A manual by William Snyder

Effective Photography

Effective Photography

Contents
Introduction..........................4 Orientation............................5
Aperture 6 ISO 6 Shutter Speed 6 Shooting Modes 7 Lighting 8 Film vs. Digital 8

Technique..............................9
Angles 10 Portraits vs. Events 10 Rule of Thirds 10 Spacing 11 Framing 11 Silhouetting 11 Perspective 11 Print vs. Web 13 Editing a Photo 13

Editing...................................12 Examples..............................14 Index.....................................22

Introduction
In the field of publications there is usually a high volume of pictures that must be taken for a variety of purposes. In addition, there is usually a different deadline for each picture and in the face of so much work it is easy to neglect quality to save time. Photographers may take many quick pictures and neglect to put any thought into the composition of their pictures. The result of this habit is repetitive pictures that are usually boring. One way that many people try to save time when using a camera is to resort to automatic settings. Modern DSLR cameras have many automatic settings which can be useful for the novice photographer. Automatic settings are no guarantee, however, as pictures are dependent upon the conditions the camera was programmed for. A good photographer who knows how to adapt a camera to changing environments can bring out aspects of a scene that automatic setting miss. When thought is put into the framing of a shot the results are much better and the photography is much more interesting. Interesting shots make the story or publication they are used for look much more developed. A photo opportunity should never be thrown away with a shot that does not take advantage of the situation. The purpose of this manual is to give the reader and understanding of how the camera works to produce a picture with the intention that a better understanding of the equipment will produce better results. Several techniques in shooting are explained and the manual ends with example pictures which make use of the techniques explained in the manual. Readers are encouraged to practice using the techniques in this manual so that they can understand the advantages of each.

Orientation

Aperture
The aperture of a lens refers to the amount of light that is being let into the lens. Aperture is measures in numbers, and is commonly abbreviated with the letter f on cameras. Small numbers indicate a bigger opening, and bigger numbers indicate a smaller opening. The size of the aperture is called the f-stop. The aperture is used for changing the depth of field, which refers to how deep into the background the focal plane extends. For example if you were to focus on an object close to the camera, in the area called the foreground, using a large aperture (small number) will make the background very blurry and smaller apertures will bring the background more into focus. This is called the bokeh effect and is a result of the wave-particle duality of light. Bokeh is very useful for shooting portraits because it gives the subject more definition.

Shutter Speed
Shutter speed determines how quickly the shutter of the camera opens to expose the film or light sensor and is measures in inverse seconds, as in 1/100th of a second. The shutter should be open long enough to capture a sharp image. Any longer and the image will appear over-exposed or blurry; any shorter and the image will be too dark. This amount of time has to do with the size of the aperture. Your camera has sensors to determine an appropriate shutter speed for any aperture and vice-versa. Brighter environments call for shorter shutter speeds and darker environments call for longer shutter speeds. Longer shutter speeds are useful for giving a blur effect to running water or a trace effect to bright lights. A tripod should be used with a long shutter speed to reduce camera shake.

ISO
ISO is a measure of the sensitivity to light, with 100 being the lowest and some digital cameras today have up to 6400 ISO. Increasing your ISO will allow you to shoot in lower light, however the drawback with using a high ISO is noise in the image. This could be desirable to a certain extent, as the noise will give your image definition, but this depends upon your tastes. Before you begin to add noise to your image though, higher ISO values can bring out textures better than lower numbers. To be safe you should shoot with the lowest ISO number you can get away with.

Shooting Modes
The three factors just mentioned: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, form the exposure triangle as these are the only three factors that can affect the outcome of your image. When you use the automatic modes on your camera, such as landscape, portrait, or indoor, the camera is setting limits on these three parameters. To have more control over your images however, automatic modes should be avoided. Your camera is only a computer and cannot see as a human can, and this is where knowledge of your camera comes in handy. Besides the automatic settings, cameras always have two other shooting modes: Aperture-Priority and Shutter-Priority. Aperture mode lets the user choose an aperture and the camera chooses an appropriate shutter speed, while Shutter mode lets the user choose a shutter speed and the camera chooses an appropriate aperture. Generally a larger aperture means a shorter shutter speed and vice-versa. These are the two most useful modes of a camera. Aperture: Controls the diameter of the lens opening. Use to add bokeh. Shutter Speed: Controls how long the image is exposed. Adds motion blur or tracers. ISO: Controls how sensitive to light your camera is. Adds texture (noise). The best way to learn how to use these vvelements in combination is to experiment. Additionally there is a full manual mode in which the user is free to select both the aperture and the shutter speed, however this mode is reserved for adding artistic effect to a shot, such as a blur or trace, as the resulting pictures will not be as sharp.

