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When you know none of the theory of photography, it baffles the mind at first!

 

 

The Basic Theory Of Photography.

In one easy lesson.

 

A perfectly exposed photograph is the correct blend of ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

Much like internal combustion, alcoholic cocktails and jaffa cakes altering one ingredient can change the outcome but unless you alter the others in proportion you will bugger the whole thing up.

Turning up the fueling in a car will make it run rich, use more fuel and belch black smoke unless you alter the air intake and exhaust as well.

 

With a photograph, correct exposure is the correct intake of light.

You have three ways of altering that intake. Each option produces an effect but alters the amount of incoming light so the others need to be altered in proportion.

 

 

 

Moving from front to back Aperture is the first one.

Step one is to take a lens of your camera and hold it up to the light. Now move it through its aperture settings, looking through it whilst you do.

You'll start at, say, f1.8 (see below left) and move through to, say, f22 (see below right).

1832725.jpg

If you've got the "correct amount of light" thought in your head then you'll realise that f1.8 lets in more than f22.

Owing to refraction altering the aperture effects the depth of field (the depth of the picture which is in focus).

Have a look at those dice above the lens aperture pictures.

f1.8 gives only one dice in focus but f22 gives them both, in reality the difference is over a much greater scale as this picture shows.

f-stop-depth-of-field.jpg

Need a real example?

3651028212_639dae48f8.jpg

Looking Out by Tayne, on Flickr

This was taken at f1.8, the broken window (just the window, nothing on front or behind) is in focus but the building behind it isn't.

Here's another example.

This picture shows a Range Rover (approx 4.2meters long) in focus, you can see the oil leak around the front hub and the missing bumper end cap at the rear, but the road sign and the lake behind is not in focus.

6250028786_94e90b2eff.jpg

Range Rover by dollywobbler, on Flickr

This was shot at f10.

Now here's a picture shot at f25.

3111352276_8dc690812c_m.jpg

Traffic by Tayne, on Flickr

Look at the railings in the foreground and the building on the left, you can see a greater depth of field here.

 

So in conclusion, a wider f-stop (lower number, say f 1.8 ) lets in more light but reduces depth of field.

A smaller f-stop (higher number, say f22) lets in less light but gives greater depth of field.

 

 

 

Moving on to shutter speed, this one is a lot simpler.

The slower the shutter speed the more light comes in.

Now, why would you want to alter the shutter speed?

In a word, motion.

There's two kinds, the first is your own natural motion. Every person moves very slightly, even when trying to stand still.

Watch some hand-held home video footage if you don't believe me.

A faster shutter speed will mean a clearer picture, if handheld, as you will remove your own shakiness.

I've got a very steady hand and can shoot down to 1/5th on a good day, a friend of mine (with an identical camera) can't manage better than 1/20th.

If its windy, you're cold or hungry then increasing the shutter speed can mean the difference between usable pictures and ones that get thrown away.

The second motion is that of your subject.

A fast shutter speed will freeze the motion of an object.

Take a look at this.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccgd/3078471574/

That propellor is spinning, the blade furthers away almost looks still but you can see motion blur in the blade on the left.

That photo was taken at 1/4000th of a second.

Take a look at the second hand of your watch (or the timer on the microwave/cd/dvd player) and see how small a second is.

Now try and imagine dividing that small unit of time by 4000.

Of course, you'd want a slower shutter speed if you wanted to see some motion.

As an example, the cue ball on a pool table travels about 9" in 125th of a second.

357122428_ccb84c8c3f.jpg

Pot the Yellow by Tayne, on Flickr

And if you want lots of motion, then you need to mount the camera on a tripod(remember natural human motion) and take much longer exposures.

Have a look at the motion (and my freaky arms) shown in 6, 13 and 30 second exposures.

3798823553_dce775699d_m.jpg

Union Terrace by Tayne, on Flickr

3013766832_b5b55b3bcd_m.jpg

Speed of light by Mr T - thats me, on Flickr

2317829960_6856291ef9_m.jpg

Travel and Transport by Tayne, on Flickr

 

So in conlusion, faster shutter speeds mean less motion but less light.

