Camera Basics

All cameras from the simplest to the highest of high tech share some basic features.

Lens. The lens is made up of layers of glass which are each shaped to focus incoming light onto
a surface used to expose the image.

Light sensitive medium. In digital cameras this is a sensor - which comes in a variety of types
but all basically change light into an electrical signal. In film cameras, the exposure takes place
on, you guessed it, film.

A variably sized hole call the aperture. Located in the lens, the aperture control is a series of
blades which changes the amount of light passing through lens. The aperture's basic unit of
measurement for how much light is getting through is the "ƒ Stop." A whole Stop change in
aperture lets in either half as much light or twice as much light. On your lens (or in the view
finder, or maybe on an LCD menu on your camera) you typically see numbers like ƒ1.8, ƒ2.8,
ƒ4, ƒ5.6, ƒ8, ƒ11, ƒ16, and ƒ22. These are whole Stops which, as previously explained, lets in
twice as much or half as much light compared to the Stop beside it.

(It should be noted, f1.8 is actually 1/3 of a stop more than f2 which is the actual full stop
difference from f2.8 - however more lenes go to f1.8 than f2 as the maximum aperture.)

Learn more about aperture with this video.

A shutter which limits how much time light is allowed to enter your light-tight box. The
measurement for the shutter is the "shutter speed," also known as Stops, which is measured in
fractions of a second like 1/30th, 1/60th, 1/125th, 1/250th, 1/500th and so on. You can see a little
easier how each might vary the exposure by either half as much light, or twice as much.
Exposure times can also vary from 1/8000th of a second to several seconds. Some systems can
use up to hours of exposure

When hand holding the camera, its important to make sure the shot is not blurry from camera
shake. You should have the shutter set to the "same number" as you lens length. For example, if
using a 50mm lens, you want a shutter speed of at least 1/60th of a second. If you're using a
135mm lens, 1/125th is okay, but 1/250th would be better. I've found with digital, because most
have a multiplier effect (the sensor is smaller than 35mm film, and effectively make the lens 50
per cent longer) you need to set the shutter accordingly. If using a 50mm lens on a digital SLR, I
set the shutter to the half stop of 1/90th or faster.

If you don't have enough light for the exposure I recommend a sturdy tripod. If you have a
questionable speed, you can try bracing yourself against a post, tree, or other stationary object. I
never stop from taking the shot even when I'm doubtful, you never know - you might get a great
shot anyways.

Learn more about the shutter with this video.

A light tight box. Holding the lens, shutter and exposure medium, the body of the camera keeps
light out. On most cameras, the body also holds electronics to control the aperture and shutter.

The meter will help you determine the exposure you need. This is not something you can use on
all cameras - particularly very old SLR's and most point-and-shoot style cameras. The meter may
be part of the camera's system, but not have any visible meter for the photographer to use.
However, most serious cameras do have a display for the meter so you can determine your
exposure.

The most important part of the camera is the six inches BEHIND the viewfinder (assuming
you use the viewfinder, if you normally look at the LCD on the back of your digital camera that
would change to about 18 inches.)

A note about Stops. On modern cameras, there are numbers for additional fractions of a Stop,
which can be either 1/2 Stops or 1/3rd Stops. This makes learning your stops a little more
complicated but the principal still works.

Almost everything else on modern cameras is a way to control the focus of the lens, the aperture
or the shutter speed. On digital cameras there is one last control which is to set the colour
temperature. This will be explained later in another lesson.

If you're using a modern digital SLR, or a film SLR with a lot of automation on it, I highly
recommend you read your camera's manual closely to find out how to do basic control of: setting
the camera to manual exposure, setting the lens aperture, and setting the shutter speed. These
three areas are important for getting the most out of these lessons.

If you are using a pocket camera or point-and-shoot style camera, you can set these features on
some but not all cameras of this type. If not, you can skip the exposure control lessons and just
do the composition lessons.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/camera-basics/#ixzz3SoNh9OLR

Lesson 2 – Exposure (Basic)
As a point of reference, these are the typical “whole stops” for exposure;

Aperture:
f2,
f2.8,
f4,
f5.6,
f8,
f11,
f16 and
f22.
Shutter:
1 second,
1/2 second,
1/4,
1/8,
1/15,
1/30,
1/60,
1/125,
1/250,
1/500,
1/1000,
1/2000,
1/4000.
Many cameras have more stops at either end of these scales, but these are typical. As well, most
modern cameras have half stops or third stops. These make learning a little more difficult, but
keep the above numbers in mind to do proper exposures.

