Tall Chairs at the Abromson Center
Last week I had my first class of Introduction to the SLR Camera at the University of Maine’s Center for Continuing Education. Since my buddy Dave “Sully” Sullivan couldn’t make it to class, he asked me to take notes for him.
This brought back to my jr. high school days when I would do the cool kids homework, surrender my lunch money to the football team and spent a lot of time contemplating my life from the inside of my locker.
But I digress…Dave, this is for you.
There are three variables for taking pictures, no matter your camera:
- F-stop: how wide your camera aperture opens. F-stop is often confused w/aperture; the difference is that aperture is the physical opening while F-stop is the designation of the scale.
- Shutter speed: how fast your aperture opens and closes.
- ISO: the film speed, which current digital camera mimic by increasing the voltage in the camera…which, oddly enough, increases the heat in the camera, causing more noise, which is the same effect of using very fast speed films.
With photography there’s always a trade off. By changing one of these variables, you often have to change another.
Common F-stops include: 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11.0, 16.0, 22.0 and 32.0. The lower the number the more light the camera lets in. Confusing, I know. Also, the smaller the f-stop the larger the depth of field (meaning more of your picture–near and far–will be in focus.) The F in F-stop most commonly stands for fraction, not full.
Shutter speed is all about how much time the film/sensor is exposed; new cameras often go to 1/2000 of a second. Common full stops include 2000, 1000, 500, 250, 125, and 60. The shutter speed is often related to how much blur the photo has; faster shutter speeds mean less blur, but that may be an artistic decision.
ISO (International Standards Organisation) is all about film speed, even though digital cameras have no film. Common speeds include 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1,600. The higher the speed, the grainer the picture. The less light you have, the faster the film speed you need. Our substitute–you weren’t the only one missing–said that he prefers grainy over blurry any time, because you can fix grainy in the lab. Another way of taking pictures in low light is…add more light! (Lights, flash, etc.)
Your DSLR will have an automatic setting. Automatic = average. In an average setting, automatic is often fine. However, great photos often fall outside of an average situation. To get more out of your camera you’ll need to start exploring the other settings on the camera.
- Auto: All control is given to the camera. (All your base are belong to us.)
- P - Program: Same as auto but with some options and no auto-flash.
- S - Shutter (sometimes listed as Tv): You choose the shutter speed and the camera does the rest.
- A - Aperture value (sometimes listed as Av): You choose the aperture and the camera does the rest.
- M - Manual: You’re on your own.
Focus is controlled separately through the lens; you can have auto-focus on a manual setting or manual focus on an other automatic setting.
White Balance: In the old days you had to use the right filter for specific types of light (indoor vs. outdoor vs. cloudy, etc.) Now you just need to choose the right icon. You can access the WB menu from the screen on the back of your camera.
One of the big benefits is that you don’t need a filter, so you’re not trading f-stop or shutter speed when using digital.
If you have your camera saving photos on the RAW setting you can actually apply the white balance after you take the shot, during development. Crazy.
One of the WB settings is PRE; this will allow you to set the balance on something specific in the photo as white. The other colors should line up.
The camera can save photos in many different formats.
- RAW: Best file, but huge and needs special software to develop.
- JPG: Common Web-friendly format. Comes in compression levels of Fine, Normal, Basic and Strawberry.
- Images can also be saved as large, medium or small.
Best thing you can do when you get a new camera is RTFM!
HOMEWORK:
- Aperture: Find a scene that shows off depth. Play around w/f-stop and take several pictures w/different settings.
- Shutter: Find a scene that shows off movement and do the same.
- ISO: Find a scene in low light, esp. if there’s highlights and dark shadows and do the same.
See you in class, Sully!