 

 

 

Now to ISO.

In simple terms ISO is a measure of the camera sensor's sensitivity to light.

Altering this, turning it from its lowest setting, means more light will be taken in and turned into a brighter picture.

This may sound great for night photography, parties, concerts etc, however what you gain in sensitivity you also gain in noise.

Noise is the digital term for the grain that you can see on faster film.

I'm aware that this may sound like a lot of nonsense so have a look at these beers.

sc004.jpg

See how clear the label is at 64ISO and how noisy it is at 2000ISO?

However, this only illustrates one side of the coin.

One part of the mix has been altered (ISO) and the result is only showing in noise.

Other settings were adjusted to produce that picture.

Adjustment of ISO and nothing else would look more like this.

hrc-iso-comparison-lead-gadling.jpg

This shows the difference in brightness but doesn't illustrate the noise too well.

 

In conclusion, higher ISO more light but also more noise.

 

 

Now, as I've said at the top, the correctly exposed photo is the correct mixture of all three of these things.

Turn one up and you have to turn something else down and vice versa.

 

If you want to get this into your own head spend an hour or so with your camera at home.

Mount it on a tripod and point it as something in the room (doesn't matter what, as long as its not a blank wall).

Turn it to full manual and then take a series of identical photos only altering the shutter speed by one stop each time.

Review these pictures whilst still on the tripod, hopefully you'll understand what you are seeing.

Now take another series of identical photos but only alter the aperture by one stop each time.

Review these pictures whilst still on the tripod, hopefully you'll understand what you are seeing.

Now do the same again but only alter the ISO this time.

You'll probably want to review these on the computer as it has a larger screen.

 

This little exercise should get your head around the basics and make you a little more familiar with the camera.

Once you understand these three things and their relationship to each other then panning, night photography, low light stuff, motion blur all becomes rather easy.

 

 

EDIT: Or go and look at Richard's link.

Picture > 1000 words.

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+2- thats a great tutorial.

+3 - As someone who learned the old fashioned way using a Zenith and other manual, mechanical clunkers like Nikon Fs and the like, I agree. That's probably the most understandable "How to do photography" in easy steps I've seen in a long time. Well done if it was your own work, keep schtum if it wasn't! 8)

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+3 - As someone who learned the old fashioned way using a Zenith and other manual, mechanical clunkers like Nikon Fs and the like, I agree. That's probably the most understandable "How to do photography" in easy steps I've seen in a long time.

I've still got the Konica SLR I learned with, it was about 20 years old when i got it and that was 20 years ago.

 

Well done if it was your own work, keep schtum if it wasn't! 8)

 

If I was lucky enough to find something on the web to copy for Dollywobbler that featured his photos, my photos and pictures of me than I'd be off out buying lottery tickets.

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Some really excellent pictures on this thread - great stuff.

 

A few of mine - shot on either a Nikon D70 or D200 - except for the Scammell Highwayman which was a quick snap with an old point and shoot

 

6661400325_eb5c664d28.jpg

Pioneer anomaly solved by fryske, on Flickr

 

6577569115_55962c2866.jpg

Humber Hawk? by fryske, on Flickr

 

6550054009_19771327e5.jpg

Drove my Chevy to the Levee by fryske, on Flickr

 

6539658015_0e3190095b.jpg

Spacious. by fryske, on Flickr

 

5532685295_afa01bc0ed.jpg

Potential scrap eyes the scrap. by fryske, on Flickr

 

3846047219_396a762bd3.jpg

Seddon Atkinson 401 by fryske, on Flickr

 

5690113420_8a1aee0b61.jpg

Foden S21 KNN616E by fryske, on Flickr

 

5458458209_2293dc371c.jpg

1967 Scammell Highwayman JRH752E by fryske, on Flickr

 

4231027288_d02b9519ce.jpg

Atkinson gritter 6x6 EOY237J by fryske, on Flickr

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5690113420_8a1aee0b61.jpg

 

This is superb. What's the story behind the lighting?

