PHOTOGRAPHYIn a Nutshell

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Why Do I Need an SLR?

The beauty of single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras is the amount of control they give you over your pictures. They are system cameras, with optional extras, such as lenses, flashguns and filters, which allow the SLR to be adapted to a myriad of subjects.

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The SLR also allows users to adjust shutter speed and aperture settings. These controls do not just adjust how much light reaches the film, they also allow the user to interpret a scene – so that it can be translated into a photograph that is far more than a mere snap or record shot.

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melcon s. lapina

Shutter speed dial for controlling exposure, reducing camera shake, and freezing or blurring movement

Hotshoe socket for attaching a flashgun

Viewfinder contains a five-sided prism that allows you to view the subject through the lens itself, so you know exactly how it is going to appear on film.

Focus control for adjusting the lens and looking in the viewfinder to ensure the subject is sharpTTL metering ensures accurate exposure as the camera meters the light level through the lens itself.

Aperture Control allows you to blur distracting backgrounds or keep everything pin-sharp

Interchangeable lenses allow you to control how much of your subject appears in the frame.

Choice of lensesThe choice of wideangle, telephoto and close-up lenses means you can tackle any subject.Freezing the actionBy using the appropriate shutter speed, fast-moving subjects can be caught on film.

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Sharpness controlBy using the right aperture, you can decide exactly how much of your picture is sharp.Critical focusAs you see exactly what you are shooting, SLRs allow you to frame close-ups accurately.

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Advantages Disadvantages No-go subjects

Small – fits in pocket

Simplicity – few

buttons

Quiet and discreet to

use.

Built-in lens – longer or wider lenses cannot be added.

Rudimentary exposure and focus controls.

Very little creative control.

Most sports.

Most nature subjects

Most creative photography.

Pros and Cons of Compact Cameras

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When to Choose Autofocus

In most conditions, autofocus is more accurate and faster than focusing manually – although you still have to ensure that the camera selects the right subject to focus on. You should also be aware of the situations when AF is not as effective – so that you know when to switch to the manual-focus mode, which is found on all good autofocus models.

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Autofocus SpeedAlthough all AF

SLRs focus accurately on static subjects in good light, not all are as good with moving targets and low light. The best AF models can accurately tackle subjects moving at speed towards the camera, using a predictive autofocus system.

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Using the Focus Lock – An AF system works on a small area in the centre of the image. If the subject is off-centre, you should focus on the subject in the center of the viewfinder, engage the AF focus lock, and then recompense before firingmelcon s. lapina

Obscured ViewAF systems

focus on the part of the picture nearest the camera within the sensor zone. If shooting through glass, the camera may focus on the glass, rather than on the subject beyond.

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Contrast Detection – Autofocus SLRs work on the principle that a sharp image is more contrasty than an out-of-focus one. Therefore, subjects with little contrast, such as this white jug and bowl on a white background, usually require switching to manual focus.

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Advantages Disadvantages Easier to use and quicker than manual focus.

Can cope with fast-moving subjects.

Compensates well for failing eyesight.

More expensive than manual models.

Can struggle in low light and with low contrast.

Heavy drain on battery power.

Pros and Cons of Autofocus Cameras

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Which Sort of SLR?

Modern SLRs, particularly autofocus models, are packed full of labor-saving devices which are designed to make photography that much easier. As well as automating repetitive tasks, some of the features give you instant access to what used to be quite advanced techniques.

Not all features are found on all cameras, so you must decide which ones you want before you go shopping for your SLR.

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Fill-in Flash – Built-in flash units are not only useful in low light. In sunlight they can light up portraits (left photo) and eliminating unwanted shadows (right photo).

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melcon s. lapina

Auto-Bracketing – The bracketing feature found on some SLRs allows a sequence of shots to be taken automatically, each at a slightly different exposure. Useful in tricky lighting conditions, or when using slide film (which needs much more precise exposure than print film).

A sequence of exposures helps ensure that one of them will be ‘correct’.

