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Red River Studios photo school blog wedding and portrait photography in CO.Louth Ireland
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
New Studios and Teaching facilities about to open
Well we are nearing the completion of our new Studios and Teaching facilities near Carlingford in county Louth , a full list of courses will be posted in the coming weeks , and will include day and weekend courses in Photography for beginners and intermediates as well as computer courses in Apple's fabulous software Apreture and Adobe lightroom and Photoshop .
Keep checking with us for new updates and photographs of our new facilities ,
Keep checking with us for new updates and photographs of our new facilities ,
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Trade offs within exposure
Trade-Offs
Each method of controlling exposure does so in a different way, and as such, has a different effect on the character of the resulting photo. Increasing the shutter speed reduces the light, and freezes motion. Decreasing it allow more light in, but blurs movement occurring while the shutter is open. Closing the aperture decreases the light, but increases the depth of field, meaning sharp focus over more of the image. Opening the aperture lets in more light, but decreases the depth of field, meaning a narrower window of sharp focus. Increasing the ISO amplifies the light collected, but also amplifies the random noise in the chip, which can become visible in photos at higher settings.
It’s important to note that all of these effects can be used for creative purposes in photography. Having a narrower depth of field for example can be an artistic effect in a portrait, a slower shutter speed can convey a feeling of movement. Taking a good photo is the result of the conscious choice of the three points on the exposure triangle in order to get a well exposed image which has a character pleasing to the photographer. Adjusting the settings is a balancing act that affords huge creative options to the photographer.
Homework
Put your camera into manual mode, and find the controls to adjust each of the three exposure triangle points: ISO, Shutter and Aperture.
Set your camera to full auto, find various scenes, and “half press” the shutter and see what exposure settings it recommends. Now go to manual, make the settings using the manual control and take the photo. Repeat until you feel comfortable adjusting the manual settings.
Using the technique above, see what the camera recommends for various scenes, then adjust the photo up or down one stop of exposure with each of the exposure controls. Note the difference in the appearance of the resulting photos.
For those already familiar with manual control, find difficult, high contrast scenes (eg: a wall with a window outside, or under a shady tree on a sunny day). Shoot the scene on auto, then looking at the result, try to guess how much you need to adjust the exposure manually to see detail in the over or under exposed areas. Practice to see how close you can get just by estimating.
Apply these lessons artistically. Experiment with deliberately over or under exposing photos (high and low-key photos) or tweaking the auto exposed settings to emphasise otherwise under or over exposed areas.
If you wish to share your homework photos, upload them somewhere (eg: your Flickr account) and post a link to them in the comments on this post below.
Each method of controlling exposure does so in a different way, and as such, has a different effect on the character of the resulting photo. Increasing the shutter speed reduces the light, and freezes motion. Decreasing it allow more light in, but blurs movement occurring while the shutter is open. Closing the aperture decreases the light, but increases the depth of field, meaning sharp focus over more of the image. Opening the aperture lets in more light, but decreases the depth of field, meaning a narrower window of sharp focus. Increasing the ISO amplifies the light collected, but also amplifies the random noise in the chip, which can become visible in photos at higher settings.
It’s important to note that all of these effects can be used for creative purposes in photography. Having a narrower depth of field for example can be an artistic effect in a portrait, a slower shutter speed can convey a feeling of movement. Taking a good photo is the result of the conscious choice of the three points on the exposure triangle in order to get a well exposed image which has a character pleasing to the photographer. Adjusting the settings is a balancing act that affords huge creative options to the photographer.
Homework
Put your camera into manual mode, and find the controls to adjust each of the three exposure triangle points: ISO, Shutter and Aperture.
Set your camera to full auto, find various scenes, and “half press” the shutter and see what exposure settings it recommends. Now go to manual, make the settings using the manual control and take the photo. Repeat until you feel comfortable adjusting the manual settings.