 

Many thanks

 

25 seconds exposure under the yard lights - that's it.

The lights had a nasty orangey cast so I had to spend a little while correcting the colours - doubly important as the lorry is orange!

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Tayne, sorry to ask but how can you manually change shutter speed please? i've read the manual for my camera (Fuji S1850) which mentions that if the camera isn't in auto then the shutter speeds vary depending on which function is selected. However reading up somewhere it said that options 'M' and 'S' have various speeds etc: what I'm too thick to work out is how to alter the speed in each of those settings please. Does that make sense mate? Sorry if it sounds bollocks, just can't get my head round it and a Google search hasn't cleared it up for me.

Thanks in advance.

 

*Edit:

 

Think I found the setting on the camera, it goes from 1.0-2,000. Mucking about taking pictures of the telly at 2,000 the telly screen just looks black in the picture and at 1.0 you can see the telly picture but it's fuzzy. Assume I'm on the right lines now? Cheers.

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I'm keen to improve my photography skills but I only have a Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixel with 4x optical zoom and a 'smile shutter'. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced better alternative or can I do stuff with this camera I'm unaware of? :oops:

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Without wishing to sound like a pretentious arty twat, photography is 90% down to the 'eye' of the photographer and 10% down to the camera.

I'm guessing that Sony is a little compact camera and might not have manual control over aperture & shutter settings, but you'll still be able to take good photos on it.

 

It's perfectly possible to take excellent shots with a little compact camera, in fact the logic goes that if it fits in a shirt pocket you're more likely to have it with you than you are with a big feck-off DSLR so are more likely to get a good photo through sheer opportunity.

I've got a Nikon DSLR that spends most of its time in the hall cupboard, but I've taken some cracking shots with the 3 Megapixel camera on my ancient Sony phone. :wink:

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Tayne, sorry to ask but how can you manually change shutter speed please? i've read the manual for my camera (Fuji S1850) which mentions that if the camera isn't in auto then the shutter speeds vary depending on which function is selected. However reading up somewhere it said that options 'M' and 'S' have various speeds etc: what I'm too thick to work out is how to alter the speed in each of those settings please. Does that make sense mate? Sorry if it sounds bollocks, just can't get my head round it and a Google search hasn't cleared it up for me.

Thanks in advance.

*Edit:

Think I found the setting on the camera, it goes from 1.0-2,000. Mucking about taking pictures of the telly at 2,000 the telly screen just looks black in the picture and at 1.0 you can see the telly picture but it's fuzzy. Assume I'm on the right lines now? Cheers.

 

DPReview says the Fuji 1800 has shutter speeds between 8 seconds and 1/2000th of a second.

S should be shutter priority so the camera will adjust for whatever shutter speed you select.

I'm not sure using the telly to determine is ideal... perhaps taking pictures of a busy road would be better (almost no blur at 1/2000, loads at the other end of the scale). I'd also be very impressed if you can hold the camera steady for a 1 second exposure.

 

I'm keen to improve my photography skills but I only have a Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixel with 4x optical zoom and a 'smile shutter'. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced better alternative or can I do stuff with this camera I'm unaware of? :oops:

 

Take the photos you want to take and when the equipment starts holding you back then its time to upgrade.

Do you feel its holding you back now?

 

Without wishing to sound like a pretentious arty twat, photography is 90% down to the 'eye' of the photographer and 10% down to the camera.

 

Absolutely.

However my long post was meant to get people thinking about how it all works. If you understand it you can make better use of the equipment you have regardless of how fancy it is.

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Cheers again Tayne.

 

Right, soz to be a pain (as per) but can someone tell me where I went wrong with these shots please? When trying on higher shutter speeds (1/2000th etc) the pictures went dark and I can't understand why!

