Tutorials
1. Getting to know your Camera settings
2. Tips for creating HDR's
For Tutorials on Dept of Field and Understanding ISO scroll down
3. Correcting Colour Casts Quickly
Sometimes if you have taken a photograph under unusual lighting conditions or with the wrong White balance set you will notice what is called a "colour cast" on your photo. This could result in your photo looking Greenish or Orangish.
A quick way of correcting this in Photoshop is
A. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer.
B. Select a colour channel in the dropdown box instead of RGB.
C. Move the sliders to the start of the information in the histogram.
D. Repeat for the remaining colour channels.
There are more lengthy and precise ways of correcting colour casts, this way is just a handy quick tip.
4. Dept of Field
Depth of Field or DOF refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are.
What is Depth of Field
When we adjust our camera's lens to focus on a subject it will only achieve perfect focus at one particular distance; anything in front or behind this point will be blurred to a greater or lesser degree.
What Affects Depth of Field?
Depth of field is affected by three main factors:
* Lens aperture diameter
* Focal length
* Distance from the subject
Aperture and Depth of Field
Opening the aperture creates a narrow depth of field. ie the smaller the number the bigger the aperture hole.
The aperture determines the diameter of the beam of light that the lens admits. The wider the aperture, the wider the beam of light. A wider beam is more susceptible to depth of field effects than a narrower beam.
Using a wider aperture produces a shallower depth of field; using a narrower aperture gives a greater depth of field.
Focal Length and Depth of Field
Focal length is a measure of how much the lens magnifies a scene. The lens also magnifies differences in focus.
A longer focal length magnifies focus differences, resulting in a shallower depth of field.
Focus Distance and Depth of Field
Getting close to the subject narrows the depth of field.
The closer the subject is to the camera, the greater the relative distance from the front to the back of that object. A high relative distance gives a corresponding reduction in how much of the object appears in focus.
The closer the subject is to the camera, the narrower the depth of field.
you can achieve the results you want by applying the following rules of thumb:
To Increase Depth of Field
Narrower aperture
Shorter focal length
Move away from subject
To Decrease Depth of Field
Wider aperture
Longer focal length
Move towards subject
5. Understanding ISO
You are probably familiar with ISO on film used in a film camera. It's the 'speed' of the film - higher ISO values mean you can take photos in lower light.
But what about in the digital world?
Surprisingly, there is an ISO setting on your Digital camera. And although there is no longer any film, the ISO setting still plays a vital role.
ISO indicates your digital camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the less light is needed to take a photo that is bright enough (correctly exposed).
In bright light (like the middle of a sunny day), you'll normally use ISO 50 or ISO 100. These are the lowest settings and can be used because there is lots of light around.
However, in lower light, your camera needs some help. There are two ways of doing this:
Decrease Shutter Speed
With a slower shutter speed, the camera has more time to 'take in' the amount of light it needs. Unfortunately though, the slower the shutter speed, the more chance that your images will turn out blurry.
Increase ISO
Rather than decrease the shutter speed, you can increase the ISO. As I said above, this will increase the sensitivity of the camera which means you can get the same shot with less light entering the camera. Thus the shutter speed can be kept low enough to avoid blurry images.
As increasing the ISO will increase the shutter speed, a high ISO will also help when taking fast moving sports shots. You'll get clear, crisp shots with no blur.
However, I still recommend you use the lowest ISO possible. Why?
Problems of using a high ISO
Using a higher ISO means the camera has less light to work with. Unfortunately this also means that 'noise' is introduced into your camera. "noise is the digital equivalent of "Grain" from the days of film.
Some cameras handle high ISO settings better than others so before you go shooting off a lot of important photos at a high ISO setting of 400+ it is adviseable to try it out at different settings to see what the results are like.
Depth of Field or DOF refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are.
What is Depth of Field
When we adjust our camera's lens to focus on a subject it will only achieve perfect focus at one particular distance; anything in front or behind this point will be blurred to a greater or lesser degree.
What Affects Depth of Field?
