My personal notes from photography classes given by Matt Anderson in Viewfinder Center in Feb 2014, see class description.
- Exposure
- Exposure triangle: ISO, shutter time, aperture
- Automatic exposure balance in a camera will make sure picture gets 18% of white.
- In particular, if you take a picture of a plain white wall, the picture will come out grey. The same when you take a picture of a plain black wall - the picture will come out grey.
- Aperture f/1.8 - small number, opens a big hole in the lens to capture the image (thus allowing a lot of light)
- Aperture f/11 - big number, opens a small hole in the lens to capture the image (thus allowing very little light)
- Exposure compensation is usually shown as a scale: -3 .. -2 .. -1 .. 0 .. +1 .. +2 .. +3. This is only a zoom in view over the full spectrum of exposure. If 18% white is 0, then -3EV will be ~14%white, +3EV will be ~22% white.
- |-----------------+--+--+----------------------------------------|
- 0% 18% 100%
- -3EV +3EV
- Depth of field (DoF):
- Depends on camera, lenses and aperture
- Aperture f/1.8 - very short DoF
- Aperture f/11 - very long DoF
- Lenses:
- 20mm - wide, long DoF
- 50mm - called "normal" because they mimic average human eye field of view
- 80mm - typical portret lenses
- 200mm - narrow, telephoto, short DoF
- Auto focus:
- One-shot - sets focus once, good for still objects
- AI-Servo - sets the focus and keeps focusing as the object moves, good for moving objects
- AI-Focus - hybrid between One-shot and AI-Servo
- Light metering:
- Camera will measure the light at the center of the photo at the moment when you press the shutter button.
- You can "lock" light metering and use it later. You do that by pressing "*" (star) button on Canon camera.
- This works good for average situations, but you might need to correct your camera for non-average situation.
- How to translate our needs to actions:
- More interesting pictures:
- find better subject & invest more effort in finding a better spot, time of the day, light etc.
- My camera to be easier to use:
- Read your camera manual and practice
- My pictures to have more vibrance, contrast and "punch":
- Learn light, and how to post-process your pictures on a computer
- Sharper images:
- Use tripod, better lenses or a flash