Aperture - Part 2 (Depth of Field)

This is a lens my mother had in her antique/vintage camera collection:



Don't let its looks fool you. This is a solid old chrome lens. I hope to get an adapter for my canon body and take photos like this soon! For now this will be a great tool for demonstrating aperture. Below are three different photos with three different aperture settings.



As you an see there is a considerable difference in the amount of light entering the camera at the different aperture settings(f 2.8, f 5.6, f 22).

Here is what changing the Aperture can do for you. Say we use the above lens at 2.8 and take a photo. It is allowing a lot of light to spill in the camera and expose the image on the sensor/film. Because so much light is coming in, the camera will need to use a faster shutter speed. Since the shutter speed is so fast the image is hitting the camera and disappearing very quickly. So what you are focused on, will be clear as a whistle, and anything in the foreground or background will become blurred. If we set the camera to use this lens at f/22 then you will find your shutter stays open a lot longer. In this case the image is falling on the film/sensor for a longer period of time and more of the image will be clear. Probably the entire scene.

Here are some images to show how changing the aperture affects the resulting image (click to enlarge):

From acceptable circle of confusion

From acceptable circle of confusion

From acceptable circle of confusion

Do-doom (Jaws sound effect)

From acceptable circle of confusion

From acceptable circle of confusion

From acceptable circle of confusion

Do-doom, do-doom, do-doom (Jaws -suspense building music)

From acceptable circle of confusion

And there they go...

From acceptable circle of confusion

I hope when you compare the Aperture setting in the photos you can see how the area in focus increases as you raise the Aperture. Also notice how much the shutter speed changed dramatically. Once you get the hang of things you can use that knowledge to your advantage too.

You can play with your aperture setting on your own camera. You don't have to know what to set the other numbers to. Today's cameras will choose that for you. So look in your manual for how to set your camera to Aperture Priority (this might be Av or A). Then play.

How do we know what aperture to set the camera at to capture a scene? It is really up to you. This is where you can become creative. The camera has to have the 'right' amount of light coming in the camera, the right balance of ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture to properly expose the sensor/film. You can shuffle the 'weight' among the three aspects. Once you learn what the different Apertures and Shutter Speeds can do for your image you just 'balance' the other two options to allow for your creative choice.

If you want to try the low apertures and love the look of a really blurry background (bokeh) then you might consider buying a cheap, but really good 'prime' lens. These lenses aren't zoom. You'll have to move yourself backward and forward to control what is in your photo. It really isn't a big deal. The cheapest way to go about this is buying a 50mm lens. You can buy them new from a place like BHphotovideo for right at $100. They are such a bargain!! You can browse some great 50mm work on the Nifty Fifty Flickr Group.

I'll discuss shutter speed at a future time. Here is further reading until then:

• Camera Demo This is really fun to play with. You can adjust this virtual camera's settings and see the changes it makes.
• Understanding Aperture
• Exposure
• Wiki Aperture

Oh yes, my tip for remembering which 'way' is the larger and smaller aperture. It is confusing because the closer to 1 you go the larger the aperture is. But think of it as fractions. 1 is the entire size of the lens opening....f/8 more like an eighth and f/22 more like a 1/22 of the entire opening. It isn't like that exactly, but it helps. Or you can say....if I want 1 thing in focus use the number closest to 1 if I want 22 things in focus between me and the background use the larger f/22 number. Hope that helps.

Aperture - Part 1

What is aperture?

As I said in the ISO entry we can imagine our camera to function like our eyes. If we imagine blinking to be like the shutter then our iris or pupil (black circle of our eye) is like the camera's lens aperture. In dim light our pupil enlarges to let in more light and in bright light it constricts. This performs the same function in our camera. What we see is the light that reflects off objects. That is what our camera is also capturing. As light enters the camera through the lens, it falls on and exposes the film (or sensor in digital cameras). Too much light and the photo is 'burned' white and too little light and the photo is black. The camera's job is to expose the film/sensor to the proper amount of light. Modern day cameras do a great job at this by balancing the aperture and shutter speed to let the correct amount of light in, but by understanding the effects of manipulating the aperture we can make a normal photo exceptional.

As I said the aperture is like our iris. In cameras the aperture is formed by overlaping pieces of metal, or blades, which can slide together to form a smaller or larger opening. I hope you can see the blades in this photo. Some lenses have a lot of blades like this one, but some have very few (as few as two, I think).



In photography we assign numbers to the aperture size so we can share and know the size for future reference. You might hear it referred to as the aperture number, f value, or f stop. The numbers will look something like 1.0, 1.8, 2.8, 3.6, 5.6, 8, 11, 18, or 22, for example. A f value of 1.0 would be very large and an f value of 22 is very small. It seems confusing, but I'll tell you a trick to remembering them later.


As I said, when your shutter opens light spills in through the aperture in your lens and onto the film/sensor. If the aperture is very large a lot if light is spilling in, so to keep too much light from entering the shutter speed will be faster. So lenses that can go all the way to 1.1, 1.8, 2.8 are considered fast lenses. Many kit or consumer grade zooms can only go to about 4.5.

