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A "basic" question...
Ok, so I have been reading Dgrin lately like a junkie. And I look at other people's photos. One thing I have noticed is my pictures suck in comparison to a lot of the other members. Granted many of them are professionals, with 1D's and whatever Nikon makes, but I also see people who use my camera or a lesser model and their pictures just seem to look better.
So my question will be very basic.
I know ISO speeds affect noise and graininess, but do they effect the picture any other way, something I may not have noticed yet? And if so how can I utilize/account for it?
Shutter speeds. Obviously they affect motion blur and freeze motion. But I have been told when using flash it controls ambient light. Again, is there something I am missing and how can I utilize it?
Aperture. It controls DOF and how much light hits the sensor. But how is that light affected? And how can I use that to make better pictures. I know the smaller the aperture the sharper the image, but I never seem to get it right.
And anything else you could give me to make crisper more balanced photos. Such as tips on metering. It never fails that my photos either turn out very shadowy on the foreground subject, or the skies are completely blown out. And I want to fix it. So I'm starting back at the very beginning
Thank you.
So my question will be very basic.
I know ISO speeds affect noise and graininess, but do they effect the picture any other way, something I may not have noticed yet? And if so how can I utilize/account for it?
Shutter speeds. Obviously they affect motion blur and freeze motion. But I have been told when using flash it controls ambient light. Again, is there something I am missing and how can I utilize it?
Aperture. It controls DOF and how much light hits the sensor. But how is that light affected? And how can I use that to make better pictures. I know the smaller the aperture the sharper the image, but I never seem to get it right.
And anything else you could give me to make crisper more balanced photos. Such as tips on metering. It never fails that my photos either turn out very shadowy on the foreground subject, or the skies are completely blown out. And I want to fix it. So I'm starting back at the very beginning
Thank you.
Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici
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There are two things to look for when evaluating light: how soft or hard it is and how much contrast there is. Hard light give you shadows with crisp recognizable outlines. Soft light blurs the shadows to relatively indistinct areas of light and dark. I usually think of contrast in stops of exposure difference between the highlights and the shadows. Low contrast light is less than one stop. 2 stops of contrast is very high. The easiest light to work with is moderatly soft with a contrast of just under one stop. In that light you almost can't go wrong. As a general rule, I tend to perfer harder light in low contrast situations and softer light in high contrast situations. However, there are exceptions to that for specific kinds of shots.
Here's the rub: mid day direct sunlight is very hard and has typically a contrast of about 3 stops. The situations in which unmodified direct sun will give you a good shot are few and far between. Your underexposed subject or blown out sky problem is somthing everyone faces. At ISO 100 and 1/100s, the sky is f/16 and a backlit face is f/5.6. You can't win; there is no setting on your camera that will reconcile that difference. You need to learn to recoginze friendlier light, use it when you've got it and create it when you don't.
I'd like to add that you have a good basic understanding of photography and that will go very far. There are many that spend a long time truly grasping these initial concepts.
In addition to LA's post. My .02 is take ALLOT of pictures. I studied the crap out of these forums when I first got into photography and saw no improvement in my shots. Then I 'gave up' on tghe forum and jsut started shooting. THe difference of my before and after shots are night and day!
Have fun w/ your camera!
-Jon
The other problem is my dad has given me butt loads of info, but I haven't been able to put it into practice yet, so I'm sure I know what to do, I just haven't thought to use it yet.
You may know my dad, he's Pathfinder here
They cheat! I don't know how, but they cheat. . . they must . . . right???
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Strategies for improving light depend a lot on what you are shooting.
If you can't pick the time, can you pick the location? Shooting in the shade is almost always better than direct sun. Better yet, when you are looking for shade, pay attention to where the light is coming from. Sky light will give your shots a blue cast, but you can warm that up with a gold reflector. Light filtered through trees sometimes picks up a greenish which occasionally gives very problematic skin tones.
