Post-processing your digital photos is a controversial topic for some. The idea that you change and manipulate a photo after it’s been taken is seen by some as changing reality; creating something that’s ‘fake’. I disagree strongly with that idea for many reasons, but the reason I’m going to talk about here is that post-processing made me a better photographer. Not just that I think it made my photos look better, but actually helped me to become better at taking photos.

Accelerated Learning

Getting your photos onto the computer and into an editing program gives you access to an instant feedback machine. You can learn a great deal about how to take photos by looking at those you have taken before:

• Looking at each photo closely reveals problems. You may not notice some issues if you just resize and upload a photo.
• Comparing the results with the settings used gives instant feedback. The EXIF data in a photo is invaluable for giving you clues about why a photo may not have worked.
• Playing with photos in post is almost like touching them. Experimenting with sliders lets you ‘feel’ the potential in a photo.
• The hard-to-define and harder-to-teach skill of learning to see is made so much easier by this process of shooting and feedback.

Lessons Learned

After you’ve been processing your photos for a little while, some lessons about how digital photography works – and the limitations and strengths it has – will become more apparent to you. You can then keep these in mind when shooting and change your settings or shooting technique to avoid running into any problems and make the most of the format:

• You’ll get a better understanding of exposure and the capabilities of the RAW format (you ARE shooting in RAW, right?).
• Learn the consequences of a poorly exposed photo, and how much latitude you actually have to correct such a photo.
• Understand how much can be gained and lost at various noise settings so you know when you can push through low light and keep shooting, or when you need to consider alternative strategies.
• Understand why it’s important to ‘get it right in camera’.
• Conversely, understanding how much can be done in post and what’s best left to that stage.

Expands the Mind

Creating images from the shooting perspective only is a bit tunnel-visioned. Once you free yourself from the metaphorical shackles of preserving some idea of ‘reality’, then you will open your mind to the creative possibilities of processing your photos. Not only that, but you will understand that you are the one in control of how real the photo looks, or how unreal. Your confidence will grow, and that will be reflected in your future work.

• Processing lets you see the hidden potential in a photo.
• You will realise that most of those amazing photos you admire online started with something quite different out of camera.
• You will also realise that your photos could be so much better.
• You are in complete control of the final look of the photo. Whether you just tweak things to reflect your impression of being there, or you create something completely new that was never seen by the human eye, it’s completely within your control.
• Your confidence will build by giving you the tools and knowledge to take your photos to the next level.

An Extra Opportunity

If you’ve been thinking that processing is an extra step you don’t have time for, you’re missing the point. It’s an extra opportunity to learn more, make better photos and become a better photographer. And to be quite honest, post-processing can be fun! Import your photo, sprinkle a bit of magic ‘post’ dust on a photo, and export something with much more life and impact.

Getting better photos is wonderful, but don’t underestimate the power that post-processing has to make you a better photographer.

Want to learn more about Post Production? Check out Neil’s new eBook – Photo Nuts & Post – A Guide to Post-Processing.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How Post-Processing Helped Me Become a Better Photographer

DIY Ring flash + ambient light sources. Flash at 1/32 power, 1/160sec F7.1 ISO320, 51mm.

The assembled DIY Ring Flash with my Canon 580EX and Cybersync radio trigger.

Ring flashes are famous from the fashion world, where the classical make-up ad often uses the light frequently. By surrounding the lens with the light source, a cool ‘shadowless’ light gives a unique look. But even when not used as the primary source of light, a ring flash can be an excellent on-axis fill, as championed by David Hobby of strobist.com.

The only problem for the hobbyist photographer is the price. Ring flash units cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. In recent years a string of new products let the photographer use their speedlights with a ring flash modifier to achieve the same effect for $200-300 – I own an Orbis ring flash myself. Even so, $200 is a big investment for a student, or a photographer who doesn’t know if they’ll get enough use out of a ring flash.

DIY Ring Flash

Enter DIY Photography with their flat-pack, self-assembly ring flash for $24.95. You might think that a ring flash modifier at that price can’t deliver on its promises, or must sacrifice too much. Having used it in a few shoots now, I can tell you it’s the real deal.

Though the DIYP Ring Flash is not without it’s problems and compromises, it is an amazing piece of equipment that can deliver exactly what it promises with only the necessary compromises. In short, every photographer who can get their speedlight off their camera should have one of these!

The Compromises

I’m going to be thorough and list every problem I could find with the DIYP Ring Flash, and there were a few. If you’re expecting to get a $200 product for $25 you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re aware of the following, then you can judge for yourself if the minimal cost is worth it.

• Must be assembled. This is to keep the costs as low as possible and allow for easy shipping, but it only takes about 15 minutes, and isn’t too challenging.


Though greatly exaggerated in this photo with an extreme close-up, the unevenness of the catchlight is apparent. This typically is difficult to see, as in the photo at top.

• Not very durable. The ring flash is made of a combination of plastic sheets and cardboard, and naturally isn’t going to last forever. Transport could be difficult as it could easily get crushed. It is also vulnerable to water damage. Of course this isn’t a problem if you’re only shooting in a studio.
• Uneven catchlights. The light distribution can be a bit uneven, and may vary slightly from shot to shot. This is only apparent in reflections, such as catchlights in the eye. Illumination across the frame of your photo will appear even.
• It’s physically quite large. It’s not practical to make a self-assembled modifier curved, so the corners protrude a bit, and might make it tricky to get very close for macro photos for which ring flashes are often preferred.
• Less efficient. When compared with my Orbis ring flash ($200) using the same flash (Canon 580EX) and settings, the DIYP Ring Flash delivers approximately 1.3 stops less light.
• Cooler WB. Also when compared to my Orbis, the DIYP Ring Flash delivers a significantly cooler colour balance (5350K vs 6450K). Green/Magenta WB was the same.


With identical settings on the camera and flash power, the DIY Ring Flash (left) exposes approx 1.3 stops under the Orbis (right), and has a 1100K cooler white balance.

• Can’t accept very large flash heads. The opening into which the speedlight is inserted is small, and larger flashes such as my 580EX require the corners of the opening to be cut to make room. My LP160 wouldn’t fit without cutting the cardboard further than I personally felt comfortable (but does into the Orbis). Good luck getting a Vivitar 285HV into this, or the Orbis.
• The flash isn’t held firmly. The cardboard opening doesn’t provide much grip on the flash, so it’s a little tricky to hold. An optional metal flash bracket is available ($9.95) for this purpose, but I found it to be a little bulky and preferred to handle it without. Also, the provided rubber bands to attach the flash to the bracket are a rather bright (and I think unattractive) pale blue.

