Hi guys,
Thank you for visiting my Blog on photography tutorials.
I am glad you are interested in Photography and would like to make some interesting pictures.
Did you know?
The word PHOTOGRAPHY is originated from a Greek word. Photo means Light and 'graphein' means 'To write with'. Photography means TO WRITE WITH LIGHT!!
So, it's a form of art in which you write a picture using the availability of LIGHT! And the most important aspect of a good picture, apart from YOU, is how you managed the Light.
Photography is a broad subject. It can be simply classified into ;
Manual factors and Mechanical factors
Manual Factors are broadly divided in to;
A)Composition
B)Exposure
C) Light
This factors depends on the operator and are considered as the most important factors than the mechanical factors.
Mechanical aspect
These are the equipment we use-
1.Camera, Lenses and other accessories.
2. Medium
No matter what camera you have, all these principles are the same to all. As my mentor always say, its not the expensive camera or lens that it matters. It's the man behind it matters the most.
That was the first lesson. So if somebody ask you what's the most important part of a camera next time, you have a answer for them.
It's the man behind it is the most important. Nothing else
1.COMPOSITION.
Composition is the POINT OF VIEW of the photographer. It's the angle at which the picture is made and the message is conveyed. A single picture can be made in different angles to make it tell different story. It's the photographer's ability to find that particular angle. Its the photographer's way of seeing things.
Each photo should convey a message or a story.
Basics of composition-
a) Framing- It is how you compose a subject in the frame. Lots of principles apply in framing itself which we will discuss more later.
b) Rule of thirds
c) Point of view
e) Distilling- Avoiding the unwanted items and giving more importance to the subject or story
f) Foreground, Middle ground and background.
g) Capture the expression, movement or make the subject interesting by making it more dynamic.
Framing-
There are lots of rules in framing a shot.
Rule one- You should never place a subject in the middle of the frame.
Rule of third- divide the frame in three equal lines in horizontal and vertical ways. This lines will intersect on the sides. You have to place the subject or subjects in these intersecting lines. This is because when someone looks at a picture, their eyes strikes first at these intersecting points!!!! (Exception is when you see your own picture.)
This rule of third is also important to in landscape photography. Never place the horizon in the middle of a picture. Either on the top third to show more water in the sea or on the bottom line to show more colourful sky.
When composing a wide image like landscape always try to have three subjects
a) Fore ground- most important one. Try to include a very interesting subject in the foreground which draws the attention of the viewer. Eg. Subject in the picture.
b) Middle ground- Water in the picture.
c) Background- Eg. Sky in the picture.
Always keep the horizon straight.
Also when you compose a picture, try to draw the viewers eye towards the subject. Eg- A man standing at the end of a road. For example the picture below, this will draw the attention of the viewer till the end of the road. If we place a subject in the end of it, it will make the picture more lively.
Other important thing in composition when doing a portrait. Never cut the chin of a person when you take close up. It's absolutely fine to cut a bit of hair off to fill in the frame with the face.
When composing a portrait, we need the subject's face standing out in the picture rather than the background. This is done by opening the aperture wide say to 1 or 2 or how much your lens will allow. This will blur out the background and make the face look more in focus and the viewers eyes are drawn in to it.
Last rule- RULES ARE MADE TO BREAK!
2.EXPOSURE
It is a combination of all these four things.
1. Aperture
2. Shutter speed
3. Sensitivity-ISO and sensor
4. Light
1) Aperture
This is complicated to understand as well as to make you understand. Aperture is simply called as a HOLE!!!! This is the hole present inside the lens to allow the light to pass through. It is termed in terms of F stops. The aperture is wide open in smaller F stops eg. F 1 to 4. Where as it's very small in bigger F stops like F 22 to 30 and will allow only less light to pass through it.
As you are aware now bigger the hole, more light will pass through. More light pass through, the brighter the image will be. So if you are making a picture in a dark room, you simply can open the aperture by turning down the F stop to 2-4 (or how much your lens will allow you to) and you get a brighter image. You can try this in your camera and see. It's possible in Manual mode or in AV mode. (AV mode means Aperture priority mode) As one of my friend rightly said aperture can be simply compare with the PUPIL of your eyes. It allows more light to pass through to fall over the retina in dark light conditions whereas it constrict it's size in brighter conditions.
