The Red Eye – Cause and Prevention

Have you ever wondered ‘what causes the Red-Eye in digital photographs?’

Here’s a couple of things you should know to understand it.

The real cause of the red eye is the flash of the camera. Red-eye occurs when light from the built-in flash of a camera bounces off the subject’s retinas and reflects back to the camera lens. The flashlight takes on the tint of the blood vessels in the eye, which causes the eyes to appear to be glowing red in the picture.

Red-eye can result from any camera with a built-in flash, not just a digital camera. It’s because a built-in flash is positioned very close to the camera lens. When people look into the lens, they’re also looking directly at the flash, which means that their retinas pick up and reflect almost all of the light from the flash. When you use an external flash head, you can position the flash farther from the lens and also angle the flash so that it’s not aimed directly at the eyes.

Yes, I agree we can’t avoid the flash specially when the natural light of the room is not bright enough. So what can be the remedy? Well, we’ve not much choice but to rely on the software that help edit digital photographs. Pretty much any digital photographic software will do the job.

And some caeras have RedEye reduction features also.

Some of the tactics I generally use to prevent red-eye are:

(a) Turn on as many lights as you can – especially in indoor photo-shoots. This helps to neutralise the light in the room with that of flash of the camera.

(b) If it’s daytime, try to place the subject near to a window where the sunlight is in direct contact with the subject. This also help prevent shadows been generated on the photograph.

(c) Finally, switch the flash to red-light reduction mode. This feature is present on most digital cameras. It’s good to read the manual before hand so that you’ll have a good understanding of your camera. Remember it’s always good to learn the ‘rules’ before you play with the toy…

Well then good luck with your ‘click’ … ‘clicks’..

The following site is a good tutor for the beginners who are paranoid about the red-eye syndrome to test & try. Its simple and easy to follow steps are very encouraging to try & rectifying the error youself.

Some tips to remove Red-Eye from digital phtotos

EV (Exposure Value) Compensation Explained

I’ve been using the EV (Exposure Value) button on my camera more than any of the other buttons so I thought I would share with you why and when I use it. Remember that I shoot with a Nikon so shutter speed and aperture are controlled with the front and back wheels not buttons ;). But before I get into that, let me briefly explain to you WHAT the EV button is and what it does.

To put it simply, the EV button allows your to quickly underexpose (darken) or overexpose (brighten) your image. How it works is pretty simple. When you’re taking a photo, the camera’s job is to adjust itself by changing the shutter speed and/or apperture to properly expose your shot so that it’s not too bright or too dark. Some cameras do this better than others but that’s another story. 😉 When you play with the EV button, what you’re doing is telling the camera to either brighten or darken the photo from the optimal exposure it perceives.

You can use the EV button in P (programed auto), S or Tv (shutter priority) or A (aperture priority) modes.

In P mode, the camera will adjust the EV by changing the shutter speed and/or the apperture. In S/Tv mode, since you set the shutter speed manually, it will adjust the aperture to compensate. In A mode, the camera will change the shutter speed since you manually control the apperture.

NB: You cannot use the EV button to under or overexpose your photo in M (manual) mode since you control both the shutter speed and aperture manually.

Let’s look at an example together. The 1st shot is without EV compensation, in other words how the camera sees proper exposure. I shot in Aperture Priority so my aperture stays the same so I’ll only note (for curiosity’s sake) the shutter speed changes that the camera selected. This shot is at 1/640 sec.

Using the EV button I selected +1 EV and got this shot at 1/320 sec.

At +2 EV the shutter speed was at 1/160 sec.

I then underexposed my shot by -1 EV and this is the result. The shutter speed went to 1/1250 sec.

At -2 EV the shutter speed was at 1/2500 sec.

So, as you can see, the camera adjusted the shutter speed to let in more or less light to fulfill my request.

When to Use EV Compensation

You’re probably thinking to yourself: “Great! Now I understand how to use the EV compensation button. Super! OK… when do I need to use this? You say you use it all the time? You don’t think the camera is smart enough for you?” Alright then. Let’s talk about when to use it. I can’t go through all the situations but let me explain a few most common ones.

Your camera has a tendency to over/underexpose:

I had this issue with my Nikon D200. The camera seemed to overexpose by roughly 0.3 EV most of the time. So what I did to fix the problem was to set my EV at -0.3 and the problem was solved for general optimal exposures. Simple as that.

