Depth of Field

Depth of field is the area of the image that appears in focus from foreground to background and is determined by a
combination of the opening of the aperture and the focal length of the lens. A small aperture setting results in
greater depth of field.
Controlling depth of field is one of the easiest ways for a photographer to compose the image. By limiting the depth
of field of an image, the photographer can turn the attention of the viewer on the subject in focus. Often, limiting the
depth of field of an image helps eliminate clutter in the background. On the other hand, when shooting a landscape,
you want the image to have great depth of field. Limiting the depth of field to the foreground would not make sense.

Telephoto lenses  long focal lengths

Wide-angle lenses  short focal lengths

Keep in mind that aperture impacts depth of field. If you need to go with a larger aperture you decrease the depth of
field and more of your shot will be out of focus.

Shutter Speed

Photographers often use shutter speeds to convey or freeze motion

A fast-moving object, such as a car, tends to blur when shot with a slow shutter speed like 1/8.
On the other hand, a fast shutter speed, such as 1/1000, appears to freeze the blades of a helicopter while it’s
flying.

The relationship between the aperture and shutter is known as reciprocity. Reciprocity gives the photographer
control over the depth of field of the image, which controls the area of the image that remains in focus.

Digital Image Sensor

When the reflective light from the photographed subject passes through the lens and aperture, the image is
captured by the digital image sensor. A digital image sensor is the computer chip inside the camera that consists of
millions of individual elements capable of capturing light. The light-sensitive elements transform light energy to
voltage values based on the intensity of the light. The voltage values are then converted to digital data by an
analog-to-digital converter (ADC) chip. This process is referred to as analog-to-digital conversion. The digital
numbers corresponding to the voltage values for each element combine to create the tonal and color values of the
image.

A camera’s resolution capability is measured in megapixels. This measurement is based on the number of millions
of pixels of image information that can be captured by the light-sensitive elements on the digital image sensor.
Thus, a 15 megapixel camera is capable of capturing 15 million pixels of information.

ISO

International Standards Organization (ISO) has provided a benchmark rating of the relative sensitivity of film.

The higher the ISO rating, the more light sensitive a particular film/image sensor is. Higher ISO films require less
light to record an image.

Unfortunately, at higher ISO settings (400 ISO and above), some cameras have difficulty maintaining consistent
exposure for every single pixel in the image.
To increase the sensitivity of the digital image sensor in these situations, the camera amplifies the voltage received
from each image sensor element prior to converting the signal to a digital value. As the voltage signals from each
element are amplified, so are anomalies within solid dark colors. This results in sporadic pixels with incorrect bright
color values, also known as digital noise (Digital noise is the polka-dot effect in images with long exposures or
images shot at high ISO settings in low-light situations).

If there is plenty of light, I want little grain, I’m using a tripod and my subject is stationary I will generally use a pretty
low ISO rating.

However if it’s dark, I purposely want grain, I don’t have a tripod and/or my subject is moving I might consider
increasing the ISO as it will enable me to shoot with a faster shutter speed and still expose the shot well.
Of course the trade off of this increase in ISO will be noisier shots. There are two good noise reduction software
programs called “Noise Ninja” or “Neat Image”

Color Temperature of Light

Color temperature is a term used to describe the color of light. Every light source has a color temperature. However,
color temperature refers to the color value of the light rather than its heat value. Light’s color temperature is
measured in units called Kelvin (K). This temperature scale measures the relative intensity of red to blue light.
Warmer light—light that tends to cast an orangish-red tint across the image - has a lower temperature. Neutral or
balanced light occupies the midranges, and has no effect on the image’s color values because of its white qualities.
Cooler light—light that is blue in appearance—has a higher temperature

Candle 1930 K
Sunlight at dawn 2000 K
Tungsten lamp (incandescent indoor lamp) 2400 K
Typical indoor fluorescent bulb 3000 K
Photographic lamp 3200 K
Photoflood lamp 3400 K
Clear flashbulb 3800 K
Sunlight at noon 5400 - 5500 K
Blue flashbulb 6000 K
Electronic flashbulb 6000 K
Average daylight 6500 K
Blue sky 12000 - 18000 K

When you take a photograph with a digital camera, the color temperature of the scene is not taken into account until
the image is processed by the camera’s processor. The camera refers to its white balance setting when it processes
the image. When the camera’s white balance is set to auto, the camera assumes the brightest value is white and
adjusts all other colors in the image accordingly. If the brightest value is white, the colors in the image are rendered
correctly. If the brightest color is yellow, the camera still assumes that value is white, and shifts all the colors out of
balance.

White balance is a mathematical process that calculates an image’s color temperature and applies the effects to the
color values in the image after the RAW image is stored. That color temperature data is stored as metadata in the
image. The digital data that makes up the original RAW file is unchanged. So, no matter what white balance or color
temperature setting was applied at the time the image was shot, the color temperature of the image can always be
corrected after the fact.

RAW

A camera’s RAW file is an un-interpreted, bit-for-bit digital image recorded by the camera when the image is
captured. Along with the pixels in the image, the RAW file also contains data about how the image was shot, such
as the time of day, the exposure settings, and the camera and lens type. This information is also known as
metadata.

