Digital Single-lens Reflex Camera

Digital Single Lens-Reflex Camera, are digital cameras combining the parts of a single-lens reflex camera and a digital camera back, replacing the photographic film. The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a DSLR and other digital cameras. In the reflex design scheme, light travels through a single lens and a mirror is used to reflect a portion of that light through the view finder - hence the name Single Lens Reflex. The image that is seen through the viewfinder is also the image that is captured by the camera's sensor.

DSLR Camera Functions

• Auto Mode. This mode pretty much does exactly what it says on the dial. In Auto Mode, the camera will set everything for you -- from your aperture and shutter speed right through to your white balance and ISO. It will also automatically fire your pop-up flash (if you camera has one), when needed. This is a good mode to use while you familiarize yourself with your camera, and it is particularly useful if you need to photograph something quickly, when you don't have time to set the camera up manually. Auto mode is sometimes represented by a green box on the camera dial.

• Program Mode (P). Program Mode is a semi-automatic mode. The camera still controls most of the functions, but you are able to control ISO, white balance, and flash. For example, in Program Mode, you could prevent the flash from firing automatically and instead raise the ISO to compensate for low light conditions, such as when you don't want the flash to wash out the subjects' features for an indoor photo. Program Mode can really add to your creativity, and it's great for beginners to start exploring the camera's features.

• Aperture Priority Mode (A or AV). In Aperture Priority Mode, you have control over setting the aperture (or f-stop). This means that you can control both the amount of light that comes through the lens and the depth of field. This mode is particularly useful if you're concerned about having control over the amount of the image that is in focus (i.e. depth of field), and are photographing a stationary image that won't be affected by shutter speed.

• Shutter Priority Mode (S or TV). When trying to freeze fast moving objects, shutter priority mode is your friend! It's also ideal for times when you want to use long exposures. You'll have control over the shutter speed, and the camera will set the appropriate aperture for you. Shutter Priority Mode is especially useful with sport and wildlife photography.

• Manual Mode (M). This is the mode that pro photographers use most of the time, as it allows complete control over all the camera's functions. Manual mode means that you can adjust all functions to suit lighting conditions and other factors. However, using manual mode requires a good understanding of the relationships between different functions -- in particular of the relationship between shutter speed and aperture.

Aperture

An aperture is a hole or opening that light can travel through, so specifically, the aperture is an opening that determines the cone angle of rays that travel through. The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light. Typically a fast shutter will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure.

Diagram of decreasing aperture sizes (increasing f-numbers) for "full stop" increments (factor of two aperture area per stop)

Typical ranges of apertures used in photography are about f/2.8–f/22 or f/2–f/16, covering 6 stops, which may be divided into wide, middle, and narrow of 2 stops each, roughly (using round numbers) f/2–f/4, f/4–f/8, and f/8–f/16 or (for a slower lens)f/2.8–f/5.6, f/5.6–f/11, and f/11–f/22. These are not sharp divisions, and ranges for specific lenses vary.

ISO

In digital Photography ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The same principles apply as in film photography - the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is going to be to light, and the finer the grain.

Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) - however the cost is noisier shots.

When choosing ISO settings you should ask yourself:

1. Light - Is the subject well lit?

2. Grain - Do I want a grainy shot or one without noise?

3.Tripod - Am I using a tripod?

4. Moving subject - Is the subject moving or stationary?

If there is plenty of light, I want little grain, I'm using a tripod and my subject is stationary, it is probably good to use a low ISO rating.

Situations needing a higher ISO include:

Indoor Sports Events - Where your subject is moving fast yet you may have limited light available

Concerts - Also low in light and often 'no-flash' zones

Art Galleries, Churches - Many Galleries have rules against using a flash and of course being indoors are not well lit.

Birthday PArties - Blowing out the candles in a dark room can give you a nice moody shot which would be ruined by a bright flash, Increasing ISO can help capture the scene.

Shutter Speed

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open. 

The total exposure time, or duration of light reaching the film or image sensor.

