Photography Basics

I have been asked by Mick, on my post showing an example of noise, how do you know if your ISO is set too low?

A good question. The idea with ISO is to keep it as low as you can to get the best image quality, but setting your ISO too low will mean that your shutter speed might need to be too long in order to get the correct exposure.

So let’s say that you are doing sports photography where you need a fast shutter speed to capture the action, and you are already using the largest aperture you can but you still can’t get a sharp image. Your ISO is set to 100 to get good image quality but the fastest shutter speed you can achieve is only 1/60th of a second which is not quick enough. This is a situation where your ISO could be said to be too low.

If you set the ISO to 200, which should still give you a good quality image, you can then get a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second, twice as fast which should help a lot to freeze the action.

So Mick, hopefully that explains when your ISO is set too low, when you can’t achieve the shutter speed or aperture settings required at the current ISO setting.

I mentioned in my overview of composition that one guideline is called the Rule Of Thirds and this involves dividing the image into a 3 by 3 grid like this:

 You can see in this example that the windmill is placed in the centre of the frame. This goes against the rule of thirds which says that you should put the main object in the image on one of the dividing lines or the intersecting lines.

This next image applies the Rule of Thirds which is meant to be a more eye pleasing image.

If you can ignore the grid lines, see which you think is the better image and let me know if you agree with the Rule of Thirds.

Composition is probably the most important thing to get right in photography in my opinion. Nowadays slight errors in exposure can be corrected on the computer but composition is very hard to put right unless you are a photoshop expert. Sure, you can crop your image and chop off the edges to get a better composition but you are then removing part of the image and therefore restricting what you can use it for and the size you can print it. The idea is to compose your image correctly in the camera so you maximise the image potential.

Some people are born with an eye for composition, they can see shapes and how to position them in the best way. For most people though, this is skill to learn and takes a bit of practice. With digital though you have the advantage of being able to take lots of different compositions of the same image and pick the best until you begin to learn what works and what doesn’t. A valuable lesson, and something I would advise doing for any shot. Take several photos of the same subject with different viewpoints and see which ones you prefer.

So how do you learn composition? Well there are guidelines that artists and photographers can use which are generally accepted as ways to get a pleasing composition. These are just guidelines though, you don’t have to follow the if you find a style which suits you better.

I’ll be going into more detail, with examples, for each guideline in later posts, but here is a brief run down of the main ones.

Rule Of Thirds

How many of you have seen or taken pictures where you have positioned the main subject right in the centre of the image? A fair few I would imagine. Now there is nothing particularly wrong with that, and sometimes it works well but generally, putting the subject right in the middle doesn’t look quite right and doesn’t quite sit well in the mind for most people.

The rule of thirds refers to dividing what you see through your view finder or on your screen into a three by three grid, dividing the image into thirds. The idea is to have the main focul point, the horizon or intersecting lines on the thirds eg positioned on the dividing lines.

Leading The Eye

Leading the eye into the picture or towards the main subject is another composition technique. Using something in the image to take the viewers eye through the picture to a point can make an image much more interesting. For instance, if you had a meandering river with a boat on it in the distance, using the curves of the river to take the eye into the picture to the boat can work really well.

Looking Into The Image

If you take a picture of someone, then having more space into the area the person is looking works better than having them looking out of the image. It’s nice to see what the person might be looking at. The same with animals too, if they are looking at something then give them room in the image to look into.

Distracting Objects or Highlights

Any object that looks out of place in the image or is particularly bright, or for that matter particularly dark, will distract the eye and make the person viewing the image focus on that rather than the main focul point of the image. So watch out for reflections, highlights, brightly coloured objects and other things that might distract the eye.

Odd Numbers

Having 3 or 5 of a certain object can work better than 2 or 4 of the same object. Odd numbers tend to sit better with the brain. If we see even numbers then we start to look for even spacing and things can look wrong. For instance, a picture of 3 ducks paddling across a pond will be, to most people, more pleasing than if there were 4 ducks paddling across the pond.

You may disagree with these in the way I have described them, so I will be going through each one in a bit more detail with examples to try and show you what I mean. As I said, they are guidelines only, you may not like them, and if you don’t, no problem.

In another post about aperture priority, I talked about depth of field as being the amount of the photo that is in focus for a given aperture setting.

