buxton & district u3a digital photography beginners’ group 3 december 2013 lesson...
TRANSCRIPT
Buxton & District U3A Digital Photography Beginners’ Group
3 December 2013
Lesson 7: Controlling exposure / focal length / perspective / composition for a better picture& Taking Pictures of people
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Programme19 September Exploring your camera
1 October You’ve taken some pictures now what? (Viewing pictures; filing on your computer)
15 October Printing & Composing a better picture (part 1)
29 October Camera modes/scenes & Composing a better picture (part 2)
5 November Simple editing to improve your pictures
19 November Understanding exposure
3 December Controlling exposure/focal length/perspective/composition for a better picture &
Taking Pictures of people
17 December Everything you want to know about digital photography but never dared ask.© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Last Time
How to improve my pictures.• Understanding Exposure
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Homework
Go through Exercises 1-6 again at home in your own time.
Make sure you feel comfortable with:• Controlling exposure• Freezing / blurring motion• Controlling depth of field
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 1- Automatic Exposure
1. Set your camera to Auto mode.2. Find where your camera tells you what shutter speed and aperture it is
going to use when you are about to take a picture.3. Take some pictures, taking particular notice of the shutter speed and
aperture as you take each picture.4. Take pictures in a variety of lighting conditions:
i. Indoors and outdoorsii. Scenes with bright and dark areasiii. Sunny day & grey day (if you can find them!)iv. Sun behind you / sun in front of you.
5. Are you happy with the exposure in all of the pictures?
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 2 - Exposure Compensation
1. Set your camera to program mode.2. Find the exposure compensation adjustment on
your camera (if you have one).3. Try taking several pictures of the same scene at
different exposures:i. Shoot the same scene with set to +2; +1; 0; -1; -2ii. Try this with several different scenesiii. Find some scenes which have a both bright and dark areas
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 3 – Shutter Speed
1. Set your camera to Shutter Priority2. Find out how to adjust the shutter speed in this mode.3. Change the shutter speed:
i. Find the shutter speed and aperture on the camera display.ii. How does the camera tell you if it can’t set the aperture to get a correct exposure at your chosen shutter
speed?
4. Take pictures of moving objects:i. Take some shots at fast shutter speed (1/250 or faster)ii. Take some shots at slow shutter speed (1/30 or slower)
5. Find out what happens at slow shutter speedsi. Zoom in as far as your camera will allow (longest focal length or highest “x” zoom) and shoot outdoors at
shutter speeds of 1/30 or less.ii. Zoom out as far as your camera will allow (shortest focal length or 1x zoom) and shoot a similar scene at
shutter speed of 1/30 or less.iii. Come indoors – how slow do you have to set the shutter speed to get a good exposure (without flash)?iv. Stay indoors – what happens when you take pictures at speed of around 1/10 or 1/15.
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 4 – Aperture
1. Set your camera to Aperture Priority2. Find out how to adjust the aperture in this mode.3. Change the aperture:
i. Find the shutter speed and aperture on the camera display.ii. How does the camera tell you if it can’t set the shutter speed to get a correct exposure at your
chosen aperture?
4. Take pictures of scenes with object(s) in the foreground which are clearly separated from the background:
i. Take shot at a wide aperture (f/4 or larger)ii. Take shot at small aperture (f/8 or smaller)
5. Take pictures in a range of lighting conditions.6. Can you always find a viable shutter speed for the aperture you have chosen?
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 5 – Manual Exposure
1. Set your camera to Manual Exposure (if you have one)2. Find out how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed in this mode.3. Find out how your camera tells you if the shutter speed / aperture combination
gives a “correct” exposure. 4. Try taking a range of shots
i. take pictures in various lighting conditionsii. “freeze” motioniii. show motion by “blurring” the imageiv. isolate an object from the background (object in focus, background blurred)v. foreground and background both in focus
5. Do you have more of a range of shutter speed or aperture?
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Exercise 6 – ISO
1. Find out how to adjust the ISO on your camera.2. Set ISO to Auto.3. Take pictures in a range of lighting conditions – note the ISO, shutter
speed and aperture.4. Choose the shutter speed (shake/freeze/blur) and aperture (depth of
field) then see if you can adjust the ISO to get a correct exposure.5. Take a picture with the lowest ISO you have and a similar picture with the
highest ISO. Can you see any difference in quality of the image?
