BASICS in photography

[eman campos]

Gurus;


I really know nothing about photography. Aside from megapixel, i know nothing more.

I was reading something about "focal point" awhile ago. It got me a good jumpstart on lenses.

This is the link;

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

But I need to know much more before I can have the confidence to claim that i really know the new hobby i'm trying to get into.

Gurus, would you be kind enough to help dummies like me get an understanding on these items?

1) Focal Length

2) ISO

3) Stacking

4) Stabilizers

5) Filters

6) Sensors

7) F-number (influence of lens aperture)

8) Depth of field

9) over-exposure/backlighting/fringing


Simply explain in your words the factors listed above.

Please add the other vital factors that I have not mentioned.

Thanks a lot.

[ppaaoolloo]

1) Ilang milimeters ang lens mo
2) Gaano ka-sensitive ang "body" sa ilaw
3) Baglagay ng teleconverter o extender
4) Para sa mga pasmado
5) Pag-tangal ng ilaw o uri ng ilaw
6) Yung "film" ng iyong kamera
7) Yung f/2.8 f/1.2 f/0.95 f/4 f/5.6 na nakasulat sa iyong lente.
8) Anong parte ng iyong letrato na di malabo
9) overexposure - masyadong ma-ilaw
backlighting - ilaw sa likod ng nililitrato mo
fringing - isang indikasyon ng mababang uri ng lente. lumalabas ito tuwing ginagamit ang lumang lente sa makabagong body. muka silang "halo" (pag-bigkas sa Ingles, di Tagalog) na nakaikot sa mga linya linya ng iyong nililitrato.
10) body - ay ang "DSLR" na walang lente.



adminnote:Admin Note: Paolo, we require posts to be in English. Posts in the vernacular are ok as long as we provide an English translation. Ref. - first forum rule.

[Lydia Robledo]

That was very good Paolo, very interesting. Husay mo (you are an expert) to translate in the vernacular.
I'm glad that you overlooked the rules when you posted this... iba dating (different approach or arrive? ), mas ok than the manual. That's why I never get to finish the manual, so boring he, he... but the Ka Mastah says ...translate! He, he translated is Ho, ho... I think. Cheerps, tely:D

[Lydia Robledo]

Eman, what I sometimes do is go to you tube. There are people who are so helpful in teaching how things work.
Like when I bought my 40D, I watched the demo on how it works. But the best is to go with the bird nuts in the field.
Like there was a time when Rey SA heard my slow shutter while photographing a flock of birds and he helped me adjust the settings. I ask Neon, or Doc. Chito or Doc Mando, the experts, their ISO when I am with them. Bobby K told me how to deal with backlights. Neon also shared that in the forum. Some people are good in theory. TINA IS MY IDOL. She said she does only HULA-HULA (guess, guess) and I guess I wanna learn that! tely:Ds

[ppaaoolloo]

Meaning no disrespect my mother tongue is English but it has been my experience that the best way to comprehensively answer a technical question is to answer with the person's vernacular. I could easily just post URLs to each question but it may not have been as effective. I appreciate and personally prefer the need for English on the forum to have a more international crowd.

There are a lot of resources explaining photography in English but none in Tagalog. I find this odd seeming we Pinoys love taking photos.

My habit is to read the manual a chapter at the time in the hope that there are features I've overlooked that may help me take amazing photos.

With digital cameras it is down to how well you know your gear and the subject you're photographing.

[Romy Ocon]

Apr 25, 2009 17:24:15 GMT @ppaaoolloo said:

Meaning no disrespect my mother tongue is English but it has been my experience that the best way to comprehensively answer a technical question is to answer with the person's vernacular. I could easily just post URLs to each question but it may not have been as effective. I appreciate and personally prefer the need for English on the forum to have a more international crowd.

There are a lot of resources explaining photography in English but none in Tagalog. I find this odd seeming we Pinoys love taking photos.

My habit is to read the manual a chapter at the time in the hope that there are features I've overlooked that may help me take amazing photos.

With digital cameras it is down to how well you know your gear and the subject you're photographing.

To paraphrase dura lex sed lex, the rule might be harsh but the rule must prevail. Indeed, some phrases in the vernacular lose their flavor when translated, but we have to stick to English (or any local language with English translation) for the sake of our international members and readers.

I've seen many Asian forums, with much international membership and attention at the start, degenerate into regional/local membership only once the forum language shifted away from English.

[Romy Ocon]

Hi Eman,

With today's digital technology, practicing with your camera via trial and error will no longer cost you an arm and a leg, like when we were shooting film. So practice a lot and experiment with various setttings.

