Talk - My Photography

Include some of the details below from the talk I gave to Midlothian Camera Club

Aperture

Depth of Field

A small aperture, like f16, keeps most or all of a photo in focus.

Here are two views of Glen Ogle with the fence posts and the viaduct both in focus.

Winter

Autumn

A large large aperture, like f2.8, has a shallower depth of field, so keeps only the chosen area in focus.

Here are three views on the road to Glencoe, with more selective focus.

f2.8 - focus on the windscreen

© Copyright: Peter Stubbs -   please contact peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk

f2.8 - focus on the piper

© Copyright: Peter Stubbs -   please contact peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk

f2.8 - focus on the flowers

© Copyright: Peter Stubbs -   please contact peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk

Relationship between Aperture and Shutter Speed

SMALLER 'f' number (e.g. f2)

= LARGER aperture

= MORE LIGHT

so needs SHORTER exposure

All these give the same result:

Examples: f2 1/1000 sec

f2.8 1/500 sec

f4 1/250 sec

f5.6 1/125 sec

f8 1/60 sec

f11 1/30 sec

f16 1/15 sec

f22 1/8 sec

Why is the in-between value f5.6, not f6?

- f8 is a measure of the diameter of the hole in the lens that lets in the light.

- f4 is double the diameter of f8, so lets in 4x as much light as f8.

- f5.6 is 1.414 ( = root 2 ) x the diameter of f8, so lets in 2x as much light as f8.

Explanation: f2 2 x 2 = 4

f2.8 2.8 x 2.8 = 8

f4 4 x 4 = 16

f5.6 5.65 x 5.65 = 32

f8 8 x 8 = 64

f11 11.3 x 11.3 = 128

f16 16 x 16 = 256

f22 22.6 x 22.6 = 512

The intermediate values above have been rounded. e.g. 16 x 1.414 = 22.624, but this is described as f22.

Zoom-in to look at the Pinhole

Can you Trust the Camera?

Often, YES ... BUT not always.

1. The camera assumes that a picture tone is mid-grey

- Mid-grey is often a reasonable assumption - BUT

LIGHT SUBJECTS

- A snow scene or wedding dress at mid-grey looks wrong

- Try 1 or 2 stops more exposure to make it look LIGHTER

- 1 stop more = twice as much exposure. e.g at f8: 1/500 sec instead of 1/1000 sec.

Photo 1: What the camera saw: 1/500*, f5.6

Photo 2: What the camera saw + 1 stop: 1/250, f5.6

Photo 3: What the camera saw + 2 stops: 1/125, f5.6

Levels for Photos 1, 2, 3

1/500*, f5.6

1/250, f5.6

1/125, f5.6

* This is the reading I expected from the camera. But, on looking at the data for the photo, I see that it selected 1/750, f5.6. Perhaps I was pointing the camera down a little too far when I took the meter reading.

DARK SUBJECTS

- Dark subjects can also confuse the camera

A photo in a coal cellar, or a shop front painted black, should not be grey.

- Try 1 or 2 stops less exposure to make it look DARKER.

2. Can the camera cope with the range of brightness?

- Squint at a scene to see the possible outcome.

- Expose for the highlights. Don't lose detail in lightest parts.

- Consider a graduated neutral density filter for the sky

- On bright days, use 'fill in flash' outdoors

- For portraits, consider using a reflector

- If in doubt, bracket e.g at f8: 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250 sec.

- Then use the best

- combine more than one (possibly with HDR software)

3. Look at the levels chart on the back of the camera

- Try exposure compensation and see how the chart changes.

NOTE: Despite all the comments above, I find that it can be a good idea to ALSO take a photo at the exposure recommended by the camera. This may, in fact, turn out to be the best exposure, and with digital cameras there's no additional cost involved in taking an extra exposure.

How to Set the Camera

Full Auto

Av - Aperture priority

Tv - Shutter Priority

Manual

Full Auto

- Usually reliable.

- If the occasion is important and may difficult to 'go back and do it again e.g. a wedding, it may be a good idea to take a range of photos in 'full auto' mode, no matter what other photos are being taken.

Aperture Priority

- Useful to keep control over the depth of field.
e.g. to keep everything in focus in a landscape (or not).

- Maybe keep foreground and background in focus on a landscape.
e.g. use f.16 or f22.

- Maybe isolate one person in a crowd, as for some press photos.
e.g. use f.2.8 or f4.

- Check on the shutter speed required. Be prepared to use a tripod.