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Metering Modes – Some cameras give a choice of light meter system

Exposure modes – These control how the aperture and shutter speed are set. Program modes will control both automatically.

LCD Panel – This gives information on exposure, film and features currently in use.

DX Coding – Most SLRs have a system that automatically sets the film speed

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Exposure ModesAperture priority mode is one of the ways in which you can set an aperture so that you ensure that all the wanted detail in your shot is sharp.Metering ModesSpot meters measure the light from a small area of the frame. They are useful for images with a very bright or very dark background.

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What are f/numbers?

Aperture and shutter speed are the fundamental controls available to the SLR user: Varying one or other of these opens up a myriad of creative possibilities. Both also control how much light reaches the film – so if you make the hole through which the light passes into the camera (the aperture) smaller; you must keep this hole open for longer (the shutter speed) to compensate. melcon s. lapina

Fortunately, on most cameras this adjustment is made automatically. The size of the aperture is measured using f/numbers (or f/stops). Confusingly, as f/numbers represent fractions, the larger the f/number the smaller the aperture. The widest aperture on a lens might be f/2, whilst the smallest aperture available may be f/22.

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melcon s. lapina

Minimum aperture – In this shot, the aperture being used is f/22 – the smallest opening available on a 100mm lens. As this lets in only a small amount of light, the aperture was opened for longer than when the opening used was wider. On this occasion, a shutter speed of 1/30 sec was needed so that the film received enough light to give correct exposure.

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Mid aperture – With each stop that the lens is opened, twice as much light is let in as the one before. Here the aperture used was f/8 – 3 stops wider than the f/22 used above. So the f/8 setting means 8 times more light reaches the film than with the shot above. To get the same exposure, the shutter has to be open for just 1/8 of the time it was before – in this case, just 1/250 sec.

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Maximum aperture – Opening the lens a further 2 stops to f/4 lets in 4 times more light. The shutter needs only to be open for a quarter of the time compared to the previous shot – so a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec, the fastest on many cameras, was used. Notice how changing the aperture in the 3 shots has affected how many of the cups are in focus. This is known as depth of field.

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Avoiding Camera Shake

Unless you are using a tripod, the first thing you should ensure when choosing the shutter speed is that it is fast enough to avoid camera shake. However tightly you hold your camera, it will always move slightly as you fire. If you use too slow a shutter speed this will mean blurred pictures. The speed you use depends on the focal length of lens you are doing.

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How to hold your camera

To be able to use the slowest possible handheld speeds, you must hold the camera correctly to avoid as much vibration as possible.

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melcon s. lapina

Low-level shooting – you don’t always want to take your pictures from normal eye level. This kneeling position allows you to take shots at waist level.

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Focal length of

lens used

Minimum shutter speed

15mm24mm50mm

100mm200mm400mm

1/30 sec1/30 sec1/60 sec

1/125 sec1/250 sec1/500 sec

Minimum shutter speeds for handheld shots

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35mm lens – 1/30 sec – The easy way to work out the slowest shutter speed you can use when holding the camera by hand, is to divide one second by the focal length of lens you are using. Then round the answer down to the nearest shutter speed found on your camera. With a 35mm lens, a 1/30 sec shutter speed or faster should be used.

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100mm lens – 1/125 sec – The longer the focal length of the lens you use, the more the image is magnified. Unfortunately, the effects of camera shake are also magnified – so a faster shutter speed is needed than with shorter lenses. With a zoom, you still will need a faster shutter speed at its telephoto settings than you will at wideangle ones.

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300mm lens – 1/250 sec – Use more powerful telephotos still, and the shutter speed needed to keep the image sharp keeps going up. With a 300mm lens, the shutter speed you should theoretically use is 1/300 sec or faster – rounding the figure again, a 1/250 sec setting will suffice.

