Photography 101 – Question Time
Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license
The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who is teaching classes in portrait photography in Melbourne Australia, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.
Over the past few months, I have been running this class to introduce readers to the fundamentals of the camera: the physics behind it all, how lenses and optics works, the mechanics of the camera and how to set and determine a photo’s exposure. I’ve tried to cover the basics of the camera, but I’m sure there are lots of questions that have gone unanswered.
For this lesson, I’m opening up the classroom to your questions. Leave your questions on the subject of “A basic course on the camera” in the comments below. Have a read of the previous lessons so far to see if your question has been answered and if there’s anything you don’t understand:
Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:
Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter
Lesson 7: ISO
Lesson 8: Shutter
Selected Questions Will Be Answered
Leave your questions about the camera in the comments on this post below. I will choose a number of questions, approximately five to seven, and answer them as best I can. The answers to the selected questions will appear in the next, and final post in the Photography 101 series.
32 Responses to “Photography 101 – Question Time” - Add Yours
August 1st, 2009 at 8:19 am
Is there any means that we will be able to control the amount of light entering the camera, when using a lesser shutter speed and aperture kept at maximum f value. The reason, why I asked is that, when I was taking a shot with shutter speed about 1 sec and f value at 22, I was trying to turn the zoom ring to get an effect. hence I needed a smaller shutter speed. But when I tooked at the picture, it was highly overexposed.
August 1st, 2009 at 9:13 am
Question:
Neil,
I am shooting my first wedding in two weeks with a beautiful looking couple. Both young in their early twenties, however the groom has blond hair, blue eyes… and the bearutiful bride is African American. Do you have any recommendations, words of caution with the formals, indoor/outdoor etc., that I should keep in mind? There will be plenty of lighting at the church… Your help, as well as any other photographer’s advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks DPS…
August 1st, 2009 at 9:46 am
Neil,
I am learning my DSLR since last year and feeling that I’m really fall in love in the world of photography. How exactly and amateur like me turning into a professional like you? Is it started by doing casual jobs helping other pro photographers, or accumulating portfolio and start looking for customers? And what aspects that indicate that you’re ready to become Pro Photographer… I believed thousands of other amateurs photographers are also confused how to turning into Pro photographer…
Thx for the advice Neil…
August 1st, 2009 at 9:55 am
This is in response to:
“Is there any means that we will be able to control the amount of light entering the camera, when using a lesser shutter speed and aperture kept at maximum f value.” By – suresh
Yes there is a way to reduce the amount of light entering the camera when you can not change the shutter speed or the aperture. What you seek is called a “Neutral Density Filter”. A neutral density filter is essentially a screw-on (or drop in on more expensive telephotos) grey filter. This way the filter does not change any colors, just reduces the amount of light entering the camera. Neutral density filters are quantified by their optical density or equivalently their f-Stop reduction. See the following Wikipedia article for more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_density_filter
August 1st, 2009 at 10:59 am
Hi folks, keep the questions coming!
Just a reminder, the questions should be on the topic of the series of Photo 101, that is “A basic course on the camera”. We’re talking about the mechanics of the camera and the fundamentals of photography specifically. Look through the previous posts to see the kind of thing I’m talking about. I won’t be answering any questions about how to photograph a particular kind of subject. I’m looking for questions on mechanics, exposure, optics etc.
If anyone is asking more general questions or questions about specific kind of shoots, they would probably best be asked in the DPS forum: http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/
Thank you!
August 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Can you give some tips on how to achieve high contrast, good saturation, sharp images and the like? Ignoring post-processing, what camera settings and other factors lead to those great looking, rich shots?
August 1st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
People often say they don’t want to put a cheap UV filter on an expensive lens, because it would ruin the quality. Is that true?
