1) Intro
Hello! A lot of friends have been suggesting that I start off an introduction for the basis of photography. I have been taking photos for about two years and I am by no means a pro. However, I tend to be adequate at maintaining my photographic knowledge. I keep up to date by reading Amateur Photographer Magazine, I read books, I am a member of many forums, I am on flickr (essential I find) and I always browse either youtube and lynda.com when I need to learn a particular technique. Kenrockwell.com must be mentioned , especially with respect to camera equipment as this is where I have formed my basis for product purchases.
2) Camera Choice
Ahhh the camera. Which one do you get? Im not exaggerating when I say that you can take a masterpiece on a iPhone and even a disposable. You can get some great compacts nowadays but saying all this : once you make that move up to SLR , it all changes ; you can never go back!!
The fact that you can interchange lenses in addition to the options that you simply cannot get on a compact make SLRs the weapon of choice. Examples of lenses include portrait, wide, ultra wide, zoom , macro and fisheye ; all for completely different outlooks and purposes.
As for the many companies out there – Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, Lumix and Sony ; Ive grown up on Nikon cameras – Nikon d40, Nikon d90 and currently Nikon d700. Obviously Nikon and Canon are the best two out there (within a reasonable or more reasonable price range!), but the others are serious competitors. In some cases the camera bodies may even be better than the top two , but I cannot help but feel that the Canon and Nikon lenses are superior. Remember that camera bodies come and go, but lenses retain their price. Expensive lenses are better than expensive bodies.
The camera I would recommend for a beginner photographer would be a Nikon D3100 or any of the 500 pound or less canon eos cameras. The kit lens ( either 18 – 55, 55 – 200 or variants) that come with the cameras will more than suffice at the start. The photos you produce will make you happy.
My recommendation however would be to skip straight to a portrait lens (35mm) with a high aperture (f number e.g. 1.4/ 1.8). This is how ‘open’ the lens can be and thus how much light is let in. This gives rise to the blurry background photos that you see professionals take. The photos you take with this lens will be twenty times better than with a zoom lens and you will be surprised as to why you didn’t take the portrait lens route in the first place.
Whichever camera you get, just get to know it inside out, get used to it, and learn it. You will then be ready for any situation whether it be taking photos of sport, children, animals, concerts or weddings. The general settings you will need will be explained in the following chapters.
Lesson 3: Understanding Photography
Ok, Lesson 3. There are three variables in existence that you will need to understand in order to take the best photos. Understanding how they relate to each other is also essential.
Aperture. Shutter Speed and ISO (pronounced Aye-Es- Oh).
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Aperture
Aperture is how ‘open’ the lens is. The more open the lens is the more light is let in.
Aperture is given in values from (around) 1 to 22; 1 being very open (large hole) and 22 being very closed ( small hole). The symbol for aperture is f.
Without wondering why for now, large apertures (large opening) are used for portrait photos as these give rise to the fuzzy backgrounds that make the subject ‘pop out’. Small apertures (small opening) are used for landscape photos as this makes the whole photo in focus and thus detailed as a whole.
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When the aperture is high (e.g. f/1.4 and large opening ) more light is let in. This means that high apertures can be used in situations where there is lack of light and the photo will still come out fine. Think concerts.
When the aperture is low (f/16 and small opening), less light is let in and so more light is needed in order for the photo to come out correctly. The light that is needed at these low apertures is called ambient light. In addition, partly because of this lack of light the person taking the camera will have to hold very still, otherwise the photo will come out blurry. ( A tripod is normally used at low apertures).
Due to the fact that less light is let in – the camera will decrease its shutter speed ( i.e. increase the time that the camera shutter is open ) to try and get more light in. This will lead to the photo being blurry if the shutter speed is too slow. Which leads us to the explanation of shutter speed.
Shutter Speed
In basic terms this is the length of time the shutter is open. ( think of the noise a camera makes when you press the button ; click…click). This is the sound of the shutter opening (to let in light) and closing ( to prevent any more light entering).
With old style SLR film cameras, when the shutter was opened a square of film would be exposed to light thus producing an image. With digital SLR cameras, there is a similar method but instead of film there is an electronic sensor sensitive to light.
On basic or compact cameras these two ‘clicks’ of the shutter are almost instantaneous. However, on more advanced SLR cameras where the length of time the shutter can be open can be varied, the sounds of the shutter opening and closing at separate times can be more obvious.
Reasons why you may want to vary the shutter speed ; Use a high shutter speed when photographing moving objects or sports. Otherwise the photos will come out blurry. Use a lower shutter speed when you want to show movement ; for example you may use a slow shutter speed when photographing waterfalls. This leads to a kind of mist being produced which shows the waterfall is moving and makes the picture more beautiful.
Funnily enough , under some situations a sport photographer may use a slower shutter speed than he normally would, to show that the object (eg a car’s wheels) are moving. Otherwise it would look like the object is static.
Furthermore , in low light conditions (e.g. an dark club) your camera in auto mode will automatically decrease your shutter speed i.e. to let more light in so the photo will be exposed properly.
With slow (or long) shutter speeds you may realise that there is a limit to how long a human hand can hold the camera still. This is usually around 1/60 of a second. Past this (slower shutter speeds e.g. 1/30) and you will see that the photos will constantly come out blurry. Ways to avoid this would be either using a tripod (have as long as shutter speed as you need) or increasing the ISO ( this will decrease the amount of time the shutter will need to stay open and thus blurriness). ISO will be explained in the following section.
ISO (pronounced Aye-Es-Oh)
Using an example of a situation where you would increase the ISO ; say you were in a dark club. You go to take a shot and you find that your camera has automatically decreased your shutter speed to let more light in. However, it is so dark, that the shutter speed is very long (eg 5 seconds) , and you cannot stay still long enough and the photos are coming out blurry.
In this situation increase your ISO, the time the shutter stays open will be reduced, and the photos will come out bright and sharper (non blurry). Most digital SLRS have an AUTO-ISO function which works great 90% of the time.
The drawback is that the higher ISO you use, the more grainy your photos will become and it will be noticeable. There will be a degradation in quality. Saying that, do not be afraid to increase ISO as cameras can produce incredible photos at high ISOs nowadays.
I always say; it is better to have a grainy sharp picture, rather than a non grainy blurry picture.
I shot at an athletics championships the other day and continually shot at 3200 ISO (quite high) to make sure that the photos were sharp and not blurry.
In conclusion aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all related and are the fundamental constituents of photography. If you change one , it will inevitably change the other. Rather than sitting here reading trying to get your head round it, get out there with whatever camera you have and get shooting!! The reason why you alter these three variants in different shooting situations will begin to fall more into place the more you shoot.
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