Photography Made Easy Advanced Shooting
| 25 September 2010
The following guide is a complimentary guide for those who have completed one of the Photography Made Easy (PME) workshops.
The Photography Made Easy philosophy is to simplify your shooting so that it is a free-flowing and fun activity.
In the Photography Made Easy advanced workshops, you will use your camera in manual mode. The reason for this is that you can fine tune your camera settings and shooting skills to achieve the right ambiance in your images. Shooting in manual can be confusing but it is an important part of maintaining the ultimate control over your images. If you can stick with shooting in manual, you will love the results.
Getting the image right in the camera is just as important when shooting with your digital camera as it is when shooting with film. You need to get the image right in your camera rather than “fixing” it in Photoshop or other post production programs later. Your masterpiece will be ready to print or view more quickly as well. However, you should be using post production to get the most out of your images. Try not to think that your film images never had post production done to them, you just didn’t see it happen when your film was processed. When you used film, the manipulation started with your film choice. With digital settings, you use camera programming, composition rules and post production to achieve the same results, so have fun with your digital images and let your creative juices flow.
There is no need to shoot 100 images in order to get “one”. If you follow the composition rules, look at what you are doing and pay attention, you will reduce the need for editing. Learn from your mistakes – that’s the fun part. At times you will learn much more through analysing your mistakes than always getting it right.
Part of learning about photography is learning the correct terminology. If you have done the PME advanced workshop, this will make more sense to you.
Exposure – Using ISO, Shutter Speeds and Apertures
A quick guide is listed below:
I am going to base the tips below on the day time exposure I use. This works very well for most travel photography.
An exposure is always stated in a particular sequence. Always start out by stating the shutter speed such as 1/125th of a second at f8, or 1/250th of a second at f8.
Then the Aperture (also known as an f stop or an f number) for the standard daylight exposure should be stated as 1/125th of a second at f8.
Lastly, the ISO should be stated as follows: 100 ISO or 200 ISO, etc.
The whole exposure will read as 1/125th of a second @ f 8 at 100 ISO
SHUTTER SPEEDS
Typical shutter speeds range from 30” seconds to 1/5000th of a second.
Double quotation marks “ indicate shutter speeds in seconds. For example a shutter speed range from one second is as follows:
1 second (1”), 1/2, 1/2.5 of a second, 1/3 of a second, 1/4 of a second, 1/5 of a second, etc. Now to show you how this will look on your camera starting at a second ... the normal text below indicates the third stop increments and the bold text indicates whole shutter speeds:
(slowest shutter speed) 1” 1.6 1.3 2 2.5 3 4 5 6 8 10 13 15 20 25 30 40 50 60 80 100 125 160 200 250 320 400 500 640 800 1000 1250 1600 2000 2500 3200 4000 5000 (fastest shutter speed) etc.
This sequence is based on a Nikon SLR and will differ slightly between different brands of cameras.
APERTURES / F STOPS
Remember that the largest opening in the aperture corresponds to the smallest f number such as f1.4 or f2.8. This will give you the shallowest depth of field and only a small part of your image will appear to be in focus.
On the opposite end of the f-number scale, f 22 or f 36 is the smallest aperture opening on a 35mm camera lens (Digital SLR). This will give you the best depth of field. It will make your image appear to be sharp and in focus from the closest part of the foreground to the greatest distance in the image.
Apertures are predetermined by mathematical formulas to control the amount of light and depth of field in your lens (in some cameras you can see the aperture icon in the LCD screen by half pressing the shutter release).
Whole f stops start with f 2.8; f 4; f 5.6; f 8; f 11; f 16; f 22; f 36. You can see these when looking through your viewfinder or on the LCD screen on the back of your camera.
When you want to use smaller apertures to fine tune depth of field and exposure, you start to see that most cameras also have apertures that go in 1/3rd increments.
In the example below, the whole apertures are listed in bold. The 1/3rd stop increments are in regular font.
f2.8 f 3.2 f 3.5 f4 f 4.5 f 5 f 5.6 f6.3 f 7.1 f 8 f 9 f 10 f 11 f 13 f 14 f 16 f 18 f 20 f22 etc.
