Photography Basics

Believe it or not, you can buy things cheaper from other internet stores then you can on ebay. OK, there are some bargains to be had, especially with photography equipment, but the common thought that everything is cheaper on ebay is not always true.

One great source of second hand camera gear is on photography related forums. Many photographers give the first offer to people who use their favourite forums and often the offer will be better than when they put their gear on ebay.

If you are thinking about buying a camera, it is well worth checking out the second hand market as other photographers are replacing their kit when they reach it’s limits, but it can be perfect for a beginner. With digital prices coming down all the time, a 1 year old camera will still have all the functionality you would need to learn photography, but will be a fraction of the price of a new camera.

Get closer to your subject.

Once you have taken a picture from the viewpoint that you think is right, try getting closer and taking it again. You can do this by physically walking, or running if you feel the need just don’t drop your camera, closer to the subject or using your zoom lens and zooming in on the subject.

This fills the frame with more detail from the shot rather than the wider view and can help pick out certain details more effectively.

Getting really close may give your image a more abstract look where patterns and shapes make the image instead of a recognisable object.

Shutter Priority is another partly manual mode that most digital cameras will allow you to use. Shutter Priority is usually indicated as an S or Tv on the camera and it allows you to set the shutter speed while the camera will control the aperture setting.

While aperture priority allows you to control the depth of field of your image, shutter priority allows you to control how motion of anything in the image is recorded. For example, for sports photograph, when you want to capture fast moving objects, using a fast shutter speed will help capture the action as sharply as possible. For landscape photography, on the other hand, you might want to use a longer shutter speed to create smooth looking water effects.  Fading light can also require a longer shutter speed when you want to continue using the same aperture.

Along with it’s other plans for world domination, Google has a great piece of software for managing your images and making basic enhancements to them, and best of all, it’s Free!

The software is called Picasa and comes as part of the Google software pack. If you don’t want the expense of buying other software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop CS2, then Picasa can be a good alternative.

OK, it doesn’t really stand for panic, but it can be thought of that way. The P mode on your camera sets everything in fully automatic, so all you have to think about is composing the shot and pressing the shutter release button. So if you have been playing around with camera settings and that shot of a lifetime comes along and you don’t want to mess it up, you can set your camera to P to get the shot.

This means the camera will select an ISO setting, Shutter Speed and Aperture for what it thinks is the best exposure for the conditions it can detect. Most cameras will allow you to override certain settings in P mode if you think it’s needed.

The P mode can be useful for people who are new to photography and don’t want to use any of the manual settings, and it can be good for getting that spur of the moment shot so you don’t have to worry about any camera settings and you just want to record the moment.

Using the P mode is fine, but exploring the other modes, giving you more control over the image, will help you produce better quality work and understand photography a lot more.

Digital cameras come with various modes that allow you to take more control of taking the picture. One mode which your camera may have is called Aperture Priority which is usually symbolised on the camera by an A or Av.

This mode allows you to control the aperture setting manually, but the camera will work out the suitable shutter speed to achieve, what the camera thinks, is a good exposure.

So what does controlling the aperture allow you to do, and why would you want to do it?

Aperture controls something known as Depth Of Field which is the area of the image that is in focus. The rule is that as the aperture number gets smaller, which means the hole is getting larger, there will be a smaller amount of the image in focus.

The following diagram is a fairly crude diagram which explains depth of field a little more.

The red line is the point where you are focussing the camera.

The grey area is the area of the scene in front of you that will appear to be in focus for a given aperture.

It should be noted that this is not an accurate diagram, it just demonstrates what happens when you change the aperture settings. It should also be noted that the change from in focus to out of focus is a gradual one.

So really, depth of field is the distance of that graduation from the point of focus.

Why is this useful?

Using a small depth of field is a great way to isolate the main object in the picture. Sports or wildlife photographers use this technique to blur out distracting backgrounds keeping the main focul point sharp. Using a wide aperture also allows a faster shutter speed to be used which again helps keep moving objects sharp.

Using a larger depth of field is good for landscape pictures, when you want the area close to you and the area far off in the distance to be in focus. Using a large depth of field means that you usually need to use longer shutter speeds which means that some form of support for the camera is required to keep the camera still which the shutter is open. You will rarely see a landscape photographer without a tripod.

