Basics

BASICS

REV. FEB 2022

PHOTOGRAPHY TRAINING

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P R E M I E R

S C H O O L

P H O T O G R A P H Y

C O M P A N Y

P H O T O G R A P H Y

WHAT WE’LL COVER 03

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CAMERA Canon 04 Nikon 05

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UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE It’s All About Light

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ISO Scale 08 Shutter Speed 09 Aperture 10 Test Knowledge 11

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TIME OF DAY TO PHOTOGRAPH Golden Hour 13 Blue Hour 13 Alpenglow 14 Flash, Camera, Action!

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01 / G E T TI N G TO K N OW YO U R C A M E R A

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0 1 . G E T T I N G T O K N O W YO U R C A M E R A

G E ZO N E

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CREATIVE ZONE

BASIC ZONE

These modes give you more control for photographing various subjects.

All you do is press the shutter button. Fully-automatic photography, suiting the subject.

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ZO N

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IMA

Manual Exposure Aperture-priority AE Shutter-priority AE Program AE

IMAGE ZONE Portrait Landscape Close-up

Full Auto Flash Off Creative Auto

Sports Scene

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0 1 . G E T T I N G T O K N O W YO U R C A M E R A

I M AG E ZO N

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CREATIVE ZONE

BASIC ZONE

These modes give you more control for photographing various subjects.

All you do is press the shutter button. Fully-automatic photography, suiting the subject.

M A S P

Manual Exposure Aperture-priority AE Shutter-priority AE Program AE

I S A

C

IMAGE ZONE Portrait Landscape Children

Guide Full Auto Flash Off

Sports Close-up Nighttime

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IT’S ALL ABOUT LIGHT PHOTO MEANS “LIGHT”, and graph means “to draw”. Photograph means “to draw with light”.

The exposure triangle is simply the relationship between your ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. These three components work together to create an actual exposure or photograph. It is referred to as the exposure triangle, because when you adjust one element, another element MUST change to capture the same exposure. When learning the photography basics and understanding the exposure triangle, it is paramount to always remember this cause and effect relationship.

Each of the three aspects of the triangle relate to light and how it enters and interacts with the camera.

In selecting the exposure for any given photography situation, you need to choose some combination of the three that will yield what you consider the best exposure for your environment.

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EXPOSURE TRIANGLE

APERTURE

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ISO THE SIMPLEST OF THE THREE SIDES of the exposure triangle is ISO. You can think of ISO as the sensitivity of the digital sensor (although it is a lot more complicated than that).

A high ISO (around 1600) can “gather” light more quickly in darker situations, whereas a low ISO works in very bright situations where you don’t need so much light to be “collected” by the sensor.

Unlike aperture (which affects depth of field) and shutter speed (which records any movement that occurs while your shutter is open), the only real effect that ISO has on your images is to brighten or darken them overall.

Just keep in mind that the higher the ISO, the more noise or grain you will have in your final image.

ISO SCALE Grain starts showing up Collects less light Less image noise/grain

100

200

400

800

1,600

3,200 6,400 12,800 25,600

1-Stop Increases in Exposure 1-Stop Decreases in Exposure

PRO TIP IT IS BEST TO PHOTOGRAPH at the lowest ISO possible while keeping your shutter speed reasonable for hand held photography (unless you are using a tripod, of course) and keep your aperture as low (wide) as you choose for the situation.

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Collects more light More image noise/grain

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SHUTTER SPEED THE SECOND PART OF EXPOSURE is shutter speed. Shutter speed is the amount of time your shutter is open, during which your image is recorded onto the sensor, measured in seconds. A fast shutter speed is needed to sharply record fast-moving subjects such as athletes.

Any time you hold your camera in your hand, even with a still subject, you will need your shutter speed to be fast enough to compensate for slight movements you make while pressing the shutter button.

Important: Any shutter speed 1/60 or slower needs a tripod.

Fast shutter

Slow shutter

PRO TIP A GOOD RULE OF THUMB is to keep your shutter speed at or above your focal length. If you are photographing with a lens at 50mm, you’d want your shutter at 1/50 or faster, and if you’re photographing with a 200mm lens, you’d want your shutter at 1/200 or faster.

If you want to freeze action images, set the shutter at 1/500.

