Taking Photos Composing a picture Working with light Custom Settings Auto Settings

Questions to consider… What is the purpose of taking personal (non-business) photos? What qualities makes a good photo?

Composing a Picture Take time to compose each photo as a work of art. Frame the content in a manner that focuses attention on the subject, and omits unnecessary distractions. Be creative! – “tips/advanced”

Focus, Zoom, Focal Point Photographic lenses have varying focal points; distances at which they are able to focus. –Normal Lense: have a "natural" perspective, focal point of 28 mm - 35 mm –Wide Angle Lense: focal point of 24, 21, 18 and 14 mm –Telephoto Lens; Focal point of 35 mm mm In digital cameras… –optical zoom provides a range of lens options from wide angle to telephoto –Autofocus fine tunes the focal point

Consider Lighting Light direction has a big impact! Sunlight on the lens creates a flare, which can be a nice effect, but is often undesirable. Shading the lens solves the problem.

Histograms A histogram shows which parts of the light spectrum are used in a photo.

Fill Flash Use a flash outdoors to brighten backlit objects, or make your foreground objects stand out.

Indoor Flash Indoor flash is too bright for close- ups and produces harsh shadows. Use natural light whenever possible.

Types of Light Different types of light effect the color quality of photos. White balance setting is used to compensate. Cameras often include settings to automatically correct lighting problems. –daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, flash –Some cameras allow you to custom set the white balance by focusing on a white surface.

Exposure The quantity of light allowed to act on the photographic material in the camera.

Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia

Exposure = Shutter Speed + Aperture Size

Shutter Speed Shutter speed refers to the amount of time the lens shutter remains open during the photo. A fast shutter speed will freeze the subject and a slow shutter speed will make it look blurred as the subject moves.

Slow Shutter Panning w/subject Hold very still - or use a tripod

Fast Shudder

Aperture The aperture is the lens diaphragm opening inside a photographic lens. The aperture size can be adjusted to regulates the amount of light that passes through the lens. The aperture size is adjusted in discrete steps, known as f-stops (f for focal) The larger the value the smaller the lens aperture, the less light intensity.

Depth of Field Depth of field is the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. A few factors may have a direct relationship with depth of field, they are: 1) the Aperture, 2) the focal length of the lens in use, and 3) image size. This photo has a shallow depth of field (only the foreground is in focus) and was taken using a larger lens aperture – a low f number.

Depth of Field These photos have a deep depth of field (the foreground and background are in focus) and were taken using a small lens aperture - high f number.

F-numbers Use larger aperture (smaller number like f/2.8, f/2.0 etc.) with a long focal length to isolate or emphasize the subject. Use a smaller aperture (bigger number like f/16 or f/22 etc.) to ensure pin-sharp details in both the foreground and the background. Depth of field increases with f-number!! f/22f/2.8

Shutter Speed + Aperture Since both shutter speed and aperture size effect the amount of light, they can be balanced one against the other to provide consistent light, and a wide variety of effects.

Auto Settings Most digital cameras make it easy on us by providing a number of preset effects. Even “Kids & Pets”, “Foliage”, “Snow”, “Beach” “Fireworks”, “Aquarium”, and “Underwater” AUTO P : Program Tv : Shutter Speed Priority Av : Aperture Priority M : Manual Exposure

Review Photo Composition Focal Point Light Effects Histogram White Balance Exposure Shutter Speed Aperture Depth of Field

Taking Good Photos Tips from Kodak – (look for “tips”)

Editing Photos

Photo-editing Software Photo-editing software, like Photoshop, allows you improve digital photos, and create interesting effects: –Resize and crop images –Cut and paste portions of one image on another –Adjust brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation –Apply special effects Demo Photoshop

Brightness/Contrast Brightness adjustments increases intensity evenly across the RGB spectrum. Contrast adjustments make dark colors darker and light colors lighter.

Hue /Saturation Hue settings apply color filters to a photo to move color settings up or down the color spectrum. Saturation settings increase or decrease the intensity of all colors in the photo.

Cut & Paste Using the lasso tool, objects in a photo can be selected and copied. Once copied they can be pasted into other photos to create interesting effects, or “faked” photos.