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Aperture (AV mode)

This camera technique refers to the hole in the lens that controls the depth of field in a photograph. On a camera, you can change the aperture mode by scrolling it to the A or Av and adjusting the size of the hole in the lens.

This setting is most useful in landscape photography, if any. For the landscape photograph to be captured successful, you need a narrow aperture. This is due to the objects or subjects in both the foreground and background to come out crisply and not blurred.

Depth of field on it’s own means the range or distance which the objects stop/start to appear crisp and sharp I n an image. Making the aperture smaller (larger F-number – Bottom) increases the depth of field, so a crisper picture can be captured.

However, the smaller the aperture number, the more the light is reduced, which therefore means a much higher exposure times. This will then require a tripod to capture a desired photograph.

Aperture priority mode = adjusts both the aperture and the shutter speed to neutral. This will focus on the perfect aperture more, but should get a near perfect shutter speed also.

F numbersThe higher the number, the more depth of field there is, therefore, the crisper an image is in all parts of the photograph.

The lower the number, the less depth of filed there is, therefore, the crispness will fade from the back and mid grounds of the shot, but remain in the foreground of the image.

Small depth of field

Large depth of field

F29 F4.5

Crisp in photograph

Blurred in photograph

With a low aperture speed I have managed to capture the object in the foreground, the tree, in great detail. While, blurring out the background of the image to give more impact to the crisp, clear tree.

A medium aperture makes the object in the foreground, the tree, clear like on a low aperture. However, the mid and background is less blurred compared to the low depth of filed image, which means objects such as the fence and bin can be identified, unlike on the above photograph.

The highest aperture image will allow the depth of field to be increased and all parts of the image that were blurred in the previous two images are now crisp and clear. A high aperture (F number) has that impact on a picture, like stated in terms of landscape photography on the last page.

F4.5 AV

F11 AV

F29 AV

Shutter Speed (TV mode)Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open on the camera once you press the button. The S or the TV setting allows you to adjust the shutter speed on the device, which, dependant on the camera, can span between a high number of speeds.

The smaller the number in terms of shutter speed, the faster the shutter opens and closes. A slower shutter speed lets more light in the camera and is well lit, where as a fast shutter speed may need ambient light due to the low amount of light going in to the camera when on a fast shutter speed.

This technique is not linked to a direct application or type of photography, like aperture, although it is used effectively when capturing movement. This is because with a fast shutter speed, movements are frozen and the photograph manages to capture it. These fast types of shutter speeds capture what the human eye sometimes can’t pick out.

A fast shutter speed requires a lot of light to be added, through artificial or post-production light. This is because the fast shutter speed will let less light into the camera ad therefore will lack light for the capturing of the photograph.

Where as a slow shutter speed can let a lot of light into the camera, which may need a shadow or a darkening post-production technique added to it.

The low shutter speed can sometimes show movement better than on a fast shutter speed setting. This is because the trail of the object is captured on the image as well as the actual object. This is normally the case for high moving things, such as trains, cars and buses.

The less time the shutter is open, the clearer the image will be. Although in terms of shutter speed, clarity isn’t everything, you may need to capture movement, which a slow shutter would do better.

The fast shutter speed has allowed the camera to capture the object as it would be seen by the human eye, if not captured things a human eye wouldn’t. The fast opening and shutting of the shutter, has meant a clear and crisp image is captured. Movement has been captured, but it’s frozen, instead of the movement lines been captured also.

A medium shutter speed allows the object to be captured and movement lines to be captured too, instead of the object just been frozen. This image has also changed from the last in terms of light. Like explained on the previous page, more light will be available to a slower shutter speed because the shutter is open for longer.

Slow shutter speeds don’t freeze the object in the photograph whatsoever. Instead, movement is recorded and the consumer will be able to see which way the object is travelling and approximately how fast. As it should be, the light of the image is the brightest out of all of them because the shutter allows more light, due to this image been the biggest wait between the opening and the closing of the shutter.