RAW images store 16 bits per channel, with 12 to 14 bits per channel of color information

JPEG  8 bits per color channel

TIFF  8 or 16 bits per color channel

Camera Shake

You can eliminate camera shake by using a tripod or by increasing the shutter speed to a value higher than the
focal length. For example, if you’re shooting at a focal length equivalent to 100 mm, you should set your shutter
speed to 1/100 of a second or faster.
- set the shutter speed to be fixed at 1/200, which means that camera shake is generally not an issue

Red-Eye in Your Photos

Red-eye is the phenomenon where people have glowing red eyes in photographs. This is caused by the close
proximity of the flash (especially built-in flash) to the camera lens, which causes light from the subject to be reflected
directly back at the camera. When the flash fires, the light reflects off the blood in the capillaries in the back of the
subject’s eyes and back into the camera lens

Some cameras provide a red-eye reduction feature that fires a preflash, forcing the irises in your subject’s eyes to
close before you take the picture.
A more effective method is to use an external flash via the camera’s hot-shoe mount or, better yet, with an
extension bracket. An external flash radically changes the angle of the flash, preventing the lens from capturing the
reflection of the blood in the back of your subject’s eyes.

Settings for Indoor Photography

- Put you camera onto M for manual (this is the setting on Canon’s, not sure about other models).
- Set you aperture to as big as it will go e.g. F4.0 or F2.8.
- Set your shutter speed to around 1/60. It is hard to shoot handheld with anything below 1/60. As a rule of thumb
you should never shoot lower than your focal distance while handheld. Eg on a 50mm lense you should never shoot
lower than 1/50 sec.
- You will then need to use you external flash, if you can bounce your flash do this, if you have a catch light reflector
built into your flash even better.
- Take a few shots and see what they look like.
If they are not bright enough try bumping up your ISO to 200 then 400 and so on until you achieve an acceptable
result.

- The more important thing is that if you’re taking pictures of people doing anything but holding very still, you’re likely
to get blurred subjects at anything longer than 1/60th regardless of focal length.

- If you can’t bounce your flash (ie, you’ve go a point and shoot, or haven’t ponied up for an external for your SLR),
a makeshift diffuser/deflector can be effective. Try a napkin over the flash, or use a card angled up to bounce at the
ceiling. Nothing is worse than shooting a flash straight on, I’d rather lower the shutter speed and get a blurry shot. It
really prevents the flash problem of washing out your subject while the background remains dark. “I cranked up the
flash intensity and covered the flash with four layers of facial tissue and the colors came out much more realistically
without a great loss in brightness”.

Place a single layer piece of a white napkin over the flash as you us it or take a piece of aluminum foil and make a
2×3 inch square thick enough to hold shape and when your flas pops up place under flash with a slight angle up to
‘bounce’ the flash off your ceiling.

If you use AV mode, remember that in most cameras the camera will expose for the background which will require
the flash to light the subject. Additionally, in a dark room it will generally set the shutter too slow and you will get
motion blur. While this might be good if you are tracking your subject for an artistic effect, that effect will just look
blurry in all your other shots. I was used to using AV outdoors with great success but had to change my thinking
indoors.

Use can use Manual and set your camera up as follows ( especially for a newer SLR):
Biggest aperture you have (hopefully at least 2.8, if not spend the $100 and get a 50mm 1.8- you will be glad you
did). If you are using a P&S, do not zoom in as that will typically decrease your aperture and your on camera flash
will not be able to cover those distances anyway. ISO -800-1600 (depending on camera)
Shutter 1/100 Bounce flash if you can (if white ceiling less that 10ft high). If not, use a direct flash with a diffuser or
some method previously described.

The great thing about using manual is that you can let in as much light as the camera will allow and the SLR
exposure systems are smart enough to compensate with the flash. Make sure you take test shots to make sure your
camera is properly exposing your subject. The background may still be underexposed but at least the subject wont
say “I am that third dark blob on the right”.

The typical digital camera flash range is 6 to 10 feet,

Direction of light

The direction of sunlight, especially hard sunlight, changes how people look. Which direction is best? That depends
on the effect you're trying to achieve.
 Front light: Harsh sunlight shining directly into a person's face flattens the face and causes squinting.
 Overhead light: At midday, the sun is overhead and casts unpleasant facial shadows. Use the camera's flash to
lighten harsh facial shadows.
 Side light: Early and late in the day, position your subject so the sun strikes only one side of the face. With one
side of the face brightly lit and the other side in shadow, you will create a dramatic effect. To reduce the shadow
effect, use fill flash.
 Back light: Occurs when you position your subject facing away from the sun. This places your subject's face in
shadow, eliminating squinting and often adding an attractive glow to hair. Use fill flash to lighten your subject's
face.

For me, when I’m absolutely desperate for light without a flash, I use this technique:

1. Crank ISO as high as it will go

2. Shoot RAW if possible
3. Use aperture-priority with the lowest f-stop on the fastest lens I have (f1.8 or lower if you can).
4. If that still cases my shutter speeds to be too low to hand-hold, then I might even set exposure compensation
down a stop, which will increase the speed a little, and then I’ll push the exposure in post (preferably in RAW).
5. Lastly, I’ll use various forms of noise reduction to help on the grain/noise front.