You need more shutter speed:

I often shoot birds and those suckers can move pretty fast sometimes and to freeze their movement I need as high a shutter speed as I can. And if their also far away and I’m at my full 400mm on my Nikkor 80-400mm VR I need speed to reduce or eliminate blur from camera shake. The first thing I do is go into A mode and set my aperture wide open (smallest number) to get the most light. Then I bring my EV down by roughly 0.7. I would rather have a crisp darker shot that I can easily recalibrate in post processing than having a properly exposed blurry shot. 🙂

Your subject is brighter/darker than your background:

When I shot the flower above my subject took most of the frame so the exposure was spot on. But sometimes your subject will be smaller, like a bird in a tree. Let’s say you’re shooting a bright yellow bird perched in a dark green tree and the bird only takes up 1/10th or less of the frame because you’re too cheap to buy that Canon 800mm IS, The Sigma 800mm or that Nikkor 600mm ;), what your camera does is get a general metering of the frame and adjusts the EV accordingly (we could talk about camera metering controls but that’s another article altogether!). What will happen is the your dark green tree will be properly exposed since it takes up most of the frame which means your little bird will be overexposed and therefore lose all it’s detail. You’ll have a little white spot where the bird is. Not exactly what we want. So with the flip of a button you then underexpose your shot by -1 EV and see if you get the details back. If it’s still not enough bring it down lower until your bird is properly exposed. It’s quick and easy. And of course you can apply this to a dark subject on a bright background to get details back by bringing up your EV.

Top photo is normally exposed. Bottom photo is exposed at -1.3 EV

Bright sky:

So you’re shooting this lovely landscape with a beautiful blue sky and poofy white clouds and you forgot your graduated ND filter. Shoot! Ah, but you do have your tripod so you set it up, frame your shot and take the 1st shot at normal exposure. Most of the time (depending on your composition) the land will be properly exposed and the blue sky turns white (overexposed). Darn! What to do? Underexpose your shot (by using the EV button of course) until your sky is nice and blue. Having used a tripod, my composition is the same so I can easily stitch the land and the sky together in Photoshop™ to make the perfectly exposed photo. Or use the HDR technique. Yes you can also do this by setting up your camera to bracket your exposure but that’s way too long to do in the menus compared to just pressing a button and turning a dial. 🙂

So there you go! The mysteries of the EV compensation button are no more. 🙂

If you use the EV button in other situations, please post them here to share them with us.

Shutter Release Technique

Situation from: Digital Photography School

“Thanks for your tip on using the Continuous Shooting Darren. I use it on my DSLR regularly but have one problem – I always end up taking more shots than I want to. I put my finger down on the shutter button and before I know it I’ve taken a whole heap of shots. Any suggestions?”

Thanks for the question Harold – unfortunately there’s no easy answer to this problem except to use the old adage – ‘practice makes perfect’.

I know the problem you have because when I first discovered continuous shooting mode on my old film SLR I had the same problem and could quite easily go through a 36 exposure roll very quickly (an expensive problem). The way I got over it was to practice shooting in burst mode without any film in the camera. As I did that I learnt how much pressure it took to take one, two, three or more shots. Of course with a digital camera you can practice as you go without having to pay for unneccessary shots.

The best advice I can give when taking a shot in continuous mode (or in any mode for that matter) is to work hard at gently applying pressure to your shutter button rather than jabbing at it.

Someone once told me that it’s the same principle with shooting a gun (not that I’m too familiar with that). Rather than jabbing at the trigger and pulling yourself off aim you gentle squeeze it to keep the gun steady.

Using this technique with a camera will give you more control in continuous shooting mode to take the amount of shots you want and will also have the added benefit of keeping your camera still and reducing camera shake.

Lastly – don’t press the shutter with the very tip of your finger – rather use the flat part of it so that the end section of your finger is almost horizontal at the time of releasing the shutter (as pictured). This will help you to have as much control as possible and will also reduce camera shake.

DSLRs or Compact Cameras

THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT CHOICE a new photographer makes is which camera to use. But walk into any shop or browse to any online supplier, and the variety of different makes and styles are completely overwhelming.

Luckily, there is an easier way than evaluating every model in every conceivable price class.

Cameras come in two main categories: compact and SLR, and by choosing which of these is right for you, you can significantly narrow the choice, making the selection process a lot simpler.

Let’s look at each of these in turn:

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras

A single-lens reflex camera can be identified by the fact that the lens and body come in two separate pieces. The lenses can be bought individually and are interchangeable for specific brands of cameras. This is a tremendous advantage and means that the range of capabilities of the camera can be extended over time, such as with longer telephoto lenses or lenses that allow you to take close-up pictures.

In fact, SLRs are better thought of as the centerpiece of a system, rather than as a complete package in its own right. There is an incredible number of accessories and attachments, such as flashguns and filters, dedicated to expanding the range of capabilities of your SLR.

The advantages of using a DSLR

As mentioned above, an SLR is more extendable than its compact cousins. It allows the photographer greater control over how the final image looks. Quite apart from the fact that there are more accessories available, an SLR will generally allow the photographer more control over basic camera controls, such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO selection. Whereas compacts will normally automatically adjust these settings according to a built in algorithm, SLRs will allow the photographer to set each individually, while still including the option of letting the camera operate in automatic mode. Furthermore, while most compacts will only operate in autofocus mode, an SLR will allow the user to manually focus the lens.

