Austin's Great Big Camera Lesson

[AustinR]

Austin's Great Big Camera Lesson

Aperture

The aperture is the opening inside the lens which lets more or less light in. The smaller the number (f1.8, etc) the larger the opening (more light). The larger the number (f18, f22, etc.) the smaller the opening (less light)

Things you get with totally open aperture like f1.8
-Shallow depth of field.


-Good low light performance (since it's letting in all the light it possibly can). Your pictures will be brightest with the aperture all the way open.


Things you get with aperture totally closed like f22

-Deep depth of field. Everything is in focus.


-Smaller amount of light let in for really bright stuff. The photo above was a very bright day, so it darkened things down so everything wasn't blown out. Also, at work I shoot with strobes (big flashes) which are extremely bright. I end up using f18 or so. It also allows the whole wheel to be in focus since it's tilted away from me.



Shutter Speed

Your shutter speed is the amount of time that the camera is allowed to let light inside. It is measured in fractions of a second. 1/40th, 1/150th, 1/1000th, etc. Can also be measured in seconds, if you're doing a "long" exposure. Examples: 2, 5, 10...you get the point. You need a tripod for these.

Things you get with a slow shutter speed like 1/40th

-Better low light performance. You're letting light into the camera for longer, so more can get in, which is nice when it's really dark.


-Motion blur. When things are moving fast, you can get the image to look blurry by moving the subject, or the background through the frame (even slightly) while the shutter is open.
Notice the cone, as well as the rest of the background compared to the car. The background isn't out of focus, it's just blurred from me panning the camera with the car.


Things you get with a fast shutter speed like 1/1000th

-Freeze motion. Set the shutter speed high enough and you can even freeze the blades of a helicopter.
You can still see the spokes in his front wheel, which are undoubtedly spinning by pretty quick.


-Let less light in on a bright day, since the shutter is open for less time, therefore letting less light in. I could just show you another picture of a bright day, but hopefully you get the gist.

"ISO" or "Film Speed"

Your ISO is the setting of how sensitive your camera is to light. It is the digital camera's film speed equivalents. Some of you might remember back in the day buying different film speeds like 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. These numbers are the exact same.

Things you get with a low ISO number like 100

-Less sensitivity to light. Darker images. So if it's real bright out, this is your number. Also, things are always nice and crisp.


Things you get with a high ISO number like 1600

-More sensitivity to light. Brighter images. So if it's real dark out, this is your number (or higher if you need it). Also, you get more "grain" in the image. Depending on the camera, this may be more or less pronounced. Because of this, always try to shoot at the lowest ISO number possible.



Focal Length

Basically the "zoom" of the lens. For example most cameras come with a "kit lens" which will be 18-55mm. The larger the number, the more zoomed in it will be. The smaller the number, the more wide it will be. This number depends entirely on your lens, and not your camera body itself.

Things you get with a high number (zoomed in) like 85mm

-Obviously more zoomed in, but I'm gonna talk about some other subtleties.

-A "flatter" image. Things in the background don't seem all that far away. Everything at this focal length looks pretty natural.


Things you get with a lower number (zoomed out) like 18mm

-Obviously less zoomed in. Wider. You can get more in the picture, while being closer.

-Distortion in the image. making things that are close look huge, and things in the background look tiny, or very far away. Could call it a "fisheye" effect, though "fisheye" lenses are usually like ~14mm.



Lens Lingo

Prime Lenses
Lenses that can't zoom in or out. They are at a "fixed" focal length. They have less actual optical elements inside of them, and therefore generate a crisper image. They will be called "50mm", "85mm", "28mm", etc.

Zoom Lenses
Lenses that can zoom in or out. More optical elements allowing you to zoom. Will be called "18-55", "75-300", etc.


All photos above are photos I shot and are my property.


Hope this was helpful and not too daunting. If anyone has any questions, feel free to post in here or send me a message.

[Yoshi]

wait, so I don't just set it to auto?

[AustinR]

Haha. You can. You don't always get what you want when it's on auto though.
To be able to use all the settings I described, you have to set it to "manual". Likely an "M" on the dial.

[ponycarman]

Wow there is a bunch of stuff I didn't know in that. I always thought the higher the number the better pics haha. Big is better right . Thanks for posting. I am sabing this for future reference.

[M20_fever]

Awesome. I'm stickying this, its kinda about cars since 90% of us are going to take pics of our cars, lol.

[AustinR]

Cool. Plus I used a decent amount of car photos. haha.

[Nsquared97]

Good info! May want to add stuff about different camera settings, shutter priority, apeture priority, etc.

Oh, and megapixels are not the only thing that determines how good a camera is!!!!

[AustinR]

Good info! May want to add stuff about different camera settings, shutter priority, apeture priority, etc.

Oh ok. I'll do that here.


Shutter Priority
For pussies.

Aperture Priority
For pussies.

P
Actually stands for pussies.

M
Man.

[Nsquared97]

Your such a dick hahaha.

But you forgot one, what does that green box mean? Pretty sure it takes the best pics.

[AustinR]

But you forgot one, what does that green box mean? Pretty sure it takes the best pics.

It's never a good sign when the green box takes the best pics.

[M20_fever]

haha!

[Nsquared97]

lol figured that was coming.

[Yoshi]

how the fuck do you focus on something? What's that called... damn camera is on autofocus and I can't figure out how to turn it off or what the option for it is called.

[AustinR]

To turn it off there will be a switch on the lens itself. Probably say "AF MF" for auto focus, manual focus.
To focus, push the shutter button half way down. You can set the focus points by hitting the zoom in button on the top right of the back of the camera. For example, I have mine set to just focus on the center dot. I focus what I want, holding the shutter button half way down, then while still holding it down so it doesn't change, I frame the picture up how I want it to look. Then finish pushing the shutter button.

[Yoshi]

Interesting. Thanks sir! Was wondering what that switch was.