August 1st, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Personally, I would really appreciate a 101 on flash photography, especially the camera’s behaviour in the various modes. In some, the flash is used as a fill light, in some it’s used as light source. I always have a hard time figuring out which settings to use when using my (integrated) camera flash. Most of the time, the pictures are over- or underexposed and I have to figure it all out by trial and error which can be really annoying, especially if you have a person posing for a shot and they have to endure several shots till I finally have a decent setting. Any advice? Maybe a flash 101 coming? That would be great, all your other 101s were really good.
August 1st, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I second reznor on this… good suggestion…
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 am
Neil,
One question I have is with regard to lens elements and their grouping. Here is a description of a lens.
(16–35mm, f/2.8, 16 elements in 12 groups) Just what does it mean?? With this particular one, there are 16 glass elements, I think I understand that but how are these put into 12 groups? This is just an example but other lens descriptions are similar…So many elements in so many groups…I have always scratched my head about this but never really addressed it to anyone.
(16–35mm, f/2.8, 16 elements in 12 groups)
August 2nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Neil,
this is a strobist information by a photographer.
Single AB800 in stripbox over camera.
AB800 refers to a flash unit, seen in http://www.alienbees.com
however, I do not understand what is meant by in a stripbox.
thanks alot if you could explain that.
(:
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:16 pm
MODERATOR: NOT FOR PUBLICATION-
Last lesson (8) is meter and not shutter as written.
Other than that a great series.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I go with Reznor about flash photography it is my next step for learning. I do not own a flash yet so i would like to know how to properly use the flash but also how to choose a good flash to better suite my style. also another topic about flash is all the gizmos that may be needed to use a flash in any situations like off camera.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
@ Phil
“One question I have is with regard to lens elements and their grouping. Here is a description of a lens.
(16–35mm, f/2.8, 16 elements in 12 groups) Just what does it mean??” -phil
Phil,
The construction of a telephoto lens can be very complex in terms of optics and mechanics. Usually the lens is composed of elements and groups. When you rotate the zoom control on the barrel of the lens a series of cams move the groups closer together or farther apart to change the focal length of the system. An element is one lens, of which there are many in a telephoto.
So why tell us? Remember that there is no such thing as a “perfect” lens, meaning that every lens can introduce tiny errors into the transmitted light, for example distortions. The less lenses light has to travel through to get to the camera sensor, the less the image is changed from the original. Lens manufacturers overcome this by using very high quality glass, special coatings, and even stacking lenses in a special manner that combats any errors.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 am
Hello.
I tried taking photos of a basketball game last weekend, but the results weren’t that great- either it was too dark and/or blurry. I use Canon 450d with 18-200mm lens, ISO of 1600 and shutter speed of either 1/125 or 1/100. That was the highest shutter speed I could take photos with, since the pictures resulted in a darker quality. What is it that I can do? :)
Thank you!
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:46 am
@ Eric
thank you very much Eric! it wasn’t my question, but your short, and simple anwer was very helpful…
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 am
@ Krystle
“I tried taking photos of a basketball game last weekend, but the results weren’t that great- either it was too dark and/or blurry. I use Canon 450d with 18-200mm lens, ISO of 1600 and shutter speed of either 1/125 or 1/100. That was the highest shutter speed I could take photos with, since the pictures resulted in a darker quality. What is it that I can do?” -Krystle
From what you wrote it would seem that you attacked the problem from 2 angles. First you increased the ISO to 1600 which will make the camera more sensitive, but also add noise, then you used the lowest shutter speed possible to get a correct exposure. Great work! There is very little left you can do, read on!
Your first option would be to open the aperture as much as possible. This will let in more light to increase the shutter speed.
Your second option would be to zoom out with your lens and zoom in with your legs! Keep in mind the shorter the focal length (towards the 18mm end) the wider the angle the camera uses to gather light.
I hope this helps!
August 4th, 2009 at 1:26 am
@Eric
Thanks for the help :)
August 4th, 2009 at 2:47 am
I am having a hard time taking the pictures in broad daylight with my Canon 400d (XTi), I tried using few of different options but never had a luck, all the pictures I take comes out way too bright (washed out).
