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Aperture (AV mode)

Aperture is a part of the camera that is responsible for letting in light and

controlling the amount of light that the camera captures in the final image.

This also controls the depth of field in a photo, the depth of field is the

amount of detail that is let in a image, so the bigger the aperture the more

light in a photo the narrower the depth of field and the smaller the aperture

the less light which means a wider depth of field. Also it can be counted in

F stops so the bigger the F stop the smaller the aperture and the wider the

depth of field and visa versa.

On this diagram

you can see the

narrower depth of

field makes the

background of the

photo out of focus.

On this diagram you

can see the f stop is

larger, so the aperture

is smaller and the

depth of field is wider.

On this photo the camera setting had a

small aperture so this meant it had a

large depth of field so most of the photo

would be in focus. You can see this by

most of the photo being in focus like the

books being in sharp focus. In my picture

you can see this by the whole of the

coach being in a sharp focus, and also

all of the foreground with the people in it,

then also the background with the house

also being in focus.

This time the aperture is midway, so the

depth of field will also be midway, but

now you can see on the photo that the

books have come out of the field of focus

and are slightly out of focus. You can see

this in my picture that a lot of the image

is in a sharp focus, but as you look

closer at the subject matter nearer to the

front of the image you can see that this

isn’t in sharp focus and is a bit blurry,

showing that the aperture is smaller than

the last photo.

This time the aperture is at its largest, so

now all the background and foreground

is out of focus and just the camera case

is in focus. On this image you can see

straight away that the aperture is smaller

than the others because of how the

image is only focused on one part of the

image, the plant is in a sharp focus,

showing all the small details, where as

everything not in this small window of

aperture will not be in focus. This creates

a more dramatic effect.

F stop 8

F stop 4

F stop 2

Shutter Speed (Tv mode)

Shutter speed can create effects that can give a photo some movement

and stillness, depending on the speed of the shutter and how fast it closes.

Shutter speed is counted in fractions of seconds. A fast shutter speed

would be in the 1000s, for example 1/3000.

The smaller the fraction the faster the shutter speed, the faster the shutter

speed the more detail that will be captured. The slower the shutter speed

the bigger the fraction. The longer the shutter is open the more blur and

movement the picture will include.

Fast shutter speed

1/1000

Medium shutter speed

1/100 Slow shutter speed

1 second

This photo has been taken with a fast

shutter speed, so the movement is

captured so all the detail is kept and

there is no blurring. In my photo this

shows how a fast shutter speed works,

although this has a small aperture, it has

a fast shutter speed, which meant I could

get a picture of a person running without

any blur and distortion to the image.

This time the shutter speed was at a

medium speed, this did capture some

movement and blurring but not enough

to create a movement in the photo. In

this photo the shutter speed was slower

than the last, but still as you can see not

slow enough to create a large blur in the

photo, although, the moving person is

not as in focus and sharp as the last

photo.

On this photo the shutter speed is slow

and it captures the movement in the

photo. Because the shutter was open for

longer this meant more light got into the

picture making it a bit over exposed. In

this photo I left the shutter open for a lot

longer time, and this created a ghostly

effect where the moving people blur

across the page.

1/500 shutter speed

1/100 shutter speed

¼ shutter speed

ISO settings

The ISO settings is to do with the sensitivity of the camera, the

amount of sensitivity the camera reacts to depending on the

lighting situations. The higher the ISO number the more sensitive

the sensor is to light the sensor records the light in the final image

then this also determines the amount of noise that ends up on the

final image. The higher the ISO the more noise that ends up on

the final image and the lower the ISO the better quality the photo

will be.

The noise is clusters and grains of light that heat up and become

more visible the higher the ISO.

On this photo I put the ISO settings on to

the highest setting, this has made the

camera sensitive to the light, if you

cropped into this or zoomed the noise in

this photo would be visible.

In this photo the ISO it about medium

sensitivity. The noise would be a lot less

visible if you zoomed into the photo.

In this photo the ISO is at its least so the

light sensitivity is not high. The noise on

this is the least and may not be very

visible when you crop or zoom into the

photo.

3200 ISO

600 ISO

200 ISO

White Balance

This is changing the white colour in the photo. The white

balance menu lets you choose to take an image for each

setting. Some settings will give more dramatic or subtle

results, the balance will make the photo more yellow or blue .

In this

selection of

photos it

shows how

different the

different white

balances can

make the same

photo look.

Using different white balances on the same photos each

give the same photos a very different feel. The top 2 photos

look a lot warmer and yellower, where as the bottom two

look colder and bluer. The white balance can change the

whole story of the photo and make them look like a very

different place.

White balance: warmWhite balance: sunlight

White balance: ShadeWhite balance: tungsten

Original image

cropped image

Levels

Dodging and burning

Colour adjustments

These photos are an example of the kinds of editing that can be done

to photos, to change photos, enhance the colours, shadow or lighting,

making parts of a photo lighter or darker, this is done with dodging and

burning. Dodging and burning was originally used in the development

of film in dark rooms, the photographer would enhance parts of a

photo, essentially editing the photo before it had even been developed.

Now this can be done digitally on photoshop by selection a tool then

precisely choosing which area to enhance. Levels uses a similar idea,

about enhancing the dark and light parts of the photo, but this tool

actually changes the tones proportionally. The colour adjustment tool is

to give the photo a different tone all together, changing the whole

feeling and message of the photo, e.g. giving a photo a brown tone

makes it look more sepia and vintage, whilst giving a photo a blue tone

makes it look more modern and fresh. And finally cropping an image is

a simple way to change the perspective of a photo, change a photo’s

focal point or to just crop a particular item or person out of the image,

cropping gets rid a part of the photo, whilst keeping proportions and not

zooming in, but if a photo isn’t of a high quality, a cropped image can

become pixilated and not look good.