Note: Completing this lesson requires a camera capable of manually setting exposure.

What is the right exposure? Not to make this complicated, but exposure is a choice you have to
make. The exposure you choose determines how the image looks. But, we'll start with a basic
understanding and work up from there.

Exposure consists of four factors:

1. how much light is in front of you - which can be changed by adding lights or flash,
2. how sensitive the film is to light - called ISO (remember, I use the word "film" to refer to
whatever medium used for capturing the image, whether it is the Digital Camera's sensor
or actually film,)
3. the amount of light going through a lens - called the aperture,
4. how long the film is exposed - called the shutter speed.
For a little more about how this works see the Camera Basics Page.

For the moment, we'll set an average exposure on an average scene.

If you’re camera does not have a built in meter - its really old. But, that’s okay. You’ll just have
to buy a hand held meter. If you have an SLR or advanced point and shoot digital camera, spend
some time with the manual to find out how to bring up the “Histogram” which graphically shows
the amount of light in an exposure.

Exercise - set your ISO to 100, set your camera to ƒ16 and the shutter to 1/125th of a second.
(Some digital cameras are limited to ISO 200 - which means you have to cut your exposure by
one stop, i.e. use 1/250th instead of 1/125th of a second) With this setting, take your camera out
during a sunny day, put the sun behind you and shoot anything - you'll have a well exposed
image. This is called the "Sunny 16" rule.

To make life interesting, and your photography more creative, you can change the setting and
still have the same exposure. These are equivalent exposures: Try going to ƒ11 at 1/250th of a
second. Push it a little further at ƒ8 at 1/500th of a second. These are all the same exposure
because the same total amount of light is hitting the film.

Of course, you're not always going to shoot with the sun behind you on a sunny day. For other
situations you need to be able to find out your exposure with a meter. This can be in your camera
or hand held.

Looking at any scene, your meter will give you a suggestion as to what exposure to use. Most of
the time this is fairly accurate.

Using your meter, take a reading off of something with mixed tones in shade on a sunny day -
you'll find the exposure is two or three stops slower than the "Sunny 16."

A final note - A meter is very handy for getting your exposure, but it does have a limitation. As
said earlier, the meter thinks the world is 18 per cent grey. Most of the world is kind of like 18
per cent grey, but not all of it.

Look at what you're shooting. If its black (or very dark), your meter will try to make it grey - and
make the exposure too light. Conversely, if you're subject is white, the meter will try to make it
darker - or 18 per cent grey.

There are two more lessons on high key and low key photos which will help you handle more
extreme situations.

Note: Be aware that some digital cameras have exposure compensation built in to prevent
overexposure. If exposure is too bright the highlights could be "blown out" and detail lost in the
brightest parts of the image. By artificially "darkening" the image, the camera makers try to
make sure the exposures aren't too bright. This doesn't affect all cameras but it does seem to be
the case for some. That means that the exposure needed in lessons 2, 3 and 4 may be slightly
higher than suggested in the lessons. You might use the "expose to the right" method.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-2-exposure-basic/#ixzz3SoMsI7EE

Lesson 3 – Exposure: High Key

A high-key photo is basically white on white. This style of photography conveys a feeling of
lightness and clarity. Typically what happens is the camera wants to make the white of the photo
- without dark areas to 'balance' the exposure - too dark. So your white's become gray. You may
have seen this particularly when shooting a snowy field on a gray day. However, exposing for
high key is fairly easy.

With an in camera meter, you can measure the light hitting a white area, and open up two stops -
such as changing the aperture from ƒ11 to ƒ5.6.

Exercise: Put a large piece of white paper or white fabric on a table beside a large north facing
window, place a white object such as a Styrofoam cup or egg in the middle.

