List photography terms

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When you get to know your camera and begin to delve deeper into your camera’s manual, there will be some terms that come up that leave you curious to their meanings and sometimes what part of the camera they are referring to.  Below I will give you some of the more common and much used terms you will come across as you learn more about your camera and digital photography.

F-stop

Refers to the steps or turns of the aperture eg. F4, F8, F11, F16, F22

The smaller the number the larger the opening and the larger the number the smaller the opening on the lens to receive light.

Also the smaller the number the greater depth of field and the reverse as the larger the number the greater the depth of field.

Depth of field (DOF)

Depth of field is defined as what depth the image your are creating is in focus and which is in soft or shallow focus.

What does a lens hood do?

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A lens hood has a couple different jobs

You cameras lens hood can help to shield the front of your lens from the sun rays, or other bright unwanted light, from directly hitting the front lens element and scattering the light creating sun/light flares, those are the rainbow colored streaks and hexagonal colored shapes created when the sun reflects off the aperture.

Another job of the lens hood, or shade is it helps to prevent, minimize any damage to the front of the lens from the elements or in my case from slipping in the mud while out on an outdoor photo-shoot.

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On Camera Off Camera Flash

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What is the DIFFERENCE?

The on camera flash

Many of the DSLR cameras have what is called a pop-up or on camera flash, but if you have used this feature you will know that it doesnt always help, well sometimes it even makes your image lighting worse.  Why is that? Well it is because the light, or flash is on the camera and way to close to the lens, and this can create the most unflattering harsh light on your subject.

The reason the light from the pop up flash is a very small light source, and the smaller the light source the harsher the light it produces and sends out.

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Importance of formatting your memory card

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Why format your new memory card?

Well lets first ask, what is formatting a memory card?

The memory cards you can purchase for your cameras and other digital recording devices come blank and fit into numerous different recording devices including cameras, phones, video games, appliances and more. It is said you can use them right away there are some information that you should know.

Some people say to just put your new card into your camera and the camera will prompt you to format if needed, well I do not really want to take the chance with my image recording, so I automatically format any new cards I buy. Continue reading “Importance of formatting your memory card” →

Photo background and foreground

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Have you wanted to do some food photography?  Here are a few things to watch for when you take your images.

Keep it simple but also watch your backgrounds. Add some props but watch how different props add or take away from your image.

I will go through and explain a bit about what I did with each image below and what aspects of the image, in my opinion work and which items should not be there and how to best remedy that.

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Helpful Photography DIY accessories

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What is the use of a flash diffuser? And how can I make one.

A flash diffuser, as it describes, defuses the light. In other words it softens the light that is sent from your flash to your subject.

This is going to sound odd but, one thing that I used for many years when I first started using flash in my photography, was to cover the flash with a piece of tissue held on with an elastic band. 

You can also use a piece of white copy paper cut to size and taped over the pop up flash.

Another option I learned about making a flash diffuser was to cut a piece of plastic from a plastic milk jug and form it around to flash.

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Being creative using a slow shutter speed

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By slowing down your shutter speed and adding movement, you can create some amazing and       abstract images

A slow shutter speed can create the illusion of movement.

When you experiment with some of the different shutter speeds from fast to slow you open the door to an unlimited variations on creative expression in your images.

By changing shutter speeds when shooting the same view can give you an array of variety that you may not have imagined before in an scene.

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Camera Buttons and Dials

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Different settings and buttons, what do they do?

So with the variety of different digital camera models and brands on the market the basics are the same just where the buttons are, and the menus are, differs. We are going to take a look at a Nikon d5300 just to give you a better idea of what does what.

Below we will work on helping you to better understand your camera

So let’s start on the top of the camera there you will see the buttons generally used most often and ones that you wish to have at easier access.

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My photos are not sharp, Why?

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This is a question I was asked a while ago.  I spoke with a lady that just recently received a new SLR camera (Single lens reflex) one that you can change your lenses and has many options.

Well she went on a holiday, took many photos and once she was home and looked at them on the computer screen she was a bit disappointed as what she thought she captured clearly was actually out of focus. Her subject, which generally was a family member, was in a hazy focus in most of her images. This can be a bit disheartening when your excited to be using a BIG camera for holiday photos.

So let’s look at this a bit more and why this can happen.

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