Pictures

Night photography

Night Photography is by far one of the most challenging types of photography. Because a simple mistake or hand movement can spoil the whole picture. That is why photographers use steady tripods to take Night scenery shots.
I learnt something about night photography in this site. It says that the secret into getting nice night shots is to use a good tripod, a small aperture, a slower shutter speed and a polarizer filter. These can in turn contribute to the image quality of the shot. I tried that out recently and the results were amazing!

I have never actually attempt to try out underwater photography. Firstly, I don’t have the equipment to do so. Secondly, given a choice I would not want my camera to go down a few metres under water. But I do admire people who have the courage to do it, and their pictures turn out amazing. Basically, for underwater photography, a custom set of settings is needed to shoot underwater as the environment down below doesn’t allow the camera to automatically give a comfortable setting. In addition, a light source must be needed to shoot underwater as it tends to get very dark at the bottom of the sea bed especially when you want to photograph sea creatures of plants.

flash photography

I love flash photography. I find that when I photograph using flash, the flash brings out the beautiful colours and contrast to pictures taken.
However, I have always had a burning desire to find out what strobing was. Strobing is basically a sort of off-camera flash photography. It requires one or more external flashes of a camera to shoot. Usually, photographers will have a flash mounted on the camera which must have a Master Function. By using the Master function, it will be able to trigger the other flashes known as Slaves. But the flashes must be synchronised with the Master flash mounted to the camera.
In addition, there are these devices called a Pocket Wizard which doesn’t require a Master flash, it uses infra red laser beams to trigger a flash as far as 100 metres away.

Modes

The thing which attracts people to DSLRs is 2 things. Firstly, Image quality of pictures taken is superb. Secondly, photographers can play around with the different modes. There are close to 10 different modes in a DSLR camera but I will only cover 4 important ones. They are, Manual (M), Aperture (Av), Shutter (Tv) and Programme (P) modes.
Manual Mode is quite a tough mode to use as photographers can control both Shutter speed and aperture. This mode requires photographers to know their environment well and the correct settings to use as a slight mistake can damage the whole picture.
The Aperture Mode is my favourite mode to use, also by many others. In this mode, by adjusting the aperture value (Av), you can adjust the shutter speed, the depth of field, the quality of images. The quality of images is especially so because at a bigger aperture, the sharpness of images lessens as the focus of shots taken are very thin.
In Shutter Mode, also known as Timing Value (Tv), only the shutter speed can be adjusted. Personally, I don’t like using this Mode because it is really a challenge to adjust shutter speeds as compared to Aperture Mode.
For Programme Mode (P), it is just the same as using AUTO mode on a normal camera. The camera will automatically provide the camera with the best settings suitable for the particular situation. However, this function doesn’t really attract me as I would rather control the settings myself. This function does suit people who want to have the rugged feel and yet don’t know much about camera settings.
Personally, for me, I only use Av and M modes in the camera. Av mode is for my everyday use and M mode for flash photography.

ISO

“Conventional film comes in different sensitivities (ASAs) for different purposes. The lower the sensitivity, the finer the grain, but more light is needed. This is excellent for outdoor photography, but for low-light conditions or action photography (where fast shutter speeds are needed), more sensitive or "fast" film is used which is more "grainy".
Likewise, digital cameras have an ISO rating indicating their level of sensitivity to light. ISO 100 is the "normal" setting for most cameras, although some go as low as ISO 50. The sensitivities can be increased to 200, 400, 800, or even 3,200 on high-end digital SLRs. When increasing the sensitivity, the output of the sensor is amplified, so less light is needed. Unfortunately that also amplifies the undesired noise. Incidentally, this creates more grainy pictures, just like in conventional photography, but because of different reasons. It is similar to turning up the volume of a radio with poor reception. Doing so will not only amplify the (desired) music but also the (undesired) hiss and crackle or "noise". Improvements in sensor technology are steadily reducing the noise levels at higher ISOs, especially on higher-end cameras. And unlike conventional film cameras which require a change of film roll or the use of multiple bodies, digital cameras allow you to instantly and conveniently change the sensitivity depending on the circumstances”
This week, I will be covering on what ISO is. Many people might not be aware of what is it, but ISO is actually a form of a speed to help boost a DSLR’s shutter speed. The advantages of it are that if you were in a dark environment and need a faster shutter speed to shoot, ISO comes in very handy. And especially now with better technology, ISO speeds can go to as high as ISO 12 800 compared to ISO 1600 almost eight years ago.
However, ISO has its disadvantages as well. If too high a ISO speed is used for an image. The image quality will turn out very bad, the pixel-like dots you see on the.”

Aperture

“An aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.”
This is my favourite week. Why? Because I love really aperture very much. Besides ISO, which I will be covering on it next week, Aperture is the function that I hold very dear to. Aperture affects almost every possible outcome in a picture. It affects the shutter speed, the quality of images, and the sharpness of images taken. It also affects the Depth of Field of a picture. The depth of field is the blured part of a photograph you see.Aperture is used by the term F-stop