Archive for f-stop

Scenic Outlook – Embrace Manual Mode

Modern cameras are truly wonderful devices, every time a new one comes out it’s seems to be packed with more and more cool stuff to temp you into parting with your cash. Of course many of these features can be quite useful in certain situations but for the most part a good proportion of functions will rarely be used. This is very true for the landscape photographer. Sturdy build, good glass, a decent viewfinder, a reliable light meter and the ability to alter the aperture and shutter speed separately is all it needs to do. The question of resolution/pixel count really comes down to what it is that you’re going to be doing with your images, and if you never print larger than A4, a 6MP DSLR will do the job just fine. 12MP seems to be a good amount for the majority of folks but even the lower end cameras are now offering more resolution than this; cool if you want huge prints or to aggressively crop your images, but most of us just won’t utilize the full resolution of our cameras.

So, your camera will come with a number of exposure modes; Program, Shutter priority, aperture priority, Auto, Manual and in addition to this there will be a selection of scene modes to choose from. I only ever use two of these modes; Aperture priority and Manual. Aperture priority is great in situations where you have to work fast; you get to choose the aperture and thus the depth of field, and the camera selects an appropriate shutter speed to get a good exposure, or at least what it deems to be a good exposure.

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Photography 101: Three Tips for Shooting in the Dark Without a Tripod

Shooting in the dark not only brings its own set of unique challenges for the photographer, but the final results of these challenges can be extremely pleasing to look at. Slower shutter speeds due to low light bring on great light-trails, light painting, creative subject lighting techniques, and so much more.

However, having a sturdy tripod is key to many of these techniques. So what do you do if you do not have a tripod on hand to shoot in a low light situation? A few ways to rectify this situation include:

1. Crank up the ISO on your camera. Turning up the ISO on your camera is the first thing you can do to compensate for the lack of light. Bumping up the ISO setting allows your camera sensor to take in more of the available light, thus allowing for faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures. This makes it easier to reduce, if not eliminate, all signs of camera shake in your end photos.

Turning this setting up does come with a bit of caution. The higher you set your ISO, the more noise you will end up with. Cameras continue to get better at reducing the amount of noise at high ISO settings, but it is not perfect. This is particularly noticeable if you are producing an HDR image as the graininess really comes out when you stack multiple exposures. Do some test shots to see what acceptable ISO levels you have on your camera.

If you want that extra bit of light, try opening up your aperture a bit. This may give you a shallower depth of field, but it can sometimes mean the difference in upping your ISO setting just one more notch. This is a preference that you can only determine through testing various combinations and evaluating the end results. Read More→