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Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras (DSLRs)
Mirror-less (or EVIL, for Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lenses)
Lens
There are two main types of lens available to you, prime lenses and zoom lenses.
A prime lens is a lens that has one focal length only. They come in all focal lengths ranging from
wide angle ones through to the longer telephoto ones. Prime lenses have a single specified
focal length, like 50mm. They come in all kinds, sizes and focal lengths, from fisheye to super
telephoto. Examples of prime lenses: Nikon 50 f/1.8G, Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS, Sigma 35mm
f/1.4. A fast prime lens will allow you to shoot subjects in low light environments without
introducing blur, thanks to a larger / wider aperture. Due to typically simpler optical designs,
prime lenses can easily “open” up to f/2 or even f/1.2.
A zoom lens is a lens that has a range of focal lengths available to the photographer in the one
lens. These have become increasingly popular over the past few years as they are obviously a
very convenient lens to have on your camera as they mean you can shoot at both wide and
longer focal lengths without having to switch lenses mid shoot. Zoom lenses have two
specifications which represent the two extremes of the zoom range, for example – 70-200mm.
Such a lens may act as a 70mm focal length lens, a 200mm focal length lens and everything in-
between. In addition, zoom lenses could also have variable aperture ranges. On many
consumer zoom lenses, you will often see something like f/3.5-5.6, which represents the
maximum aperture of the lens at different focal lengths. For example, a lens like Nikon 18-
55mm f/3.5-5.6 will have a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at the shortest focal length of 18mm,
while at the longest range of 55mm, its aperture will be limited to f/5.6.
Focal Length
Focal length is the distance between a camera’s lens and film when the lens in focused to
infinity. Check out the diagram below for better understanding of focal lengths and how they
relate to magnification level. Note that focal length equivalent of a human eye is 50mm. That
means if we observe an object through 50mm lens, we will see it exactly the same as with
naked eye.
In general, most smartphone cameras and point-and-shoot cameras have wide angle lenses
around 30mm. Wide angle lenses are typically used for travel, landscape, and general purpose
photography because they can capture more of the scene. Telephoto lenses, on the other
hand, are used for portrait, close-up (macro), and sports photography when only a specific part
of the environment is being captured.
Focus
What is focus? An image that is completely sharp is said to be in-focus. An image that’s completely
blurry is said to be unfocused. There are a lot of situations where you don’t really want the entire
image to be in focus. Backgrounds tend to get in the way, and they will distract your viewer from the
point you are trying to make. Portraits, as we have just discussed, look a lot better when the
background is somewhat out of focus.
In order to keep the image of a close object sharp, the lens must be moved relative to the screen (or
camera sensor). This process is called focusing.
Nothing ruins a photograph more than a blurry, unsharp image. One of the godsends of modern
DSLR technology is the autofocus feature. But as useful as autofocus is, sometimes the camera gets it
wrong and focuses on the wrong subject. Additionally, there are situations where autofocus just
can’t cut it.
The four primary focus modes (Continuous, Single, Automatic and Manual) give you a tremendous
amount of flexibility to capture exactly what you want.
1. AI Servo AF (Canon)/AF-C (Nikon) stands for Continuous Focus and this mode is most useful
for keeping moving objects sharp within the viewfinder as you track the object.In Continuous
focusing mode, the camera detects the subject’s movements and refocuses accordingly to
keep the object sharp as a tack.
2. Next we have One-Shot AF (Canon)/AF-S (Nikon), which represent single-focus capability. In
this mode, when you depress the shutter release halfway, the camera focuses on the subject
just once – there’s no continuous adjustment. This mode saves battery power, and is ideal
for subjects that aren’t moving.
3. Next we have is Automatic Focus, AI Focus AF (Canon)/AF-A (Nikon). In this mode the
camera’s focusing computer jumps back and forth between AF-C and AF-S (Nikon)/One-Shot
AF and AI Servo AF (Canon) depending on the situation. This is the default autofocus mode
on cameras that have this feature.
4. Manually focusing the camera is perhaps the most frustrating barrier between good and
great photography.
Angle of view
Essentially, the angle of view is the amount of a scene that a lens can take in, measured in degrees.
For instance, a fisheye lens may offer an extremely wide 180° angle of view, meaning that it can
capture everything in front of it (and to each side). A 200mm lens, on the other hand, will offer a
much narrower angle of view of 12.3°. This allows you to fill the frame with a considerably smaller
amount of the scene that you’re trying to photograph. Full-frame sensors get their name because, at
36x24mm, they have similar dimensions to a frame of 35mm film. This means that they capture the
full angle of view offered by a lens that’s been designed for a film or full-frame camera.
Digital camera sensors are made up of millions of tiny wells that collect photons of light. Each of
these wells is called a photosite. If the sensor has 1500 photosites on one side and 3000
photosites on the other side, it has 1500 x 2000 or 3,000,000 photosites. Since each photosite
represents a pixel in the final image, the sensor is said to have 3,000,000 pixels or 3 megapixels.
Sensors come in different sizes. Larger sensors can hold more photosites (or more photosites
that are larger). Both larger sensors and larger photosites are an advantage from an image
quality standpoint.
For the purposes of this article, we have used the Nikon DX/FX nomenclature to refer to the
sensor sizes, but the reader should be aware that this discussion applies to any manufacturer
who makes 35mm equivalent full-frame and cropped-frame sensors. For example, Canon's
cropped-sensor lenses, in Canon nomenclature, are known as EF-S.
What is Megapixel?