- Historic rule was don't hand-hold for > 1/focal length
e.g. Any speed longer than 1/50 sec with a 50mm lens needs a tripod

- Now with image stabiliser lens it is possible to hand-hold for longer
perhaps between 2x and 4x as long.

- Despite the above rule, it is surprising how much a tripod can help.

Shutter Priority

- Useful where you want to use a particular time and depth of field is less critical.

- for waterfalls or flowing water

- for fast action in sport

- for panning subjects

Manual

- This can prevent the camera from doing what it wants to do, if you think it's going to get things wrong. e.g.

- For copying photos, find the exposure using a 'grey card' then keep to that exposure for all photos, providing the lighting conditions do not change.

This should give a true copy of the photos, rather than one where the lighter and darker pictures have been adjusted by the camera.

- For panoramas, choose a day with no wide variations of light across the panorama. Find the exposure needed for an average part or important part of the scene. Set the camera to manual on that exposure for all settings.

- For scenes that are fairly monochrome in a dark of light colour, e.g. snow or dark or light building, use a grey card, lit and angled in the same way as the subject, then use manual - OR for digital photography (with no extra film or processing to pay for) it may be easier to just bracket the photo and select the best later.

A Few Photos

(a)

Direct and Reflected Light

(i) Flash lights the subject DIRECTLY

- A brighter flash is needed if the subject is further away

- Move 2x as far away: the flash has to be 4x as bright.

- Move 3x as far away: the flash has to be 9x as bright.

- Automatic flash can cope with this (within limits)

- Automatic flash at an outdoor event at night is only likely to illuminate the head of the person in front, not the performers on stage in the distance. (bad)

- Fill in flash, used for an outdoor portrait in bright light at daytime will fill in the dark shadows in the face, but will leave the background unchanged. (good)

1.5 seconds f4.5

Beltane Festival - Movement from the camera and the dancers

1/30 sec f5.6

400 ISO but a lot of noise in the background

Beltane Festival - Flash on aperture priority freezes the action in the foreground

(ii) Sun and Floodlighting lights the subject INDIRECTLY

- Distance to the subject in a landscape does not affect the brightness.

- Brightness depends on the colour and texture of different parts of the scene and whether they are in the sun or the shade.

- Exposure for the moon is same as is needed for a fine day on earth.

- Move further from a floodlit building and it still needs the same exposure.

- So you can move closer to take exposure reading, then move back for photo.

(b)

Dusk and Dawn

- Colour in the sky may last for only a few minutes

- Photograph before the sky gets too dark / light

Forth Bridges - Sunset

Forth Bridges - Sunrise

(c)

Mixed Lighting

Tungsten + fluorescent + daylight: - a challenge!

More on the same theme

Convert to Sepia and keep some colour

(d)

Pinhole Photography

St Stephen's Church

Near Edinburgh Photographic Society

Old engraving - Published 1829

Photo taken with the pinhole camera

Weather bright: Exposure 25 minutes

Distortions

The distortions in this photo are not because the photo was taken with a pinhole camera.

They are due to the cylindrical shape of the photographic paper when it is in the camera.

(e)

Panoramas

Royal Mile

Leith

Cameras

Canon

For about the past five years I've been using a Canon Digital SLR camera. - first an EOS 20D, now an EOS 7D

- I chose Canon because I had previously been using a Canon EOS film camera, and the lenses were compatible with the digital camera.

- If I had previously been using a Nikon camera for film, I would probably have moved to a Nikon Digital SLR camera.

- If I had been previously using any other make of camera for film, I might have considered changing to Canon or Nikon, because of the wide range and the quality of equipment from these manufacturers.

SLR Cameras

Many people will prefer compact cameras because of their convenience. That's fine! They may often produce results that match those of an SLR, though many may not be able to produce high quality exhibition prints or fine prints in difficult lighting conditions.

I get satisfaction from the greater control provided by an SLR camera. See the section on Techniques (C. below). I find the delay before a photo is taken, after pressing the shutter before the

All Cameras

I find that the success of a photo may well depend more on recognising good lighting and composition, and taking advantage of these, than on the camera used.

- though in difficult lighting conditions, a good camera and lens, and using a tripod can help a lot.

In difficult lighting conditions, a good camera and lens, and using a tripod can help to achieve high quality results.

However, I find that the success of a photo may well depend more on taking advantage of good lighting and opportunities that arise, rather than on the equipment used.

Lenses

Some zoom-lenses cover a wide range of focal lengths.

If a lens from a 35 mm film camera is used on a digital camera with a smaller sensor, its focal length increases. e.g. my 50mm lens, when used on my EOS 7D camera becomes an 80mm lens.

