Histo What

Have you seen or heard of the histogram on your camera? Do you know what it is and when or how to use it? Is this an easy thing to learn and remember? Read on in this week's edition to find out the what, when, and why of using this very valuable tool on your camera.

When you take a picture using the LCD screen on your camera you see a LCD depiction of what that photo looks like. How often though do you look at it and say to yourself that photo looks amazing only to go home load it onto your computer and say what a bunch of crap. This photo is way too dark or light. This is when knowing how to read a histogram becomes so important.

Let's start with how to show the histogram on your LCD screen. On a canon camera when you choose view photo you can then press the info button on the back left hand side of the camera body. Nikon users will have to look it up in your manual but it should be similar. As you click through you see a variety of views from shutter count to RGB and then there is histogram view.

Now that you can see your histogram let's talk about what it is and how to read it. The histogram shows the tonal range of a photo. That is the dark, the light, and the neutral. On the left hand side is the dark or black, on the right hand side is the light or white, and the middle ground is the neutrals and grays. When you take your photo what you want to see is a nice balance over all three sections right? Wrong. This is where most articles confuse you and I will try to keep it simple.


Look at what you are shooting before you press the shutter. Consider what tonal ranges are in your photo. If you are shooting on a very bright day and a lot of the subject is white you will see a stacking like a spike on the right side of your histogram. If your subject is a full third black or very dark then the histogram will stack to the left. It's only when everything is kind of equal across the range you see a nice balance across the histogram.

You can see in these three examples exactly what I'm talking about. The top photo the range is fairly balanced with a small spike in the middle and a large spike on the right. The spike on the right is the "blown out" sky. Blown out refers to the loss of digital information. The sensor is so overwhelmed there is no information to read on that far side.




This photo represents the tonal mid-range. There are a few spikes and those would be the sparkle off the dress and the clouds.






Finally A photo with the histogram pressed heavily to the left. With all this black there is no information to read.





As you can see from the examples reading a histogram is not really that difficult. Look at your shot watching for what you expect the histogram to read like, really bright, really black, or neutral and then expose for that using aperture, shutter speed or ISO

Learning to Shoot in Manual: Photography tutorials (Part Two) Exposure triangle

Here it is. The secret to shooting in full manual mode. Three little words, ISO, Aperture,Shutter. When you understand these 3 elements you will achieve optimal exposure.




So let's break it down. Shutter, most of you probably know, is how fast or slow the opening inside the camera opens and closes.When you press the button, known as the shutter button it causes the sensor inside your camera to be exposed to light. If you use very high shutter speeds then it will freeze action whereas if you use slower shutter speeds it creates more blur or softer images. Now why in the world do you want blurry images you ask, or you might say "that's why I'm looking at your blog because most of my pictures are blurry", there is a difference between out of focus and blur. If you look at a photo and everything is blurred then chances are it is either out of focus or you were shaking the camera. When things are creatively blurred then  most of the photo will be sharp, but a section will have blur to suggest movement or speed or softness.

Looking at this photo on the left you see how crisp all the details are except the bus. This is a great example of creative blur. It gives the feeling of motion and speed and the subject is clearly defined with composition (rule of thirds, more on that later) and the crispness of everything else in the frame.








Other examples of longer shutter speeds would be water that looks like mist, or light trails as shown on the right.

Now you cannot just alter the shutter speed alone. If you increase the length of shutter speed like I did, to capture these effects, your photo will come out like a white piece of paper, perhaps with some grey shadows here and there. The reason for this is because there was light coming into the camera for too long and your sensor was filled with light particles. A very good analogy is to imagine the sensor on your camera is a platform covered in buckets, you want your buckets to be filled just to the top. Overfill, and your buckets will leak water everywhere and wash out your photo. Don't fill the buckets enough and your photo won't have enough light and things will be dark to black. So how do you get the buckets filled when changing your shutter speeds so the buckets are filled to jut the right level. That's the other parts of the triangle.

Adjusting aperture gives you the ability to lengthen or shorten shutter speed based on need. Your aperture controls the size of the opening through your lens and therefore the amount of light that is allowed in. Now what is somewhat confusing is that the lower the aperture value, f1.2, f1.8, f2.0 the larger the opening in the glass. Lenses with a lower number f stop such as these are referred to as fast glass, because you can shoot at much faster shutter speeds in lower lighting conditions. If you increase the aperture number to f12, f18, or in the case of the photo above left f22 and on the right f9, you can then slow the shutter speed down considerably because the opening is so small the shutter needs to be opened longer to fill the buckets on our sensor.

Is that the only purpose of aperture, to control the speed of your shutter, of course not. If it was then photography would be much easier and everybody would take breathtaking photos every time. The other purpose to decreasing or increasing your aperture is to create back and foreground softness. If you look at the photo below you can see that just the main subject is in focus and everything behind begins to become softer and out of focus. 

This is one of those creative styles used in photography and especially portrait photos. If you  shoot landscapes or broader subjects where you want everything in focus then using a higher f stop will provide greater focus. These shallow and great focuses are what are referred to as depth of field. A shallow DOF is simply very little area in focus along one distance from the camera. Take for example the the photo above, the focus point on the subject is x feet away and everything in the photo that is that x distance away is in focus and everything else is not. Now look at the photo below, everything in this photo appears to be in focus and will so even if enlarged and that my friends is the simple truth of shallow vs. broad depth of field.

                              

Now to be fair there are other ways to change depth of field using different lenses, prime vs. telephoto, but lets leave that subject for another day. For now I want you to go out and play with your depth of field and shutter speeds. You will discover that one is reflective of the other and both need to be in harmony to achieve a good exposure.