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When to Use Slow Shutter Speeds

By using a tripod, or other camera support, photographers can use slower shutter speeds than usual. These allow you to use apertures that would not otherwise be possible when using a handheld camera – and to shoot in the lowest light. Slow shutter speeds can also be used for creative effect, as moving subjects will become artistically blurred.

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melcon s. lapina

Maximizing Sharpness – In this shot, the aperture used is the smallest available (f/22 on 35-70mm zoom) to ensure that as much of the picture as possible was sharp. This meant using a shutter speed of 1/15 sec – which if used handheld would not have been fast enough to avoid camera shake, therefore a tripod was used to hold the camera steady.

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Using a tripodTripods come in all sizes. Heavier models are more stable and can be used at a wide variety of heights.Smaller tripods are easier to carry.A centre column allows you to raise the height of the camera by small amounts using a crank.

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Nightscapes – With a solid tripod exposures lasting several seconds – or even minutes – are possible. This means that you can shoot pictures throughout the night. For this cityscape, the exposure used is 4 sec.melcon s. lapina

Creative blur – The slower the shutter speed, the more blurred moving subjects appear in the shot. This technique adds the appearance of movement to an otherwise still picture. Here the shutter setting is 1/8 sec.

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When to Use Fast Shutter Speeds

Moving subjects require you to consider using a faster shutter speed than that needed to avoid camera shake. Some blur may be welcome with action subjects, but often we want to freeze the action. Selecting the right shutter speed depends not only on the velocity of the subject, but also on the direction in which it is travelling.

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Frozen in Mid-Air – It is not just for sport pictures that you need fast shutter speeds. There is movement in practically everything we see – and sometimes this needs to be frozen crisply. In this shot the boy jumped on the photographer’s command, and the shutter speed used was 1/1000 sec. melcon s. lapina

Shutter Speed Guide

The shutter speed you use depends on the subject and the direction that it is traveling in relation to the camera. The speeds given are the minimum needed to freeze the action and are for rough guidance only – the speed of one sprinter is different from another. The shutter speed also depends on how large the subject appears in the frame – the bigger it is the faster the shutter speed you will need.melcon s. lapina

Speed Table

Subject Direction of Movement

Towards Camera

Diagonal Across Frame

Pedestrian

JoggerSprinte

rCyclist

City trafficRacing

car

1/30 sec1/60 sec

1/250 sec

1/125 sec

1/60 sec1/500 sec

1/60 sec1/125 sec

1/500 sec

1/250 sec

1/125 sec

1/1000 sec

1/125 sec

1/250 sec

1/1000 sec

1/500 sec

1/250 sec

1/2000 sec

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Running towards the camera – If a subject is heading towards the camera, you can get away with a much slower shutter speed than that needed if it is traveling across the frame. In the case of this hurdler, with the subject filling most of the frame, the shutter speed used was 1/500 sec insuring that the athlete was recorded sharply.

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Galloping across the frame – These racehorses moved extremely fast across the viewfinder, and the only hope of the photographer had of capturing them sharply was to use a 1/2000 sec shutter speed.melcon s. lapina

What is Focal Length?

Focal length is a measure of the light-bending power of a lens. It is invariably measured in millimeters (mm). The longer the focal length of a lens, the narrower the angle of view, and the larger objects appear in the viewfinder without the need to move any closer to them. Long focal length lenses are called telephotos – short focal lengths are called wideangles.

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Wideangles

A lens with a focal length of 50mm is known as a standard lens – the view that it gives is similar to that of the human eye. Any lens with a shorter focal length, and wider angle of view, is known as wideangle. This picture show the views afforded by common wideangle lenses.

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How Focal Length Affects Image Size

Lenses work on the principle that light affecting from a subject can be bent using the refractive properties of glass to form a miniature image of the subject. Lenses with short focal lengths, such as the wideangle lens, produce a small image. Telephoto lenses, with longer focal lengths, produce a larger image, when taken from the same distance.

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Wideangle Lens – A short focal length results in a smaller image.Telephoto Lens – Long focal lengths bring objects closer to fill the frame.