The following two images demonstrate this. The first uses an aperture of f2.8 which is a very wide aperture meaning the hole that light can pass through is large. This gives a narrow depth of field with only a small area of the image in focus.

The next image shows the other extreme, a very small aperture, f22. This has much more of the image in focus, but requires a longer shutter speed.

Try the different aperture settings on your camera and learn how changing the aperture will effect the image.

In another of my posts called What is ISO I talked about something called noise. This is the grainy effect you can see on your images in certain circumstances. Increasing the ISO setting on your camera is the main way that you will start to see more noise.

The following image shows 3 different ISO settings. These pictures were taken on my Sony Alpha 100, and the amount of noise you may see on other cameras may be better or worse than this. Try it for yourself with your camera so you can see how your camera performs.

You can see on the zoomed in areas that ISO1600 produces much more of the noise or grain effect than ISO100.

So when you are taking pictures, try to keep the camera on the lowest ISO setting you can as that will give you the best quality image.

This is one of the most common questions I get asked, and it’s one of the hardest to answer. If you think about how many digital cameras are on the market right now ranging from under £100 all the way up to several thousand pounds, then recommending a single camera is a very hard thing to do.

Without more information it is impossible to make a suggestion. So before you ask someone, or when you consider buying a camera yourself, these three questions are the things you should first ask yourself.

1. How much can you afford to spend? There is no point even considering cameras that are out of your price range, although always bear in mind cameras that are just a little more than you can afford and see if they offer a worthwhile amount more for your money.

2. What do you want to use your camera for? If you just want a camera for snapshots on holiday or family gatherings, then the options are vastly different to if you want a camera to produce large, high quality prints which you can sell.

3. What extra items will you need to buy? You can’t just buy a digital camera on it’s own. You have to consider the memory cards it uses, spare batteries, a case and possibly additional lenses or lens attachments. So you have to factor those into your budget.

Once you have thought about, and hopefully have answers to, these three questions, then you will be in a better position to ask someone for advice, or tackle the decision yourself.

So you’ve answered those questions, now where do you go?

Well the  first thing to do is draw up a short list of cameras that suit your needs. To do this it’s time to get on the internet and do some research. There are numerous web sites which give you reviews on new cameras, and plenty of price comparison web sites. There are loads of brand names about, some more well known than others. I would recommend sticking to the larger brands that are more well known such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax and Olympus. There are a few other well known brands but try and go for the ones with good reputations for cameras.

Websites like DPReview and Photo.net are good places to start to see what options you may have. Check out the forums and the product reviews.

Magazines are also a great place to look so head on down to your local newsagent and see what digital camera magazines they have.

Your local camera shop is also a good place to look. If the person behind the is knowledgeable then they can give you some options, but don’t be persuaded to buy there and then. Always check any recommendations on the web and see what other people say about them. You may find something that the photo store person didn’t tell you.

So now you have a shortlist. Now go back to the shop and see if they stock them and try them out. It might be the greatest camera in the world but if it’s uncomfortable to use or too heavy then it’s not for you. So try the cameras and narrow down your list.

Once you have a list of 3 or 4 options, it’s time to see what camera has the best deals, so it’s time to go back on the net and compare prices. You may get additional memory cards thrown in on some deals, or maybe a case, so keep your eye out for those offers.

Finally it’s time to take the plunge. By this time you should have narrowed your choices down and any of your short list will be a good option. You can get final thoughts from friends or your local camera club maybe, but you can end up thinking too much and too long about it and end up without a camera three months down the line.

This is the scary one, but well worth playing with as it will help you understand what changing various settings do.

In manual mode you have to set the aperture setting yourself and you have to set the shutter speed setting yourself. If the resulting exposure is wrong, then you are to blame, if it’s right then that’s a feather in your cap and you deserve a pat on the back.

So how do you know what are the right settings? That’s when experience comes in, and it is not something that can be learnt quickly. Experienced photographers will know that on a sunny day, with the camera set to an aperture of f8, that a certain shutter speed will generally give them a decent result but as there are so many variables to think about, it is a tricky thing to do. Luckily with digital you can experiment as much as you want without worrying about wasting film and money on learning and making mistakes.

As manual mode involves setting two parameters, it takes that bit longer to set the shot up, so if a quick shot is what’s required then a mode like aperture priority or shutter priority might be the better option so you can concentrate more on getting the picture rather than worrying about settings.

