50 Essential Photography tips PT. 2

(Sorry it's so long but it is also very informative!)

26. Don't be dictated by the sun
Using automatic settings to shoot into the sun will throw your subject into silhouette as the camera dials down the exposure to compensate for the bright background. Shooting people with the sun in front of them, meanwhile, solves the silhouette problem but introduces another one: squinting. Solve this by keeping their back to the sun and forcing the flash to fire (switch from it 'auto' to 'on' or 'forced') to correct the exposure on your subjects' faces without leaving them squinting.
27. Observe the rule of thirds
The most aesthetically pleasing images are those in which the subjects are aligned with the one-third power points in every frame. Position horizons one third up or down the height of the image, and people one third in from the left or right. Likewise, if you're snapping a frame-filling head shot, position the eyes so they're one third down from the top of the frame.
Some cameras give you the option of displaying an overlaid grid on the rear LCD to help you line up your subjects along these lines. If yours does, go one step further and put key elements on the points where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect.
28. Exposure and focus come first, framing second
Half-pressing the shutter release fixes the focus and exposure settings for the shot you're about to take. Pressing it all the way captures the frame.
Use this to your advantage by metering for particular conditions by putting your subject on one of your camera's focus positions and half pressing the shutter to lock its settings then, without releasing the button, recompose the framing to align your subjects on the one-third power positions. This way you'll get perfect exposures every time, whatever the composition.
29. Use your free light meter
If you don't have a light meter, use your camera's auto mode to gauge the optimum settings, even if you don't want an immaculately exposed result. Examine the shot's settings and then switch to manual mode and replicate them before pushing individual elements -- shutter speed, sensitivity, aperture and so on -- to achieve the moody result you're after.
 30. Get up early, stay out late
Photography is all about painting with light. Light is what gives your pictures contrast, shape and texture, and often the best light it that which appears at either end of the day when the sun is lower in the sky. At these times of day it casts longer, more extreme shadows, which in turn pick out small details, bumps and texture.
By shooting early in the morning and late in the afternoon, you'll achieve far more interesting results than you would at high noon when you'll spend more time controlling the light coming into your lens than you will manipulating your subjects to best exploit the shadows.
31. Embrace the grey day
Don't let an overcast day put you off heading out with your camera. The softer light you get on an overcast day is perfect for shooting plants, flowers and foliage as it dampens the contrasts we were championing in our previous step. This allows the camera to achieve a more balanced exposure and really bring out the colours in petals.

