Photography 101: Digital Photography Basics

A simplified digital photography course aimed at new photographers out there who want to know where to start.

by Kelly Paal

If you really want to learn digital photography the first thing you need is a good and reliable camera. It must, and I repeat must, be able to shoot in fully manual and fully auto focus modes. To really learn digital photography you must understand the equipment. You’ll need to learn how manipulating the shutter speed, aperture, and focus will have a dramatic effect on your digital photos. Meters, if you have a camera that can work in a fully manual mode it should have an internal meter suitable for what you will be doing. Tripod, you’re going to need one whether it’s portrait work or landscapes you’ll need one eventually to improve your digital photography. Luckily you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight and durable. Flash, you can buy a separate camera mounted flash, which is great if you can afford it. Consider what kind of digital photography that you will be doing though. If you’re going to do mostly nature and landscape digital photography, you may only need the fill flash that comes with most cameras today. If you plan on doing portraiture only you will definitely need a camera mounted flash that has an adjustable angle.

Film Speed
ISO setting to be exact. Slower speeds (25 to 400) are intended for portraiture and landscape digital photography. Faster speeds (600 and above) are intended for actions shots and photojournalism. So first you need to know what you going out to digital photograph and make sure that you have the appropriate film for the job.

Shutter Speed
Now that you have the camera loaded with film consider the shutter speed. Do you want to blur motion, or freeze it? If there is no motion at all what shutter speed do you need to expose the scene with natural light. Shutter speed plays a very important role in digital photography. From 1/60th and down to the bulb setting will blur most motion. For example if you want to blur the water in a waterfall, a setting of 1/30th should work. (You’ll need a tripod though.) 1/125th is a normal setting for most shots. On many cameras the 125th setting is marked in a different color to make it obvious. If you want to freeze action you’ll need to start with 1/500th and work up from there. The faster the motion the faster the shutter speed needed to stop motion. Many digital photography cameras go up to 1/2000th of a second. If you’re trying to use natural light alone in a scene you will want to determine the aperture first and then see what shutter speed you need to properly expose the scene for available light. (Keep in mind sometimes there isn’t enough light.)

Aperture
These are the set of numbers on your lens closest to the body of the camera. They can go from 1.8 to 22, and they are also referred to as f-stops in digital photography. These numbers determine how much light reaches the film inside of your camera. Most internal meters will blink on the appropriate aperture for the shutter speed that you’ve set, or the speed you’ve set will blink if your f-stop is correct for the speed. Both the f-stop and shutter speed can be changed to expose the scene correctly in digital photography. Consider that the faster the shutter speed the more light will be needed to expose the scene correctly. This makes logical sense if you think about it. If the shutter isn’t open as long, fast shutter speed, then there is less light able to make it to the film and so the scene must be brighter to expose correctly. To learn, bracket your digital photography shots. Take the first shot at the aperture suggested by your meter, move one stop up, take a photo, one down, take another photo.

Flash
I personally like shooting with natural light whenever possible and at most I use a fill flash in digital photography. But if you’re going to do portrait work then most of the time you may be indoors and you will need a flash sometimes. For the amateur the fill flash units that are on the top of most of today’s cameras are wonderful for basic work. You will have to read your manual on your particular flash unit to learn what it can and can’t do. This is where the camera that is fully manual and fully auto is great for the amateur. You can usually set it so that the camera will meter and set the flash output accordingly and then you still can control the shutter speed and aperture.


About the Author: Kelly Paal is a freelance nature and landscape photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography. She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

Photography 101: Aperture and Depth of Field Demystified

It is imperative to understand how photography and cameras work in general, in order to have more control over how your photos turn out. Three things directly influence how photos are captured on both film and digital cameras:

1) Aperture: the lens opening

2) Shutter Speed: the speed of opening and closing the shutter, which determines how long the subject matter stays on the film that comes through the given aperture

3) The speed of the film (a.k.a. ISO setting), which directly influences what choices of aperture and shutter speeds you can use


ISO Setting
Before your camera can detect aperture and shutter speed for a particular subject, it must be told how many worker bees are loaded into the camera (i.e. the film and its corresponding ISO or film speed). The more worker bees there are, the less time they need to capture the same amount of light, so the ISO setting directly impacts the aperture and shutter speed settings.

