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My very first serious post on Photography. I want to come clean right away
- If you have “fair-knowledge” on how to use a camera and wish to take it a step further, congratulations you’re in the right place.
- On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate my photography-prowess 4 and my interest 12. I want to take the former, up 6 notches. My posts on photography are the first step towards that.
- I own a Pentax Optio S4. My dad on the other hand has a Nikon D40x. He lets me use it now and then(eventually plan to pinch it).
- All the information gathered for this post is from the links mentioned at the bottom. I wish to present a consolidated quick reference here so you can get up and get going right away with your photography(Will try to bring out a cheatsheet PDF when time permits).
- In order to genuinely benefit from this article, I strongly suggest you go through it entirely at least once. For future references the blockquotes should suffice.
- I have attributed all sources to the best of my knowledge. Should anyone feel otherwise, please contact me and I’ll look into the matter at once.
Glad that’s off my chest. Now gentlemen for some serious photography.
MassivePost Alert: This is a massive post but an insanely useful one. Are you not already thanking me for helping you suit up?
PHOTOGRAPHY 101
We first have to understand all the terms frequently spewed out by the pros. It’s actually not rocket-science. Along with “my understanding” of the terms (which you are free to contend with in the comments section) I’ve also given out some typical settings and number-readings that you can use as reference. I presume, as we progress up the ladder, these things should seem rudimentary and the numbers should all just magically appear before you at the time of the shot. But it’s great for starters.
- Terms explained:
- Focus/Focal Plane
- Depth of field
- Exposure
- Aperture
- Shutter-speed (There’s a little more to it than just the name)
- F-Stop Number
- EV Exposure compensation
- ISO
Focus/Focal Plane
Focus is a basic tenet of photography. It is the position at which rays of light from a lens converge to form a clear and sharply defined image on a focal plane. In simpler terms, adjusting the focal length helps in deciding the distance from your camera lens where you want all objects to appear with absolute sharpness and clarity on your image. When you “zoom in” or “zoom out”, your basically adjusting the focal length. It’s impossible to have a single lens with complete coverage of focal length (i.e 0 – ?). This is the principle reason you find all them pros tugging along 2-3 huge lenses. On those huge football fields, the photographers perched at the side-stands have such huge and long lens(:read longer focal length thus bigger lens) precisely for this reason.
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Typical numbers for Focal Lens:- Wide-angle Lens(28mm):When You want to take a landscape photograph that captures the entire scene. Moderate (100 – 125mm):(translates to around 3X on a digital camera)-If your taking a portrait photograph. Full zoom (300 – 600mm)(translates to around 10X) For photographs of extremely distant objects.
Depth of field
In reality, when you focus on an object in space, there is also an area in front of and behind the object that is also in focus. This area of focus is called the depth of field. Tweaking these settings can enable you to bring out some really cool effects on your photograph.
You increase or decrease the depth of field in your photographs by changing the aperture setting on your camera(see Aperture below).
Aperture measured in F-STOPs. Complete series of f-stop numbers, from small to large: 1.8 2.0 2.5 2.8 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.6 6.7 8.0 9.5 11 13 16 19 22 27 32
Exposure
Probably the most important concept aspiring-experienced-beginners should know. In lay cameraman’s terms it means the amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic film(analog-days) or image sensor(digital-age). So an underexposed image would mean lesser light and an overexposed image would mean a more brightly lit photo. Typically if you’re a lazy ass camera-person and set everything to complete auto-mode (like yours truly), you may not always get the perfect picture (No Kidding there genius). The camera thinks that everything in a photograph should show up as a medium tone(an optimum medium-exposure). Take a photo of a white wall and it will wind up looking grey — the camera has intentionally underexposed the image. Take a photo of a black wall and it will also look grey — the camera has overexposed the image(Also see EV Compensation). To avoid this, we take up the burden of understanding our terms correctly. Histograms aid in gauging the amount of exposure of a photograph. Check this article by Photoexels on Histograms. Beautifully explained if I may say so (You should stop saying and start explaining, Google does a find job in pointing us towards good articles thank you.). In order to be able to fiddle with your exposure settings, you will have to understand Aperture and Shutter-speed.
Basically:EXPOSURE = APERTURE + SHUTTER-SPEED (+ ISO)“Exposure” is governed by your “Aperture” and “Shutter-speed” combination. Your Aperture and Shutter-speed settings should complement each other to give good exposure.
In a complete manual mode, you would adjust these two-separately. Modern day SLRs bring in the concept of Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority. Basically you manually set one value and the other is appropriately calculated by the camera(Will devote a separate post on this someday). This is also where EV Compensation fits in. This EV button (found on most digital cameras these days) allows you to quickly underexpose (darken) or overexpose (brighten) your image.
The range of adjustment for EV Compensation on most cameras today, goes from +2 to -2 EV in 1/3 steps.
Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light is admitted (Wikipedia). Aperture determines how much or how little your lens opens(or shutter closes) while taking a photograph. When your lens is open very wide(wide-aperture), the background is typically out of focus(or your depth of field is less). Wide-open aperture is good for portrait photographs, when you don’t want the background to interfere with your subject. When your lens is only open a small amount(narrow-aperture), everything from the foreground to the background is in focus(or your depth of field is high). This aperture could be used for landscape photographs, so that all of the scenery in the photo is in focus. As mentioned before aperture changes are measured in f-stops. Cool fact: The f-number of the human eye varies from about f/8.3 in a very brightly lit place to about f/2.1 in the dark.