The Advantages

• It’s a ring flash! For $25! It’s hard to argue with the price, and the results are absolutely what you would expect when you use a ring flash.
• It’s light. Due to the flat pack low cost nature of the ring flash, it’s very light. Shooting for more than 15 minutes hand-holding my Orbis can be very tiring and painful. The DIYP Ring Flash weighs only grams.
• It works. Despite the lower efficiency and cooler WB, the resulting light is fantastic. If you are aware of these problems you can adapt and easily correct in post processing. Functionally, when corrected for, the light from the $25 ring flash is equal to that from my $200 Orbis.

When the differences are corrected, the results of the DIY Ring Flash (right) compare very well to the Orbis (left) which is eight times the price. The only apparent difference is the greater contribution of ambient light to the scene shot with the DIY ring flash, resulting from opening the aperture to compensate for the lower power. Alternatively the flash power could be increased to match the Orbis completely.

Get One!

I find a ring flash an invaluable tool in my lighting gear. Follow the link above to see how David Hobby uses ring flash, and you’ll open up a whole new realm of lighting possibilities. But do I recommend the DIYP Ring Flash as THE ring flash you should get? Well I won’t be giving up my Orbis. I use ring flash often enough that I need the durability of the tough plastic construction that comes with a more expensive solution.

However, unless you have a better ring flash, or are certain you need one, get this. If you are curious about ring flashes and want to try one out before you decide to get a more expensive model, get this. If you want to play with ring flash lighting but don’t have the budget for a more expensive model, get this. When you can get honest-to-goodness ring flash light for $25, why wouldn’t you?

You can purchase the DIY Photography Ring Flash here: http://www.diy-lighting-kits.com/ring-flash/

DIY Photography also stock a number of other products that will be of interest to photographers on a budget. Their product page can be found here.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

DIY Photography Ring Flash Review

I’m going to do a brief description of how this photo was created, talk about the shoot and show you a couple of other images we took.

For this shoot I was joined by a second photographer, my good friend Elias Lopez. Typically at a cosplay photo meet, a bunch of cosplayers and photographers get together and everyone takes lots of casual photos. The idea with this shoot was to be a lot more focused, and to achieve just a handful of very specific image ideas. Before getting to the location, I had an image in my head of the photos I wanted to create, and an idea of how to execute them. Elias also had a couple of ideas for shots, and we took turns getting them just right. As such, the process was very deliberate and precise, and we took our time to get exactly the look we were after. I found this method of working highly rewarding and ultimately achieved a better result.

Here is a lighting diagram for the photo above:

Lighting diagram created with help from http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/Creator

One of the main elements that sets this shot apart from others is the glowing blue streaks the keyblades (the swords in the model’s hands) leave through the image. These were achieved by taping electroluminescent wire to the props, and the model sweeping them through the shot while the shutter was open.

• With the camera on the tripod, the shot was composed with the model standing in place. This allowed me to create a balanced composition that took into account the city behind.
• The aperture was set sufficiently wide to blur the city behind so that it wouldn’t distract from the foreground.
• The shutter speed was found through trial and error to be long enough to allow for the keyblades (the swords in the models hands) to ‘streak’ through the shot.
• ISO was set to 400 to allow wiggle room either side if I needed to boost or suppress the exposure.
• The three flash units were all set to approximately the same power level, tweaked to balance the exposure of the subject with the background. The flashes froze the model, even though she was moving during the exposure to create the light trails. This created a problem that needed to be fixed in post; discussed below.
• The camera white balance was set to tungsten, to give it the blue look we wanted. This can be done in post, but I find it helpful to visualise the shot on the back of the camera with an approximate white balance that I will use for the final result.

The final exposure settings were: 0.6sec at f/5.0, ISO 400, 105mm.

You can see a short behind the scenes video taken while I was getting test shots to establish the right exposure for the city and e.l. wire here: Behind the Scenes on a Cosplay Photo Shoot

Many exposures were taken of this setup to get just the result we were looking for. Here’s an example of some of the rejects, as they came out of the camera:

As you can see from the above photos, the result out of the camera looks good, but needs work to polish it properly. I process all of my photos in Adobe Lightroom. Usually this is enough, but the artistic demands of this photo required some additional photo-manipulation work in Photoshop. Below is the sequence of the photo at the different stages of processing.

Stage one: This is how the photo looked straight out of camera.

Stage two: Processing in Lightroom increased the brightness, contrast and saturation and selectively brightened the face.

Stage 3: The final image after editing in Photoshop. Here the background was darkened slightly to make the subject stand more separate from the background. The weeds on the ground were deleted, I selectively enhanced the streaks to make them glow even more, and I deleted some background lights that were either two bright and distracting, or appeared to show through the model; the result of her moving after the flash had fired.

This photo, out of the several that we created on the night, was selected by K to be her submission to the calendar. The calendar is now available, and is raising funds for the Room to Read charity, promoting child literacy. It’s an amazing calendar with great photos of incredible cosplayers, and it’s raising money for a great cause. It’s available at a good price, so everyone should order one! You can read more and order your copy here: http://causeplay.org/2011-cosplay-calendar-for-charity/

Here are some of the other photos we made on that night. Click them to go through to a more detailed description of how they were made.

The following photo by Elias Lopez.

In conclusion, this shoot was immensely satisfying. Working with a very creative and motivated team of people, to create images with such great visual impact, which ended up in an internationally sold charity calendar was all very rewarding. I have become even more determined to spend more time working on photo shoots more like this: ones that are driven by a specific creative vision, rather than just the desire to take pretty photos as the opportunity is presented to me.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Epic Cosplay Shoot – Behind the Scenes

Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who is running a photo studio in The Melbourne Anime Festival convention on the 21st-23rd of this month, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Over the past few months, I have been running this class to introduce readers to the fundamentals of the camera: the physics behind it all, how lenses and optics work, the mechanics of the camera and how to set and determine a photo’s exposure. I’ve tried to cover the basics of the camera, but I’m sure there are lots of questions that have gone unanswered.

