Blog4photo.com

Photography terms: ISO Value

admin — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:41:03 +0000

ISO value was firstly used in film cameras. It defined the sensitivity of a film in different units such as ASA, DIN and other. For example there were different ISO values such as 25 ASA, 50 ASA, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 ASA and other, so that was the sensitivity of a film where the lower number meant lower sensitivity. Now when buying films, you can usually find them with 100 or 200 ASA, which is written on a film so you can see it. If you have some films beside you, check for yourself! Films sensitivity is being different by the different size of dots from which the film is being formed, in other words, different sizes of dots or cells that accept light and form a picture. Smaller means smaller dots and less sensitivity, so the bigger number means bigger dots. By the way, films with bigger light sensitivity need less light to form a picture and inversely. So it is logical to always use the more sensitive film, but there is one problem - when you take a photo off the film and put it on a paper, the dots could be seen and they are not so pleasant to be seen. So the most common ISO values, as I said are between 100 and 400 ASA. (more…)

Photography tips: Portrait photography

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:48:43 +0000

When making portraits, same as for shooting anything else, imagination is the most important but before that you must satisfy some rules, and as a first of them is to have a portrait lens on your SLR (DSLR) camera, or just by zooming you achieve bigger focal length. So when shooting portraits use the maximum zoom. Second thing to have in mind is the rule of third, and that means to put the important parts such as eyes, hands, head, on those dividing lines. Third important thing is to avoid chaotic backgrounds so the main point of interest of viewer will be only what you meant to be. As I said in black&white photography the photographed person must be brighter or darker than the background so it would have better contrast. (more…)

Photography school: Rule of thirds

admin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:01:35 +0000

Same as for painting, in photography actually in choosing a shot you must have one simple but very important rule - Rule of thirds. This could be best seen on all the landscape photos such as on the Dusk, and the others. The main thing is to divide the frame on three sections horizontally and vertically and to put the most important crossings of the landscape right on that dividing lines. (more…)

Photoshop tips:Colour photos 2 black & white part 1

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:36:41 +0000

Since I wrote about some of the important things in black&white photography, here is some easy tip to convert your color photos to black&white in few easy steps. Enjoy the clip and I hope it’ll help you a bit.

Photography school: Black & White

admin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:19:44 +0000

Maybe some of you think that B&W photography died, but be sure that even now they are valued more than color photography. One of the reasons for that is hardness of making good B&W photos. To make them look good you have to satisfy many criteria. For example, contrast, which can be compensated in color photography by different colors, must be perfect. If you are photographing people (portrait photography, life photography) the difference in exposure between people and background must be big so they wouldn’t merged. Knowledge of how colors look like in B&W is also very important so that a good contrast could be achieved. (more…)

Photography tips: Photographing experience

admin — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:18:31 +0000

Today was just another day same as any other, but this time, after finishing some obligations, I found a little time to go to walk around the city and take some photos. I was actually going only for a walk but of course took my camera. The time was between 6 and 10 p.m. so the sun was on my side. As you probably already know, the best time for photographing is early in the morning and in late evening. And even in that period, photographing portraits is recommended only when sun rays don’t directly fall on the face of a person (when there are clouds on a sky or in a shadow), so you would avoid dark shadows on a face of a photographed person. Here are some photos I made today, hope you’d like them so write some comments.

Photography terms: Focal length

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:31:16 +0000

This term is not so known to those who use non SLR cameras, because to be understandable for non SLR cameras is used term zoom and marked with a number. That number (for example 5x) shows how many times can the angle of view be shortened in the maximal zoom than in the minimal. And the angle of view is determined by a the focal length which actually shows the distance between the first optical surface of the lens and the image sensor or a film in earlier times. Real focal length is marked in millimeters and since the fixed focal length lenses are rare, most common are zoom lenses. For example 28-135 mm lenses have almost 5x zoom (135/28). (more…)

Photography tips: Night photography

admin — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:23:35 +0000

Unlike the situations where you achieve astonishing effects with short shutter speed by stopping cars, water and everything that otherwise moves, by using a longer shutter speed you let more light to participate in making a picture and moving objects leave a trace and some kind of motion. You can use this when you have less light than needed, especially between dusk and dawn. The longest shutter speed that gives satisfying results when shooting from hand is actually a number that defines focal length of the lens. That is in case you know your focal length, but if you don’t, the photos are usually unusable when shutter speed is longer than 1/45, but it also depends on stillness of your hand. (more…)

Photography terms: Aperture

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:00:45 +0000

Like the shutter speed, the aperture also defines the amount of light that falls on a film or image sensor (in a digital camera). But unlike the shutter speed it looks like a hole which can be more or less opened during the exposition, and that way in case of more opened aperture, needed shutter speed for making a solid photo is shorter. That is why lenses for SLR cameras with bigger apertures are more valuable. The reason is that in many situations you need as shorter shutter speed as possible and that is available with bigger aperture sizes. The aperture size is defined by numbers, usually as: (more…)

Photography terms: Shutter speed

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:55:31 +0000

In yesterday’s post, I only mentioned shutter speed as one of the manual functions of photographic cameras. If you do have manual functions on your camera, this is something you should know. The picture, whether you are using a Film or a Digital camera, is being made only by the light which is passing through the lens and forming a picture on a film or image sensor (in a digital camera). Shutter’s position is between the lens and these light (photo) sensitive materials, so it’s function is to let the light pass trough for a certain time, and then close. Even if you don’t know this, that is happening every time. (more…)