Monday, February 23, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Shooting Manually Made Simple
Who knew shooting manually could be so simple! I've always thought that to shoot manually I had to be doing mathematical equations while I was shooting to discern which f/stop to use. Not that I mind doing math, but it seemed highly inefficient - to the point of discouraging! BUT, there is a simpler way.
The same graph that is used for exposure compensation is used to demonstrate the light meter.
Apparently the goal is to use the lowest possible ISO for the light you have to avoid grain. So, begin by setting your ISO at 100 if you are outside, if you're inside or at a darker time of day, you'll need to raise the ISO accordingly. Then, the easy way to choose your aperture or shutter speed is by looking at the light meter (graph shown above) which you can do by looking through the view finder or your screen.
To activate the light meter you push shutter button 1/2 way down. This will cause the little line, below the number zero in picture above, to move somewhere on that number line to communicate to you how your settings are given the light in the area you're shooting. If the little black dot/line is over at +2 you've over exposed to take a good shot so you need to either make your f/stop larger (smaller hole), or your shutter speed faster.
On my camera, I can look through the view finder and while in manual mode I can use the main dial to change the shutter speed. In order to change the aperture I need to press the AV +/- button (it's like a "shift" button on a computer) and then use the same main dial to change the aperture. I"m pretty sure he said that a Nikon has a back dial for the aperture and the the main dial is for the shutter speed. The goal is to get the little black dot/line to be under zero - unless you are wanting something to be over exposed or under exposed for some artistic reason.
That's all there is to shooting manually - at least on a basic level.
Here are a few of my very first manual shots which I took at my favorite place in our area to shoot... SIW Farmer's Market in Chadds Ford.
I love the blue in this house. That's the real color, I didn't do any post processing.
These weird things are praying mantis nests used to kill off the unwanted bugs in the greenhouse.
I loved that this cat was taking a "cat nap."
All constructive criticism is welcome!
The same graph that is used for exposure compensation is used to demonstrate the light meter.
Apparently the goal is to use the lowest possible ISO for the light you have to avoid grain. So, begin by setting your ISO at 100 if you are outside, if you're inside or at a darker time of day, you'll need to raise the ISO accordingly. Then, the easy way to choose your aperture or shutter speed is by looking at the light meter (graph shown above) which you can do by looking through the view finder or your screen.
To activate the light meter you push shutter button 1/2 way down. This will cause the little line, below the number zero in picture above, to move somewhere on that number line to communicate to you how your settings are given the light in the area you're shooting. If the little black dot/line is over at +2 you've over exposed to take a good shot so you need to either make your f/stop larger (smaller hole), or your shutter speed faster.
On my camera, I can look through the view finder and while in manual mode I can use the main dial to change the shutter speed. In order to change the aperture I need to press the AV +/- button (it's like a "shift" button on a computer) and then use the same main dial to change the aperture. I"m pretty sure he said that a Nikon has a back dial for the aperture and the the main dial is for the shutter speed. The goal is to get the little black dot/line to be under zero - unless you are wanting something to be over exposed or under exposed for some artistic reason.
That's all there is to shooting manually - at least on a basic level.
Here are a few of my very first manual shots which I took at my favorite place in our area to shoot... SIW Farmer's Market in Chadds Ford.
I love the blue in this house. That's the real color, I didn't do any post processing.
These weird things are praying mantis nests used to kill off the unwanted bugs in the greenhouse.
I loved that this cat was taking a "cat nap."
All constructive criticism is welcome!
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Equivalent Exposure
Another thing we learned about tonight was equivalent exposure. Which basically means that you can derive the same shot by using different aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings. Here are three examples of the same picture but with dramatically different settings. There are slight differences in terms of the color of the table and the depth of focus, but on the face of it, very close.
