Photographic Terminology

Ryan Sharman

Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice TerminologyP1, P2, M1, M2

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed determines how long the shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time. The shutter speed and another component together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. When it comes to how shutter speed effects the photo it can make little but also big differences. One of them being noise within a photo, the more light means you will get less noise. Another effect would be that it controls the impression of motion in a image, a long shutter speed blurs motion it can enhance the image by making the subject look like they’re going really fast like cars for example.

1/3200 sec.

Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed Slow Shutter Speed

Shutter speed/ Exposure time:

2 Sec.

Shutter speed/ Exposure time:

1/30sec.

ISO

ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera available to light. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light, while the higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera. With increased sensitivity, your camera sensor can capture images in low-light environments without having to use a flash. But higher sensitivity comes at an expense – it adds grain or “noise” to the pictures.

ISO 6400 ISO 3200

ISO 1600 ISO 800

ISO 400 ISO 200

ISO 100

ISO

High ISO Low ISO

ISO 100ISO 6400

Aperture & Depth of Field

• A camera can only focus its lens at a single point, but there will be an area that stretches in front of and behind this focus point that still appears sharp. This zone is known as the depth of field. It’s not a fixed distance, it changes in size and can be described as either ‘shallow’ (where only a narrow zone appears sharp) or deep (where more of the picture appears sharp). The example pictures the right show the uses of high and low F stop. The top picture is taken on f/4.5 and the bottom picture was taken on f/11. The lower the f stop the blurrier the background will be with a photo you can see with the fence posts in the example pictures.

f/4.5

f/11

Aperture & Depth of Field

Narrow Depth of Field Wide Depth of Field

f/3.5 f/3.5

Manual Exposure

Exposure means the amount of light that enters the sensor on your camera. When it comes to manual exposure this means that you are setting it yourself and you are controlling how much light goes into your camera and this will determine how your image turns out. It can effect your photo’s quite distinctively this could be because of too much light or not enough. Exposure time: 1/8sec.

Automatic Exposure

Like I mentioned on the last slide, exposure is how much light goes into the camera. In the photo to the right this was done on an automatic setting meaning that the camera sorted out the exposure its self and determined how it should look and how much light should enter the camera. The effects of using the automatic exprosure is that its less hassle to set it up yourself and it also gives you the right setting that you need at the time. Exposure time: 1/40sec.

White Balance

It defines what the colour white looks like in specific lighting conditions, which also affects the hue of all other colours. When looking at your camera settings in the white balance menu it will come up with Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten light, Florescent light and a few more. When you are in each lighting condition you should apply them to your camera settings this will make your picture come out in better quality.

Auto Tungsten light Florescent light

SunlightCloudy

Rule of thirds

• This refers to an imaginary grid drawn across a photo area that breaks the image into nine equal squares. The best focal point for subjects is at the intersection of these lines with secondary emphasis being seen along the lines themselves. You should in mind to engage the viewers attention and provide a natural focal point. For instance, in a portrait, keeping the eyes in line with the top intersection and the mouth with the bottom.

F-stop: f/8

Exposure time: 1/10sec.

ISO speed: ISO-6400

Examples of Rule of thirds

F-stop: f/7.1

Exposure time: 1/125 sec.

ISO speed: ISO-100

F-stop: f/4

Exposure time: 1/250 sec.

ISO speed: ISO-100