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter
Lesson 7: ISO
Lesson 8: Light Meter

Last time I threw the floor open to readers to ask questions on the topic of “A basic course on the camera”. There were many takers, and the topics covered were a lot broader than the original topic! Rather than pick out just a handful of questions, I’ve decided to try and answer most of them with brevity and accuracy. I haven’t answered every question, and there may be better or more detailed answers to the ones I have. I encourage other readers to add their own thoughts via the comments.

I would also like to thank reader Eric Carson who offered his own answers to many of the questions submitted. You can read his thoughts in the comments on the previous post.

Below I have paraphrased each question to get to the core, but you can read each question in full by clicking on the reader’s name. You will be taken to their comment on the previous post.

Answers

Q1. Suresh: Is there a way to decrease the light getting into the camera when you’re at the minimum aperture, but want a slow shutter speed for creative effect?

A1: In these cases, you are best using a neutral density filter. It blocks light in a controlled way without affecting the colour. You can also do this to a lesser degree with a polarising filter.

Q2. Peter: How can I best shoot a couple who have very different skin tones without running into trouble?

A2: The average difference in skin tones is well within the exposure range that a DSLR can effectively capture. If you light well enough for the dark skinned individual, then the fair skinned individual should still be correctly exposed. You can tweak this with exposure compensation.

Q3. Jason Rosenberg: What’s the best way to get good sharpness, contrast and saturation in-camera?

A3: This is a complex question as each is different, but the most important factors for each are: sharpness – ensure accurate focus and eliminate motion blur with a fast shutter; contrast – avoid lens flare with a hood and keeping direct light off the lens; saturation – you are mostly at the mercy of the elements but slightly under exposing and effective use of a polarising filter can both help.

Q4. Danferno: People often say they don’t want to put a cheap UV filter on an expensive lens, because it would ruin the quality. Is that true?

A4: This is a fairly subjective question. I feel that the added two optical surfaces of the UV filter (front and back) increase the risk of flare and reduce contrast/sharpness enough to prefer not to use them.

Q5. Reznor, Peter, Shaun and Martin Barabe: A flash photography 101 series?

A5: It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to do a better job on this subject than David Hobby at http://strobist.com. I recommend reading his Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 courses.

Q6. Phil: What is meant by the terms “elements” and “groups” in lens descriptions, such as “16 elements in 12 groups”?

A6: As hinted at in Lessons 2 and 3 on lenses, the actual optics in most camera lenses is very complex. To provide accurate zoom, focusing, colour and other critical functions a series of lenses are used. Inside the bodies of DSLR lenses are a series of a few or many lenses, each piece of glass being referred to as an “element”. Sometimes, these elements are actually physically glued together into doublets, triplets or more. These are called “groups”. The elements count includes all of the lenses in any groups in the lens.

Q7. Krystle: How can I get correctly exposed photos of fast moving sports in dimly lit stadiums?

A7: This is one of the most challenging problems in photography. You’re working at the limits of the camera and lens’ abilities. You can increase the ISO as you mentioned, and opening up the aperture as wide as possible will help, but beyond that, the best thing you can do is get more light into the camera. You need a very “fast” lens to do this, with a large diameter front element. These lenses are very expensive, and are the kind you see in the media pit at sporting events. On a more accessible budget, your best alternative is to look into the possibility of adding light with a flash. This is a complex issue in itself and may be frowned upon at certain venues. I recommend reading the aforementioned Strobist.com lighting series.

Q8. Raheel: What are recommended settings and techniques for capturing lightning?

A8: At night or in the evening, set to f8 or thereabouts, 100ISO, use a remote shutter release and tripod. Focus on the most remote thing in your scene and open the shutter. Wait for a lightning strike, and then close the shutter. If there is any light about, you may need to limit yourself to 30second or shorter photos. If you capture any lightning look at the result and if the bolt is too bright, or dark, close or open your aperture respectively. If the sky is too light or dark, decrease or increase your shutter time respectively.

Daylight lightning is much harder to capture as you are limited to far shorter exposure times to prevent blowing out the photo. Try using a narrow aperture, a neutral density filter or polarising filter. In both situations, day or night, keep taking photos constantly as long as the lightning is around.

Q9. Renj: I am experiencing severe flaring on one side of my photos, why and how can I prevent it?

A9: Usually problems with flaring are as a result of shooting with a very bright object in, or just outside the edge of the frame. Try and shade the lens to prevent flaring. However in your case, since the flaring is consistent and from the same position in each shot, it sounds to me more like you may have a light leak in your camera. Check it for damage, and make sure the lens is correctly mounted. If you still have problems, take the camera and example photos to a camera repair store.

Q10. Carrie Alfaro: I have some photos taken with low resolution. They look terrible when printed. How can I increase the resolution to improve them?

A10: I’m afraid that once the images are in low resolution there is nothing you can do to increase the resolution. You may be able to upscale and sharpen the images slightly in image processing software, but they’ll never be as good as images taken at high resolution to start with. I recommend using the highest resolution your camera can take. You can always downsize images that are too big. You can’t really do the reverse.

Q11. Robert: What are the best settings to photograph the moon?

A11: It depends on the phase of the moon, the clarity of the air and other factors, but I have had success shooting with settings similar to the following: f11, 1/200sec, ISO100. Zoom in as far as you can, put the camera on a tripod and use a self timer or remote shutter to minimise the effect of camera shake. Take your photo, look at the result and adjust. I’d recommend increasing your shutter speed if it is too bright, and opening your aperture if it is too dark, up to about f8. Beyond f8, I’d recommend increasing the ISO.

Q12. Karese: What is the best way to photograph objects in display cases or museum displays behind glass and in low light?

A12: You may not have the option to try all these suggestions in a busy museum, but try and do what you can. To shoot with low light and no artificial light, put the camera on a tripod and use longer exposures. To avoid reflections, hold a large black sheet or card behind the camera from where you can see the reflections coming. A polarising lens may also help to reduce reflections.

Q13. Dave Williams: I would like some advice on flash sync speed.

A13: I’m sorry Dave, but flash sync speed is a topic I’m not familiar enough with to give you decisive answers. I would recommend you search for an answer to your questions at http://strobist.com My apologies for not being able to offer more help than that.

Q14. Ajith: My lens says the aperture is f4-5.6, yet I can set the aperture to f11. How is this possible?