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Telephoto Lenses

Telephotos are lenses with focal lengths greater than 50mm. They range from 70mm short telephotos to ‘long toms‘ with focal lengths of 1000mm or more.

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melcon s. lapina

Does Focal Length Affect Depth of Field?

Aperture is not the only factor that affects how much of a scene is in focus. You should also take into account the focal length of the lens being used and the distance that the lens is focused at (generally the distance from the camera to your subject). The longer the focal length, the more restricted depth of field becomes.

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So, all things being equal, a wideangle lens keeps more of the scene in focus than a telephoto one. In addition, depth of field becomes increasingly more limited the closer you are to the subject that you lens is focused on.

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Factors Affecting Depth of Field

These diagrams show how aperture, focused distance and focal length can individually affect how much of a scene is in focus. The shaded area indicates the amount of depth of field in front of, and behind, the subject.

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1.Aperture – The larger the aperture the less depth of field. For maximum depth of field, use the smallest aperture

2.Focused Distance – The closer the subject you focus on, the less depth of field. Depth of field is greater with distance subjects.

3.Focal Length – The longer the lens you use, the less epth of field you will have. Wideangle lenses give the greatest depth of field.

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What Is Selective Focusing?The aperture is not just used to control how much light enters the lens. It also regulates how much of the shot will be sharp.

Small apertures allow you to take shots where everything in the scene is sharp. Wider apertures let you restrict the amount of the picture that is in focus. Selective focusing is a powerful SLR technique that allows you to vary how much of the scene is in focus. Unwanted or distracting elements are made to look blurred by careful use of aperture.

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Background sharp – Focusing on the tower and using a 135mm telephoto with an aperture of f/2.8, the urn in the middle ground and the young boy in the foreground are thrown out of focus.

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Middle ground sharp – Again a 135mm lens and a wide aperture of f/2.8. this time, however, the lens has been focused on the decorative urn. The eye is drawn straight to the point of focus.

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Foreground Sharp – Here, the focus was the boy in the foreground, but the aperture of 135mm lens was left to f/2.8. note that the tower is more out of focus than the urn in the middle.

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Everything Sharp. In this shot, the smallest aperture was used to ensure that as much of the scene was in focus as possible. Again, the focal length used is 135mm, but the aperture is f/22. The urn is focused.

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How Can You Tell What’s in Focus?

The SLR’s viewfinder shows you the amount of depth of field available with the widest aperture. For smaller apertures, some cameras have a depth of field preview, allowing you to see how much of the scene is sharp.

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Does Focal Length Alter Perspective?

Perspective is affected by one factor alone – the distance of the subject from the camera. In theory, therefore, focal length does not alter perspective. However, because telephoto lenses are generally used to shoot subjects that are further away from the camera than wideangle ones, the choice of lens frequently changes the perspective of the scene.

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melcon s. lapina

28mm Wideangle from 1 Meter (Photograph in Preceding Slide)

With a 28mm wideangle lens, the photographer shots this bust from just a meter away to get it to fill the height of the frame. Not only is much of the room included in the shot, but the perspective is typical of a wideangle lens, with the room appearing to narrow at the seemingly distant far wall.

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melcon s. lapina

150mm Telephoto from 6 Meters (Photograph in Preceding Slide)

Using a 150mm telephoto lens, I had to stand 6m away from the bust to get the same size image as before. The only detail of the room left in the shot is the window at the far end. Typically for a telephoto lens, this appears much closer to the bust than in reality.

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50mm Standard Lens from 2 Meters – Taken with a 50mm standard lens, this shot gives the most natural-looking perspective, matching that which a person in the room would see.

85mm Telephoto from 3.5 meters – By using an 85mm telephoto lens setting, the slide walls are no longer visible, giving less information about depth than with more wideangle lenses.

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Which Film to Use

Film is available in variety of 'speeds'. The faster the film the more sensitive it is to light, and the shorter the exposure needed. Fast film produces a grainier image.