Lighting
For even lighting in all of your pictures, there are two steps. First find the light source and the direction of shadows. Next have your subject face the light. This is the safest way to shoot a subject. One common rule is that the best times to shoot photos is in the morning just after sunrise and in the evening just before sunset. The sun rays are nearly parallel with the ground at these times and the shadows produced are the most dramatic. Overcast or cloudy days have their own advantages as well. In this lighting there will be no shadows. This can be used to your advantage because objects will have the most natural coloring, as opposed to bright sunlight which makes grass appear too green. Again this is up to you as the photographer if you think sunlight produces unnatural colors, and in some ways these over-saturated colors could be used to your advantage. When shooting indoors, it is best to avoid overhead lighting. Anything other than incandescent lighting produces unnatural colors; this is why peoples skin look so bad under fluorescent lighting. Shoot your subjects near the windows for the most natural look. When shooting indoors you should use a high ISO and a fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur.

Film vs. Digital

Film and digital cameras perform the same task but in different ways, and this results in small differences that must be considered when using both kinds of cameras. Because of the mechanics used to capture the image, a digital camera will always have a slightly longer shutter speed than a film camera. Digital cameras have more developed automatic modes. Digital cameras also shoot in what is called RAW format. Raw format is the best way to shoot because you preserve more of the original image; JPEG involves compression and loss of quality. Digital cameras have more upfront cost but provide more freedom as you can take as many pictures as you want. A film camera always captures a slightly sharper image and has a grain that gives an image a more vibrant quality. Film cameras also shoot with a bigger frame size than a digital camera. However, film must be developed and unless you have dark room skills, you would be turning your images over to a different person who may not understand the effect you were going for when you shot a picture.

Technique

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Angles
Always shoot from unconventional angles! Never shoot your subject head on from eye level. Your photos should leave the viewer asking themselves how you even took the picture. Showing average things from unnatural angles makes anything look more interesting. To make a picture look better, consider shooting from a low angle or an overhead angle. Viewing the scene differently than the average human will make the viewer think more when they look at your picture.

Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a very simple yet important rule for framing your picture. Break up the view of the camera into sections of 3X3 and then arrange the main points of the shot so that these points fall on intersections of these lines or on lines themselves. Framing a picture this way makes the shot appear neat and the important parts of a picture will be easy to find. A variation on the rule of thirds is to break the frame into golden sections, based upon the golden ratio. Another technique is to visualize a golden spiral in the frams of your image. Arrange key elements of the photo along the path of the spiral.

Portraits vs. Events

When shooting a portrait the idea is to capture the person and not the background. A good way to enhance the person over the background is with a low aperture. This will give the bokeh effect and blur the background while keeping the person in sharp focus. A lower ISO should be used to avoid noise in the image. A tripod will help to have a sharp picture. Avoid overhead lighting for portraits and instead shoot near a window or at times when the sun is not directly overhead. For events, you will need a high ISO so that you can capture images with good definition. A high aperture should be used so that the entire scene is in good focus. Bokeh will be detrimental to the scene. Fast shutter speeds will be needed to reduce motion blur. Try to capture the excitement of the moment. Avoid shooting people when they are talking because this tends to capture unattractive facial expressions.

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Spacing
Spacing refers to how much space there is in the foreground or the background of an image. A viewer has the feeling of being closer or farther away from the subject based upon how much space there is in the fore ground. The size of a scene is shown by how much space there is in the back ground. By having little space in the foreground and back ground, the scene will look very small. Spacing depends upon depth of field, which is the size of the area that is in focus. To show lots of space a small aperture should be used so that the depth of field is large, and for a small space a wide aperture will keep the space small.

Silhouetting
A silhouette is when a person in a picture appears very dark while the background is very bright. While a silhouette could be bad in some kinds of images, it can be used to place enphasis on the environment instead of the person. In fact the person in silhouette will not be recognizable. To achieve a silhouette, face the camera into the light source and have your subject stand between the camera and the light source. Use a large aperture to keep the focus on the person, or a small aperture to keep the ocus on the room.

Framing
Framing is about where your subject is placed in the frame in relation to the background. Elements in the background can be arranged as a frame around a person for a portrait, such as having the person standing in a doorway. Use framing to explicitly mark a point of interest in a picture. A wide aperture should be used to differentiate the subject from the frame.

Perspective
When a picture is taken from an angle that gives the reader context as to where they are viewing from, this is called perspective. You are placing the viewer directly into the scene by showing them a view from a location that they will recognize. The more unrecognizable the perspective is the better sometimes, as everyday objects viewed in irregular ways will definitely capture attention. However a recognizable perspective might be safest.

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Editing

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Print vs. Web

There are different things you must consider when saving a picture for print or for web use due to the different coloring methods used in each system. Printing using a subtractive color process with the use of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dyes (abbreviated CMYK) and web colors are an additive process using red, green and blue light (abbreviated RGB). The two systems have slightly different color spaces and therefore you must save different copies of a picture for each use. A picture can be changed from one mode to another in Photoshop.