Can you make your own shade? Scrims are wonderful because they result in ambient with a 5000K color temperature. For shooting portraits, I will sometimes make my own shade with a translucent Lite Disc.
Learn to use a hot shoe flash. Outdoors you will want a powerful one (I use a 580EX). The best use for on camera flash is filling in shadows. Cross lighting the sun with an off camera flash is even better.
Well, I have a 430. Not the best, but it's come in extremely handy now that I'm getting the hang of it. The other problem is that sometimes you just don't have the luxury of picking a time or place. They are where they are, and they are when they are.
The other problem is that with working for the paper, you have to be careful what you do. You can't ask people to move or do things different than they are doing, or alter a setting/photo in any way due to ethics. So that is limiting as well.
Don't worry if your PJ pics don't measure up to some of the pics you see on Dgrin. It's not a fair comparison. Many of the pics you see here are carefully staged and cherry-picked. Your point of reference needs to be other photojournalism images taken under the same constraints that you face.
Oh yeah, and listen to your dad. The rest of us here have learned a lot from him.
Regards,
And I was referring to my photography in general. My PJ to other PJ, my portraits to other portraits.
Your 430EX is your friend and will serve you well in most circumstances. Learning to use it well will pay huge divedends. Also look into triggering it remotely either with an ST-E2 or radio slaves. My 430EX and ST-E2 go almost everywhere my camera goes. The 580EX is 2/3 stop more powerful, but that translates into only about 20% more range so most of the time if I only bring one strobe it is the 430. That said, I do prefer the 580 when shooting in full sun because the extra power does come in handy when balancing with the bright ambient.
Ok, thanks
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
In absolute terms, both the shutter speed and the aperture control how much ambient light impacts on the sensor. However, you are using the aperture to control the amount of light from the flash that is registered. You can't vary that for the ambient or it will mess up your exposure from the flash. So, you use the shutter. Just like with "normal" photography (like, without the flash), the shutter plays a part in the amount of ambient registered. However, since the aperture can't be varied when you are shooting with flash, the shutter gets to control how much ambient light is allowed to impact on the sensor. The longer the shutter is open, the more ambient you get - just like "normal" photography.
The impact this has on your photo can be summarized as:
- Exposure - usually not a lot of impact as the ambient light is often 2 or more stops lower then the flash.
- White Balance - many times, ambient light is tungsten. So, increasing your ambient exposure will tend to warm the photo a bit or a lot, depending on the exposure contribution from the ambient.
- Ghosting (subject motion blur) - of course, the longer the shutter is open, the greater the chance for your subject to move. If they move during the exposure you will see something. The greater the contribution ambient makes, the more the ghosting will be appearant. One can set the shutter synchronization to second shutter to maximize the aesthetic appeal of this. Doing so will cause the flash to fire just before the shutter closes so all the ghosting to happen before the flash is fired and the ghosting will appear to be in the "right" direction.
- I'm sure I've missed something important in this list - if so, someone will say something!
The larger the aperture, the narrower the DOF. Visit www.dofmaster.com for some tools to actually play with DOF numbers.As you close down the aperture, the DOF becomes wider, causing things that were OOF to appear to be in focus. Something to keep in mind though is that as you decrease the aperture, you increase the effects of light difraction. Here are a couple of worthwhile links to read up on that:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-diffraction.shtml
Read Ansel Adams' "The Negative" for a very good discussion on metering and his zone system. This was an eye-opener for me. It is a very analytical way of evaluating a scene, much the same way as outlined by LiquidAir (above). When you read it, remember he was working with negative film, which has a wider dynamic range than does either positive film (slides) or digital. Where he was able to get 7 or 8 stops of DR from his film, we are pretty much limited to about 5 stops with digital (but that's improving!).
This already way to long - so I'll leave it there ... I hope this helps someone
My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
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Easy stuff!
My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
Equipment List - Check my profile