Monday, June 25. 2007
Photo Exposure explained - histogram, ISO, shoot speed, aperture
Introduction
There are three things that influence on your photo exposure: duration of shot, how open is aperture, and ISO.
In this article I will explain all of them.
I suggest to have your camera with you, while you read the article, and check and test things as you read them. Choose manual mode (often marked as M), so that you will have full control over camera settings.
Exposure and histogram
Photo exposure is the term that we use to describe how bright is the photo. Simply said: photo has good exposure when it is not neither too dark or too bright. However, there are ways to scientifically describe when a photo is in good exposure. Open your favorite photo editing software. Most of them will have option to show you the photo histogram. It graphically shows the dark and bright
parts of your photo. So, by looking at this graph, you can say if the photo is overexposured or underexposured and make the corrections. Most of newer digital cameras show this histogram when you preview the photo on its display. Some even show it during the framing, so that you can make the changes in settings even before the shot. The more the graph is gathered in left part - the photo is darker, and vice versa.
Here is a histogram of underexposured photo:
Overexposured:
Correct exposure:
Of course, specific conditions or wanted feel and look can define different wanted histograms. For example, the overexposed histogram above is from this photo:
The photo is just the way I want it to be. So, the fact that the histogram shows that the photo is not correctly exposured does not mean that it is not good. However, histogram is very useful and I suggest you to use it. Learn how to read it - it can tell you things about photo exposure, contrast and other things.
Shooting speed
The time for which the photo sensor (matrix) is exposured to the light is called shooting speed. Obviously, the more time the light falls on the sensor, the brighter the photo will be. If we set the three settings to some values, and then change the shooting speed to be twice longer. Technically speaking the photo made with second settings will have one stop of exposure more light than the first one. Exposure stops are important and if you want to master the manual mode of your camera, you have to understand it. So, if you have speed setting at 1/100th of a second and you want to adjust the speed so that you will receive photo which will be two steps underexposured, we would have to use speed of 1/25th of a second. For one stop, the value is 1/50th, and from that value one stop more is twice shorter than that.
Aperture
Aperture is a measure for how much is the lens opened. The more you open it - the more light comes in for the same time. One of most important feature of each lens is the one which shows how much the lens can be opened. The values are measured in f-stops and written as: f/value. Since the value is a denominator, the smaller the value - the lens is more open (and more light is passing through the lens). Lenses are always mentioned together with their maximum f-stop value. For example: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L is the full name of one of the best zoom lenses by Canon. It means that the biggest aperture you can set this lens is f/2.8. Some lenses even have aperture values lower than 1.0 - the 'lightest' lens is made for film cameras and its aperture is 0.7.
I already mentioned f-stops. Here are the values of apertures that are full f-stops:
0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64, 90, 128 ...
Modern lenses often have one-third stops values for finer settings.
Now, you might wonder why those strange numbers. The F number itself is calculated by formula:
f# = f/D
where f# is the f/number, f is the focal length, and D is the diameter of the entrance pupil. The one f-step difference means that the light that passes through lens at f/2.8 is twice more than when we set the lens at f/4. Now, remember that we already had that 'twice light' in the definition of exposure.
This knowledge gives us the power to guess what speed and aperture to use in situations where we can not measure the light.
For example, one of the most popular exposure rules is the Sunny 16 rule: "An approximately correct exposure will be obtained on a sunny day by using an aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed close to the reciprocal of the ISO speed of the film; for example, using ISO 100, an aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed of 1/100 second"
If your camera (in Auto mode) says that in order to get good exposure it will use f/5.6 and 1/40, but the photo is blurred because of fast moving objects, you can make the needed calculations so that you will have correct exposure and faster shooting speed. Lets say that you want to double your shooting speed. Set camera to manual mode and the speed to 1/80 (twice faster). This means that if we don't change anything else the photo will be 1 step under correct exposure. In order to achieve correct exposure, we can change the aperture. take a look at above list of full stop f-numbers. The number with one stop bigger aperture than 5.6 is f/4. So, we will set the aperture to f/4. The photo taken with 1/40 and f/5.6 will be equally exposured as the one taken with 1/80 and f/4.
