Welcome to the third episode of JEBVision on Digital photography, I am your host Jacob Boenisch. Every Episode we will be exploring some of the basic facets of digital photography to help arm the inspired amateur with the tools and knowledge necessary to explore their passion and in the end, create a beautiful image.
Last episode we discussed the exposure triangle and how you can capture unique and creative photos by better understanding Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
This weeks episode will hopefully be brief and help liberate you to enjoy your camera...
what we are going to do is liberate you to shoot in full manual mode. By shooting in manual mode, you'll have ultimate control over your photo and its creative properties. we will discuss setting the correct exposure and discuss a few tips to improve your photos.
And now.....
Lets get started
(Music Break)
First, I want to thank all of those who have downloaded these podcast off of the hosting sight www.archive.org. I hope you enjoy these podcasts. Remember, not one podcast will answer everyone of your questions. These podcast parallel the journey I took while learning about photography.....and trust me I'm still learning. Remember, as always, you can follow along with the show by viewing the show notes at jebvisionpod.blogger.com.
Ok...
Lets teach you how to shoot in Manual mode.
Ok, this is really simple. Here is what I want you to do. I am expecting that you have a DSLR camera. If you have a point and shoot, most cameras will allow you to select f numbers and shutter speeds to a certain extent, and not in all cases. Always check your manual for instructions.
Now, what I want you to do is obviously select the "M" mode on your camera.
Focus the camera on your subject.
Now notice on the bottom of the viewfinder that you will see a -[[[[[[I]]]]]+ indicated with bars placed either on the negative or positive side. Now the nikon's are considered backwards in that they go from + to -. This is a carry over from the film nikons of old. Canon on the other hand has changed their display to display more intuitively from - to +. I think this change took place with the xti models
You can adjust these bars into a "correct" exposure by either adjusting the shutter speed or the aperture.
You can also adjust it with ISO, but remember from last week the rules around ISO and how you set it. For now, just adjust either the aperture or the shutter until you don't see the bar on wither the negative or positive side of the exposure indicator.
What you want in a "correct" exposure is for the photo to show no loss of detail in the picture in that if you look at the dark and light areas of the photo, you will see detail in the image with no loss of information due to highlights. Wikipedia explains highlights as:
Areas of a photo where information is lost due to extreme brightness are described as having "blown-out highlights" or "flared highlights". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)
of course I'm placing notes in the blog so you can look up and read more info when you get the chance.
Some cameras allow you to see your blown out or flared highlights. When you are reviewing an image, you can select this view. It is noticeable because you will see a flash of bright light in the area of the photograph where the sensor did not record any detailed image. Just pure white. This typically occurs when exposing a shot of someone in front of a window. You will see that the daylight through the window will be blown-out.
The goal of this lesson is to learn the basic techniques of trying to limit this issue and in doing so, you will find you can't do it 100% of the time. Your camera will meet certain limits. In the future we will talk about shooting in RAW to help alleviate this issue as well as using exposure compensation and HDR technology. But for right now, lets focus on the basics.
Now remember, if the image is dark and you attempt to bring the exposure over using your shutter speed, you are allowing light to collect on the sensor for a longer period of time, that means any movements you make will be captured as well. Sometimes this is a desired effect, but for right now, again, lets focus on "correct exposure".
Now if you do decide to adjust shutter speed, remember that you have to some how stabilise your camera and reduce shake. You can do this by placing the camera on a tripod.
**Tip** Another tip for reducing shake during longer exposures is to use a remote shutter release that will eliminate the shake of the camera that occurs when you press your finger on the shutter release button.
You can also reduce over exposure (bright scenes), like when you shoot out a window during sunlight, be increasing your shutter speed.
If you are hand holding the camera, a quick shutter speed is desirable.
**Tip** now for another tip, It is important that you follow this simple rule when hand holding your camera and taking pictures:
Try not to set your shutter speed for less than your current focal length of your lens. For instance, if your shooting a 50mm lens, try to make your shutter speed faster than 1/50s. If you cant, get a tripod.
Keeping with this rule, and depending on your desired effect, you might be adjusting aperture a lot more. At least I know I do.
One important concept as it regards aperture and exposure is reciprocity:
Wikipedia explains:
An important principle of exposure is reciprocity. If one exposes the film or sensor for a longer period, a reciprocally smaller aperture is required to reduce the amount of light hitting the film to obtain the same exposure. For example, the photographer may prefer to make his sunny-16 shot at an aperture of f/5.6 (to obtain a shallow depth of field). As f/5.6 is 3 stops "faster" than f/16, with each stop meaning double the amount of light, a new shutter speed of (1/125)/(2·2·2) = 1/1000 is needed. Once the photographer has determined the exposure, aperture stops can be traded for halving or doubling of speed, within limits. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)
Now if your picture is too dark, open your aperture by adjusting it to smaller f numbers like 5.6, 2.8, or even 1.4. By opening up the aperture, your allowing more light to come through the lens, and remember, you will also affect Depth of Field. Depth of Field will be a completely separate podcast, but know that the larger the aperture, the shorter the Depth of Field. This helps bring out your subject while creating Bokeh in the background. Now if the image is to bright, reduce your aperture to larger f numbers. This will sharpen the image and allow for more detail.
Now get out there and shoot in Manual mode for a while. I believe getting used to your camera and how it functions in this way will help prepare you for future podcasts that start to explore the creative side of photography. The fun side. But you really can't get there without learning about your camera, exposure, and how to get "correct" exposure.
What do I mean by quote-un-quote exposure, what I have taught you its technically the correct exposure, but it might not be the creatively correct exposure. That's really for you to decide, but we will discuss that in the future. Next podcast, we will continue to dive into the capabilities of your camera by discussing A couple of photographic techniques that will help you capture pictures of your family in various situations successfully. We will be spending a whole lot of time on one of the most important photographic techniques that you will ever know. It is so important that some would say that this podcast should have addressed it first. But I want you to be familiar with your camera first, because mastering "the rules of thirds" requires you know your camera first!
Remember you can find the show notes at the blog address site http://jebvisionpod.blogspot.com.
You can also find me on Flickr at Jebvision and on Twitter at Jebvision.
Thanks for listening.
Now get out there and shoot!
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