Using the technique above, see what the camera recommends for various scenes, then adjust the photo up or down one stop of exposure with each of the exposure controls. Note the difference in the appearance of the resulting photos.
For those already familiar with manual control, find difficult, high contrast scenes (eg: a wall with a window outside, or under a shady tree on a sunny day). Shoot the scene on auto, then looking at the result, try to guess how much you need to adjust the exposure manually to see detail in the over or under exposed areas. Practice to see how close you can get just by estimating.
Apply these lessons artistically. Experiment with deliberately over or under exposing photos (high and low-key photos) or tweaking the auto exposed settings to emphasise otherwise under or over exposed areas.
If you wish to share your homework photos, upload them somewhere (eg: your Flickr account) and post a link to them in the comments on this post below.
Controling Exposure
Controlling Exposure
To accommodate the huge variety of brightness levels we see in the real world, we need to be able to control how much light gets to the camera’s sensor. We do this by adjusting one or more of the three points of the “exposure triangle”. These three points are ISO, Shutter and Aperture.
The aperture is an adjustable iris or opening that can be made wider to let in more light, or narrower to let in less. The shutter is the “gate” that allows light onto the sensor, and it can be left open for different lengths of time, to let the sensor collect more or less light. Finally, the ISO once referred to the sensitive to light of the film in the camera. In digital cameras it refers to the “gain”, or amplification of the information collected by the sensor. In film days, changing ISO meant changing films. Today the ISO can be easily adjusted with a dial.
To accommodate the huge variety of brightness levels we see in the real world, we need to be able to control how much light gets to the camera’s sensor. We do this by adjusting one or more of the three points of the “exposure triangle”. These three points are ISO, Shutter and Aperture.
The aperture is an adjustable iris or opening that can be made wider to let in more light, or narrower to let in less. The shutter is the “gate” that allows light onto the sensor, and it can be left open for different lengths of time, to let the sensor collect more or less light. Finally, the ISO once referred to the sensitive to light of the film in the camera. In digital cameras it refers to the “gain”, or amplification of the information collected by the sensor. In film days, changing ISO meant changing films. Today the ISO can be easily adjusted with a dial.
stops Exposure
The “Stop”
A step up (doubling) or down (halving) by one EV is called a “stop”.
If you only come away from this lesson having learned one thing, it is this. Photographers talk about light and exposure settings in terms of stops. In photography a stop can refer to different settings in any of the three points of the exposure triangle (more below). One of the most important and useful things you can learn as a photographer is to get an intuitive feel for light levels.
I’m not suggesting that you should be able to walk onto a location and immediately be able to assess the EV of the light and determine the correct exposure settings (although some very experienced photographers can do just that!) – that’s what your exposure meter is for. However, if you can learn to look at a photo you have taken on the back of your camera, and see that the exposure needs to be increased by say 2/3 of a stop, then you will become a much more efficient and successful photographer.
A step up (doubling) or down (halving) by one EV is called a “stop”.
If you only come away from this lesson having learned one thing, it is this. Photographers talk about light and exposure settings in terms of stops. In photography a stop can refer to different settings in any of the three points of the exposure triangle (more below). One of the most important and useful things you can learn as a photographer is to get an intuitive feel for light levels.
I’m not suggesting that you should be able to walk onto a location and immediately be able to assess the EV of the light and determine the correct exposure settings (although some very experienced photographers can do just that!) – that’s what your exposure meter is for. However, if you can learn to look at a photo you have taken on the back of your camera, and see that the exposure needs to be increased by say 2/3 of a stop, then you will become a much more efficient and successful photographer.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Digital SLR settings for Beginners
For all you Photography nuts at the workshop just drop me an email at Redriverstudios@gmail.com and i will forward them to you that way, or join the blog by registering below and receive Automatic emails,
Before I start with the explanations let me say this. If you can master aperture you put into your grasp real creative control over your camera. In my opinion – aperture is where a lot of the magic happens in photography and as we’ll see below, changes in it can mean the difference between one dimensional and multi dimensional shots.