Because SLRs are extendable with a variety of lenses and accessories, they are also more versatile, and can be used in a variety of situations. The larger sensor sizes means that less image noise is generated in low light and that the photographer has better control over depth of field, with larger apertures throwing more of the background out of focus than is possible on the smaller Compacts.

Though this is a gross generalization, the image quality generated by SLR lenses are far superior to that available from Compacts. Of course, some Compacts are better than others and not every lens made for the SLR market is of equally high standard, but dedicated lenses at the middle to top end of the market are vastly more reliable and suffer from far fewer aberrations (or flaws) than those built into compact cameras.

One slightly archaic difference between SLRs and Compacts used to be that in a Compact the user does not actually look through the lens of the camera when taking the picture. Rather, the viewfinder was slightly of center, meaning that there was always the possibility of falling foul of a parallax error when taking the picture. Today, most compacts do allow the user to see exactly what the lens sees, but not through the viewfinder, rather by displaying the image as it will appear on the rear display of the camera. Though this is a vast improvement over the previous situation, it is not without flaws, and the image displayed on the back of the camera can often be quite faint and hard to discern in bright light. The large, clear viewfinders found on DSLRs still have the advantage.

The advantages of using a Compact Camera

Firstly and undeniably, Compacts are cheaper. Not only is the amount needed to buy the camera far lower, but there is also much less scope for and need to buy accessories, meaning that you will spend far less over time.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Compact cameras, price aside, is the fact that they are just that: compact. The small size and light weight mean that you can take it anywhere and that you are much more likely to be able to carry it with you when going on a long trip or in your pocket or purse as you go about your day to day business.

Similarly, Compacts may be a faster option if you need to take a picture in a hurry. With a DSLR and a wide range of lenses, it may take you several minutes to set yourself up. If all you want to do is take a quick snap, or if time is of the essence, you may be much better of reaching for a “point-and-shoot”.

Compacts also attract far less attention than bulky black SLRs. Virtually everyone has a little camera stashed away somewhere, and with one of these you can take pictures without anyone giving you a second glance. With an SLR in your hands, you are making a statement, you are declaring to the world that you are there to take a picture, and you shouldn’t be surprised if people took notice. Often when you visit music concerts or stage productions, the ushers will allow those with compact cameras through, but stop those carrying DSLRs.

The smaller sensor size of Compact cameras also mean it will have much more depth of field in low light and it enables most models to have a built-in close-up facility.

Some may also say that Compacts are easier to use, and as the “point-and-shoot” nickname suggests, in most cases it’s simply a matter of turning it on and pressing the shutter release button. This ease of use does come at the price of limiting the control the user has over the final image, though.

Finally, because the lens is never removed from a Compact camera, there is no opportunity for dust to get in and get stuck to the sensor, this is a common problem with SLRs, and the dust can be notoriusly hard to remove.

Which is right for you? DSLR or Compact

In the great vast world of photography, there is a place for both these formats, all you need to decide is which best suit your needs.

As a general rule, SLRs are used by those who are fairly serious about their photography. Whether as hobbyists or professionals, they are willing to take the time to master the camera and its controls in order to get the best possible images.

Compacts, on the other hand, are used by those who just want a quick snap, who want to get the job done without the hassle of changing lenses or adjusting the shutter speed.

That is not to say that professionals and serious amateurs never use Compact cameras. On the contrary, I know more photographers who have a Compact sitting right alongside their SLR than who don’t, but the fact is that they would use these two cameras in different situations. When they need to get the best picture they possibly can, they will use the SLR, but when on holiday with the family, they might use the happy-snap camera, same as everyone else.

Prosumers, Superzooms and Hybrids

This eclectic variety of names all describe the same thing. They all refer to the dirty love-child of the two types of cameras we dealt with above.

What these cameras aim to do is to bring together features of both SLRs and Compacts giving you the best of both worlds. What you end up with, however is a camera that spectacularly combines the worst of all possibilities. It is larger and heavier than a compact, yet have none of the extendibility of an SLR. The lenses offer a huge zoom range, sometimes as much as 20x optical, but the glass is generally of very poor quality and images suffer badly, especially due to chromatic aberration (meaning that different colors come into focus at different places on the image, resulting in the edges of subject detail having a colored fringe, commonly purple).

Furthermore, the degree of control over the final the image is often quite limited compared to an SLR, while the ease of use and speed of the Compact is sacrificed at the same time. The camera is also more expensive than a Compact but of much lower quality than an SLR.

In short, these are not worth the plastic they are made of, and only serve one single purpose: to teach those with more money than sense a lesson.

Buy one at your peril.

Source: Illustrated Photography

LCD or Viewfinder on my Digital Camera?

One of the things about digital cameras that makes them so appealing is the little LCD screen display on the back of them.

When I used a film SLR I used to take meticulous notes of the settings that I used when taking photos – noting frame number, aperture and shutter speed down after most shots so that a week or two later when I got my photos back from the lab I could compare my notes with the shots and work out how I might improve my photography.

