Four Settings

03/24/2025

Every time you take a photo, you need to keep an eye on 4 settings on your camera.

They are: Shutter speed, Aperture, Whitebalance, and ISO. They all work together to produce pretty photos. Let's talk about them.

Shutter speed

The shutter is kind of like your eyelid. It controls how much light gets into your camera system by how long it's open. If a photo is blurry, it's usually because of the shutter speed. Too slow a shutter speed results in blurry photos; too fast, you lose a lot of light. For sharp images, you want your shutter speed to be fast enough to avoid blurring and slow enough to let in enough light. There may be instances where, for artistic reasons, you want some blur -- and you can do that, too, once you understand how the shutter works. 

We spend all of class 2 in the Photography 1 course on the shutter. We look at what it does, how it does it, why you should care, and how you might use the shutter artistically. We then do a demonstration, taking everyone through a range of shutter speeds, so students can see what that looks like, and then there is an assignment where everyone gets to practice what they've learned, to further cement the freshly gained knowledge in their brain. In the next class, we look at how everyone did before we move on to the aperture.

Aperture 

The aperture works kind of like the iris of your eye. It controls how much light gets into your camera system by how wide it's open. Your aperture setting determines the depth of field in your photo - whether your background and foreground are sharp or fuzzy. If you set your aperture to a smaller number, your background and foreground will be fuzzier. A higher number will make your photo generally sharper. Again, there are artistic considerations to this, and once you know how to use the aperture setting properly, you will know how to create some very pleasant effects in your photos. Class 3 of Photography 1 is all about aperture and lenses. 

Whitebalance:

Well, now I'm all out of eye comparisons. Whitebalance is responsible for color cast, or lack thereof, in your photos. You use it to tell the camera what light source you're using. Indoor light and outdoor light can be quite different, of course, and your camera needs to be set accordingly. And here's an extra tip to keep in mind: if you take a photo that looks bluish or weirdly orange, your whitebalance setting is the culprit. Class 5 of Photography-1 is all about light, lighting, and whitebalance.

ISO

ISO setting determines how sensitive your camera is to the amount of light in a scene. This can be helpful, of course, but you also need to be cautious that you don't push it too far. If you do, you may see noise in areas of your image that are supposed to be dark. It may sound strange to talk about seeing noise. What's next ... hearing colors? In photography, noise actually shows up as speckles of color, and the more sensitive you make your camera system to light, the more you risk it looking like someone scattered a handful of ice cream sprinkles over the darkest parts of your image. In class 4 of Photography-1 we look at ISO and how you use it together with the shutter and aperture to manage exposure.

To try this out, maybe look at the Try This blog post or join us for a Photography-1 course.

UV Filters: Yes or No?

03/13/2025

TL;DR: Don't use a UV filter. - Because it's not doing what you think it does.

Once you have a great camera, you may begin thinking about accessories for it. Or you may even encounter a camera salesperson who pushes you to buy all kinds of "necessary" options -- and salespeople can be pretty convincing. It can be hard to sort out what accessories are worth it and which ones are best to skip. One that falls into the "skip it" category for me is a UV filter, and I'll tell you why.

A UV filter's purpose is right there in the name: it keeps ultraviolet light out of your camera system. Ultraviolet light is high-energy light, and the human eye cannot perceive it. Film, however, is very sensitive to UV light. The closer you get to the equator, the more ultraviolet components the light will have. The light will be harder and harsher. Left unfiltered, this will result in bluish, hazy photos. IF you have a film camera. By all means, if you are using a film camera, and especially if you're going to be photographing in the equatorial latitudes, use a UV filter.

Most of us, though, are not using film cameras. They have been mostly replaced by digital cameras, and digital cameras are a whole different story when it comes to ultraviolet light. The chips in digital cameras are most sensitive to light at the exact opposite end of the spectrum: infrared light. So much so, in fact, that in order to make cameras operate in the range of light that the human eye can see, manufacturers build an infrared filter into their cameras. In other words, digital cameras need to be modified to make chips sensitive enough to visible light to capture an image in the first place. Digital cameras cannot even perceive ultraviolet light, and so they certainly do not need a filter to screen it out.

Some people might tell you that even though a digital camera doesn't need to have ultraviolet light filtered out, a UV filter is still necessary to protect the lens from direct sunlight exposure. This may sound like a good idea, and I won't argue that protecting your lens is a good idea. What I will argue, however, is that a lens hood is a better choice than a UV filter. The lens hood protects your lens by keeping light from hitting the first layer of glass. This eliminates lens flares in your images. A lens hood also provides a physical barrier that can help protect your lens from scratches and accidental bumps. I suppose a UV filter would do that, too, but remember that a lens hood is often included at no extra charge with a lens, whereas a UV filter is a separate accessory. And if a lens hood gets scratched, it's not too big a deal. If a filter that fits on the front of your lens gets scratched, or heavens forbid, broken, it will no longer be usable and might end up damaging your lens. That happened to me a long time ago when I was still using film. 

Making Flash Work for You

01/29/2025

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that one of the properties of light is quantity — how much light is available in the scene you’re trying to photograph. (If this doesn’t sound familiar and you’d like to learn more about the properties of light, go check out the post titled On Light.) Photographing in low-light conditions can range from difficult to impossible, depending on how little light you’re working with and whether or not you have any specialized equipment than can help compensate. There is, of course, flash photography, and it’s not a new concept. In the mid-1800s, photographers would light off fast-burning chemicals to illuminate their subjects. Thrilling perhaps, but not too reliable … and more than a bit dangerous. 

