Ok I think its time somebody wrote up some basics about photography. You better have time because this is gonna be long. You have been warned. Mack I hope you make this a sticky as it took a very long time!!

First off, what is a camera? I'll explain this as simple as I can. Imagine a room with only one door and No windows and no light comes in anywhere except that door. Now imagine that light sensitive film, or a digital sensor, is at the very back of the room on the wall. So to take a picture you open the door for a short amount of time. You expose the back wall to light, and then close the door. You just took a picture. This is what a camera literally is.

Now that you understand what a camera is( I hope), lets talk about shutter speeds. Now you remember our room with the one door? What would happen if we changed the amount of time that door was open? This is where shutter speeds come in. The faster the shutter speed, the less time the door is open right, so it leaves less time for light to pass through. This gives a freezing effect. This is how you get clear, crisp pictures, and also how you freeze things that are in motion (ex: cars, water, bullets). Shutter speeds are measure in tenths of a second. Shutter speeds are set by the camera's control( you).

They go in order from slowest to fastests.

1/15th 1/30th 1/60th 1/125th 1/250th

1/500th 1/1000th 1/2000th 1/4000th 1/8000th

Now these are what are called whole 'stops '. There are shutter speeds in between these which could be 1/3rd of a 'stop' or 1/2 of a 'stop' faster or slower(Ex: 1/180th, 1/350th ).

These are the primary ones you should know. So here 1/15th is the slowest and 1/8000th is the fastest. Some cameras can only go 1/4000th or 1/2000th as their fastest shutter.It depends on you camera.

One rule you should remember about shutter speeds is the slowest you can take a picture handheld is 1/125th of a second. Some people might say it is 1/60th which is possible but not really recommendable. It would depend on how steady your hands are.



Next, we are going to talk about aperture. Aperture is the size of the hole, or in our case 'door", that light passes through. This is important not only because it changes the amount of light that comes in, but it changes what becomes in focus. Basically, the smaller the hole, the more focus you get into the background of the picture. The larger the whole, the blurrier the background is. Aperture is measured in something called 'f/ stops'. They go as follows.

f/1.8 f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 f/32

Just like the shutter speeds, these are whole 'stops'. There are f/ stops in between. But these are the ones you need to know because you will see these most often.

The smallest number here is f/1.8 which is the widest opening and gives the blurriest background. f/32 is the largest number here and the smallest opening. I hope you are still with me so far because this is important. Your available f/ stops are determined by what lens you have and are using. Here are some examples.

F/1.8
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/_DSC0001.jpg
F/8
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/_DSC0002.jpg

This 'blur' that occurs when you select a large aperture is called 'Bokeh'.

Now we are going to combine the two. Between apertures and shutters is how you determine the effect you want to an image. It is also really a mathematical equation. Its ok dont be skered!! Its really simple. All you have to do is is read your camera meter. which you should be able to see in the viewfinder or status lcd. It should look like this.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/statuslcd.jpg

Some meters might look a little different, it would depend on your camera. Some might even be vertical.

You basically have to make that meter read in the middle to get correctly exposed image. Now you can do this by reading what the camera says. So, lets say you want to set the shutter to 1/250th of a second because you are taking some pics at the local drag meet. You can set it at that shutter and just change the aperture untill the meter reads in the middle. So lets say you do this and you come up with a reading of 1/500th @ f/4. So you take a few pics and decide you want both drag cars to be in focus because only one is coming in focus. Remember we talked about whole 'stops' of shutter and apertures. well those whole 'stops' mean whole stops of light. So if you liked that exposure of 1/500th @f/4 but wanted to get more focus in the back, you could bring up the aperture two whole stops to f/8 but lower the shutter to 1/125th and you would keep that same exposure. Or you could go f5.6 and take the shutter to 1/250th. Simple right? Like I said, just a simple math equation.

Now heres the catch. Since you lowered your shutter, you now have increased your chance of blur. The picture won't be blurry because your holding it, it can get blurry by your subject moving, like the drag car. These are the choices you have to decide between. Of course, if you want the pic to be blurry, then thats how you do it.

Now you shouldn't completly trust your light meter because it can be fooled by dark backgrounds and bright foregrounds or vice versa.
If you have a digital camera then you have the luxury of previewing your pic after you take it. If it doesn't come out the way you wanted to, play with the aperture and shutter until you get your desired result. No matter what the meter says because like I said it can be fooled.

Now the next subject I'm going to touch is ISO.

The ISO you set your camera at( or film you put in) decides how sensitive the film or sensor is. They can range anywhere between the following:

25 50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200

These are the ISO stops you will see most often. Most digital cameras go between 100-3200. Very few go to 25 or 50.