A14: The aperture range described on your lens is not the range of apertures that your lens is able to use. Rather it is the range of maximum aperture settings it can use at various zoom lengths. Zoom lenses offer a range of focal lengths, but changing the focal length usually also changes the aperture. At longer focal lengths, zoom lenses are typically not able to achieve as wide an aperture setting as they are at shorter focal lengths. Your lens can go to f4 when it is at its widest and 5.6 when it is at its longest. Some very expensive high-end lenses are able to achieve a long focal range, with maintaining a fixed aperture, such as the popular 70-200mm f2.8.

In Conclusion

This post concludes the Photography 101 series, A Basic Course on the Camera. I hope that you have enjoyed the lessons, and now have a better understanding of how your camera works, why it’s important to learn about the camera, and are already seeing an improvement in your photography as a result.

If you have enjoyed the series and want more, fear not, this is not the last you will see of Photo 101. I am working on a secret project related to Photo 101, and hopefully will be able to reveal it to you all soon. Keep watching Digital Photography School for news.

Going forward I would like to start a new series in the near future, Photography 102 – A Basic Course on Taking Photos. In this course I plan to look at photographic technique, and applying the lessons we have learned in Photography 101. It will be a more practical course, and will aim to help you improve your photography by providing instructions, tips and techniques for a variety of real-world settings.

Until then, class dismissed!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photo 101: Answer Time

Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who is teaching classes in portrait photography in Melbourne Australia, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Over the past few months, I have been running this class to introduce readers to the fundamentals of the camera: the physics behind it all, how lenses and optics works, the mechanics of the camera and how to set and determine a photo’s exposure. I’ve tried to cover the basics of the camera, but I’m sure there are lots of questions that have gone unanswered.

For this lesson, I’m opening up the classroom to your questions. Leave your questions on the subject of “A basic course on the camera” in the comments below. Have a read of the previous lessons so far to see if your question has been answered and if there’s anything you don’t understand:

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter
Lesson 7: ISO
Lesson 8: Shutter

Selected Questions Will Be Answered

Leave your questions about the camera in the comments on this post below. I will choose a number of questions, approximately five to seven, and answer them as best I can. The answers to the selected questions will appear in the next, and final post in the Photography 101 series.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photography 101 – Question Time

Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who will soon be teaching a class in portrait photography in Melbourne Australia, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Welcome to the seventh lesson in Photography 101 – A Basic Course on the Camera. In this series, we cover all the basics of camera design and use. We talk about the ‘exposure triangle’: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. We talk about focus, depth of field and sharpness, as well as how lenses work, what focal lengths mean and how they put light on the sensor. We also look at the camera itself, how it works, what all the options mean and how they affect your photos.

This week’s lesson is The Light Meter.

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter
Lesson 7: ISO

In previous lessons we have talked about the basic theory of how a camera works, including some basic optics, and introduced the idea of exposure and how we control it with the exposure triangle. Now that we have covered each of the points of the exposure triangle, it’s time to bring them all together with the tool at the core, the light meter.

What is the Light Meter?

A challenging scene to meter

For as long as people have been taking photos, there has been a need to determine how bright a scene is. Any method of recording light can only work in a relatively narrow band without over or under exposing the image. To find the correct exposure that will record the image without over or under exposing it too much, photographers need to know how bright the scene is. An extremely talented photographer may be able to guess a near-enough exposure, but a light meter is a far more accurate and convenient way to do it.

Light meters in cameras react to how intense the light is as seen from the camera. SLRs measure the light (called metering) through the lens – TTL. They collect light that has actually passed through the camera’s lens and measure its intensity. There are problems when the scene has parts that are much brighter or darker than others, for example shadows on a sunny day. This can trick the light meter into measuring the intensity of the light incorrectly, depending on which part of the scene was illuminating the sensor.

Modern SLR cameras use multi-point light meters, meaning that several light meters are actually scattered around the projected scene, each measuring the light intensity at that point. Very sophistocated cameras may have dozens of metering points. How much the measured intensity of the light at each point influences the final meter reading depends on the metering mode selected by the photographer.

For a more detailed look at metering modes, you can read: Introduction to metering modes.

How to Use the Light Meter

As we now know, the correct exposure is created by juggling the three points of the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter and ISO. The light meter is the tool that puts us in the right neighbourhood for how these should be set. If you are shooting on full auto, then when you meter the scene – usually done at the same time as focusing, by half pressing the shutter – the light meter gives its best guess for each of these variables.

If you want to take creative control of the photo, you can manually set each of the three variables yourself. Typically ISO is left at the default, or previous setting, and you take control by choosing aperture priority or shutter priority. On most DSLRs that’s done by turning the exposure mode dial. If you set the dial to Av – aperture priority, the photographer chooses what the aperture will be, and the light meter adjusts the shutter speed to mantain the correct exposure. The reverse is true for Tv – shutter priority.

When using these modes, it’s useful to refer to the exposure meter display on the camera. The exposure meter (display) shows the result of the measurement taken by the light meter (sensor). It will typically look something like this:

Exposure meter display on LCD

Exposure meter display in viewfinder

Each number represents a stop change in the light, as indicated, with the central mark being the “correct” exposure, as determined by the light meter. Each pip between the numbers represents one third of a stop. The arrow underneath indicates how close the current settings are to the correct exposure. Usually in priority modes, the arrow will stay in the middle as the light meter will be able to set the exposure correctly. However, if for example you set your aperture to 1/400sec in Tv (shutter priority mode) and the light meter indicated that you needed an aperture of f4, but your lens was only capable of f5.8, then the exposure meter will display one stop of underexposure. You will need to compensate for this by setting a longer shutter time, or increasing the ISO.

The juggling act becomes more complicated, and the light meter’s assistance more valuable, when you go to full manual control of the exposure. Here the exposure meter simply displays whether the current settings will under or over expose the image, according to the light meter. The photographer can freely change any of the values on the exposure triangle, and see the change to the predicted versus recommended exposure.

Exposure compensation

Even though the light meter in your camera is pretty sophistocated, sometimes it can get it wrong, especially with harsh contrasts, or highly reflective surfaces. Changing metering modes may help this, but a more controlled approach is to use exposure compensation. Imagine you are photographing a person against a large bright sky. The light meter thinks the sky is the most important part, and exposes correctly for that, leaving the person a dark silhouette. By using exposure compensation, you can tell the camera to take the metered exposure and make it brighter by a chosen amount. This will then allow the photographer to correctly expose the person. I’ll look at exposure compensation in more detail in a future post.