Editing a Photo
The best way to edit a photo is to be as minimal as possible. If you have to change the picture too dramatically by adding contrast or changing the exposure, you should correct instead your photography approach. Digital editing tools should be used to aid your photo and not to compensate for poor skills. That being said there are some very useful tools in Adobe Photoshop. The levels and curves tool essentially perform the same function. Use these tools too add contrast to a photo. In both tools you use the three eyedroppers to select a black point and a white point in an image. This will correct white balance, exposure, and contrast all at once. The crop tool can help you alter the framing of your image. This tool adds guides that will help you use the rule of thirds and other framing rules. Before you export a photo, think about sharpening the photo. If there is noise in the image already, do not sharpen because this will bring out the noise and make the photo look worse. If you will be reducing the size of the image, sharpening can help to preserve the detail in the photo.

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Examples

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This picture is a good example of spacing. By leaving little space in the foreground, the images makes the viewer feel very close to the subject. The shallow depth of field from using a big aperture places emphasis on the size of the beetle. Low apertures are useful for macro shots such as this one.

This picture, taken from the top of a mountain, has a lot of space in the background. This is a good way to emphasize distance, as in this picture the elevation of the mountain stands out. Spacing can be used to show how far the subject has come and to give dimension to a picture.

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Here the rule of thirds was used to construct the shot. The subject and the shoreline are on opposite sides of the frame as these are the focus of the image. By showing the huge space of the open ocean behind the subject the viewer gets a sence of the open environment the picture was taken in. A small aperture was used to keep the deep background in focus.

This picture was also composed using the rule of thirds, as the stairway is occupying the left third and the creek the right third. A small aperture was used to show how far the stairs extend.

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This picture also uses spacing to bring the viewer close to a small object. The bubble is in the center of the frame and calls the viewers attention. A big aperture was used blur the background and keep the focus on the bubble.

This image was taken at slightly below eye level. Additionally, the barges extention was used as an infinity point for the scene to give the picture depth. The subject is placed according to the rule of thirds. A small aperture was used for maximum depth of field .

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This picture is a good example of motion blur. The lights are shows as dots because LED lights rapidly turn off at approximately 60 times a second, otherwise there would be continuous trails of light. The image was taken inside and with no flash, so the shutter speed was very slow. To cause the blur, the lens was zoomed at the time the shutter was open. Alternatively the photographer could move the camera while the shutter is open. Ideal conditions for this effect are at night or in dim areas with lights much brighter than the ambient light. Large apertures give the best glow effect.

The dock in this picture is centered in the frame to signify that the dock alone is the subject of the image. The barge in the background symmetrically extends past the frame and does not pull any focus. The person in the photo was placed slightly off center to contrast the symmetry of the scene. This juxtaposition does pull focus, as is intended, to make the person stand out in this portrait.

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This picture uses framing and angles to highlight the subject of the image. By using a reverse angle the viewer has a sence of position in the scene, and is aware that the picture was taken from the passengers seat. A large aperture was used to make the focal plane distinct from the rest of the image.

The angle of this picture is from the view of the person holding the fishing pole, so the viewer is seeing from the perspective of the boat. The space between the pole and the background gives dimension to the lake.

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This picture is a good example of noise in an image that is the result of a high ISO. In this case 800 speed film was used, and the film wasnt handled properly which resulted in the light leak at the right. Though both are generally considered defects or imperfections in a image, in this case the two add character to the image.

This portrait captures the emotion of the subject very well due to the use of a flash. Flash and direct lighting is the best way to capture the feeling of a moment, and is very difficult to accomplish. The flash has lit the subject brightly while still keeping the background dim. The picture also uses symmetry to keep the focus on the person. While the person is in the middle of the frame, the window in the background is even around the person and also adds a frame to the image.

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This picture took advantage of the reverse lighting in the building to capture the silhouette. Silhouettes are useful for emphasizing the location the photo was taken while anonymizing anyone in silhouette. A small aperture was used to keep the view of the window in focus. The person is framed by the glass umbrellas in th window.

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Index
A F O
20 Overcast 8 8 19 P 11 perspective 11, 19 6 Photoshop 13 portrait 7, 10, 11, 18, 20 film 6, 8, angle 10, 11, 19 Film 3, aperture 6, 7, 10, 11, focal plane 6, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21 Framing 3, 10, Aperture 3, 6, 7 f-stop automatic 4, 7, 8

infinity point 17 R blur 6, 7, 8, 10, 17, 18 ISO 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 RGB 13 bokeh 6, 7, 10 rule of thirds 10, 13, 16, 17

B C D E

CMYK curves

levels 13 lighting 13

8,

10,

20,

macro depth of field 6, 11, 15, 17 manual dimension 15, 19 motion blur events 10 noise

1,

4,

13 S 21 sharpening shutter should silhouette 11, 15 Spacing 3, 11, 7 symmetry 18,

13 6 21 15 20

8, 10, 18

T
trace 6, 18

6, 7, 10, 13, 20