Please sujjest?
August 4th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
@cj mann
Remember the exposure triangle? You gotta work with that. Decrease ISO, Aperture or shutter speed to limit the amount of light coming in. You can also use exposure compensation. If you’re using AV mode for example and the images come out too bright, try an exposure compensation of -1 and see where that takes you. The camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed for you. Too bright pictures are a rather uncommon problem. Most people have problems with too little light, your problem should be easy to fix.
August 5th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Dear Eric,
Well answered my question and many thanks. Also you have given a good description about the so called new term for me, the ” ND filter” .
Regards
suresh
August 7th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Please let me know how many pictures will a new battery take, using flash 50% of the time, on a Canon D50 DSLR plus 17-85 Canon Zoom
August 7th, 2009 at 3:19 am
i have been trying to capture lightning and it is proving hard
what settings are required for it
camera i am using is not a DSLR its sony f-828
August 7th, 2009 at 5:08 am
For Eric Carson’s question, Even with an f/2.8 lens, most high school gymnasiums are too dark. I wind up using an SB-800 or SB-900 speedlite for shooting basketball.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
This is probably not for the photography 101 post but i will ask it anyway. I’m editing some outdoor pictures taken on an overcast day by the apprentice of a professional photographer. Some photos have a foggy effect on the top part of the frame, even when it wasn’t foggy that day. (I was there.) It appears that the top part of the photos are overexposed (too bright), while the middle and lower parts are properly exposed. There was even a group shot and one tall guy there looked liked his face was glowing and had a halo on his head, but the rest of the people in the picture were properly lit. Is the camera lens curtain the problem here? I had a hard time fixing it at post. How could this be prevented?
August 7th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I need to know how to photography the moon. Thank you Robert.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I have some pics in my flashdrive and comp. that were taken w/low resolution. I tried getting them printed and they came out like crap. How can I change the resolution to get a clear printout?
August 7th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
whether the following action be performed withcano ef-s 55-250mm is lens? i hav a 450d body
Easier over-riding of AF with full-time manual focus
More than half of Canon’s lenses have a neat feature called full-time manual focus*. Even if the lens’s AF/MF switch is in the AF position, these lenses allow the shooter to instantly adjust focus manually by simply turning the focus ring on the lens. There’s no need to first move the switch to MF.
With back-button AF, this becomes a nearly foolproof feature. Use the autofocus whenever you like by pressing the rear button with your right thumb. Shoot whenever you like by pressing the shutter button. And if you want to touch-up focus, or totally over-ride what the AF is doing, just pull your thumb off the rear button and turn the ring. No matter how many pictures you shoot, pressing the shutter button will not cause the AF to try to kick-in and re-set the focus you just adjusted manually
August 8th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Could you please explain to me the best way to take pictures of curio cabinet displays? Mirrors are usually involved. Also, along that line, what is the best way to take pictures of museum pieces through glass, plexiglass, etc. Mine tend to be blurry or distorted. Most museums that allow pictures do not allow flashes which also adds to the dilema while trying to take a picture under a protected case.
Thank You.
Karese Osborne
August 9th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I would like some advice on flash sync speed. I have a Nikon D300 with auto FP sync up to 1/320. I tend to leave the sync speed at that setting as it seems desirable to be able to use faster shutter speeds whenever possible. Is there a downside to using auto FP? Is there a time when I should definitely not use it and use a slower sync speed?
Thanks,
Dave Williams
August 10th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Hello,Neil,
I”m a budding photographer I have a doubt regarding lens aperture.In my lenses it is written f4;5.6. It means(best of my knowledge) the lens has a maximum aperture of f4 and minimum of f5.6. In AV mode if I change the aperture f11 how the lens can get it ?
kindly clear my doubt……..
August 10th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Ajith,
Please read the lesson: Lens light and magnification which will definitely clear your doubts. They are not the aperture values but called the f ratios.
suresh
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