Photography Basics - Part 1

[Shtexas]

Awesome post. Tons of information to get pointed in the right direction. I've been holding back from getting a nice dslr because I didn't think it was worth buying one to just use as a point and shoot camera. I'm definitely going to start looking into how to use one to take advantage of what it can do. Living in Florida and Germany I have a ton of pictures to take of scenery but I feel like the pictures I take with my normal camera never do justice.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

This is the greatest post ever!! I bought a fancy (for me anyway) camera and when I take a nice pic I think it's a miracle! I usually can not duplicate it.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Here is one I am proud of -

[addysdaddy]

It's all about the light and understanding what your meter is actually seeing. Most have had issues taking pictures of white or black cars. The exposure on medium gray color vehicles always seem to turn out right, hmmmm...The reason is that the light meter in your camera is a reflective meter and is measuring the amount of light bouncing (reflecting) off the subject. It's calibrated for 12% gray and wants to turn a white or black car into a gray car. Unless you have an ambient hand held light meter available, try this...

Look at your camera's owner's manual (it won't hurt much) and note how to lock in your exposure. (usually labeled AE Lock or similar) Than extend your left hand, fill the frame and lock in the exposure. Make sure your hand is in the same lighting conditions as the object you wish to photograph - focus is not critical. At that point you've "saved" a more realistic average of the light - recompose and take a picture of the car. Generally the saved lighting information is released after you take the shot so the process will have to be repeated should you want to take a few more pictures. If that's too much of a pain, once you know the correct camera settings, simply put the camera into manual with the correct aperture & shutter speed and fire away. What you're doing here is trying to get a more realistic meter reading of the amount of light "present" rather than what's being "reflected." Think about this. Whether it's a black or white car, the exposure should be the same because the amount of light falling onto the subject is the precisely the same. If all you do is point & shoot, you'll find that exposures to be vastly different and the results less than acceptable.

Other excellent sources for getting a proper meter reading are: green grass, gray macadam streets, a gray towel, or anything else you can fill the frame with that's medium gray in color. Perhaps a large medium gray paint sample swatch from Home Depot. Again the only stipulation being that the "gray card" needs to be in the same light as the subject. Also note that you can buy photographic gray cards on line or at the local camera store for just a few bucks for those who want to get it right. Give this technique a try and I believe your results will improve exponentially.

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Great primer on DSLR use, thanks for putting that together Zach!

Sent from my Transformer using AG Online

[sproketser]

Great thread here , I ll need a camera one day !

Thanx for sharing .

[Kitoy22]

Awesome thread! Great Tips! Hope to see your shots here!

[zmcgovern45]

Great tips! Thanks for taking the time to explain this to us.


Sent via telepathy.

Zach very well said covering the basics of expsoure. Photography is a lot of fun and the digital age has made it so much easier. I no longer have to deal with developing chemicals

That link has some nice resources as well, thanks for the post.

You're very welcome! The digital era is definitely opening the door to anyone who is interested in learning more about photography. The learning curve is MUCH less now that you can simply snap a shot and review it instantaneously. Luckily the film days were more or less over for my generation, so I never had to mess with it

^Back at ya

Nicely done Zach



Jim

Thanks Jim!

Good read and I also learned something along the way. Thanks.

^Mission accomplished.

Awesome post. Tons of information to get pointed in the right direction. I've been holding back from getting a nice dslr because I didn't think it was worth buying one to just use as a point and shoot camera. I'm definitely going to start looking into how to use one to take advantage of what it can do. Living in Florida and Germany I have a ton of pictures to take of scenery but I feel like the pictures I take with my normal camera never do justice.

^There is a lot to learn, but practice makes perfect. A word of advice - Lenses make more difference than the camera body. Good glass will last you MUCH longer than a nice camera body.

This is the greatest post ever!! I bought a fancy (for me anyway) camera and when I take a nice pic I think it's a miracle! I usually can not duplicate it.

^Well hopefully you can start to duplicate your masterpieces now!

Here is one I am proud of -

^Looking good... to me, it is a bit underexposed. This is due to the fact that both the room and the car are lighter colors. Your camera will try to 'average' out the scene (which works well in an evenly lit landscape for example because there are a variety of colors and tones). In this case, I probably would have used exposure compensation to bump it up by 1 stop or so. Something you can learn with time... but the best thing about photography is that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder! So one person's critique may completely miss the mark on what you were trying to portray in your image.

It's all about the light and understanding what your meter is actually seeing. Most have had issues taking pictures of white or black cars. The exposure on medium gray color vehicles always seem to turn out right, hmmmm...The reason is that the light meter in your camera is a reflective meter and is measuring the amount of light bouncing (reflecting) off the subject. It's calibrated for 12% gray and wants to turn a white or black car into a gray car. Unless you have an ambient hand held light meter available, try this...

Look at your camera's owner's manual (it won't hurt much) and note how to lock in your exposure. (usually labeled AE Lock or similar) Than extend your left hand, fill the frame and lock in the exposure. Make sure your hand is in the same lighting conditions as the object you wish to photograph - focus is not critical. At that point you've "saved" a more realistic average of the light - recompose and take a picture of the car. Generally the saved lighting information is released after you take the shot so the process will have to be repeated should you want to take a few more pictures. If that's too much of a pain, once you know the correct camera settings, simply put the camera into manual with the correct aperture & shutter speed and fire away. What you're doing here is trying to get a more realistic meter reading of the amount of light "present" rather than what's being "reflected." Think about this. Whether it's a black or white car, the exposure should be the same because the amount of light falling onto the subject is the precisely the same. If all you do is point & shoot, you'll find that exposures to be vastly different and the results less than acceptable.

Other excellent sources for getting a proper meter reading are: green grass, gray macadam streets, a gray towel, or anything else you can fill the frame with that's medium gray in color. Perhaps a large medium gray paint sample swatch from Home Depot. Again the only stipulation being that the "gray card" needs to be in the same light as the subject. Also note that you can buy photographic gray cards on line or at the local camera store for just a few bucks for those who want to get it right. Give this technique a try and I believe your results will improve exponentially.

^All of that is very good information, however it is a bit more in depth than I was aiming at for this particular article. I would consider that to be in the more 'advanced' section... something that you come to figure out after much practice. Thanks for the contribution!

Great primer on DSLR use, thanks for putting that together Zach!

Sent from my Transformer using AG Online

^No problem!

Great thread here , I ll need a camera one day !

Thanx for sharing .

^Everyone needs a camera!

Awesome thread! Great Tips! Hope to see your shots here!

^Thanks! My shots are littered all over the place on here. Check out my Flickr Page for some of my shots, or see my threads in the Show N Shine section for detailing specific photos!

[JSou]

Thanks for this Zach. I understand a little bit more now.

I will continue to play around with my camera. Such a fun and great tool to use.

[NYV6Coupe]

lots of good info in that post zach, thanks for the explanation.

I've been a P&S / prosumer / superzoom guy for years but I made the jump to a Canon 60D a couple years ago. I was confused, lost, and generally not scratching the surface of what the camera was capable of. Thought I bit off more than I could chew.

I picked up 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson and his conversational style lead to a greater understanding of exposure. His youtube / adorama videos are excellent as well.