Cheat's tips
32. Travel without a tripod: tip 1
Packing a tripod when you head off on holiday is a great way to extend the shooting day, allowing you to take some stunning night-time shots with streaking lights and illuminated landmarks. If you're pushed for space, though, check out this trick. Balance your camera somewhere sturdy and safe, disable the flash and set a slow shutter speed or two seconds or more.
Now set your self timer, fire the shutter release and let go of your camera so that you won't cause it to wobble. By the time the self timer countdown expires, any residual movement caused by your hand letting go should have evened out, so your camera will sit still and steady throughout the exposure for a crisp, sharp result.
33. Travel without a tripod: tip 2
It's not always possible to find a flat surface on which to perform the previous trick. Try and find a flat surface on some castle battlements and you'll see what we mean. Combat this by packing a small beanbag in your camera bag.
Check out school sports and games categories on eBay to find 100g beanbags (a pack of four costs less than £5), which can be pressed into shape on uneven surfaces, with your camera snugly settled on top. It's more stable and less likely to either fall over or wobble during the exposure.
34. Travel without a tripod: tip 3
Professional tripods use quarter-inch screws to fix your camera in place. You can easily source a screw of the same size from a normal hardware store. To avoid traveling with a bulky tripod, drill a hole in a standard bottle top (the type you'd find capping a 500ml drinks bottle) and thread the screw through it, fixing it in place using strong glue.
Keep this in your camera bag as you travel, but don't bother carrying the rest of the bottle, as these are easily sourced wherever you happen to end up. Fill an empty bottle with grit to give it some weight and screw your cap to the top. Instant tripod.
35. Banish long-arm self portraits
Self portraits are great for capturing holiday memories, but if you can't find somewhere suitable to balance your camera while also framing the scene behind you, the only way you can take them is to hold your camera at arm's length and press the shutter release. The results are rarely flattering.
Invest in a cheap mono-pod (search eBay for handheld mono-pod) and use this to hold your camera away from you while keeping your hands in a more natural position and the great scenery you want to stand in front of behind you. Use your camera's self-timer to fire the shutter 2 or 10 seconds later.
 36. Look at the eyes, not around the eyes, look at the eyes
Ever wondered why so many magazines have faces on the cover? It's because we identify with such pictures, which in turn helps us identify with the magazine. Art editors know that our inclination is to connect with the eyes staring out of the cover, and the same is true of your portraits.
When shooting a person, if only one part of your image is in focus, make it the eyes. That's the first place your audience will look. So long as they're in focus, they'll consider the whole image to be accurately shot, no matter how shallow your depth of field and how blurred the rest of the frame.
37. Use burst mode when shooting pets
Pets are unpredictable, so don't wait for them to pose before shooting. The chances are you'll miss the crucial moment.
Don't wait until you've attracted their attention -- start shooting while you're trying to do it, as they don't understand the concept of cameras and will move at the worst possible moment. Switch your camera to burst mode and start shooting while you're trying to attract their attention towards the lens for a better chance of capturing something close to the picture you wanted.
38. Make use of scene modes
Your camera knows better than you do how to use its own settings to create special effects. Don't be afraid to use its in-built scene modes for punchy monochrome or high-key effects. If possible, set your camera to save raw and JPEG images side by side so you also have a copy of the original unadulterated scene should you later change your mind.
39. How to shoot fireworks
Frequently the most impressive spectacle, fireworks are nonetheless tricky to shoot. For your best chance of capturing a display, set your sensitivity to ISO 100 and compensation to 0EV so that you don't unnecessarily lighten the sky, which you want to keep as black as possible.
Mount your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to at least 8 seconds. Zoom out so that the fireworks just fill the frame, preferably without being cropped by the borders and be careful not to wobble the camera during the exposure or you'll end up with blurred results. All being well, the result should be pin-sharp streaks of light falling to the ground.
 40. How to shoot moving water
Short shutter speeds do a good job of capturing a waterfall and its surroundings, but you'll achieve a far more attractive result by slowing things down. To do this without overexposing your image, start by switching out of auto and reducing your camera's sensitivity to its lowest setting (usually around ISO 100 or ISO 80), then either use a neutral density (ND) filter or, if you don't have one or can't fit one to your camera, dial down the exposure compensation to its lowest level (usually -2EV, -3EV or -5EV).
Mount your camera on a tripod, half press the shutter release to fix the focus point and exposure and then press it all the way to take the picture, being careful not to shake the camera while it's taking the shot. It'll take some experimentation to get this right, so don't be put off if you don't get the perfect results first time around.
 41. Focus on the details
When a scene is simply too big to fit in your picture without it getting uncomfortably close to the edge of the frame, focus instead on one of the details that makes it unique. An abstract crop can often have greater impact and give a more original view of a tired, over-used view we've all seen before.
42. You can't shoot speed head-on
You can't properly capture speeding subjects as they come towards or move away from you. If you're shooting track events, position yourself side-on to the action so that it passes across your field of view rather than coming towards it. Shooting into a chicane works well on TV where we delight in seeing the cars snake around it in sequence, but fares poorly in static frames.
43. Focus on the action
If you really want to convey an impression of speed in your images, pan your lens in line with speeding cars, horses and runners and shoot with a fairly slow shutter speed -- 1/125 second or below -- to blur the background. Keeping the subject sharp in the frame while blurring the background gives a more effective impression of speed than static backgrounds and blurred subjects.
44. Reflect on things
Do rainy days and Sundays get you down? Don't let them: embrace the photo opportunities afforded by the puddles. The rain is as much a part of the story of your holiday as the food you ate and the sights you saw. Use reflections wherever possible for a different take on otherwise well-known scenes.