On the other hand, if you have the time to set the shot up then using manual mode will teach you the most. Set the aperture and shutter speed, take a picture, review it and see if it looks ok. If it’s under exposed (too dark) then you might need to slow the shutter speed down a bit or maybe use a wider (smaller) aperture setting. If it’s over exposed (too light) then you will need to do the opposite, speed up the shutter speed or reduce the size of the aperture by choosing a larger aperture value.

I don’t want to dwell on manual mode too much at the moment, it’s a bit like running before you can walk, but I thought it needed to be mentioned. Don’t be scared of it, just remember that it needs a lot more thought and experience to get right.

These last few weeks, since having an operation, I was hoping to get loads of useful info on this site and really get it going, but as usual life just got in the way. My freelance web development work suddenly got busy and the sun came out too.

The good thing is that I have been making sure I got out and about taking lots of pictures to help demonstrate some of the things I have already talked about on this site, plus I have some photos ready for future articles which again will help demonstrate the points I am trying to make. I have several articles in ‘production’ that just need a few things finished off before they can be published so we should be back to regular updates soon.

I want to make sure when I write information that I don’t confuse people, and hopefully so far I haven’t done that. Example photos are the key to this, so it’s been good to actually take some pictures, and good that I know I will be able to explain some key aspects of photography clearly.

I have also been spending a little and have bought 2 new lenses, plus a set of extension tubes for my Sony Alpha 100 DSLR. This brings me up to an almost complete kit bag with only a decent flash, a tripod and maybe one more lens to complete my set up. OK, so it’ll never be complete, but it’ll give me everything I will need to satisfy a wide range of photography styles. I just need to resist buying too much more!

What I hope to do is to review the kit I use, not so much from a technical point of view, but from a photographer point of view taking into consideration cost, build quality and results plus anything else that applies to that particular piece of equipment. So that’s still to come once I’ve got more of the basics posted.

An online photography course is also planned later in the year. This will take the form of a weekly email giving you tips and information about a particular subject, and a task. Your photos for each task can then be uploaded and reviewed giving you advice on ways you could have improved your picture, or ways you could have done things differently.

As the web site grows, hopefully in popularity too, I will try and get guest articles by photographers giving their views and advice for beginners and those of you considering digital photography as a hobby or maybe a career move.

So, lots of big plans. Each will take some time to plan to make sure it is executed in the best way so you, the reader, get the most benefit from it, but rest assured, this site won’t be left to gather dust.

Here is an example of how shutter speed can be used creatively. The subject of these two shots is the same, the position is the same but the images look quite different.

You can see that the image on the left shows the water drops more clearly. This was taken with a fast shutter speed, so the action gets frozen and the detail is sharper.

The image on the right uses a slow shutter speed. When this image was taken, the shutter was open long enough for the water to move a distance which gives the more blurred and smooth effect.

Both shots have the good points, but both are interesting in how they show the detail. Water is a great way to experiment with different shutter speed settings as you can see the effects very easily. It’s worth remembering that with a slower shutter speed, the problem of camera movement becomes more apparent. A tripod, beanbag or supporting the camera on a wall or solid object should be used stop camera shake ruining the image.

Writer’s have it so why can’t photographers? When you are new to photography, or have just bought a fancy new camera, there comes a point when you think “I want to do some photography, but I just don’t know what to take pictures of!”. Maybe the weather is rubbish, maybe you have some time off work or school, but you just can’t get inspiration. So what do you do?

Well, for me, I look at other people’s work to see how other people view different things. I usually do this on the internet, or sometimes I thumb through several photography books I have. Web sites are easiest though as there are so many of them. Being a Flickr user, I use the “Last 7 Days of Interestingness” and see what photos have been popular. Photo communities like Photo.net are also good to see what other people have been doing photographically too.

Another thing to do is set yourself a challenge. Choose a theme, make it simple, and make yourself take a series of pictures. Themes can be as simple as “The Number 2″, “The Colour Blue” or “Circles”. This keeps it very broad but gives you enough focus (no pun intended) to think about your images. Try and make each image very different, ok some may not be successful, but you learn more from mistakes and you will start to train your eye to be creative in what you are looking at.

Another challenge to set yourself is to take one everyday object and get 10 different images of it. Use different camera settings, different lighting, different angles and different viewpoints but try and make every picture unique.