Why do you want to be able to go to larger apertures? Well there are a few advantages. One, since it is letting more light in, these lenses can take photos in lower light settings without using a flash. On camera flashes can be harsh and ruin a otherwise great photo by losing the subtle shadows that give a photo its depth. Two, the image resulting from a lens with a large aperture will yeild a sharper, crisper photograph with beautiful details when you zoom in or crop the photo. Third controlling the aperture controls what is in focus in the photograph. The photo below is a good example because it is easy to see the blur in the foreground the small plane that is in focus and then the blurred background.



Some say it is the ability to select the area of focus that sets apart a slr camera (the ones with interchangeable lenses) from a point and shoot.

In the next blog entry I will tell you how to control your depth of field (what is in focus and what is not) by adjusting your aperture.

What is ISO?

The ISO Game Show:

Announcer: Welcome to the ISO Game Show! Ok folks on our left we have the LOW Family from Monkey's Eyebrow, KY and on our right is the HIGH Family from Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec. (We don't make this stuff up people.) Each family will be given stacks of blocks in all colors. Their job is to arrange the blocks on their sensor table to match the pattern they are shown on the big screen before you.

Ok Round One! On your mark. Get set. Go! The LOW family are surprisingly organized! Look at them go. The HIGH family is fast, but seem a little messy and less organized. Times up! Lets see how they did. Wow a perfect score for the LOW family! They matched every block correctly on their sensor table. The HIGH family did a fine job, but with some mistakes. Excellent job folks, but this round the points go to the LOW family.

Now time for round two. On your marks. Get set. Go! Ok they have a good start and, OH NO! The light is dimming on our monitor. What's happening? I do apologize, Folks. This is a big inconvenience. The contestants are stunned and time is running out. Keep playing! Can they do it? The LOW family is just standing there. I don't think they can see the screen. But look at that HIGH family! Wow, they are rushing and bumping into each other, but they seem to be putting something together. Time is up. Lets see how they did. The LOW family has....Nothing. Oh sorry! No points there. The high ISO family has....well it is the general pattern, but with some mistakes, still an unbelievable job for the HIGH family! ....


So what just happened? If you think of our camera like our eye. The light come in, shines on the back of the eye; there specialized cells interpret what we see and send that information to our brain. In the camera the light falls on either film or a sensor. The sensor can be made to react more quickly or slowly according by changing your ISO settings. In the case of the LOW ISO family above, in good light they provided the sensor with the most precise copy of what they saw, but couldn't see in the dark light. The HIGH ISO did not do as well, but they were able to work in darker lighting situation.

So just keep that in mind when you are taking photos. You want the clearest photo possible that a low ISO setting can give you, but when there is less available light high ISO can come to your rescue. You will sacrifice the possibility of adding grain the image. The higher the ISO the more grain. What setting number do you want to work with? Well it depends on your camera. The new digital cameras are reaching unreal ISO levels never achieved with film and are taking clearer photos at higher ISO's. My camera isn't one of those! I keep my camera at the lowest possible ISO. That is usually around ISO 100. My camera stinks at ISO 800, lets not even talk about ISO 1600, so I work hard to keep it as low as the camera will let me.

I know this is a very simplistic view of ISO. If you want more technical information Wikipedia offers wonderful articles explaining the mathematics of it all. I hope this helps people grasp a general understanding which will come together when we combine ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture to shoot manually. Also remember the above is the same concept for film. You can buy higher speed film for lower light situations. Also, the high shutter speed needed to capture fast action(sports) also lets less light in the camera, so a higher ISO is useful in fast action situations.

I apologize for the lack of photos in this article. I might add some examples of a grainy photo soon.

Tutorial: How to Take Silhouettes

These photos were taken at an old country church. My friend was throwing a birthday party for her daughter in the church recreation room. I knew the church was special to my friend and I wanted to take a silhouette of her daughter praying in the church window. I took several exposures of my own daughters to experiment. In some I had a completely white background and completely black foreground, but when I looked at the images I liked the photos where you could see some of the color of the blue sky at dusk and a little of that light falling on the subject.





Taking silhouettes is an example of manipulating the camera to get the exposure you want. In normal circumstances the camera wants the subject to exposed correctly, but you don't want it to do that in this instance. So you will have to use the manual setting to override the camera's 'brain'.

To try this take your camera and turn it on spot meter. Point it toward your light source (window or sunset for example) and take a photo. View the image on your camera and look at the settings the camera used (refer to your camera manual if you don't know how to do this). Write down the F/Av (aperture) number and S (Shutter speed) the camera used, then turn the camera to manual. Turn the dials on your camera until you get those same Av and SS numbers on the screen. Your subject should have less light on it than the light behind it. Had the church been very bright or if I used a camera flash this wouldn't have worked. Set your subject in front of the light source, focus on it, and take the photo. You can turn the shutter speed up or down a few clicks to experiment if you want your silhouette more or less defined.



I hope you have fun experimenting! Always feel free to email me with questions if you have trouble. My email can be found in my profile to the right side of this page.

