject with detailed texture, and set up ten to fifteen feet away. If you can’t think of anything better, aim your camera at a painting that’s hanging on a neutral wall. Shift your camera into Aperture Priority mode and begin shooting at the largest f/stop, working your way down to the smallest. How do the images in the series compare in terms of sharpness?
You may find that your results resemble these: Wide open at f/1.4 you get good results, but stopped down to f/4 or f/4.5 (the half stop between f/4 and f/5.6) the lens really shines. Sharpness remains until around f/16 where diffraction takes over and the results— while still acceptable—are not as biting-sharp as at f/5.6 or f/8.
Exercise 2
For the second exercise, position a human subject five feet from the painting and ten feet from the camera. Repeat the exercise above, keeping the camera focused on the human. This time when you examine the results, closely look at how the subject becomes more separated from the background as depth-of-field decreases.
Exercise 3
Don’t freeze the action all of the time. Movement can add dramatic emphasis to the dynamic flow of a river, for example. You’ll need the tripod again. If you don’t have a
(especially during the wee hours) or typical preschoolers (after a sugary snack) will provide enough subject movement to make this test worthwhile. In S mode, select a very slow shutter speed—one-half second or longer, unless it’s so bright that you’ll
overexpose. Make sequential exposures at progressively faster speeds until you reach the speed that completely stops all subject movement. Then compare the results in your favorite image editor.
What about M mode? M stands for Manual, of course. That’s a great Creative Project but that’s for another episode!
For Nerds Only
What’s Pi got to do with f/stops? And why is f/2 twice as big as f/2.8 and four times larger than f/4? Shouldn’t bigger numbers mean bigger apertures?
Shutter speeds are pretty easy to understand. 1/100 of a second is obviously half as long as 1/50 of a second. But when it comes to f/stops nothing seems to make sense. That’s because an f/stop is a fraction. It’s the ratio between the lens’s focal length and the diameter of the active aperture. For example, a 50mm lens that is set at f/2 has an
aperture that is 25mm in diameter. Similarly, a 50mm lens that is set at an aperture that is 8.9mm in diameter is said to be set at f/5.6 (i.e., 50/8.9 = 5.6).
Remember high school algebra? I’m sure many photo.net readers will want to jump in here and untangle my amateur math, but here’s what I remember. To calculate the area of a circle one multiplies the radius times the radius times pi. Or in other words, the radius squared multiplied by the constant 3.14159.
If you’re still with me, look at the following table. For a 50mm lens:
So, it’s (fairly) easy to see why f/2 is about twice as large as f/2.8. The area is about twice as large. As we go down the scale, each increment of one f/stop equals a 2X change in exposure because the area becomes half as large. That is to say, each subsequent f/stop is one-half as large as the preceding f/stop. Half of a half is a quarter, so the difference between f/4 and f/8 is two stops, or 4X.
Why use such a goofy system? Because it can be applied to a lens of any focal length. For the purposes of calculating exposure, a 135mm lens set at f/5.6 delivers exactly the same amount of light as a 300mm lens at f/5.6. Were it not so, it would be virtually impossible to base camera exposure settings on an external handheld light meter.
Photography Basics
By Fredrik Silverglimth | 104 Comments
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Ever wonder what it is that actually makes a camera work? This tutorial will cover the inner workings of a camera, and introduce you into photography basics and the expansive world of taking better photographs.
To take beautiful photographs you do not need an expensive camera and a bag full of equipment. What is important is the photographer’s ability to see his/her surrounding and use knowledge and personal feel for the subject.
Being the first article in a series, this lesson is meant to only cover the basics of
photography. The idea with this series is to get people more interested in photography, awaken creativity and hopefully help people enjoy this hobby even more. The community here at Tutorial9 is an important part of this series and I would love to hear your feedback and questions.
An introduction to Photography
The word “photography” is French but is based on Greek word and literarily means “drawing with light“. That’s what photography is all about, without light — no photograph. The art of photography is basically seeing and balancing the light.
The illustration to the left shows the path the light travels from the object to the sensor (or film in non-digital cameras).
First the light needs to go through the lens, which is a series of differently shaped pieces of glass. If the focus is good then the light will meet on the sensor.
The aperture is placed inside the lens and is basically an opening that controls how much light reaches the sensor.
On most modern cameras the shutter is placed inside the camera body. This piece of mechanics is what controls how long time the sensor is exposed to the light.
The sensor is a very sensitive plate where the light is absorbed and transformed into pixels. As you can see on this illustration, the image the sensor picks up is actually upside down, just like our eyes sees the world, the processor inside the camera then flips it.
Aperture
The aperture sits inside the lens and controls how much light passes through the lens and onto the sensor. A large aperture lets through very much light and vice versa. Knowing how the aperture affects the photograph is one of the most important parts of photography — it affects the amount of light, depth of field, lens speed, sharpness and vignetting among other things. I will talk more about these things in later parts of this series.
F-numbers, a mathematical number that expresses the diameter of the aperture, are an
important part of understanding how the aperture and exposure work. All f-numbers have a common notation, such as ƒ/5.6 for an f-number of 5.6. There are a set numbers of f-numbers that are used in photography, there are several different scales but the
“standard” full-stop f-number scale is this: ƒ/# 1.4 2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 32
These are known as stop f-numbers. If you decrease the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/4 to ƒ/2.8, the amount of light that passes through will double. If you increase the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/5.6 to ƒ/8, only half the amount of light will reach the sensor.
There can be several f-numbers between the ones above — depending on what scale is being used. The most common one is a 1/3 scale, which means that every third step is a full-stop, and thus giving you two settings between every full-stop. For example between
ƒ/8 and ƒ/11 you will find ƒ/9 and ƒ/10. This can be rather confusing at first, so here’s a