Take a picture with the exposure that the in-camera meter suggests. You may have to use a tripod
to keep the camera still if the shutter speed is too slow.

Next, meter off a white area and open up  1 and 1/3 or 2 stops - as described at the top of the this
page. Compare the images.

This can work well for other scenarios where exposure is a tricky thing - like weddings where
the bride is wearing white and the groom is in black. Quite often, the dress winds up blown out
with no detail in the dress. By metering off the dress and opening up two stops you can prevent
this from happening.

You can also use a hand held meter to measure the light hitting the subject, which will be more
accurate than the in-camera meter.

Note: Be aware that some digital cameras have exposure compensation built in to prevent
overexposure. If exposure is too bright the highlights could be "blown out" and detail lost int the
brightest parts of the image. By artificially "darkening" the image, the camera makers try to
make sure the exposures aren't too bright. This doesn't affect all cameras but it does seem to be
the case for some. That means that the exposure needed in lessons 2, 3 and 4 may be slightly
higher than suggested in the lessons. You might use the "expose to the right" method.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-3-high-key/#ixzz3SoNJngnq

Lesson 4 – Exposure: Low Key
This is the opposite of the previous lesson. A low key photo is pretty much black on black, or at
least very dark on dark. This kind of photo can create a sense of intimacy, foreboding, sadness,
and / or heaviness. You might have a face or object rimmed with light in a silhouette, but dark on
the side towards the camera and dark background.

The problem with shooting dark on dark is that the camera will try to lighten the image up
making the picture look washed out and grey.

For this shot you'll need a really dark cloth, preferably black, and an object that is dark or has
some dark tones in it. You could shoot a portrait of a dark haired person in dark clothing against
a black or dark background for a low-key portrait.

Note: Shooting an object or person that is very light or white against black has a different effect
and is not really considered "low key", although it can be striking image anyways.

Exercise: First, shoot the image with what you camera says is the right exposure. Very few in-
camera meters will render this scene accurately. Now, take a meter reading on something
dark/black that has the light hitting it and close the aperture two stops (i.e. if it is ƒ1.8 you'll want
to go to ƒ4.)

Compare the two images and see what difference it made.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-4-exposure-low-key/#ixzz3SoNWPjWm

Lesson 5 – Depth of Field

Depth of field - also sometimes known as depth of focus (although that does has a different
technical meaning - some people use that term) - is an area many photographers feel some
confusion over.

By changing the aperture in the lens, you can make the resulting picture have more of the picture
in focus from near to far, or you can limit the picture's focus on one place.

At ƒ1.8, the focus point will be much more defined with things in front of and behind the subject
becoming softer looking the further from the subject they are. This is a very nice way to bring
attention to the subject.

At ƒ22, the focus will seem to be sharp from very close to the camera to pretty much infinity.
This is great for giving a sense of the place you shot the image, or for including many people in
the image and keeping everyone clearly in focus.
However, there are limits to how that will appear in the final image.

Exercise: Find a subject/object that is still or will be in one place for a couple of minutes. Stand
about 2 feet from the subject and focus on it. Set your ƒstop to 1.8 (or a close as possible to that
based on the light) and set the shutter speed to get a proper exposure according to your meter.
You can set the camera to Exposure Priority (AV mode) and let the camera set the shutter speed
automatically. You should be using  50 mm lens or a zoom lens set to about 50 mm.

Now set your ƒstop to 16 and change the shutter as needed.

Step back to about 10 feet from your subject and re do the above settings - first at ƒ1.8 then at
ƒ16.

To really push this exercise, try all the above steps with different lenses or at different lengths if
you have a zoom lens - i.e.. try it at 35 mm and at 200mm, or whatever your zoom lens range is.

PS - a related subject is Bokeh which is a taken from a Japanese word 'boke' which roughly
means blur or haze. When a photographer says an image has 'good bokeh' he means the out of
focus areas have a smooth quality. Different lens and camera combination have different
qualities of bokeh.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-5-depth-of-field/#ixzz3SoNx35qE

Lesson 6 – Shutter Effects

You've probably seen those pictures of a race car or bike rider where the subject is in fairly sharp
focus but the background is blurry with streaks denoting speed. Perhaps you've seen a waterfall
that looks like flowing silk. Or you seen a picture with someone totally frozen in place during an
athletic moment.