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APERTURE APERTURE IS THE THIRD COMPONENT to the exposure triangle, and the most exciting. Aperture refers to how large a “hole” your lens will open to allow the light in to hit the sensor. The bigger the hole, the more light that will reach the sensor.

In fact, each time you double the area of that opening, you double the amount of light or increase the exposure by one stop.

On the other hand, if you half the area of the opening, you half the amount of light hitting the sensor, which will decrease the exposure by one stop.

Think of the lens like an eye. In low light situations, the pupil increases in size to capture more light and decreases in bright conditions. This can also help us understand aperture and depth of field. A wide aperture like a 2.8 will have a shallow depth of field and only the subject will be in focus while anything in the foreground or background will be blurred.

To get more in focus, decrease the aperture width to get a deeper depth of field.

f/2.8

f/4

f/5.6

LARGER APERTURE MORE LIGHT STRIKES IMAGE SENSOR SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD (FOCUS)

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f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

SMALLER APERTURE LESS LIGHT STRIKES IMAGE SENSOR DEEP DEPTH OF FIELD (FOCUS)

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? CONTROLLING LIGHT with your SLR camera is a lot like controlling the water filling a cup. In photography, it takes a set amount of light for a proper exposure, similarly, it takes a set amount of water to fill a cup. Too much water and the cup overflows; too much light and your image is over exposed.

Light controls with the camera include; shutter speed, aperture and ISO. With the water analogy, the valve on the tap controls how long the water flows, how much it flows, and the size of cup to fill. The shutter speed on the camera acts like a gate, allowing light to enter the camera for an amount of time, exposing the image. Turning the tap on, then off, allows water to flow for a set amount of time, filling the cup. The tap can control how long the water will flow.

The aperture on the camera controls the volume of light that enters, exposing the image. The bigger the hole in the lens, the greater the volume of light shines through. The aperture can also be stopped down to a tiny hole. Similarly, with the water analogy, the more you turn on the tap, the greater the rate the water will flow. The tap’s valve can control how much water will flow through, ranging from a torrent to a slow drip. Finally, the ISO on a camera is a setting that changes how sensitive the image sensor is to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive it will be, thus requiring less light to get the proper exposure.

This can be illustrated in the water analogy by changing the size of the cup. If you make the cup smaller, it takes less water (ie: light) to fill it up (or less light for a proper exposure).

• The three light controls, and the three water controls work the same way.

If you have a slow dripping tap, the water will have to run longer to fill up the cup.

• If you turn on the tap full blast, it will take a very short amount of time to fill the cup.

• If you have a smaller cup or bigger cup, then it can change how the flow rate and length of time the water flows for the cup to be filled.

Large Aperture

Exposure Unchanged

High ISO

Small Aperture

Exposure Unchanged

Low ISO

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GOLDEN HOUR SUNLIGHT IS MORE RED AND SOFT, just after sunrise and just before sunset. Photographers prize these times of day because the horizontal light casts both extended shadows and a warm glow onto subjects.

How many times have your reached for your phone to snap a sunset?

If you’ve ever noticed the photo doesn’t quite do the setting justice, check your “white balance” settings.

Cameras, even those in phones, have an automatic setting which can ironically try to take the saturated color out of these images.

BLUE HOUR THIS OPPOSITE PERIOD, during twilight, results when indirect sunlight is evenly diffused because the sun is below the horizon. Sunlight takes on a blue shade, different from what’s visible during most clear days.

Keep in mind to white balance for this cooler lighting.

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ALPENGLOW ALPENGLOW IS A RARE EFFECT of a red or pink glow in the sky farthest from the setting sun.

It extends the warm lighting effect well beyond sunset.

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TIME OF DAY

CONTRAST

COLORS

SUN DIRECTION

Midday

Highest

Neutral White

Near Vertical

Morning and Evening

High

Slightly Warm

Mid to Low

Golden Hour

Medium

Warm to Fiery

Near Horizontal

Blue Hour

Low

Cool Pastel

Below Horizon

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FLASH, CAMERA, ACTION!

BUILT-IN FLASH

EXTERNAL FLASH

Less powerful

Up to 3x more poweful

Restricted movement

Tilt & Swivel - allows you to bounce flash off another surface

Casts shadow

No lens shadow

Inability to soften and diffuse light

Softens light with gels and diffusers

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