A pixel (photosite) is one dot of information in a digital photograph. Digital photos today are
made up of millions of tiny dots (Mega = Million). The more pixels on the image sensor, the
more details a picture can have. We want sharp pictures, so we need lots of pixels; Mega Pixels.
This means that a 10 megapixel image contains approximately 10 million pixels, while an 18
megapixel image contains 18 million pixels. 18 megapixel cameras create larger digital files than
their 12 megapixel counterparts.
Let me define this another way: if you print a 12 megapixel photo and a 24 megapixel photo at
4x6 inches (standard print size) you'll be hard-pressed to tell which one is which (just like when
you compared the small images above). But if you print both photos at 20x24, then you will see
a difference in quality. The 12 megapixel photo won't look as clear and as sharp as the 24
megapixel photo when printed at this large size.
The more pixels you have, the more resolution / sharpness. Think of resolution as information.
The more information you have the finer detail you can capture. The more information, the
larger you can print a photo. The more information, the more you can crop a photo and still
have enough information (resolution, or pixels) for a good quality picture.
Pixel Density
While the Megapixel unit of measurement is a quick way to determine the maximum resolution
of photos you can capture from a camera, it is not always the best way to determine image
quality. Pixel density is a much better attribute that will give you an idea of an image sensor’s
sensitivity to light and how it affects image quality. Usually measured in pixels per square
centimeter or square inch, pixel density refers to the number of pixels in an area measured.
Since the main purpose of a sensor is to collect light data, when comparing two sensors of
different sizes with a similar resolution, the smaller sensor will have to cram more pixels or
photosites into a smaller surface area, reducing the size of each pixel and therefore their ability
to collect light effectively. The larger sensor will have a lower pixel density, and much larger
photosites that are more reactive to light.
All pixels collect the same amount of noise, but larger pixels collect more of the “good” data
than smaller pixels. With all else equal, a larger pixel will result in a higher quality image (less
noise) than a smaller one. “Pixel Pitch” is the number indicating the size of the pixels, and it’s
measured in microns.
D700 – 8.45 microns, FX, 12MP D4 – 7.3m, FX, 16MP D600 – 5.9m, FX, 24MP
D800 – 4.88m, FX, 36MP D7000 – 4.78m, DX, 24MP D7100 – 3.9m, DX, 24MP
D5200 – 3.9m, DX, 24MP D3200 – 3.84m, DX, 24MP V2 – 2.86m, CX, 14MP
V1 – 3.39, CX, 10MP Coolpix P7700 – 1.86m, 12MP iPhone 6 – 1.5m, 8MP
Consider two scenarios, for example, an image taken with a 12MP FX camera sensor at ISO
1600 (Nikon D700) and an image taken with a 12MP DX camera sensor at ISO 1600 (Nikon D90).
The only difference is that the FX sensor has larger size pixels because it has the same number
of pixels on a larger size sensor. Both pictures are taken at the same ISO sensitivity. Yet less
noise will be present in the FX sensor than the DX.
Sensor Size vs Megapixel
People caught up in the "Megapixel Myth" syndrome do not recognize that the size of the
image sensor is at least as important as the number of megapixels the camera has.
The main distinguishing factor between a more expensive digital SLR and a compact camera is
that the former has a much greater digital sensor area. This means that if both an SLR and a
compact camera have the same number of pixels, the size of each pixel in the SLR camera will
be much larger.
RAW vs. JPEG
Almost all DSLR cameras give you the option to shoot in either “JPEG” or “RAW” format, which
leaves most people confused as to which format to shoot in. Both formats have pros and cons
that you’re about to learn.
Lets start out with JPEGs. When you set your camera to capture images in JPEG mode, the
camera automatically processes images based on the camera’s settings. The camera makes
adjustments on photos such as white balance, sharpness, contrast, and saturation immediately
following image capture. Therefore, JPEG files come out of the camera fully processed, looking
good, and ready to print or share on the web. JPEG files use the file extension “.JPG,” and the
term is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The advantages of shooting in JPEG
mode include smaller file sizes, no need for editing, and easy readability and storage. However,
if you do decide to edit your photos later, JPEG files do not offer very much margin for editing
so only minor adjustments can be made, and their color depth is only 8-bits. Because of their
convenience, JPEG files are recommended for beginner to amateur photographers or people
who casually take photos everyday.
RAW files are the other type of file used by DSLRs. With RAW files, the camera does not
process images at the time of capture. Therefore, unlike JPEGs, RAW files come out of the
camera looking flat, dull, unsharp, and colorless. You will also need special software to even
view RAW files. So why shoot in RAW? Since RAW files are uncompressed by the camera, they
offer a large margin for processing and editing. The idea is that the photographer will post-
process the photographs with a RAW processing program such as Adobe Camera Raw,
Lightroom, or Aperture. RAW files allow changes to white balance, color, sharpness, contrast,
and more to be adjusted by the photographer. With RAW’s 12-bit to 16-bit color depth files,
more color ranges are possible than with JPEGs. Depending on your camera’s manufacturer,
your RAW file extensions will vary from “.CR2” for Canon, “.NEF” for Nikon, “.ARW” for Sony,
and many more. One thing to consider is that RAW files are often five times larger file sizes
than JPEGs, so you will not be able to store nearly as many images on your camera’s memory
card or your computer’s hard drive. If you are a serious photographer who has the disk space
available and the time to manually process RAW files, then shoot in RAW. If not, shoot in JPEG.