These are a result of creatively using the shutter on the camera. High shutter speeds, such as
1/500th, 1/1000th, 1/2000th or higher (remember these are fractions of a second) create a
stopped motion.

Alternatively, slow shutter speeds such as 1/15th, 1/4, or even whole seconds, creates a sense of
motion through blurring of some part of the picture.

One of the issues is quite often if the shutter speed is too slow, an image can be blurry from
"motion blur" which can detract from an image if the effect isn't intentional.

Exercise: This is best done on a lightly clouded day that isn't too dark or too bright. Find a friend
with a bicycle or who likes to run. Go to an open area and set up your position. Have your friend
ride or run past you many many times. You'll need to do lots of exposures to get the shots.
First set your shutter speed as high as you can for the light - hopefully around 1/500 to 1/2000 -
with the aperture as open as you can set (i.e. ƒ1.8).

As your friend moves past you, keep him or her in the viewfinder, turning yourself at the waist to
constantly point your camera at your friend. Take lots of pictures for several passes. This is
known as "panning." You might want to try a couple of passes without tripping the shutter and
practicing keeping your friend in the viewfinder as he or she goes past you.

Now, set your shutter speed as low as you can - I'd suggest around 1/30, remembering to set the
aperture as high as you can for the light. Repeat the above panning motion to keep your friend in
the viewfinder. Take lots more pictures, remembering to keep turning yourself at the waist as
your friend goes by.

PS - to keep your images acceptably sharp, the rule-of-thumb is to keep your shutter speed at
least the same as your focal length - ie a 50 mm lens should be used with a shutter speed of 1/50
of a second or faster. However, I find with most digital cameras you want to add another 50 % to
that - so you want to shoot at 1/80 or faster (The one third of a stop equivalent of 1/75).

For sharp pictures a tripod is a very handy tool to free up your choice of shutter speeds.

Alternatively, you can hand hold a camera to surprisingly extended times with good technique:
place the bottom of the camera body in your left hand and support its weight with that hand, then
tuck your left elbow basically into your lower left rib cage. Finally hold the viewfinder close to
your eye and use your right hand to trigger the shutter and further stabilize the camera. Breath in
and let your breath out slowly while squeezing the shutter.

NOTE: most zoom lenses do not go down to f1.8 which is a general issue with those lenses. Just
try and get as close as you can.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-6-shutter-effects/#ixzz3SoOgIjN6

Lesson 7 – Rule of Thirds

 The most used lesson in artistic composition is the
rule of thirds. While there are lots of ways to compose pictures, this short cut always makes an
image more interesting than most where the subject is dead center. If you're shooting a close up
of a person's face or other object, putting it in the center is the thing to do. But, if you have a
picture with a person in the center and lots of scenery around him or her - well, it could be
improved.

Exercise: Take a piece of paper and draw two horizontal lines dividing the paper into thirds.

Draw two vertical lines again diving the paper into thirds.

Note the four places where lines intersect each other.

Now go take a picture of anything - placing the main subject at one of those four positions one
third of the way from the top or bottom and one third of the way from the side. In fact, try
placing the same subject at all four intersection positions. Take a look at the pictures.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-7-rule-of-thirds/#ixzz3SoPPAa7y

Lesson 8 – Diagonal Lines

A nice dynamic method of composing a photo is to have a diagonal line

running through he photo, from corner to corner or from 1/3 down from the top to 1/3 up from
the bottom. The line could be a street, a fence rail, a road or a shoreline. Anything which creates
a line or division in the picture.
Whether the line rises or falls creates different feelings about the photo. Typically, for English
speaking people and others with "left to right" direction of writing, if an line descends into the
picture from top left to bottom right it appears to be entering the picture. If the line rises from
bottom left to top right, it appears to be leaving the picture.

You can use those concepts to create specific feelings in your picture. Such as, a person standing
beside a lake shore - if the line descends, it would suggest the person is entering the picture and
thus would be, perhaps, happier and more inclusive. If the line is rising it would suggest the
person is leaving and is thus more distant and removed.