The LCD screen on digital cameras cuts out the need for this process as images can be viewed immediately after they are taken and adjustments can be made to improve your shots straight away.

If you like to record your images settings for future analysis, most digital cameras will do this for you – to be viewed later either on your camera (using the ‘info’ function when in playback on many cameras) or on your computer.

LCD as a Viewfinder?

One question I get asked a lot by readers is whether they should use their digital camera’s LCD screen or viewfinder to frame their shots. I suspect that the majority of camera owners do use the LCD but there are a number of arguments both for and against it. Let me explore a few:

Why to use the LCD to frame shots

• Convenience – Perhaps the main reason that people use the LCD is convenience. Rather than having to fire up the camera, raise it to your eye, squint through it (on many point and shoot models it’s quite small) etc… using the LCD means you simply switch the camera on and from almost any position you can snap a shot.
• Size – As I hinted above – many models of digital cameras have very small view finders and when compared with the LCD (usually between 1.5 and 2.5 inches these days) there is really not that much of a comparison.
• Instant Playback – shooting with the LCD means that after you take your shot you will immediately see the shot you’ve taken flashed onto the screen. You can see this if you use the viewfinder too by lowering the camera but it adds another action to the process.
• Creativity – using the LCD opens up all kinds of creative opportunities for your photography by meaning that you don’t have to have the camera at eye level to be able to get your framing right. You can instead put it up high or down low and still be able to line things up well.
• Framing Inaccuracy of Optical Viewfinders on Point and Shoots – one of the most common complaints about using the viewfinder on digital cameras is that what you see through it is slightly different to what the camera is actually seeing as the view finder is generally positioned above and to the left of the lens which means it is slightly different (a problem called parallax). Most viewfinders that have this will give you a guide as to where to frame your shot but it can be a little difficult – especially when taking close up/macro shots. (note that not all point and shoot cameras have optical viewfinders – some have electronic ones (see below).
• Obstructed View – on some models of point and shoot digital cameras a fully extended zoom can actually obstruct the view from your viewfinder. This can be quite frustrating.
• Glasses Wearers – if you wear glasses you might find using the viewfinder of your Digital camera more difficult. Many these days do come with a little diopter adjuster to help with this.

Why not to use LCD to frame shots

• Battery Killer – the LCD on your camera chews up battery power faster than almost any other feature on your camera. Use it not only for viewing shots taken but lining them up and you’ll need to recharge a lot more regularly.
• Camera Shake – when shooting with the LCD as a viewfinder you need to hold your camera away from your body (often at arms length). This takes the camera away from your solid and still torso and into midair (only supported by your outstretched arms) – this increased the chance that your camera will be moving as you take the shot which will result in blurry shots.
• Competing Light – one problem that you will often have with framing your shots using the LCD is that for many cameras, shooting in bright light will make it difficult to see the LCD – leaving it looking washed out. Digital camera manufacturers are trying to overcome this with brighter and clearer screens but using the viewfinder instead of the LCD will generally overcome the problem.
• DSLRs – most DSLRs do not give you the opportunity to use the LCD as a viewfinder at all. I suspect that this feature will become more available however as I hear it being asked for quite a bit. I’m not sure I’d ever use it though as DSLR view finders are generally larger and are a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) meaning you can be sure that what you’re looking at through the view finder is what the image will be when you shoot.
• Electronic View Finders (EVF) – another type of view finder that is found on some point and shoot digital cameras is the EVF one. This overcomes the problem of your viewfinder and camera seeing slightly different things by giving you an exact picture of the scene you’re photographing in the viewfinder. This happens simply by putting a little LCD in the viewfinder.

Ultimately the choice in using the LCD or viewfinder will come down to personal preference. I have used a variety of digital cameras over the past few years and find myself using both methods depending upon the shooting situation and the camera. Some cameras have large and clear viewfinders (like my DSLR) and so I use them. Others have tiny viewfinders (in fact my latest point and shoot, the Fujifilm Finepix F10, doesn’t have one at all).

Given the choice between a great viewfinder and great LCD I’d probably opt for the viewfinder – call me a traditionalist but it just feels right for me.

Head over to our Flickr group to have your say on what you use – viewfinder or LCD?

Source:  Digital Photography School

5 Easy Photo Tips To Create Amazing Blur Images

In most cases the main purpose in making a good shot is to make the image as sharp as possible. But there are cases, when adding movement to your pictures can result inimpressive and splendid shots. Let’s try it out.

When the object in a frame is moving, the final image is always blurred, unless the optical exposure is short enough to fix the object. The degree of blur depends on two things: how fast the object is moving and how long the exposure is.

Surely, you can’t always control the movement of an object you are shooting; still you can control and adjust your exposure to get the effect you want. That’s what we’re going to do.

That’s the effect from shooting night streets with traffic with long exposure.