The lower the number, the less sensitivity it has.The higher the number, the more sensitivity it has. This is usefull in situations where there isn't a lot of light like in a house or room. Although it may seem bright in a house or room to your eyes, its probaly not bright enough for a camera. This mean you wouldn't be able to shoot at you minimum 1/125th. So you crank up the ISO and now you can shoot at 1/125th. Of course there are other ways to add more light like lowering your aperture or a flash. But thats up to you.

Now heres the sacrafice about ISO. The higher you crank it, the more "noise" you see and sometimes, the more detail you lose. Noise is that grainy look you see sometimes in a picture. In digital images, noise looks more like colored dots than grain. But you'll see it when you try it.

Now the last subject I'm going to talk about is "what are those weird numbers on the lens."

If you purchase a SLR or D-SLR, you will of course need a lense. Now I'm going to teach you how to read those numbers.Here are some examples:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/18-35.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/80-200.jpg

The "18-35mm" you see indicates the width and zoom of the lens. The first number indicates how wide the lens can be. The lower the number, the wider the field of view. The 35mm is the longest zoom capabilty it has. The higher the number, the farther you can zoom out and the narrower the field of view gets. Now the numbers the say "1:3.5-4.5" indicate the widest aperture available on that lens. 3.5 is at 18mm and 4.5 is at 35mm. so if you are at 18mm and decide you need some more zoom and go to 35mm, the aperture automaticaly changes to 4.5. Get it. Good.

Now you notice in the second example it says "80-200mm 1:2.8." Now you wondering why there is only one f/ stop number. These type of lenses mean they can zoom anywhere in between and never change aperture until you do. So if you are at 80mm and go to 200mm the aperture will stay at whatever you set it at so if you put it at f/2.8, it will stay at f/2.8. Nice huh!? Now the shitty part is that these lenses tend to be more expensive. By alot!!! But in the end you will usually get a better build quality and better optics. You can usually get good deals on used equipment too if you just gotta have that constant aperture.

One more thing on focal lengths of lenses. Now this mostly applies with telephoto ( high zoom ) lenses.

As you shoot with longer lenses, the camera becomes more sensitive to whats called 'camera shake'.This is literally the components in the lens and camera making the pic go blurry. So to avoid this you must shoot at a shutter speed higher than the focal length of the lens you are using.

Ex: If you are shooting at 200mm, you would need a shutter of 1/250th or higher to avoid camera shake. If you're shooting at 400mm, you would need a shutter of 1/500th.
Simple? Good. Although if you plan on shooting with longs lenses, you should atleast have a monopod ( one leg stand) for your gear.

Scroll down to post #9 for: "What does A S M P stands for?" Common controls for cameras . And for an explanation On Crop Factors.

Thanks to VTEC Inside!!!

So this is the end of my super long post and I hope I helped. If anybody wants to help or think I need to add something PM me and I will edit.

Here are some good beginner lenses for you in case you are wondering. These are all for nikons D-SLR cameras:

Wide: 18-70mm. Can be bought new for about $250-300 used. All around good starter lens. Gives excellent results.
Zoom: 55-200mm. Simple, small and light weight telephoto. Good to start. I think they run for about $200 new. Not sure though.
Portrait: 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4. The f/1.8 is about $100 new and the f/1.4 is about 250 new. Nobody has a reason to not own this lens.
Macro: 60mm micro. Excellent macro lens. Great for portraits too. Actually, I would highly recommend this for either. About $380 new or $275+ for used.

ps: if you think I helped +rep me please!! K thanks bye!!!

This is good, helps me out in some areas I really didnt know...thanks.

Excellent post! learned a lot of stuff i never knew before. thanksss

Thread Stuck!

Nice writeup. The only thing I would change is where you have:

"Shutter speeds are set by the camera."

I would have it say that "Available shutter speeds depend on the camera."

The way its worded now almost makes it seem as though the user has no control over it.

My contribution to this thread:

What do A(Av), S(Tv), M, P mean?

A Aperature Priority (Av on a Canon)
In this mode, you select the aperature value that you want and the camera will adjust the shutter speed automatically based on light levels to get the correct exposure.

Be aware that the shutter speed that the camera selects may be far to slow to get anything but a blurry picture. Raising the ISO can compensate for this somewhat, but remember about the potential noise.

S Shutter Priority (Tv on a Canon)
You select the shutter speed you want to use and the camera selects the aperature required for the correct exposure.

