NEEPS

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

White Balance.

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. This is particulary important when taking pictures indoors using flourescent lighting for example.

Most digital cameras have a white balance setting which is usually set to auto, but you can get some great results if you play around with the settings. The camera mode dial should usually be set to Program/Manual or ISO. My 'point and shoot' camera is usually set to Program mode, Flash (W/B) and Rich (Colour mode)

Most cameras have;

Daylight
Cloudy
Flourescent
Incandescant
Flash
Auto

The flash setting, if used outside without flash, can be used to give a warm effect, especially if used with the colour options set to Rich.

The Incandescent setting can be used to cool down a warm scene.

Auto

Daylight

Cloudy

Flourescent

Incandescent

Flash

There are only subtle differences between the first three photos. As these were taken on an overcast day, the 'cloudy' setting gives the most realistic WB, but not necessarily the best.
_________________
Washable san-pro

www.moonrabbits.co.uk

Free P&P to all NEEPS! members

wildgarlic · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks so much for posting this Mark - really very helpful. It's surprising to see the difference it makes.
_________________
Neeps Flickr Group - check out some of the fab photos from other Neepsters and share some of your own.

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

Using Focus Lock

Most expensive cameras have focus lock, whereby you press the shutter halfway down to focus on a scene, then press the focus lock button to hold the focus. The camera can then be moved around without changing focus.
Often used for fast action sports photography so you can focus on a section of race track for example, and once the subject comes into view pressing the shutter will take the picture rather than focusing first which could cause you to miss the picture you want.

The best way to do this on smaller cameras is to press the shutter halway to focus on your subject, hold it there then move the camera to where you want to take the shot.

There are a couple of advantages to using this feature.

1. Say you want to take a portrait of someone and you want the background blurry and the person in focus. Easy, just set the camera to portrait mode, line the person up dead centre and shoot (pic 1). Ok, but you don't want the person in the centre as that's boring, you want them on one side, looking across to the other. Now when you take the shot, the person is blurry and the tree 2 miles away is in focus (pic2). So, focus the camera on the person, press the shutter halfway down to focus, then move the camera to the new position. The focus will remain on the person and the background will be out of focus (pic3).

2. You want to take a picture of a tree that is in the shade. So, you line up the tree & press the shutter. The only problem now is that the tree is perfectly exposed but the sky (being brighter) is over exposed. Next, line up the sky in you viewfinder and press the shutter halfway down. This will give the correct exposure for the sky. Hold the shutter button halfway and move down to the tree & press the shutter. This will now give you a picture that will have a perfectly exposed sky and the tree in silhouette. If you want both the sky and tree perfectly exposed that's not always possible if the sky is bright or the tree is in dark shade. Using the flash (fill-in setting if you've got it) will give the tree more light.

1.

2.

3.

Another great tip here is to ALWAYS send your model/subject out into the rain whilst you stay in the dry (use the 'expensive gear' excuse) no matter how much they protest

_________________
Washable san-pro

www.moonrabbits.co.uk

Free P&P to all NEEPS! members

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

wildgarlic · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:26 am Post subject:

Thanks Mark... may I also commend your model for having a smile despite the rain...

Tips... well I'm still learning... but one thing I've learnt is not to be afraid to break the rules. Experiment... especially if it's a digital camera you are using. If it doesn't turn out right then try again.
_________________
Neeps Flickr Group - check out some of the fab photos from other Neepsters and share some of your own.

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

Diana · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject:

Aperture Priority / Depth of field

If you have and "AV" on your camera mode dial, this is the Aperture priority. Basically it can be used to adjust the aperture (f/number) to increase or decrease the depth of field of an image.

The really confusing thing about apertures, is the larger the f/number the smaller the aperture.

The smaller the aperture hole (larger the f/number) the broader the depth of field (i.e. more of the foreground and background will be in focus).

The larger the aperture hole (smaller the f/number) the narrower the depth of field (i.e. less of the foreground and background will be in focus).

A few examples:
With each example the only thing that has changed is the aperture (and, as I wasn't using a tripod, the angle on some of them :oops: ).

There have been no post camera alterations to any of these images (i.e. no Photoshop cheating).
_________________
Tumuli Design
The Blog

Being looby keeps me sane

wildgarlic · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 5:02 pm Post subject:

Very interesting Diana... I've got A on my camera which may be the same thing (will experiment and see)

I've only just found out about the f stop values and the depth of field thing. It's great fun to experiment by taking the same photo and changing the f stop etc and compare the results.
_________________
Neeps Flickr Group - check out some of the fab photos from other Neepsters and share some of your own.

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

There are some great tips HERE. I have got a couple of very good books by Tom Ang, he shows you how to get great pictures using the most basic of equipment.
_________________
Washable san-pro

www.moonrabbits.co.uk

Free P&P to all NEEPS! members

MarkA · Neepster Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Mintlaw

BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

The best way to get great black and white photos from a film camera is to use a red filter.

The same effect can be used when using digital but can work out expensive. A great way to overcome this is by using an editing program (photoshop/Paint etc).

Load up a colour photo into your software and use the 'add filter' option to overlay a red filter. Then simply convert to black and white. It may be neccessary to adjust the brightness & contrast settings as the filter can darken the image, depending on how deep the red used. By adjusting the amount of red you will see varying results and it is also worth playing around with different colour filters to see the effect they have. Blue, yellow and green can also work well.
_________________
Washable san-pro

www.moonrabbits.co.uk

Free P&P to all NEEPS! members