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 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 wide-anglewide-angle lenses,lenses, like this CanonCanon 10-22mm 3.4- shorter focal length lens setting has on the amount of stuff 4.5 USM optic,optic, araree greatgreat fun toto use: they can ‘grab’‘grab’ a lot of subjectsubject informationinformation intointo the picturepicture butbut,, if youyou araree not tootoo 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.

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