Two Photography Tips for Beginners
So you've invested in a "fancier" digital camera. It does everything automatically, but also has all these settings you wonder about. You read the instructions, set the camera on "auto" and snap away. Your pictures are good, but you wonder how you could learn to use these other settings. You wonder about how to take that picture with a sharp foreground and a fuzzy background. And what about that frozen action shot? This is where these "other" settings on your camera come into play. Nothing wrong with point and shoot on auto, when taking pictures at a party, or quick snapshots of your family and friends during a vacation, but for a hobbyist who wants to do more, learning how to use these extra settings is a requirement. And, really, it is not all that frightening or difficult. Specially since, with digital photography, after the purchase of the equipement, trial and error is free.
Shutter speed
The shutter speed on your camera, controls how long your sensor receives light from the subject you are photographing. On the auto setting, your camera is simply trying to expose to get enough light to get you a properly exposed picture. In the bright sunlight, it will set a fast shutter speed, and in a low light condition, such as inside a house, it will set a slower shutter speed, to allow light to come in longer on to your photo sensor. In manual mode, you can typically have your shutter open for a full second, or for as little as 1/1000th of a second. If your subject moves during that one second exposure, the resulting picture will certainly be blurry. At 1/1000th of a second, you can be pretty certain everything will be sharp and clear. But one second may be far too long, and the resulting picture may be washed out and really be mostly a white blurry square. At 1/1000th of a second, it is likely not enough light reached the sensor to record anything, and the resulting picture will be just a black square. But there is a place where both of these settings are useful and appropriate to create the right exposure and create a picture. In fact, both of these settings will allow you to create a picture you can't get any other way. It's just that these settings have to be used in conjunction with another settings on your camera, that being the "aperture" setting.
Aperture
The aperture setting, on your camera, called an f-stop, also controls how much light reaches the sensor in your camera. Let's say you have a blind over your window. It covers the entire window and the room is dark. You prick a hole into the blind with a nail. A small beam of light enters the room. In bright sunlight, that may be enough for the room to appear brighter. You tear a large whole into the blind. Now the room is almost entirely lit up, as if the blind wasn't even there. In bright sunshine, the room may feel too bright. Apertures, typically, range from f2 to f16. The nail hole in the blind, is like your lense set on f16. Just a little beam of light reaches the sensor in your camera. The large hole torn in your blind, is like the setting of f2. A lot of light reaches the sensor. The room being too bright, is like an overexposed picture. The converse, the room being totally dark, would be like an underexposed picture.
A side effect of using small aperture or large aperture is called depth of field. When using a large aperture, only a small area will be in focus, where as using a small aperture brings almost everything seen by the lens in sharp focus.
Shutter Speed and Aperture Control equals proper exposure... and creativity
Using aperture in combination with your shutter speed, you can adjust for a perfect exposure. In essence, this is what your camera does, when set on auto. Sensors read the light, and adjust a combination of shutter speed and aperture to get the right exposure for your photographs. Great to take snap shots, but limited when the light conditions are at the more extremes of brightness or darkness. It also limits your creativity.
Typically, on a bright sunny day, your camera will choose a shutter speed of around 1/100 of a second (100 on camera) and an aperture of f16. But now, you know you can control exposure manually. You know that using a fast shutter speed and a large aperture can give you the same exposure as a slow shutter speed and a small aperture. Hence, you can manually set a proper exposure for a certain light condition with a bit of practice relatively easy. Now it's time to get creative. A waterfall picture will have a nice flow to it at a slow shutter speed while drops of water may appear frozen in mid air at a fast shutter speed. Or you can focus on a single flower in a garden, or have the entire garden in sharp focus. You can now create an image instead of allowing your camera to chose.
Shutter speed
The shutter speed on your camera, controls how long your sensor receives light from the subject you are photographing. On the auto setting, your camera is simply trying to expose to get enough light to get you a properly exposed picture. In the bright sunlight, it will set a fast shutter speed, and in a low light condition, such as inside a house, it will set a slower shutter speed, to allow light to come in longer on to your photo sensor. In manual mode, you can typically have your shutter open for a full second, or for as little as 1/1000th of a second. If your subject moves during that one second exposure, the resulting picture will certainly be blurry. At 1/1000th of a second, you can be pretty certain everything will be sharp and clear. But one second may be far too long, and the resulting picture may be washed out and really be mostly a white blurry square. At 1/1000th of a second, it is likely not enough light reached the sensor to record anything, and the resulting picture will be just a black square. But there is a place where both of these settings are useful and appropriate to create the right exposure and create a picture. In fact, both of these settings will allow you to create a picture you can't get any other way. It's just that these settings have to be used in conjunction with another settings on your camera, that being the "aperture" setting.
Aperture
The aperture setting, on your camera, called an f-stop, also controls how much light reaches the sensor in your camera. Let's say you have a blind over your window. It covers the entire window and the room is dark. You prick a hole into the blind with a nail. A small beam of light enters the room. In bright sunlight, that may be enough for the room to appear brighter. You tear a large whole into the blind. Now the room is almost entirely lit up, as if the blind wasn't even there. In bright sunshine, the room may feel too bright. Apertures, typically, range from f2 to f16. The nail hole in the blind, is like your lense set on f16. Just a little beam of light reaches the sensor in your camera. The large hole torn in your blind, is like the setting of f2. A lot of light reaches the sensor. The room being too bright, is like an overexposed picture. The converse, the room being totally dark, would be like an underexposed picture.
A side effect of using small aperture or large aperture is called depth of field. When using a large aperture, only a small area will be in focus, where as using a small aperture brings almost everything seen by the lens in sharp focus.
Shutter Speed and Aperture Control equals proper exposure... and creativity
Using aperture in combination with your shutter speed, you can adjust for a perfect exposure. In essence, this is what your camera does, when set on auto. Sensors read the light, and adjust a combination of shutter speed and aperture to get the right exposure for your photographs. Great to take snap shots, but limited when the light conditions are at the more extremes of brightness or darkness. It also limits your creativity.
Typically, on a bright sunny day, your camera will choose a shutter speed of around 1/100 of a second (100 on camera) and an aperture of f16. But now, you know you can control exposure manually. You know that using a fast shutter speed and a large aperture can give you the same exposure as a slow shutter speed and a small aperture. Hence, you can manually set a proper exposure for a certain light condition with a bit of practice relatively easy. Now it's time to get creative. A waterfall picture will have a nice flow to it at a slow shutter speed while drops of water may appear frozen in mid air at a fast shutter speed. Or you can focus on a single flower in a garden, or have the entire garden in sharp focus. You can now create an image instead of allowing your camera to chose.
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