Blog 2: Lights, Camera, Exposure

This is my camera.

   

        It is the Canon EOS Rebel XSi. Nothing too fancy, but much better than an iPhone 4, I have to say. This camera is a couple years old (and is my dad's). These next couple of weeks will let me know if I am actually interested in photography. If it turns out I become really invested in it and I really enjoy it, then I might consider investing in a camera of my own. If photography becomes a hobby of mine, I think it would be a good purchase to make.

        I'll be honest... I'm really not an "instruction manual" kind of person - I usually like to figure things out on my own. But considering I usually take pictures by turning the setting to the little green box (automatic), I thought I should do some reading to figure out what really controls the camera. It seemed silly to learn about the mechanics of a camera, since I am not learning out to build one, so I jumped right into the things that will actually affect my photos and how to control them.

Exposure
One of the most important things you can control in your camera is the amount of light that you let in. This is called exposure. If too much light is let in, the photo will be overexposed, and if not enough light is let in, the photo will be underexposed.

There are 3 main things the influence exposure: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
(Disclaimer: I didn't take these photos)

Shutter Speed (movement)
Shutter speed is how long the lens remains open before it snaps the picture. 1/4 shutter speed is longer, so more light is let in. 1/400 is very quick, and less light can enter. Shutter speed can also affect moving things. 1/400 shutter speed will allow something to freeze in time, because it is very quick. 1/4 will make the moving object a blur. Other settings, like aperture and ISO can be played around with, so that you can take a quick snap that still lets enough light in.

Aperture (focus)

Aperture controls how open or closed the lens is. It is like the pupil of your eye - in a really bright setting, it will close up, and in a dark room, it will open to let in as much light as possible. Aperture controls the amount of blur in your photo. Opening the aperture gives a shallow depth of field (blur the background), and closing the aperture gives a wide depth of field (entire picture in focus). 

                                 Blurred                                       Focused

ISO (sensitivity)

ISO is the camera's sensitivity to light. Its almost like putting sunglasses on your camera. On a very bright day, you want to put sunglasses on to you camera to decrease the sensitivity to the sun (low ISO). When you're indoors where there is less light, you take off the sunglasses so your camera is more sensitive (high ISO). My camera has an ISO range of 100-1600, but a lot of cameras can go well over 1600. 

                                           Less sensitive                 More sensitive

I honestly thought researching this stuff would be boring, but it was actually really fun to read about it. I never knew what was really going on behind the lens. 

        I read a photography book called Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs by Henry Carroll (awesome title, right?). This book solidified my newly found knowledge on exposure, but taught me more about what the settings on that little dial on the camera mean.
        To summarize: the automatic and all of the "scene" settings (portrait, landscape, night, action) are bad. The camera adjusts all of the exposure setting to what it thinks is right. The Av (aperture priority), Tv/S (shutter speed priority) and P (ISO priority) are the best settings. In each, you can adjust whatever the priority is, and the camera will figure out the rest. This way, you can focus on one aspect of the picture (movement, focus, or brightness).


        I apologize that none of the photos in this post are mine. I really wanted to learn everything I could about my camera before I started shooting. I think it's important for me to understand what I am doing. The camera has a lot of cool features, and I want to utilize them all.

        Here is what my next few weeks will consist of:

• Nature/Landscape (outdoors, bright/hard light)
• Still life (indoors, low/soft light)
• Portraits
• Action shots (shutter speed)

       Great News! I have created an instagram where I will be displaying my work. Follow me at @efaphotography (I follow back) I will be posting soon!!