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Aperture (AV mode)Aperture is another name for the hole in the lens of a camera. The width of this

hole can be adjusted by using the aperture priority mode, adjusting this controls the depth of field in an image. The depth of field is a term that refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp in an image.

Lens aperture sizes are measured in f-numbers, the lower the f-number the bigger the aperture opening meaning the depth of field is reduced but light intake is increased. Higher f-numbers mean that the aperture opening will be much smaller, increasing the depth of field but decreasing the amount of light able to enter the camera.

In taking this photograph I set the camera to AV mode and set the aperture to f/4.5. This is quite a very small aperture setting and so the foreground is in focus but the image goes blurry towards the background.

In this image I set the camera to quite a medium aperture of f/11. This makes the depth of field larger and so more of the image from the foreground to background is in focus. This is good for situations here a larger subject in the foreground is desired to be in focus but the background still wants to remain blurred.

When taking this image I set the aperture to f/20 meaning the depth of field was large and so the whole of the image could be in focus, from the foreground to the background.

f/4.5

f/11

f/20

Shutter Speed (Tv mode)Shutter speed is the length of time the camera’s shutter is open when taking the photograph. The longer the shutter is open the longer the film or image sensor is exposed to light.The shutter speed can also change the way movement appears in a photograph, a short one freezing fast moving objects and long ones blurring them, often for artistic affect.

In this photograph I have set the shutter speed to 1/500 of a second. This is a very quick shutter speed and means that the motion can be frozen.

In this photograph I have set the shutter speed to 1/60 of a second. This is quite a middle range shutter speed and as you can see doesn’t freeze the motion as in the photo above, but shows some of the motion as blur. This can be done to create artistic affect but can also just look like camera shake, something that is not very desirable.

This image has been taken with a very slow shutter speed of ½ a second. Because of this slow shutter speed there is a lot of blur and you can see the motion of the card. This, if planned can add to the quality of the photo and give it good artistic affect.

1/500

1/60

0”5

ISO settingsISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor to light. It is measured in numbers, the lower the number, the lower the sensitivity and the finer the grain. In a dark situation a high ISO can be used to get a faster shutter speed. This allows motion to still be frozen in darker areas, for example indoor sports events. The problem with high ISO’s is you get noise and grain in the shots and this can decrease the quality of your photographs.

In this photograph I used a very low ISO. As you can see in this very cropped in copy of the photo there is no grain and the photo is of good quality.

In this photograph I used quite a middle range ISO setting and increased the light sensitivity slightly. The image is however starting to decrease in quality and some grain is appearing.

In this photograph I used a very high ISO and this made the grain very obvious and the quality of the photograph is quite low.

100

400

1600

White BalanceWhite balance is the way you can get the colours in your photographs as accurate as possible. Sometimes, if the white balance isn't correctly set, images can come out with an orange, blue or yellow tint to them, and not look like the real thing. Different types of artificial light can cause these different tints, for instance fluorescent lights often give an image a blueish look while tungsten lighting often adds a yellowish tinge to the image. These different tinges are often called “Temperature”.Preset white balances often work well and the auto-setting is usually enough to work out the right white balance for a photograph. Most cameras also have a manual white balance mode where you tell the camera what white looks like so it can determine what the other colours in the image should look like. You do this by taking a photo of a white card specifically made for this purpose, this tells the camera what the colour looks like in the light conditions of the scene and allows the other colours to be collaborated accordingly.

The white balance settings made a difference to the temperature of the images. The first photograph is at about the right settings and so is quite a natural colour. The next two photographs have a warmer tinge to them, as they have been set as the shade and cloudy settings. These light conditions give a slightly blue look to photographs and so the camera compensate for this by warming the image, hence the yellow/orange warmth.The second two photographs have been taken with the tungsten and florescent settings. These light settings give off a yellow light, especially the tungsten light, so again, the camera compensates by cooling the image. This is why the photographs have a blue tint.The idea is to get the white balance right so you cant see a coloured tint over the image and it just looks accurate, with all the correct colours.

Daylight Shade Cloudy

White Fluorescent Light

Tungsten Light Flash

Original image

Cropped

Levels

Dodging and burning

Colour adjustments (curves)