Examples

To show you how the different exposure modes might work in real world situations, here are some scenarios. The settings given below are what they happened to be for the examples shown. Settings for your own photo will be different.

Scanario 1 – Sports

• High speed is needed to freeze action
• Use Shutter Priority
• Set shutter speed to 1/800sec
• The light meter sets the aperture to f10
• If under exposed, change ISO to compensate – ISO400

Scanario 2 – Portrait

• An artistic narrow depth of field is desired
• Use Aperture Priority
• Set aperture to f5.6
• The light meter sets the shutter to 1/160sec
• If under exposed, change ISO to compensate – ISO100

Scenario 3 – Night scenery

• Ambient light is too low to accurately meter
• Use full Manual
• Set aperture to suit scene, erring to wider – f11
• Set a long shutter speed to light meter’s best guess – 20sec
• Set ISO to lowest possible for correct exposure – ISO100
• Take a test shot and adjust settings if the light meter got it wrong

Scenario 4 – Off-camera manual flash

• On auto, meter the scene and note settings
• Set camera to one or two stops under exposed
• Set up flashes and tweak power to expose correctly
• Tweak the flashes exposure by adjusting aperture
• Tweak the ambient light by adjusting shutter speed
• Settings for example shot: 1/160sec f8 ISO125, click image for flash details.

Homework

• Put the camera in auto mode and half press the shutter. While looking through the viewfinder, pan around a scene and see how the automatically selected camera settings – f ratio and shutter speed – change. This preview will disappear after a few seconds, so half press the shutter again for another look.
• Set the camera in shutter priority mode and choose a shutter speed for effect, eg: short for sports, long for motion blur. Shoot different scenes and note how the camera adjusts the aperture to balance the exposure.
• Do the same as above for aperture – wide for shallow depth of field, narrow for focus detail at all distances.
• Get adventurous and put the camera on full manual. Adjust the camera settings yourself, and watch the arrow below the exposure meter. Tweak the settings to get the arrow in the middle of the meter – half press the shutter while looking at your scene to take a meter reading.
• Try to apply what you have learned to make creative photos that take advantage of the different exposure modes.

Resources

• Light meter – at Wikipedia
• Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure – At Cambridge in Colour
• Ultimate Exposure Computer – At fredparker.com
• Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes – at Digital Photography School

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photography 101.8 – The Light Meter

You can give your photos a more professional appearance, show your work to a wider audience and add impact through story, by creating an electronic photo book from your work.

The Solo Photo Book Month, or SoFoBoMo project called on photographers to “make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time.” Neil loves participating in photography projects, and we were planning a short roadtrip right in the middle of the project window, so it was a perfect opportunity. We’ll use this book as a case study.

Why a Photo eBook?

• It forces you to select your very best photos
• It presents your best photos in a neat and attractive format
• You can tell a story and increase your photos’ impact
• People are more likely to look at a small collection of high quality images than a big unfiltered gallery
• Being in a self-contained book format makes it easy for people to pass around to their friends
• You have complete control over the presentation, look and associated information rather than being tied to a web site’s style
• You sound so much cooler saying “Would you like to see my book?” than “Would you like my flickr address?”
• It’s something novel and will make people more likely to remember your work

Why Electronic Format?

• It’s essentially free, a high quality printed book can be very expensive per copy
• It’s easy to put together without worrying about the often mysterious demands of print
• It can be done with cheap or free tools that anyone can download
• You can include interactive elements such as hotlinks and multimedia content
• You can reproduce and distribute it with little effort
• For the above reason it can be seen by so many more people
• You can easily make revisions or corrections, even once the book has “gone live”

Where to start

Image Selection
Selecting photos for your book can be challenging, however choosing the best ones out of a group is important and will really make your book shine. For SoFoBoMo, Naomi selected images that were the sharpest, most colourful and had the best composition. Once the images were selected, she then roughly grouped them into destinations, for example, the best Twelve Apostles photos.

Design Elements
Putting images onto a white page with nothing else can be very boring, so adding some design elements will help bring your book to life and give it the personality you want it to have. Colours, lines, borders and text are some of the things you need to decide on before laying your book out. However, balance this with simplicity and subtlety or the book may become visually overwhelming. Think about the mood you want to set for the viewer. Muted, dark colours, such as used in our book can give a professional, calm feel. Brighter colours would suggest a fun and fresh feel. In general though, neutral colours or white will show off your photos to their best potential.

Text
Given that a photo eBook is made to showcase your photos, type is generally best kept to a minimum. Small captions for images are nice and viewers often like to know what each photo is about. You may wish to have one or two introductory pages with some text to explain your inspiration for the book, perhaps include a map if you are showing travel photos. It’s also a good idea to have a small paragraph with your copyright message. If you want to tell a bit of a story along with your photos, small strips or blocks of text can be used in the design.

Laying it all out
Now that you have your best images and design elements worked out, it’s time to lay them all out. The size and orientation of the page you decide on will determine the shape and amount of images that will fit on it. If you have grouped your images, for example by destination, this can make laying out a little simpler.

Example layout process

As an example, this is how Naomi laid out the spread featuring the Twelve Apostles:

• Four images from this location were chosen
• Naomi wanted to feature an image on a whole page, so the best of the four was placed on the left
• One of the remaining three was a vertical image, so it was placed on the left of the right page, the same height as the photo on the left page
• The remaining two photos were horizontal, so she split the remaining space between the two
• For the rest of the book, a similar method was used lay out the images

There are endless layout options and it does come down to personal taste, but some important things to consider are:

• Make the most of the space, tiny images are not going to “wow” the viewer
• Use similar margins throughout the book to tighten the design
• Choose shapes to suit the photos you are using
• Line up the edges of images with each other to give a clean and balanced look
• Have a variety of image layouts throughout the book. Having images in the same spot on every page can be boring.

Here are a few example layouts:

Tools
For laying out the book for SoFoBoMo, Naomi used Adobe InDesign. This is an exceptional layout program with enormous flexibility and tools to get precise placement of objects and text. Other layout programs you might try are Microsoft publisher or a free one called Scribus.

Publishing

Now that your book is all laid out, it is ready to publish. There’s no best way to do this, but the most popular format for ebooks is Adobe PDF. We have seen other books published with Flash or HTML, but for our book we chose PDF. We own Adobe Acrobat, a tool for creating PDF documents, but there are cheaper or free options for creating PDFs which can be found online.

