The need for speed

Thank you the two people who read my blog on Christmas!  I have no idea who you are, but thanks to google tracking data I know two people read my blog.  Woohoo!!

Ahem, I mean, it's time to examine the last point in our exposure triangle.  Speed...well the speed of the shutter.  This is perhaps the easiest point in our triangle to explain.  Shutter speed is exactly as it sounds...the speed of how quickly the shutter closes from the time your press the button to take a picture.  Easy.  Done.  Next.  But like all things in photography it's simple in it's fundamental aspect but, oh my, how it can affect the image you are trying to capture.  Shutter speed helps you get that silky smooth affect on water, it can capture geese in midflight, and anything in between.  

I like to think that when I take a picture I am capturing a moment in time.  A slice of life as it flows all around all of us.  When you take a picture you have the option of determining how much of the moment you want to capture.  What is the final image you have in your minds eye and how can you use the camera to get that?  That's the question I ask every time I take a picture.  Admittedly I don't succeed in getting the camera to create what is in my mind all that often, but that's the point of learning.  I know what your thinking, I'm rambling on about all this and it doesn't have much to do with shutter speed.   Don't worry, I promise a point is coming soon.  Imagine I want to take a picture of a pristine waterfall and have a silky smooth image of water flowing over the rocks.  Then to capture this longer slice of time (see I told you I was getting to a point) I would need to have a longer shutter speed.  Depending on the time of day or amount of light, probably in the area of 5 to 10 seconds.  Longer if it's early in the morning or near dusk.  The longer you keep the shutter open the smoother the water will be.

Now let's reverse that.  Say I want to get a picture of a dog running right at me, grinning ear to ear.  I want to capture that brief moment of his paws in the air and tongue wagging.  I would need to have a pretty quick shutter speed for that image.  In the neighborhood of 1/1000th of a second.  When the shutter is set that high I'm essentially stopping the action.

It really all depends on the type of image you are trying to create.  One of the things I really like about photography is when I try to figure out how to get what my mind is thinking to match what shows up on the display screen.  Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's really hard.  

Now to bring it all together.  The exposure triangle is all about capturing light to get the image you are looking for.  Light dictates everything.  If it's a bright sunny day you are not going to be able to keep the shutter open for long periods of time without overexposing your image.  If it's a cloudy day or you are shooting at night you will need to keep the shutter open longer to allow more light in.  However, you won't be able to stop action.  The amount of light you can let in allows you to get whatever image you are trying to achieve. 

Let's use the example of the water flowing over rocks.  If I want that silky smooth look I know I'm going to have to keep my shutter open for a long time.  So the first part of our triangle is set.  Long shutter time.  Now how much light is this going to let in?  You've reached the waterfall, you know you need a longer shutter speed but it's pretty sunny.  So how do we keep the image from over exposing?  Come back when it's not as bright?  Well yes, sure, but you may not be able to do that.   So you reduce your ISO setting down to the lowest number you can.  Still too much light coming in?  What is your aperture situation?  Are you wide open at f3.5 or even wider?  Remember that aperture directly controls how much light is hitting the sensor, so close that diaphragm up and set your aperture to f22 or something like that.  Now you have reduced the amount of light drastically.  You press that shutter button and viola you have an image of water flowing smoothly over rocks.  

I realize all this is the beginners view of our triangle.  There are many many ways to get a properly exposed image.  And to toss in a wrinkle, there are times where you want to purposefully over or under expose an image.  But this blog is an exercise in learning about photography and seeing how much knowledge I am able to retain and pass on to the two souls who read my blog on Christmas day.  

Aperture and the Exposure Triangle

In my continuing quest for knowledge of all things photography one of the basic elements is Aperture or your f-stop and how that plays in the the Exposure Triangle.  I really feel this Exposure Triangle sounds like a new reality show...."See how Amy reacts to Tim and Jane's indiscretions on the next episode of Exposure Triangle."  Sounds like something FOX would air.  Alas, I digress. 

For what I've gleamed through pages and pages of e-books.  By the way buy some ebooks from this guy and this guy.  Good stuff!  Anyhoo...aperture and the f-stop is the how you set the size of the diaphragm in the lens that light passes through.  The bigger the aperture (and smaller F- stop number, like that makes sense) the more light comes through the lens.  However, this aperture nonsense is a bit tricky.  The f-stop number also helps dictate focus.  If you want to just focus on a subject in the foreground and get that nice blurry background you need to have a lower f-stop which means a larger diaphragm.  See how it can get confusing?  And if you want to have the foreground and the background in focus, you need a larger f-stop and smaller diaphragm.