SMALL F-STOP NUMBER = SMALL DEPTH OF FIELD = WIDE-APERTURE LARGE F-STOP NUMBER = LARGE DEPTH OF FIELD = NARROW-APERTURE
Shutter-speed
Well yes, shutter-speed is the speed of your shutter but the name is far too simple for what you can achieve with this. There are two types of shutters in cameras. Some cameras have a plate that covers the image sensor of the digital camera. When you push the button to take a photograph, the plate flips up and lets light onto the camera’s image sensor. Another type of shutter is called an iris, because it works somewhat like your eye. When you push the button to take a photograph, the iris expands and lets light onto the camera’s sensor.
The shutter speed is the amount of time that the plate stays up or the iris stays open. All those groovy images of dreamy waterfalls and on-the-roof-top city images you see, are a result of slow-shutter speed. If the subject of your photo is not moving, or you want to show the passage of time (with a running river or waterfall), then you can use a slower shutter speed. A faster shutter-speed equates to a “faster photo” taken. Sports-photographers use very fast shutter speeds to capture the peak moment and freeze it in time. Wild-life photographers too. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds and seconds. For lack of space camera-displays only show the bottom number or indicate seconds with a double quote after the number. So a one second shutter speed is displayed as 1″ and it means the “iris” of the camera remains open for 1 sec while taking the photo(which typically is quite a long time).
Some realistic numbers for shutter-speed from fast to slow: 1/2000 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/180 1/125 1/90 1/60 1/45 1/30 1/10 1 You can only handhold your camera without blurring the photo down to a shutter speed of about 1/40. A shutter speed of 0.25 sec (1/40) is slow enough to blur the water, yet still fast enough to minimize possible camera shake. If slower shutter-speeds are required for your image, use a tripod stand.
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Shutter-speed relation to Aperture and Exposure is quite obvious. Slower shutter-speeds allow more light(tending towards an over-exposed image) and vice-versa. Keep this table handy for reference:
| Aperture | Shutter Speed | |
| Slow (1/30 sec) | Fast (1/1000 sec) | |
| Small f-stop(f4.5) | Overexposed — a slow shutter speed and small f-stop will both let in more light | Correct — a fast shutter speed lets in less light, but a small f-stop lets in more |
| Large f-stop(f22) | Correct — a slow shutter speed lets in more light, but a large f-stop lets in less | Underexposed — a fast shutter speed and large f-stop both let in less light |
ISO
In the analog days ISO would be equated to film sensitivity(films as in those rolls you used to furiously pull out and try to fit in to your camera before the next scene in an act). In the digital age the fitting analogue would be the camera’s image sensor(that my friend is NOT an oxymoron). ISO is actually the third component of Exposure(yup she’s back to bite you in the ass). But there are a couple of things you have to note here.
High ISO will make the exposure brighter, while low ISO will make the exposure darker. So why have an ISO at all? Can we not just do with the exposure compensation thingy? Well unfortunately the ways of our world are a lot more complicated.
Let’s step through this case. The location is dark-Don’t worry your a good and god-fearing man-so your probably at a musical concert. No flash allowed, as it would disturb the performers. You find yourself in a position to take a great picture. Your zoom lens setting for this perfect shot is 75mm. The exposure meter says that with the widest aperture possible(widest as it’s dark and you need maximum light), we need to set the camera to a shutter speed of 1/60. That would mean to avoid a camera shake and stay in your comfort zone you would need at least a 1/100. A tight spot? Enter ISO to the rescue. Increasing the ISO to say around a 900 would help you in taking the pic with a shutter-speed of even 1/120.
But there’s always a price to pay(The world is pretty consistent in its working that way). With an increased ISO your images tend to get more “grainier”. That’s because ISO doesn’t make the sensor more sensitive, it just results in the signal being amplified which-if you’ve done a course in control system in the mechanical engineering department of IIT Madras- would tell you that your going to have some “noise” creeping in to the signal.
Essentially: The higher your ISO setting – the more sensitive your camera is to light – the coarser the grain. The lower your ISO setting – the less sensitive your camera is to light – the finer the grain.
Primary advantage: With increasing ISO settings, you can shoot at higher shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures even when there is lesser light. Primary Disadvantage: With increasing ISO, your images become more grainy or noisier. If by adjusting the shutter speed / aperture combination you cannot obtain a correctly exposed picture (usually in low-light situations), then you select the next higher ISO. When it comes down to a choice between missing a picture and being able to capture an image, obviously use higher ISO and capture the image. Even if it means spending time cleaning out the noise in Photoshop or something (which at-least you can). Some numbers: For indoor photography without flash, you’d need an ISO of 800 or perhaps 1600.
Most of today’s digital cameras work in the neighborhood of ISO 200. They work well outside, but require a flash indoors. ISO 200 is run-of-the-mill speed, usable in daylight but requiring a flash indoors. I personally hate grainy images and try to keep the ISO as low as physically possible.
- Learn your photography terms here(Detail Theory)
- Learn your photography terms here(Quick Reference)
- Beginning with a D-SLR
- SLR guide
- Digital Photography Tutorials @Photoexels
- Excellent article on understanding Histograms
- Understanding EV compensation
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- Natalie Norton’s guide to Moving towards Manual Photography(excellent easy read)
- Part 1: Understanding Aperture.
- Part 2: Understanding Shutter speed.
- Part 3: Understanding ISO
- Part 4: Understanding Basic Daylight Exposure and Equivalent Exposure.
Groovy resources :
I’ve tried my best to explain these terms without adding too much jargon.If you think anything needs to be corrected or simplified please do let me know. I’ll be coming out with a quicksheet to keep handy for remembering all the above, very soon.