For fast moving objects you will want a fast shutter speed, the slower the speed, the more bury the moving subject matter will be, having faster shutter speeds is important for this fact. 

In early days of photography, available shutter speeds were not standardized, though a typical sequence might have been 1/10 s, 1/25 s, 1/50 s, 1/100 s, 1/200 s and 1/500 s. Following the adoption of a standardized way of representing aperture so that each major step exactly doubled or halved the amount of light entering the camera (f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8, f/11, f/16, etc.), a standardized 2:1 scale was adopted for shutter speed so that opening one aperture stop and reducing the shutter speed by one step resulted in the identical exposure. The agreed standards for shutter speeds are:

• 1/1000 s
• 1/500 s
• 1/250 s
• 1/125 s
• 1/60 s
• 1/30 s
• 1/15 s
• 1/8 s
• 1/4 s
• 1/2 s
• 1 s

Setting up Shots

Safe use of tripods

A tripod is an important peice of equipment when going out to do photography, modern tripods are light and portable, and often come equiped with things to help you set up, such as spirit levels and ajustable angles and hight.

Uses:
Long lenses - large lenses are dificult to steady with your bare hands, and can add a bit of weight to the front of your camera, knocking you off balance, their long focal length magnifies any vibration caused by the camera shutter, or the wind. So a tripod can help you get the those steady shots, with no worry about blury pictures.

Slow Shutter Speeds - Slow shutter speeds make it very difficult to get a focused shot, as it's almost impossible for someone to hold the camera perfectly still for a prolonged amount of time, so a tripod is a must for a sharp picture.

Camera placement - Tripods can help you get a shot where it would usually be difficult for the photographer to get into, for example, inches off the ground where the photographer would need to kneel down, also allowing the user to comfortably take photos above his or her eye level.

Consistent comera position - When using a tripod, it frees you from the camera, meaning you can move around and ajust things in the shot, while keeping the camera in the exact position that you wanted.

Digital Cameras - When using digital photography a tripod can help improve the quality of pictures from lower end camera, as with cheaper cameras you can get issues like shutter lag. Digital cameras also need a slower shutter speed in general and are more suseptibal to blur, so a tripod is a must when working in a studio.

Studio Lighting Techniques

Paramount Lighting
Paramount lighting, also refered to as butterfly lighting or glamour lighting is a traditionally feminine lighting pattern that makes a symetrical butterfly-like shadow beneath the subjects nose, it tends to emphasize high cheekbones and good skin. It is less commonly used with men because it tends to hollow out cheeks and eye sockets too much.

Setup - The key light is placed high and directly in front of the subjects face, parrallel to the vertical line of the subjects nose, the fill light is placed at the subjects head height directly under the key light, the hair light, which is always used opposite to the key light, should light the hair only and not skim onto the subjects face, and the background light is used low and behind the subject.

Loop Lighting
Loop lighting is a minor variation to paramount lighting, and is typically used for subjects with avarage, oval-shaped faces.

Setup - The key light is lowered and moved more the the side of the subject, so the the shadow below the nose is a small loop on the shadow side of the face, the fill light is also moved being placed on the oposite side of the camera from the key light and close the the camera-subject axis. And the hair and background lights are used in the same way as they are in the paramount lighting setup.

Rembrandt Lighting
Rembrandt lighting, also known as 45-degree lighting is charactarised by a small, triangular highlight on the shadowed cheek of the subject. The lighting takes its name from the famous Dutch painter who used skylights to illuminate his subjects. This type od lighting is dramatic. It is most often used with male subjects and is commonly paired with a weak fill light to accuntuate the shadow-side highlight.

Setup - The key light is moved lower and farther to the side than in loop and paramount lighting. In fact, the key light almost comes from the subjects side, depending on how far from his head is turned from the camera. The fill lighrt is used in the same manner as it is for loop lighting, the hair light, however, is often used a little closer to the subject, for more brilliant highlights in the hair.
A kicker is often used to delineate the sides of the face and to add brilliant highlights to the face and shoulders, the background light is in the standard position.