If you are creating a PDF book, you will need to adjust the export settings to specify the resolution of the final PDF. Because the book will be viewed on computer screens, change your settings for images to 150dpi or there may be a preset called ‘ebook’ which will be suitable too. Now you have your PDF, if you have Acrobat Professional, you can open it to add interactivity and reduce the file size. Making your document as small as possible is important for the viewer who has to download it. In Acrobat, you will find a feature called “Reduce file size” under the “Document” menu. Select this and it will remove any unneeded bits from the file which can substantially reduce the file size but preserves the resolution. If you don’t have Acrobat for this step, it doesn’t matter, it just means your file will be larger. Now you can upload your book for the world to see!

Once your book has been published and is online for the world to see, get the word out there! Blog about the book, link to it in your Facebook status, tweet about it. If you’re going to tweet the book, make sure you hashtag the tweet with #photo so that it will be seen by many more people! To read more about why photographers should hashtag their tweets, you can read Neil’s earlier post on the subject.

Our Book

If you would like to see our photo book, you can download it by clicking on the cover below. We hope you enjoy it!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Show your photos like a Pro with a Photo eBook

Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who just launched a free background image site featuring his photography, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Welcome to the seventh lesson in Photography 101 – A Basic Course on the Camera. In this series, we cover all the basics of camera design and use. We talk about the ‘exposure triangle’: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. We talk about focus, depth of field and sharpness, as well as how lenses work, what focal lengths mean and how they put light on the sensor. We also look at the camera itself, how it works, what all the options mean and how they affect your photos.

This week’s lesson is ISO.

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter

In previous lessons we have talked about the basic theory of how a camera works, including some basic optics, and introduced the idea of exposure and how we control it with the exposure triangle. In this lesson we will be drawing upon what we have learned to understand the third point on the exposure triangle – ISO – and how it works to create your photo.

ISO is probably the most mysterious and complicated aspects of modern photography. ISO simply stands for International Organisation for Standards, and refers to – in simplest terms – the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor. Confusingly, there are several different standards, some which measure different things, and only a few completely agree with each other. To understand how to use ISO in your photography, you don’t need to know anything about that. You should understand how the camera’s sensor chip works, however.

The Sensor Chip

Fig 1.7.0 A typical digital camera sensor and mount.

The sensor inside your digital camera actually works on the same principle as a solar cell. When light hits the chip, a tiny electric current is generated: the brighter the light, the stronger the current. Instead of there being one giant solar panel generating lots of electricity, there are millions of extremely tiny solar cells collecting very small and precisely measured amounts of light. These photosites will eventually create the pixels in the image you capture.

It should be noted that a photosite is not the same as a pixel. Several photosites will add their captured light, which is filtered and processed and eventually combined to make a pixel. That’s a complex topic for discussion in another lesson.

All of this carefully measured electrical current, which reflects light intensity, is measured and stored by the camera’s circuitry. This data is called the signal. The signal, however, must compete with the noise inherent in all electrical equipment.

Signal vs Noise

Fig 1.7.1 Noise is at a contstant background level to the signal.

An unavoidable fact of electronics is noise. While the sensor is measuring the tiny electronic currents generated by the light, there is also a tiny electric current that comes from other places. This unwanted current is called noise, and it mostly comes from the ambient heat of the sensor. The difference between the value of the signal and the value of the noise is called the Signal to Noise Ratio. When the ratio becomes smaller, the noise is more apparent, and the signal may get lost in it.

There are two ways that the signal to noise ratio can become low: by a drop in the signal, or an increase in the noise. In modern cameras, the noise is mostly a constant value, so we only need to worry when the signal drops – that is, when we’re photographing a dark subject. The graph to the right may help to visualise the situation.

The ISO’s Effect on your Photos

Sometimes we aren’t fortunate enough to be shooting with enough light to be able to ignore the noise. When we need to keep a fast shutter speed, or there’s not enough light even with the aperture wide open, we can increase the ISO setting on the camera. When we do so, we are increasing the signal gain. Essentially this is like turning up the volume. All of the values of the measured current (whether from light or noise) are increased. Each doubling of the ISO value, is a doubling of the gain: a doubling of the measured current in the chip.

Fig 1.7.2 - As the ISO setting increases so does the noise, until it overwhelms the signal.

Doubling the light in your photo is a pretty easy way to make an otherwise under exposed photo bright enough, but it comes at a cost: you lower the signal to noise ratio, and the noise becomes more apparent. Imagine you’re in a candle-lit room, and to take your photo, you have to set your camera to ISO1600 to get a correct exposure. You have now increased the noise value – which at 100ISO would be invisible – sixteen times, resulting in a noisy, grainy mess.

Shooting at high ISO settings is one of the most challenging technical issues in photography. Noise can look ugly and obscure detail in your photos, but sometimes the light is so poor that you have to accept the noise or get no photo at all. The newest breed of cameras are able to get incredibly high signal to noise ratios, and let photographers get clearer images than ever before in very dark conditions. Compact cameras, with their tiny sensors are always going to perform relatively poorly at high ISO.

Much can also be done about noise in your photos in the processing stage, but that’s a topic for a later lesson. As always, one should struggle to do the best one can in the camera, before resorting to post-processing to fix problems.

This is All Too Confusing

I warned you! ISO and noise are difficult concepts, but the good news is that there’s a simple take-away lesson from all this:

Noise is ugly. Avoid noise by shooting at low ISO settings. Only increase your ISO if there is no other way to get enough light for a good exposure.

The good news is that most DSLRs are very good at handling noise at low ISO settings (100-400) so you don’t need to worry about them too much. When you start to get into the medium (800-1600) to high (1600+) ISO settings, does noise begin to become obnoxious. If the alternative is missing a great shot though, don’t be afraid to crank up the ISO.

The forward march of technology is very exciting, as new technologies and techniques ever improve the sensitivity of camera sensors. Even though ISO is a bear the photographer must wrestle, it’s getting friendlier and cuddlier every year.

Examples

Fig 1.7.3 A series of images taken with the Canon 5D MkII, changing the ISO and other setting to keep a constant exposure. Noise increases dramatically at higher ISO settings.

