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Aperture (AV mode)

Aperture is a name for the hole in the lens, it controls how much light gets into the lens and also the depth of field. The AV mode on a camera means Aperture priority, you can also use aperture in manual mode. Aperture priority is good when it comes to landscape photography and Portraiture. It is very good for portraiture because if you use a wide aperture it blurs the background out so the photograph is focused on the main subject. It is good for landscape photography because if you use a more small aperture f number when the depth of field is shown really well. Aperture priority is good for just focusing on depth of field, because it automatically selects an exposure and shutter speed to match the aperture chosen, if you are wanting to select them manually then you will need to take it of AV mode. A lower f number such as 2.8 means that the opening is larger(as you can see on the diagram) which means that the depth of field is more shallow. The larger the f number such as 32 is much small, which allows less light to reach the sensor and makes a greater depth of field. The depth of field is the amount/range you can see in a photograph that is sharp, it can change depending on the focus, camera and aperture. Small Apertures reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor and large apertures increase the amount of light hitting the sensor. Correct exposure needs to be chosen to get the best image, this can be chosen automatically by the camera, but can sometimes be not the right choice, depending on the aperture and shutter speed chosen.

By having a low f number the photographs focal point is the pen and the background has a shallow depth of field, which makes the background blurry because of the larger lens hole.

f5

This is a middle f number, which makes the pen still the focal point with the background more sharp. This is because it is a middle sized lens hole.

f18

The lens hole is at its smallest here with all of the photograph sharp. This is because the f number is very high and the depth of field is greater.

f29

Shutter Speed (Tv mode)

Shutter Speed is the length of time the Shutter is open when you press the button to take the photograph. There is a mode on a camera to make it Shutter Priority this means that you can change the amount of time the shutter opens for. The other settings adjust automatically to get the right exposure for the time the shutter opens for. Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of a second if youre wanting the shutter to open and close really fast, which creates a freezing effect, where the subject you are taking freezes in a position if it was moving fast. And a longer shutter speed is measured in whole seconds, which sometimes creates an abstract effect or just looks like really fast movement. The smaller the number is the faster the shutter opens and closes.

A slower shutter speed allows more light in to hit the camera sensor because the shutter is open for longer, this is really good for dark spaces, but not good if you do not have a tripod because you will have camera shake. A slower shutter also is good for movement photographs because the shutter is open for long, it has a long period of time to capture the fast movement. For example a train moving, or a car. A fast Shutter speed doesnt let a lot of light in because it opens and closes really fast the light doesnt hit the sensor in time. This is not good for a dark or light room, but the exposure can be edited to get the photograph you want. Also post production can help this. When having a Fast shutter speed the aperture is automatically changed to a small F number, this is so the image is lighter, which also gives depth of field to the image. When having a fast shutter speed it freezes a movement, this is because it takes the photograph really fast to capture it rather then record it and create a blurred image. This is good for photographing sport.

A very slow aperture setting was used to take this photograph. The seconds the shutter was open for was 2. This made the image look very moving, as you can see because you can see colours across the road, which are clearly cars, which you wouldnt be able to tell if the image was cropped or zoomed in. This could create a really good affect when used properly.

A of a second aperture has been used here. Which has shown movement but you can easily tell that the picture is of a car moving, because it still has its shape.

1/4

A fast aperture of 1/200 of a second has been used in this image. That is why the Photograph is very dark, because it hasnt let enough light get to the censor. As you can still see though the cars a frozen still and do not show any movement, because the shutter had opened and closed so fast. With this setting the exposure would need to be edited to get the right brightness because you are working with natural light. 1/200

ISO settings
The ISO setting on a camera changes how sensitive the censor is to light . So by having a very high shutter speed, the ISO setting can be changed to a higher ISO number to give you the amount of light you need. When shooting in low light conditions without a tripod then increasing your ISO number will be very useful because you cannot increase the shutter speed without the tripod because of camera shake. ISO Is usually the last thing you change to get the photograph you are wanting, as you can see from this Diagram. If you want your image quality to be really good in a photograph, you will need to use a low ISO speed to decrease the chances of getting noise which is a mix between brightness and colour information which looks like dots on your photograph.

These 3 Photographs are cropped from a larger photograph. All of these are at different ISO speeds, the smallest as you can see is the clearest and the highest has the most noise. The aperture and shutter speed has also altered to try and get the right exposure. ISO 80 is much more sharper and has better quality then ISO 1600, this is because the censor is more sensitive to light.