Long Focal Lengths

Telephoto: eg. 200mm, 300mm, 500mm *

These lenses come into their own for wildlife photography, sports photography and other photography where it is not practical to move in close to the subject.

It will often be necessary to use a tripod to avoid 'camera shake'.

Here are some photos with at long focal lengths:

Camera panned for 1/125 sec f5.6 210mm

Camera still 1/250 sec f4 210mm

Standard Focal Length

e.g. 35mm, 50mm, 80mm

A standard lens can be a good compromise for photographing people. The camera can be brought fairly close to the subject, but not so close as to distort the features, as can happen with a wide angle lens.

Here are some photos taken at standard focal lengths

Short Focal Length

Wide Angle: e.g. 10mm, 15mm, 24mm

I often prefer to use wide focal lengths. I feel that these help to show the environment surrounding the subject better, and help to put the subject in context. Including items close to the camera in the foreground can help create a sense of depth to a photo.

Here are some photos taken at wide focal lengths

Fisheye

A Fisheye lens is an extreme example of a wide angle lens. It gives a field of view of 180 degrees across the diagonal of the photo. When using a fisheye lens, I have to be careful not to include my shoes in the foreground!

The image created by a fisheye lens is distorted - all straight lines in the image, except any that pass through the centre of the picture, become curves. This can make a photo more creative, or can destroy the image, according to taste.

Here are some photos taken using a fisheye lens. The photograph of the underground train was taken with a long exposure. That's what created the 'one-legged commuters'. Wide angle lenses and particularly fisheye lenses give a large depth of field. i.e. everything is in focus even when a large aperture such as f3.5 is used.

Fisheye Lens 1/3 sec f3.5

Include some of the details below from the talk I gave to Midlothian Camera Club

Aperture

Depth of Field

A small aperture, like f16, keeps most or all of a photo in focus.

Here are two views of Glen Ogle with the fence posts and the viaduct both in focus.

Winter

Autumn

A large large aperture, like f2.8, has a shallower depth of field, so keeps only the chosen area in focus.

Here are three views on the road to Glencoe, with more selective focus.

f2.8 - focus on the windscreen

Relationship between Aperture and Shutter Speed

SMALLER 'f' number (e.g. f2)

= LARGER aperture

= MORE LIGHT

so needs SHORTER exposure

All these give the same result:

Examples: f2 1/1000 sec

f2.8 1/500 sec

f4 1/250 sec

f5.6 1/125 sec

f8 1/60 sec

f11 1/30 sec

f16 1/15 sec

f22 1/8 sec

Why is the in-between value f5.6, not f6?

- f8 is a measure of the diameter of the hole in the lens that lets in the light.

- f4 is double the diameter of f8, so lets in 4x as much light as f8.

- f5.6 is 1.414 ( = root 2 ) x the diameter of f8, so lets in 2x as much light as f8.

Explanation: f2 2 x 2 = 4

f2.8 2.8 x 2.8 = 8

f4 4 x 4 = 16

f5.6 5.65 x 5.65 = 32

f8 8 x 8 = 64

f11 11.3 x 11.3 = 128

f16 16 x 16 = 256

f22 22.6 x 22.6 = 512

The intermediate values above have been rounded. e.g. 16 x 1.414 = 22.624, but this is described as f22.

Zoom-in to look at the Pinhole

Can you Trust the Camera?

Often, YES ... BUT not always.

1. The camera assumes that a picture tone is mid-grey

- Mid-grey is often a reasonable assumption - BUT

LIGHT SUBJECTS

- A snow scene or wedding dress at mid-grey looks wrong

- Try 1 or 2 stops more exposure to make it look LIGHTER

- 1 stop more = twice as much exposure. e.g at f8: 1/500 sec instead of 1/1000 sec.

Photo 1: What the camera saw: 1/500*, f5.6

Photo 2: What the camera saw + 1 stop: 1/250, f5.6

Photo 3: What the camera saw + 2 stops: 1/125, f5.6

Levels for Photos 1, 2, 3

1/500*, f5.6

1/250, f5.6

1/125, f5.6

DARK SUBJECTS

- Dark subjects can also confuse the camera

A photo in a coal cellar, or a shop front painted black, should not be grey.

- Try 1 or 2 stops less exposure to make it look DARKER.

2. Can the camera cope with the range of brightness?

- Squint at a scene to see the possible outcome.

- Expose for the highlights. Don't lose detail in lightest parts.

