Filters

Posted on July 17, 2010 by

Filters
Glass or plastic adapters added to the camera lens to modify the scene in front of you.

*When you use a filter to create a photograph, the results are permanent. They are very different from the Photoshop filters and you must keep that in mind when you experiment.

*Most cameras have built-in light meters and automatic exposure to adjust to the reduced amount of light coming into the lens caused by the filters.

 There are three basic categories of filters:

  1. Color Effects
  2. Black and White Effects
  3. Special Effects

Color Effects

These filters help to change the color given off from your lighting sources.

  • Flourescent lighting gives off a green tone and can be reduced or eliminated with a FL-D filter
  • Incandescent lighting gives off an orange tone and can be reduced or eliminated with a deep blue 80A filter.

Black and White Filters

These filters enhance the quality, tones, highlights, textures, etc. of a black and white photograph.

  • Red filters can be used to greatly increase the contrast in a black and white photograph.
  • Orange filters enhance the contrast in a black and white photograph.

 Special Effect Filters

These filters are used to enhance or create special effects in both color and black and white photographs.

  • Polarizing Filters will reduce or eliminate reflections in shiny, non-metallic surfaces like glass windows or doors. They can darken a blue sky to increase the separation between clouds and sky.
  • Neutral Density filters help to slow down the shutter speed and increase subject motion blur on moving objects. A Neutral Density filter, often combined with a polarizing filter, is often used on waterfalls to create a misting effect.
  • A Haze filter is used to help eliminate the haze in the photograph (or smog around Los Angeles).
  • Cross Screen filter is used to make lights appear more star-like in a photograph instead of a dot of light. This is often used on Christmas Lights.

  

Posted in Filters, GCC Class | Leave a comment

Lenses

Posted on July 15, 2010 by

The Normal Lens – The lens that most closely matches the view of the human eye in terms of area, perspective and the relative size of objects.

  • Most companies have settled on the 50mm lens as their normal lens.
The Wide-Angle Lens – This lens includes more of the scene and makes objects look farther away than a normal lens.
  • These lenses range in focal length from 6mm to 35mm
  • These can create dramatic perspective effects like a fish-eye or perspective distortion.
  • These lenses come in handy when taking pictures of large groups in small rooms, architectural photography and landscape photography.
The Telephoto Lens – This lens includes less of the scene and makes objects look closer.

  • These lenses start at 70mm and go up to 1200mm (or sometimes higher).
  • These lenses are great for sports or wildlife photography.
  • A 120mm lens is good for portraits where you want to lose your depth of field.

The Zoom Lens – This is a lens that varies in focal lengths.

  • The standard camera kit zoom lens is 18mm-55mm.
  • The “normal” zoom lens for sports or action photography is 70mm-200mm.
  • Nikon and Canon now have a Zoom lens that goes from 18mm-200mm.  They sell for around $600.  Or you can get the Sigma version for $400.
Posted in GCC Class, Lenses | Leave a comment

Using Glowsticks to Learn about Exposure and Create Photographic Art

Posted on July 7, 2010 by

A great way to learn how Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO work together, aside from trying to create “Ghost Images” is to create photographic art by using glowsticks. 

Your objective for creating glowstick pictures is to have people in a dark room spin glowsticks while you try to create an image where the only thing that appears in the image is the glowstick.  Ideally, the background should be dark and there is no image of the person spinning the glowsticks.

HINT: This will be a long exposure so you will want to have a medium wide to small aperture to compensate for the slow shutter speed.  You may also want to compensate with a slower ISO as well to bring out the details and brilliant colors of the glowsticks.

Don’t be afraid to get creative!!  Try using different colors, trying writing letters or words, and most of all, HAVE FUN!
(THE GLOWSTICK IMAGES SHOWN WITH THIS POST WERE TAKEN BY MY PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS AT CLARK MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL).
Posted in Exposure, GCC Class, Glowsticks, Long Exposure | Leave a comment

Creating Ghost Images

Posted on July 7, 2010 by

Numerous television shows use “Ghost” photographs as a way of proving that a place is haunted by spirits. Often times, these spirits appear in human form. These so-called “Ghost” photographs are fake. By controlling your settings and placing a camera on a tripod, you can create “Ghost” images.