Likewise, the histogram is your best friend as far as exposure is concerned. Develop the habit of reviewing your histogram after each shot, so you can reshoot with adjusted exposure settings if necessary.

Shoot RAW (or RAW + jpeg if you're not comfortable with RAW yet, CF storage is now very cheap). There's bigger leeway to correct exposure and white balance errors with RAW.


The internet is full of resources (similar to your posted link) and you can easily find these links via google. When you have specific questions on gear, technique or fieldcraft, post it on the forum and I'm sure there are many of us who might have the right answers.

Apr 24, 2009 20:50:06 GMT eman campos said:

Gurus;


I really know nothing about photography. Aside from megapixel, i know nothing more.

I was reading something about "focal point" awhile ago. It got me a good jumpstart on lenses.

This is the link;

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

But I need to know much more before I can have the confidence to claim that i really know the new hobby i'm trying to get into.

Gurus, would you be kind enough to help dummies like me get an understanding on these items?

1) Focal Length

2) ISO

3) Stacking

4) Stabilizers

5) Filters

6) Sensors

7) F-number (influence of lens aperture)

8) Depth of field

9) over-exposure/backlighting/fringing


Simply explain in your words the factors listed above.

Please add the other vital factors that I have not mentioned.

Thanks a lot.

[Edu Lorenzo Jr]

Hi there,

Here is my take on these things. I'm answering not because I think I am an expert, I'm answering because I want you to stay here and go to other sites to learn later.

Ok, first you must understand THE most basic concept in photography. You have a box, with film inside. Then you open a hole, then light passes through and "burns" the image on the film.

1) Focal Length - this is the measurement of the lens when the photo was taken. It's basically the length of the lens when you clicked the shutter.

2) ISO - think of this as how thick or thin your film is. Higher ISO means thinner film. Thinner film means it burns easier. Hence, photos will register faster. This also means, more light will be absorbed by the film while the shutter is open and this will depend on how long the shutter is open. So, sometimes, to compensate during times when there is not enough light, and you can't use a slow shutter speed, you increase the ISO.

3) Stacking - I have no idea.

4) Stabilizers - this is the technology put in either the lens or the camera itself. This will allow you to take sharper photos even if the lens, the camera or the photographer is shaking.

5) Filters - these are additional lenses or glass that you put on top of your lens. There is a multitude of filters out there from UV, to Polarizers to "Magic" filters.

6) Sensors - in the digital age, this is what catches the light that passes through your lens. So you can also consider this as your film. So, the debate about which sensor is better, is the same and as open as which brand of film is better.

7) F-number (influence of lens aperture) - this is how big, or small the lens opening is, when the shutter is opened. Easy to get confused here as the size of the opening is in direct contrast to the number that represents it. The higher the number, the smaller the opening. Aperture influences your depth of field or how "deep" or "shallow" will the parts in focus will be. Rule of thumb here is the smaller the opening, the deeper the DOF. But this is also affected by distance so there is kind of a matrix to it. At F4, DOF is about 10% of the frame. So if your subject is near, say a YVB at about 15 feet away, if the bird is perpendicular to the camera body, and the focus in on the eye, the tail might not be totally in focus.

8) Depth of field - see above

9) over-exposure/backlighting/fringing - I have no idea too.

I hope this helps.

[eman campos]

Fellows;


Paolo's translation was very helpful. Sort of a quick way to learn it, .... and all with a big grin. ;D

Really helpful though.

Edulorenzo as well gave me the needed jumpstart. I am a technical guy. Or sort of. I need to know the details just to be able to fully understand it.

I've tried reading infos from the web but some items were explained vaguely or that these were too technical for newbies like me to understand clearly enough.

By the way, the responses were very helpful. It gave me the needed jumpstart.

Sir Romy's final word completed the guide. After getting the infos, now the actual field experience.

Thank you all.

I can now say i'm confident to claim that I now know the new hobby i'm trying to get into.

;D

[eman campos]

Edu;

Ive tried searching the web and got these for these items;

3) Stacking

There are two definitions for the stacking in photography. One is for shooting several photographs to make an ultra sharp close focus shot of a single object. Then a computer software is used to put the right pieces together.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJiEw4VCcYU

The other is about using two or more extenders.

drg12-30-2007, 02:05 PM
I wouldn't do it with a modern AF camera!!

In the days of all mechanical/manual cameras it was merely an optics problem that resulted in a highly degraded and virtually unusable image in using two extenders. Though unusual, it was done in dire emergencies or to save money.

