Articles tagged with: exposure
Simple Yet Effective On-Location Portrait Lighting Setup
I often get asked to do portrait shots during local charity events and getting a simple lighting setup is the key to having a successful event. If you just use on-camera flash you will get …
Getting Flash Exposure Fast
In this episode of our Friday Photo Tips I answer a common question about how to get flash exposure dialed in quickly when using manual strobes. This will work whether you are using manual speedlights …
Friday Photo Tip – Understanding ISO
The ISO setting of your camera is used to adjust the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor, allowing you to shoot in darker situations than normal. There is a trade-off as increasing the ISO setting will …
Classic Portrait Lighting Styles Part I
As we continue our series on portrait lighting we now need to look at the different types of classic portrait lighting and see the effect it has on someone so we can decided when to use each type. By choosing the proper lighting for a particular person, we can help them to look their best by making them appear to be thinner or wider or to accent or minimize certain facial features.
Photography Basics: Beginners Guide to Aperture
As part of our Photography Basics series we talked about Exposure already and this time we are going to cover the mystery of aperture. Aperture is probably the least understood setting of everything on your camera. While shutter settings are very easy to understand, to long of a shutter speed and you will get blurring, pretty simple stuff. Same with ISO, too high of ISO and you introduce digital noise. But learning how to use aperture properly can kill brain cells faster than a frat house kegger party.
Understanding Light Stops
One thing that seems to baffle a lot of new photographers is understanding the term “stop” as it pertains to a measurement of light. We see this word used over and over with regards to shutter speed, aperture, film speed, filters, lighting, and other ways that light is used. You may hear a phrase like “you should expose one side of face 1-2 stops under the lit side of the face and expose the background 1 stop under the main subject”. For many people that’s about like asking them to solve a complex calculus problem.
How to Calculate Depth of Field
A big stumbling block for many new camera users is how to figure out how much depth of field a particular image will have it in given the focal length of the lens, the aperture used and the distance to the subject. Trust me on this, trying to do the algebra to figure it out is not something most people want to try to do in their heads. In this article we will cover all of the math involved and then make it real easy with an Excel spreadsheet and some links to some free applications to help you out.
Beginner’s Guide to Exposure (Kindle eBook)
Many people told me that they needed a very simple guide to help them get started with understanding exposure. This prompted me to write The Beginner’s Guide to Exposure. This eBook explains in extremely simple, easy …
All About Light eBook
The All About Light eBook is now available! With over 50 pages of information, All About Light is one of the most comprehensive eBooks available. With a low price of only $4.99, All About Light is an excellent value. This book …
Why You Need a Neutral Density Filter
Neutral Density filters can be a photographers best friend when you want to get creative with depth of field or long exposures but there is simply too much ambient light. Take for example that gorgeous …
Camera 101 – Understanding the mode dial
The latest cameras can often do an amazing job right out of the box but to really take creative control over your images you will want to learn about some of the other modes your …
RAW vs. JPEG – Deciding which is best for you
Yes, RAW vs. JPEG, the seemingly endless debate, almost as bad as Mac vs. PC or Film vs. Digital and people have been asking me to write up an article on this based on my opinion and experience and I have really put this article off for a long time as I wanted to be as unbiased in how I write this given that this is a very biased topic.
How to: Use long exposures for interesting shots
Using a long exposure can enable some really interesting shots that can convey motion. What happens during a long exposure shot is that the shutter remains open for a long period of time which allows …
Video Basics for Photographers
Let’s face it, video is coming on strong and is available in almost all new cameras. The “to shoot video” or “not to shoot video” has created almost as much dissension between photographers as RAW vs JPEG …
Using a Light Meter for Proper Exposure
I have heard the phrase “I don’t need no stinking light meter†more times than I can count, your LCD display and histogram are all you need for a perfect exposure right? Would you be surprised if I told you that your camera was lying to you? We first need to know why our LCD and histogram is wrong before we can believe that using a light meter will be of benefit.
Photo Project 24 2011 – A Look Back
Chris Diset and Kerry Garrison take a look back at Photo Project 24 2011 and discuss what the project was about, some of the challenges of the project, and how the project has changed their …
Mastering Your Flash 101 – High Speed Sync
Every once in a while we dredge up a classic post from the past. One of the most popular posts ever was this one on using high speed sync (fp sync on Nikons).
One of my …
GoCast #4 – Learning your gear
In this GoCast episode Kerry Garrison talks about learning your gear inside and out and why this is important. Kerry talks about why you should strive to learn how to use your camera and flash …