Here are the settings...
f/4, 1/3 second shutter speed, 100 ISO
Here are the settings...
f/22, 0.8 sec. shutter speed, 1600 ISO:
f/4, 1/3 second shutter speed, 100 ISO
f22, 10 second exposure, 100 ISO
So, the point being, there is "more than one way to skin a cat." (That really is a horrible expression, but you know what I mean.) If you look closely, there will be differences but by changing the different aspects you can achieve similar pictures - you just need to have the proper amount of light and there are different ways of achieving that.
Here is a helpful link, with a quiz, if you want more information.
Delaware Art Museum Class # 6: Shooting Manually, Equivalent Exposure, Light Painting
This was a GREAT class! At least for me, our teacher answered some of my nagging questions and gave us something really fun to work on.
I'll start with the fun thing. Light Painting!
I think the whole class really enjoyed this exercise. Our teacher set up a camera on a tripod. We set it to manual at these settings: 10 second shutter speed, f22 and ISO 100. We used a 2 second timer (which prevents the shake of my camera so you get a very still shot) and then turned out all the lights. Then he took a flashlight and shined it only on the basket and the fruit. As you'll see below, depending upon where you shine the light on the fruit you'll get different effects. The above bowl of fruit was just sitting on a basic brown school type table.
We added the sheet of paper to demonstrate that your table is a different then of course it will not have the same black (sitting in space) appearance.
We all took turns trying different shots. The person who constructed the above shot, shined on the fruit from predominantly behind and then faced the flashlight at the camera.
What's interesting about the above picture is that the flashlight created a square reflection on the table. Very fascinating.
The picture above is with the flashlight shining on only one side of the basket.
We called this picture "The Midnight Fruit Thief." The hand is blurry, of course, because it's a 10 second shutter speed and she is moving.
This foggy picture isn't a very good picture, but it demonstrates something. While this picture was being taken over the 10 seconds, I was moving my hand in front of the camera in a circle, but because of the long exposure my hand is not even perceived. Just creates this foggy look. (This has nothing to do with the light painting, as the lights were on for this one, just thought it was interesting).
This is really fun to play around with! Enjoy!
I'll start with the fun thing. Light Painting!
I think the whole class really enjoyed this exercise. Our teacher set up a camera on a tripod. We set it to manual at these settings: 10 second shutter speed, f22 and ISO 100. We used a 2 second timer (which prevents the shake of my camera so you get a very still shot) and then turned out all the lights. Then he took a flashlight and shined it only on the basket and the fruit. As you'll see below, depending upon where you shine the light on the fruit you'll get different effects. The above bowl of fruit was just sitting on a basic brown school type table.
We added the sheet of paper to demonstrate that your table is a different then of course it will not have the same black (sitting in space) appearance.
We all took turns trying different shots. The person who constructed the above shot, shined on the fruit from predominantly behind and then faced the flashlight at the camera.
The picture above is with the flashlight shining on only one side of the basket.
This is really fun to play around with! Enjoy!
Friday, February 13, 2015
What do trees have to do with aperture?
Okay, so we're back to aperture and... trees? I was asking the teacher to explain the relationship of the aperture to the clarity of the depth of field. He said it all has to do with geometry!
On the white board he drew something close to the picture I've drawn below. Where my arrow is pointing is where the aperture is on the camera (the hole where the light comes through). The f/stop tells us how big the hole is (how much light is coming into the camera). So, again, if the f number is small the hole is big and the other way around. The light from the top of the tree is scene at the bottom right hand corner of the camera. And the light coming from the bottom of the tree is projected into the camera at the top right hand corner of the back of the camera. And of course, whatever light is coming in at dead center goes straight through to the back where the upside tree is drawn (which is where the light sensor is). In other words, the only light that is going to shine at the bottom right corner of my badly drawn camera is coming from the top of the tree and the other way around for the light coming from the bottom of the tree.
When you have a small hole all the light is focused very narrowly through the hole so the picture is clear. Like when you squint to see something clearly.