I think these are in sequence of starting at 1/2000 through to 1/1000 I think:

oultonparkjan2012114.jpg

oultonparkjan2012118.jpg

oultonparkjan2012127.jpg

oultonparkjan2012128.jpg

 

This I think was about 1/800

oultonparkjan2012428.jpg

And this about 1/500:

oultonparkjan2012429.jpg

 

Other pictures came out too light, though I don't think I'd gone to the other end of the scale. this being a good example:

oultonparkjan2012020.jpg

 

Most 'action' shots came out blurry. I chiefly used the 'continous shooting' mode in the hope that I'd get a few decent snaps, including 'high res' and up to 20 pictures in one (constant) hold of the button. Failed at this at nearly all the shots were blurry, such as these:

oultonparkjan2012334.jpg

oultonparkjan2012471.jpg

 

Somewhere I've got a cracker of a FAIL shot which I'll try and dig out. The foreground is perfectly in focus but the background (alas the bit I wanted) was blurred to hell.

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Cheers again Tayne.

 

Right, soz to be a pain (as per) but can someone tell me where I went wrong with these shots please? When trying on higher shutter speeds (1/2000th etc) the pictures went dark and I can't understand why!

 

On S mode you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture to suit- up to a point. I've used a Firefox add-on called FXIF to see the EXIF data from your pictures.

 

Bridge on the right-

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 13:20:31 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 63.5mm

Aperture: f/11.0

Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)

ISO equiv: 100

 

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 13:22:20 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 5.0mm

Aperture: f/6.4

Exposure Time: 0.0005 s (1/2000)

ISO equiv: 100

 

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 13:28:34 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 5.0mm

Aperture: f/6.4

Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)

ISO equiv: 100

 

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 13:28:50 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 5.0mm

Aperture: f/6.4

Exposure Time: 0.0020 s (1/500)

ISO equiv: 100

 

In the first picture the lowest the Aperture can go is F/11 (big number = small aperture and vice-versa) because you're zoomed in. In the next three shots you're zoomed out a bit so the camera can go to F/6.4, it doesn't change on these three shots because it's already as wide as it can go. The camera will have an underexposure warning if you know where to look. In this case you need to select a slower shutter speed, as you have done. If you wanted to maintain the faster speed you could have turned the ISO up, though you might have to accept a bit of graininess. This sort of issue is always going to occur when taking pictures of moving subjects in dull conditions. 1/2000 of a second is pretty damn fast though, that's really for extremely bright conditions.

 

 

Bridge on the left-

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 14:31:30 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 20.2mm

Aperture: f/10.0

Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)

ISO equiv: 400

 

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 14:31:43 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 20.2mm

Aperture: f/10.0

Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)

ISO equiv: 400

 

Were you in M mode for these two? I'd have expected the camera to get at least one of them right in S mode, unless there is a small range of apertures available. You have the ISO at 400 here, which lets the camera work with less light but the grain I mentioned earlier is apparent in the first picture.

 

 

Too light-

Camera Maker: FUJIFILM

Camera Model: FinePix S1730

Image Date: 2012-01-28 12:57:37 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 12.3mm

Aperture: f/8.0

Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)

ISO equiv: 64

 

Maybe your camera does have a small range of apertures. At this speed it's got more light than it can handle, it's turned the ISO right down to 64 and F/8.0 must be the smallest aperture available at that zoom.

 

Look for a display something like this on your camera _ _ _I_ _ _ (sometimes stacked vertically). A correctly exposed picture should fall on the I, though in practice you often find you need to be slightly above or below.

 

Your continuous shots look like a focusing fail, the camera has focused on the background.

 

I'm even boring myself now so I'll leave it at that :)

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Richard is right, the S1730 camera you have Billy does not have a huge range of manual settings so you will always struggle when not using the auto mode.

 

Still good to play around with but you need a camera with a lot more manual controls to really see how they work. Although you can change the aperture and shutter speed on the 1730, I'm pretty sure it is only in a few steps so not every option that would be available between the extremes of the F range.

 

I've got a Fuji HS10 which has similar controls to a D-SLR but is still a bridge camera so you don't need to have/change various lenses.

 

Don't get me wrong, the S1730 is still a great camera, at a track day it would probably have been worth using the SP mode and putting it on sport. That gives it the auto settings for fast shutter speeds needed.

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Not a patch on most of the above...

 

I think that's a terrific photo. You've certainly got an 'eye' for an interesting picture.

