Day Sixteen: Something I Now Know, But Don't Have To

Today the lesson at 31 Days To A Better Photo is about exposure compensation. Now here's the deal, I started reading into this very carefully and I was thinking, "Good gracious! What else do I have to learn!!"! But when I get toward the end of the bottom, I find out it's for those who don't have the hang of exposure (shutter speed, aperature, and ISO). It's kind of a cheat tool, if you will. You tell your camera to either let more or less light in.

I know how to adjust the exposure on my camera properly by using my meter and checking it after the photo is taken with my histogram, so this lesson didn't apply to me.

I am now more than halfway through the lessons. I noticed the rest are less technical and more about proper ways to take photos. We also get into Photoshop...YAY!

The photos from tonight are plants at Abuelo's. You are probably asking, "Why were you at Abuelo's?". The answer is that Brennen's boss is in town so we trekked to Midland to eat out. Really well. On the company's dime. And I didn't have to clean the kitchen. And I took photos of some very pretty flowers. But not of the boys. They were too busy.

Wanna hear something cool? It's really kind of dark in that restaurant. Look how not dark these pictures are!! I am really happy!

Day 13: Err...I Mean 12. Wait, What Day Is This??

I have always heard that there is something called Mommy ADD. I never believed it until I actually became a mommy. Mommy ADD can be described as knowing thing one needs to be done, and starting it. But, finding that something else, that is WAY more important, needs to get done before thing one. Which, of course, leaves thing one halfway done. Sprinkle in a few, "Mom, I need a ..........!" or a "Uh oh!!!" along the way, and that, in a nutshell, is Mommy ADD. And also what happened to my blog post from yesterday.

Hey, trying to document learning your camera and showing photographs daily is tough!

I am also thinking about documenting my life on here. And showing pictures to the grandparents...Brennen is out of town. I am chatty.

SEE!! It's happening again! This Mommy ADD!!!

So, Day 11 was just a link up day. On Day 12 of 31 Days To A Better Photo talks about white balance. I am going to quote Darcy with her definition of what white balance is. "White balance is the process of letting your camera know what is neutral so white things look white." What that means is, if we are taking pictures our boys in Colorado in a very bushy area where it's really dark and shady with little areas of light colors, it might be difficult for the camera to judge the neutral colors.

To fix that problem, you can use a white balance preset. On my Canon, they are:
Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, White flourescent light, Flash, and Custom.

I have been shooting all of my pictures in auto, and it's done very well in most instances. But, when I take the pictures of my boys at night in their rooms, the pictures always look yellow. If I were to take the pictures with a Tungsten white balance, it would put more blue into the photo to reduce the yellow-ish tint. YAY! This is exciting!

So here is me playing with my camera, and adjusting the white balance as needed.

1/1250s f/5.6 ISO 100

White balance set at Sunny or Approx. 5200K (kelvins)

1/1250s f/5.6 ISO 100

White Balance Approx. 5200K

While the auto white balance pictures look very much the same, I did notice a little bit of difference. The pictures weren't so bright, if that makes sense.

I have tried to get pictures of the boys, but I have failed over the last days. Let's see what I can get this afternoon.

Day Ten: There Is a Meter in My Camera?

Yes!! There is! And you know what is the most exciting part? It will tell you if your picture is over exposed, under exposed, or just right. I was just as shocked!!

In day 10's lesson at 31 Days To A Better Photo, Darcy explains about the mysterious meter. If you have a DSLR camera, it's the scale thingy on the screen on your camera.

If you have your ISO, shutter and aperature correct, the scale will balance at 0. On my Canon camera, if the picture is under exposed (or too dark), the meter will be on the negative side (-). If I have my setting too high, the meter will be on the positive side (+).

I actually had read ahead a few days and used my meter when taking pictures on Saturday. I couldn't be happier with the results! Because I am gaining knowledge on where my ISO and my aperature should be, it was easy changing the shutter speed. I was taking lots of stills so the only adjustment I made was to the the shutter.

I did keep in mind that the last modification that should be made is ISO. Remember, a high ISO creates too much noise in your picture.

Here's your grandkid pics for the day. I had intended on taking more pictures. I walked/ran five laps while the boys were playing, and then I started snapping some pictures. By the time I got to picture number 5, Ethan had made a friend and kind of left Evan behind. So, Evan and I went to the swings and had fun going high.

The bonus tonight is another post. It's an interview with Evan. Be sure to check it out!

Day Nine: Understanding the Rules of Shooting

The lesson for today in the 31 Days To A Better Photo covers the rules of shooting. It talks a lot about numbers...ISO, aperature, and shutter speed. There is more than one way to get a photo. Let's say I am shooting pictures of the boys and we are in the shade. I know that they are busy and to get the best photo I am going to have use a fast shutter. So, I set my camera to 1/2000s, but because my shutter is fast most likely my image will be dark. What needs to be done to correct this? I can open my lens with a wider aperature, and I can increase my ISO. But remember, the higher the ISO the more noise in the photo.

