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I'm taking a Dig. Photography Class, 2nd week. I've just realized that the manual control settings scare me to death!! I'm phobic! When I switch my camera to shutter priority or aperture priority I feel like I'm in a small plane and the pilot just had a heart attack and I have to land the plane. I know it's silly. If I take a bad picture, no one is going to die. All the same, I just can't breathe. Our assignment is to take 9 pictures.
"Demonstrate working knowledge of: Aperture, images that show
how aperture controls shallow and deep depth of field. Shutter speed,
Images that show how shutter speed controls how motion can be stopped
and shown. Focal length, images that show how different focal lengths
can diminish of enhance your image. (3 images for each category, total of
9 images)"
Okay, the aperture portion and the focal length portion seem the same to me. I'm not sure how the first set of pictures and the last set of pictures differ. If y'all have some examples of these types of pictures that might calm my nerves and send me in the right direction. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help put me on the right path.
Whe you open up the lens, you get less depth of field. Thus at f/4, focusing is more critical than at f/8, where a greater range of distances will be in focus.
Focal length is what determines how close-in the photo will be. A wide-angle lens (short focal length) will include more but make everything look smaller, while a long focal length will include less but make what is there appear larger. It's like going from a low- to high-power eyepiece on a telescope.
Shutter priority allows you to set the shutter speed, while the camera adjusts the aperture to compensate. Shorter exposures requite wider apertures; since the camera is given a shorter time to gather light, it has to open up the lens more (and vice versa). Aperture priority goes at light management from the other direction; if the lens is stopped down, the shutter speed has to be longer to compensate (and vice versa). I prefer to use aperture priority unless the subject is moving.
I prefer manual controls because it gives the photographer the ability to control depth of field. If you want to draw attention to a particular subject in the photo, you can open up the aperture to give less depth of field, thereby causing everything but the desired object to be out of focus. On the other hand, if you want all of the photo to be sharp, you can stop down the lens, bearing in mind that the shutter speed will be longer to compensate (perhaps requiring a tripod).
It's all rather simple once you get the hang of it. Think of it as a balance between aperture and shutter speed.
For the first set of photos, the instructor wants to see you showing different depths of field that result from different aperture settings. Depth of field is the amount of the scene which is in focus. Take one photo at your widest aperture (probably something between f/2.8 and f/4.5), one somewhere in the middle (between f/5.6 and f/8) and one stopped down greatly (f/16 or f/22). Ideally, you want to take pictures of something that starts off close to you and stretches away from you - like a line of trees, a fence or piano keys. Like this: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/phot...ld-pro-3-2.jpg - this is only two images but notice how the fence is all in focus on the top picture but only a portion of it is in focus on the bottom one. It doesn't have to be a great looking picture, the teacher just wants to see that you understand how aperture effects depth of field. I think I used a line of billiard balls on my parents pool table when I first had to do this exercise. You could also set up a line of chess pieces - anything in a line stretching away from you.
For the last set, they want to see you using different focal lengths or "zoom". Anything less than 50mm is considered wide angle, anything more than 50mm is considered telephoto. Take one wide angle, one 50mm and one telephoto. If you don't have a lens or lenses which cover wide angle to telephoto, just take three images within whatever focal length range you do have. I'm not sure if the instructor just wants you to take three pictures at three different focal lengths while standing in the same position - like the first photo examples here: Focal length - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Or whether they want you to position yourself so the front subject is the same in all the images such as the second photo examples on the same link. I would do both just to cover all grounds.
Thanks, I was over thinking focal length. Piano keys and billiard balls are great ideas for aperture. For shutter speed I thought I would do water, but water has been done to death. I could do something with tennis balls. or maybe someone swinging a bat. I'm not sure. I imagine these sorts of pictures aren't overly artistic at this point.
Shutter speed can be shown by photographing bicycles in a park or being ridden down a road. Cars on a city street. People in a street scene. A small airplane running (think propeller spinning here, not getting ready to move, just at idle.)
All these could be used and are getting away from the water based examples.
Sounds like the others have you covered in the other two parts you need to do.
Here's a blog with a terrific example of how a longer focal length will compress the image compared to the same shot taken with a wide angle from a closer position: The Importance Of Choosing A Camera Lens
For the last set, they want to see you using different focal lengths or "zoom". Anything less than 50mm is considered wide angle, anything more than 50mm is considered telephoto.
In 35mm film days or full frame digital, that would be true. If you have a crop camera like an APS-C size sensor, a 50mm is now a telephoto lens.
In 35mm film days or full frame digital, that would be true. If you have a crop camera like an APS-C size sensor, a 50mm is now a telephoto lens.
Yes and no. The crop factor is just that - it crops the image just as you might do in post processing. It's not really the same thing as a telephoto lens as it doesn't change the optics. For example, wide angle lenses tend to get a certain amount of barrel distortion - using a wide angle lens on a crop factor camera doesn't reduce the barrel distortion.
telephotos tend to flatten out perspectives and features. its the opposit of how wide angles distort things ... you dont get that effect either cropping
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