Beginner's Photography

Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Let’s Get Started: Beginner’s Photography

Welcome to Let’s Get Started: Beginner’s Digital Photography, a brand new, four-week course designed for all those starting in digital (and ﬁ lm) photography, those that have been shooting for a while and needing a ‘refresher’ and anyone considering making the break from ﬁ lm to digital.

While there are plenty of courses that off er a range of diff erent formats, this is the fi rst to incorporate the considerable benefi ts of face-to-face classroom tuition with the advantages of having Internet backup. This also works well for your assignments because you can complete them at any time within the confi nes of the course and simply upload when you have the time. No longer are students hampered by having to be physically present in class to complete the course (although of course there are also tangible benefi ts to being in the classroom) and if you get stuck or have a problem with one of the assignments, you can ask the experts any time throughout the course.

Content: The Camera

Explore special in-camera eﬀ ects: Sepia Black-and-White Posterising/Solarising

Discuss use and benefi ts of multi-shot or burst mode Discuss fi ll fl ash use and limitations

Introduce the concept of interchangeable lenses and their uses. Stress the creative and technical limitations of point and shoots or integral lenses. Zoom lenses v’s ﬁ xed Normal Wide angle Telephoto

In the fourth and ﬁ nal week students will be able to lead the last half of the camera session with a question and answer session to ensure that basic concepts are understood and no information has been ‘missed’.

All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Let’s Get Started: Beginner’s Photography

In-camera Eﬀ ects In an attempt to value -add an already incredibly complex bit of machinery, camera manufacturers have added a range of special eﬀ ects capabilities to a number of camera models.

These eff ects are, for the most part, easily repeatable using your picture-editing software but they can also produce quite nice eff ects. The real beauty of digital photography is in the fact that you can bang away with a digital camera, experi- menting with a range of eff ects on the same subject and it costs no more than if you shot one picture.

These eﬀ ects include Sepia, Posterisa- tion and black-and-white .

Remember that these are quick ﬁ xes and although many results look great, you can further enhance the eﬀ ect, whatever it might be using the software that came with the camera.

At right: The lamp was actu- ally shot in colour but because it is almost black- and-white, I decided to shoot in monochrome mode - which produced quite a nice eff ect. Overleaf you’ll see the same version in Sepia (this works really well because it suits the subject matter nicely) and in Posterisation, an eff ect I fi nd a bit gimmicky.

02 Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Interchangeable Lenses Many people will tell you that the lens is the ‘heart’ of your camera and is therefore the most important part of the extreme magnifi cation these 10x, 12x and 15x lenses give, system. It records the picture so we should take care in you’ll fi nd it opens up an entirely new range of subject choosing the right lens. If it’s a point-and-shoot camera it’s matter that you could simply never get using a standard already a ‘done deal’ because the camera comes with the 3x zoom lens camera. lens attached! However “there are lenses, and then there are ‘lenses’”. Depth of fi eld We discussed in lesson two the eff ect of aperture change Until recently nearly all point-and-shoot cameras came on the amount of ‘stuff ’ we get in focus. If we increase the with a three times zoom lens as ‘standard’. Rarely did we aperture f4 to f11, we’ll signifi cantly increase the lens’s see anything off ered with greater magnifi cation because depth of fi eld, and therefore increase the amount of stuff it was too expensive to engineer. Over the past year in the foreground/background that comes out sharp. or so we have begun to see a range of digital cameras Conversely, if we reduce the aperture from a high number with much bigger magnifi cation lenses, in some cases to the lowest (i.e. from f22 to f2.8) we reduce the amount extending to a magnifi cation of 12x, and more! This is of stuff that appears sharp. quite a move because regular photographers can now buy a camera that comes fully-equipped with a lens any Bear in mind that this concept is also dependant on pro sports photographer would love to own. OK, some exactly where on the subject you focus. For example, if I stand four feet from a person and focus on their nose, shooting at f2.8 will produce a picture with sharp nose and probably some sharpness in the eyes but the area to the back of the head, and all of the background will be out of focus. Shoot another frame with an aperture of f11 and not only the person but a lot of the background will appear clear and sharp. That’s the depth of fi eld eff ect.

