Technical Photography Terms Demystified

Photographers have long been using different lingo to describe things, and if you are new to photography you might not know what they all mean.  I know that when I first started, I was so overwhelmed by the terms and technical details that go hand in hand with photography.   So, if you are new, do not lose hope! I am going to try to explain some common photography terms below.

Exposure Triangle

The exposure triangle consists of three variables. ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. These three variables effect your exposure depending on what settings you have.  A wide aperture will let in more light.  A slow shutter speed or a high ISO will also allow more light in your camera. These settings will need to be balanced to one another in order to achieve proper exposure.  To read more about how these elements work together go to this article here.

F-stop

F-stop refers to the aperture of the lens.  The aperture is the “iris” part of the lens, just like your eye.  It opens and closes to allow more or less light in.  A lower f-stop number means a wider (larger) opening (allowing more light). The higher the number is the smaller the aperture (opening) is (allowing less light in). When you see f/1.4 printed (or it might look like 1:1.4) on the side of the lens that means the widest aperture will be 1.4. The wider your aperture the smaller your depth of field will be.  

Shutter Speed

In your camera, the shutter allows light on to your camera’s sensor. A faster shutter speed will allow less light into your camera, and a slower shutter speed will allow more light into your camera. When you allow your shutter open for longer periods of time it can cause motion blur in your image.  Sometimes this can be used intentionally (like making the water look smooth on a waterfall).  Sometimes it is not a desired result but is your only option when your aperture is wide open, and your ISO is at it’s highest.  This happens in extreme low light conditions.  Here is an article that explains it further.

ISO

This is your camera sensor’s sensitivity to light.  The higher the number the more sensitive to light.  The lower the number the less sensitive it is.  Often times, the cost of setting your ISO number high the more likely it is to introduce grain or noise into your image.  Often times it is better to keep your ISO number high rather than lowering your shutter speed.  Grain is better than unintentional motion blur. 

Prime vs. Zoom lens

This refers to the focal length of a lens.  A zoom lens can change between a range of focal lengths where as a Prime lens has a fixed focal length.  So, with a zoom lens you can stay in the same place and turn the zoom ring to make your subject appear closer to or farther away.  With a Prime lens you will have to physically move closer to or farther away from your subject. Prime lenses are usually sharper and faster than a zoom lens, but zoom lenses have their place as well. 

Golden Hour and Blue Hour

Golden hour is the hour just before the sun sets.  This is when most photographers love to photograph because of the soft beautiful golden light.  The light is directional and easier to manage on a subject as opposed to hard midday light. Blue hour refers to that time frame where the sun has just set beyond the horizon and it hasn’t quite gotten fully dark yet.  At this time, the light is cooler and appears bluer.  This usually only lasts for about 20-30 minutes after sunset.

Blown out VS. Clipped blacks

This refers to the information lost in your camera.  If you have blown out highlights (or white areas) then you have lost detail in those areas.  This is due to overexposing in camera.  Conversely, you can clip your blacks.  This is where you are losing information in the shadows of your photograph.  This is due to underexposing in camera.  Your camera has less of a dynamic range than your eye does.  This means it cannot capture all of the detail where there is a large amount of contrast.  As technology improves cameras are able to retain more and more information in areas of high contrast.

Histogram

This is the graph that shows the distribution of light in an image.  The left side of the graph are your shadows and the right side of the graph are your highlights.  Ideally, you’d like to see the lines evenly distributed throughout the whole graph.  You don’t want the lines climbing too high one side or the other.  If you do, that means you are either blowing out highlights (climbing to the right side) or clipping your blacks (climbing to the left side).  Either way you are losing information that cannot be recovered in post-production.  Sometimes you cannot help it.  When you try to retain your highlights, you end up clipping blacks.  Sometimes when you try to retain your shadows you end up blowing highlights.  So, ultimately your exposure must be chosen by the photographer.  For more information go here. 

RGB vs CMYK

This is short for Red, Green, Blue.  These colors mix to give you a complete range of colors in digital photography.  You might hear this in comparison to CMYK.  Which is cyan, magenta, yellow and black. When you adjust the reds in photoshop you inversely effect the cyan color range.  When you adjust the green you inversely effect magenta.  When you adjust the Blue you inversely effect the yellows.  These colors work together to give you a full range of color. CMYK is typically used for printing, RGB is used for your computer and digital media. Here is an article that goes into further detail. 

I hope you found this helpful!  If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me! 

Thanks for reading!

Why You Should Create Self-Portraits

Creating artwork every day is HARD! I know I fail at this often. Life just gets busy and your camera is too far away. Like upstairs.  (I’m obviously speaking from experience, Ha!) The question is why should you create a self-portrait? Answer: Lots of reasons! 

Sometimes you need a cheap model to practice. 

That’s the truth! It’s hard to keep asking the people in your life to take their picture.  It wears them out, and it’s good for you to get yourself in front of the camera every once in a while. It’s also important to express yourself as an artist.  I know many photographers who are great at self-portraits. (Go here or here for an example.)  They use it to work through what they are feeling and experiencing.  It is important to stay inspired.  In order to stay inspired you can take a walk, draw, paint, try a new skill.  I like to try to recreate paintings or various artwork through photography.  For example: I used the painting by
Philip Alexius de László as my inspiration for the following photo.  