Now, if you have a big aperture (small f #), the more light coming into the image which will cause it to become blurry if not properly adjusted by the ISO and Shutter Speed. So to exaggerate the point, if you were to remove the lens entirely from your camera and take a picture, so much light would be flooding the sensor that you'd just have an entirely blurry image.
Here is a good tutorial on the effect of different focal lengths. 50mm and smaller is typically considered a wide angle lens. This is important to know because the longer your focal length (a lens over 50mm) the shorter your depth of field will be. So, it's hard to get a narrow depth of field with a wide angle lens.
Imagine you have a person between the camera and the tree in the picture above. If you are trying to take a picture of the person, with a longer focal length, it will be difficult to focus on the tree and the person at the same time. Your camera is trying to focus on one thing when you have a longer focal length. So, if you want to take a picture of the person, you can blur the background using a longer lens, but if you want the whole picture in view, it may be best to use a wide angel lens.
And yes, the tree to the right of the picture is supposed to be upside down. All photographs that are taken are projected upside down to the light sensor at the back of the camera. The same is the case with the
human eyes.
We also discussed the origin of the camera and what was used before the camera itself, namely the camera obscura Apparently, an enormous camera obscura can been seen at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
One final thought from the class, if you find your camera is having a hard time focusing on something (zooming in and out as if it doesn't know on what to focus), take it off auto focus and put on manual so you can focus on what you want.
As usual, all thoughts or better ways of explaining this are sincerely welcome!
On the white board he drew something close to the picture I've drawn below. Where my arrow is pointing is where the aperture is on the camera (the hole where the light comes through). The f/stop tells us how big the hole is (how much light is coming into the camera). So, again, if the f number is small the hole is big and the other way around. The light from the top of the tree is scene at the bottom right hand corner of the camera. And the light coming from the bottom of the tree is projected into the camera at the top right hand corner of the back of the camera. And of course, whatever light is coming in at dead center goes straight through to the back where the upside tree is drawn (which is where the light sensor is). In other words, the only light that is going to shine at the bottom right corner of my badly drawn camera is coming from the top of the tree and the other way around for the light coming from the bottom of the tree.
When you have a small hole all the light is focused very narrowly through the hole so the picture is clear. Like when you squint to see something clearly.
Now, if you have a big aperture (small f #), the more light coming into the image which will cause it to become blurry if not properly adjusted by the ISO and Shutter Speed. So to exaggerate the point, if you were to remove the lens entirely from your camera and take a picture, so much light would be flooding the sensor that you'd just have an entirely blurry image.
Here is a good tutorial on the effect of different focal lengths. 50mm and smaller is typically considered a wide angle lens. This is important to know because the longer your focal length (a lens over 50mm) the shorter your depth of field will be. So, it's hard to get a narrow depth of field with a wide angle lens.
Imagine you have a person between the camera and the tree in the picture above. If you are trying to take a picture of the person, with a longer focal length, it will be difficult to focus on the tree and the person at the same time. Your camera is trying to focus on one thing when you have a longer focal length. So, if you want to take a picture of the person, you can blur the background using a longer lens, but if you want the whole picture in view, it may be best to use a wide angel lens.
And yes, the tree to the right of the picture is supposed to be upside down. All photographs that are taken are projected upside down to the light sensor at the back of the camera. The same is the case with the
human eyes.
We also discussed the origin of the camera and what was used before the camera itself, namely the camera obscura Apparently, an enormous camera obscura can been seen at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
One final thought from the class, if you find your camera is having a hard time focusing on something (zooming in and out as if it doesn't know on what to focus), take it off auto focus and put on manual so you can focus on what you want.
As usual, all thoughts or better ways of explaining this are sincerely welcome!
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Delaware Art Museum Class #4: Aperture
I must confess, this is the hardest part so far! I'm really trying to get my brain around aperture, so anyone who has something to offer, please feel free to chime in!