As a general rule, we use a high aperture number to get that all-in-one focus seen in typical landscape shots while you will ﬁ nd that photographers favour the latter technique for ‘isolating’ a subject from its background, typically in fashion, portrait and wedding photography.

Focal length What we haven’t discussed is the eff ect that a longer or ExtremeExtreme widewide-angle-angle lenseslenses,, like this CCanonanon 10-22mm 3.4- shorter focal length lens setting has on the amount of stuff 4.5 USM optic,optic, araree ggreatreat fun ttoo use: they can ‘‘grab’grab’ a lot of subjectsubject infinformationormation inintoto the picpictureture butbut,, if yyouou araree not ttoooo that you get in focus. For example, if we shoot a scene careful, they also produce signifi cant optical distortion. with a wide-angle lens (one that gets a lot of stuff into In this example, my group of people stand straight in the the picture) we have little or no trouble in maintaining centre of the shot, but lean out at an alarming angle at the everything pin-sharp in the frame. This is because, by their edges of the photo! nature, wide-angle lenses exhibit good depth of focus. of these lenses are not as ‘fast’ or quite as snappy as their $12,000 D-SLR counterparts, but in most cases, we’d certainly be hard-pushed to pick the diff erence between Uses for diff erent lens focal the results. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people who already own a digital camera is that the lengths common-or-garden 3x optical zoom lens is not powerful Ultra wide-angle – landscapes, interiors of houses, enough for most photographer’s requirements. To this boats, etc Wide-angle – landscapes, big group shots, weddings end, manufactures are now producing aff ordable cameras groups, kids in action with 5x, 6x and 7x zoom lenses. You can even get cameras Small or ‘short’ telephoto – portraits, wildlife, some with 10x, 12x and 15x zoom lenses! These are quite architecture extraordinary because you can then travel with a camera Medium telephoto – portraits, weddings, fashion, that has pretty much all the lenses you ever wanted to sports, nature, some architecture Ultra-telephoto or long tele – wildlife, astronomy, own, in one camera body. Your camera bag is suddenly fashion, sports, special FX lighter and considerably easier to carry. Because of the

05 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Telephoto Lenses

Big lenses: advantages The main advantage of having a powerful magnifi cation zoom lens are: - Tremendous subject magnifi cation - A range of subject possibilities previously unavailable with a small (shorter) zoom lens - Control over specifi c focusing eff ects in front of, and behind the subject - Carrying all your lenses in one camera means it’s easy to handle, small and light to pack - Never have to worry about getting dust inside the camera when you change lenses (because it’s a fi xed lens!)

Big lenses: disadvantages The main disadvantage of having a powerful magniﬁ cation zoom lens include: - Because the subject can be hugely magniﬁ ed, there’s a strong possibility of camera shake! (If you have an Image Stabilser lens, this is not so much of an issue...). - 10/12/15x zoom lens cameras are larger than their 3/4/5/6x zoom lens counterparts (but not by much).

What’s a typical wide-angle lens? Anything with a focal length of less than ‘35mm’ (in the old 35mm language, or ‘7.4mm’ in digital measurements) is regarded as being a wide-angle lens. Because of engineering diﬃ culties (and therefore cost), most digital cameras don’t have really good wide-angle, although this is changing with new technology developments.

Conversely, a telephoto lens has a very shallow depth of focus. In practice this means that if we use a wide-angle lens to take a picture of a small family group in a country scene, we’ll not only frame the family group easily but be able to get most of the landscape in the background in the picture as well. What’s more, because wide-angle lenses have good depth of ﬁ eld characteristics, even if the aperture is only set to f5.6, almost everything from the kids sitting on the ground at your feet to the hills in the background will appear pin-sharp.