It is your mission to create “Ghost” photographs. You will place your camera on a tripod and experiment with your settings in order to achieve your goals.

HINT: These images will be long exposures so you will have a small aperture to compensate for the slow shutter speed. Some of you may choose to set your shutter speed to BULB to get the best results.

We will be working together as a class and then you will be assigned to do ghost images on your own as homework. You should attempt to achieve the following “Ghost” photographs: – An individual spirit indoors; A group of spirits indoors; An individual spirit outdoors; and A group of spirits outdoors.

(IMAGES WERE CREATED BY MY PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS AT CLARK MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL)

Posted in Exposure, GCC Class, Ghost Images, Long Exposure | Leave a comment

How to Combine All Three Exposure Elements

Posted on July 7, 2010 by

Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO are all combined to control how much light enters the camera to create a proper exposure.  So the big question is where do you start?  How do you figure out your settings?

STEP 1: SET YOUR ISO
Assess the lighting in your photographic setting.  If you are outdoors with direct sunlight and not a single cloud in the sky, you can set your ISO to 100 or 200.  If it is slightly overcast, you may prefer to use an ISO of 200 or 400.  If you are in a shaded area or on a covered porch, you may opt for an ISO of 400.  If you are indoors with lots of natural light streaming through windows, you would choose an ISO of 400.  If you are indoors with incandescent lighting (regular household lights), you may opt for 400 or 800.  If you are indoors with flourescent lighting or low lighting conditions (also includes outdoors at night), you may opt for an ISO of 800 or higher.

STEP 2: METERING
Metering means to measure your settings.  To find out your starting settings, you can use an actual light meter or use the metering system inside your camera. To use the metering system inside your camera, put the camera into P mode. Take a picture shooting the ground. Look at the camera settings the camera used, put the camera into Manual mode, and change your settings using the metered settings from P mode as a starting point.

STEP 3: BRACKETING
Once you have found your metered settings in P mode and entered them into the camera in Manual mode, you bracket the settings. To bracket means to go one stop up and one stop down in your settings to find your proper exposure.

EXAMPLE:
The Camera meters F/8 and a shutter speed of 1/60, the following are your bracketed settings to try (This creates 9 pictures):

F/7.1 & 1/125
F/7.1 & 1/100
F/7.1 & 1/60
F/8 & 1/125
F/8 & 1/100
F/8 & 1/60
F/9 & 1/125
F/9 & 1/100
F/9 & 1/60

STEP 4: EXAMINE YOUR PICTURE EXPOSURE
ARE YOUR PICTURES OVEREXPOSED OR UNDEREXPOSED?  IF YES TO EITHER, HOW DO YOU FIX YOUR SETTINGS?

OVEREXPOSED PICTURES:
If you take a photograph and it looks overexposed, it can easily be corrected by changing your settings. An overexposed photograph is too bright so you would need to do one of the following three things to adjust your settings for proper exposure:

1. Make the aperture smaller. For example going from F/8 to F 9 makes the aperture smaller.
2. Make the shutter speed faster. For example, going from 1/60 to 1/125 makes the shutter speed faster.
3. Lower your ISO. For example, going from 800 to 400 lowers the ISO.

UNDEREXPOSED PICTURES:
If you take a photograph and it looks underexposed, it can easily be corrected by changing your settings. An underexposed photograph is too dark so you would need to do one of the following three things to adjust your settings for proper exposure:

1. Make the aperture larger. For example going from F/8 to F 7.1 makes the aperture larger.
2. Make the shutter speed slower. For example, going from 1/125 to 1/60 makes the shutter speed slower.
3. Raise your ISO. For example, going from 400 to 800 raises the ISO.

EXAMPLES OF SETTINGS(where to start):

On a Nice, Sunny Southern California Day:
F/10, 1/500, ISO 400

Shooting Sports inside a gym:
F/5.6, 1/125, ISO 800 or 1600

Shooting pictures at a wedding:
F/5.6, 1/90, ISO 400 or 800 depending on the lighting

Posted in Aperture, Camera Settings, Exposure, GCC Class, ISO, Shutter Speed | Leave a comment

How to Set the Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO on your Camera

Posted on July 7, 2010 by

PLEASE NOTE THAT HOW EXPOSURE IS MANUALLY SET IS SIMILAR ON THE MAJORITY OF THE NIKON DSLRs BUT ON CANON, IT VARIES FOR EACH CAMERA MODEL.