One more thing to consider when choosing which file format to shoot in is the fact that most
cameras give you the option to shoot in S, M, or L in addition to being able to choose between
RAW and JPEG. If you want to get the highest quality photos, then shoot in “L” mode, for
“Large.” This function will use the camera’s maximum available megapixels. If storing a lot of
photos is your concern, then use “S” for “Small” files. You can even shoot in RAW+JPEG mode
on certain cameras. This setting will simultaneously save a RAW file and a JPEG file to your
camera’s memory card every time you take a photo.
Exposure
Exposure loosely refers to the amount of light that is let into the sensor on your camera. The
more light you let in, the brighter the resulting picture. Conversely, the less light you let in, the
darker the picture.
ISO
Shutter Speed
Aperture
The advantage of shooting at a higher ISO speed is the ability to shoot at a faster
shutter speed, which means it is less likely to blur a shot in low light circumstances.
The disadvantage of shooting at a higher ISO is increased noise and less dynamic
range. Consequently, higher ISO speeds decrease dynamic range and increase
noise. Bigger sensors (FX) usually provide better ISO performance because their
larger sensor area can capture more light.
Each time you double your sensitivity rating – for instance from ISO 100 to 200, 400 to ISO 800
– you are effectively doubling the shutter speed for any lighting conditions when using the
same aperture. This is true throughout the D3100’s ISO range (ISO 100-3200). As you go into
the extended range, however, Hi 1 and Hi 2 are roughly equal to ISO 6400 and ISO 12,800,
respectively. Generally you want to avoid these settings if at all possible, but the Hi 1 and Hi 2
sensitivity settings are great for when you need sufficiently fast shutter speeds for
handheld night photography or you want to freeze the action of very fast-moving objects.
You should always try to stick to the lowest ISO (base ISO) of your camera, which is typically ISO
100 or 200, whenever possible. When there is plenty of light, you should always use the lowest
ISO, to retain the most detail and to have the highest image quality. There are some cases
where you might want to use low ISO in dim or dark environments. You should increase the ISO
when there is not enough light for the camera to be able to quickly capture an image. Anytime
you shoot indoors without a flash, you may set ISO to a higher number to be able to freeze
motion. Other cases where you might want to increase ISO are when you need to get ultra-fast
shots, like the bird picture posted below (ISO 800). But before increasing the ISO, you should
think if it is OK for you to introduce noise to the image.
Focal length refers to a lens' field of view (sometimes called angle of view), which is the width
and height of the area that a particular lens can capture. Focal length is often printed right on
the camera lens. A lens with a 100mm focal length set to an f-stop of f/10 has an aperture
diameter of 10mm. Keep in mind that doubling the f-stop number halves the size of the
aperture opening. So, moving from f/10 to f/20 decreases the size of the aperture from 10mm
to 5mm.
Adjust In The Right Order
First, set your ISO. If you’re shooting outside ISO 200 or ISO 400 is a good bet. Those work for
everything from bright sun to cloud. Keeping it low when you’re outside lets you have better
image quality as well (less noise in the image). If you’re inside and it’s dark, you could be
anywhere from ISO 800 toISO 3200. If you want to shoot without a flash (which generally looks
way better) you’ll need to bump up your ISO to let in more light.
Then, set your aperture. This is a creative decision—how much background blur do you want?
If you want to blur as much as possible, set your aperture low (2.8 or 3.5, depending on which
lens you’re using). If you want more of the scene in focus, set your aperture higher.
Finally, adjust your shutter speed. This is the last step, and you make the shutter speed
adjustment to get the right exposure. Be careful here. If your shutter speed gets too low, you
might end up with blurry photos. You probably don’t want to go below 1/60 SEC (the image
below is at that speed, and I have a bit of motion blur in his hands as a result). If you are going
below that, you’ll need to increase your ISO or lower your aperture to compensate. And
practice standing really still to shoot at lower shutter speeds!
Lighting
Ambient light is the light that exists in a scene that we cannot control like sun. Also referred to
as “natural light” or “existing light,” ambient light can be the found light inside a home, a
restaurant or concert hall, or a bright, sunny day, a deep foggy day, a city at night...in other
words, any kind of pre-existing light.
(a) There are many materials that can be used for diffusion such as white diffusion, muslin,
silk and shower curtain. Simply place the diffusion between the light and the subject to
get diffused light.
(b) Bounced light happens when the light source is a bounce material (something big and
white). Bead board, a Styrofoam material used in construction, is a excellent bounce
card. A light is shined at the bead board, which bounces the light to the subject. This
creates a very nice soft light, however, you may need a large light to achieve this effect
since a lot of intensity is lost in this process.
The “key or Main” light determines the lighting direction. The Key Light creates the subject's
main illumination, and defines the most visible lighting and shadows. Your Key Light represents
the dominant light source, such as the sun, a window, or ceiling light. From the top view, offset
the Key Light 15 to 45 degrees to the side (to the left or right) of the camera. From a side view,
raise the Key Light above the camera, so that it hits your subject from about 15 to 45 degrees
higher than the camera angle.
The “fill light” controls the contrast of the shadow and highlights, what is sometimes referred
to as the “transfer edge”. The Fill Light softens and extends the illumination provided by the key
light, and makes more of the subject visible. From the top view, a Fill Light should come from a
generally opposite angle than the Key - if the Key is on the left, the Fill should be on the right -
but don't make all of your lighting 100% symmetrical! The Fill can be raised to the subject's
height, but should be lower than the Key.