In theory, everything that moves could be the object for your shooting – traffic, people, flowers in wind, animals and lots more. It all depends on your fantasy. The technique is easy, yet the results can be astonishing and amazing.

That’s what happens when you shoot flowers in heavy wind with a 1 second exposure.

1. Always use the tripod. It’s obvious that when you set a long exposure it becomes impossible to shoot with your hands only. You have to show the movement of an object, not the movement of your camera.

2. Shoot on a cloudy day. Sunny days are not very suitable for such techniques for several reasons. First of all, bright lighting often doesn’t allow using long exposures. Second, bright lights make high contrast images and the exposition will be unsatisfying so you’ll lose the details.

3. Use a filter. Shooting in faint lights often can affect the color balance. Many pictures could have blue gradations for example. In this case 81A, 81B and 81C filters will do.

4. The exposure. Any exposure longer than 1\125 sec could provide the blurring effect of moving objects. Still, a small degree of blurring could be regarded as you mistake or incompetence, so pay attention. In order to get the blurring effect that looks intentionally made you can start from 1\2 seconds exposure and go on. Make some shots, experiment and practice.

5. Set your camera to the exposure priority mode (Tv), so that you could always control your exposure.

Moving objects shot using long exposure could result in totally abstract images. These black birds were shot using the 1\2 seconds exposure.

Different Digital Camera Modes

Automatic Modes

Automatic Mode

I suspect no one will need any introduction to this mode (as it seems most digital camera owners use it). Auto mode tells your camera to use it’s best judgement to select shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focus and flash to take the best shot that it can. With some cameras auto mode lets you override flash or change it to red eye reduction. This mode will give you nice results in many shooting conditions, however you need to keep in mind that you’re not telling your camera any extra information about the type of shot you’re taking so it will be ‘guessing’ as to what you want. As a result some of the following modes might be more appropriate to select as they give your camera a few more hints (without you needing to do anything more).

Portrait Mode

When you switch to portrait mode your camera will automatically select a large aperture (small number) which helps to keep your background out of focus (ie it sets a narrow depth of field – ensuring your subject is the only thing in focus and is therefore the centre of attention in the shot). Portrait mode works best when you’re photographing a single subject so get in close enough to your subject (either by zooming in or walking closer) so that your photographing the head and shoulders of them). Also if you’re shooting into the sun you might want to trigger your flash to add a little light onto their face.

Macro Mode

Macro mode lets you move your closer into your subject to take a close up picture. It’s great for shooting flowers, insects or other small objects. Different digital cameras will have macro modes with different capabilities including different focussing distances (usually between 2-10cm for point and shoot cameras). When you use macro mode you’ll notice that focussing is more difficult as at short distances the depth of field is very narrow (just millimeters at times). Keep your camera and the object you’re photographing parallel if possible or you’ll find a lot of it will be out of focus. You’ll probably also find that you won’t want to use your camera’s built in flash when photographing close up objects or they’ll be burnt out. Lastly – a tripod is invaluable in macro shots as the depth of field is so small that even moving towards or away from your subject slightly can make your subject out of focus. (I’ll write a full tutorial on Macro Photography in the coming weeks).

Landscape Mode

This mode is almost the exact opposite of portrait mode in that it sets the camera up with a small aperture (large number) to make sure as much of the scene you’re photographing will be in focus as possible (ie it give you a large depth of field). It’s therefore ideal for capturing shots of wide scenes, particularly those witch points of interest at different distances from the camera. At times your camera might also select a slower shutter speed in this mode (to compensate for the small aperture) so you might want to consider a tripod or other method of ensuring your camera is still.

Sports Mode

Photographing moving objects is what sports mode (also called ‘action mode’ in some cameras) is designed for. It is ideal for photographing any moving objects including people playing sports, pets, cars, wildlife etc. Sports mode attempts to freeze the action by increasing the shutter speed. When photographing fast moving subjects you can also increase your chances of capturing them with panning of your camera along with the subject and/or by attempting to pre focus your camera on a spot where the subject will be when you want to photograph it (this takes practice).

Night Mode

This is a really fun mode to play around with and can create some wonderfully colorful and interesting shots. Night mode (a technique also called ’slow shutter sync’) is for shooting in low light situations and sets your camera to use a longer shutter speed to help capture details of the background but it also fires off a flash to illuminate the foreground (and subject). If you use this mode for a ’serious’ or well balanced shot you should use a tripod or your background will be blurred – however it’s also fun to take shots with this handheld to purposely blur your backgrounds – especially when there is a situation with lights behind your subject as it can give a fun and experimental look (great for parties and dance floors with colored lights).

Movie Mode

This mode extends your digital camera from just capturing still images to capturing moving ones. Most new digital cameras these days come with a movie mode that records both video but also sound. The quality is generally not up to video camera standards but it’s a handy mode to have when you come across that perfect subject that just can’t be captured with a still image. Keep in mind that moving images take up significantly more space on your memory storage than still images.