If we swap the lens for a telephoto focal length (do this simply be zooming in or magnifying the image), we’ll clearly begin to exclude details in the frame because it is being magnifi ed. However, if the aperture is set the same as the wide-angle setting, you’d be unlikely to much sharp, other than what is directly focused on. The main diff erence then between a wide angle and a telephoto focal length is the depth of fi eld, the amount of stuff that you can include in the frame (also called the angle of view, and the associated change in perspective.

So, you can appreciate why landscape photographers A big lens is one the magniﬁ es the image, or brings the subject closer typically prefer wide and ‘super’ wide-angle lenses. They so that it’s almost in your face. Increasingly these come as ‘standard’ get a huge amount of information into the frame and with point-and-shoot cameras (Above: Royal Palace, Bangkok, 12x all of it is pin sharp! Portrait photographers use medium Panasonic Lumix FZ30)

06 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Interchangeable Lenses telephoto focal lengths because they can both isolate their result. The only option available is to increase the ISO to subject from what’s happening all around them using the compensate but this is both fi ddly and might lead to your zoom magnifi cation eff ect while signifi cantly compressing getting digital noise, something no one wants. perspective in the background to give that amazing ‘out of focus’ background look to the shot. Pro photographers don’t like being in this position so buy lenses that have a continuous maximum aperture, ”The greater the lens magnifi cation (i.e. the ‘longer’ its typically f2.8. What this means is, if you’re in the same focal length), the shallower its depth of fi eld and the situation and you zoom in to the subject, the aperture greater the fuzziness in its foreground and background remains constant, and therefore the depth of fi eld remains details”. as planned. Expect to pay a premium for lenses with To bring nature up close, wildlife shooters prefer very continuous maximum apertures powerful magnifi cation telephoto lenses on their D-SLR cameras. However, in most cases these might be what’s If you have a point-and-shoot camera, called a fi xed focal length lens, it’s not a zoom lens. It’s you cannot zoom in and take a picture main disadvantage is that it stays at the one magnifi cation at the same time. However, you can but the overriding advantage, again because of its still get some great results simply by design, is that it has a very wide maximum aperture. For pressing the shutter and physically example, it might be a 300mm telephoto lens with a movingmoving towardstowards the lighlightt or evevenen bbyy rrotatingotating the maximum aperture of f2.8, while a standard 100-300mm cameracamera while it is eexposingxposing ttoo get outlandish, swirswirlyly telephoto zoom would have a variable maximum aperture patternspatterns in the photphoto.o. IIt’st’s ggreatreat fun ttoo do and can ofoftenten of f4.5 - 5.6. What this means is that, with the zoom lens produce brilliant, colourful, totally abstract results. magnifying at the full 300mm setting, the maximum Ten years ago there used to be a ferocious argument aperture possible is only f5.6, two f-stops ‘slower’ than f2.8. running about which kind of lens produce the best quality: the older-style fi xed focal length lens versus the newer, In practice this means that if the 100-300mm zoom gives a fl ashier, adjustable focal length lenses called zoom lenses. light reading of f5.6 @ 1/60s, you are going to get camera shake! Using the fi xed focal length lens allows you to add It was either ‘wide-angle’, ‘short two extra clicks wider on the aperture (from f5.6 to f2.8) telephoto’, ‘standard telephoto’, ‘super which means that, reciprocally, you can make the shutter wide-angle’ or ‘super telephoto’. A two clicks faster (i.e. from 1/60s to 1/250s) and therefore zoom lens can pack into its larger get a sharp picture because there’s no longer any camera and heavier body a range of these shake. There’s one more disadvantage to the argument. diff erent focal lengths in one smooth While the standard (Canon) EF100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM zooming motion. This has obvious is an aff ordable AUS$700, you really pay for that extra little advantagesadvantages because yyouou only need ttoo carcarryry one bit in terms of lens technology. The Canon EF300mm f2.8L (zoom)(zoom) lens ratherrather than ffourour or fi veve standardstandard fi xedxed USM costs about AUS$9,900! (Note that fi xed focal length focalfocal length lenses.lenses. A ffewew yyearsears ago their qualitqualityy prprobablyobably lenses are really only available for D-SLR cameras). was not quite as good as fi xed focal length lenses but I challenge anyone now to show me the diff erence! Variable aperture (D-SLR)

