Light

Light  

When thinking about photography, one of the main things to look into is the lighting that will effect your image. Paying more attention to the light in your photo is one of the most important things to consider if wanting to improve your photography skills. If it's a landscape you are aiming to capture, then natural lighting could be more important than the subject itself and different types of natural light can produce a wide variety of subject appearances despite having the same source of lighting. Achieving how to find the right lighting for your subject may involve looking into the time of day and what the weather is like.

TIME OF DAY:

After noon, when the sun is starting to set, this will result in a lower contrast of light as it will not highlight the subject or give the warmer overall appearance.

WEATHER:

Extent and type of cloud cover is also something to be taken into consideration. It is another influential cause of the variation of lighting. Because of cloud cover, the balance between direct sunlight and skylight changes the contrast and colour temperature of the subject.

Three most important factors to think about when aiming for a good lighting:

• time of day
• camera direction
• weather

I believe that lighting is one of the most important things to be taken in to consideration when taking photographs. It not only has the ability to change the look of the image but how to make certain areas of the image stand out and capture attention more.

Exposure

 

Exposure

The exposure of a photograph is what determines how dark or light an image will appear once taken. This is achieved by the use of three camera settings:

• Aperture
• ISO 
• Shutter speed

Also known as the 'exposure triangle'.

Each of these settings control expose in different ways:

APERTURE - Controls the area over which light enters the camera

SHUTTER SPEED - Controls the duration of the exposure

IOS SPEED - Controls sensitivity of the camera's sensor to the given amount of light

If there is not enough light in the photographer's image, it is considered as underexposed and then if it is too light, the image will be considered as an overexposed photograph. However, none of this matters as there is no such thing as a correct exposure - the photographer over/underexposes their image to how they prefer. Usually, they will attempt to go for the very centre, and have an equal balance between over and under exposed.

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Exposure scale

I believe exposure has a very important part to play when it comes to photography as it not only makes the image lighter or darker, but defines smaller details and enhances the tone of the colours in the images.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed

Basically defined, the shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open. As the shutter speed slows down, the image will get lighter and the reason you don't see this in images, is because when the shutter speed is changed, the camera changes aperture and keeps the expose constant.

If the shutter speed is fast, the shorter the time the image sensor is exposed to the light. And if the shutter speed is slow, the longer the time the image senor is exposed to light.

For example, if taking an image of movement there will be a variety of effect at different shutter speeds. Shutter speed is measure in seconds, and in most cases, fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the shutter speed. For example:

1/1000 is faster than 1/30

If a slow shutter seed is being used, then a tripod or some other type of image stabilisation will be required.  A shutter speed slower than 1/60 will normally blur motion and therefore, requires to be stabilized.

Fast                    Shutter Speed                Slow

Stop                       Movement                   Blur

An image taken using a fast shutter speed:

 An image taken using slow shutter speed:

 

I believe shutter speed is very useful when thinking about photography as it determines just how good the quality of the image will be and also how clear and easy it is to see detail.

Press Cameras

 

Press Camera

Used widely from 1900s to the early 1960s, the press camera had the collapsibility into strong box with easily interchangeable lenses. It also had the ability to accept sheet film, roll film and film packs through the use of interchangeable film backs and holders. The press camera had an optical rangefinder focusing option and was able to be handheld.

Press cameras most commonly employed a 4x5 inch film format and could be fitted with rangefinders for handling. Despite being used many years ago, the press camera is still used in photoreportage and among many photographers.

I believe the press camera was very effective for photographers and the paparazzi back in its time, but when comparing it to cameras we use today, such as smartphone cameras or digital cameras, it is in no way as effective or easy to use. They were rather bulky and heavy, even with the ability to collapse into a small compact box. Though, during the time of the press camera, they were no doubt very impressive and produce images that were no doubt considered great quality.

Digital Cameras

Digital Cameras

Out of all the many types of cameras sold today, the digital camera is the most popular and most sold. Not only are digital cameras able to be bought in their camera-form, but things such as PDA's, mobile phones and even vehicles are able to have a digital camera installed inside. Both film cameras and digital cameras share an optical system - this means, they typically use a lenses with variable diaphragms to focus the light onto an image pickup device. Though, unlike the film camera, the digital is able to display images on screen immediately after being recorded. Also, images can be stored and deleted from the digital memory.

Many digital cameras are able to offer a way of editing images straight away, and things such as cropping tools, saturation and colour boosting options are only some of the many other elementary editing items. Through these editing tools, you can achieve superior image quality and create incredible images. You can move in close to the subject - zoom lenses offer close-ups of your subject with sharp focus and come up with close-up images of flowers, bugs, tree etc. Even in low-light situations, the digital camera has a flexible over-sensitivity and can easily take detailed images in low-light conditions.

These images were taken with a digital camera.

From digital cameras, you can transfer the images onto your laptop/computer and even print them out if you so wish. Images can even be reworked once transferred onto the laptop, and further editing can occur on there.

Not only can digital cameras capture photographs, but they also have the ability to record videos. Sound and good quality can be captured on a digital video.

Personally, I believe digital cameras are the best kind of cameras available. They are not as expensive as other image-taking devices, such as smartphones or iPads and take photos of the same quality. They can easily be carried around when travelling, and there are many options already there for editing and cropping stored images. The memory space on a digital camera is large, and not only are images able to be stored, but as are recorded videos. They are efficient and quick, and provide stunning photos.

 

For example, I took the above image using a Coolpix L29 Nikon digital camera.

19th Century Studio Camera

19th Century Studio Camera

Long before cameras were made from plastic and metal, they were made from finely polished wood, brass and leather - the age of wood cameras lasted from the very beginning of photography in 1839 to the early part of the 20th century. The 19th century studio camera stood on a tripod with three legs.

Before the first photographic techniques were created, there was no way to preserve an image unless manually made, and the first ever cameras were room-sized and could contain multiple people inside.

I believe at the time, thee cameras were very useful and quite something to behold, but when being compared to cameras today, it seems like they were a lot of work and that not only taking the image was difficult, but so was the preparation before hand.

Smartphones

SMARTPHONES

Smartphone cameras of the 21st century have transformed photography, and almost everyone has one now. They have decreased sales of regular digital cameras and the like, as smartphone cameras are just as good - if not better - at taking good quality, quick and effective photographs. Just like with an original, digital camera, smartphone cameras have multiple effects to aid with photo-taking. 

Effects range from black and white to antique and sharpness, size and filters can be adjusted to make the perfect photograph. I believe smartphone cameras are extremely useful, as people carry their phones around every single day, so a camera is always there if needed. They are quick and easy to used, a change just a tap of the finger away. Where they are extremely useful, they can also be a little bit tricky to use, as not everyone is used to having a smartphone, and therefore using the camera tools may be difficult.