Other less common modes that I’ve seen on digital cameras over the past year include:

• Panoramic/Stitch Mode – for taking shots of a panoramic scene to be joined together later as one image.
• Snow Mode – to help with tricky bright lighting at the snow
• Fireworks Mode – for shooting firework displays
• Kids and Pets Mode – fast moving objects can be tricky – this mode seems to speed up shutter speed and help reduce shutter lag with some pre focussing
• Underwater Mode – underwater photography has it’s own unique set of exposure requirements
• Beach Mode – another bright scene mode
• Indoor Mode – helps with setting shutter speed and white balance
• Foliage Mode – boosts saturation to give nice bold colors

Semi Automatic Modes

Aperture Priority Mode (A or AV)

This mode is really a semi-automatic (or semi-manual) mode where you choose the aperture and where your camera chooses the other settings (shutter speed, white balance, ISO etc) so as to ensure you have a well balanced exposure. Aperture priority mode is useful when you’re looking to control the depth of field in a shot (usually a stationary object where you don’t need to control shutter speed). Choosing a larger number aperture means the aperture (or the opening in your camera when shooting) is smaller and lets less light in. This means you’ll have a larger depth of field (more of the scene will be in focus) but that your camera will choose a faster shutter speed. Small numbers means the opposite (ie your aperture is large, depth of field will be small and your camera will probably choose a faster shutter speed).

Shutter Priority Mode (S or TV)

Shutter priority is very similar to aperture priority mode but is the mode where you select a shutter speed and the camera then chooses all of the other settings. You would use this mode where you want to control over shutter speed (obviously). For example when photographing moving subjects (like sports) you might want to choose a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion. On the flip-side of this you might want to capture the movement as a blur of a subject like a waterfall and choose a slow shutter speed. You might also choose a slow shutter speed in lower light situations.

Program Mode (P)

Some digital cameras have this priority mode in addition to auto mode (in a few cameras Program mode IS full Auto mode… confusing isn’t it!). In those cameras that have both, Program mode is similar to Auto but gives you a little more control over some other features including flash, white balance, ISO etc. Check your digital camera’s manual for how the Program mode differs from Automatic in your particular model.

Fully Manual Mode

Manual Mode

In this mode you have full control over your camera and need to think about all settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash etc. It gives you the flexibility to set your shots up as you wish. Of course you also need to have some idea of what you’re doing in manual mode so most digital camera owners that I have anything to do with tend to stick to one of the priority modes.

Source: Digital Photography School

Understanding Exposure

Digital cameras can handle some exposure error, but understanding exposure properly can certainly help improve your photography.

Exposure is all about how much light you let into the camera.

Too much, and your photos will be washed out, too little and they’ll be too dark.

It is possible to correct a poorly exposed image using software afterwards.

However, there are a few reasons why you should avoid this. Some of those reasons are listed below:

• If you’ve overexposed you’ll end up with blown highlights – you can never recover detail in these areas of a photograph.
• If you’ve underexposed, the same applies as with blown highlights. There’s no data recorded in these areas, and you can never recover any detail.
• It’s difficult to get good contrast in poorly exposed photos
• It’s difficult to get good colour saturation in poorly exposed photographs
• It takes up lots of your time correcting things later on! Better to get it right when you take the photo
• Light meters in cameras can be fooled by certain lighting conditions.

Consequently, it helps to have an understanding of exposure before you press the shutter!

The information here is aimed at digital SLR owners. This is because if you use a compact digital camera you have limited options when it comes to adjusting exposure.

Compact digital cameras will work out the exposure for you, so you don’t have to!

It’s still worth reading on though, as it might give you a better understanding of how your camera is working, and you never know, one day you might decide to splash out on a digital SLR!

And if all this talk of properly understanding exposure completely puts you off ever getting a digital SLR, don’t worry. You can always set a digital SLR to “auto”, and it will handle the exposure for you; or you can come back to this page and take control of setting exposure for yourself!

Understanding exposure – what affects exposure?

There are only three things that can make a difference to the exposure. And two of those involve how much light comes into the camera.

• The shutter speed
• The aperture
• The “film speed”

Understanding exposure – Shutter speed

In understanding exposure, you need to understand shutter speed. The shutter speed is a measure of how long the shutter stays open. All the time it is open, light can enter the camera and falls on the image sensor.

The longer it stays open, the more light enters. If it’s open for too long, the photo will be overexposed. Not open for long enough and your photo will be too dark.

It’s worth mentioning here that the amount of time we are talking about is usually measured in fractions of seconds. In fact, 1/30th of a second is considered slow! It’s common for a digital SLR to be capable of shutter speeds in excess of 1/4000th of a second!

Click to learn more on how shutter speed affects exposure and how to use the shutter speed for creative effects.

Understanding exposure – Aperture

The Aperture? The what? In understanding exposure you need to know what the aperture is and does.

As with shutter speed, the aperture is also a way of controlling how much light enters the camera.