Smart shopping

45. Don't believe the megapixel myth
We're glad to see manufacturers are starting to see sense here, with many high-end cameras now sporting comparatively modest pixel counts. At the lower end, however, some manufacturers continue to cram 16 megapixels and more on tiny sensors that can't cope with high levels of incoming light. Pay for quality, not quantity, remembering that as few as 10 megapixels is plenty for printing at A3 using online photo-printing services.
46. Flickr: your shopping assistant
Baffled by numbers and stats? If you can't get your hands on a camera to try before you buy, at least have a look at the shots it produces. Flickr uses the metadata attached to every photo shot by a digital camera to catalog them by manufacturer and model, allowing you to click through a representative sample of output in its enormous online archive. Find it at flickr.com/cameras.
47. Don't be a memory cheapskate
Buy the fastest memory cards you can afford to minimize the time it takes for your camera to write each shot to the media, and how long you'll have to wait before you can take the next shot. Wait too long and you'll miss something.
Cards are ranked using a simple class system, where the class number is simply the number of megabytes the card can store per second. So, your camera will be able to write to a Class 4 card at up to 4MBps, and a Class 10 card at up to 10MBps. Faster cards are more expensive, so if you're having trouble justifying to yourself the extra expense, compare them to the speed boost you get from upgrading the memory in your PC or Mac.
48. Size really is everything
Think carefully about how you want to balance the convenience of carrying fewer large cards with the security of traveling with a larger number of lower capacity ones. On the one hand you'll spend less time swapping 16GB cards than 2GB media, but if you lose a single 16GB card, or it corrupts, you could lose all of the shots from your trip.
Splitting them across several cards, and locking full cards in your hotel safe so you're only carrying around empty cards plus the one on your camera means you'll be taking fewer risks with your digital memories.
49. Replace your cards every couple of years
Memory cards might not have any moving parts, but that doesn't mean they don't wear out. On the contrary they each have a finite life, and every time you write to, delete from or read the card you're bringing it another step closer to the end of that life. If you don't want to risk corrupting your pictures far from home, replace heavily used cards every couple of years.

And finally...

50. Break all the rules
Be truly original. Ignore the rule of thirds. Shoot at high noon. Shoots sports photos at slow shutter speeds for blurred results. Whatever you do, make your pictures stand out from the crowd and relish the results.




Thank you for reading! Here is the link:

 http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digital-slrs/50-essential-photography-tips-50006080/

50 essential photography tips PT. 1

(Sorry, no pictures. But will post link!)

Aperture

1. Understand aperture
The most fundamental element any photographer should understand is aperture. The aperture is the physical opening within your lens that allows light through to the sensor (or film in an older camera). The wider the aperture opening, the more light can pass through, and vice versa.
The size of the opening, which is regulated by a series of fins encroaching from the edge of the lens barrel, is measured in so-called f-stops, written f/2.8, f/5.9 and so on, with smaller numbers denoting wider apertures. If you find this inverse relationship tricky to remember, imagine instead that it relates not to the size of the hole but the amount of each fin encroaching into the opening.
A narrow opening is regulated by a large amount of each fin encroaching into the barrel, and so has a high f-stop number, such as f/16, f/18 and so on. A wide opening is characterised by a small number, such as f/3.2, with only a small amount of each fin obscuring the light.
 2. Aperture measurements
Lenses almost always have their maximum aperture setting engraved or stamped on one end of the barrel. On a zoom lens you'll see two measurements, often stated as f/3.5-f/5.9 or similar.
Rather than being opposite ends of a single scale these describe the maximum aperture at the wide angle and telephoto (maximum zoom) lens positions respectively. Always buy a lens with the smallest number you can afford in each position.
 3. Avoid using aperture to compensate for poor lighting
Changing the aperture has a dramatic effect on the amount of light coming into the camera, as we have already said. You'll notice this is the case when shooting landscapes with a narrower aperture (higher numbered f-stop) as your camera will often want to take a longer exposure -- so much so that you may have to use a tripod to avoid motion blur.
You should avoid using the aperture scale to compensate for unfavorable lighting, however, as it also changes the amount of the image that remains in focus, as we'll explain below.
 4. Use a wide aperture for portraits
Anyone with a cat knows that when they're hunting or playing their irises contract to enlarge the size of their pupils. This has the same effect as widening the aperture in a camera lens: it makes the subject they are focusing on very sharp while causing everything behind and in front of it to blur. We call this a shallow depth of field. This is perfect for portrait photography, as it draws forward your model within the scene, making them the central focus while the background falls away. Choose f/1.8 or similar wherever possible.
 5. Use a narrow aperture for landscapes
For landscapes, on the other hand, you want to have everything from close-at-hand foliage to a distant mountain in focus. This is achieved by selecting a narrow aperture. If possible stray towards f/22, or whatever the tightest setting your camera allows.
 6. 'f/8 and be there'
Static models and immobile landscapes are easy to shoot as you can predict with a great deal of certainty which aperture setting you need to get the best out of either. Reportage and street photography, weddings, Christenings and so on are less predictable as your subjects will be moving in relation to the frame. In these circumstances, adopt the pro photographer's adage, "f/8 and be there".
Set your aperture to f/8 for a practical, manageable balance of fairly fast shutter speeds and broad depths of field, allowing you to spend more time thinking about composition within the frame than you do about optical algebra. When shooting indoors without a flash, and depending on the lighting conditions, you may need to increase your camera's sensitivity setting at this aperture, but be careful not to push it so high that you introduce grain into your images, unless you are chasing that specific effect.