HOW TO SET THE ISO ON YOUR CAMERA:
On a Nikon, Go to your Camera Menu, Go to the Camera Menu, Scroll down to ISO Sensitivity, Select by hitting the OK or Select button on your multiselector, and select the desired ISO.

On a Canon, there is often times an ISO button on the back, press that and turn the adjustment/command dial on the top of the camera (or sometimes you use the multiselector) to select the desired ISO.

HOW TO SET THE APERTURE ON YOUR CAMERA:

On a Nikon Camera there are two ways to set the Aperture.  On a Nikon D40, you have to press the INFO button on the top of the Camera to bring up the settings.  There is a button on the top of the camera, next to the INFO button, that has a +/- button.  This is the EXPOSURE button.  Press and hold the EXPOSURE (+/-) button while scrolling the command dial to change the Aperture.

On a Nikon D90 and other models, the settings are found in the screen located on the top of the camera.  Lightly press the shutter release button to make the settings appear.  There is an adjustment dial located in front of the shutter release.  Scroll this dial to change the Aperture.

On a Canon, depending on the model, there is an AV (+/-) button located on the back of the camera.  Push the Display button to bring up your settings.  Press and hold the AV (+/-) button while scrolling the command dial to change the Aperture.  On other Canon models, you bring up the display to see your settings.  You use a small multiselector dial to select the Aperture and use the larger Multiselector/Comman dial (a dial that moves in a circular fashion) to select the Aperture.

HOW TO SET THE SHUTTER SPEED ON YOUR CAMERA:
On the majority of both Nikon and Canon DSLR models, you bring up your settings (previously mentioned in the Aperture section) and change the shutter speed by moving the command dial.

Posted in Aperture, Exposure, GCC Class, ISO, Shutter Speed | Leave a comment

Exposure Definitions and Explanations

Posted on July 7, 2010 by

There are three parts of Exposure:

Aperture: The Lens Opening; AKA The F-stop (Inside the Lens)

Shutter Speed: How fast the shutter opens and closes (inside the camera body)

ISO: The numerical exposure index of a photographic film under the system adopted by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), used to indicate the light sensitivity of the film’s emulsion; AKA Film Speed (Relates to the Film and is set inside the Camera menu)

A Breakdown of each part of Exposure:

APERTURE:

Aperture works like the pupil of your eye–It gets wider in the dark and smaller in bright light.

Wide Apertures are used during low lighting situations to let in a lot of light. Examples of wide apertures: F/1, F/2, F3.5, F/4.  Wide Apertures usually result in narrowing your depth of field.

Medium Wide Aperture is standard on all lenses: F/5.6

Small Apertures are used for very bright lighting situations to let in a small amount of light. Examples: F/22. F/24, F/30, F/32, F/36

SHUTTER SPEED:

How fast the shutter opens and closes can also control how much light enters a camera. A slower shutter speed lets in more light than a faster shutter speed. Shutter Speed is a fraction of a second.

BULB is a feature used to control how long the shutter stays open. With BULB, the shutter will stay open as long as you hold down the shutter release button.

Slow shutter speeds are used for low lighting situations and often require the use of a Tripod. Examples: 30” (“ stands for seconds), 25”, 15”, 1”, 1/10, 1/25, 1/30

Medium fast shutter speed is used for low action shooting situations and is standard on all cameras: 1/60

1/125 is the slowest shutter speed you can use to stop action. If you use a slower shutter speed, the action will blur.

Fast Shutter Speeds are used to stop action or can be used during extremely bright lighting situations. Examples: 1/500, 1/800, 1/1000, 1/4000, 1/8000

ISO:
The Film or sensor’s sensitivity to light, also known as Film Speed.

100 to 200: Used for Daylight

400: All purpose, indoors and outdoors

800 or higher: Low lighting

ISOs greater than 1600 will produce visual noise (grainy with film) in a picture.  Visual noise appears as red, green and blue specks in the image.

Posted in Aperture, Definitions, Exposure, GCC Class, ISO, Shutter Speed | Leave a comment