Shutter Speed

1/250 ISO 800 by: photographylife

Shutter Speed is the amount of time the shutter is open to let the light in. It is one of the three factors that determines proper exposure. It is measured in seconds, usually fractions of seconds (ei. 1/60 means that the shutter will close 1/60th of a second).

Shutter speed will usually double-- 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/120, etc. Keep in mind that as you increase shutter speed by one step, make sure that you decrease aperture by one stop as well to give you a similar exposure. Increasing shutter speed without without changing aperture will result to a dark picture because the amount of light the comes inside the camera is very short.

There's is a "B" (bulb) option for shutter speed, it means that as long as you hold the shutter down, the shutter will remain open until you release it. The Bulb option is basically having your own shutter speed, but not a lot of photographers use that because it results to a blurry picture.

Tips:
- When taking a picture less than 1/30, make sure to use a tripod to avoid blurry pictures
- When taking pictures with city lights, I recommend taking pictures at night. It'll give you the perfect color contrasts. Use a low shutter speed (1/8 or lower) and decrease the aperture to the lowest as possible. Bring a tripod.
- Use a fast shutter speed when taking action pictures to freeze the moment.
- If you want to take pictures of the car lights at night, make sure that the shutter speed is at 30" (30 sec). Don't touch the camera because it will ruin the picture. You need to be really patient when taking a picture like that. It'll result to this:

By: Wallpapervortex

Aperture

By: Jiat Photography

If you want to start using Manual mode, you need to learn the basics and how they work. The three most important once are:

- Aperture

- Shutter Speed

- ISO

Before proceeding to Manual mode, you need to fully understand how these three works because they are very connected with each other. 

Aperture is basically known as "the opening of the lens". It is a device that controls how much light goes into the camera.

As you can see on the picture, different aperture has different effects on the picture. The higher aperture means that the opening of the lens is going to be really small. The smaller the aperture means that the opening of the lens is going to be really big. The lighting will affect the picture.

Some camera lenses doesn't go up to f/1.4, sometimes it only stops at f/4. Macro lenses has the ability to go up to f/1.4 because you usually use apertures that small when taking close up pictures.

Tips:

- When it's dark outside, use a a very small aperture because you have limited lighting. You would want as much light as possible in your camera.

- When it's sunny and bright outside, stay away from small aperture. Use at least f/4 and above preferably.

Cyrano Loves Roxanne

Ailís Henry as Roxanne

Taking a picture during a play is difficult especially when you are in a room with limited lighting and people are always moving around.

Recently we had a school play titled Cyrano Loves Roxanne, it was a two-act comedy parody of the play Cyrano de Bergerac. I took the opportunity to go see the play twice and took pictures throughout the play.

What I used:
- 55-250mm lens
- Continuous mode, instead of single shot
- Shutter Speed: 1/250
- Aperture: f4.5
- ISO: 800

Tips:
- make sure that you have a zoom lens, it is a must. Even if you are seating close to the stage, it will capture every detail and facial expressions of the characters.
- use a high shutter speed, to avoid blurriness when they are moving.
- your finger should never leave the shutter and put your camera in continuous mode because you don't want to miss those funny moments.
- use ISO 800, because you don't want your picture to look dark and very bright. 800 is perfect.
- play with the settings to get different effects.

Photo Shoot

Vanessa Kolthof 

This is my friend Vanessa. My mentor Hannah and I did a photo shoot of her yesterday. We went to the bike trail, train tracks, and the lake by our houses to take pictures.

Settings I used:
- 50mm macro lens
- 1/1000 (shutter speed)
- f2.2
- ISO 100

I really like this picture, most especially because I have not done any touch up to the picture. I had a total of 293 pictures on my camera by the end of the photo shoot. I did a lot of test shots, and some of them turned out really good but some didn't.

Hannah taught me some shortcuts that she learnt from her friend with the DSLR camera. Sometimes adjusting your camera settings takes time because there are too many buttons that you have to press. We take our eyes away from the view finder and look at the screen when we adjust the settings, and we miss special moments because we were not ready. So I am going to share some shortcuts that Hannah taught me.

 1. Shutter Speed: scroll main dial. While you are scrolling the main dial and looking at the view finder, you will notice that the shutter speed in your view finder, which is found at the bottom left, changes.







2. Aperture: press the AV button and scroll main dial (do not let go of the AV button while scrolling). The aperture number is found right beside the shutter speed.

 3. Focal Point: press the zoom button and scroll main dial (do not let go of the zoom button while scrolling). While you are doing this, you will notice a red dot in your view finder. That red dot is your focal point, it is like a target. Wherever you decide to put your focal point, that is where your camera will focus on. If all the red dots are blinking that means you are on auto focus.






4. ISO: press ISO button and scroll main dial (do not let go of the ISO button while scrolling). The ISO number is located on the bottom right corner.









Tips:
- Play with the shutter speed
- If it is really sunny out, use a very low ISO
- If you want to do a photo shoot, plan ahead (including outfits and poses)
- Take as much pictures as you can

Quebec City

Quebec City, Canada, November 2012 (CC-BY-NC-ND)

by: Gina Trapani

This picture was taken during our French trip to Quebec City. This is what the city looks like from the top. When I took this picture, my camera setting was in Manual mode, but before proceeding to manual mode I suggest that you learn about the other settings as well. Most photographers use manual mode because it gives them the freedom to adjust their own aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to create a dramatic effect on the picture, and also to produce a stunning photo. Just click the link to know more about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. *Remember* Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO are connected with each other.

Settings I used:
- Manual mode
- f7-f9 (aperture)
- 1/120 (shutter speed)
- ISO 400

As you could see, the picture that I took is edited. I used a filter for it to look more dramatic, but one of my biggest goal for this project is to take a picture without editing it. The biggest mistake that I did on this picture is that I didn't save the original picture. Another thing, when you take pictures and you would like to post them, put a watermark on your picture. Watermark is just anything that you want to put on your picture, for example your name, a logo, etc. It prevents other people from stealing your photos.

Tips:
- get to know your camera
- play around with other settings
- always save the original picture
- put a watermark before posting
- experiment and have fun

Welcome To My Blog

       This blog is for a project that we are doing at school right now, it is called a "passion project". For this project I chose to do photography. Photography is something that I am really passionate about. Ever since I was little I loved to hold cameras. My family always told me that I took good pictures, but I was little then and I didn't know anything about photography. I was about thirteen when I discovered the art of photography, it was when I saw an exhibit at the mall. I was mesmerized with the pictures that the professional photographer took and that was when I started to love photography. I believe that pictures can give you different perspectives about things and if you look at things in different perspective, it could have a different meaning. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

       In this blog, I will be posting pictures and explaining how I did it. This will be sort of a tutorial, and I will be giving helpful tips to what you're suppose to do: how to set your camera's shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and I will also post all of my resources in this blog for you guys to check out as well. I will try my very best to take great pictures and share them with you. My biggest goal for this project is to take a beautiful picture with no editing what so ever because every time I take pictures, I usually change the exposure, the color, and other things. I will be collaborating with my friend Hannah Grace on this project to achieve this goal, hopefully we will. This "passion project" is a chance for me to improve my skills in photography. I will be looking forward to you guys' opinions as well.