Filters and lenses

7. What does the ø symbol on my lens mean?
After the focal and aperture ranges, the other measurement you'll see on most dSLR lenses is preceded by ø and describes the diameter of the screw mount on the front of lens barrel. Check this number each time you head out to buy a filter or hood as you can't guarantee that it will be the same for each lens in your collection, even if they are all designed to be used on the same camera.
 8. If you only buy one filter...
...make it a circular polariser. This is the perfect beginner's filter, and one that will have the biggest effect on your day to day photography, giving holiday skies a vibrant blue tone and accentuating the contrast between the sky and passing clouds to afford your images greater texture. Although you can add blue to your images in Photoshop or a similar post-production editing tool, the effect is never as believable when done that way as it is when shot using a lens.
 9. Don't confine it to skies
Polarising filters also cut through glare and reflection. Use it to shoot through windows and water.
 10. Look for lenses where the zoom control doesn't change the filter orientation
Rotating a circular polarising filter changes the strength of the polarising effect, making skies deeper or lighter, and changing the amount of reflection they cancel out. If you plan on using such a filter then wherever possible buy lenses where turning the zoom control doesn't simultaneously rotate the end of the lens, and with it the filter, as this will change the effect. If you have no choice, set your zoom first and adjust the effect afterwards, being careful not to throw the lens out of focus in the process.
11. Don't forget about white balance
When using a filter set your the white balance on your camera to the appropriate conditions, rather than auto, to stop the camera compensating for the filter in front of the lens.
12. Don't rush out to buy a skylight filter
Putting a clear filter on the front of your lens to protect its surface sounds like a great idea. After all, your lens was an expensive investment. The end of your lens is stronger than you might think, however, and easy to clean if you don't let the dirt build up. Dispensing with a skylight filter will not only save you money, but also avoid the chance of introducing light problems due to increased reflections or the slight reduction in the level of illumination reaching the sensor.
13. Cheat's macro mode (add-on filters)
Dedicated macro lenses are expensive, but you can quickly and easily improve your existing lens' macro credentials by using screw-on magnifiers. They're not a perfect solution as they decrease the level of light coming into the lens, but for occasional work they are very effective, easily sourced and cheap. We bought ours, below, first-hand from eBay, where you should expect to bid around £15 for a set of four screw-on filters.
 14. Avoid stacking up too many filters
It's tempting to add multiple filters to the end of each lens to achieve different results, but bear in mind that although they may look perfectly clear to you, each one reduces the amount of light passing through by a small amount. For the best results, use the smallest number of filters possible.
15. Choose a manual lens over a powered one
Some compact interchangeable lens cameras come with a choice of powered or manual zoom. The former is a great lazy option, allowing you to press a button to get the framing you're after, but the latter is often cheaper and almost always quicker to use as it moves at whatever speed you turn it, without being hobbled by the speed of an internal motor. You can also often make finer and more predictable changes when zooming manually than you can with a powered zoom rocker.
16. Shoot slowly, zoom quickly... At the same time
If you're shooting a static display, add some interest by turning the zoom control while shooting with a fairly slow shutter speed (you can only do this with a manual zoom, as a powered lens will be locked off when shooting). This works particularly well when shooting cars and other forms of transport as it gives them a sense of motion.
 17. Try a prime lens for more creativity
Shooting with a fixed focal length -- a prime lens -- will make you think more carefully about how you want to frame a subject to tell a particular story. It will often also get you a cleaner, sharper result.
18. What do the measurements on my lens mean?
Lenses are measured in terms of their focal length, which broadly describes the effect they have on incoming light and the way it is focused on the sensor. A short focal length, such as 24mm, doesn't have a very high level of magnification, so will focus a broad vista on the sensor. A long focal length, such as 240mm, has a high level of magnification, like a telescope, and so will fill the sensor with just the central part of the view.
19. Understand your lens' true dimensions
Unless you've paid for a high-end dSLR, or a professional camera such as the Leica M9, your pocket snapper's sensor will almost certainly be smaller than a frame of 35mm film, the standard point of reference against which all focal lengths are measured.
The 35mm in a frame's name actually relates to the space between the top and the bottom of the film strip, which as well as the frame itself also contains some border areas and the sprocket holes used to move the film through the camera. A 35mm frame is positioned lengthwise on this strip, with its shortest dimension -- top to bottom -- perpendicular to the film's direction of motion. As such, neither the height nor the width of the frame measures 35mm, but instead 24x36mm.
To understand how the stated focal length on any lens will affect the shot captured by your camera, you need to factor in the multiplier effect, which converts the size of your sensor to the size of that 35mm piece of film. The multiplier is often between 1.5 and 1.7 but varies between manufacturers and models.
So, if you're buying a lens for the Canon EOS 600D with its 22.3x14.9mm sensor you'd need to multiply the stated focal length of the lens by 1.6. This would make a 50mm lens, commonly used in portrait photography, act like an 80mm lens, thus increasing the effective zoom and narrowing the amount of the scene seen in each frame. On a Nikon D5100, which has a slightly larger sensor (23.6x15.6mm) you'd need to multiply the lens' measurements by 1.5, in which case an equivalent 50mm lens would act as though it were a 75mm unit.
20. Save money by opting for a smaller sensor
This means you can, technically, save money by opting for a smaller sensor, as you'll be able to buy less powerful lenses to achieve the kind of results you would otherwise only get with a longer, more expensive zoom.
21. Use zone focusing
Related to point 6 -- f/8 and be there -- if you have a lens with both f-stop and focal measurements on the barrel, understanding how they relate to each other can help you take great spontaneous photos with a high degree of confidence.
In the image below we've set our aperture to f/5.6, as indicated by the red line pointing to the 5.6 reading on the lower gauge. We've then set the range on the yellow gauge to around 1.2 meters by positioning this at the top of the same line. We can now use the green scale to understand how far away from the camera our subjects need to be if they are to be accurately focused.
By following the lines running from the two green entries for 5.6 on either side to their measurements on the yellow scale, we can see that so long as we're more than 1m away from our subjects they will be in focus (the green 5.6 on the left is linked to around 1m on the yellow scale, while the green 5.6 on the right is linked to the infinity symbol, which is like a number 8 on its side). Anything closer than that will be blurred.
This gives us a great deal of freedom to snap whatever we want without making any further adjustments, so long as it's no closer to us than 100cm. To create a more intimate effect, adjusting the distance ring so that 0.4 sat at the top of the red marker would mean that only those objects between around 36cm and 50cm would be kept in focus.