1/1000s shutter speed

1/60s second shutter speed

1s shutter speed

ISO settings

The ISO is how sensitive the sensor in the camera is to light. The setting on the camera will adjust how sensitive it is to light. The bigger the ISO number, the more sensitive the sensor is in the camera to light.

Shooting in low light may require an increase in the ISO, however, a low light location does not mean no blurriness or noise in the image, so a maximum ISO setting is not recommended.

Noise is the pixels that you seen on an image that appear almost grainy. This is the result of a selecting of a high ISO rating, therefore the sensor is too sensitive to the light on the photograph. Noise will considerably reduce the quality of an image, if the ISO is too high.

A low ISO is required if a high quality image is required for a photographer. If a very light setting is the setting for your photo, the ISO wants to be as low as possible. Where as a low light setting would require a mid to high, but not maximum ISO number. Maximum ISO would still produce noise, due to a bit of light in the image still been evident. A maximum ISO may never be used because it would be perfect in pitch black dark, where there would be no light to affect the sensor, however, the object or subject will not be picked up by the camera.

As the ISO increases, the noise/chance of seeing noise also increases. The little pixels or grains that can be clearly seen on the ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 are examples of noise. This is because the sensor gets more and more sensitive to light as the ISO goes up.

The low ISO means the sensor isn’t so sensitive to light. As it was, we purposely captured our photos in a dark space, because then it would show that a low ISO in somewhere with not much light would still produce a crisp and clear image, with no noise.

With a mid ISO, as stated on the last slide, the chance of noise in the photograph increased. Compared to the 100 ISO, the image is less clear and crisp, due to the sensor been affected by the little light that existed in the ‘dark setting’.

A high ISO, no matter the setting, a bit of noise will be detected when you capture the image. The clarity of the 100 ISO image has vanished completely and the image has become blurred. This of course however has improved from what he image would look like if it was captured in the natural outside light.

100 ISO

800 ISO

1600 ISO

Noise Example

The grain in this photograph represents the noise within the image. This is due to the sensitivity to the lens been too great, so therefore the photograph develops these grains, like show above. This photograph was taken with an ISO of 6400 (the largest ISO possible on the Canon 1000D, this is why it looks grainier than the examples on the previous slide.

White BalanceThe white balance allows you to change the colouring and highlighting of images and objects within those images. Instead of been a Photoshop technique for post-production, the camera lets you take the picture with altered colour instead.

The main feature of White balance is to change the consumers mood on a photograph. For example, they may like an image more if it was in a Tungsten or fluorescent colour. While the consumer may have a more positive mood to a photograph that is lighter, compared to the darkness of the daylight setting.

It also helps the camera user and everyone else to understand what white is. This is because without the settings allowing you to change the colour, the normal or the white image cannot be compared to anything, therefore teaching us what white is.

A few examples of what the settings can do are that: A cloudy setting in daylight light can give the photograph a yellow tint to it. Another one includes the fluorescent light setting in daylight will bring a green tint upon the photograph.

Unlike the other settings, you can choose a wrong technique within the setting to improve the image. For example an image in daylight, edited by a shade setting would, in theory, be not good. However, the objects within the image are highlighted more than the original image and it’s a very effective white balance setting to use with daylight light.

The white balance affects both the look and the consumers feeling toward the image.

These are all the effects which you can change in the white balance settings of a camera. As you can see, some change it drastically, while others change or slightly highlight a part of an image.

ShadeDaylight

TungstenCloudy

Daylight – The image is close to normal, daylight gives it some extra light in certain areas, but not a notable change to what an original image would look like.

Cloudy – Like daylight, the cloudy effect doesn’t change the image that much from what an original photograph would look like. However, a little more light has been added to the original lighting of the original image.

Shade – A lot of change has occurred between this image, the original and the two effected images before this one. Artificial light has been added to the whole image, instead of just certain parts, like the daylight and cloudy images.

Tungsten – The most restrained image of them all, yet the most altered photograph out of the four. Tungsten always turns every image, including this one, blue. However, the bright parts of light like on the shade image, has remained, but it’s been darkened and shadowed a bit.

Original image

Cropped

Levels

Dodging and burning

Colour adjustments