Diagonal lines in photos can be used for what is called a "leading line" which helps the view be
lead through the image in directed manner. Typically you'd have the lines "pointing" at the main
subject of your photo - which puts the leading lines into the Negative Space (you'll come across
more about Negative Space in Lesson 11.)

Exercise: Find a location where you can use a line to run diagonally through a picture. Take two
pictures, one with the line descending into the picture from the left, and the other rising to right.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-8-diagonal-lines/#ixzz3SoPmNQLh

Lesson 9 – ‘S’ Curves

Another dynamic composition tool is to include a "S" curve. As the name

suggests, a major element of the composition would be an object such as a stream, path, railing,
or other curved object that creates an "S."

If the S is right facing and starts in the lower left corner and exits the upper right corner - the
feeling for most English speaking people is that the picture is moving away from the viewer.

If the "S" is reversed, and starts in the upper left corner coming down to the lower right, the
picture seems to be coming towards the viewer. This effect is from, I believe, learning to read
left to right.

Exercise: Go out and find an S Curve to photograph. Explore right facing and left facing curves
and see how they feel to you.
Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-9-s-curves/#ixzz3SoQh0iqx

Lesson 10 – Balance
There are a few ways to achieve balance in photos.

The first is through symmetry - where you have equal size subjects on
either side of the photo. This creates a static, solid look with little movement.

The second is to place dissimilar size objects on either side, but to use the
center of the photo as a balance point in an asymmetrical composition. Just like an adult and a
child on a teeter-toter, the adult has to be much closer to the center balance point for the child not
to be held way up in the air the whole time. If you have a grouping of objects on one side, you'll
need something further out on the other side to create balance. An asymmetrical composition
creates a sense of movement and action, even if the subject is a stone.

Exercise - collect a bunch of rocks, some similar size and some dissimilar. On the sidewalk or
other handy surface, try creating several symmetric and asymmetric compositions, taking
pictures of each.

This exercise is based on exercises in Drawing on the Artist Within. This is an excellent
book for learning about creating art - the basics are taught through drawing but are
applicable to all art forms and just great for learning to be creative. I highly recommend it. (click
on the cover image to purchase from Amazon.com)

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-10-balance/#ixzz3SoSGAwPD

Lesson 11 – Negative Space

One way of making sure your composition is strong is to pay

attention to the positive and negative spaces.

The primary subject of your photo, a person, building, toy car, whatever, is the "positive space."

Negative space is everything else. Something you see in a lot of photography is things sticking
out of heads, wires across the scene you didn't see when taking the picture, and so on. This is just
from paying so much attention to the subject that photographers forget what is in the background
or surrounding the subject.

Exercise: take pictures of three different subjects outside. Doesn't matter what they are, a person,
a car, a building. While taking the picture, don't worry about the subject, just pay attention to
what is around and behind the subject.

Use the background to compose the shot - for this exercise, the actual subject is not important. If
the background is not working for you, move around until it is - zoom in or zoom out to change
perspective, get low, or go higher. Whatever makes the background a pleasing photo.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-11-negative-space/#ixzz3SoR1zqLR

Lesson 12 – Pick A Subject
The absolute best way to improve as a photographer is to DO photography - get out and shoot. A
great way to push yourself into better photos is by concentrating on one subject over a period of
time. Each time you photograph your subject, whether its a person, plant, place or thing, find a
new way to photograph it. It could be from a different angle, different time of day, different light
- whatever you can do to see the subject in a new way.

For this lesson, pick something near by you can photograph on a regular basis. It could be: your
car, your cat, your "significant other", your guitar, what you see while walking through the
neighbourhood, objects that look like numbers, rusty objects, etc.

Anything that you like to look at.

Exercise:

Every day for the next 10 days take some pictures of it. Look for different ways of seeing the
same subject. Place your subject in different places, different light situations, try some of the
different exercises in composition - find an S curve in the subject, or place your subject into an S
curve, same with diagonal lines, etc. Just keep shooting and learning about the same subject.

What you learn from this simple exercise will carry through into most things you shoot.

Enjoy.

Read more: http://bestphotolessons.com/lessons/lesson-12-pick-a-subject/#ixzz3SoR5pybX