High ISO was required to balance low ambient light with flash, to fill in shadows. © Neil Creek

In order to get a bright photo of the stars without trailing, high ISO was necessary. © Neil Creek

Without a tripod, this shot in very low light was only possible with high ISO. © Neil Creek

Homework

Homework for this lesson is fairly simple. ISO is simply a matter of “turning up the brightness” on your photos, so it’s not really complicated in practice. What you should do, however, is experiment with your camera on various ISO settings and get a feel for how images look. If you know that ISO 1600 looks terrible on your camera, then you’ll be more likely to try to find other ways to get more light on the subject than just be lazy and increase the ISO. On the other hand, you’ll also know when it’s worth pushing it all the way just to catch the photo that can’t be missed.

Resources

• Film Speed – On Wikipedia
• Digital Camera Image Noise – On Cambridge in Colour
• Image Noise and Noise Reduction Review – On Digital Camera Reviews
• What Are CCD Image Sensors? – On Ezine Articles

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photography 101.7 – ISO

Last weekend I did one of the most difficult and emotionally tiring photo shoots of my life. I photographed the country town of Kinglake, Victoria, which had been devastated by bushfire, with the loss of much life, just one month prior. I want to share with you my state of mind on the day, and what I learned, so that if you ever find yourself photographing a tragedy or disaster you may be more able to keep your head above water in such a difficult and delicate situation.

Pre-Shoot Nerves

The severity of the bushfires that destroyed Kinglake, and several other communities, was so great that the recovery has been slow. When I went to Kinglake, there were still police roadblocks in place to keep away sightseers and looters. The locals are still taking stock of the damage, and the loss of so many lives in very close-knit communities is keenly felt by all.

If I hadn’t been invited, I would not have even considered the shoot until at least a couple of weeks after the roadblocks come down. I was however, invited by my friend Erin, who was until recently a lifelong town resident, and whose brother lost his house in the fire. This was a rare opportunity, as much of the rubble of the destroyed houses would likely be gone before the public were allowed to return.

Despite the invitation, I still felt very much like I was intruding, that I might be seen as a casual sightseer, that I might get in the way of those grieving for their losses. Even though I had these reservations, I still wanted to document what had happened, and to show the rest of the world. Erin encouraged me, and with her mother and my wife, we drove together to Kinglake.

Utter Devastation

Passing through the roadblock was very much like the scene in The Wizard of Oz, when it went from black and white to vivid colour – only in reverse. One moment we were in leafy green countryside, the next it was like we were in an alien world with ash-grey ground, and blackened pillars which were once trees as far as they eye could see.

I was a bit taken aback, and took a while to get my camera out. I just stared at the views out across the black valley. I would have liked to stop the car and taken a panorama, but the road was too narrow. I should have just photographed through the open window, but I thought to myself “I’ll get it later”. I should have known better. I’ll get it later is the photographer’s worst enemy. We ended up returning via a different route, and I wasn’t able to get the photo I wanted. My first lesson learned: never ever think “I’ll get it later”.

We first met Erin’s brother, who was at his post at the CFA (Country Fire Association) station. When I was introduced to him, it was a little awkward. I was thinking “what do I say to a man who lost everything while risking his life to save others?”, and I had no idea what he was thinking, but he looked exhausted from fighting spot fires that are still regularly breaking out. Fortunately Erin helped and broke the awkward moment. If you want to meet or even photograph people who have been involved in a tragedy, it’s very helpful to have someone to introduce you. Erin was wonderful the whole time we were in Kinglake, as a guide, as a liaison and as a friend.

Difficult to Shoot

Driving and walking around the streets of Kinglake was an awesome experience. I was humbled by the power of nature and anguished at the loss. House after house lay in ruin, and gutted cars wereeverywhere. Erin’s running commentary, from the perspective of a local was both incredibly informative and heartbreaking: “Two people died in that house, I taught the two kids who died there with their grandmother, the woman who lived in that house lost her son to illness last year…”

If you are photographing a disaster for documentary purposes, having someone with local knowledge is extremely valuable. Not only can they take you to the most interesting places, but they can also tell you the back story of what you’re shooting. Even if you’re not putting descriptions with your photos, as I did, knowing what happened can still inform your photos and help to make them a better record.

Probably the most difficult moral dilemma during the shoot was when Erin showed me where her brother Ben’s neighbours’ house had been. Two cars sat destroyed in the driveway, and she told me how Ben looked for them in the car when he first returned home, as they had been listed as missing. He didn’t see any bodies in the car, and moved on. Later, when the police went through, searching for victims, they discovered what little remained of their bodies in that car after all. When I was there, the scene was surrounded with police tape, so I knew it was likely that they were still there. “Should I shoot, or not?”

After agonizing over the decision, I photographed the scene. I was there to document what had happened, and the tragic losses were very much a part of that. One might say they were the most important part.

What Would You Do?

I came away from the mere two and a half hours that I spent in Kinglake with many stories of loss but also of courage and determination. I saw things I will never forget, and the memory of which still knots my stomach. And I came away with a memory card full of photos. On reflection there are shots I wish I could have taken, angles that I thought of later that would have looked good, and difficult decision over which of the many powerful images should I choose to show, but I am so glad I had the opportunity.

You can see the photos I took in my blog post on the Kinglake visit.

I hope you never have the occasion to photograph tragedy or a disaster, but if you do then I hope that my experience can help prepare you and maybe show you what’s most important in such a situation – at least to me. I’ve tried to summarise my thoughts and advice below:

• Respect is of utmost importance. Your presence there is a privilege and the people around you are suffering.
• If you are asked any questions be forthright, sincere and open. Be honest about your intentions and show that you are not merely a sightseer.
• If you are asked not to photograph someone or something, respect that wish. Maybe this isn’t in the strictest tradition of journalistic photography, but the last thing a decent human being should do is deepen anothers’ suffering.
• If possible, travel with a local. They can provide you with context, a liaison with others and practical advice.
• If you see a great shot, don’t put off taking it. The rare privilege you have been given may never happen again.
• If there is still a state of emergency, stay out of the way! Do not put peoples lives or property in danger, and let the authorities do what they need to do without obstruction.



• Do not put yourself at risk. No matter how good the shot you’re after, if you’re putting yourself in harms way, it’s not worth it. Besides the risk to your life, you could be risking those who might be required to rescue you.
• Finally, once again because it’s so important, show respect at all times. This includes what you do with your photos. I have chosen to make my photos available under a creative commons license, because I feel it’s important to spread the message of what happened as widely as possible, but that’s your own choice. I have also chosen never to make money from these photos, as I believe that would be unethical, again that’s up to you. But whatever you do, please do it with respect.

