Photo Tip Friday - What's That Dial For? Pt. 3

Welcome back to What's That Dial For? 

So far, we have covered what the letters on the dial stand for and an overall look at them. You can read that post which was Part 1 by clicking here. 

Then we covered Aperture Values. It was more in depth than Part 1. You can read about Part 2 here. 

The last post was a bit deep. But I want you to at least try and learn about aperture values. 

This week will be a little bit easier to talk about and understand. 


1) Time Value (Tv) - controls how long the shutter is open for. 

1/500th of a second

On my camera, I can have the shutter open for several seconds or have it take a picture in 1/4000th of a second. Yes, you read that right. 1/4000th of a second! It had better be bright for that shot! 

So leaving the shutter open for longer means that you're letting light in for a longer time. This is used for dark lighting situations. Think night time. 

The faster the shutter moves, the less light it lets in. So taking a shot at 1/4000th of a second needs very bright light to register the "image." The faster shutter speeds can be used to keep your photo from being washed out in bright light and is very effective in capturing movement without making it blurry. 

Helpful hint. If you have a shutter speed of less than 1/25 - 1/15 of a second for a shot, you will need to use a tripod or brace your camera. Set it down, lean up against a wall, set it on a railing.          

As long as I haven't had too much caffeine, I can hold it steady to 1/15th of a second. But I do brace my elbows against my body AND I have learned not to breath during the shot.

You can experiment and see how slow you can handhold your camera or cell phone. In the above photo, I set the camera on the rail on the right to steady it because I had to the leave the shutter for 1/2 a second to make the evening shot be bright enough.

2) ISO - How fast the speed of your film is. 

Let's go back to print days. Remember the range of ISO? 

ISO 100

ISO  64  - slides - highest quality - clearest 
ISO 100 - film - used for SUNLIGHT
ISO 200 - film - used for general purpose
ISO 400 - film - used indoors or to capture movement (sports)
ISO 800 - film - used in darker lighting
ISO 1600 - film - used in the darkest situations - think CANDLE - grainy

ISO 1600

My camera, a Canon Rebel T3i, has ISO values of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400. The great thing about digital cameras is that you can see your photo immediately and adjust the ISO with the click of a button or turn of a wheel. 

If you'll notice from the posts, some of the functions of Av, Tv and ISO overlap.  You can change each parameter and effect the shot. So next post, I will show you shots and how changing the different variables effects those shots. 

But in the meantime, do you use a particular ISO? 

Which is your favorite shot of these 4?

Hope this tips helps! 

Keep on clicking!

Mary

Photo Tip Friday - What's that dial for? Pt. 2

by Mary Denman   @MaryDenman

Today's post is about Aperture Values or f-stops. 

Let's recap last week's post. 

Canon 

Many cameras have multiple settings so you can control how you take pictures.  

This is my camera's dial and settings.

The main settings we're focusing on now are:

Manual - where you have total control of the                  following components:

Av -       Aperture Value
Tv -       Time Value
ISO -     which is the "speed" of your film. 

I won't go back into what each component does since you can read the prior post. But I do want to give you some photos that will help illustrate what the components do. 

Today, we're looking at Aperture Values.  
Because they serve two functions, I'm just going over them today. We'll hit Time Value and ISO in a future post.

Apertures typically run: f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.5, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22

Aperture determine 2 things. 

1) What your depth of field is.  The term f-stop refers to Focal Stop or Focal Length. Think of this as how clear you want your photo. Do you want the entire shot clear or do you want a narrow field of focus?  Let me illustrate.

The picture on the right shows a narrow depth of field. Only the front hydrangea is in focus. The bride-to-be is softly out of focus. So the f-stop or aperture is narrow. f/1.4

In the second shot, the lovely bride-to-be is all in focus. This shows a much deeper amount of focus in the shot. Think of this shot with a large f-stop.  f/22.

The reason I told you the extremes is the way I remember what the f-stops do.

Think of f/1.4 as 1.4 inches of depth of field. That's not very "deep" and not much will be in focus. 
Think of f/22 as 22 inches of depth of field. That's very deep and most of your shot will be fairly clear. 

So on to the next part of aperture values. 

2) How much light it lets in.  This is where things get a tad tricky and why we're only looking at apertures today.


Not only does it determine the depth of field, but also how much light comes in.  

How it lets light in is determined by how big or little the f/stop number is because they correspond to how big your shutter opening is. I'm not going into more detail about that right now. Just know that the Av, f-stop, f/1.4 to f/22 are different names for the same things. 

Let's go back to our numbers.

Apertures typically run: f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.5, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22

So what does that mean? f/1.4 lets in the most light on the f-stop scale

                                    f/22 lets in the least amount of light on the scale

You can handhold a camera and take shots in the lower range like f/1.4. 

But not at f/22. You'll need a tripod. 

Why? Because you have to let in more light which means the shutter has to be open longer. 

Here's an example of why you may want to learn how to manually control your camera. You can't take a shot like this without learning how.

You can't get this with a point and shoot camera or setting. 

In order to get the milky effect of the water, you have to have the shutter open (time value, another post) for part of a second or more, depending on the lighting. 

This shot was taken at f/22 for about 3/4 of a second. On a tripod. 

f/22 insured that most of the photo was in focus, and allowed the camera enough time to to capture the individual drops of water actually falling, making them milky white and soft. 

So, what does this mean for you? 

Pick up your camera and play with it. Set the camera on Av if you have that setting and take shots right where you are. Around the house is fine. EXPERIMENT! 

I'm sure you'll have more questions once you do. But it will help you learn this material. And, as I continue to guide you through the dial, the pieces will start falling together. 

Again, if you have photos you'd like me to glance at, leave me a link. 

And if you have a question, feel free to leave it for me. 

Of the two engagement shots, which one do you like better and why?

Hope this tip helps! 

Keep on clicking!

Mary