There is also a very important thing Aperture does. That's called DEPTH OF FIELD
It determines how much the deep the image is in focus. If the depth of field is more,that means a large area behind and in front of the subject is in focus. Whereas, less depth of field means only a little area around the subject is in focus and other areas are blurred. Depth of field is more in bigger F stops like 22-30, where as depth of field is less in smaller F stops like 2-4 etc. What it means is that in smaller F stops, the background will be blurred and only a narrow field around the subject will be in focus. Eg. The models face in a portrait to draw the attention of the viewer to the face than the surroundings.
The wider depth of field in F 22- 30 are preferred in Landscape pictures where you want the foreground and background in focus.
So to wind up, Aperture is a hole which the light pass through. Its determined by F stops. Less the F stop number (eg.F2 -4), wider the aperture. Also lesser the F stop number(eg.F2-4 ), narrow the depth of field, which means background is blurred.
Bigger the F stop number (Eg. F22), smaller the aperture size and less light pass through and wider depth of field ( Means everything will be in focus)
2.Shutter speed
This is the time in which it takes for opening and closing of the shutter within the lens to pass the light. So more time the shutter is open, more light pass thru. This is determined as 1/100, 1/200,etc. That means shutter is opened for one hundredth of a second. Thats a faster shutter speed, so less light pass thru. This is adjusted on the TV mode ( Time Value) as it depends on Time at which the shutter is open. So if you want more light to pass in on a dark area, you can increase the shutter speed to compensate it.
The shutter can kept open for up to 25 minutes in some cameras. This is to take a cityscape on a night to show the ray of light from vehicles looking like a line of light. Other example is water fall, where it shows like a white flow of water rather than a frozen image of the waterfall if it's taken on a faster shutter speed. Firecracker photography is another example.
You need a tripod for this type of shots as a small camera shake will be exaggerated and image can be blurred.
Now that you know the difference between shutter speed and Aperture you can correlate their influence on light in photography. More wide aperture, more light pass in. More time the shutter is opened, more light pass in and vice versa.
3.Sensivity or Sensors
This is the thing in which the image is captured. It used to be films in olden days and in the digital world, it's SENSORS. There are lot of different sensors available in Market, most common being CMOS.
Megapixel determines the amount of pixels the sensor is capable of capturing.
ISO means the sensitivity of the sensor. The more sensitive sensors are obviously better. So if we have a ISO reading of 100 means it will sense light in a meter of 100 and it will be more sensitive if the ISO is 1000. so in dark conditions if you simply increase the ISO to 1000 or more u get a brighter image in a dark area. But problem with increasing the ISO is the image becomes more grainy.
4.
2. Soft light- eg. sunlight coming through clouds. Good for most photos, but if not used correctly, will come up as a dull picture!
3. Reflected light- Can be done by using a reflector, for instance to reflect the hard light on to the subject. You can use commercially available silver reflectors or just a White board.
4. Transmitted light
Light can be utilised in different ways according it's direction.
a) Front lite light- Most common way of using flash.
b) Side lite light- from the sides. Mostly seen in studios
c) Back lite- from back. Mostly cause silhouette. But not always. Seen in studios also.
d) Bounced light
a) Fore ground- most important one. Try to include a very interesting subject in the foreground which draws the attention of the viewer. Eg. Subject in the picture.
b) Middle ground- Water in the picture.
c) Background- Eg. Sky in the picture.
Always keep the horizon straight.
Also when you compose a picture, try to draw the viewers eye towards the subject. Eg- A man standing at the end of a road. For example the picture below, this will draw the attention of the viewer till the end of the road. If we place a subject in the end of it, it will make the picture more lively.
Other important thing in composition when doing a portrait. Never cut the chin of a person when you take close up. It's absolutely fine to cut a bit of hair off to fill in the frame with the face.
When composing a portrait, we need the subject's face standing out in the picture rather than the background. This is done by opening the aperture wide say to 1 or 2 or how much your lens will allow. This will blur out the background and make the face look more in focus and the viewers eyes are drawn in to it.
Last rule- RULES ARE MADE TO BREAK!
2.EXPOSURE
It is a combination of all these four things.
1. Aperture
2. Shutter speed
3. Sensitivity-ISO and sensor
4. Light
1) Aperture
This is complicated to understand as well as to make you understand. Aperture is simply called as a HOLE!!!! This is the hole present inside the lens to allow the light to pass through. It is termed in terms of F stops. The aperture is wide open in smaller F stops eg. F 1 to 4. Where as it's very small in bigger F stops like F 22 to 30 and will allow only less light to pass through it.