Lighting

22. Invest in a cheap pair of lights
If you're doing any kind of indoor photography, invest in a cheap pair of lights. Buy at least a pair, complete with tripod stands and reflectors to direct the light. Opt for continuous light rather than flash units, as they're cheaper, easy to use and great for beginners, as you don't have to take test shots to see how the shadows fall during setup.
23. Understand color temperature
Different colors and levels of light are measured using the Kelvin scale. For the best results, look for studio lights with a temperature of around 5,500K-6,000K to emulate bright daylight. Lights with a lower color temperature often render a color caste in your images that will have to be corrected in Photoshop or an alternative image editor.
 24. Buy a light box -- but don't spend more than £20
Minimize shadows in your studio-lit work by investing in an inexpensive light box. Effectively a five-sided cube with gauze sides and top, you position your lights so that they shine through the sides of the box, diffusing the light and softening the shadows. Light boxes usually ship with a felted back cloth that can be attached using Velcro to create an infinite field of view by obscuring the seams of the box.
 25. Make best use of available light with a sheet of paper
If you can't afford studio lights, even out harsh contrasts when shooting with natural light by positioning a large sheet of paper or card to reflect the incoming light onto the unlit side of your subject. If shooting people, ask them to hold the card themselves outside of the framed shot. Alternatively, invest in a set of reflectors. You can pick up a new, multi-part set with white, silver and gold reflective surfaces for around £12 on eBay.

Bummer...