 

I haven't got a fancy camera but, as others have mentioned, you can get good effects with a compact camera and a little experimentation with the settings.

 

I'm quite pleased with this one I took recently.

 

PC110109.jpg

 

The camera is sat on the ground with a bit of twig to hold it at the right angle. Flash switched off for a long exposure; delay timer used to eliminate wobble. That's it.

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  • 2 months later...

Can I raise this one from the dead again? Oops. I just did.

 

I've just picked up my first camera that's not integrated into a phone, and have had a few unsuccessful spotting trips over the last few nights - although a few pictures have come out alright, as you may have seen in my fairly abysmal spotting thread.

 

It seems that quick snaps at night are fairly tricky, although I've managed this one:

DSC_2376.jpg

In auto-but-no-flash mode, with a second and a half exposure, using a wall to steady my arm - it was too far to rest the camera against it completely. Everything else has been a failure, and light seems to be key. It is, after all, what I'm recording :roll:

 

Does anyone have any tips on taking quick shots at night, or is the answer a tripod? ( Edit: I've re-read the thread again: Tripod, the ground, and painting the subject with a torch. Reet. Will try. Thanks Mr Peel and Mr Wobbler!)

 

On a less technical note, but probably more important: How do you explain yourself when caught by owners/passers-by taking pictures of cars in the street? Do you go further and tat-spot on people's driveways? Is the solution here always a camera phone and pretending to write a text message, or is there a knack I haven't yet learned for subtly spanning away with a DSLR?

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Enjoying reading the how-to's here, thanks chaps. I've come to the conclusion that the 'settings' on my HTC are meaningless, and that the GEC compact and Fuji S1600 I have access to, are going to take some mastering!

As regards stealth snapping - it's amazing what you can get away with. I do fake texts, and flick it onto camera from the drop-down bar, grab the pic and keep moving without a second thought now. A quick getaway tactic, is to look annoyed at the phone as if it's to blame for something, then phone voicemail.

Tho', having said that, I had to dodge round a girl the other night coming out of Asda, who'd stopped dead in front of me, taken a bridge cam out of her bag, and was happily snapping the sunset. It seemed as if I was the only person who'd noticed; most people tend not to say anything about it. My other half and her mates do that kind of stuff (and much more) all the time, and rarely is anything said. I even spent a fun 5 minutes snapping the local CID in a car park for practice. Witless fuckers never even noticed.

I've only been properly challenged twice - once outside a scrappy, where the owner wondered what the hell someone in a manky hi-viz and riggers was doing snapping his long line of scrap Mercs. He was placated with an introduction to Autoshite, and the kind of people who might buy bits of scrap Mercs :wink: , for all I know, he's ghosting yet. Maybe not.

The other was by a workmate, who couldn't understand why I'd be taking a pic of a tatty tractor, at night. I explained, but he didn't 'get it', and wandered away. People are either interested, or they walk away chalking it down to your OCD or something. Two excuses I will use in future - "It's my OCD", or "Art student".

Gonna go have a cig, and practice some night shots...

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Despite having full awareness of my rights regarding public spaces photography, I've never been challenged.

The chap in the beige/grey/primer Chevette (that I hadn't noticed sitting in his car) gave me a suspicious look as I took his picture. I gave him a smile and a thumbs up and he smiled back.

I have prepared a little story about a friend "who has one of these", he lives down south (so you'll not see him about - most of you lot can say oop north though), and I'm not sure what model/year his is but he says "you never see them about" so I'm taking a picture.

In all seriousness, if I ran something out of the ordinary I'd be happy when someone else showed an interest.

 

As for night photography, lengthen the shutter speed, use the delay timer and balance the camera on anything that comes to hand.

Bins, walls, fences, parked cars, the box for the button at the pedestrian crossing...

If you wad the strap up under the lens you can adjust the attitude on your improvised tripod.

You can use a Gorilla pod in a lot of odd places (and it'll fit in a large jacket pocket).

Also, adjusting the white balance can get rid of the orange tungsten street lamp colouring.

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