Oh wait what about the third part of the triangle, ISO. Well I think I will leave that to the next post as you have more than enough to chew on for now. ISO while important is not quite as difficult to understand as these other two and once you grasp shutter and aperture ISO will fall quietly into place. So till next time keep playing keep creating and have fun

Learning to Shoot in Manual: Photography tutorials (Part One)

When I began shooting, as a small child, I was fortunate enough to have a great teacher to show me the ropes on a SLR camera. My Grandmother was a shutterbug in her day and had a very nice Olympus which she carried around to all the family reunions and trips she took. When she got on in years and was no longer able to get out with the frequency she wanted she allowed me to continue using that camera which I did right up to just over a year ago. When I made the switch to digital I transferred the camera strap from her camera to my new DSLR and now every shot I take I feel like a part of her is instilled in the picture.

Anyway I reminisce, The point I was going to make was although even then point and shoot cameras existed, Polaroid, Kodak, and a variety of others, I always shot on a SLR. The difference though is that those SLRs did not have an auto function at all, also the price for failure was somewhat expensive. After my Grandmother passed on and before I purchased my DSLR I equipped and used my own darkroom which helped cut some of the costs, but still it was quite pricey to make a mistake. That my friends is the beauty of the digital age. You can make mistakes and it costs you no more than time.

So I guess my question to you is why are you still using your camera in auto mode. You don't have to, going full manual is fun, exciting, and will feed a side of you just begging to be born. Now I'm not saying to turn off auto and never go back, if you are shooting something very important and you don't fully understand manual, stay in auto then when you have time to explore and practise go back to manual.

In this blog series I will endeavour to take you on a journey of exploration and excitement. We will together have moments of joy, at getting that perfect shot. Moments of frustration, trying to get that perfect shot. Finally moments of anguish when we entirely miss that perfect shot, but in the end we will grow and learn from each other.

So grab you camera lets go and make some mistakes. I promise the experience will be rewarding and you will feel that same sense of accomplishment all photographers get when they get that perfect shot.

The first step is of course getting your camera into manual. Now you don't necessarily have to have an SLR it's just that I do, many cameras today have manual or semi manual modes, it's just a question of finding it on yours. You can check your cameras manual, if you still have it, or look at the top of your camera. All DSLR have a button on them with different "modes" M being manual.




You can see all the different modes in the picture to the side. We will look at these modes in depth as we go but for now I just want you to locate manual mode. Remember that this is the first step to opening yourself up to a whole new side of creative photography so make the switch and without doing any thing else take some pictures.Leave your camera lens in auto focus and just shoot. What do you see? The odds are nothing, very few of you might see some sort of picture but most will either see nothing but black or white but certainly not what they shot. You see there are a few settings you must adjust to get the picture you want.




You see what your camera used to do on it's own in auto was adjust 3 variables that you as a photographer needs to become intimate with. They are ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. This is known as the photographic triangle. each of these plays off the other and none can be ignored or the photo just won't turn out.

For now just keep in mind that each of these three elements go hand in hand, I will explain them each in depth, but for now put your camera back in auto and look at the settings when you take a picture. From there, looking at your cameras manual, figure out how to adjust each of these settings. Don't hesitate to play around in manual mode change your aperture, change your shutter speed just watch the exposure indicator to ensure that a proper exposure is being met. If you don't know where the exposure indicator is then please open up the owners manual and read through it, things will be clearer as we progress through this series.

Getting Social Media in Gear

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been talking with friends and colleagues about blogging and its importance. A couple have been surprised to learn that I blog about my work, but I'm more stunned to discover how many professionals don't use social media at all, and the excuses they have. No time, poor writing ability, the infamous writers block. In reality, there are a ton of things that can stop you from using social media to its full potential. Excuses have never been more easy to come by.

But a social network is just that, a network, and if you're willing to use it that way it will only benefit you.

Today, having a social media presence is so very important and is often underused. Personally, I've been working pretty hard at improving this aspect of my work, and you're right -- it's not always easy. But it is important. Anyone who believes starting up a photo business is just taking a few shots will soon learn how much more there is to the business the second they try to market their work. Clients want to know what to expect, they want to know what you've worked on, they want to know you're both serious and passionate about what you do. and perhaps most of all they want to know if they're going to get along with you. These are all elements that social media is practically designed to help you ace.

That being said, it can easily get overwhelming; there are many social media sites begging for new members, and the first task is differentiating the useful ones from the ones that will just waste your time. Social media is important, but by no means should it be taking up the majority of your time.

My three go-to must-haves are Facebook, Twittter, and this personal/professional blog. I try to give the three of them my attention at least weekly, Twitter and Facebook probably even more frequently.

The thing you'll want to work towards (something I'm only putting together now, myself) is a dedicated website. It goes without saying that this is a ton more work than just updating a Facebook status once in a while -- you'll want galleries of your work, an incorporated blog, contact and pricing information, and not to mention the fact that content needs to stay fresh and current so clients are interested in going back to see it and search engines will continue to monitor it.

I recommend sticking mainly to those three: Facebook, Twitter, and a blog/website. If you're a social media whiz, you can dive into Instagram, Pinterest, 500px, Reddit -- the list goes on. Just remind yourself that updating social media isn't your job, although it is a great excuse to procrastinate doing any real photography work.

Even if you hate taking advice and you hate change and you hate social media, I still highly recommend that you make the leap into it if you're serious about your business. I was a stubborn hold-out for quite a while, and when I decided to finally get into the game I felt (and still do, some days) that I was a long ways behind. There's definitely a learning curve, and I stumbled sometimes and took a while to catch on to the way some things worked. But in the end, it's absolutely worth it -- even if you hate it, it's a great way to keep eyes on your work, including your own. You'll find yourself keeping to a schedule and multitasking better, not just within social media but also in your photography projects.