As you are aware now bigger the hole, more light will pass through. More light pass through, the brighter the image will be. So if you are making a picture in a dark room, you simply can open the aperture by turning down the F stop to 2-4 (or how much your lens will allow you to) and you get a brighter image. You can try this in your camera and see. It's possible in Manual mode or in AV mode. (AV mode means Aperture priority mode) As one of my friend rightly said aperture can be simply compare with the PUPIL of your eyes. It allows more light to pass through to fall over the retina in dark light conditions whereas it constrict it's size in brighter conditions.
There is also a very important thing Aperture does. That's called DEPTH OF FIELD
It determines how much the deep the image is in focus. If the depth of field is more,that means a large area behind and in front of the subject is in focus. Whereas, less depth of field means only a little area around the subject is in focus and other areas are blurred. Depth of field is more in bigger F stops like 22-30, where as depth of field is less in smaller F stops like 2-4 etc. What it means is that in smaller F stops, the background will be blurred and only a narrow field around the subject will be in focus. Eg. The models face in a portrait to draw the attention of the viewer to the face than the surroundings.
The wider depth of field in F 22- 30 are preferred in Landscape pictures where you want the foreground and background in focus.
So to wind up, Aperture is a hole which the light pass through. Its determined by F stops. Less the F stop number (eg.F2 -4), wider the aperture. Also lesser the F stop number(eg.F2-4 ), narrow the depth of field, which means background is blurred.
Bigger the F stop number (Eg. F22), smaller the aperture size and less light pass through and wider depth of field ( Means everything will be in focus)
2.Shutter speed
This is the time in which it takes for opening and closing of the shutter within the lens to pass the light. So more time the shutter is open, more light pass thru. This is determined as 1/100, 1/200,etc. That means shutter is opened for one hundredth of a second. Thats a faster shutter speed, so less light pass thru. This is adjusted on the TV mode ( Time Value) as it depends on Time at which the shutter is open. So if you want more light to pass in on a dark area, you can increase the shutter speed to compensate it.
The shutter can kept open for up to 25 minutes in some cameras. This is to take a cityscape on a night to show the ray of light from vehicles looking like a line of light. Other example is water fall, where it shows like a white flow of water rather than a frozen image of the waterfall if it's taken on a faster shutter speed. Firecracker photography is another example.
You need a tripod for this type of shots as a small camera shake will be exaggerated and image can be blurred.
Now that you know the difference between shutter speed and Aperture you can correlate their influence on light in photography. More wide aperture, more light pass in. More time the shutter is opened, more light pass in and vice versa.
3.Sensivity or Sensors
This is the thing in which the image is captured. It used to be films in olden days and in the digital world, it's SENSORS. There are lot of different sensors available in Market, most common being CMOS.
Megapixel determines the amount of pixels the sensor is capable of capturing.
ISO means the sensitivity of the sensor. The more sensitive sensors are obviously better. So if we have a ISO reading of 100 means it will sense light in a meter of 100 and it will be more sensitive if the ISO is 1000. so in dark conditions if you simply increase the ISO to 1000 or more u get a brighter image in a dark area. But problem with increasing the ISO is the image becomes more grainy.
4.
LIGHT
Light is all around you. There are natural and man made ones and light is the most important part of a perfect photograph.
There are four different lights We can use.
1. Hard light- direct sunlight. Good sometimes but not always the best. Creates hard shadows which are not suitable for a good picture.
There are four different lights We can use.
1. Hard light- direct sunlight. Good sometimes but not always the best. Creates hard shadows which are not suitable for a good picture.
2. Soft light- eg. sunlight coming through clouds. Good for most photos, but if not used correctly, will come up as a dull picture!
3. Reflected light- Can be done by using a reflector, for instance to reflect the hard light on to the subject. You can use commercially available silver reflectors or just a White board.
4. Transmitted light
Light can be utilised in different ways according it's direction.
a) Front lite light- Most common way of using flash.
b) Side lite light- from the sides. Mostly seen in studios
c) Back lite- from back. Mostly cause silhouette. But not always. Seen in studios also.
d) Bounced light
EXPOSURE COMPENSATION
If all of them are wisely combined together you get the best exposure for a picture.
As we discussed if the light is dull you can either open the aperture ( less F stop number ) or increase the shutter speed or increase the ISO or increase the light by using Flash, reflector or any other means. So the combination of all of it makes the exposure right.
And if the light is too bright, you can do the opposite.
By reducing one F stop or increasing one point shutter speed, you are allowing double the amount of light to pass in. This method of adjusting the exposure is called EXPOSURE COMPENSATION. This can be accomplished by your camera setting.
II MECHANICAL FACTORS
1.Optics or Lenses
There are lot of lenses available nowadays.
