Photography is all about light. Just as we are dependent on water for our survival, photographs need light, without it they are nothing. It is easy to get caught up in the high tech world of modern camera gear and lose sight of the most important issue–seeing and understanding the light. How one collects the light is much less an issue than seeing and using the light creatively. Do not be afraid to use your flash, just make sure you have reviewed its use – helpful, not harmful.
Making an Equivalent
Although many digital photographers use their camera as if it were an AK-47 spraying exposure all over their subject, this is not the road to good photography. It is probably more like trading in your car expecting to win Saturday’s lottery to pay for the upgrade. The right amount of light on your camera’s sensor will be the start of a good photo. So, regulate the light. The ways to regulate the light-set the aperture, set the shutter speed, and adjust the sensitivity of the sensor. If one goes this far, then regulate the White Balance so the right amount of light is also the proper color of light.
- Shutter speed is the simplest. It is expressed in numbers that are seconds or fractions of seconds. Each change represents a halving or doubling of the light. Depending on whether it is up – larger, or down –smaller. A slow shutter speed can produce motion artifact, camera shake, and so on. A fast shutter speed can stop action and is useful for action and sports photography.
- Aperture represents the size of the hole made by the blades in the lens diaphragm. A bit more complex, the numbers don’t seem to bear any logic or sequence. That is because they are a function of the lens diaphragm opening and the focal length of the lens. Each of these numbers is referred to as “stops.” A lower number provides a wider aperture, and less depth of field. So ƒ 2.8 is fairly wide open, shallow depth of field, and fast shutter speed needed. ƒ 22 is a small aperture with tight focus almost to infinity, and requires a slower shutter speed. It provides great depth of field thus things in the background are mostly in focus. This website has good information in detail.
- In automatic mode as you change one setting the others will also change. The goal of the camera is to continue to regulate the amount of light reaching the sensor.
- Sensor Sensitivity In the film days this was referred to as film speed or “ASA”. Now in the digital world it is called ISO. This has nothing to do with your camera, standing for International Standards Organization. In the digital world this adjusts the sensitivity to light of the pixels in the camera sensor.
Shot at 1/100 and ƒ29. Here the trees on the other side of the field are in focus. This deep field of focus gives a more “documentary look.” Certainly if you are out doing landscapes you want this tight aperture. Look up Group 64 and read about that group of greats. I promise you will become less enamored of bokeh.
Shot at 1/3200 and ƒ4.5. Notice how starting with the road everything is progressively softened (out of focus). Some call this bokeh and see it as desirable. Produced by wide aperture settings. The field of focus is quite narrow.
White Balance
Setting proper white balance ensures that the colors of your subject are not unduly influenced by the light source. If you are using a DSLR camera then your manual will guide you to the menu where you can make these adjustments. If you are using a less sophisticated camera you will likely have several options such as: sunlight, cloudy, portrait, shade, flash, tungsten, fluorescent. Probably not all, but several at any rate. WB is expressed in degrees Kelvin. How come? Well, color temperature is a measure of the temperature to which an object would have to be heated to radiate light in the same wavelength as the light source in use. Many cameras allow for auto WB, and a lot of photographers simply use this default position. I kind of like intensity, not subtlety, in my color pictures, so I set WB to cloudy even when it is not. This pumps up the reds and yellows, and I like it. Both of the above pictures were shot with WB set to “cloudy.”
Now take your camera out and play. Remember the digital image in your camera is one of the disposable things on earth, no one need see your mistakes. You should study them and ascertain what went awry, change a setting or two and shoot again.