One of the most confusing features in a zoom lens is its variable aperture. Huh? If you have already framed and Lens Nomenclature chosen an aperture/shutter speed combination for the Ultra-wide angle lens – ‘fi sheye’, ‘super wide-angle’ subject, but at the last moment decide to zoom in to – extreme wide-angle often produces signifi cant get less background in the frame, you’ll notice that the optical distortion. If using a tripod, care must be taken aperture also changes. This happens because, in zooming not to include the tripod legs in the picture! in (or out), you’re changing the position of the glass Wide angle – ‘short lens’ – standard focal length on elements within the lens barrel and this has an impact on most digital cameras. OK for small groups, interiors, etc the amount of light allowed to pass into the camera, thus Standard telephoto – ‘big lens’ – ideal for general changing the aperture. distance work Ultra-telephoto – ‘big lens’ – specialised and very Most people might never even notice this happening, but expensive! it can be most annoying if you have specifi cally chosen Focal length – actual measurement between sensor that aperture to create a specifi c depth of fi eld eff ect. position and front glass element. Used to describe the In dim lighting it might also impact on your ability to magnifi cation power of the lens. i.e. a ‘300mm’ lens freeze camera movement and you end up with a blurry magnifi es twice as much as a ‘150mm’ lens.

07 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Telephoto Lenses

A long or telephoto lens is ideal for ‘pull- ing’ the subject matter to you, enlarging the subject massively to make to feel as though you were really there. (Canon 300mm telepho- to lens)

Below: It ‘s also good for compressing perspective, as you see in this lower landscape image (Canon 300mm telepho- to lens)

All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Wide angle Lenses Wide angleAll lenses text and are images used copyright for capturing Robin Nichols a lot of and subject Gulf Photo detail Plus in the one shot. In this example I shot at 10mm focal length to get a sweeping view of the hotel interior, (Canon 10-22mm Wide angle lens) Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Macro Lenses Macro lenses are specifi cally designed to let you get really close to a small object to produce awesome depth of fi eld eff ects as you see here and on the next page. (Nikkor 60mm Macro lens, set to its maximum 10 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photoaperture Plus of f2.8). Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Lenses and Depth of Field

f11 f2.8 f2.8 Depth of Field, the physical amount of ‘stuff ’ that you can get to be clear in the shot is controlled by the aperture set in the lens. The higher the f-stop or aperture number, the more stuff you get clear in the resulting image. Point-and- shoot cameras are somewhat restricted by only having a typical aperture range of f2.8 - f11, or thereabouts, while the more advanced D-SLR cameras have a much wider range, typically from about f2.8 - f32. However, while this all sounds really neat, bear in mind that where in the subject you focus is also important. If you shoot a portrait at f2.8 and don’t focus precisely on the subject’s eyes, you probably won’t get them sharp. Change the aperture to f11, and you’ll get them sharp. Photographers use this shallow focus eff ect to their advantage to deliberately f11 throw stuff out of focus.

11 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Using Fill-fl ash Here’s a straight ‘grab’ shot. I had no idea if this guy was going to move so, not wanting to lose the op- portunity, I pointed and shot. The result wasn’t bad but, technically-speaking, the shadow on the face is a bit heavy. Apart from getting him to move into another spot with better lighting, the quickest solution is to use fi ll-fl ash. I made sure it was set to force fl ash (in case the camera decided not to fl ash thinking there was suffi cient light - which there was, almost) and fi red off another shot. Middle: I thought that this was a huge improvement but it’s now a bit over- bright. This is something that you will fi ne will hap- pen with ALL cameras. Generally they produce too much light and therefore the face ends up looking too bright and there’s little or no 3D modelling (i.e. the face appears fl at). To fi x this, I pressed the Menu button and accessed the Flash Exposure Compensa- tion feature (I wish this was more accessible) and set the camera to shoot at minus one f-stop. Far Right: I think this is the perfect result because the face is lighter, it’s a much better balance with the ambient light and looks 100% more natural.