Photo Share: Kittens

The best part of looking at photography blogs is seeing people's photos. Today I'm sharing some kitten photos. Right now is kitten season at the animal shelters/humane societies. They are overwhelmed with the springtime babies. I know our local shelter receives fewer dogs and adopts out more dogs than cats. The numbers are not good for our feline friends.

If you can't adopt consider fostering. We had so much fun fostering these two kittens. We nicknamed the Wolfie and Serafina. Wolfie was the little gray male kitten. He was rough and tumble and just a little ball of fluff. Serafina, a calico girl, was a little older and more reserved. They were such a pleasure. I hope you enjoy their photos.


Wolfie

Serafina







Sometimes...


Wolfie was quite the difficult subject


to capture.







I have to end with my beautiful girl of 14 years, Pepper. She had fur like satin...soft and cool to the touch. I think this photo captures that. Rest in peace, sweet girl.

What's in a Camera?

Would the ultimate digital camera have the most mega pixels possible? Some would think so. The computer market pushes higher pixel cameras at us every year. Yes, pixels are when you want to enlarge a photo or if you want to crop to size, but you can have all the pixels in the world and if the camera doesn't take good photos, the pixels don't matter. The camera's sensor, the lens quality, and the camera's ability to correctly expose the image all combine to determine if the camera is a 'good' one or not. If you want to read about the mathematics of pixels and image size this is a very good site explaining them:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

As I said a good point and shoot can take excellent photos. These are from my favorite point and shoot I've owned:







These are from a 2003 trip to downtown Indianapolis. What megapixel do you think this camera was? The date might help give it a way. These were taken with a 3.2 megapixel camera (Fuji finepix). Now, I realize these aren't 'amazing' photos, but they were clear, well exposed, with great color and I loved that camera. I loved it right up to the day I was taking photos of my dears at the sprinkle park and a little boy shot it with a water canon. It died in my hands. I thought I can buy another. I bought another Finepix, but the later model. It just wasn't the same. I never could find another point and shoot that could compare. I currently have a 7mp Coolpix as my point and shoot. I don't want to talk about it.

Next time you are camera shopping don't let the mega pixels be the deciding factor when choosing.

A word to the wise, if you ever find a camera that takes photos you are really pleased with. Hang on to it! Protect it and cherish it. You might never find another like it.

What's your poison? Part 1: Polaroids

Earlier this year I was browsing a thrift store and saw a case on a shelf, behind the counter, and was curious what was in it. I asked and the lady said it was a Polaroid camera. My mind automatically said, "Oh no, those are worthless". Ok Polaroid lovers, don't leave now. I will redeem myself! So she said, "It was $10. They marked it down to $5...you can have it for $3". Suddenly my mouth took a life of its own and said, "Ok". I walked out of the store with the bag, that I hadn't even looked in, stunned, thinking "What the heck? Ok? If she said hey I have this half chewed dog bone for $10 marked down to $3 would I have bought that too? What's wrong with me?"

So, I get home and open the box and it is not like any Polaroid I've ever seen. It is beautiful with long bellows that open up. So I started my research. It was a Polaroid Land Camera 215. I ran and took a photo. Yes, right then! I was inspired by its beauty alone.

The film is still available for these plus they don't spit out typical Polaroids. They produce little photos. And the best part is there are such neat things you can do with these little photos like Emulsion Transfers and Emulsion Lifts. I will tell about those soon!  I ordered film and long story short I now own about 8 of these land cameras.  I realize that is at least 4 too many, so I will put some in my Etsy store soon. I love the little guys and when I see one for sale it is like 'the puppy in the window'. I take pity on it and have to take it home.

The photos are sweet and dreamy and oh, so fun to take. There is nothing like having a photograph develop instantly in your hand.


Of course, having caught the Polaroid bug I'm into all types of Polaroids now including the cameras that take 600 and sx-70 films. A new company started the Impossible Project to revive Polaroid film. It isn't cheap but the results from this film has just been stunning. You can find groups on Flickr showcasing this new film series. The Impossible Project Group & The PX 100 Silver Shade Film Group.

If you are the the least bit tempted, I urge you to find a Polaroid and give it another chance to bring a smile to to someone's face.

Welcome

Hello! Welcome to the start of my blog. I am an amateur photographer. As many other photographers my love of photography started as a child. I inherited the photography bug from my mother, who not only took photographs, but collected old photographic memorabilia, including photos and cameras. Although my mother has passed on, using the cameras she collected keeps her close to my heart. I am excited about the current photography movement to reach into the past and use these old cameras, sometimes in new and exciting ways!

I love to learn about photography and when I find others who also are in various stages of learning I am excited to help out in any way I can. If I don't know something I find out. It is through helping others that I have learned the most.

So my hope for this blog is to not only an outlet share my photographs and memories, but to help others learn to use their cameras and expand their hobby. I want other people to be excited as I am when I master new skills or find new ways of doing things. Please bear with me as I get things started.



A special thanks to my friend Brandi for giving me the encouragement to start my blog.