Basic Exposure Techniques

 

Lighting plays the major role in the photographing process. This is because bad lighting will obscure the photo’s subjects and composition, leaving little to be appreciated. Good lighting, on the other hand, defines the form of your subjects and show them in vivid colors. That’s why the camera should be set to collect the correct amount of light.

Exposure is the amount of light that is collected by the photographic medium, whether it is a film or a digital sensor, while shooting a single photograph. There is no fixed value of a correct amount of light, because it depends on the available lights, the objects, and the photographer’s judgment. However, it is safe to say that there’s an acceptable exposure and an unacceptable exposure. Most exposures that obscure details while not adding any artistic value are considered unacceptable.

Low lighting conditions require high exposures to allow more light into the sensor, brightening up the final photograph. If less exposure is used, the photograph will become darker as a result of the underexposure. As for bright light conditions, low exposure will be enough to gather sufficient amount of light to produce a photo with good lighting. Otherwise, the photograph will be overexposed, having too many bright areas, the bright subjects loosing their details, and the dark subjects looking too bright..

Exposure relies on two factors: shutter speed (exposure time) and aperture. Shutter speed determines how long the sensor will be exposed to light. Slow shutter speed means more exposure, while fast speed will allow less exposure. As for aperture, it determines how wide the lens is opened. Narrow aperture will let less light pass through it than a wide aperture. ISO speeds also affect the degree of exposure. Higher ISO speeds will make the sensor more sensitive to light, reducing exposure, but it will add undesired noise to the photos.

In manual exposure mode, aperture and shutter speed are usually set independently. As for automatic exposure settings, the camera will determine the degree of exposure needed according to the light metering technique used. Exposure compensation is a method of adjusting the exposure by adding fixed exposure values, which is also very useful for camera owners who don’t have manual exposure settings.

Photographs with very dark and very bright spots will not show correct exposure on all their parts using any type of cameras. Usually, photographers take the same photograph at different exposures, and combine them together using software programs.

A good approach to learn more about exposure is to look at the exposure settings of your previous photographs, and compare them Look for the exposure time (shutter speed), the aperture, the ISO speed, and the exposure compensation in the data that is stored in your image files. As a result, you will get a clearer idea on how exposure can impact your photos.

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Close Ups – Filling the Frame

An ordinary composition of a photograph will contain one or more subjects as focal points and a surrounding consisting of other objects. Based on all these elements, an observer will be able to recognize, the subject, the environment, and the message. All this is good, but what if another impact on the observer is desired? What if you want to leave little hints, in order to keep him guessing?

Boring surroundings may have a very bad effects on your subject, because, most probably, they will not have elements to balance the photographs, leaving a lot of empty spaces. An effective remedy to this is to fill the frame with your subject, so as to get rid of these empty spaces.

Sometimes it is even better to include nothing but your subject. For example, consider this situation in which you are photographing a wild animal at the zoo. With a normal composition, you will probably include the animal, the cage, and maybe some spectators. Getting rid of all the element except for the animal itself, may make the photograph look as if it was taken in the wild. The ambiguity resulted from close-ups lead observers use their imaginations to complete the picture .A close-up on two hands holding each others will strike a certain emotion that may be different from one person to the other, depending on his experience. Here, all you did is that you removed the subjects’ personalities, so as to give a space for the observer to think.

Portraits are usually a strong candidate for closeups. Sure you can take a great portrait with your subject in an interesting environment, but you can also get a very nice one too with just focusing on him. Filling the frame with your subject will produce a very personal look. Getting even closer to just include the face – sometimes with eye contact – can bring a feeling of amicability, as if you were staying face to face with the subject. Close-ups on other body parts produce great photos too; they may create an abstract feel, or emphasize a certain action.

Close-ups also suit still life photographs very well. This allows you to see usual things in very unusual ways, revealing many details that were not obvious before. This kind of photography is usually used in stock and product photography.

A frame can be filled by walking towards your subject, zooming on it, or by cropping a photograph. While zooming is an on-camera process, cropping is usually done using photo-editing software, giving you more flexibility to set your composition, but with sacrificing the image’s original size.

The simplest compositions may sometimes be the richest. So use your imagination, and make your audience use theirs.

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How to Get the Best Out of Your Compact Digital Camera

You have bought a compact digital camera and you are enjoying taking photographs with it. Taking a photograph can be as easy as pointing and shooting. It doesn’t have to be like this though, as you would be missing a lot of possibilities.

Knowing your camera’s features very well will lead you to make better decisions about what settings to use in different situations. Most compact cameras come with a preset of automatic settings used in specific situations. These setting will work well in most cases, but in some, they will not yield the expected results . That’s why manual setting are usually more preferred. The give you the ability to fine tune your photos as you wish.

If printing photographs is desired, the camera should be set to maximum quality and the photographs should be stored at the maximum resolution. This is important to insure that the prints will not look pixelated. Consequently, the size of the images will increase, so it is advisable to make sure you will have enough space in your storage media, while at the same time trying to find a reliable backup solution.

Nearly every compact camera sports an autofocus feature these days. When taking your picture, just press the shutter button half way down and keep holding it that way. According to the available objects in the viewfinder automatic focus will be chosen. That’s why pressing and holding the button should be done while aiming at the subject and then the camera can be moved (while still holding) to get the desired composition. After choosing the desired composition, the button should be completely pressed so as to capture the photo.

One of the main drawbacks of photographing in low light situations is the difficulty to get a decent photo without a tripod. The reason is that the camera will try to compensate for the low light with long exposure. Most compact digital cameras will not produce very clear images in low lighting even when a tripod is used, so it is always advisable to improve the lighting if possible.

In all the features that your camera is capable of, some are not very useful. Most compact cameras produce bad photos at high ISOs (>400) and they should only be used for capturing fast moving objects. Using the built-in flash should be avoided except when there is no other efficient light source. Its strong, non diffused, near the lens frontal light will make sure that your photos look awkward. That’s why external light sources are usually preferred. The only feature that you should never use is digital zooming.

Obviously, one needs to understand some basic photography concepts in order to get the best out of his camera . Fortunately, this can only increase its worth by making it produce better photographs and increase your experience by making you a better photographer.

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