The “back” light is employed to create a “rim” of light giving the feeling of depth and separating
the image layers to enhance what could potentially just be a boring “flat” portrait. The rim light
is often set up behind the subject and slightly higher than the other lights. Because this light is
facing the camera, it's important that it be completely blocked by the subject or out of the field
of view. The Rim Light creates a bright line around the edge of the object, to help visually
separate the object from the background. From the top view, add a spot light, and position it
behind your subject, opposite from the camera. From the right view, position the Back Light
above your subject.
In addition to basic 3 light setup, background light can also be added for other lighting
purposed.
The background light, used low and behind the subject, should form a semicircle of illumination
on the seamless background (if using one) so that the tone of the background grows gradually
darker the farther out from the subject you look.
The light will show up bumpy skin textures and create stark
shadows and bright highlights.
This slight drop in brightness from one side to the other can
start to mimic natural lighting. Much more flattering and a
real starting point for most portrait photographers.
You can see the effect of placing the key light on your model. For example, placing the flash
“looking down” at a 45 degrees angle, placed 45 degrees to the left of subject will create
Rembrandt lighting. Placing the light in the same level as the model, 90 degrees to the left will
create edge lighting.
The subject is directly exposed to the light, its
colors and shapes are rendered clearly and
precisely. This lighting is suitable for shooting
landscapes, rendering a blue sky and trees
vividly.
Reflected Incident
Reflected meters are aimed at the subject from the camera, and meters the light that the
subject's colors reflect. A white background or subject reflects a lot of light, which reads high,
so the meter underexposes the picture. A black background or subject reflects little light, which
reads low, so the meter overexposes the picture. The expected reflected goal is that all
metered results come out middle gray brightness, not too dark, not too bright.
Spot Metering is just a special case of Reflective Metering. Spot Metering isolates the
small metered area from the background (not influenced by considering the
background), so that the small spot will be made to come out middle gray, regardless of
any other area.
Spot metering on black card, f/5.6 Spot metering on gray card, f/5.6 Spot metering on white
1/60 second 1/400 second card, f/5.6 1/1250 second
Black came out gray, cards are Gray came out gray, cards are White came out gray, cards
Overexposed about right are Underexposed
Matrix metering, f/5.6 1/400 second Center Weighted metering, f/5.6 1/320 second
(influenced some by bright sky at frame edge) (watches center, not much influenced by the
edge)
The camera's reflective light meter tries to make all scenes come out averaging about middle
gray tone. This is often about correct, because "average" scenes normally do contain a wide mix
of light and dark colored areas which do average out about middle tone overall. But there are
also many exceptions.
This is not at all hard, but does require a bit of seeing and thinking. After you have actually tried
this a few times, you will know tremendously more than you may know now. A little experience
will quickly teach you about how much compensation. Quickly judge the dark and light
proportions of color mix in the scene. Many average scenes, wide range scenic or portraits may
not need any compensation. But extremes, unusual or large areas of light or dark colors might
need a couple of stops. Watch your results, and adjust the next try (but pay attention to the
scene, and think of it in terms of the scene colors).
Incident meters are the reverse, aimed at the camera from the subject, which reads the
incident light from the light source directly (is never influenced by the "subject"). . So then any
subject tone, be its colors light, dark, or middle, is shown as it is.
Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should
be, depending on the amount of light that goes into the camera and the sensitivity of the
sensor. Today, every DSLR has an integrated light meter that automatically measures the
reflected light and determines the optimal exposure. The most common metering modes in
digital cameras today are:
You can see the camera meter (Exposure Level Indicator) in action when you shoot in Manual
Mode – when you choose another mode such as Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program
Mode, the camera automatically adjusts the settings based on what it reads from the meter.
Exposure Level Indicator
Look into your camera viewfinder or LCD display. You should see lots of numbers and settings
that will vary from camera to camera, but they should at least should resemble with the graphic
given below. In below picture, the camera is telling us that we've set our shutter speed to
1/125, our focal length to 4.0 and our ISO to 200. The real magic however is happening with the
Exposure Level Indicator (ELI). This is telling us that we aren't letting enough light into the
camera. We know this because the little light on the bottom is lit up to the left of center. If it
were lit up to the right of center, we would know that we are letting too much light in. The goal
then is to get this little guy lined up right down the middle.
Theoretically, this should help you achieve a picture that is neither too bright, nor too dark.
Admittedly, some exposure bias is sometimes necessary but this method should work just fine a
great deal of the time. To put this into practice, let's imagine a shooting scenario.
EV Compensation helps to fix this by telling the camera to expose at a higher or lower setting
than it thinks is right. In the snow, where there are lots of bright areas, the camera will choose a
mid-point in the bright area, so the snow will look gray in the resulting image. To fix that and
make the snow white (as it should be), we need to brighten the image. Thus we need to
increase the exposure and use a positive number.
The same is true with very dark subjects as well. The camera will choose a very dark point as
the mid-point so everything will appear too bright in the image. We need to lower the exposure
(negative number) to compensate.
EV 0
EV -2 EV -1 EV +1 EV +2
Normal
The sun tends to mess with the exposure as it’s a very very bright spot (even at sunset). The
camera tries to compensate and sets a higher exposure. This darkens the rest of the image and
destroys any of the colors in the sky. Use Exposure Value Compensation when your scene is all
very bright, or all very dark. Use positive numbers for bright scenes and negative numbers for
dark scenes.
NB: You cannot use the EV button to under or overexpose your photo in M (manual) mode
since you control both the shutter speed and aperture manually.
