Core Concepts
SD Cards = Your Film Always turn off your camera before removing! First thing, format your card (erases card)
Formatting your card Menu Button Top Wheel To Wrench 1 Back Wheel to Format Card Set button Back Wheel to OK Set button
Drive Modes When and how many photos taken when push shutter From left to right: single, hi-speed continuous, low-speed continuous, silent single, silent continuous, 2 second timer, 10 second timer
Set your drive to Single
Focus The point at which the lens elements project the image for enlargement Your lens is a bunch of glass elements working in concert to project an enlarged image to the sensor. Physics of light comes into play, which is why we have:
Depth of Field The area of the image considered to be acceptably sharp
Shallow Depth of Field Wide Depth of Field
Set your focus drive to single Press AF button Top Wheel Make this area read One Shot
Set your AF area to Manual AF Selection Press AF area selection symbol button and look thru viewfinder Press that button until you have the top one select (it is the leftmost one in viewfinder)
Set your AF Point to Center Press AF point selection button Look Thru viewfinder and use top and back wheels to get the center dot highlighted
Focus and Recompose Until you re more comfortable using the AF selection button on the fly, use the focus and recompose method
Manual Focus You can switch your lens to manual and have to focus on your own. Good for situations where your camera is hunting for focus.
Manually focus your lens On the lens, switch from AF to MF Use the focus ring on the lens (the one closer to far end, not the zoom ring!) SWITCH IT BACK TO AUTO FOR NOW!!
Metering Measuring the amount of light to let onto the sensor for a correct exposure Exposure?
What is Exposure? Simple Answer: Amount of light captured More Complex Answer: The values produced based on the amount of light captured reflecting from surfaces of an object
How do we see & capture values and colors (light)? Electromagnetic Radiation Waves (and particles) White light (human perception spectrum: ROYGBIV) Some wavelengths absorbed as heat The ones that reflect are what we see/capture
How Do We Control Exposure? Each of these handles not only a technical aspect of photography, but an aesthetic one!
Aperture The opening of the lens (at back of lens) Measured in F-stops Larger lets in more light - described as smaller number Smaller lets in less light - described as larger number
Aperture controls depth of field
Shutter Speed How long light is let onto your sensor Described in fractions of a second (or in seconds) Less time = less light, more time = more light Your cameras have 30 to 8000 which really means 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second
Shutter speed controls freeze and blur
The Reciprocal Nature of Aperture & Shutter Speed ¼ @ f22 is the same luminosity (exposure) as 1/125 @ f2.8, both can be correct How? Why use one over the other?
Commit whole stops to memory F1.4, f1.8, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32 1s, ½, ¼, ⅛, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 Your camera can do ⅓ stops between whole values
Zone System Values of light broken up discretely and mapped to what a device can capture - dynamic range Refer to each zone as a stop This will be important to understand when we talk about histograms
Dynamic Range The range of values a device can capture Eye: 10 14 stops SLR: 8 11 stops Point & Shoot: 5 7 stops
What is Correct Exposure?
Photograph: Sergey Ponomarev/New York Times
Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP
Exposure is 1 part technical and 1 part creative
ISO How sensitive your camera sensor is to light High ISO = More Sensitive, Low ISO = Less Sensitive High ISO = More Grain, Low ISO = Less Grain High ISOs are getting better and better Why even change ISO?
Let s figure out how to change ISO Press ISO button Top Wheel For assignment 1 you ll use A (auto) for most and then 100, 800, and 3200).
How do we know how much light to let in (what aperture and shutter speed for our ISO)? Using a light meter/metering
Incident Doesn t matter value of object, Measures the intensity of the light falling on meter Reflected Measures the reflected value (for middle gray/18% gray) How much exposure would you give this surface to make it middle gray in the photograph Your camera has a reflected meter
Your Camera s Metering Modes Evaluative Analyzes whole frame Spot Based on center 2.8% of frame Partial Based on center 6.5% of frame Center-Weighted Based on entire scene with emphasis on center of frame
Let s use Partial Metering Mode Press Meter Mode button Top Wheel Set to Partial Metering
Why partial mode over evaluative? Simply put, your camera will get it sometimes wrong and it s so you can learn to control and choose exposure. Also, because reflected meters are more easily fooled than incident (we ll explore this later)
Let s play with your meter & exposure Put your ISO on 800 (auto screws things up a little) Change your shooting mode to M Look thru viewfinder Top Wheel = Shutter Speed Back Wheel = Aperture
Exposure Bar: Center dot means the camera thinks it is correct exposure Aim at a scene Use aperture and shutter to get a correct exposure Change aperture, how do you have to change shutter?
Exposure Lock If your camera is getting fooled (by something like a back light, white or black subject, etc), you can lock your exposure on something you know is about 18% gray (grass, something in normal light) Press exposure lock (*) button
Let s stop and talk about holding a camera and why you should only use the viewfinder
Shooting Modes You won t need to shoot in Manual much for this class But you can t shoot in auto modes either Enter: Aperture Priority (Av) - you choose aperture camera chooses shutter speed Shutter Priority (Tv) - you choose shutter speed camera chooses aperture
White Balance Light has color temperature, we ll explore more about later Set to Auto White Balance
Set white balance to auto Method 1 Menu Button Top Wheel To Camera Setting 3 In this menu, select the symbol with AWB. Select with set button Method 2 Press Q button on back of camera Find this area using the toggle buttons (built into back wheel) Use back wheel to toggle thru values until the AWB symbol
Image Quality: Raw vs. Jpg Raw = all the information your camera makes at exposure, needs to be developed and converted into a printable format. Gives lots of latitude. Jpg = the camera makes irreversible development decisions
Set image quality to RAW Method 1 Menu Button Top Wheel To Camera Setting 1, select Image quality Top wheel select RAW Back wheel put jpg on Find this area using the toggle buttons (built into back wheel) Use back wheel to toggle thru values until set to RAW Method 2 Press Q button on back of camera
Lenses First skill - changing a lens
Focal Length Literally a measurement from the point of convergence to sensor So what?
Focal length controls angle of view Ultra/Extreme Wide = 14mm-24mm Wide = 24mm-35mm Standard = 35mm-70mm Short Telephoto= 70mm-105mm Telephoto = 105mm+
Focal length is not just to get closer to or further from a subject!!!!
Focal Compression
Focal length also has an effect on depth of field The higher the focal length, the shallower the depth of field
To make matters more confusing The Focal Length on your lens is not the effective focal length for your camera
Crop Factor Your camera is 1.6x crop factor So your lens is effectively a 28.8mm - 216mm
Zoom vs. Prime Zoom Multiple focal lengths May or may not have same f stops across focal lengths Prime One focal lengths Sharper Generally can have a wider aperture
Last thing Disable being able to shoot without an SD card Menu > Camera Setting 1 > Release Shutter Without Card > Disable