Depth of field is affected by three main factors:
* Lens aperture diameter
* Focal length
* Distance from the subject
2. Tips for creating HDR's
For Tutorials on Dept of Field and Understanding ISO scroll down
3. Correcting Colour Casts Quickly
Sometimes if you have taken a photograph under unusual lighting conditions or with the wrong White balance set you will notice what is called a "colour cast" on your photo. This could result in your photo looking Greenish or Orangish.
A quick way of correcting this in Photoshop is
A. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer.
B. Select a colour channel in the dropdown box instead of RGB.
C. Move the sliders to the start of the information in the histogram.
D. Repeat for the remaining colour channels.
There are more lengthy and precise ways of correcting colour casts, this way is just a handy quick tip.
4. Dept of Field
Depth of Field or DOF refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are.
What is Depth of Field
When we adjust our camera's lens to focus on a subject it will only achieve perfect focus at one particular distance; anything in front or behind this point will be blurred to a greater or lesser degree.
What Affects Depth of Field?
Depth of field is affected by three main factors:
* Lens aperture diameter
* Focal length
* Distance from the subject
Aperture and Depth of Field
Opening the aperture creates a narrow depth of field. ie the smaller the number the bigger the aperture hole.
The aperture determines the diameter of the beam of light that the lens admits. The wider the aperture, the wider the beam of light. A wider beam is more susceptible to depth of field effects than a narrower beam.
Using a wider aperture produces a shallower depth of field; using a narrower aperture gives a greater depth of field.
Focal Length and Depth of Field
Focal length is a measure of how much the lens magnifies a scene. The lens also magnifies differences in focus.
A longer focal length magnifies focus differences, resulting in a shallower depth of field.
Focus Distance and Depth of Field
Getting close to the subject narrows the depth of field.
The closer the subject is to the camera, the greater the relative distance from the front to the back of that object. A high relative distance gives a corresponding reduction in how much of the object appears in focus.
The closer the subject is to the camera, the narrower the depth of field.
you can achieve the results you want by applying the following rules of thumb:
To Increase Depth of Field
Narrower aperture
Shorter focal length
Move away from subject
To Decrease Depth of Field
Wider aperture
Longer focal length
Move towards subject
5. Understanding ISO
You are probably familiar with ISO on film used in a film camera. It's the 'speed' of the film - higher ISO values mean you can take photos in lower light.
But what about in the digital world?
Surprisingly, there is an ISO setting on your Digital camera. And although there is no longer any film, the ISO setting still plays a vital role.
ISO indicates your digital camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the less light is needed to take a photo that is bright enough (correctly exposed).
In bright light (like the middle of a sunny day), you'll normally use ISO 50 or ISO 100. These are the lowest settings and can be used because there is lots of light around.
However, in lower light, your camera needs some help. There are two ways of doing this:
Decrease Shutter Speed
With a slower shutter speed, the camera has more time to 'take in' the amount of light it needs. Unfortunately though, the slower the shutter speed, the more chance that your images will turn out blurry.
Increase ISO
Rather than decrease the shutter speed, you can increase the ISO. As I said above, this will increase the sensitivity of the camera which means you can get the same shot with less light entering the camera. Thus the shutter speed can be kept low enough to avoid blurry images.
As increasing the ISO will increase the shutter speed, a high ISO will also help when taking fast moving sports shots. You'll get clear, crisp shots with no blur.
However, I still recommend you use the lowest ISO possible. Why?
Problems of using a high ISO
Using a higher ISO means the camera has less light to work with. Unfortunately this also means that 'noise' is introduced into your camera. "noise is the digital equivalent of "Grain" from the days of film.
Some cameras handle high ISO settings better than others so before you go shooting off a lot of important photos at a high ISO setting of 400+ it is adviseable to try it out at different settings to see what the results are like.
Depth of Field or DOF refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are.
What is Depth of Field
When we adjust our camera's lens to focus on a subject it will only achieve perfect focus at one particular distance; anything in front or behind this point will be blurred to a greater or lesser degree.
What Affects Depth of Field?
Depth of field is affected by three main factors:
* Lens aperture diameter
* Focal length
* Distance from the subject