Apparently, an f/stop is a ratio. Technically speaking, it is the length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture. For example...
f= focal length_____ = 50 mm lens = f/5
aperture diameter 10mm
You might ask, like me, but what in the world is the aperture. The aperture is the hole that the light goes through.
For starters, the numbers are entirely counter intuitive! The larger the aperture (hole that lets the light through), the small the f/stop number. The smaller the aperture (hole that lets the light through) the larger the f/stop number. Why must we make things more difficult than they need to be?
I was asking our teacher to explain to me why, if the hole is smaller, is the picture clearer? He drew something close to this on the board but used a tree to explain...
Shutter Speed and Depth of Field
Hmmm, I'm going to mull this over a little and then post another thread to explain more of what he said!
Apparently, an f/stop is a ratio. Technically speaking, it is the length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture. For example...
f= focal length_____ = 50 mm lens = f/5
aperture diameter 10mm
You might ask, like me, but what in the world is the aperture. The aperture is the hole that the light goes through.
For starters, the numbers are entirely counter intuitive! The larger the aperture (hole that lets the light through), the small the f/stop number. The smaller the aperture (hole that lets the light through) the larger the f/stop number. Why must we make things more difficult than they need to be?
I was asking our teacher to explain to me why, if the hole is smaller, is the picture clearer? He drew something close to this on the board but used a tree to explain...
Shutter Speed and Depth of Field
Hmmm, I'm going to mull this over a little and then post another thread to explain more of what he said!
The background helps tell a story
In our class, one of the first things the teacher does is project our "homework" pictures up on the screen and we discuss all our shots. One of the gals in my class took a picture of her birthday cake which was in the foreground of the picture and very clear (shallow depth of focus) and then the background, which was blurry, was her friends casually talking on the couch. Our teacher pointed out that this is a great way to take a picture if you are telling a story with your picture. The characters in the back of the picture were very significant (almost allusive - yet explained what was going on). It wasn't just her sitting there eating her own cake, but she had friends over to celebrate - who looked to be having a great time.
I really was inspired by this so tried to figure out a background story telling photo for myself. This is what I came up with...
We are painting our living room, and my daughter normally practices piano in the living room, but we've had to move her into the hallway because of the painting. As you see, the pan is clearly in view and she is blurry. The pan and paint brush aren't really great subjects in terms of beauty, but seemed to tell the story.
I find photographing the color yellow to be very difficult. Never crisp edges. I've noticed this with flowers. So, the brush, where the paint is yellow, doesn't seem real crisp. It may be that my focus was too narrow and so it's just not that clear. Has anyone else had issues in shooting a particular color?
I really was inspired by this so tried to figure out a background story telling photo for myself. This is what I came up with...
We are painting our living room, and my daughter normally practices piano in the living room, but we've had to move her into the hallway because of the painting. As you see, the pan is clearly in view and she is blurry. The pan and paint brush aren't really great subjects in terms of beauty, but seemed to tell the story.
I find photographing the color yellow to be very difficult. Never crisp edges. I've noticed this with flowers. So, the brush, where the paint is yellow, doesn't seem real crisp. It may be that my focus was too narrow and so it's just not that clear. Has anyone else had issues in shooting a particular color?
Monday, February 2, 2015
Photography Class #3: Working on Compensation
We spent a good chunk of the class scrutinizing and interacting with our homework from last week. One thing I learned from this, is that what I thought were good diagonals could be improved upon!
This was one picture I submitted for homework last week:
As I mentioned before, the above picture was taken at a dog park. I liked the action of them running and I left space to the left so as to imply motion (to give them a space to run into as it were). And, I thought the foot and snout of the first dog, combined with the ears of the second dog "implied" a diagonal. But our teacher and other students helps me to see what might have made a better picture:
In the above picture, I cropped it so that the left dogs foot begins the diagonal in the bottom left corner and then you follow his snout up to the second dogs ears. As well, I lightened up the picture. He also mentioned that it would be best to have the right dog in full view. His said by doing the picture as I did above it not just satisfies the idea of diagonals but also helps with another composition technique of filling the frame.
Which one do you prefer?
This was one picture I submitted for homework last week:
As I mentioned before, the above picture was taken at a dog park. I liked the action of them running and I left space to the left so as to imply motion (to give them a space to run into as it were). And, I thought the foot and snout of the first dog, combined with the ears of the second dog "implied" a diagonal. But our teacher and other students helps me to see what might have made a better picture:
In the above picture, I cropped it so that the left dogs foot begins the diagonal in the bottom left corner and then you follow his snout up to the second dogs ears. As well, I lightened up the picture. He also mentioned that it would be best to have the right dog in full view. His said by doing the picture as I did above it not just satisfies the idea of diagonals but also helps with another composition technique of filling the frame.
Which one do you prefer?
Photography Class at Delaware Art Museum, #3: Exposure Compensation
During this class we learned about exposure compensation, spent a lot of time reviewing our homework and learning about how to improve our diagonals and other composition techniques, and then a quick introduction to aperture. This post will be on the exposure compensation.
Our teacher explained that a camera has a built in light meter. By changing the exposure compensation you are telling the camera to make it lighter or darker. When you do this, you don't know how the camera will do that. It might change the ISO, the shutter speed, or the aperture. You should only use exposure compensation if your pictures are always too dark or too light.
At least on my camera, the exposure compensation button looks like this:
The corresponding view finder image looks like this number line:
The further left (larger negative numbers) you go the darker the image will be. And, the further right on the number line the lighter your pictures will be. Zero is the normal setting for the camera. So, if you pictures are normally darker than you'd like, you might want to fiddle around with moving your exposure compensation dial to the right. On my camera you do that by holding down the "AV" button pictured above, and then moving the main dial one way or the other. You can do this while looking through your view finder since the number line appears there. You can also set this in your menu under exposure compensation.
Exposure compensation cannot be used in Manual mode, just P, TV and AV.
Here is a what happens if you change the exposure compensation on my camera:
It's funny how we learn things, but when I was initially trying to find the exposure compensation button on my camera I thought it was the Dioptric adjustment knob (seen below) which is is NOT. But, since I stumbled upon it I'll mention what it is. The Dioptric adjustment knob is relative to the person looking through the view finder and what makes the picture clear to the person taking the picture.
Our teacher explained that a camera has a built in light meter. By changing the exposure compensation you are telling the camera to make it lighter or darker. When you do this, you don't know how the camera will do that. It might change the ISO, the shutter speed, or the aperture. You should only use exposure compensation if your pictures are always too dark or too light.
At least on my camera, the exposure compensation button looks like this:
The corresponding view finder image looks like this number line:
The further left (larger negative numbers) you go the darker the image will be. And, the further right on the number line the lighter your pictures will be. Zero is the normal setting for the camera. So, if you pictures are normally darker than you'd like, you might want to fiddle around with moving your exposure compensation dial to the right. On my camera you do that by holding down the "AV" button pictured above, and then moving the main dial one way or the other. You can do this while looking through your view finder since the number line appears there. You can also set this in your menu under exposure compensation.
Exposure compensation cannot be used in Manual mode, just P, TV and AV.
Here is a what happens if you change the exposure compensation on my camera:
ZERO: (the way the camera would automatically set it)
Minus 1: (a little darker)
Minus 2: (darker still)
Plus 1: (a little lighter)
Plus 2: (lighter still)
It's funny how we learn things, but when I was initially trying to find the exposure compensation button on my camera I thought it was the Dioptric adjustment knob (seen below) which is is NOT. But, since I stumbled upon it I'll mention what it is. The Dioptric adjustment knob is relative to the person looking through the view finder and what makes the picture clear to the person taking the picture.
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