What is Aperture?
Put most simply – Aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken.’
When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you’re wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.
Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’. You’ll often see them referred to here at Digital Photography School as f/number – for example f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in – very handy to keep in mind).
One thing that causes a lot of new photographers confusion is that large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22. It seems the wrong way around when you first hear it but you’ll get the hang of it.
Before I start with the explanations let me say this. If you can master aperture you put into your grasp real creative control over your camera. In my opinion – aperture is where a lot of the magic happens in photography and as we’ll see below, changes in it can mean the difference between one dimensional and multi dimensional shots.
What is Aperture?
Put most simply – Aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken.’
When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you’re wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.
Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’. You’ll often see them referred to here at Digital Photography School as f/number – for example f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in – very handy to keep in mind).
One thing that causes a lot of new photographers confusion is that large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22. It seems the wrong way around when you first hear it but you’ll get the hang of it.
What is ISO?
In traditional (film) photography ISO (or ASA) was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. It was measured in numbers (you’ve probably seen them on films – 100, 200, 400, 800 etc). The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking.
In Digital Photography ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) – however the cost is noisier shots. I’ll illustrate this below with two elargements of shots that I just took – the one on the left is taken at 100 ISO and the one of the right at 3200 ISO (click to enlarge to see the full effect).
100 ISO is generally accepted as ‘normal’ and will give you lovely crisp shots (little noise/grain).
Most people tend to keep their digital cameras in ‘Auto Mode’ where the camera selects the appropriate ISO setting depending upon the conditions you’re shooting in (it will try to keep it as low as possible) but most cameras also give you the opportunity to select your own ISO also.
When you do override your camera and choose a specific ISO you’ll notice that it impacts the aperture and shutter speed needed for a well exposed shot. For example – if you bumped your ISO up from 100 to 400 you’ll notice that you can shoot at higher shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures.
When choosing the ISO setting I generally ask myself the following four questions:
- Light – Is the subject well lit?
- Grain – Do I want a grainy shot or one without noise?
- Tripod – Am I using a tripod?
- Moving Subject – Is my subject moving or stationary?
If there is plenty of light, I want little grain, I’m using a tripod and my subject is stationary I will generally use a pretty low ISO rating.
However if it’s dark, I purposely want grain, I don’t have a tripod and/or my subject is moving I might consider increasing the ISO as it will enable me to shoot with a faster shutter speed and still expose the shot well.
Of course the trade off of this increase in ISO will be noisier shots.
Situations where you might need to push ISO to higher settings include:
- Indoor Sports Events – where your subject is moving fast yet you may have limited light available.
- Concerts – also low in light and often ‘no-flash’ zones
- Art Galleries, Churches etc- many galleries have rules against using a flash and of course being indoors are not well lit.
- Birthday Parties – blowing out the candles in a dark room can give you a nice moody shot which would be ruined by a bright flash. Increasing the ISO can help capture the scene.
ISO is an important aspect of digital photography to have an understanding of if you want to gain more control of your digital camera. Experiment with different settings and how they impact your images today.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Flash Photography course
For all you budding Photographers out there i will be having a flash photography course in September , date to be confirmed later at our new studios near Carlingford Co.Louth , We will show you just how easy it is to get amazing results from your flashguns and how to use off camera flash !!! please drop me an email if you are interested
Gavin
Gavin
One day Photography class in Strangford Lough
Well folks i will be teaching a one day class in photography for beginners next weekend 31st near Strangford lough, Glebehouse Glebe House
23 Bishopscourt Road
Kilclief
Strangford
County Down
BT30 7NZ
Tel: 028 4488 1374
Email: info@glebehouseni.com
You can contact me if you wish to attend on 00353866673972
23 Bishopscourt Road
Kilclief
Strangford
County Down
BT30 7NZ
Tel: 028 4488 1374
Email: info@glebehouseni.com
You can contact me if you wish to attend on 00353866673972
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