ISO
Whole ISO and the third stop increments from 100 ISO:
100 125 160 200 250 380 400 500 640 800 1000 1200 1600 2000 3200, etc.
How to Prioritise Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO
Most of the time, you will want to set your ISO first, to suit the light you are shooting in. This means you do not have to worry about changing your ISO any more unless the light dramatically changes. This will leave you to concentrate on your shutter speed or your aperture.
If you want to maintain f8 or f11, this only leaves your shutter speed to change depending on the light you are shooting in. If the conditions are very bright you may need a faster shutter speed (anything over 1/125th or a 1/250th) to balance out your overall exposure. If it is too dark you will need a slower shutter speed (anything under 1/60th ). If you are shooting slower than 1/30th of a second, you should think about using a tripod.
If you are more concerned about your shutter speed and want to maintain the 1/125 or 1/250th of a second, then you will only need to change your aperture (assuming you are happy with your ISO).
So, if it is a bit dark then you will need to let more light in by using a slower shutter speed such as a 1/60. If it is very bright and you want to keep your aperture at f8 or f11 then you can chose a faster shutter speed such as a 1/250th of a second.
Aperture Priority
This is what happens if you set your camera to aperture priority (Nikon)/aperture evaluation (Canon). You choose the aperture and the camera changes the shutter speed automatically. If you want to fine tune your exposure, use the exposure compensation option but note the aperture will stay the same. When making adjustments, using exposure compensation in aperture priority/aperture evaluation mode, will only affect the shutter speed. You can change your ISO if you need to offset the shutter speed changes.
If you want to maintain 1/125th or 1/250th of a second, you will need to change your aperture only (assuming that you want to keep a 100 or 200 ISO).
The aperture should be adjusted to work like the iris in your eyes. It should decrease in size with more light and increase in size with less light.
Changing your aperture will also change the depth of field. So, to maintain shutter speeds of 1/125th or 1/250th of a second, you may need to change your aperture from f8 to a 5.6 (or open up one full stop) to let in more light. This will also give a more shallow depth of field or decrease your depth of field. If there is a lot of light, you may need to stop down or close down (one full stop) from f8 to f11. This results in closing the aperture, thus letting in less light through the lens and will increase the depth of field.
Shutter Priority
If you choose shutter priority, you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture. To fine tune your settings, use exposure compensation (note that the shutter speed will stay the same). When making adjustments, using exposure compensation in shutter/time evaluation will result in your aperture changing. Only aperture is affected. You can change your ISO if you need to help offset the aperture changes
If you want to maintain 1/125th @ f8 or 11 but it is too dark, the last option in our trilogy is to change the ISO. This changes the light sensitivity of the digital sensor. Remember the higher the ISO leads to the possibility of more digital noise (or grainy looking shots). If it is too dark to maintain 1/125th @ f8 or f11, you will need to go from a 100 ISO to a 200 ISO (or higher if needed).
To simplify this, if you change only one of the exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed or ISO) at a time, you will find it much easer. If you try to think about shutter speed, aperture and ISO all at one time, you will become confused, so try to concentrate on one setting at a time.
Whenever you are intending to shoot, a standard exposure will be extremely helpful. A standard daytime exposure of 1/125th @ f8 at 100 ISO is a fairly fast shutter speed so it will give you good stability. An aperture range from f8 to f11 is very good depth of field and in full sun or light cloud, will still allow you to maintain a fast shutter speed. Finally, 100 ISO will allow you to maintain the overall image quality with low or no noise, so you can make enlargements of your images. Please keep in mind that some cameras have a starting ISO or resident ISO at 200. If this occurs, then your standard day time exposure will be 1/250th @ f8 or f11 at 200 ISO.
In short you are now left with our standard daytime exposures. They are great overall exposures for general travel and for the perfect sunset.
To Recap:
A good standard daylight exposure
1/125 @f8 or f11 at 100 ISO
OR for some
1/250 @f8 or f11 at 200 ISO