Note: On Canon cameras, if we are using Flash outdoor in bright scene, then EV value will be
affecting only background Ambient light. Subject in foreground will be illuminated by Flash light
so EV will have not so much effect on foreground. So reducing EV value will darken the
background but subject in foreground will remain bright. On Nikon camera, we get the same
result by increasing the shutter speed, where background gets darket and darker with
increasing shutter speed.
When to Use Flash
If light levels are too low, you will have to deal with blurry images due to motion blur / camera
shake, or you will have to increase ISO level too high, which obviously increases noise, messes
up colors and greatly reduces dynamic range. In short, you are leaving very few options for
post-processing. In order to avoid that and potentially reduce your post-processing time and
other headaches, why not use flash instead? You can start out with a simple configuration, with
flash mounted on your camera, or you could get more creative and use flash in an off-camera
setup to make images appear more dramatic and well-balanced.
When shooting with a flash, the exposure of the bright short-duration light can overwhelm the
ambient light. Without correction, rooms that may be brightly lit can be rendered black.
Note: If enough ambient lightning in the room, then switch off the flash and take picture. Both
foreground and background should be moderately bright.
So, what is the basic set up? If you have white ceilings that are not too high, you can mount
flash on your DSLR and bounce light off the ceiling or nearby white walls. If the walls / ceiling
are of different colors, I would not recommend to bounce flash at all. Remember that light will
assume the color of where it is being bounced from. Green walls will create a nice green skin
color on your subjects.
Every photographer who is more or less serious about his time spent during the event and later
in post-processing, should carry a bounce card (which will take a minimal amount of space in
the bag). If you happen to forget one at home or at your studio, do not hesitate to create one
out of just plain white paper. Get a scotch tape (elastic band, gaffers tape, etc.) to mount your
handmade bounce card on top of your flash and voila – you have a much better light source
than direct flash.
You can adjust the flash output by using the feature called Flash Exposure Compensation. Flash
exposure compensation affects the output level of the flash unit, whereas exposure
compensation affects the brightness of the background in your flash photos. As with exposure
compensation, flash exposure compensation is stated in terms of EV (exposure value) numbers.
A setting of 0.0 indicates no flash adjustment; you can increase the flash power to +2.0 or
decrease it to -2.0.
These tomatoes were photographed during bright daylight, but a tent awning shaded them.
The first image shows you a flash-free shot. Clearly, a little more light was needed, but at
normal flash power, the flash was too strong, blowing out the highlights in some areas, as
shown in the middle image. Reducing the flash power to EV -1.3 resulted in a softer flash that
straddled the line perfectly between no flash and too much flash.
Any built-in flash has a limited range, and you simply can’t expect the flash light to reach
faraway objects. In other words, don’t even try taking flash pictures of a darkened recital
hall from your seat in the balcony because all you’ll wind up doing is annoying everyone.
Flash Photography
1- Use fill-flash in outdoor setup when subject is back lit, side lit or top lit by the sun. When
the subject is backlit or against a bright background, it can be underexposed.
For fill flash, the easiest exposure mode to use is Program (P). This sets the aperture and
shutter speed for you, for a balanced exposure with flash. Use matrix metering, and the
AF points so that the camera knows where the subject is in the frame. Now pop up the
flash.
Auto exposure is often perfect, but you can play with the settings to make the fill flash
effect stronger or more subtle. To make the background look darker – to make a sky
look more blue, say – you need exposure compensation. Try -1.0 (one stop
underexposed).
The exposure compensation will make the foreground and background darker. To
ensure that the subject is properly lit, adjust the flash power
When there is Bright background then this means the camera will read that value and
underexpose foreground. To pull the background exposure down if it is too bright, then dial
in minus EV into the camera’s aperture priority setting and values, which is going to even
more severely underexpose the foreground. To brighten up the foreground enough flash
power has to be added to make foreground bright while keeping background dark.
The slow shutter speed Very bright foreground The amount of light falling
results in a blurry subject. and subject and really dark on your subject from the
background. flash will still be the same,
but the slower shutter
speed will increase the
background brightness to
balance it with the light
from the flash
Note - The shutter speed becomes slow when shooting in dimly lit situations. Put the
camera on a tripod and take pictures with self-timer.
3- When you increase the ISO, it makes the camera's sensor absorb light faster so the
shutter doesn't have to stay open as long when the available light is dim. When you
have the flash enabled, changes to the ISO setting will only affect the brightness of the
background, just like changes to shutter speed. The main reason to use ISO instead of
shutter speed is when you want to avoid motion blur.
Remember:
4- Put diffuser or white paper in front of flash to make it soft, and evenly distribute the
frame.
5- Bounce it all around - Pointing the head of a hot-shoe flashgun vertically and bouncing
the light off the ceiling is a simple way to avoid subject shadows. As the light hits the
ceiling it diffuses and bounces around the room, illuminating the space between the
subject and the background.
Flash Directly Pointing the Subject, Flash Pointing to Ceiling and Bounced back to
Background Dark Subject, Background Bright
6- Get the flash off the camera. Moving the flash off the hot shoe by utilizing a flash
bracket has two main advantages. When shooting people, moving the flash further
away from the lens will near totally eliminate all chances of red-eye. Secondly, most all
flash brackets have a pivot point in them, a hinge if you will.
6. Your subject will be correctly exposed. The bright background will almost certainly be
over exposed - you can't have it both ways!
Histogram Explained
Your camera gives you the option to show the range of brightness in your image as a graph,
which plots the light levels from jet black, on the left, to pure white, on the right.
White Balance
White balance (WB) is considered as one of the most important settings of a digital camera.