So, I finally got over this cold that I've had and I had to have two doctors appt. and it wasn't fun. I haven't been outside mt house for three days and I feel really cooped up! I want to take my daughter for a stroll in the morning and hopefully get some shots of the last days of winter. I know spring isn't for a while but it seems to come pretty fast where I live. I love all the seasons but, summer seems to last a lot longer than the rest and I was hoping for a little more winter! Anywho... I will hopefully be posting more on from now and hope to continue to further my photography! Thank you all for reading! I hope you guys liked the Water week and please, Comment, Rate and/or Share my blog. Thank you again!

Last day! Water Week

I hope y'all enjoyed Water week! I love photos of water! I will definitely have to do this again and maybe a different one too! Well here you go...
Don't forget to comment and rate below! Please and Thank you! (A 10 for manners? )

Day six- Water Week

Behind a waterfall!

One year of Love!

This picture has my daughter last year when she turned One months old on Valentines Day, and my daughter this year. Turning One year and One month! Yay for my Valentine growing up!

Day five Water Week

Sorry for the delay! New York Bridge!

Day 4-Water Week

Pink feather and water drops!

Day 3, Water Week

Flowers after the rain!

Day two- Water Week

Feathers, Glitter, and some water drops!

Day 1, Water Week

Lake Olginate! So very beautiful!

Water Week 2/10-2/17 2013

This coming up week, is Water Week! My favorite time to take picture is always spring and fall. I love winter the best but my daughter doesn't. So it can be hard to photograph her outside! I love water pictures. Whether they are waterfalls, water drops or just plain water! Anything really! So this coming week, I will post 1-4 Pictures a day on water. Any kind of water! I cannot wait and hope you participate and enjoy! I will post one now to start it off but it will not be a best shot!

(Rate and comment below! It only takes a minute and Thank you!)

Understanding the Three Basic Elements

Understanding the Three Basic Elements of Photography (Aperture, Shutter, ISO)

Depending on which way you look at it, it can be argued that photography has either not changed at all since its inception, or has changed more than a Chinese whisper shared between the cast of Glee.

On one hand, advancements in technology has seen camera’s and equipment become both affordable and practical to the point that the average person can create professional images which would have been seen as impossible to the amateur photographer just 20 years ago.

On the other hand however, every camera can still be seen as essentially just a box with a hole in one end. Sure that hole is quite important (being essentially where the light comes through), and you still need the mechanics and means to record a photo but at its simplest, the basic elements to capture an image has not changed. 

Exposure

Exposure is the basic element of any photograph taken and recorded. Essentially, it is exactly how it sounds, exposure is how much light your shot was exposed to, and this reflects on what is produced in your final image, be it on film, or more likely nowadays, digitally. Without light, obviously there is no picture. Think of exposure as your eye, if you are in a pitch black room with no light, you obviously can’t see anything. When we are looking at something we are not actually seeing it directly, we are looking at the light reflecting and bouncing off the objects in front of us. The same can be said if there is too much light, think of when you wake up in the middle of the night and turn a bright light on, your eyes have not adjusted yet so to you it seems too bright and you can’t focus. This is the same in photography, and why the most common critique of images is that they are either underexposed, (not enough light meaning an image is too dark), or overexposed, (too much light leading to an overly bright image)

Exposure is determined by three essential elements which we will look at individually here.

Aperture

Aperture is the setting which controls the size of the opening of light which comes through to the lens. Normally this is done by controlling the aperture blades which can be changed to allow the aperture to become smaller, in which less light is let through, or obviously larger where more light is allowed to pass through. Aperture is measured in f-stops, for example f/2.0, f/2.8. f/4.0 etc. The smaller the f-stop number, the larger the lens opening, and therefore the more light a lens can let in. This is why the sharper lenses with lower f-stops are normally more expensive than a similar lens which cannot match the same aperture, as the more expensive lenses can cope with low light situations better. For this reason, when someone is talking about the maximum aperture, this normally means the lowest f-stop available.
The important thing to remember is that for every one stop the aperture is stepped down, the double the amount of light which will enter the sensor. The below picture shows the differing size of openings that an aperture will produce. This is of course provided you and the camera/lens follows the original aperture stops as shown below, as a lot of modern camera’s now have half stops, f/4.5, f/7.1 etc. for a more precise aperture.

