UnderstandingPHOTOGRAPHY

Faisal Sohail

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

~Ansel Adams

FIRST STEP

Select the ideal camera to suit your requirement.

Common options are

1. Digital Camera2. SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

camera3. DSLR camera

(Digital Single Lens Reflex)

Other options are : point-and-shoot,rangefinder, viewfinder etc.

TERMS YOU MUST NOTDREAD OF !

EXPOSURE

Exposure is the amount of light collected by the sensor or lens in your camera during a single shot.

If the shot is exposed too long the photograph will be washed out.

If the shot is exposed too short the photograph will appear too dark.

TERMS YOU MUST NOTDREAD OF !

SHUTTER SPEED AND APERTURE

The two primary controls your camera uses for exposure are shutter speed and aperture.

SHUTTER SPEED - the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light. Shutter speeds are measured in seconds and more commonly fractions of a second. (1/2000 of a second is very fast and 8' seconds is extremely slow)

TERMS YOU MUST NOTDREAD OF !

SHUTTER SPEED AND APERTURE

APERTURE - the size of the lens opening that lets light into the camera. Apertures are measured in something called f/stops (a very wide aperture is f/1.8 and a very small aperture is f/22.

f/stops

TERMS YOU MUST NOTDREAD OF !

APERTURE SCALE

APERTURE SCALE

Each step in this typical scale of apertures represents a change of one f stop. Imagine that f22, the smallest aperture lets through one unit of light. F16would allow through 2 units of light, f1 1 4 units and so on. The widest aperture f1.4 lets through 256 times more light than f22.

Aperture f1.4 f2 f2.8 f4 f5.6 f8 f11 f16 f22

Units oflight passed 256 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

TERMS YOU MUST NOTDREAD OF !

SHUTTER SCALE

SHUTTER SCALE

Shutter Speed 1/4 1/18 1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000

Units oflight passed 256 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

COMPOSITIONBASICSDepth of Field - Depth Of Field refers to the range of distance from the camera at which the objects will appear to be in acceptable focus. Anything outside this range will start to appear blurred.

Golden Ratio- Architects use the "divine ratio" or the "golden ratio" which has a value of 1:(1+√5)/2 or 1:1.618034 as a basis for making naturally appealing structures as it has been proven that anything in nature that we find beautiful, uses this ratio. It seems to flow naturally and is always appealing to the human eye.

Placing your subject along any of these lines, specially on the intersections, makes it more naturally attractive to the viewer. These intersections are sometimes called "Power Points".

Golden Triangle - Golden Triangle uses the same golden ratio used in a Golden Ratio.

Some photographers find it also effective to remove one of the small triangles forming three triangular sections, a large triangle, a medium triangle and a small triangle, and fitting the three most significant parts of a scene inside these triangles.

COMPOSITIONBASICS

The Rule of Thirds - The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or theirintersections.

COMPOSITIONBASICS

Medium film speeds (64 to 125 ASA) are probably the most used and can cope with a great range of subjects and conditions, though they may not be the perfect choice for the job in hand. They give good colour, fairly fine grain and have a good latitude to exposure error. They are really only inadequate in very dim lightingconditions.

CHOOSING THE RIGHTFILM SPEED

Slow films (25-50 ASA) being less sensitive to light require wider apertures or longer shutter speeds to give more exposure. They give the best sharpness and detail, the finest grain and are the most suitable for making enlargements. However, because of the increased exposure they require, there is more risk of camera shake and less potential for action shots in poor light. In low light you may prefer to use a slow film and a tripod rather than a fast film.

Fast films (200-400 ASA and over) Pictures which cannot be taken with slow or medium film are often possible with fast film, which can be used in low lighting conditions. The fast shutter speeds used are good for stopping action.