ISO
In short, ISO is sensitivity to light which measures the matrix's speed.
Sometimes you want to use very high shooting speeds, like 1/4000, but your lens does not not have aperture so big that the photo will be correctly exposed.
The part of your digital camera that catches the light is called matrix.
It has one property, called ISO and it can be changed. It also influences exposure and it also has full stops values. Here is a list of ISO values with one exposure stop difference between them:
25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, ..
Lets say that you set your ISO to 100, and your aperture is at f/2.8, and your shooting speed is 1/250 of a second and with these settings you manage to get photo which is correctly exposured, but you need even higher shooting speed. Professional sport photographers often use speed no slower than 1/2000. Lets imagine that we want to achieve speed of 1/1000th of a second and our lens is already at its widest aperture - we cannot open it wider. So, from 1/250 to 1/1000 are two stops (we calculate this in this way: from 1/250 to 1/500 is one stop, and from 1/500 to 1/1000 another stop). Now, in order to use same aperture of f/2.8, speed of 1/1000 and achieve good exposure we will have to use ISO 400.
Notes
All this might seem to mathematical to those of you who just want to take snapshots of friends. Actually, most modern cameras have modes which will do needed calculations for you. However, there are situations where the camera is wrong. Actually it does not make mistake, it just doesn't know what exactly you want to picture. In those situations, it is handy to know about speed. f-stops and ISO.
And for the end - don't forget to test and experiment.
In one of next articles I will focus on ISO, aperture and speed and how they influence the final result more closely.
Sunday, May 27. 2007
How I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D
Buying first dSLR can be very difficult choice, especially in these days when the entry-level market offers great variety of models, from different manufacturers, each with its own PROs and CONs.
Choosing the manufacturer (the brand) and model is both objective and subjective thing.
In this article I will tell you how I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D, few years ago.
I already had Canon Powershot A80. You can read how I decided to buy it here.
A80 was excellent camera with its 3x zoom, 4MP sensor and great photos when the conditions were good. Yes, when the conditions were good. Back then, shooting at ISO 400 with a compact camera was more suicide, than anything else (like achieving some acceptable result). When I say bad conditions I mean something like: bad weather (dark), indoor photos without flash, shooting some action photos etc. Sure, with some prefocusing, tripod and understanding of how camera works, you can achieve pretty good results. But, I wanted better results. Also, I started to enjoy shooting sport. Indoor sport. This means: low-light conditions and fast moving objects.
Here is example of typical photo achieved with A80 in mentioned conditions. High ISO noise and motion blur are visible.
EXIF details: 1/80, f/4
EXIF details: 1/80, f/4
Achieved with prefocusing. This, as well as above photo has motion blur. While it serves as effect in this photo, it is a defect in the other
EXIF details: 1/50, f/4
EXIF details: 1/50, f/4
Few weeks before my sport shooting attempts, I was thinking to buy tele and wide convertors, which should also allow me to use filters with my camera. Luckily, I left this idea very soon, and realized that what I needed was an dSLR.
I really knew where I was going: dSLR usually means more money, accessories and weight. On the other side, I also knew what were the benefits.
Canon A80 found its new owner pretty fast. From what I know he uses it even today. Now, I had to choose what exactly I wanted to buy. Actually, I was thinking about that for some time, but final answer came clear just after I sold the powershot.
I decided that I should buy second hand dSLR body with one lens, which should not be of lowest quality, maybe some filter for it and some photo bag.