Let’s consider a scenario where you want to capture the beauty of sea waves hitting the shore
with an overcast sky at the background. Sounds interesting? Well, if you don’t use the correct
white balance setting of your digital camera, you may get a picture with colors different from
the actual ones. Therefore, in order to produce a beautifully exposed image with true to life
colors, you must learn to effectively use the white balance setting of your digital camera.
Color Temperature
To understand the concept of White Balance, you need to first understand the concept of color
temperature. Color temperature is a characteristic of visible light. It provides a method of
describing these characteristics and is measured in Kelvin (K). A light having higher color
temperature will have more blue light or larger Kelvin value as compared to lower light, which
has a smaller Kelvin value. The following table shows the color temperature of various sources
of light.
Note: 5200K is the temperature where we can get the true colors what we actually see.
How does the Light Affect the Color?
You must have noticed some photos turn out with an orange/yellow cast if shot under tungsten
lighting or a bluish cast if shot under fluorescent lights. This occurs because each source of light
possesses a different color temperature. A digital camera can measure the colors in the red,
green, and blue light of the spectrum, as reflected to its sensors. In a photo taken under the
midday sun there is the whole spectrum of light (which makes up “white” sunlight). Under
these conditions, the colors in an image appear nearest to the “true” colors.
An image taken under tungsten bulb (a normal household incandescent bulb) without adjusting
the digital camera for white balance produces the dull orange shade as it spreads the biased
light. Similarly, an image taken under the fluorescent lighting produces a brighter bluish cast.
However, it is possible to shift the color in the desirable direction, provided you have a good
understanding of your digital camera and its settings.
Split lighting
The light source will split the face with one side illuminated and the other falling to shadow.
Split Lighting: The subjects face is directly in line with the camera and the light is placed
directly to one side of the subjects face.
Loop lighting
Loop lighting is a minor variation of Paramount lighting. This is one of the more commonly
used lighting setups and is ideal for people with average, oval-shaped faces. Loop lighting
is made by creating a small shadow of the subjects noses on their cheeks. To create loop
lighting, the light source must be slightly higher than eye level and about 30-45 degrees
from the camera (depends on the person, you have to learn how to read people’s faces).
Loop Lighting: The subject faces the camera directly. The light source is angled at
approximately 35 degrees from the camera, towards the subject and just above eye level.
Rembrandt lighting
It gets it’s name because the pattern is a replication of the light pattern the famous painter,
Rembrandt, used in almost all of his portraits. It’s recognizable by the triangle of light it
produces on one side of the face. It’s best reserved for portraits of more reserved
individuals than bubbly, cute personality of a happy cheerleader.
Broad Lighting
Broad lighting is when the subject’s face is slightly turned away from centre, and the side of
the face which is toward the camera (is broader) is in the light. This produces a larger area
of light on the face, and a shadow side which appears smaller. Use this when you want to
widen your subjects face or help tone down the appearance of wrinkles.
Short Lighting
Short lighting is the opposite of broad lighting. As you can see by the example here, short
lighting puts the side turned towards the camera (that which appears larger) in more
shadow. Short lighting is flattering for most faces because it produces a slimming effect.
Product Photography
Camera
Tripod
White Background (Matt Board or Thick Paper)
You only need a piece roughly the height of your product, and about 3x the width.
Typically, a letter size will work. Its purpose is to bounce light back onto the product.
Setup:
Place your table as close to the window as possible without intersecting the shadow
from the windowsill. You’ll want to start with the window 90 degrees to the right or left
of your setup. The closer you are to the window and the larger the window, the softer
the light will be. Also, remember to turn off all other lights inside the room you’re
shooting in as other light will contaminate the set.
Tips:
You do not want direct sunlight hitting your set. Direct sunlight is harsh and looks bad
on most people and products.
2. Set Your White Balance (WB) to Auto.
3. Turn your flash setting to off
4. Image Settings
Format: For Post editing use RAW otherwise use JPG format
Size: Large
Exposure Tip:
Don’t trust the image on the back of the camera; instead pay attention to the histogram
to know if your exposure is correct. The far right hand side is white, and left is black. In
the example image there is a little gap on the right hand side which means that there is
no pure white. Adjust the exposure till the part of the curve representing the white
background is touching the right edge without going over. In this example, you would
probably need to add 1/3 of a stop, or one click for more light.
Use the Histogram on the back of the camera. You’re looking for the slope to be closer to
the right hand side like in the image above.
7. Zoom In
Cameras typically have an optical zoom and a digital zoom. Don’t use the digital zoom
as this will lower the quality of the image - it’s essentially just cropping the digital image.
If you have an optical zoom, try zooming in as far as you can without going digital zoom.
A longer zoom will remove distortion caused by a wide angle lens.
Setting up your product is one of those things that seems simple, but can take time to
position correctly. If it’s a bottle, pay attention to keeping the label type centered.
Many times there are lots of tiny movements needed to get everything lining up
perfectly.
9. Set Up the Reflector Card
This simple white card is the single most important light modifier we have in our studio
and we use it with everything. The light will bounce off the card and fill in all the
shadows. How you position this card is matter of taste, so try it at different angles to
the product.
After taking picture Upload your images onto your computer to get a better idea of how
they look. The back of your camera is never very accurate. I suggest using Adobe
Lightroom to organize all your images, and it can be used to do almost all of your editing
except very advanced processes. You’ll no doubt need to make some adjustments to
the images to get them to look right.