This is a fairly safe mode to use provided you remember that using shutter speeds slower than 1/60s while handheld is likely to result in a blurred picture from camera movement. Selecting a speed that is too fast will have the camera pegged at max aperature, but you will still get a dark picture if not a black one.

Once again, ISO can be raised to compensate within limits.

I say its a safe mode because whatever you've focused on you will get (assuming shutter speed not an issue ie black/blurry), but your depth of field may not be what you were after.

M Manual
Camera be dumb dumb. You pick both the aperature and shutter speed value.

P Programmed Auto
This is a round about good automatic mode IMO. The camera selects both shutter speed and aperature value based on available light. This mode is flexible on a lot of cameras in that you can dial it in to prefer higher shutter speeds or aperatures.



Crop Factor?

All lens measurements are based on a 35mm frame size. So imagine yourself a rectangle that is X big as your 35mm frame.

The sensors in most D-SLRs are SMALLER than the historical 35mm frame, ie smaller rectangle.

Now put yourself into Photoshop mode and click on the magnifying glass. Highlight an area slightly smaller than the overall picture, lets say an overall zoom of 1.3x.

Thats what happens when they say the camera has a crop factor of 1.3x or 1.5x or whatever. The image cast on the sensor is that much larger than the sensor so it appears to be zoomed in by the amount of the crop factor.

This is the reason you will see all these 18mm-> lenses for D-SLRs. On a 1.5x crop that 18mm is equivalent to 27mm on a full frame camera.

One more thing. When you see a "Digital only" lens, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't mount it on a Film or Full Frame D-SLR. BUT, those lenses are designed for use with the smaller sensor D-SLRs and do not cast an image large enough to cover a 35mm frame so there will be light fall off hardcore near the corners.

Nice writeup. The only thing I would change is where you have:

"Shutter speeds are set by the camera."

I would have it say that "Available shutter speeds depend on the camera."

The way its worded now almost makes it seem as though the user has no control over it.


Changed!! Thanks.

Sometimes you don't realize how retartded something sounds like until you read it yourself lol!!!

Great write up! :thumbsup:

For the focal length part, you could add in that the wider your lens is the more DOF you have, and with a longer lens, there is less DOF. Just a little helpful tip when your aperture settings can't give you your desired results.

Maybe be a little more clear about noise. From how it is worded, the higher your ISO rating the more noise you see. Typically noise on a DSLR isn't noticable until you get up around ISO 1600, then again this depends a lot on the camera/lens.

I may have missed part of it but on shutter and aperture

The higher your F-Stop the less light gets in and you have a longer depth of field. The higher your shutter speed, the more you can stop motion but you lose light in the process. I shot all my weddings at ISO 100, 60ms with strobes and F8. F8 is supposed to yield nice results whereas a larger aperture wouldn't.

The reason most lenses are more costly is because they allow more light in. There are other variables, but that's the main one. If you have a F4 lens, a really overcast day, want to shoot at ISO 100 and a high shutter speed, that's where the extra light from the extra lenses becomes more valuable. Those would be hard conditions to shoot in if you had a moving object. Bumping your ISO up to 400 or 800 could resolve this limitation.

Your shutter speed (by the book) shouldn't be less than the focal length you're shooting at. Shooting with a flash where it syncs at 45 or 60 would be the exception to the rule. Shooting daylight with a long lens, the book rules also say that the longer the focal length, the more stable your lens should be to avoid camera shake. This, again involves the FL of your lens vs. the shutter speed.

Great write up! :thumbsup:

For the focal length part, you could add in that the wider your lens is the more DOF you have, and with a longer lens, there is less DOF. Just a little helpful tip when your aperture settings can't give you your desired results.

I could be wrong but the MM of your lens doesn't play as much of a part on your DOF as the aperture. You may be referring to the angle of view. A 50mm lens on a camera is showing the same angle of view as the human eye. The more you zoom, the tighter your viewing area is and vice-versa.

i use manual mode most of the time; thats how you learn

I could be wrong but the MM of your lens doesn't play as much of a part on your DOF as the aperture. You may be referring to the angle of view. A 50mm lens on a camera is showing the same angle of view as the human eye. The more you zoom, the tighter your viewing area is and vice-versa.
True, the focal length of the lens doesn't affect DOF as much as your aperture, but it still does.

If you shot two portraits (one at 35mm & one at 200mm) both at f/4, you'll notice that the 200mm shot has a much more shallow DOF than the 35mm shot, provided that you composed them relatively the same (moving farther back to get the same shot with a telephoto).

It's just another way to change DOF if your exposure options are limited. :dontknow:

Thanks guys I will add to the shutter/ focal length factors.

gcobb the dof portion is there already. Thanks though.