Fish eye lens- they capture the area around us at an angle of 180degrees. So it gives u a very roundish picture looking like a fish eye. Not normal looking ones and image will be distorted. But gives a vivid image with wide coverage.
2. Super wide angle lenses- gives more wider coverage than a normal lens but not as wide as fish eye. But less distortion of images than fish eye and more normal looking images. Focal length ranges from 10-22mm
3. Normal lenses- focal length 18-55mm. For normal pics. Less wider pictures than wide angle.
4. Telephoto lenses- small ranges from 100-200mm
Gives less wider images than normal, but captures distant subjects.
Medium telephoto ranges from 200-400mm good for long range shots, sports, wild life etc. Also a good lens for Portrait pictures because it have a wide aperture. So keeps the subject more in focus and blurs the background. This makes the subject stands out in the picture and viewers eye is drawn to the subject.
Super telephoto- ranges from 400-600mm for sports and wild life. No wide range only distant range.
Last type of lens is called Macro lens
It captures small items like insects, flowers, etc
It has a shallow depth of field so the image will be in focus in few areas in a pic, not all over the picture.
2.Medium
This is the thing in which the image is captured. It used to be films in olden days and in the digital world, it's SENSORS. There are lot of different sensors available in Market, most common being CMOS.
Megapixel determines the amount of pixels the sensor is capable of capturing.
ISO means the sensitivity of the sensor. The more sensitive sensors are obviously better. So if we have a ISO reading of 100 means it will sense light in a meter of 100 and it will be more sensitive if the ISO is 1000. so in dark conditions if you simp,y increase the ISO to 1000 or more u get a brighter image in a dark area.
You can try this in your camera. Try taking a picture in ISO 100. Same picture again in ISO 200. Repeat same pics in increasing ISOs and check the difference. But if u over do it, it will make the picture more grainy (Noise).
This is the end of basic principles in photography.
I hope you understood a little bit, if not all.
Best of luck with your photography hobby. Enjoy!!!!
Rosh
If all of them are wisely combined together you get the best exposure for a picture.
As we discussed if the light is dull you can either open the aperture ( less F stop number ) or increase the shutter speed or increase the ISO or increase the light by using Flash, reflector or any other means. So the combination of all of it makes the exposure right.
And if the light is too bright, you can do the opposite.
By reducing one F stop or increasing one point shutter speed, you are allowing double the amount of light to pass in. This method of adjusting the exposure is called EXPOSURE COMPENSATION. This can be accomplished by your camera setting.
II MECHANICAL FACTORS
1.Optics or Lenses
There are lot of lenses available nowadays.
Fish eye lens- they capture the area around us at an angle of 180degrees. So it gives u a very roundish picture looking like a fish eye. Not normal looking ones and image will be distorted. But gives a vivid image with wide coverage.
2. Super wide angle lenses- gives more wider coverage than a normal lens but not as wide as fish eye. But less distortion of images than fish eye and more normal looking images. Focal length ranges from 10-22mm
3. Normal lenses- focal length 18-55mm. For normal pics. Less wider pictures than wide angle.
4. Telephoto lenses- small ranges from 100-200mm
Gives less wider images than normal, but captures distant subjects.
Medium telephoto ranges from 200-400mm good for long range shots, sports, wild life etc. Also a good lens for Portrait pictures because it have a wide aperture. So keeps the subject more in focus and blurs the background. This makes the subject stands out in the picture and viewers eye is drawn to the subject.
Super telephoto- ranges from 400-600mm for sports and wild life. No wide range only distant range.
Last type of lens is called Macro lens
It captures small items like insects, flowers, etc
It has a shallow depth of field so the image will be in focus in few areas in a pic, not all over the picture.
2.Medium
This is the thing in which the image is captured. It used to be films in olden days and in the digital world, it's SENSORS. There are lot of different sensors available in Market, most common being CMOS.
Megapixel determines the amount of pixels the sensor is capable of capturing.
ISO means the sensitivity of the sensor. The more sensitive sensors are obviously better. So if we have a ISO reading of 100 means it will sense light in a meter of 100 and it will be more sensitive if the ISO is 1000. so in dark conditions if you simp,y increase the ISO to 1000 or more u get a brighter image in a dark area.
You can try this in your camera. Try taking a picture in ISO 100. Same picture again in ISO 200. Repeat same pics in increasing ISOs and check the difference. But if u over do it, it will make the picture more grainy (Noise).
This is the end of basic principles in photography.
I hope you understood a little bit, if not all.
Best of luck with your photography hobby. Enjoy!!!!
Rosh
