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Aperture (AV mode)

Aperture is a part of the camera that is responsible for letting in light and controlling the amount of light that the camera captures in the final image. This also controls the depth of field in a photo, the depth of field is the amount of detail that is let in a image, so the bigger the aperture the more light in a photo the narrower the depth of field and the smaller the aperture the less light which means a wider depth of field. Also it can be counted in F stops so the bigger the F stop the smaller the aperture and the wider the depth of field and visa versa.

On this diagram you can see the narrower depth of field makes the background of the photo out of focus.

On this diagram you can see the f stop is larger, so the aperture is smaller and the depth of field is wider.

On this photo the camera setting had a small aperture so this meant it had a large depth of field so most of the photo would be in focus. You can see this by most of the photo being in focus like the books being in sharp focus and also you can see by the shelves being in focus and being able to see more detail.

This time the aperture is midway, so the depth of field will also be midway, but now you can see on the photo that the books have come out of the field of focus and are slightly out of focus. Also the shelves in the background have become more unclear and blurry, because they are not in focus.

This time the aperture is at its largest, so now all the background and foreground is out of focus and just the camera case is in focus. The camera case is the only thing in sharp focus because it is in the line of focus that has been created by the larger Fstop

F stop 8

F stop 4

F stop 2

Shutter Speed (Tv mode)Shutter speed can create effects that can give a photo some movement and stillness, depending on the speed of the shutter and how fast it closes. Shutter speed is counted in fractions of seconds. A fast shutter speed would be in the 1000s, for example 1/3000.

The smaller the fraction the faster the shutter speed, the faster the shutter speed the more detail that will be captured. The slower the shutter speed the bigger the fraction. The longer the shutter is open the more blur and movement the picture will include.

Fast shutter speed

1/1000

Medium shutter speed 1/100 Slow shutter speed

1 second

This photo has been taken with a fast shutter speed, so the movement is captured so all the detail is kept and there is no blurring.

This time the shutter speed was at a medium speed, this did capture some movement and blurring but not enough to create a movement in the photo.

On this photo the shutter speed is slow and it captures the movement in the photo. Because the shutter was open for longer this meant more light got into the picture making it a bit over exposed.

1/500 shutter speed

1/100 shutter speed

¼ shutter speed

ISO settingsThe ISO settings is to do with the sensitivity of the camera, the amount of sensitivity the camera reacts to depending on the lighting situations. The higher the ISO number the more sensitive the sensor is to light the sensor records the light in the final image then this also determines the amount of noise that ends up on the final image. The higher the ISO the more noise that ends up on the final image and the lower the ISO the better quality the photo will be.

The noise is clusters and grains of light that heat up and become more visible the higher the ISO.

On this photo I put the ISO settings on to the highest setting, this has made the picture lighter and the camera is most sensitive to the light. But if you cropped into this or zoomed the noise in this photo would be visible.

In this photo the ISO it about medium sensitivity so the light hasn’t been picked up as much as the previous photo. But the noise would be a lot less visible if you zoomed into the photo.

In this photo the ISO is at its least so the light sensitivity is not high and the photo is dark. The noise on this is the least and may not be very visible when you crop or zoom into the photo.

600 ISO

400 ISO

100 ISO

White Balance

This is changing the white colour in the photo. The white balance menu lets you choose to take an image for each setting. Some settings will give more dramatic or subtle results, the balance will make the photo more yellow or blue .

In this selection of photos it shows how different the different white balances can make the same photo look.

Using different white balances on the same photos each give the same photos a very different feel. The top 2 photos look a lot warmer and yellower, where as the bottom two look colder and bluer. The white balance can change the whole story of the photo and make them look like a very different place.

White balance: warmWhite balance: sunlight

White balance: ShadeWhite balance: tungsten

Original image

cropped image

Levels

Dodging and burning

Colour adjustments

These photos are an example of the kinds of editing that can be done to photos, to change photos, enhance the colours, shadow or lighting, making parts of a photo lighter or darker, this is done with dodging and burning. Dodging and burning was originally used in the development of film in dark rooms, the photographer would enhance parts of a photo, essentially editing the photo before it had even been developed. Now this can be done digitally on photoshop by selection a tool then precisely choosing which area to enhance. Levels uses a similar idea, about enhancing the dark and light parts of the photo, but this tool actually changes the tones proportionally. The colour adjustment tool is to give the photo a different tone all together, changing the whole feeling and message of the photo, e.g. giving a photo a brown tone makes it look more sepia and vintage, whilst giving a photo a blue tone makes it look more modern and fresh. And finally cropping an image is a simple way to change the perspective of a photo, change a photo’s focal point or to just crop a particular item or person out of the image, cropping gets rid a part of the photo, whilst keeping proportions and not zooming in, but if a photo isn’t of a high quality, a cropped image can become pixilated and not look good.