A disclaimer: This was my first time shooting this kind of event, and I am no kind of expert. What I’ve said here today is only my opinion and based on very limited experience. I may have given bad advice, and it’s important to do what you feel is right. So, please don’t take what I have said too much to heart.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photographing a Tragedy

Photo: Rainer Ebert used under CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who just launched a free background image site featuring his photography, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Welcome to the sixth lesson in Photography 101 – A Basic Course on the Camera. In this series, we cover all the basics of camera design and use. We talk about the ‘exposure triangle’: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. We talk about focus, depth of field and sharpness, as well as how lenses work, what focal lengths mean and how they put light on the sensor. We also look at the camera itself, how it works, what all the options mean and how they affect your photos.

This week’s lesson is Shutter.

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture

In previous lessons we have talked about the basic theory of how a camera works, including some basic optics, and introduced the idea of exposure and how we control it with the exposure triangle. In this lesson we will be drawing upon what we have learned to understand the second point on the exposure triangle – shutter – and how it works to create your photo.

The Shutter

The shutter’s function in the camera is simply to block light from getting into the camera, unless a photo is being taken, and then to allow light in only for as long as needed to achieve a correct exposure. The name shutter is a little misleading, however. Rather than being a door that opens, and then closes at the end of the exposure, it is more like a gate, with a pair of doors that slide together across the sensor. This arrangement allows for much shorter shutter speeds than could be achieved by moving a single door. The animation below explains this more clearly:

For the sake of clarity, the above diagram excludes the mirror and all other camera mechanics, only showing the sensor, shutter and some representative surrounds to give a context for the illustration.

When you press the shutter release on the camera, a complex sequence of events occurs, including setting the aperture in the lens, flipping up the mirror of an SLR and a lot more. We’ll just look at the shutter however. So referring to the animation above:

1. The rear of the two shutter “curtains” as they are called, opens behind the front curtain, and stays up out of the way. At this stage no light has entered the camera, as the front curtain is still closed.
2. The front curtain drops away, revealing the sensor behind, and allows the light to enter the camera, beginning the exposure.
3. After a period determined by the set shutter speed, the rear curtain now drops to close the camera to light and end the exposure.
4. To prepare for the next exposure, the front curtain returns to its normal closed position.

There is an outstanding interactive movie of the inside of a Nikon D3 showing the complete process in incredible detail. I highly recommend taking a look.

Fast Shutter Speeds

When the shutter has been set for a very short exposure period, such as 1/200th sec or faster, the twin curtain system comes into its own. A single “door” shutter wouldn’t be able to open and close this fast. For such short exposures, the rear curtain starts to fall, covering up the sensor before the front curtain is even fully open. The result is a moving open slit passing in front of the sensor. See the animation below:

This method of exposing the sensor (or film) is important when shooting with flash, but the topic of flash sync speed is best covered in another post. In the very early days of photography, when films had poor sensitivity to light, the rolling gap effect of this kind of shutter led to problems with moving subjects, but today there is no disadvantage at all. Most high end DSLRs can achieve incredibly short shutter speeds, such as 1/8000th sec with this shutter design.

The Shutter’s Effect on your Photos

It may seem like your camera is capturing an instant in time, but in reality, it’s capturing a duration of time equal to your shutter speed. This is especially noticeable with long exposures. Anything in the image that is moving while the shutter is open will appear blurred. This also includes the camera itself. Accidental movement of the camera during an exposure is called camera shake and has the effect of smearing the image in the direction of movement. This can be done deliberately for artistic effect, but in most circumstances you’ll want to avoid this.

A good rule of thumb to minimise camera shake is to set the shutter speed at a minimum of one second divided by your focal length. So for example, if you are using a 50mm lens, then to minimise camera shake, you should shoot at 1/50th sec at least. If you are shooting at 200mm, then set the shutter to 1/200th sec. The reason for this is that as we know, longer focal length lenses magnify the image, but they also magnify the camera shake.

Some examples of how choosing your shutter speed can affect your photos:

• Choose a high shutter speed to freeze motion or action, for example in sport photography.
• Create the appearance of motion in your photo by choosing slower shutter speed and deliberately controlling camera or subject movement during the shot.
• A longer exposure on a tripod can make moving water fluffy and white.
• Very long exposures on a tripod at night can capture very dim scenes, and even stars in the night sky fainter than you can see.

Examples

A fast shutter speed freezes the action. Photo: tylerdurden1 used under CC license

Panning with the subject during a long exposure blurs the background and gives the impression of motion. Photo: indywriter used under CC license

A slow shutter speed with the camera on a tripod turns river rapids misty white. Photo: Neil Creek all rights reserved.

Exposure of 30 seconds or more can capture striking night sky images. In this case, several 30 second images were “stacked”. Photo: Neil Creek all rights reserved.

Homework

• Find a fast moving subject – a water fountain is ideal. Photograph it at different shutter speeds, from slow to fast (adjust your aperture to maintain correct exposure), and see what affect it has on the appearance of the subject in the photo.
• Set your camera to a variety of slow shutter speeds – for example between 1/16sec to 1/2sec – and experiment with moving the camera during the exposure in different ways. Take note of how the different speeds affects the photo, and try exploiting this creatively.
• Find a moving subject such as cars, or kids on bikes, and shoot them at the same slow shutter speeds – you’ll probably need to do this at dusk or indoors. Pan the camera to keep the subject sharp, and see how the background blur changes at each setting.
• At night, grab a tripod, or find a stable surface for your camera, and experiment with longer exposures, from one to 30 seconds. Try this with moving subjects such as people at a busy street intersection.
• Shoot the stars! Take your camera and a tripod away from the city, under some darker skies and point the camera up. A moonless night is best. Use the self-timer or a remote shutter release to minimise camera shake. Set the shutter to 30sec and shoot the stars. Focus can be a challenge, so try auto focusing on a bright star, or use live view zoom to focus if you have it. Here are some of my recent astrophotos.

Resources

• Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes – At DPS
• Nikon D3 Shutter Release in Super Slow Motion – At Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog
• Camera Works: shutters, flashes, and sync speed – At penmachine.com
• Focal plane shutter – At Camerapedia

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photography 101.6 – Shutter