With the communication and signals going back and forth to the modern lens(particularly zooms and ANYTHING with IS), two extenders will sooner (likely immediately) harm either the body (particularly the AF calibration will most likely not work at all even if not damaged) or the lens may freeze the aperture.

With the 100-400L IS you shouldn't need to even consider this, but if you need a longer reach use the either extender with the 150/2.8 as I always have felt the tele-extenders work best (image wise certainly) with non-zooms.

forums.photographyreview.com/archive/index.php/t-39396.html

9) over-exposure/backlighting/fringing

On overexposure;

Overexposure and underexposure
A photograph may be described as overexposed when it has a loss of highlight detail, that is, when the bright parts of an image are effectively all white, known as "blown out highlights" (or "clipped whites"). A photograph may be described as underexposed when it has a loss of shadow detail, that is, the dark areas indistinguishable from black, known as "blocked up shadows" (or sometimes "crushed shadows," "crushed blacks," or "clipped blacks," especially in video).[7][8][9

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)

On backlighting;

In the context of lighting design, backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument and the viewer are facing towards each other, with the subject in between. This causes the edges of the subject to glow, while the other areas remain darker. The back light is usually placed directly behind the subject in a 4-point lighting setup.

A back light, which lights foreground elements from the rear, is not to be confused with a background light, which lights background elements (such as scenery).

The back light is sometimes called hair or shoulder light, because when lighting an actor or an actress, backlighting will cause the edges of his or her hair to glow if he or she has fuzzy hair. This gives an angelic halo type effect around the head. This is often used in order to show that the actor or actress so lit is "good" or "pure". In television this effect is often used in soap operas and has become something of a cliché of the genre. It is also sometimes called the kicker or rim light.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlighting_(lighting_design)

On fringing;

fringing - A chromatic aberration caused by the failure of a lens system to focus all colors at the same point, so a red and violet image, for example are slightly offset from one another.

www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/F/fringing.html

[Ronnie Dominguez]

for more info, perhaps a bit simpler for some definitions ( the engineering optical terminologies mastah Romy would know this, being an engineer )

1 Focal Length-- how the camera sees the field of view, from the film surface or sensor to the curvature of the surface end of the lens. For human eye, the focal length is about nearly equivalent to the 50mm lens, thats why they call this lens "normal lens for 135 format cameras ( large format cameras with larger than the 135 film size have different categorized "normal lens". the normal lens gives you the view like what your eyes see around. Focal length with low numbers are considered giving a wider view (hence larger coverage of pictures on the top to bottom and right and left side of the picture). The reverse view will be for zoom lenses -- you get narrow view. like that of a telescope or binocular view

2) ISO this is like a film's or sensor's capability to gather or capture light so that an image can be formed clearly, the higher the ISO the more light it can gather. For example a candle light scene has low light levels ,using high ISO, more light can be captured from low light level scenes so that an image will register with enough clarity on the film or sensor. using low ISO is such cases normally will not be enough to get image clarity. In both case, the speed of the shutter and the aperture is taken to be at the same settings. That is why you need to make a combination of ISO aperture and shutter speed to get an image.

3) Stacking-- putting items on top of another, whether it be pictures, lenses , converters, filters
hoods and colored films or gels

5) Filters- like the filter paper in chemistry experiments, this time -allows a specified spectrum of light to pass or not pass. UV filter for example does not allow UV lights to pass like the sunglasses with UV stickers

6) Sensors-- those tiny elements that captures the lights and converts them into electrical signals-- much like a glass prism that separates the colors of white lights but electrical signal (through a conversion of likes of radio waves into TV videos)

7) F-number (influence of lens aperture)--- the diameter of the opening that light will have to pass before being captured by the sensors.

8) Depth of field--- the distance coverage of the focus-- low depth means short coverage of focus in the picture,

9) over-exposure/backlighting/fringing overexposure-- when your picture has so very white on many areas and you dont see the much details of objects -- you see a brilliant white all over the picture or portions of the picture


Stabilizers-- gadgets or contraption that help minimize the effect of camera shake while taking pictures ( like parkinsons disease , shaking hands, climbing the stairs while filming or shooting for an airplane, etc. now If IS is meant--- Image stabilizer in lens having the same function or aids

backlighting is setting up light to come from behind the object to be photograph and illuminating only a portion of what you wish to illuminate. .backlighted-- when your subject is against a bright background light whether normal light (sun, moon, reflective surfaces) or artificial light like incandescent bulbs

Hope these are useful definitions