Once you’ve got a final image you’re happy with, it’s time to get it retouched. If you
photographed your product correctly, the product should be exposed properly and your
background a light grey. It should look something like the un-retouched image above, and
comparing it to retouched version shows you how important this step of the process actually
is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10duUoWW_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6fnHEvLyAE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tBTY2PGVvs
Night Photography
Set your shutter speed to around 1/60. It is hard to shoot handheld with anything below
1/60. As a rule of thumb you should never shoot lower than your focal distance while
handheld. Eg on a 50mm lense you should never shoot lower than 1/50 sec.
You will then need to use you external flash, if you can bounce your flash do this, if you
have a catch light reflector built into your flash even better.
Take a few shots and see what they look like.
If they are not bright enough try bumping up your ISO to 200 then 400 and so on until
you achieve an acceptable result.
If you want the best night shots you need to shoot in the best image quality, and that means
RAW. By shooting in RAW your images will retain the most ‘information’, which gives you
greater scope for enhancing your shots in Adobe Camera Raw and other raw-processing
software. RAW is especially beneficial when taking night shots as it gives more flexibility when
you want to change things such as colour temperature (or White Balance) or accurately
increase (brighten) or decrease (darken) your exposures.
Tripod
Shooting at night obviously means there will be less light and therefore slow shutter speeds,
anywhere from 1-30 seconds – that’s way too slow to shoot hand-held. So you’ll need to attach
your digital camera securely to a tripod if you want sharp results. Make sure your tripod is set
up correctly and rock solid
To take control of your exposures it’s best to shoot in Manual mode so you can choose the best
narrow aperture and slow shutter speed for night photography. Begin by composing and
focusing your shot, set a narrow aperture around f/16, then dial in the right shutter speed until
the Exposure Level Mark is in the middle of the Exposure Level Indicator. Take some shots and
review them on your LCD. Remember this is what your camera thinks is the best exposure, but
if your shots are looking too bright, underexpose by 1-2 stops so that they actually look dark!
Use the lens sweet spot
Use the ‘sweet spot’ range of apertures for your lenses – this is usually between f/8 and f/16,
but take test shots to find out. Even pro-level lenses don’t produce the best results when used
at their maximum and minimum apertures. By using apertures in the middle of the available
range you’ll increase your chances of capturing the sharpest shots with your lens.
Use Mirror Lock-up
The slightest movement can create unwanted camera shake, and this even includes the mirror
moving up and down inside your digital SLR. You can quickly enable Mirror Lock-up to get
around this potential pitfall.
When taking long exposures at night, even touching your camera to press the shutter button
can create enough movement to leave you with blurred results. Use your digital camera’s built-
in self-timer to trigger the shutter after you’ve pressed the button to avoid any problems. For
shots that rely on accurate timing, use a remote release instead.
A useful technique in night photography is the long exposure. The effects that can be captured
with a long exposure are stunning and have an ethereal quality. The most important tool that
you will need is a sturdy tripod, and a DSLR camera that allows for long exposures.
Photography Composition Techniques
“If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Negative space provides breathing room and draws your eye to the main subject. When
framing your photo, adjust your composition until the positive and negative spaces in the shot
feel well balanced against one another. Be generous with the amount of empty space you
leave, and don't feel you have to cram something interesting into every square inch of the
frame.
Balance
Especially when you are using the rule of thirds or the golden ratio, sometimes an image needs
balance. A photo with a large subject positioned in the foreground at one of those sweet spots
may end up creating an image that looks tilted, or too heavy on one side. You can create some
balance by including a less important, smaller-appearing element in the background.
Color
Perhaps nothing can compete with color as a tool for creating mood in a photograph. Cool
colors (blues and greens) can make your viewer feel calm, tranquil or at peace. Reds and
yellows can invoke feelings of happiness, excitement and optimism. A sudden spot of bright
color on an otherwise monochromatic background can provide a strong focal point.
Hue: Refers to the names of the primary colors, red, green and blue.
Value: Lightness and darkness of the color - the amount of white or black added.
Monochromatic color: Use of one color where only the value of the color changes.
Violet, blue and green because of our association with snow and ice. Banff
Cool colors include:
Springs Hotel with light blue filter emphasizes the coldness of winter (Monochromatic color).
Simplification
As a general rule, simple images tend to be more appealing than complicated ones. This idea is
similar to the previous “fill the frame rule,” in that it demands that you get rid of distracting
elements in your photo. Don't try to include too much in the image. The viewer won't know
what to look at. Try to keep whatever is in the frame to only those things that are essential to
the subject and eliminate anything unnecessary to the subject.
To simplify, Cactus extracted from above picture To simplify, Bird extracted from above picture with
with simple background. simple background.
Background
If the background is busy and doesn’t add anything to your composition, try using a wider
aperture so those distracting elements will become a non-descript blur. Or you can just try
changing your angle. Instead of shooting the subject with all those beach-goers right behind
her, angle her so that she’s in front of the water instead.
Fill the Frame
The rule of space may seem to contradict this next rule, which is the idea that you should fill the
frame with your subject. Filling the frame, of course, is different than crowding the frame. For
example, an image of an old woman with interesting facial lines and features who is standing on a
busy street corner will probably warrant filling the frame. But if you want to capture context – say that
old woman is standing in the quirky second-hand shop she’s owned for 50 years – you may not want
to use that “fill the frame” rule, because you’ll want to capture her with her environment instead.
Leaving Space
To make your subject comfortable, you need to give him a bigger box that allows him some
visual freedom and/or freedom of movement. If your subject is looking at something (even
something off-camera), make sure there is some “white space” for him to look into. Likewise,
“implied motion” means that if your subject is in motion you need to give her some space that
she can move into. It's important to leave more space in front of a moving subject than behind
it.