The aperture is an adjustable hole in the lens. It can open to allow more light in. Or it can close to become just a tiny hole, stopping so much light from entering.

Aperture and shutter speed work together – if you have a slow shutter speed (to let more light in) you have to close the aperture to compensate. And visa versa – if you have a fast shutter speed (letting less light in) you have to open the aperture to allow in more light to compensate.

Click for an explanation of how aperture can be used creatively to control depth of field.

Understanding exposure – “film speed”

Film speed? On a digital photography site? I must be kidding! Well. No. For understanding exposure it helps to know about film speed, or ISO. Let me explain . . .

In the old days we would load film into our cameras. The most common film was called ISO 100. The ISO rating was a measure of how sensitive the film was to light.

ISO 100 was fine for everyday use in good light. But if the light levels dropped, you had to compensate by having a slow shutter speed, and a nice wide aperture.

The problem? Once your aperture was fully open (to let as much light in as possible), and your shutter speed was as slow as you could manage and still hold the camera steady (to avoid blurring the shot), and there still wasn’t enough light . . . You loaded more sensitive film into your camera!

The sensitivity of film doubled from ISO 100 to ISO 200. It then doubled again to ISO 400 . . . and so on. The highest you could go as a consumer was ISO 1600. ISO 6400 was available, but only really sold in the pro shops.

So what’s this got to do with digital photography? Digital SLRs allow you to set the ISO manually. So if it gets dark, you can increase the ISO. The downside is digital noise – a speckling effect on photos.

This speckling occurred in the days of film too. The higher the film speed, the more speckling. Back then we called it film grain, and it can be used to good effect.

Source: Digital Photography Tips

Dealing With Backgrounds

Backgrounds present both opportunities and challenges to photographers. On the one hand they can put a subjects in context and make it stand out in a way that highlights it wonderfully – but on the other hand backgrounds can overwhelm subjects and distract from them.

Some of the common problems that photographers have with backgrounds include:

• Distracting Focal Points – we’ve all seen this happen – we line up a shot of a friend to take as a portrait and just as we press the shutter someone else pops their head up over their shoulder with a silly face. The result is that the real focal point of the shot becomes the face pulling person. This is an extreme example of distracting focal points in the background but it’s something that happens quite a lot.
• Protruding Elements from Subjects Heads – I nearly didn’t include this one but it’s so common that I just had to mention it. When shooting a portrait one of the common mistakes is for some background element to look like it’s sticking up out of a person’s head – like a horn. It’s often trees (as in the photo to the left) but could be anything. These shots can be quite comical but can also really throw the composition of a shot off.
• Competing Lines – if your subject has lines in it and your background also has strong lines they can compete in such a way that the image becomes busy or so that the lines clash with one another.

So how do we deal with these problems?

1. Check your Background Before Hitting the Shutter Release

Ok – this strategy isn’t rocket science, in fact you’d think it almost goes without saying – but unfortunately it doesn’t and many of the mistakes that I see in photographs could have been avoided simply by checking the background before taking the shot and taking some sort of evasive action.

Always scan the background of your shots before taking a shot. Look for colors that don’t fit with the rest of the image, bright patches that might distract the eye, lines that clash, people that don’t belong etc.

2. Move Your Subject

This is once again a fairly simple technique but is probably the first thing you should consider. Quite often asking a portrait subject to take a step to the left or right will fix things either by putting the distraction behind them or by putting it out of frame.

Photo by alterednate

3. Change your Shooting Angle

If you have distracting elements in the background of a shot but can’t move your subject another strategy is to move yourself and shoot from a new angle. This might mean rotating around your subject but could also include getting down low to make the sky the background or even getting up high and shooting down onto your subject to make the background the ground.

4. Using Aperture to Blur Backgrounds

One of the most useful things to learn as a way to combat distractions in backgrounds (and foregrounds) is to use the power of your lens to throw the background out of focus using depth of field. What you’re trying to achieve with this technique is a nice blurred background where you can’t really make out what’s going on there.

The easiest way to do this is to use a wide aperture (the smaller the number the wider the aperture). The wider your aperture the more blurry your background should become.

The quickest way to see the impact of this strategy is to switch your camera into aperture priority mode and to take a number of shots at different apertures. Start with an aperture of f/20 and work your way down – one stop at a time. Once you get down to under f/4 you’ll start seeing the background in your shots getting blurrier and blurrier.

5. Using Focal Length to Blur Backgrounds

Another way to help get your backgrounds nice and blurry is to use a lens with a long focal length. Longer tele-photo do help a little to get narrower depth of field (although the amount is less than many think). In actual fact the impact is smaller than it seems and the main reason for the change is that with a longer focal length the subject actually takes up more space in the frame. Lots of arguements have been had over whether focal length impacts this – you can read more about it here and here – I’ll leave it to the experts to discuss the finer points but will say that using longer focal lengths does seem to have some impact and is worth experimenting with.