Film speed is measured on the ISO scale. A film rated as ISO 100 is four times slower than an ISO 400 film, and needs four times more light for the same shot.

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Slow Film and Ultra-Slow Film – Slow films are not just used conditions. For the shot of the sculpture (left) a tripod was used and ISO 50 film. For the nightscape (right) ISO 100 film was used as the photographer wanted a long shutter speed to blur the moving lights.

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Choosing the Right Speed of FilmSpeed ISO

Rating Quality Uses

Ultra-slow

ISO 25-50 Very fine grain Where fine detail is part of subject matter – ideal for still-life photography.

Slow ISO 64-100 Fine Grain For use in good light, or when slow shutter speed and tripod can be used.

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Choosing the Right Speed of FilmSpeed ISO

Rating Quality Uses

Medium

ISO 125-200

Medium Grain

All-purpose film, providing compromise between grain and speed

Fast ISO 400-640

Noticeable Grain

For dull days, or when fast shutter speed is essential – such as with sport.

Super-fast

ISO 1000-3200

Very noticeable

grain

For handheld photography in low light – for indoor sport, for example.

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Fast Film – Faster films, with a higher ISO rating, are needed in low light when faster shutter speeds are required, either to avoid camera shake or to freeze the action. In this shot, taken in fading sunlight, the photographer needed a shutter speed of 1/250 sec to freeze the jogger moving across the frame, and used ISO 400 film.

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Super-Fast Film – The fastest films are designed for handheld use in low light conditions when the fastest shutter speeds may be required. For this motorcycle race on an overcast day the photographer needed shutter speeds of 1/1000 sec or over to freeze the action, and chose to use ISO 1000 film. The grain on such films is noticeable particularly in shadow areas and at bigger enlargements – but this is far preferable to blurred photographs.

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How to Use Flash

Flash is not only used to increase light levels, helping you to take pictures in the dark, it also changes the quality of the light in the scene. Without care, the change can be for the worse. Built-in flashguns found on many modern SLRs are useful, but the position of the unit means that the shadows it causes can detract from the picture, rather than adding to it. Backgrounds can also disappear, as any flashgun only has a very limited range and cannot light subjects at different distances evenly.

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Inverse Square Law – The further the subject is from the flashgun, the less light it receives. If some areas of the frame are further away than others, these appear much darker, as in the shot above. The amount of fall-ff is proportional to the square of distance.

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On-Camera Flash – Built-in flashguns, or those attached to the hotshoe, are convenient. Unfortunately, however, they produce flat lighting, with hard shadows that form an unsightly outline around one side of the subject, as seen in the shot above.

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Banishing Red-Eye – 'Red-eye' occurs when light from a flash reflects off the retina, illuminating blood vessels.

Get closer to the subject and use a wider-angled lens if necessary. Move the flash away from the lens.

Brighten room lighting to reduce the size of the subject’s irises, so red-eye is less marked.

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Bounce Flash – One way of improving the quality of the lighting from an on-camera flashgun is to use a unit with a tiltable head. This allows you to bounce the flash off a ceiling or wall. The bounced light is softer, with less defined shadows. If there is no convenient surface to bounce off, a reflector unit can be fitted to the flash to produce a similar effect.

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Diffuse Flash – To reduce the harsh light of an on-camera flash unit you can fit a diffuser over the flash. This disperses the light, creating a softer effect. It is particularly useful for flash shots of close-ups and other subjects where a mass of heavy shadows would be undesirable.

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Off-Camera Flash – The best way to fit a flashgun to an SLR is with a bracket. This brings the unit well away from the lens, reducing red-eye and producing a more modeled lighting. The flash head can then be bounced or diffused as desired. The remote flash unit is then connected to the hotshoe or the SLR’s flash socket using a lead. Here, off-camera flash has been used to provide fill-in on a sunny day, producing a side-lit appearance.

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Reference

John Hedgecoe’s 35mm Photography

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