ISO 6400 ISO 3200 IS0 1600 ISO 800 ISO 400 ISO 200 ISO 100

Higher ISO speed

Slower ISO speed

The ISO speed on this photograph is very high, thats why the exposure of this photograph is high. The shutter speed was probably very fast on this photograph because then it will allow less light to get to the censor.

1600

The ISO speed on this photograph is average and near the middle. This is a good ISO number to have because it will adjust the other settings to fit to get the right exposure and the light is at a good level.

400

A lower ISO speed means that the light is really dark, because the censor is less sensitive to light. This doesnt work out very well when it comes to aperture and shutter speed because the shutter speed will probably change to really slow to try and get more light in.

100

White Balance
White balance on a Camera is for helping the camera understand what white is. The auto white balance setting works in most conditions but in some conditions a camera will not get the right colour to fit with the photograph so you may need to adjust some settings. For example the Cloudy option on white balance is for a cloudy day to give your colour a more yellow tint. The fluorescent light option gives a more green tint etc. Sometimes you will need to change the setting to make sure your Camera is getting the right coloured pictures you want, and at other times you may like to just change to white balance on purpose to change the look of your photographs.

As you can see in this photograph they all look different colours. Making photographs different shades also can change the mood of a photograph. For example the more blue shades like Tungsten and Florescent make a photograph look cold and other options like cloudy and shade make the photograph look warm and welcoming. This is why some people purposely change them, to create a different mood to a photograph.
Light Sources Clear Blue Sky Overcast Sky Color Temperature in K 10,000 to 15,000 6,000 to 8,000

Noon Sun and Clear Sky

Sunlight Average Electronic Flash Household Lighting 200-watt Bulb 100-watt Bulb 75-watt Bulb 60-watt Bulb 40-watt Bulb Candle Flame

6,500
5,400 to 6,000 5,400 to 6,000 2,500 to 3,000 2,980 2,900 2,820 2,800 2,650 1,200 to 1,500

daylight

Tungsten Light

White Fluorescent Light

Flash

The Daylight option on the white balance setting has made the white go a more orangy/yellow colour, which has made the photograph look really warm, which doesnt look right as the photograph is inside. The Tungsten light option has made the photograph go more blue , which has made the photograph look cold and negative, which again doesnt really work because it is inside. The White Fluorescent light option has made the photograph go a bit colder but not by a lot, this has corrected the lighting a bit but not in a negative way, it still looks ordinary and actually works well. The flash has made the photograph go a bit orangey, strangely, this also doesnt look very right because it has made the photograph look warm. The best setting to use in a condition like this is either white fluorescent light or just the ordinary auto white balance.

Original image

I took this Photograph with the shutter speed at 2. it has created an effect where you can just see coloured movement lines. If I would take this photograph again I would make sure that the tree was not in the way because it ruined the effect. The lights on the cars make this effect look even better because it makes it look abstract, because they do not look like cars. The photograph is quite dark because it was a dull day, so to make it look better I would do some manipulation like dodging and burning and also make the photograph look bit warmer if I was going for a sunny day effect.

Cropped

On Photoshop I used the crop tool and made a selection on the original photograph and pressed enter. This made it take a part of the photograph and zoom in on it. I zoomed in on the van with the lights because this was the bit I liked most about the photograph, because it makes it look like the cars are going really fast .

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Levels

On Photoshop you can adjust the levels on the photograph, which is the highlights and the shadows, by doing this you go onto adjustments and click on levels, and move the scales up and down. This makes a photograph look higher in contrast and also makes the darks and lights stand out. It looks good because it makes the van look brighter and makes the trees look darker.

Dodging and burning

Dodging and Burning is also to do with the light and dark colours. When you click on the burning tool on Photoshop and drag it over a dark colour it makes it go darker. Then when you click on the dodging tool on Photoshop and drag it over a colour it makes it go lighter. This is also good for making light bits brighter and dark bits darker. It is to highlight the main parts of the photograph to draw someone's eye to that specific part.

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Colour adjustments

There are a lot of ways to do colour adjustments on Photoshop but the way I did this was by going onto adjustments and clicking Colour balance, this lets you edit the warmer and cooler colours in the photograph (cyan, blue green + Magenta, red, yellow) it creates nice colour effects to your photograph, people do this to sometimes give the photograph a different mood to what it already looks like, and some do it to just change the colour of something to make it look unrealistic and different. Another way you can edit the colours on Photoshop is by going onto curves and changing the balances and also by Hue and Saturation.