6. Place Subjects In front of Open Spaces

Placing your subject a long way in front of other objects will also help to make those objects more blurry. For example if you have the choice between shooting your subject standing right in front of a brick wall or standing in front of an open field – the open field shot will have a much more blurred background simply because the brick wall is just centimeters from your subject and inside the focal range whereas an open field stretches off into the distance where everything will be out of focus.

7. Fill your frame with your subject

One of the most effective ways of removing distractions from backgrounds is to remove the background altogether by totally filling the frame with your subject. Get up close and/or use your zoom lens to tightly frame the shot and you’ll not only remove distractions but could end up with a high impact shot as well.

Photo by Keith Morris

8. Make your Own Background

Sometimes there just isn’t any suitable background and so you might want to consider making your own. This could range from buying a purpose built studio background or simply buying some cloth to do the job for you.

I know of one keep photographer who goes out shooting photographic portraits and carries large colored sheets of card with him to put up on walls to act as a background.

The other thing to keep in mind is that in many instances you can move things around in the background of your shots (especially if you’re shooting indoors). For example I was recently photographed in my home for a newspaper and the photographer had me move a number of pieces of furniture during the shoot because they were distracting in the shots. It took a little effort but the impact in the shots was quite incredible.

9. Post Processing

I’m no expert in using photo editing software but there are numerous ways of editing a shot after you’ve taken it to get rid of distracting elements. These can include blurring techniques, actual removing of elements and replacing them and techniques such as selective coloring (ie making your subject stand out by making your background black and white (or at least sucking some of the color out of it).

Source: Digital Photography School

Tips on Shooting Fireworks Display

Now that the Christmas season is coming to a near, learning to shoot fireworks might just be something you’re not gonna regret after the year ends.

So here are some tips for shooting good firework photographs:

1. You must arrive early

This is the first important thing to do if you want to get the best spot in the venue. It is even better if you spend some times to scout the location and have a little talk to the event crews to determine where the fireworks will be launched. Once you’ve got all the information needed, try to position yourself wisely. Find a clear, unbostructed view that meets your compositional requirements based on the terrain. Also try to find a place where people won’t be able to wondering around in front of the camera or worse kicking your tripod in the mid-exposure

2. Always use tripod (& camera remote control/cable release)

To be able to capture the light trail as shown as the fireworks picture above requires long exposure times ( 4-10 secs). You will definately need a tripod to do that kind of shot. There’s no way you can hold your camera for at least 5 secs without making any movement. The camera remote control is used to ensure that you won’t have to physically touch the shutter release thus eliminating the possibility of camera shake.

3. Your Focus Setting

If you have a point and shoot digital camera, try to set your camera to landscape mode which typically designated by an icon that looks like a small mountain range. This will set you lens to infinity that will free you from any focussing issues.

If you have a DSLR camera, then it’s better if you set your camera to M (manual) mode and also manually set your lens to infinity.. or in my case, with the fireworks exploding over the bridge, i tried to focus my lens on the bridge.

4. Your Exposure Setting

There’s no exact rules for your exposure settings, where shorter exposures don’t always capture the full burst and longer exposures tend to produce washed-out results. The beauty of Digital camera is that you can always check your picture before deciding the next exposure setting to get a better picture. My first fireworks picture above was shot at ISO 100 at f/16 and 8 secs.

If you have a B (Bulb) shutter speed setting you can use it to control exactly how long your shutter is open. The trick is to open the shutter right at the beginning of the burst and close it when it reaches its peak.

Using one of the suggested apertures listed below, you can use your preview to test and then compensate the aperture accordingly.

ISO 50
Aperture range: f/5.6 – 11

ISO 100
Aperture range: ƒ/8 to 16

ISO 200
Aperture range: ƒ/11 to 22

It’s highly recommended that you’re using ISO 100, which makes your correct aperture will be somewhere between ƒ/8 and ƒ/16. As I mentioned earlier, watch the first few explosions of the fireworks show in the camera’s preview. You don’t want the exposure to wash out the colors of the red, blue and green bursts. They should appear clearly, but they should show their actual color rather than wash out to a yellow/clear tone.

River Festival Fireworks, Brisbane – Australia (ISO 100 at f/16 and 8 secs)

5. Always use the lowest ISO setting & Highest Quality Setting

In the digital world; long exposures, higher ISO settings, and even higher temperatures can introduce noise into your digital photographs. You can’t avoid long exposures when shooting fireworks, but you can always choose a lower ISO setting.

By choosing a high Quality-setting you will reduce the amount of compression applied to your images. Less compression means fewer image artifacts and ultimately better image quality.

6. Bring extra batteries & memory cards

Have backup batteries in the event that your primary batteries give out during the show. Also don’t get so excited in the beginning that you fill your card before the grand finale. A good finale will produce peak light, color, and excitement. So make sure you have ample storage space available. Also make sure that your batteries have enough power to photograph the finale.

Source: DPhotoJournal.com