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
This Time
How to improve my pictures.• Drawing together exposure / focal length /
perspective• Taking pictures of people
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Last Time -What affects Exposure
How sensitive is the film (or digital detector)
“Film Speed”
How much light is there on the subject “Lighting”
How big is the hole letting light into the
camera “Aperture”
For how long is the camera collecting light
“Shutter speed”4”
2”1”1/2”
1/250”1/125”1/60”
1/30”1/16”1/8”
1/4”
1/500”
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Summary (what have you got to tinker with)
Exposure
Brighter/DarkerDepth of field Motion / Still
ISO
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
The time before – Lenses etc.• Focal length• Magnification• Angle of view• Perspective • Position• Depth of field• Distortion
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
18 mm1x
39 mm2x
100 mm5.5x
250 mm14x
Wide Angle Telephoto
SLRCompact
Magnification / Angle of view
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Perspective / Position(relative size of objects at different distances)
How can I make the bollards look
bigger?
Zoom…… …. Or get closer.
Relative sizes of bollard, car and road sign stay the same.
Bollard has got relatively much larger than sign and house.
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Perspective / Depth of Field
45mm lens1 m distance
140mm lens3 m distance
• Wide angle and close to front bottle makes closer bottles appear relatively larger
• so parallel lines running along top and bottom of bottles come together quickly
• Long focal length and further from front bottle makes closer bottles appear relatively less difference in size
• so parallel lines running along top and bottom of bottles come together gradually © Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Distortion
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Lenses Focal Length (Zoom)
Distance from Subject
Magnifi-cationDepth of fieldAngle of view Perspective
ISO
Exposure “Composition”
Summary (what have you got to tinker with)
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
The time before that – Composition
• Some guidelines …………
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
What’s in the picture –avoid distractions
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
2. Avoid the middle/fill the frame
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
3. “The rule of thirds”
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
4. Frame the picture
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
5. Leading lines
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Focal Length (Zoom)
Distance from Subject
Magnification
Angle of view
Perspective
Summary (how to take the perfect picture)
Brighter / Darker
Depth of field
Motion / Still
ISO
Things you change affect the picture
Leading Lines
Frame the picture
Avoid middle / fill frame
Rule of thirds
Avoid distractions
Guidelines help you decide what’s in the
picture
Just add creativity
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
This Time
How to improve my pictures.• Drawing together exposure / focal length /
perspective• Taking pictures of people
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Beware posed picture
• It’s a record of the day
But• There is lots of
distracting background
• Its Dull !!!!!
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Beware Posed Pictures
• It’s a record of the day
But• I cringe• Nice door handle!• It’s Dull!!
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Beware posed pictures
• It’s a picture of Katie posing on her 9th birthday
• It’s dull and it’s awkward
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Oh Dear!
• The subjects look awkward
• Paul is hidden in the shade
• Far too much going on – distracting from the subject
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
What•Fill the frame•Blur the background•Highlight the subject•Less awkward look
How•Zoom (fill frame/ helps blur / not in subject’s face)•Use “portrait” setting or large aperture (blur background)•Don’t pose (he knew I was shooting but this is one of series walking down street.)•Use light to highlight subject
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
What•Isolate the subject•Keep the context
How•Stand a long way back and use Zoom (helps blur / not in subject’s face)•Use “portrait” setting or large aperture (blur background and foreground to isolate subject)•Don’t pose (she knew I was shooting but I was a long way off.)
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Unconventional views
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Unconventional views
• Unusual angle• Looking away from
the camera• Looks natural• Fill the frame
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Capture the action
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Capture the action
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Candid shots
• Long telephoto• And cropped
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
• Telephoto – camera is not in her face
• Background slightly blurred
• Use the light to highlight the subject
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Candid shots
• Not posed• Looking away from
the camera• Use the light to
highlight the subjects
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Homework1. Go through your pictures:
a. Find some that you don’t think are so good. What could you have done differently to improve them?
b. Find some that are better. What was different? Why did they work?
2. Take some pictures of people between now and the next session. Bring some along.3. Select one photo you think is not good and one which is good. Bring to next
meeting or email to [email protected] by Monday 16th December
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Homework
Photo competition - 3 pictures in each of 3 categories:1.People – portrait, group picture, action, candid etc.2.Places – buildings or landscapes3.Open – any subject you likeSend your 9 entries to [email protected] by Sunday 15th December (or arrange to deliver otherwise e.g. via cloud storage or deliver memory card to my house).
© Copyright John Estruch
Buxton & District
Digital Photography Beginners
Next Time
• Everything you wanted to know about digital photography but never dared ask– Recap of what we have done – Your questions answered
• Photo competition– Competition portfolios.– Competition winners.
© Copyright John Estruch