Thursday, February 10, 2011

Lights, Camera, Snapshot.....

La, this one is for you!


What do you need to make photograph????

I was asked this question in class last week.  I yelled out "a subject"!  Needless to say, I was loud and wrong.  The answer she was simply looking for was light and exposure.  Duhhhh.....  This made perfect sense.  Wikipedia (the mostly reliable internet source for fact checking according to Michael Scott) defines a photograph as an image created by light falling onto a light sensitive surface.  A digital camera, is the most familiar and practical way for us to produce a photograph.

There are three ways for you to control the amount of light you let into our camera:

ISO
Shutter Speed
F-Stop/Aperture


Lets talk ISO

Not that you need to know this, but ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization.  I do not now why it is not IOS, but it isn't.  ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor to light.  I simply pick my ISO based on how bright or dark my scene looks.  My ISO choices include: AUTO, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200.  An ISO of 100 lets in the least amount of light and 3200 lets in most light.  In other words,  if it's bright and sunny use 100 (you don't need extra light), for overcast days use 200 to 400, if you are in a very poorly lit area or it's dark  (you need more light) use 1600 to 3200.  However, we were instructed to never set the ISO above 400 because your photograph will have more "digital noise" (grainy look) at 800 and above.

Here is some additional information about ISO

http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/camera/settings/iso.shtml

http://www.cameratown.com/guides/iso.cfm

Tune in tomorrow to learn all or only what I know about shutter speed.

Wait, Wait Wait.........

Before you go, check out my photo of the day!

Feb 10, 2011
41/365
I Stand Alone


I used a really bright, full color spectrum light bulb and pointed it directly at my subject.  Therefore, I used an ISO of 100 because my scene was so bright that I did't need any extra light.
It was too cold to shoot outside today, so I decided to use the flowers I bought two days ago for my class project.  I tried to shoot the flowers bundled together, but found it boring.  I noticed this lonely flower bud all by itself hanging over the edge of the vase.  I thought it would be more interesting, so I took many pictures from different angles.  I even changed the angle of the lighting a few times.  I love the color, lighting, and background of this photo.

                                                                                                             Aasiya




2 comments:

La said...

Perfectly stated!! I just had an 'a-ha' moment. I took some family pics over the holidays in Colorado. We were outside and it was effin freezing. The lighting was terrible so I bumped up my ISO...to 1200!@&? The pics had so much digital noise they were basically useless even after editing. Now I know why.

Your explanations are awesome...keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

haha, love the Michael Scott quote! What a smart guy. ;) Beautiful photo!