Back then, it was only a choice between Nikon and Canon. Here is another advice which you might not hear very often: it is good to have friends with compatible equipment. So, when you need something (like flash or ultra-wide lens), you can borrow the same. I already had canon photo camera and I was satisfied. I also had few friends which had Canon dSLRs. I also knew that Canon had the cheapest dSLR on the market, and this was also very important, with my low budget in mind. Another important thing to know: low level body with first class lens will produce far better results than first class body with bad lens. All this leaded me to the choice of 300D. Actually, I still searched for Nikon offers, too.
Very soon, I saw one great offer for Canon 300D. The price was good and the timing was perfect. I arranged testing of the machine. (Remember to test even new cameras. If you can, bring someone with more experience with that particular or similar models) Testing went ok, the jpegs I checked at home were great. And, it was it.
300D was bought. Few days later I bought Sigma 18-125mm with UV filter. It is very good 'tourist' lens, like I like to call it, with good focusing speed and image quality. After that a Lowepro backpack (which was just half full back then), later on accessories were bought one by one and wishlist had more and more checks.
My first impressions from new camera were focusing speed, better control of DOF, acceptable results at high ISO speeds and lots of buttons to master.
Even if 300D is the cheapest dSLR and it also has some software and hardware limitations, it is great camera even today.
In one of my next articles, expect a short course to basketball photography and show you some of my photos from 300D.
Tuesday, May 15. 2007
Accessories you have to buy for your dSLR
In our previous article we talked about compact cameras and accessories for them.
I will focus now on things specific to dSLR cameras. If you are buying one, it usually means that you are not absolute beginner, but since price (and size) of those photo cameras is dropping with every year, in order to provide best information, I will write some things that you might already know.
Interesting thing about serious dSLR equipment is that at the end, the camera body is the cheapest part. While, this is not always true, it says how important are other parts of your system.
I will write about lenses in some other article, because this is a subject that deserves at least one separate article.
Flashes are another subject, too.
1) If you don't like the size and price of
battery grips
, you should at least have one backup battery (which should always be charged).
2) buy yourself serious photo bag. Choose your style: big, small, backpack or not, but choose from good and reputable manufacturer
. I also suggest to have one big backpack for all your equipment and one small bag just for your camera with one or two lenses.
3) With digital photography shooting more is no longer expensive. Well, you do have to buy that memory card once, but after that it is free. In case you shot a lot of pictures and travel a lot, you might consider buying photobank
.
4) you should have at least one tripod. Based on your shooting style, you might use it occasionally or daily. In case you like mountain hiking, consider buying some lightweight and stable tripod
5) use UV filters on your lenses - this way you will protect them from scratches
6) you can also buy polarizer filters and some other like star-effect filers. Polarizers are very useful and I recommend having at least one and using it on more lenses with step-up rings
I will focus now on things specific to dSLR cameras. If you are buying one, it usually means that you are not absolute beginner, but since price (and size) of those photo cameras is dropping with every year, in order to provide best information, I will write some things that you might already know.
Interesting thing about serious dSLR equipment is that at the end, the camera body is the cheapest part. While, this is not always true, it says how important are other parts of your system.
I will write about lenses in some other article, because this is a subject that deserves at least one separate article.
Flashes are another subject, too.
1) If you don't like the size and price of
battery grips
, you should at least have one backup battery (which should always be charged).2) buy yourself serious photo bag. Choose your style: big, small, backpack or not, but choose from good and reputable manufacturer
. I also suggest to have one big backpack for all your equipment and one small bag just for your camera with one or two lenses. 3) With digital photography shooting more is no longer expensive. Well, you do have to buy that memory card once, but after that it is free. In case you shot a lot of pictures and travel a lot, you might consider buying photobank
.4) you should have at least one tripod. Based on your shooting style, you might use it occasionally or daily. In case you like mountain hiking, consider buying some lightweight and stable tripod
5) use UV filters on your lenses - this way you will protect them from scratches
6) you can also buy polarizer filters and some other like star-effect filers. Polarizers are very useful and I recommend having at least one and using it on more lenses with step-up rings
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