If your lens allows you to screw on filters, get yourself a UV filter, or Skylight filter and put it on your lens and keep it there. You now have a lens guard. Buying a new filter is a lot easier and cheaper than buying a new lens if you manage to scratch it or you manage to damage it in some other way.

Aperture is the term used to describe what is simply the hole in the lens that light travels through to reach the camera’s sensor or film. This hole can be set at different sizes, and combined with shutter speed, you get the two main settings which control exposure. There is some maths involved to get the actual values, but to be honest, that doesn’t really matter. What’s more important is to know what aperture is, and what happens when you change it. Getting your head round aperture can be a bit of a hurdle, so hopefully this will help a little bit.

The first thing to get your head round is that the smaller the number the larger the hole. OK, that may sound a little odd but in this example f2.8 is the largest hole, and f22 is the smallest hole for the lens shown in the next photo.

Don’t worry about the ‘f’ either, there aren’t ‘g’ settings or ‘z’ settings, but it’s handy to know that when someone says “I used f8″, you know what they are referring to.

There are of course a range of settings in between the ones shown, and depending on what lens your camera has may effect what settings are available to use, but this should give you an idea of what is actually happening when you change the aperture setting on your camera. By making the hole smaller, you are reducing the amount of light that reaches the sensor or film in the time that the shutter is open. So from this you can start to see how shutter speed and aperture work together.

For example, if you are getting the perfect exposure with a shutter speed of 1 second and an aperture of f8, and then it gets a bit darker. You want to let more light in, so you can either keep the shutter open for longer, or make the hole bigger. Both will let more light in, but both have their own effects on the image, and it is these effects you should learn to understand.

Camera clubs are a bit like Marmite, you either like them or you don’t.

Camera clubs have a reputation as being a few grey haired old men talking about the pros and cons of a certain film, or comparing how big their lenses are.

However, camera clubs are NOT all like this, and they can be a great place for the beginner to learn and get advice, and even get some good second hand bargains frm ther members. The club will have lots of people who share the same interest in photography, there will be range of abilities, and there will be people who will willingly pass on their extensive experience.

The club will usually run competitions where the work gets critiqued by an experienced photographer from the club, or a guest judge, and this can be a great way to get feedback, good or bad, about your work. It can be daunting entering your work into a club competition, but it is well worth the effort. You may even find it does well!

Digital photography has helped, I think, widen the age range at camera clubs too. If you are lucky you may even see club members in their 20’s! Seriously though, with digital photography and digital darkrooms becoming more accessible, it attracts more people who, in the days of film, may not have been quite so interested.

I would recommend finding your nearest camera club and going along to see what you think. Give it a couple of visits before deciding if it’s for you or not, take a willing victim friend or realtive with you if you are a bit shy, but give it a go. It can be well worth the effort.

With digital photography becoming more accessible to the masses, and the level of technology that is available becoming cheaper all the time, for someone wanting to learn photography, digital is the best option over film because:

1. No more processing costs. With digital you can take as many pictures as you want. You don’t have to buy rolls of film, and you don’t have to send it away to be developed.

2. Instant results. As soon as you have taken the picture you can see the results. So now there is no waiting around to see if you got that important shot while the film is being developed.

3. Getting instant results gives you the chance to try again straight away if the picture didn’t turn out as you wanted. A major plus point for the beginner.

4. Although the initial purchase price may be quite high, once you have the kit there is very little extra expense, unless you start to get into it seriously.

5. Digital images give you a lot of flexibility to enhance or improve the image by using software on your computer. A lot of these enhancements can be done at the click of a button in most software applications so it is very easy to do.

6. Information on the camera settings for each shot gets embedded in the digital image file so you can see how different settings can effect the image. In the film days you would keep a log of your camera settings for each shot while you are learning. Now you get that log whenever you take a digital picture.

7.  Film has a shelf life, memory cards don’t. As film get’s older it degrades and may give you unexpected results. A memory card, if looked after, will last a lot longer than a roll of film will.

8.  Digital images can be easily displayed to the world via web sites. It’s possible to take a picture and upload it to a web site within seconds if you have the right equipment. Press and sports photographers see this as a huge benefit.

9.  Digital files can be easily stored. You no longer need to have boxes of photos or slides tucked away in a cupboard. Now you can save hundreds of photos into one CD, or even more onto a DVD.

10. Film comes as one particular type, such as ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800 or ISO 1600. This limits you to the conditions in which you can take pictures. With digital you can change the settings from one picture to the next giving you greater flexibility.