- Consider a graduated neutral density filter for the sky

- On bright days, use 'fill in flash' outdoors

- For portraits, consider using a reflector

- If in doubt, bracket e.g at f8: 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250 sec.

- Then use the best

- combine more than one (possibly with HDR software)

3. Look at the levels chart on the back of the camera

- Try exposure compensation and see how the chart changes.

How to Set the Camera

Full Auto

Av - Aperture priority

Tv - Shutter Priority

Manual

Full Auto

- Usually reliable.

Aperture Priority

- Useful to keep control over the depth of field.
e.g. to keep everything in focus in a landscape (or not).

- Maybe keep foreground and background in focus on a landscape.
e.g. use f.16 or f22.

- Maybe isolate one person in a crowd, as for some press photos.
e.g. use f.2.8 or f4.

- Check on the shutter speed required. Be prepared to use a tripod.

- Historic rule was don't hand-hold for > 1/focal length
e.g. Any speed longer than 1/50 sec with a 50mm lens needs a tripod

- Now with image stabiliser lens it is possible to hand-hold for longer
perhaps between 2x and 4x as long.

- Despite the above rule, it is surprising how much a tripod can help.

Shutter Priority

- Useful where you want to use a particular time and depth of field is less critical.

- for waterfalls or flowing water

- for fast action in sport

- for panning subjects

Manual

- This can prevent the camera from doing what it wants to do, if you think it's going to get things wrong. e.g.

- For copying photos, find the exposure using a 'grey card' then keep to that exposure for all photos, providing the lighting conditions do not change.

This should give a true copy of the photos, rather than one where the lighter and darker pictures have been adjusted by the camera.

A Few Photos

(a)

Direct and Reflected Light

(i) Flash lights the subject DIRECTLY

- A brighter flash is needed if the subject is further away

- Move 2x as far away: the flash has to be 4x as bright.

- Move 3x as far away: the flash has to be 9x as bright.

- Automatic flash can cope with this (within limits)

- Automatic flash at an outdoor event at night is only likely to illuminate the head of the person in front, not the performers on stage in the distance. (bad)

- Fill in flash, used for an outdoor portrait in bright light at daytime will fill in the dark shadows in the face, but will leave the background unchanged. (good)

1.5 seconds f4.5

Beltane Festival - Movement from the camera and the dancers

1/30 sec f5.6

400 ISO but a lot of noise in the background

Beltane Festival - Flash on aperture priority freezes the action in the foreground

(ii) Sun and Floodlighting lights the subject INDIRECTLY

- Distance to the subject in a landscape does not affect the brightness.

- Brightness depends on the colour and texture of different parts of the scene and whether they are in the sun or the shade.

- Exposure for the moon is same as is needed for a fine day on earth.

- Move further from a floodlit building and it still needs the same exposure.

- So you can move closer to take exposure reading, then move back for photo.

(b)

Dusk and Dawn

- Colour in the sky may last for only a few minutes

- Photograph before the sky gets too dark / light

Forth Bridges - Sunset

Forth Bridges - Sunrise

(c)

Mixed Lighting

Tungsten + fluorescent + daylight: - a challenge!

More on the same theme

Convert to Sepia and keep some colour

(d)

Pinhole Photography

St Stephen's Church

Near Edinburgh Photographic Society

Old engraving - Published 1829

Photo taken with the pinhole camera

Weather bright: Exposure 25 minutes

Distortions

The distortions in this photo are not because the photo was taken with a pinhole camera.

They are due to the cylindrical shape of the photographic paper when it is in the camera.

(e)

Panoramas

Royal Mile

Leith

Index Please scroll down this page, or else click on one of the topics A, B, C, D, E, F in the index below
A.
B.	Equipment Cameras 1. Scottish Railway Stations 2. Edinburgh at Work 3. Edinburgh Shops Lenses 1. Long focal lengths 2. Standard focal lengths 3. Short focal lengths 4. Fisheye Other Equipment 1. Tripod 2. Filters
Note:	Sections C, D, E, F below have still to be written.
C.	Techniques Exposure Time Depth of Field Viewpoint
D.	Film or Digital? Cost + Convenience Results
E.	Alternative Processes A Few Examples 1. Infra-red 2. Pinhole 3. Stereo Views 4. Bromoil
F.	Software Photoshop 1. RAW or JPG images 2. Levels 3. Shadows+ Highlights 4. Panoramas

Summary

Scope for Photography

We all have our favourite subjects for photography

I enjoy documentary photography

Documentary Photography Themes

Here are a few of my themes:

2. Edinburgh at Work

3. Edinburgh Shops

4. Edinburgh Bus Termini