For this next one I used a painting by Edward Hopper.

Modeling in front of the camera helps you to sympathize with your subjects in your business and personal work.

Modeling is hard work. And when you get in front of the camera you will see just how hard it is.  Being able to move your own body in a way that translates into a good photo will help you direct your subject to carry out your vision when you’re behind the camera.  This is no easy feat! I know I am way more comfortable behind the camera rather than in front of it.  And now that I know that I can help my subject feel at ease.  Take notice if you are more comfortable looking away from the camera or straight at it.  I am a bit of an introvert, and I tend to like the ones where I am not looking right at the camera.  I am certainly more comfortable pretending the camera is not there!  Maybe that will translate to your introverted subject.   

Getting in the frame is important for you as a photographer too! 

Often times we as photographers are missing from all of the family photographs.  It is important to get yourself in the frame, to document those moments with your kids and to just show who you are/were. Someone who does this beautifully is Meg Loeks.  She makes it a point to always take a self portrait on her birthday, and she is always getting in the frame with her kids.  Try not to be intimidated by her level of talent!  Your kids are going to want to see you in the photograph, not just endless pictures of themselves.  (Although, that can be fun too.) Remember a self-portrait can simply include the details.  It doesn’t have to be your face necessarily.

How to do it:

I use the Nikon app on my phone called WMU. For Nikon you can find it here.  For Canon go here. It is very handy for cameras that have the wireless feature.  To turn on your wireless connection on your camera go to the set-up menu (the wrench icon) > Wi-Fi> Network connection>Enable.  Then use your phone to connect to your camera’s Wi-Fi. Then you can open your app, and you can choose to take pictures or view them.  Your battery must be charged to use this feature.  Using the app allows me to set the focus, which is perfect when you are using a shallow depth of field (wide aperture).  You can also use the self-timer.  You can choose however many photos you want at a time.  For this option, I have found it better to close down your aperture, for a wider depth of field.  It’s also good to set your focus with a stand in object, and then switch your lens to manual.  That way it doesn’t try to refocus when you walk in front of it, and you lose the focus all together.  If you don’t have a fancy digital camera, then just use the self-timer on your phone! Lastly, embrace the imperfections! Sometimes, you’ll have a whole set that is blurry.  But now is a good time to experiment. Remember, no one has to see them if you don’t want them to!

I hope you found this helpful! Thanks for reading.

3 Ways to Adjust your White Balance

You might ask, why is white balance important?  Adjusting your white balance correctly in camera will give you more natural colors, and therefore be easier to handle during post processing. Proper white balance will help you achieve perfect skin tones, and fight color casts.  If you don’t know what color casts are you can refer back to this blog I wrote earlier.   As you train your eye through practice and persistence you will begin to notice the glaring importance of white balance. There are a few different ways of handling your white balance.  The first is:

Auto

This is where your camera automatically adjusts the white balance for you.  In this setting the camera is giving you what it believes to be the best results. Auto white balance can be a good place to start, but it doesn’t always give you accurate result, especially in difficult lighting situations.  You can fine tune your auto white balance in most full framed cameras by adjusting the settings to shoot either warmer or cooler.  Shooting in auto is good in those circumstances (like a wedding) where the light is continually changing (such as moving from room to room) and you don’t have time to adjust it manually.  The second is:

White balance preset

You can adjust the white balance preset to accommodate the specific type of light that you are in.  There are normally 6 different settings including: Tungsten, Florescent, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash and Shade.   You can also set your white balance by using a gray card or an expo disc.  These are good to use if you’re not sure how to use Kelvin.  When I first started out, I used an expo disc.  It was a good tool to help me achieve the perfect white balance.   The third is:

Kelvin

What is Kelvin? Kelvin is the temperature of light.  You can manually adjust your Kelvin number in your camera to closest represent the color of light in a room.  I think that Kelvin is the most accurate and best way to adjust your white balance, and it is the method I prefer.  As you continue to perfect your white balance in camera and during post processing it will be easier to adjust manually using Kelvin. On my Nikon D750 you can adjust the numbers between 2,500-10,000.  5500 would be the most neutral in color, and it would represent the sun at noon. At the low end of the spectrum (2,500K) would be your very warm light, like candlelight.  At the high end of the spectrum (10,000K) you would have very cool light like in deep shade, or blue hour.  As you increase your Kelvin number the more you warm up your photo, and conversely the more you decrease your Kelvin number the cooler your photo will be.  For Example: If the light is very warm (like candlelight) you will need to offset that orange tint in camera with a cooler (lower) Kelvin number.  To use Kelvin, you will need to observe the light in front of you and how they are affecting your subject.  This comes with time and practice.  So be patient!  See the examples below.

 TIP: When I use Kelvin, I like to first take a picture of pavement, or something neutral in color. I then adjust my Kelvin number so that it looks as close as I can get it to the natural color of the pavement. This helps me have a good starting point.

Conclusion

So, in summary, there are three ways to adjust your white balance.  Auto, Preset, and Kelvin.  Kelvin is manually setting your white balance. Auto is letting your camera choose for you.  Preset isn’t as fine-tuned as Kelvin but can be adjusted according to the light that you are in by using a gray card, expo disc, or choosing the light setting. White balance is an important tool in making more accurate or artistically intentional coloring in your photographs.  I hope you have found this to be helpful!

Thanks for reading!