A brief introduction to
Photography
Hoang Pham | Club Photo EPFL | 25.09.14
This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Today
- Food for thought
- Photography is good exposure
- Aperture, Speed, ISO
- Everything else
- Focal Length, Light metering, Autofocus
- Some other small things
You don't take a photograph,—Ansel Adams
you make it.
Photography is cooking.—Me
All cameras work the same.
All cameras work the same.
Photo credit: Hanabi123
Example of
Over
Understanding
exposure
?
Under
exposure
Good
exposure
?
Good
exposure
Aperture
Speed
ISO
↑
↑
↑
↑
↑
↑
Photo credits: Håkan Dahlström
Aperture, speed and ISO explained with an ice tray
Photo credits: Jesús Gorriti
Ice tray analogy stolen from Lense.fr
Just enough water
Too much water
Not enough water
Small flow rate, long exposure time
Large flow rate, short exposure time
←
Exposure time
Shutter speed
→
Flow rate
Aperture
←
Height of the wells
ISO
Shutter speed ?
On your camera
Credit Image: Althepal & Mehdi
Numbers !
- 2"
- 1"
- 2
- 4
- 8
- 15
- 30
- 60
- 125
- 250
More light
Less light
Notes
- 60 = 1/60s
- Each step let enter twice as less light compared to the preceding step.
Creative impact of the shutter speed
Credit Image: Nevit Dilmen
Photo credits: US Navy
Photo credits: Simon Green
Photo credits: Brandon Wiggins
Photo credits: AngMoKio
Photo credits: Sarahhoa
Shutter speed: TL;DR
- 2"
- 1"
- 2
- 4
- 8
- 15
- 30
- 60
- 125
- 250
Less light
More light
Motion blur
Freeze frame
←
Exposure time
Shutter speed
→
Flow rate
Aperture
←
Height of the wells
ISO
Aperture ?
On your camera
Credit Image: Althepal & Mehdi
Numbers
- 1.4
- 2
- 2.8
- 4
- 5.6
- 8
- 11
- 16
- 22
- 32
More light
Less light
Notes
- 1.4 = √2 , 2 = (√2)2, 2.8 = (√2)3, 4 = (√2)4 ...
- Each step let enter twice as much light than the one before.
Creative impact of the aperture
Photo credits: Pierre-Emmanuel BOITON
Photo credits: Ralf Roletschek
Photo credits: David Gubler
Photo credits: Tommy Wong
Photo credits: Sage Ross
Aperture: TL;DR
- 1.4
- 2
- 2.8
- 4
- 5.6
- 8
- 11
- 16
- 22
- 32
More light
Less light
Bokeh!
Everything is sharp
←
Exposure time
Shutter speed
→
Flow rate
Aperture
←
Height of the wells
ISO
ISO-what ?
Kodak TMax
400
Konica Pro
160
Fujifilm Velvia
50
Photo credits: University of Rochester Institute of Optics
ISO-what ?
More sensitive
Less sensitive
Photo credits: Thomas Bresson
On your camera
Numbers!
- 100
- 200
- 400
- 800
- 1600
- 3200
- 6400
- 12800
Less sensitive
More sensitive
Notes
- Each step is twice as much sensitive to light compared to the preceding step.
Noise and grain
Analog
Digital
Note: don't look at photo at 100%
Photo credits: Toblas Abel
ISO: TL;DR
- 100
- 200
- 400
- 800
- 1600
- 3200
- 6400
- 12800
Less sensitive
More sensitive
Smooth
Noise/grain
Light metering
Set a value and let the camera sort out the rest
| Auto | P | S | A | M | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ouverture | Auto | Auto | Auto | Manual | Manual |
| Vitesse | Auto | Auto | Manual | Auto | Manual |
| ISO | Auto | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
What the camera would like to see
Photo credits: Fred Benenson
Light metering mode
Exposure lock ("AE-Lock")
Autofocus
Photo credit: Mark Levoy
| Canon | Nikon | means |
|---|---|---|
| One shot | AF-S | focus once |
| AI servo | AF-C | focus continuously |
| AI focus | AF-A | magically decides between the two |
Focal length
To sums things up
Shutter speed: TL;DR
- 2"
- 1"
- 2
- 4
- 8
- 15
- 30
- 60
- 125
- 250
Less light
More light
Motion blur
Freeze frame
Aperture: TL;DR
- 1.4
- 2
- 2.8
- 4
- 5.6
- 8
- 11
- 16
- 22
- 32
More light
Less light
Bokeh!
Everything is sharp
ISO: TL;DR
- 100
- 200
- 400
- 800
- 1600
- 3200
- 6400
- 12800
Less sensitive
More sensitive
Smooth
Noise/grain
Some other small things
Exposure Value (EV), "Stop"
Have you noticed ?
Shutter speed
Each step let enter twice as less light compared to the preceding step.
Aperture
Each step let enter twice as much light than the one before.
ISO
Each step is twice as much sensitive to light compared to the preceding step.
The same illumination correspond to several combination of Shutter Speed / Aperture / ISO
- 1.4
- 2
- 2.8
- 4
- 5.6
- 8
- 11
- 16
- 22
Aperture
- 2
- 4
- 8
- 15
- 30
- 60
- 125
- 250
- 500
Shutter speed
- 100
- 200
- 400
- 800
- 1600
- 3200
- 6400
ISO
Exposure compensation
Deactivate the focus beeping sound
... and the autofocus light as well
Flash popup iz EVULtm
lol
My picture is blurry!
- Shutter speed ? ("1/focal length")
- Hold the camera properly
- Use a tripod
What is the best X ?
(X = piece of equipment)
- The one that doesn't require selling your little sister's kidney
- The one you have with you
- The one adapted to the situation
"More megapixel = Better ?"
No.
My pictures are boring.
- Look for another point of view
- Think about the composition
- Get another subject
- Set your own limitation