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Combining Flash with ambient light Here’s a classic situation where fl ash fails the photographer completely! The left-hand version was snapped using a state of the art Canon point-and- shoot IXUS 800IS. Brilliant little camera but, like pretty much all point-and-shoot cameras, point it at a very dark subject, at night, and it tries to illumi- nate the entire scene, from front to back. Because light falls off (gets darker) at a rate of one to four (i.e light measured one metre from the source is only a quarter the brightness) we get a very bright foreground and a very dark background, even if it’s a few metres back into the shot. How can we quickly and simply fi x this?

The IXUS has several fl ash modes including this Slow Syncro mode. This fi rst the fl ash automati- cally but, unlike other modes which combines fl ash with a fl ash shutter speed to ensure a pin sharp result, slow syncro extends the time that the shutter stays open considerably thus ensuring it ‘registers’ the ambient light, if there is any. This is similar to the Night Portrait mode light. The only disadvantage here is that you must hold the camera steady (i.e. use a tripod) and the subject has to be relatively static!

Right: Even though we have used a small amount of ﬂ ash, there is little or no overexpo- sure and the ambient light coming from inside the house creates a lovely warm feel to the colour. The IXUS 800IS also has a the advantage of using an image stabilisation technology so you can shoot this sort of picture with no tripod providing that you are careful and hold everything steady.

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The ‘right’ light Making good pictures is all about light. If the light is your subjects, very dark or featureless areas, over- poor then you’ll not get a great result. Only when the exposed highlights and not much else. If the sun is subject matter is so compelling is there a chance that making hard shadows on a wall, for example, this is the light takes a back step - in say political or conflict- the sort of thing that looks good at midday (because type photography, for example. of the contrast) but for the majority of your work, stick to the ends of the day. Great landscape photographers learn where the best places are, how the light falls in a specific location. For portraits this is also very true, although if you Many even go to the effort of looking up tides, sun- have control over the subject you can get them to set times, position of the sun relative to the subject stand in the shade to avoid squinting and harsh and so on. There’s no such thing as having too much reflections. information in this respect! Another good time to shoot is just after the sun has What’s the best time of day to shoot? The simple gone down. Very often this is the ideal time for night answer to this is when the light is good. As a general shots because at this time there remains some tone rule photographers like to be shooting in the early or colour in the sky so the result is not city lights with morning and later in the day to catch the light when a huge expanse of black nothingness... it is at its softest. Shooting is possible in the middle of the day but be prepared to get strong shadows in Early morning side-lighting makes for a great effect in this street scene (Panasonic FZ30, 400mm lens focal length).

All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Landscape lighting Landscapes workAll text best and imageswhen copyrightshot at dawn Robin Nicholsor at dusk and Gulfwhen Photo the Plus light is soft and it’s low contrast. You can shoot at midday but you will encounter contrast and severe detail loss issues. If it’s too contrasty, try and return at another time... Lesson Four www.gulfphotoplus.com

Strong midday light provided the basis for this study of shadows along a wall in China. Because we are only dealing with monotones, the high contrast works to the photographer’s beneﬁ t.

Below: Early evening is always a great time to catch a sunset, especially if the sun has just gone down. Wait a few minutes for the afterglow. It’s often the best time of day,..

Final Assignment: Produce selection of ﬁ nal ’improved’ shots for exhibition and uploading to Robin’s web area.

16 All text and images copyright Robin Nichols and Gulf Photo Plus