Hi! I have had some questions recently of poeple asking for some photography tips, so I thought why not have a whole begginers photography class?!
I am no way near a proffesional photographer, I don't know very much compared to the proffesionals, but I thought I could share what I do know with you all!
Todays lesson is:
Sometimes people could be talking about a ceirtan photography technique, and you would be thinking, huh? I used to be like that, too! Here are some terms that will be very useful...
Ambient Light - Natural lighting that is not supplied by the photographers themselves. E.g. if you were looking out a window, the light coming in would be ambient light. If you were in a studio with big lights shining on you, that would not be ambient light.
Apeture - Apeture is the lens opening. The more open the apeture is, the more light that comes in. This also effects your shutter speed. The smaller the apeture, the less light and faster shutter speed, and the more open the apeture, the more light that comes in and a slower shutter speed. Apeture can be named different names depending on what size they are, and the names usually start with f numbers.
Aspect Ratio - The size of the photograph. They are measured in ratios, width to heigh. If the width was 6 inches, and the height was 4 inches, the aspect ratio of the photograph would be 6:4.
Autofocus (AF) - A camera that automatically focuses on the subject, and you don't have to manually control where the focus will be in the image.
Automatic Camera - A camera that automatically controls the lens opening, shutter speed and exposure.
Backlighting - Light that is behind the subject, and the subject stands out a great deal, also known as the silhouette effect.
Bounce Lighting - If you take a photo with the flash, and bounce the light behind the camera instead of the light on the subject.
Bokeh - When the background is blurred in a photo and the subject is very focused, the background might appear as small circles. These are more common when taken in an area with lot's of little lights.
Camera Angles - Different angles the camera can take photos of a subject. The could take photos from the left, right, birds eye view, front facing, below - there are many different angles you can photograph with.
Candid Photos - Photos taken of people when they don't know, and they haven't posed or smiled at the camera. They might have laughed with their friends and had a candid photo taken of them all laughing.
Close up - A Photo taken very up close to a subject, and you can get very close with a macro lens. Close ups can often be taken of insects, flowers and more.
Composition - The appealing way a photo has been arranged. If you were photographing pictures for a photography book, you could compose it with the main subject -the food, foreground - a placemat, background - the kitchen, and supporting objects - cutlery.
Contrast - The difference in the light to dark areas of a photo. It is the brightness range of a subject or the scene lighting.
Cropping - Only using part of the image, and cropping out the unwanted parts. You can also crop to make the file size smaller.
Depth of Field (DOF) - When the camera focuses on a subject close to the camera, and the background, or things in the distance become very blurry.
Double Exposure - In a film camera, when a photo is taken, and another photo is taken over the top of it.
Exposure - How much light is allowed to come into the camera. This is controlled by the lens opening and shutter speed.
Filter - A coloured piece of transparent material placed over the lens to change the colour or appearance of the image.
Finder - The eyepiece you look through to see what you're taking a picture of.
Flash - A very fast flash of light projected from the camera, used when the subject you are photographing is dark or in a dark area. E.g. You can use the flash to take photos outside at nighttime.
F-number - The number used to measure the size of the opening of the lens. The larger the f-number, the smaller the opening of the lens, therefore the less light that comes in and the quicker shutter speed.
Focus - You can adjust the focus of a photo to make sure that it is clear. If you don't focus the image will be blurry. You can also manually adjust the focus to have the subject in focus and the background and surroundings blurry, which is called Depth of Field.
Foreground - The space between the camera and the subject.
Frontlighting - Light shining on the side of the subject who is facing the camera.
Graininess - When a photo is blurry in some parts, it may appear grainy or sandy.
Highlights - The lightest parts in an image.
Lens - One or more pieces of glass put together designed to catch rays to create images on film.
Macro Lens - A lens designed to capture very close up images of smaller subjects, such as insects or flowers etc.
Memory Card - A card that goes into your camera that holds all your images on it until you delete them.
Over Exposure - When a photo is over exposed, the camera has let too much light in and therefore is way too bright.
Panorama - A very long view of a photo - it has a large width.
Print - A image you have taken that you have printed out onto paper or a similar material.
Shutter - The blades in a camera that open and close to take the photo. The whole time the shutter is open it is taking a photo. The longer the shutter is open the more light that comes in, and makes the image brighter.
Simple Camera - A simple camera is a camera that doesn't have very many options for the picture taker to change. E.g. They cannot manually adjust the shutter speed or apeture etc.
Tripod - A stand that your camera sits on, so that it doesn't move, or for example you can use the self timer to take a group photo while the camera is on the tripod.
Under Exposure - An image becomes under exposed when not enough light is let into the camera, and it appears darker than in real life.
Unipod - A one legged stand that you can use to keep your camera steady.
Zoom Lens - A lens you can use on your camera to zoom up to an object far away from you to photograph it. E.g. You could photograph a bird in a tall tree using a zoom lens.
I hope that you have learned something today! In lesson two of Let's Take Some Photos I will teach you all about lighting, and using natural lighting to take photos of human subjects! xoxo, Emily