I didn't want to get too in-depth on what affects what so much. I really just wanted to give the basic breakdown of some of the most common questions here. "Whats aperture?" "whats DOF?" "Shutter speed?" "Why is my pic dark or blurry?"

you know the simple stuff.

I will keep adding more over the weekend.

This is all very informative and useful. A quick search yielded the following links from wiki.photoblogs.org

http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Learning_Photography
http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Photography_101
http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Photographer%27s_Rights
http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Photography_Links
http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Printing_Digital_Pictures

Those could be helpful. :)

This is great... I have the wonderful ability to take those "lucky" pics while my friends and I go on photoshoots or what not... but i have no real "talent" i jsut have the eye and the postion down, I would love to learn more about the technical.

good stuff!! *subscribed*

good stuff!! *subscribed*

:iamwiths:

taught me a lot more than I've read on photography sites.

+rep

Silver idk if youd like to make this correction or not its probably me whose just picky lol but usually to not get camera shake your supposed to use a shutter speed according to focal length so shooting at 200mm would be 1/200 not 250.

Its actually also very very possible to shoot at half the length comfortably so at 200mm you could easily shoot 1/100 without IS and probably 1/20 with IS.

btw very very nice write up man, im trying to teach a friend of mine that and its very useful for her with pictures and all lol

I was using whole stops. 200mm is 1/3 of a stop and didn't want it confusing.

I didn't mention IS because I wanted to stick to the subject and not veer off with IS. I figure the reader would be like "WTF is IS?" I was just trying to avoid confusion. I want to add more to this and do Rule of thirds next.

Thanks for the comment.

thanks this thread is teaching me a bit about cameras and thank god i didn't post a new thread about this

+rep

Cool, learned a lot about photography.

Now, does anyone have any links to the more technical side of photography?

i just read this..very helpful, many thanks for the writeup

I should have read this a long time ago...Thanks for the wright up!


But can anyone tell me what settings I would use to get a pic of my tac. revving?

What I mean is you take the pic. of it revving but you can still see the needle but its kinda blurry......I should just try and find a pic of what I'm talking about. lol

slow shutter speed at least 1sec and under

great just did a lot of reading and hopefully become better day by day :)


+rep

wow...+rep for really usefull info...cleared a few things up wich i wasnt sure about

definitely helpful read... i'm such a noob at this.

You are my hero thanks for the info!

this really helped alot. thanks for this thread.

Great read.

Thanks for the write up, had a few photography classes in college, but they were pretty much bollocks, we didn't learn about aperture until the last month, we spent the rest of the time learning about different cameras from past to present.

I want to seriously get into photography, cause as a graphic designer it's a bitch finding good stock images, and I'm a member of 3 stock image sites

thanks for this.

im trying to take the pic like this http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c45/gameadvisor/_DSC0001.jpg for some reason when i adjust the aperture nothing happens. i cant get it to blur like that. im a newb with a nikon d60

You want to shoot a very low aperture#, say something like f3.5-f4. Then focus on your foreground, then the rest should be blurry.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a197/bluej511/IMG_4977.jpg

Shot at f/5.6

so... should be on manual focus?

nope auto focus will work just fine just make sure its focusing on the right object

oh. thanks. ill figure it out :noes:

Not to piss on your thread or anything, its great But I found another a little more detailed guide for anybody who's interested:

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/pictures-photography/105243-ben-s-newbie-guide-digital-slr-photography.html

Not too bad.

I had a macro question.

How does it all work, from a more technical point of view? Namely "the macro button"?

With an SLR - there's a macro lens, designed to be used where the subject is closer, and all the optics and such play a role, I get it.

But both consumer cameras and SLRs have macro/"close up" settings let you get within a half-foot of the subject (at least with the consumer ones). Is this just a series of special settings sent to make the autofocus work on the assumption that the subject is closer?

And I also assume it can't work "that" well, or else you wouldn't still need macro lenses.

Thanks bro I appreciate this write up. I will take a lot of this into consideration for my next shoot.

Suddenly I am less intimidated by the notion of trying to get somewhat serious about photography. Thanks so much :)

Would you want the highest (or would it be lowest? :dontknow) aperture when shooting landscape shots? What about a water shot where there would be water on the bottom of the shot and then marsh/islands in the background. If you wanted everything to be in focus, that is.

A smaller aperture :D so use a bigger number. at least f/8. generally everything should be in focus.

A larger aperture (f/4 and below) will have a shallow depth of field.

I know I'm late but thanks I learned alot!

Amazing I learned alot

I'm glad to see this is still in use even though I haven't been here in several years.

awesome right up man:thumbsup: