Week 2

Intro to Photographywith Denni Russel

DIGITAL PHOTO I

Your CameraThe Shutter

The Aperture

Split up into small groups and introduce yourInspiration Image to the others.

Assignment

Who makes your camera?

What is its model name?

Your Camera

Manual ControlAutomatic exposure settings have their

place, but creative photography often requires MANUAL CONTROL.

Manual control can usually be set by turning an exposure control dial.

This dial is usually located by your right fore-finger

Shutter DialWhen your camera is set to MANUAL, you are responsible

for choosing the shutter speed.

Aperture DialIn most cameras, the Aperture selection dial is the same dial as theshutter speed dial. However, a button needs to be pressed and held

while you turn the dial. This button is the AV button.

This dial is might located by your right thumb....

Aperture Dial

Sony Alpha

Aperture Dial

Nikon D80

Aperture Dial

Nikon D40

Aperture Dial

Cano D30

Shutter ButtonYou press the SHUTTER BUTTON when you want to makea photograph. It is always located by your right fore-finger.

Focus ModeYou can switch between automatic and manual focus.

Installing Memory CardsYour memory cards are located behind a door in the right

side of your camera. A latch will open that door.

Changing Your LensSLR's allow you to use interchangeable lenses.

The Lens Release switch is located on thelower left side of your camera

Activating FlashMany cameras have a pop-up flash. Others require an external flash to be attached to the

Hot Shoe.

Exposure = When light enters a camera and reacts with the sensor. It also refers to the amount of light that strikes the sensor.

If you achieve a good exposure than your image will look the way you want it to.

That might mean that your photograph looks the way the subject did in real life,

OR it might mean that you've made the image lighter or darker depending on your creative choice.

Controlling Exposure

There are 3 main ways to control exposure.

1) ISO choice (which we discussed in Week 1)2) Shutter Speed

3) Aperture Setting

Controlling Exposure

In order to create an image that looks the way you want it to look, you have to set the right combination of shutter speed and apeture

value.

The shutter speed controls how long the light will shine through to hit the sensor, and the aperture value will determine the volume of

light that will pass through the lens during that length of time.

Different combinations of shutter speeds and aperture values can all produce well exposed photographs, but each different combination

will have a unique appearance.

A Balancing Act

Your camera has an opaque CURTAIN called the SHUTTER.

It is made up of two or three seperate sheets.

They slide open to let in light which then exposes the sensor.

The shutter curtain can stay open for different lengths of time.

You set the SHUTTER SPEED to control the amount of time the curtain will remain open.

Shutter Speed Shutter Speeds Shutter speeds are usually less than one second,

however they can be any length at all.

Since most shutter speeds are less than a second, we talk about them as fractions of 1.

For example, the following are common speeds:

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000

From left to right, each setting leaves the shutter curtain open for half as long as its predecessor.

Shutter speeds of 1 second or longer are often writen like this:1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 10s, 20s, 30s

A shutter speed setting of

B or Swill leave the curtain open as long as you hold down the button.

This could be for a short period of time, or even for days!

Shutter Speeds

The shutter speed might be writen

differently on different cameras...

Shutter Speeds

open shutter curtain developed photo

The longer you leave the shutter open, the lighter the final image will appear!

The shutter speed you choose determines how much light is going to record onto the sensor.

How Shutter Speed Controls Light

The longer the shutter speed, the more light hits the sensor.

The more light that hits the sensor, the brighter the final image will be.

A too long shutter speed will make a white photograph with no image on it at all. This means it is OVEREXPOSED.

Shutter Speeds

Short shutter speeds don't let very much light in.

A too short shutter speed will produce a dark looking image. This means it is UNDEREXPOSED.

Shutter Speeds A dark scene will require a longer shutter speed than a bright,

sunny day might.

The trick is to let just the right amount of light in to create the image you want.

How do you know what's the right amount of light?You have to use your LIGHT METER for that. We'll come back

to the light meter later.

Shutter Speeds

Different shutter speeds also allow you to control the way motion looks too!

The shutter speed lets you choose whether the image will have blurry looking, or sharply captured, moving objects.

Shutter Speed and Motion

1/40th of a second.

Motion Blur1 second.

Motion Blur2 seconds. Can you see the person in this photo?

Motion Blur

10 seconds.

Motion BlurA short speed, like 1/500th, will produce a sharp looking photo.

Motion Blur1/500th

Motion Blur

The aperture is a diaphragm inside your lens that opens and closes to let more or less light through.

It works like your eye's pupil.

When there's a lot of light the aperture probably needs to be very small.

When it's dark you will probably need to let more light in. To do that you need a larger aperture.

The Aperture

f1.4

Small number =big opening

Aperture Values

We can tell an aperture's size by it's 'f' number.We call these 'f stops'

Common f stops are:

f 1.4, f 2, f 2.8, f 4, f 5.6, f 8, f 11, f 16, f 22, f 32

These are whole stops. From left to right, each successive stop lets in half as much light.

Small numbers let in more light than large numbers.

The Aperture

f 11f 8

f 5.6f 4

f 2.8f 2

f 1.4

f 11 f 8 f 5.6 f 4 f 2.8 f 2 f 1.4

The Aperture The aperture lets in a specific volume of light during the period of your

shutter speed.Let's say you've chosen a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second. Now

you have to decide how much light you want to let in during that time.

The Aperture

Every lens has a specific number of f stops available to it.

Most lenses only have a range of 7 whole stops.

For example, a lens might have the following whole stop f stops:

f 4, f 5.6, f 8, f 11, f 16, f 22, f 32

The Aperture

What's the largest aperture on your lens?

What's the smallest aperture?

More expensive lenses allow you larger apertures.

The price difference between a 70mm focal length with a maximum aperture of f 2.8 and a 70mm with a maximum aperture

of f 4 might be $1,000.00.

How Do We Come Up With the Aperture Number?

Longer lens let in less light than shorter lenses.

Because of this, one particular sized aperture opening will let in different amounts of light depending on the focal length of the

lens.

F numbers were developed so that we could always know how to let in a particular amount of light, regardless of the lens we were

using.

How Do We Come Up With the Aperture Number?

Lens

Focal Length:100 mm

The Acutal Diameter is50mm wide.

Take the focal length and divide it by the actual diameter of the aperture.This gives you the f-number!

f Number = Focal Length

Aperture Diameter

100mm Lensdivided by

50mm opening = f 2

How Do We Come Up With the Aperture Number?

So, if the opening in a 100mm lens is 50mmsin diameter, we call that opening f 2.

And if the opening in a 100mm lens is only 25mmsin diameter, we call that opening f 4.

The smaller opening has a larger f number!

Your aperture choice does more than control the volume of light passing through your lens.

It also controls the amount of your photograph that is sharply in focus. This area of focus influenced by the aperture is called

DEPTH OF FIELD.

Depth of Field

The depth of field is the distance into a scene that will be in focus. It deals with depth, not width.

A shallow depth of field means that only a shallow area in the scene will be in focus.

A large depth of field means that you will achieve focus from the foreground to the background.

Depth of Field

Light travels through differently sized apertures in different ways. Small openings tightly pack the light that travels through them.

Large openings don't.

In large openings, light will be more closely packed in the centre than around the edges.

Depth of Field

With f 1.4, the light rays aren't tightly packed throughout the image - they are less focused, and therefore create images with

soft looking edges.Large apertures usually create photos with

shallow depths of field.

f 1.4

Depth of Field

f 16

These light rays are all tightly packed together. They are more focused, creating a very sharp image. Small apertures, like f 16,

usually create photos with large depths of field.

Depth of Field Depth of Field

What we see with our eyes

At f 2.8 your photograph will havea shallow depth of field

At f 22 you will capture a large depth of field

'blue' is in focus 'red' is out of focus

Depth of Field

I chose an aperture of f 2.8 to helpthrow the background out of focus.

This technique is great for portraits becauseit avoids distracting elements and allows

you to focus on the subject.

Depth of FieldI chose an aperture of f 16 here to helpdraw you into the photo.

This technique is great for landscapesas it allows you to see more of the scene.

f 11, 100mm Lens f 11, 50mm Lens

Depth of Field & Lens Choice

Just to make things even more complicated...

Remember, depth of field is based on theactual size of your aperture opening.

Remember, two different focal lengths will have two differently sized f 11s.

That also means that they will have different depths of field at f 11!!!

So what does that mean in the real world?

It's often difficult to have a shallow depth of field with a lens of the following focal lengths:

10mm, 14mm, 16mm, 17mm, 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm.

These lenses all have very small aperture openings!

Lenses of 70mm and up have larger aperture openings.

Depth of Field & Lens Choice

So far we've learned that the shutter speed and aperture combination you choose will effect:

the look of movement (blurry or sharp)

and the focus (depth of field)

How do you decide what settings to choose?

A Delicate Balance

You've got a couple of considerations:

1) Do you want the photo to look the same as the scene?Do you want it to be brighter? Darker?

2) How do you want the motion to look?

3) How do you want the depth to look?

A Delicate Balance

The following combinations will all let in the same amount of light:

1/125th - f 8

1/60th - f 11

1/30th - f 16

Each time I let more light in with the shutter speed,I let less light in through the aperture.

If our shutter speed was changed to 1/250, what would our aperrture be?Here is a list of apertures and shutter speeds:

f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f321/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000

A Delicate Balance

It's up to you to be creative - to become familiar with the different effects you can achieve with shutter, aperture combinations.

This is where a lot of the fun in photography lies. It doesn't matter whether you're shooting digitally, or with film. These

concepts apply to both.

A Delicate BalanceEvery camera has a LIGHT METER.

This is a tool that reads the amount of light in a sceneand tells you whether the aperture and shutter speed combination you've

chosen will create:

a properly exposed image

an underexposed image

or an overexposed image

Light Meters

Find your light meter.

What does it look like?

Set your aperture to f 8 and point your camera at something.

Change your shutter speed until it tells you you've achieved a good exposure.

Light Meters

Light meters don't handle certain situations very well.

They don't like bright white. It makes them think there's more light than there really is.

They don't like black scenes, either. It makes them think there's less light than there really is.

Light Meters

That's why your snow or all black subjects are often grey looking in the final photo.

The light meter told you to let in too little light for the snow,and too much light for the black subject.

Try to overexpose all white subjects by one stop.

Try to underexpose all black subjects by one stop.

Light Meters

Light Meters

1) DEPTH OF FIELD

2) MOTION

Assignment Assignment

f 2.8

Assignment

f 4

Assignment

f 5.6

Assignment

f 8

Assignment

f 11

Assignment

f 16

Assignment

f 22

Assignment Assignment