The aperture is also one of the most critical aspects of focusing. A large depth of field which is necessary when photographers want as much of the photograph in focus as possible, such as landscape photography, needs a minimum aperture as possible (high number). This allows objects in the foreground and background to be in focus.
The opposite is obviously true of course, in that to achieve a shallow depth of field, where a particular point is in focus whereas the other parts of the image are blurred, a low f-stop should be used, (low number).  This creates the beautiful bokeh we love, which adds dramatic effects to images where you want to highlight an object or subject, such as macro photography and portraiture shots. The fact you can post process this effect using Photoshop or a likewise software nowadays is unfortunate, but shows the popularity it has gained.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is simply put, the amount of time that the camera lets the light coming in, stay exposed and become recorded. This can be changed quite easily and is measured in fractions, i.e. 1/60, 1/125. This number relates to the timing that the shutter is left open, for example 1/60 shutter speed will mean the shutter stays open for 1 sixtieth of a second.

Most camera’s will have a larger range of varying shutter speeds for the user to work with, from Sonic the Hedgehog like speeds of 1/4000 which is great for capturing moving action such as wildlife or freezing sports events, to long exposures of sometimes over a minute long, perfect for landscape photography or low light photography with a tripod.

Motion blur can also be achieved by panning the camera to follow a subject, and the idea is that the camera will keep the focus relatively in focus because you are following it, but the background which will move relative to your camera will naturally blur. This is a common technique if you want to convey a sense of movement.

ISO

 ISO is slightly less obvious as the above two as to what it is and what role it plays, but has just as much importance in determining correct exposure. ISO is normally measured from 100, 200, 400 etc., with a low a number as possible preferred.

This is because the higher ISO that is used, typically the more ‘noise’ you get on an image, where an image is not as sharp as in the lower ISO’s. “So why don’t we shoot all shots with a low ISO?” I hear you say. Well simply put, it’s sometimes not possible, especially in difficult conditions such as low light. Increasing the ISO can allow you to get images you would not normally get, but at a cost, noise, if you want to just capture the scene and pin sharp focus is a secondary thought then increasing the ISO is an option. When you use a higher ISO, you are increasing the sensitivity of the image sensor, so now the sensor captures not just more light incoming, but also more surrounding noise which reduces clarity in your image. Whether your image is usable or not at high ISO’s depends on your equipment, obviously the more modern cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark 3 produces some excellent results even at high ISO’s such as ISO 12,800. Compare that to my old point and shoot Sony N-1 where the shots taken even at ISO 800 were noisier than a Korean crowd watching a Gangnam Style concert.

Individually we have looked at the three elements that make up exposure, so it’s important to realize that all three need to be in sync to get a ‘good’ exposure. The key in the end however, as the same with pretty much all aspects of learning photography, is that practice makes perfect. It’s about learning the particular scene you want and then determining what settings are the best. For example for shooting a high speed sport event at night like American Football, you may need a high ISO as it is quite low light. To freeze the quick burst of action a high shutter speed will need to be used (1/1000 is a good starting point). A slow shutter speed will lead to images coming out blurred. Aperture will likely be mid-range, as the lowest settings won’t be able to let enough light in.
The easiest way to play around with these settings it using the pre-set modes on your camera dial, pretty much every camera has these settings now. There are specific modes to change just the aperture (Aperture-Priority mode) where you can adjust just one of the three elements, and the camera’s brains will work out the other settings required to capture the image for you. So if you need to emphasis a long shutter speed, for example you want to take a shot of a waterfall and want blurry, creamy water effect, then adjust the dial to Shutter Priority to specify just the shutter speed and let the camera do the rest. Obviously the best way to learn the correct balance is using full manual controls, and by looking at the viewfinder you can often see instant feedback to the changes you have made, i.e. increasing aperture (lower number) will see a lighter image reflected on the screen.
All in all, pick up your camera and get shooting, it’s the only real way to learn.

(Pictures Below: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO. In that order...)

 http://www.digitalrev.com/article/understanding-the-three-basic-elements/NDI4NzI5MzY_A

My daughter!

This is my beautiful Baby girl. She is a year old this January and she is my world! I love taking pictures of her, and even though she cannot say it, she loves her picture taken! I love this photo because it is very simple, Black and White (My personal favorite), and I love that you can see her shadow! It's a profile and it was a very happy accident that I even got this shot! I took this picture using my Canon T3 and 18mm-55mm zoom lens. I love sharing my photos with people, even if (like this one), its just a personal family picture! I hope you enjoy.
(Share my blog all you want, but please do not take my photos!!)