Thankfully, the technology has evolved quite a lot since then, but even modern flash equipment doesn’t always give you pleasing results. In my world, there are two kinds of flash equipment: those that can make pretty light and those that can't. I guess you may be mostly dealing with the latter. A flash promises to make light to help with the exposure. It does not guarantee that it's going to be pretty. So if you do practice flash photography, you may just need to knock down your expectations some.

That being said, though, you can use your flash to help with your photos. If you look at your camera’s flash, there are basically two different types you may see. If your flash is always on your camera and pops up to enable you to use it, that’s called a built-in flash. If your flash slides into a receptacle on the top of your camera (called a hot-shoe), that’s an on-camera flash. Both of them are very small and, in my humble opinion, at the wrong location to light your subject nicely.

If either a built-in or an on-camera flash are used as the main light source of light to illuminate your scene, your image will look like a typical 'flash' photo. I hate those. The light is a bit harsh and a bit flat. It will document the scene, but it will not produce an image that will make someone think “what a great photo!”

If you use a built-in or on-camera flash in combination with the existing light, however, the results can be quite pretty. I love those.

Let me tell you how to do it:

If you have taken our Photography 1 course, you will know how to get the correct exposure mode for the scene you are about to photograph. (And if you haven't, you can learn more about it at Photography-1). Get your settings of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed as you would normally do. You can even underexpose to make the picture a little more moody. You’ll know your photo is underexposed when you see that the needle on your light meter is somewhere left of zero when you look through the viewfinder. 

Now turn on your built-in or on-camera flash and set it to fully automatic (something like ETTL or some such). Your flash will now try to light the scene, filling in mostly the area that is closer to the camera. If the background that is lit by the existing light is not too dark, the photo can actually be quite pretty. Go try it. It may need some experimenting, but it will be so worth it.

On Light

01/20/2025

TL;DR:

The quality of light will have the biggest impact of the mood in your photos.

Light is essential for photography. In fact, the word photography means painting with light. Light is wonderful to work with. It doesn’t smell, leaves no dust, and requires no cleanup. It can be a gorgeous component of your photographs and set the general mood and feeling for scenes and photo opportunities. And yet, some photographers can be a little scared by the concept when they start out. I was too, I admit. What helped me greatly was when someone broke it down for me so I could deal with light properties one at a time, wrap my head around them, and figure out how to use each of them. I hope it’ll help you as well.

Light has 4 properties:

Quantity

The quantity of light is just about how much light is available. We use the camera controls of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to set the camera for the available light in the location where we’re shooting.

Quality

The quality of light deals with how soft or hard your light is. It goes like this:

A small light source and a large subject will result in hard light.

A large light source and a small subject will result in soft light.
The quality of light is, in my opinion, the most important property to manage when taking photos. When you have an unfavorable light quality, the other properties are meaningless. That photo is not going to work. Look for the right light quality first. And then remember: even when your light quality is what you’re hoping for, you still have to manage the others to get a decent photograph. 

Direction 

The direction of light is based on where the light is coming from to the subject, as seen from the camera's position.

Color 

The color of light depends on the light source. The sun is yellowish, light bulbs are orange, fluorescent light is slightly greenish, and so forth. You should set your camera’s white balance setting to correspond with the light source you’re using.

How to use this information:

We set the camera to the quantity and color of light using exposure settings and the white balance setting. What is left is the quality of light and the direction. These are essential for the artistic feel of your photos and what we should be paying attention to, mostly.

The quality of light, essentially the difference between soft (diffused) and hard (direct) light, sets the mood of our photos. For portraits, peaceful landscapes, and serene scenes, softer light is often appropriate and more harmonious with the subject matter. You may find that a softer light is generally what you’re looking for in 95% of the cases unless you’re a street photographer. Street photography can benefit significantly from hard lighting. 

We love being outside when it’s sunny and warm, relishing the lovely weather. The lighting on such days will be hard light, and depending on what you’re photographing, you may not like the high contrast and harsh shadows. Photographing on overcast days or taking photos early in the morning or towards the evening gives you a softer light. That “golden hour” light around sunrise and sunset can also add a lovely warmth to your photos.

If you find yourself outdoors for a portrait session on a bright and sunny day, look for spots that shade your subject and the background. That way, the light on your subject will be softer and better balanced with the light on the background.

If you’re doing street photography, you may be looking for scenes that offer the harder light and glitziness quite often found right after a rain shower. You’ll find deep black pavements with areas reflecting colorful advertising lights to set your scene. Now, you need to look for how all these lights and shadows shape your frame, showcasing your subject(s) dramatically.  

On to the direction of light:

The direction in which the light falls onto the subject depends on the camera position. If you photograph a portrait, you can change the camera position to change the direction of light.  

For portraits, there are 2 lighting directions to avoid. One is ghoul lighting, which you get if the light source is below the subject, lighting up. The telltale is that if the nose's bottom is brighter than the top, you have ghoul lighting. The second one isn’t that dramatic, maybe more of a preference. If the light falls on your subject from the same direction from which you’re taking the photo, that’s front lighting. We generally try to avoid that, but I’m finding, depending on your subject and the scene, it’s often not the end the world.

If you want to learn more about lighting and how it affects your photos, look into our Photography-1 through 3 courses and workshops. Lighting is usually a big part of any portrait-related course or workshop.