One of my goals while at the beach was to refresh my memory on long forgotten photography lessons. I took photography classes in high school and college and loved them! Unfortunately, I don't remember much. My Mom is an excellent photographer so I wanted to learn from her while we were together! Also, the beach is one of the best places that I can think of to practice photography!
I am not going to include the outtakes since I have so many pictures to post, but I practiced "bracketing" which is taking the same picture in manual mode while changing the settings to see how each setting effects the picture.
The Basic Terms:
Aperture
F22 Smallest aperture, least light, longest depth of field
F4 Largest aperture, most light, shortest depth of field
Shutter Speed
1/30 Slowest, need very stable hand or tripod
1/250 Standard, fast shutter speed
1/4000 Super fast for action shot
Film Speed Without Flash
ISO 100: Outdoor lighting, good sun
ISO 200: Lower light, general use
ISO 400: Lower light, general use
ISO 800: Shaded area
ISO 1600: Shaded area, will give grainier look
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| Sunny 16 |
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| Sunny 16 |
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| Sunny16 |
While shooting in manual mode, here are some reliable standard rules to follow to achieve the perfect exposure depending on the type of weather that you are shooting in.
First, pick the aperture based on the weather.
Then, take note of your ISO (film speed) (let's call it "X"). Now set your shutter speed to 1/X. So at ISO 100, you would use a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds.
You may want to use different shutter speeds or apertures depending on the effect you are trying to achieve. You can adjust either one as long as you adjust the other accordingly. Opening up by one full aperture (f-number) requires cutting your shutter speed in half (and visa versa).
Full F-Stops
f/1 – f/1.4 – f/2 – f/2.8 – f/4 – f/5.6 – f/8 – f/11 – f/16 – f/22 – f/32 – f/45
Sunny 16 Rule
F/16
ISO 100
Shutter Speed 1/100
Slight Overcast F/11 Rule
F/11
ISO 100
Shutter Speed 1/100
F/8
ISO 100
Shutter Speed 1/100
Heavy Overcast 5.6 Rule
F/5.6
ISO 100
Shutter Speed 1/100
Sunset 4 Rule
F/4
ISO100
Shutter Speed 100
Overcast 8 Rule
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| Sunny 16 |
To freeze action, increase your shutter speed.
The water picture below shows soft, undefined water.
F/16
ISO 100
Shutter Speed 1/00
The water picture below shows highly detailed, frozen water droplets.
F/5.6 (I wasn't worried about having a long depth of field and needed to let in more light to accommodate for faster shutter speed)
ISO 800 (Not sure if I meant to change this but it let it more light and I like it)
Shutter Speed 1/4000
Blurry Background
Increase the size of your aperture to achieve a blurry background. Move from higher aperture number (F/16) which gives a long depth of field to a smaller aperture number (F5.6) which shortens the depth of field.
If you are increasing your aperture and need to keep the same exposure, then you have to change the shutter speed by equal steps that you changed the aperture.
Stops 0 -1 -2
ISO 100 100 100
Aperture F/11 F/8 F/5.6
Shutter Speed 1/250 1/500 1/1000
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F/5.6 (Let in more light and gave blurry background)
ISO 400 (Light was decreasing fast as the sun was setting)
Shutter Speed 1/200 (Standard) |
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F/4 (For blurry background)
ISO 100 (Bright sun)
1/250 (Standard)
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Portrait Pictures
F/5.6 will provide a fairly blurry background with subject in focus
F/11 will provide two rows of people in focus
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F/4
ISO 800 (Much higher than necessary and let in too much light)
1/4000 (Not necessary here to record any action) |
Overexposed Shot
I let in too much light with the shot above, but I ended up liking it better than the "perfectly exposed" shot below.
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| Sunny 16 |
Slow-Sync Flash
If you are out to eat with friends at night in a restaurant, setting your flash to "auto-slow" will allow all of the available ambient light to be let in and light your background.
Silhouettes
Waited till sun was setting and the sun was as directly behind me (the subject) as possible. Point lens directly towards sun. This is my amateur silhouettes lesson...I am sure there is much more to this!
I know that I have a ton more to learn, especially how to adjust the white balance, but this was a good start! I am really enjoying getting to know my camera!
