1. Photography 101 Noelani Martin
This presentation will introduce you the basics of photography.
You will learn the anatomy of the camera and how aperture and shutter speed work to create your final exposure.
I will also introduce you to some basic elements of design that will help you create more composed images.

2. Photography Official date of invention August 19, 1839.
Noelani Martin
Photography
Official date of invention August 19, 1839.
178 year old medium.
Light dependent medium.
Mechanical medium.
Understanding the basics of how a camera works is important because photography is a mechanical medium.
What I mean by this is that photography is dependent upon a very specific tool, the camera, and understanding how it functions will enable you to better control each exposure.
Photography is also a light dependent medium.
If you break down the word photography, “photo” means light and “graphy” means to draw. So it roughly translates to light drawing or light painting.
Physically speaking, a photograph is nothing more than a record or product of light. *

3. Noelani Martin
Camera
If we were using film, silver would be reacting to light by darkening/oxidizing.
In the digital age, cameras have light-sensitive sensors.
As opposed to having a chemically sensitized material reacting to light, the camera sensor reacts to light by recording how many photons strike it during an exposure.
The camera sensor can also differentiate between Red, Green, and Blue light.
All of this information ends up being recorded and stored on digital media as computer code, which is a series of zeros and ones.
I’ll discuss color theory and RGB later on in the presentation. *

4. The Human Eye Noelani Martin
The camera and the human eye are analogous structures in many ways.
Both structures are dependent upon light to create images.
Both structures have a lens which serves to “bend” light rays in order to focus imagery.
And, both structures “see” color in RGB. *

5. Rods & Cones Noelani Martin
Remember the light sensitive layer of the eye called the retina?
This tissue layer contains two types of cells: rods and cones.
Rods detect how light or dark a scene it. In other words, it detects tone.
Cones detect color. They detect color by reacting to three different wavelengths of light; Red, Green, and Blue.
Neither your eye, nor your camera create color by mixing the three primary colors; Red, Yellow, and Blue.
This is because both your eyes and your camera are reacting to light; it is not the physical mixing of pigments. *

6. Additive vs. Subtractive Color
Noelani Martin
Additive vs. Subtractive Color
White is the absence of color and black is the presence of all color.
Additive color deals with light.
Subtractive color deals with ink.
* *Pearson Hill Copyright 2009*

7. Additive vs. Subtractive Color
Noelani Martin
Additive vs. Subtractive Color
Here’s another visual that breaks it down further.
We’ve just touched upon quite a bit of color theory.
And it’s ok if you didn’t absorb all of that information.
The reason I’m introducing, at least, the basics of color theory is drive home the point that you are dealing with light.
And that’s sort of a weird concept to wrap your head around.
Light is a physical thing we experience everyday, but just like air it is largely invisible to us.
It’s not something you can touch or hold, but the evidence of its presence is everywhere.
Our sense of sight is completely dependent upon light.
If you begin to understand how your camera is “seeing” the world you can better understand how to control it using aperture and shutter. *

8. Noelani Martin
Camera
Let’s return to our camera diagram and discuss aperture and shutter speed. *

9. Controls the amount of light the film/sensor will be exposed to.
Noelani Martin
Aperture
Shutter Speed
Controls the amount of light the film/sensor will be exposed to.
Controls how long the film/sensor is exposed to light.
Aperture and shutter speed:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a small aperture vs. a large aperture?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a slow shutter speed vs. a fast shutter speed? *

10. Noelani Martin
Aperture and shutter speed chart:
Let’s discuss ISO a.k.a. Film Speed next. *

11. ISO a.k.a. Film Speed Slow ISO Fast ISO
Noelani Martin
ISO a.k.a. Film Speed
Slow ISO
Fast ISO
Requires more light to be properly exposed.
Higher quality image with less noise.
Best in situations with plenty of light.
Requires less light to be properly exposed.
Lower quality image with more noise.
Useful in low-light situations. *

12. ISO a.k.a. Film Speed Noelani Martin
Examples of how film speed affects the amount of noise in your image.
Noise is, “Pixels of random color and brightnesses, most often appearing in the dark areas of a digital image”.
*A Short Course in Photography by Barbara London and Jim Stone. Eighth Edition * *

13. Noelani Martin
ISO a.k.a. Film Speed *

14. Depth of Field Shallow DOF Large DOF
Noelani Martin
Depth of Field
Shallow DOF
Large DOF
The greater the aperture the smaller the depth of field.
The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field.
Let’s go back to aperture for a moment:
We’ve already discussed how aperture affects exposure by allowing more or less light to hit the film sensor.
Aperture also affects the depth of field of an image.
Depth of field is, “The distance between the nearest and farthest points that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field varies with lens aperture, focal length, and camera-to-subject distance” *
*A Short Course in Photography by Barbara London and Jim Stone. Eighth Edition *

15. Depth of Field Noelani Martin Depth of field example.
Left image is a good example of the “bokeh” effect. *

16. White Balance Noelani Martin
White balance is how the color white is reproduced by the camera sensor.
Select the white balance setting according to your light source (fluorescent light, sunlight, etc).
Why? Different light sources do not always produce light equally across the visible spectrum (remember good old ROY G. BIV).
Note that the automatic white balance and incandescent tungsten settings both produced accurate color renderings.
This tells me that the environment was lit with incandescent tungsten lights. *

17. Elements of Art Line Shape Form Color Texture Space Value
Noelani Martin
Elements of Art
Line
Shape
Form
Color
Texture
Space
Value
Hendrick Goltzius
The Fall of Man (1616)
The seven elements of art are Line, Shape, Form, Color, Texture, Space, and Value.
Line: Can be straight, curved, wiggly, etc.
Shape: 2D area enclosed by line.
Form: 3D; height, width, depth.
Color: Reflected or absorbed light.
Texture: How something feels, or looks like it would feel.
Space: Positive- area of art that takes up space. Negative- area of art that surround object/subject; emptiness. Also, foreground, middleground, and background.
Value: Lightness and darkness.
*The National Gallery of Art* *

18. Elements of Art Noelani Martin Ansel Adams
The Tetons and the Snake River (1942)
What elements of art are present in this photograph?
*Public Domain*

19. Rule of Thirds Noelani Martin
This is an example of The Rule of Thirds. *

20. Diagrams, images, and examples from . . .
Noelani Martin
Diagrams, images, and examples from . . .