Two weeks into this
class and I am already taking better photos. If you like to take pictures and
want to improve your photography skills, you will want to participate in A Year With My Camera. The best part? It's a free class!
The first lesson deals with exposure. Ok,
this should be an easy lesson. Most of us usually have our camera set on auto
and let it decide how much light comes in through the lens. Well here's the
thing, when you have your camera set on the auto mode, it is programmed to
assume the overall tone of the image is 18% grey. So how does that affect your
photo? It means that white will turn grey and black will turn grey. What?!
Sounds crazy but it's true. That's why photos of with a lot of white in them will look grey. And
photographing a dark object in a dark room will turn grey. Don't believe me?
Get a white piece of paper and take a picture of it. Make sure the whole frame
is white. Do the same with a black piece of paper. You'll probably have to put your camera on
manual focus to take the picture. Compare the two photos. Can you tell which
one was which? As you read this you're probably thinking "Of course I'll
be able to tell the difference. One will be white and the other black."
Are you sure?
Here's what happened when I did this
experiment using my Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens. My camera was set in the
auto mode with manual focus. When I tried use auto focus the lens couldn't lock on anything.
Black Paper
- F/4.5, ISO 800, Shutter speed 1/10 sec
White Paper
- F/4.5, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/80 sec
So can you tell the difference? No? I didn't
think so. Don't feel bad. I couldn't tell them apart either. The only way I
knew which one was which was I knew which color I photographed first. This lesson was a real eye opener for me.
Last year I was doing the Capture Your 365 class and one of the
prompts was White on White. I took a white pitcher set it on the snow. Did my
photo turn out White on White? No it sure didn't. I was on auto mode and my
camera automatically adjusted my picture to grey. It was awful. I had to edit the
picture in PhotoShop
Elements to make the photo work for the prompt and even then it was still underexposed.
F/8.0, ISO
200, Shutter speed 1/250 sec
I'm doing Capture Your 365 again this year
and when the White prompt came I was ready. This year I made the adjustments I
needed to get a white, not grey, photo without having to edit. My subject this
year is a white bowl with brown eggs. I use white foam boards for the table top
and the background. I took my camera off auto and set in aperture mode. I
didn't know what F Stop to set my camera on so I started at the lowest. The
result was super overexposed. So much so that all I saw was white. So I
adjusted my F Stops a couple setting higher and tried again. Still overexposed
but I could start to see details in the photo. I took the F Stop up a couple of
more and that time my photo turned out perfect. What a difference between last year and this year!
F/4.2, ISO
1600, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec
I did have to adjust my ISO to 1600 because
I didn't have good, natural light. The white is white and the detail of the
bowl is crisp. I was able to complete this prompt with a great photo without
editing!
The aperture mode on your camera means that
you determine what F Stop the camera will use and the camera determines the
other settings. The aperture is how much light the lens lets into the camera.
When the light is bright, in auto mode the lens will allow just a little bit of
light in by closing the opening in the lens to get that 18% grey it's
programmed for. When the light is low the lens will widen the opening to allow
more light in. The camera lens is like our pupils - constricts when we're in
sunlight and expands when we're in the dark. The confusing part is the wider
the opening in the lens the smaller the F Stop number and vice versa. So that
means a very small opening in the lens for sunlight has a high number, like
F/16 and when the lens is opened wide for low light the F Stop could be a low
as F/1.4 It can get confusing but once you start playing with the settings and
taking pictures this will become natural to you.
I want to be able to take photos that need
little editing. Am I still going to have to edit my photos even after finishing
this class? Of course. There will be photos I take where my main goal is to
just capture the memory. Those photos will be taken with my camera on auto.
It's the photos where I'm expressing my creativity, the ones I plan and set up
that I want to be almost perfect. These will be the photos I take with my
camera off the auto setting. These are the photos that will be the most fun
taking. And the most challenging. And the most frustrating. And well, you get
the idea.
I hope this helps a little bit for you to
understand your camera better and improve your photo taking skills. If you want
to learn more about your camera and become a better photographer take A Year With My Camera. Fo.r a boost in your creativity sign up for Capture Your 365.
Thanks for visiting with me at
Down Home at Dee's
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