mamarazzi workbook

-  ‘Technical Overview’ in a Non-techy way

-  ‘Cheater Modes’ and Why I am in love with them

-  Seeing the Light (both natural and ‘ugly’ flash)

-  Cassandra’s Top 10 List

-  Post-Processing for Free and Cheap

- The Scary Reasons to backup your Images

- Get the Dang Images off of Your Laptop Sister!

‘I have this fancy-schmancy camera and shoot in auto all of the time with flash. Not very attractive images! I want to have control of my camera and all of those freakin’ buttons’

In traditional (film) photograph- ISO (or ASA) was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. It was measured in numbers (you’ve probably seen them on films – 100, 200, 400, 800 etc). The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking.

In Digital Photography- ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) – however the cost is noisier shots.

ISO 1000/Lowlight ISO 200/Bright Sunlight

  The most basic way to define shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter stays open.

  The shorter the time left open the “faster” the shutter speed. (stops motion..) ex: 1/1000 of a sec

  The longer its stays open the “slower” the shutter speed (shows motion) ex: 1/60th of a second

Higher Shutter Speed- Stop action (1/1000th sec)

Lower Shutter Speed- Shows motion (1/125th sec)

  The amount of light allowed to pass into the lens (controlled by the diaphragm Think pupils of your eye!)

  The lower the number…the more light (i.e., “wide open=2.8)

  The bigger the number, the less light (“stopped down” =16)

  Each ‘stop’ is letting in either twice as much or half as much light. (i.e., f/2.8 is twice as much light as f4)

  Aperture determines Depth of Field

  DOF-the portion of the image that is in focus. (‘fuzzy’ background vs. tack sharp)

  The Lower the number…the more ‘shallow’ the depth of field. (fuzzy back ground)

  The Bigger the number the sharp/in focus the background/image is

Lower the f/stop-the more ‘fuzzier’ the background (more

focus on the subject)

Higher the f/stop-the more in focus the background/image

Lower Aperture=fuzzy background

White balance is a camera setting that adjusts for lighting in order to make white objects appear white in photos (temperature/Calvin scale)

Tungsten Setting Cloudy Setting

Aperture/Shutter Priority, is a setting on some cameras that allows the user to choose a specific aperture/shutter speed value while the camera selects a shutter speed/aperture to match. The camera will ensure proper exposure.

What are they and Why I LOVE Priority Modes?

Wide Angle, Telephoto, Fisheye—Oh My!

Lens Focal Length* Terminology Typical Photography

21(-) mm Extreme Wide Angle Architecture 21-35 mm Wide Angle Landscape 35-70 mm Normal Street & Documentary 70-135 mm Medium Telephoto Portraiture 135-300+ mm Telephoto Sports, Bird & Wildlife

TIP: If you can only own one lens- 50mm 1.8, 1.4

What’s In My Bag?? (2) Canon 5D Mark ii Canon- 50mm 1.4 Canon- 85mm 1.8 Canon- 24-70mm 2.8 Canon- 70-200mm 2.8 Tamron- 90mm 2.8 (macro)

Speedlites: (2) Canon 580 EX 2 (1) Canon 480 EX

(2) Monfroto 12ft. Lightstand Med Circular Reflector Full Length Reflector

Video Light

TIP: If you can only own one lens- 50mm 1.8, 1.4

#1: Change Your Perspective!

• Commando Crawl

Change Your Perspective!

• Full Circle

Change Your Perspective!

•  Way Up High

# 2: Its LIGHTS, Camera, Action! For a Reason (aka: bad light = sucky image)

• Facing Directly into Sun=BAD

• Diffused Light (Natural & Flash)

• An hour after dawn/hour before dark

• Open Shade is Your Friend

• Window Light=aahhhhmazing

# 3: De-Junk Your ‘Studio’

#4: Capture Them Doing What They L-O-V-E (even if it means annoy big sister)

#5: Details, Details… (the little things that change too fast!)

#6:No ‘Pickle in Middle’ (aka-thoughtful composition rocks!)…

* Rule of Thirds

#6:No ‘Pickle in Middle’ (aka-thoughtful composition rocks!)…

* Leading Lines

#7: Get Up In Their Grill (aka: a long lens can be your bff)

#8: Include Their Environment

#9: Give Them Something to Do (even if it means messy clean-up )

#10: Get Your Focal Point Right!

Focusing 101: 1.) Select Your Focal Point In-Camera

2.) Select Your Focal Point For Subject

*** Focus and Recompose Method

BONUS: FORGET THE ‘RULES!!!!’ (for a bit)

PICASSA http://picasa.google.com/

PHOTOFILTRE http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/

GIMP http://www.gimp.org/

PAINT-NET Download located under DOWNLOAD heading: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

ULTIMATE PAINT 2.88 Freeware Addition: http://ultimate-paint.en.softonic.com/

• Costco • DVD • Picasa/Shutterfly/Snapfish • SmugMug • Removable Hard Drive

•  Annual Family Album

Mpix.com

Photbookusa.com

•  Canvas Clusters

• Large Canvas

• Child’s Gallery

•  Mamarazzi Site

•  Mamarazzi ‘Model Shoot’

•  Light Factory Courses

•  ‘Understanding Aperture’ Book

•  http://www.digital-photography-school.com/

• Leave the Camera in Site and PRACTICE!