We do not assume that newcomers to the Club lack an understanding of the essentials of photography, but if you are new or are returning to our fascinating hobby, we hope you will find these notes helpful.
Club objectives In general the Club exists to provide a medium for interaction between photographers with the aim of encouraging interest in photography and improving the standard of member’s photographic skills.
Producing “better” photographs What do we mean by “better”? It means different things to different people, but all would agree that it can be summed up as increasing the impact a photograph has on the observer. This can be achieved in a variety of ways such as by having dramatic colour, depiction of movement, lighting effects, using patterns, revealing minute detail, focussing on something having emotional content, and so on. So in part, producing better photographs entails the photographer “seeing” a scene or subject which will have impact. However, there are certain basic concepts which also affect the outcome and these centre on the way you use your camera. We seek to explain here these factors.
Modern camera controls The majority of cameras now offer a number of automatic settings,
e.g. portrait, sports, close-up etc., and these will often produce excellent results. With a new camera, and if you are just beginning, it is fine to start with these, but ultimately you will achieve better results more often using the manual control options.
1. Composition This is to do with showing things in the strongest, most effective way. This means avoiding clutter/distractions in the picture, drawing the eye away from the main element(s) which is (are) the purpose of the picture. With landscapes in particular, try to include a point of interest. Be aware of the “Rule of Thirds” (ask a colleague about this). Often subjects have more impact if placed diagonally within the frame rather than square-on. It is important always to consider whether a picture will be more effective if taken in portrait format or landscape format. Many photographs benefit from having an element, such as a path or a fence, which leads the eye through to a point of interest.
Always ensure horizons are horizontal in your picture. A central horizon dividing the image into two halves runs the danger of yielding two areas of equal weight with neither predominating, giving a “flat” result. In this case, much depends on the range of shapes, colours and tones in each half: all rules can be broken! The angle at which shots are taken from can completely change the impact achieved. Consider taking shots from low down as well as from “normal” and raised positions.
2. Depth of field: deciding the lens aperture (f number) to be used Most lenses include a diaphragm which can be adjusted to change the size of the hole at the centre of the diaphragm, and consequently the amount of light passing through to the light-sensitive film or sensor. It also controls how much of the image is in focus. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest parts of a subject which have acceptably sharp detail, at a given focus setting of the lens.
Wide apertures (eg. small f numbers such as f4 or f5.6) give least depth of field.
Small apertures (eg. large f numbers such as f16 and greater) give greater depth of field.
3. Exposure This is the amount of light falling on the film or sensor to produce an image. The object is, of course, to use the “correct” exposure, which produces an image recording the subject as seen by the human eye. There are four factors determining correct exposure:
a) light levels at the scene – the brighter the lighting the briefer the exposure time required.
b) the “speed” of the film or sensor. This is an expression of the sensitivity of the film in use or the setting of the sensor. Speed is expressed in ISO units. A speed of ISO400 requires half the exposure of an ISO 200 setting. For general use speeds in the ISO100-400 range are typical. When lighting conditions are particularly poor higher speeds of say ISO1600 may be used.
c) lens aperture (f number) – see 2. above.
d) shutter speed. This is the length of time the shutter is open, allowing light to pass through to the film/sensor. To avoid blurring of images due to “camera shake” with a hand-held camera, a speed of 1/250 second maximum is necessary. Even shorter exposure times may be needed to freeze the movement of say a bird in flight or a racing car. Camera shake can be reduced by cameras /lens fitted with image stabilisation systems.
The camera settings used are dependent on balancing these four factors. So, for example, when producing a portrait, where one wishes to catch face detail but to avoid distracting background, a small aperture (say f5.6) will be used. This allows entry of a relatively large amount of light so that a short exposure time can be used, provided lighting is reasonable. This means that the effects of any subject movement can be eliminated.
4. Focus Modern cameras provide an “autofocus” facility as well as manually operated focus. Whichever is used the aim is to achieve sharp focus (the ultimate is “pin sharp” focus) of the main elements or all of the picture. If this is to be achieved, holding the camera steady is vital and if exposure times greater than 1/250 second are needed use of a tripod is required.
5. Lighting Quite a big subject! There are two important aspects. First, the intensity of light at the scene (“brightness”). Clearly this affects the exposure required. Intensity of daylight depends on the time of day (at sunrise and sunset the light has to travel a longer distance through the earth’s atmosphere making it weaker) and upon cloud cover, fog etc.
Second, the quality of the light. The quality of light is graded according to its colour temperature (which expresses the makeup of the light in terms of the wavelengths of its components). Early morning and at sunset sunlight has an increased yellow quality, unlike the “white” light of a
Subject lighting though, can be used to enhance the impact of a subject. Think about, for example, the use of shadows to sharpen contrasts in different areas, the drama that can be introduced into a landscape by sunlight illuminating only parts of the scene, and the effect of using early morning sunlight compared with the harshness of midday sun.
THIS IS ONLY A BRIEF INTRODUCTION BUT WE HOPE IT WILL STIMULATE YOU TO ENQUIRE FURTHER!