You can do all sorts of neat tricks by changing the aperture.  You can get those starry pictures where the sun is bursting, and you can focus on one guitar string and have all the others blurred out.  Most photographers set their cameras on Aperture mode and let the camera figure out the ISO and shutter speed for the image they are trying to get.  At least the ones who wrote the books I've read do.

It's going to be a short post tonight folks as it's Christmas time, I'm tired, and I have a dog that needs to be walked.  I'll pick up on shutter speed next and all the fun you can have with that.

ISO and the Exposure Triangle

In my quest for knowledge of photography one of the first things you learn is about the Exposure Triangle. This is where all those pictures you thought you took somehow vanished off of your memory card. Get it? Get it? I crack myself up.

But seriously folks, to get a properly exposed digital image you need three things to line up right. ISO setting, your F-Stop or appeture, and your shutter speed. I have a decent understanding of shutter speed and appeture, but ISO alludes me.  So for me it's the hardest point in this mysterious triangle.

Okay it doesn't allude me in the sense of I don't know what it does. From my understanding ISO is the sensitivity of, well, the sensor. Every digital camera has a sensor to record the image you are taking. This sensitivity affects how much light is able to be recorded on said sensor. The higher the ISO the less light is needed to record the image. This is particularly helpful when you are trying to take pictures of lions at the National Zoo and it's near feeding time. Which also happens to be dusk.


To get the proper exposure and to make sure everything is in focus I would need to have a shutter speed of at least 1/500 (to catch the lions moving and playing). However, I would also need to make sure the f stop is big enough to make sure everything is in focus, not just the lions head, but also the background or another lion. So I would need an f-stop of around f-8 or so. Well at dusk this doesn't allow much light onto the sensor, so would need to pump up the ISO. And that's where I run into trouble. How much is too much? Or not enough? Now my D3100 has an "okay" sensor on it. Not as nice as a new fancy D600 or even a pro level camera like the D3X. But as I don't have two grand laying around to drop on a new camera body then I'll be happy with what I have. My wife will be even happier that I haven't spent more money, and my back will be happy that I'm not sleeping on the couch.

Trial and error I'm sure is the answer, but when you can only get to the zoo twice a year it's a little tough to keep practicing. Especially when you get a little "buck fever" and want to get the images of the lions and tigers because they are just so darn cute with their rolling around and playing.

As you can see, these images are not the best, even with the wonders of post processing in Lightroom or Photoshop. I've been told ISO is the Wild West of photography. There are no hard and fast rules. I'm a hard and fast type of guy though....wait that sounded wrong. I mean I like rules. You set your f stop to X and shutter speed to Y and ISO to Z then you get awesome pictures of lions playing. People adore your skills and you get riches thrown at your feet. What's that? That doesn't happen? If it were that easy anybody could do it? Yea, yea, I know.

So I'm still learning the ins and outs of ISO and how it plays into the exposure triangle. And I'm sure 20 years from now I'll still be learning new things. But that's the point isn't it?

My first steps

All journey's start with the first step...or skip I suppose, but I'm a stepper not a skipper. Unless I wear those funny hats, but that's a story for another day.

My first steps into photography actually started with my first trip to Alaska. I had a little compact digital and I took as many pictures as I could. It wasn't really about the photography or getting distinct pictures, it was more about being in a place I had never been, always wanted to go, and thought I would never come back. It wasn't until I got home and showed my roommate the pictures that I received my first positive reactions to my photos.

Even then I can't say I was "bitten" by the photo bug. That next step was thanks to my father. For Christmas last year he gave me a Nikon D3100 and I fell in love. From the moment I unpacked it and pressed the shutter button I knew I wanted to learn more and more about photography, light, and the wishful attempt to master both.

Over this past year, I've read numerous books created a Facebook page and my own website. I have also fallen down the Scott Kelby hole. He has some great books and videos on how to improve your photography and has built an empire around them. I tip my hat to you Mr. Kelby.

I've also come to the realization that I know almost nothing about photography and if this journey will teach me anything it'll be patience.

I'm looking forward to my journey, taking each step one by one knowing that it'll truely never end.