Split Lighting
Split lighting occurs when the key light illuminates only half the face. It is an ideal slimming light, it can be used to narrow a wide face or nose. It can slo be used with a weak fill to hide facial irregularities. For a highly dramatic effect, split lighting can be used with no fill.

Setup - The key light is moved farther to the side of the subject and lower than in other setups. In some cases, the key light is acvtually slightly behind the subject, depending on how far the subject is turned from the camera, all the other lights are used normally.

Profile Lighting
Profile lighting is used when the subject's head is turned 90 degrees from the camera lens. It is a dramatic style of lighting used to accent elegant features. It is used less frequently now then in the past, but it still produces a styleish portrait.

Setup - The key light is placed behind the subject so that it illuminates the profile of the subject and leaves a polished highlight along the edge of the face. The key light will also highlight the hair and neck of the subject. Care should be taken so that the accent of the light is centered on the face and not so much on the hair or neck. The fill light is moved to the same sife of the camera as the key light and a reflector is used to fill in the shadows. A optional hair light can be used on the oppsites side of the key light for better tonal seperation of the subjects hair from the background, and the background light is used normally.

Composition

Camera Obscura

Camera obscura is a box that projects a picture of its surroundings on a screen or other surface, it is used in drawing and for entertainment, and it is also one of the inventions that led to photography, and the camera.

The device is usually a box or a room with a hole in the side to let light through, light passes through this hole and hits a surface inside and is reproduced upside-down, but with colour and perpective preserved.
The projection can be put onto a peice of paper or other convas and be traced to get a very accurate representation.
Using mirrors, it is possible to project a right side up version of your image, and a more portable version was a box with an angled mirror projecting onto tracing paper placed on the glass top, the image being upright as veiwed from the back. As the pinhole is made smaller the image gets sharper, but the projected picture becomes dimmer, however if the hole is made too small the sharpeness is made worse due to diffraction.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a guideline to be used when composing visual images like photos paintings and other designs, the guideline dictates that when taking a picture for example, you should imagine the picture as being split up into 9 equal parts, using two equally spaced horizontal lines, and two vertical, and then having the important elements of the picture to be placed along these lines or where they cross, it's said that placing your subjec matter along these lines makes the picture more interesting createing more tension and energy than simply placing them in the middle would.

For example,the picture of this adorable puppy below helps to demonstraight this point, as the puppy sits on the right line of this picture, also hitting two points where the lines cross facing to the left, this is often refered to as a power point, or a crash point. Also, the grass also sits on the lower horizontal line, as above that line the grass becomes out of focus, this helps split up the picture more.

 

 

 

 

Fibonacci Sequence

 

The Fibonacci Sequence, also known as The Golden Mean, is a sequence of numbers (duh), named after Leonardo Fibonacci, who made them noticed to the world in the thirteenth century.

Sometimes starting with 0 or 1, the sequence is made up by adding the last two numbers of the sequence together, so for example, if your started with 1, you would then get 1, then 2, then 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and this continues indefinately.

 

 

The way this is applied to photography is similar to the rule of thirds, in the rule of thirds you split the picture up into 3 equal sections, but with use of the fibonacci sequence, making what is also known as the golden ratio (which is 1:1.618...) you split the picture up into 3 unequal sections, 1:6.18:1, then you use the resulting lines and intersections to compose the picture.

 

 

The second method is more complicated, but also much more interesting to look at, this uses something called the golden rectangle, a golden rectangle is a rectangle where the sides are related to phi, but when you unhitch the length from its connections with the width, then swing it round the create a new length, you also get a goldren rectangle. If you continue to do this, then draw a curve from the corresponding corners of each square, you'll get a fibbonacci curve, which looks like this below.

To apply this to a picture you may want to create, simply place the subject matter at the centre of the spiral, and you will get what many artists like to call a natrually well composed picture.