These days, ISO on film cameras is detected by a bar code on the film's cassette, which the camera reads and then tells the light meter. On digital cameras, you can set the ISO to a particular rating by selecting it in the menu, or leave it on the automatic setting so that the camera decides which ISO speed to use. Once your camera knows how many worker bees it has, it will be able to detect which aperture and shutter speeds are ideal for various conditions.


Aperture
Aperture controls the volume of light that passes through the lens and onto the film. The volume of light is determined by the size of the lens opening (the aperture): big, medium, or small openings. Aperture works in conjunction with Shutter Speed to correctly expose an image. Depending on the lighting conditions (night vs overcast vs sunny), a given aperture will require a different partner shutter speed.

Most cameras recommend these settings automatically for you, assuming you want everything in the photo to be in focus. You can usually opt to set the aperture and have the camera pick an appropriate shutter speed (called aperture-priority), or vice versa (called shutter speed-priority). If ever you want to change the depth of field (i.e. what's in focus), the aperture-priority setting will come in handy, if not full manual where you set both aperture and shutter speed.


Depth of Field
The term "Depth of field' simply refers to a picture's overall sharpness. It is the direct result of the aperture setting on your camera. By setting the aperture (a.k.a f-stop) to a small number , e.g. f/2.8 , you are setting the lens opening to be large. Such a "wide-open" aperture limits the plane or field of focus to be very narrow: this is called a small or narrow depth of field. For example, if you're photographing a long line of fuzzy ducks extending into the distance, and you only want one duck in the middle to be in focus, then you would open up your aperture by setting it to a small number, such as f/2.8. Once you've chosen this setting, your camera will help you figure out the appropriate shutter speed to provide a good overall exposure.

By setting the aperture to a large number , e.g. f/16, f/22 or even f/32 , you are setting the lens opening to be very small: this is called a large depth of field. This small aperture allows the camera to focus clearly on things both close and far in the same shot. Continuing on with our fuzzy duck example, using a small aperture will allow you to capture the entire row of ducks in perfect focus. The near duck will be just as sharp as the far duck, as will all the ducks in the middle.

Try it out! Once you've focused on a subject, you will notice that there are areas beyond and/or in front of what you focused on that are not sharp. Assuming you want everything sharp, the laws of depth of field say to use a small aperture of f/16, f/22, or f/32. If you instead want a narrow field of sharpness in your image, the laws of depth of field say to use a wide-open aperture of f/2.8 or f/3.5.

In a nutshell, those big aperture numbers - f/16, f/22, f/32 , render the greatest depth of field or area of overall sharpness and those smaller aperture numbers , f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6 , render a minimal area of sharpness beyond or in front of what you have chosen to focus on. Again, depending on lighting conditions, different shutter speeds will be required to expose the image correctly.


Caveat for digital photographers:
These depth of field rules and example f-stops were created for those using 35mm format cameras, and you will find reference to them all over books and the internet. Digital cameras are typically closer to 38mm format, and will thus have better results narrowing their aperture (so as to get everything in focus). The claim to fame of digital cameras is to have excellent focus from near to far - infinity and beyond, but in doing so have limited ability to capture narrow focus. For example, f/2.8 on a typical digital camera will not be a large enough aperture to narrow your depth of field sufficiently to only get one fuzzy duck in focus. DSLR owners can simply purchase a macro lens to do this, but digital point & shoot owners may not have the capability to narrow their depth of field noticeably. Best to stick to landscape shots!


Author: Jennifer Clarkson is a Canadian photographer living in Ottawa. For a full explanation of digital camera features and more information about what amateur buyers need to know, please visit her website at Jennifer Clarkson Photography

Article source: Articlecat.com