Shutter Speed - New Zealand and Fiji

It's been a while since my last post - I've been busy getting married, going on a honeymoon, attending another wedding, starting a new years of work and now moving house - but anyway...

I decided to write this post on shutter speed because it is something which I have been particularly enjoying playing with on my camera over the previous weeks. Essentially, the shutter speed is controlling the amount of light which enters the camera, but particularly, for what period of time light is allowed to enter the lens and "hit the film" (or the digital sensor). I found this to be a good summary with some good pics: http://mansurovs.com/what-is-shutter-speed-in-photography

At the moment I have only played around with slow shutter speeds, or long exposures.

One of the essential things I've realised I need (but don't have) is a tripod. This ensures that you capture the movement of things that are moving, but do not "shake" the things that are not moving. I don't have a tripod, so have had to rely on rocks and chairs and garbage bins, however a tripod really would have made getting good compositions easier as you are not restricted to relying on where local councils have places benches!

So, a few tips that I've picked up:

• If possible, keep the ISO as low as possible to reduce noise. This might not be possible in low light conditions though.
• Use the 2 second timer (or a remote) to take the pics so that you do not shake the lens as you press the button down.
• Allegedly turning the image stabilizer off assists in reducing image blur (a paradox I know, but it's recommended none the less by many people)
• Try lots of different exposure times / ISO combinations to find the perfect mix. 

Here, a tripod would have been nice as the lights in the background would not have been blurred. Instead, this was handheld, however with quite a short exposure time.

This was taken sitting my camera precariously on a rock over looking the pond. As it was during the day I used a low ISO (200 if I remember) but only exposed for 3 seconds.

The above picture was taken when it was quite dark, probably about 9.30 at night. I had to use a high ISO and a long exposure time of 30 seconds, hence the noise - It did however help some of the stars make an appearance in the background. 

Again, water always seems to look good on long exposures. This was a low ISO (I think 100) but a long exposure (about 30 secs).

This picture was taken far earlier than the same little "hut" above, hence the reduced noise (I managed to use ISO 100) and a slightly shorter exposure time (about 10 secs).  Unfortunately the tide was not as far in.

Aperture - At home, in the park, in the mountains

I think one of the most common, effective and essential techniques I've wanted to know how to do in taking photos is the "blurry" background effect, which I feel adds a sense of depth and drama to even the most "undramatic" subject.

I have found there a combination of ways to achieve this effect. The simplest on my Canon 550D is to simply go into creative mode and slide the "background blurry or sharp" dial down to blurry. This however is cheating, so I wanted to learn what was happening behind the cloak of creative mode.

Enter the world of "Aperture". So what is Aperture? http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_aperture.html

In a nutshell, Aperture is how wide the lens of the camera is open, and accordingly, how much light get in. Aperture is measured using a f number - which operates in the opposite manner than would be expected:

• SMALL aperture number = larger lens opening = Lots of light
• LARGE aperture number = smaller lens opening = Minimal light

So what does this have to do with blurring backgrounds? From what I've learnt it's all about Depth of Field: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm

As it turns out:

• A small aperture number = larger lens opening = lots of light = shallow depth of field = blurry background
• A larger aperture number = smaller lens opening = less light = larger depth of field = sharp background

The way I try to think of it is as if my eyes were the camera lens. This is helped particularly by the fact that I wear glasses (I am short sighted). The principles are probably completely incorrect and the parallels between my vision and a camera are probably wrong, but it makes it easy to remember!

• If I take off my glasses and look around things close to me are in focus but things in the background are fuzzy. This is like having a small aperture number, as my eyes are wide open and lots of light is getting in.
• If I see something in the distance and wish to make it clearer, I squint, reducing the amount of light getting in, increasing my aperture number, making the entire image sharper. 

Other than the aperture value, the focal length of the lens (and also the "close-ness" of the object to the camera) effects the Depth of Field but this is something I will worry about learning for another day! http://www.all-things-photography.com/depth-of-field.html

For the time being, I am happy putting my camera on the AV setting, setting the aperture as low as possible, bringing the subject of the photo close to the lens and snapping away. My playing thus far has made me want to get more lenses with lower aperture abilities, but for the time being I still have lots to learn! The results?

White balance - A little experiment on the beach

Today I went to another beach in Auckland called Orewa. It was a patchy day, cloudy at times and blue at others. I thought I would give the white balance settings on my camera a go to see what differences it would make - for no reason other than experimentation... which I am finding is the best way to see out how everything works.

Plan to go out tomorrow and play some more with the White Balance Settings, but this little test showed me the difference the settings can make. The top three photos were all taken in the space of about 30 secs, and the sun was behind clouds during this time. I think this shows, as in my opinion (and again, I note I am colourblind, so my perception of colours can be different to others), the "Shady" Preset actually created the best pic. This may just be me though, because I tend to like the "warmer" looking pics.

Not the best experiment I know - next time I will use all the White Balance settings  - cloudy would have been a good start! Today however, I really just wanted to get in the water!

What is White Balance?? http://www.photographymad.com/blog/post/white-balance-explained

White Balance Preset: Tungsten Light

White Balance Preset: Shady

White Balance Preset: Sunny

White Balance Preset: Auto (the sun was out by now)

Finally, on an unrelated topic, here is a snap of Auckland City I took from the car window (through the glass) on automatic setting on the drive home from the beach (have cropped it to take out light posts and road railings). Actually a very nice city!