Vice versa, if I am taking still photos of plants outside on a sunny day, for example, I would reduce my ISO and slow my shutter down. Depending on how I want the picture to look, I might or might not mess with the aperature. Close ups of a bloom, I would keep my depth of field shallow. Pictures of trees, I would want a wide depth of field.

How do you know when you have your exposure correct??

Well, tomorrow I will talk about meters.

The boys are home, so here is your photos of the day. I interrupted them during the movie. I also threw in some of the Daddy, the Lug (Jet), and Miss Nosey Pants (Ruby Soo).

I love these guys!

Day Seven: The Lesson About Depth of Field

The next lesson in the 31 Days To A Better Photo series is learning about depth of field. To get a full understanding about aperature, you have to start thinking about your subject or subjects on a plane. The best way for me to describe this is, imagine Ethan, Evan and I are standing close together with Evan being closer to the camera, Ethan being to the right of Evan slightly behind him, and me being in the back. If we use a wide aperature, Evan will be the sharpest, Ethan will be slightly blurred, and I will be the most blurry. If we were to change the aperature to a deeper depth of field, we would all be in focus and the background would be less blurry.

This lesson applies in so many instances, but when Darcy, the writer of My 3 Boybarians and the writer of the 31 Days to a Better Photo series, used the analogy of a soccer field, it really hit home. If Ethan is playing in a soccer game and I want to get a photo with him being the focal point, I would set my aperature wide and the result would be Ethan in focus with everyone else blurry. If I wanted to get all of the children playing around him in focus also, I would set my aperature to a small size and then my depth of field is wider.

Here are some photo examples:

1/20s f/4.5 ISO1600

This picture shows how the "l" is in focus, the "s" is slightly out of focus and the "w" is the least in focus.

1/20s f/4.5 ISO1600

This photo is a good example of the soccer field analogy. The "a" is the most sharpest of the group. I love the blur of the "y" and "s" in the background.

1/15s f/4 ISO1600

1/15s f/18 ISO 6400

This photo is taken at the same distance as above. I changed the aperature and the ISO. I needed to slow the shutter down also, but I wanted to show 1.) How the f-stop allowed the background to be in focus and 2.) How narrowing the lens allows less light into the lens. That's why it is dark.

Let me just say, I am no longer using any of the automatic features on my camera, except for the auto focus. Even then, I know how to adjust the focus to my liking as well. I am so proud, that after a week, I know how to make my pictures look the way I want them. I do know that I want another lens. My f-stop on my kit lens isn't as open as I would like. Add that to my wish list!!

1/1000s f/4.5 ISO100

How great is this picture? Completely manual! WOO HOO! 

Now, for the boys. They were a lot more cooperative today.

Day Six: How To Make the Background Blurry, Part 2

This lesson from the 31 Days To A Better Photo series continues to talk about aperature and depth of field. Apparently, blurry background actually has a name...bokeh. My photo guru doesn't know how to pronounce that word, so I am not even going to attempt. My accent wouldn't do it justice :)  Anyway, the way bokeh is made is by using a large aperature and a shallow depth of field. The background will be perfectly blurry.

Also, if I am standing really close to a subject with a large aperature, my focal point will be smaller than if I am far away.

Here's an example:

1/30s f/5.0 ISO 800

The "a" is in focus and the blurry background is the bokeh.

I tried to take tonight's pictures of the boys early this afternoon because I had a school board meeting to attend. Evan is now getting tired of me taking his picture. :) Poor kid. Ethan is still okay with this, time will only tell for how long.

Day Five: How To Make the Background Blurry

Today's lesson in the 31 Days to a Better Photo begins to tell me about aperature. Aperature means the opening of the lens. It is measured in stops, called f-stops. The larger the number, the smaller the opening of the lens. A f/1.2 is a lens has a big opening so it allows more light in, and requires less time to get the exposure right. It also gives you a shallow depth of field. A f/16 lens has a small opening which lets less light in, and requires more time to the get the exposure. But, it also gives you a deeper depth of field.

The depth of field is the depth of the portion of the photo that will be in focus. It's what makes your kids in a picture appear in focus, while the rest of your picture is blurry, without having to edit it with software.

The tip is the lower the aperature, the wider the aperature, but the shallower the depth of field.

Examples:

f/3.5 1/20s ISO800

f/6.3 1/20s ISO 800

f/6.3 1/20s ISO 1600

Lens: Canon 18-55mm f/3.5

In the first photo, the aperature is wide and the focal point is shallow. That means the candles are in focus and the background is blurry. The second photo shows more clarity in the background because the depth of field is deeper, but it's dark. That's because the opening is smaller, so less light is getting in. The third photo has the same f-stop, but I changed my ISO to allow more light in. I could have also slowed my shutter speed.

Here's tonight's pictures of the boys making sure to adjust my shutter, ISO, and aperature.