Lines
A line or S-curve – whether geometric or implied – can bring your viewer’s eye into an image
and take it wherever you want it to go. Diagonal lines in particular can be useful in creating
drama in your image. They can also add a sense of depth, or a feeling of infinity.
Texture
Texture is another way of creating dimension in a photograph. By zooming in on a textured
surface – even a flat one – you can make it seem as if your photograph lives in three
dimensions. Even a long shot of an object can benefit from texture. Texture refers to the
surface quality or "feel" of an object - smooth, rough, soft, etc. Textures may be actual (felt
with touch - tactile) or implied (suggested by the way an artist has created the work of art -
visual).
Symmetry
Another great way to use them is to break the symmetry or pattern in some way, introducing
tension and a focal point to the scene. In below picture the symmetry of this chapel is broken
by the bucket in the bottom right corner.
Viewpoint
Viewpoint can dramatically change the mood of a photograph. Let’s take an image of a child as
an example. Shot from above, a photograph of a child makes her appear diminutive, or less
than equal to the viewer. Shot from her level, the viewer is more easily able to see things from
her point of view. In this case the viewer becomes her equal rather than her superior. But shoot
that same child from below and suddenly there’s a sense of dominance about the
child. Perspective can also change the viewer’s perception of an object’s size. To emphasize the
height of a tree, for example, shoot it from below, looking up. To make something seem
smaller, shoot it from above, looking down. Viewpoint isn’t just limited to high, low and eye-
level of course – you can also radically change the perception of an object by shooting it from a
distance or from close up.
Depth
Depth is closely related to background, and is also dependent on the type of image you’re
trying to capture. In a landscape, for example, you typically want everything to remain in focus.
In a portrait, you may want that background to be out of focus. To isolate your subject from his
or her background, use a wide aperture. To include the background, use a smaller one.
Framing
In photography, the term “natural frame” doesn’t necessarily mean a natural object. A natural
frame can be a doorway, an archway – or the branches of a tree or the mouth of a cave. Simply
put, a natural frame is anything you can use en lieu of one of those expensive wood frames.
Using natural frames is a trick that will isolate your subject from the rest of the image, leading
the viewer’s eyes straight to the place you want it to go.
Orientation
Many beginning photographers make the mistake of shooting everything with horizontal
orientation. This is short sighted and easy to correct by following this simple rule: when an
image contains a lot of horizontal lines, us a horizontal orientation. When it contains strong
vertical lines, use a vertical orientation.
Pattern
Diagonal
Rules of Odd
A photograph of three birds on a wire, for example, is probably going to be more appealing
than an image shot after that third bird flies away. The reason for this is that the human eye will
naturally wander towards the center of a group. If there’s empty space there, then that’s where
the eye will fall. As a photographer, you want your viewer to look at a subject, not at an empty
space. Odd number could be 3, 5, 7 etc.
Square
Composition in the square format is a different process than within a rectangular frame. Using
the square format encourages the eye to move around the frame in a circle. This is different to
the rectangular frame, where the eye is encouraged to move from side to side (in the landscape
format) or up and down (in the portrait format). Scenes that contain a lot of symmetry are
oftentimes great candidates for a square crop since the aspect ratio of the square crop itself is
symmetrical at 1:1.
Triangle
Triangles are a great way of grouping together three points of a photograph and organizing
them so they portray a certain feeling such as stability, agression, instability, etc. So long as you
have 3 points of vague interest in a photo that aren’t on the same line, then you can easily
create a triangle. It’s not about having 3 clear lines that join up in a photo that would be too
obvious, it’s about grouping points of interest.
Rule of Thirds
The most common design principle applied in photography, the Rule of Thirds, is thought to be
a manifestation of the Golden Ratio. Essentially, it is said that the Rule of Thirds was designed
as a simple way for photographers to locate the sweet spot, the point at which the human eye
is first drawn to, of the Golden Ratio.
The phi grid looks almost like the rule-of-thirds grid. Except in this case, the parallel lines are
closer to each other and to the center of the frame, and the nine boxes are not all the same
size.
Golden Triangle (Golden Mean)
Aligning the lines in your scene to these guide lines while positioning your subject on any of the
intersections will make your photograph aesthetically pleasing. Place your photograph’s
elements so that they fall within the resulting triangles. This is also basic but a bit more
obscure. Mentally draw a line (Red line) from corner to corner of the frame. Then draw a line
from the opposite corners to the line. The subject should lie at the intersection of these two
lines. (Green spots).
Some photographers find it also effective to remove one of the small triangles forming three
triangular sections, a large triangle, a medium triangle and a small triangle, and fitting the three
most significant parts of a scene inside these triangles.
The area just inside the point of the smallest triangle is sometimes called acradle. This is often
seen as a good place in the frame to position the elements of your picture. See below the
windmill photo.
There are three triangles with corresponding shapes. Just roughly place three subjects with
approximate equal sizes in these triangles and this rule will be kept
Golden Spiral (Fibonacci)
By placing subjects along the route of the spiral and where the spiral intersects one of the
Golden Rectangles we can create a visually pleasing image that allows our eye to follow a
natural route through the image. The centre-point of the composition starts on the corner of
the smallest rectangle. Then a spiral is imagined, moving out from the smallest box and
intersecting through each of the larger boxes until it finishes on the corner of the largest box.
This image below demonstrates the route of the spiral.
Golden Rectangle
Break the Rules
Rule mentioned above are not hard and fast. To have best picture we can also
bypass any of the above mentioned rules.