Icons: Keys to understanding

Selective focus and shallow depth of field enables this columbine to stand out in stark relief to a busy background. This was photographed using the Av setting.

In learning how to become proficient with your digital camera’s capabilities, you need to be able to decipher the cryptic icons that are on the camera and in the menu. Those tiny icons are the keys to a wealth of information about the functions and features of your camera. In order to make it as [...]

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Light to illuminate, shadow to shape

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Now that you are getting to know your camera, we would like to talk about light and shadow. For without those two elements, we don’t really have anything to see or shoot. Well, “duh” you’re thinking, but hang on. Let’s dissect the phrase above. Light to illuminate: Of course. It is obvious, right? Sunlight, moonlight, [...]

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Light is your paint, your camera the brush

In this image from the wheat fields of Eastern Montana I positioned myself so that the low-angle sun is shining directly into the combine’s cab to illuminate the driver. Notice the fine texture of the wheat, which is only somewhat enhanced by the angle. If I had moved more to my right, there would be more shadows on the back side of the wheat heads. But my primary focus was the man driving the combine and the overall image color.

Aesthetics — Noun: A guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste; artistic sensibility. Aesthetic — Adjective: Characterized by a heightened sensitivity to beauty. You make aesthetic decisions all the time. What color to paint the kitchen. What blouse goes with what skirt. Can you wear a black sock on one foot while wearing [...]

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White: A balancing act

WB fluorescent: This image was shot with the white balance setting at fluorescent. Notice how the camera software added magenta to the colour temperature of the daylight scene. You can see the purply-colour shift  best in the concrete blocks which are supposed to be more grey. And in the light shadow area underneath the white sign.

Colour temperature and light In addition to having bright and dark qualities, light has a colour spectrum which is measured using Kelvin degrees of temperature. This can be affected by a number of factors: time of day, type of lighting, altitude. (Stick with me here, it gets easier.) If you used to shoot a lot [...]

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What’s wrong with this picture?

The mottled light over the amphitheater at Cedar Breaks National Monument makes for a confusing landscape photo.

Okay now, students. Put away your books and take out a nice sharp pencil. We are going to have a pop quiz! Well, maybe not really, but kind of. We are going to use the lessons learned from our past few tutorials to dissect this image. Is it a good photograph? A bad one? And [...]

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Where do your lines lead?

Leading lines, also called vectors, like these rows of grape vines, take the eye into a specific part of the image, in this case, the house and winery.

So far in our columns we have covered these basics of composition: Simplicity Simplify your pictures by choosing uncluttered backgrounds that strengthen the center of interest. Move in close eliminating unnecessary distractions. One famous photographer said that anything further away than 500 yards was not photogenic. Something to think about maybe. The Rule of Thirds [...]

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Rule of Thirds

This image of the abandoned Cottonwood schoolhouse in Northeastern Montana is an example of how to use the Rule of Thirds in a landscape photograph.

Composition and how you frame an image determine the difference between a bad photo and a good one. Now, if you like your photos with heads cut off, big empty spaces around things and a little kid whose face is so small it’s hard to pick him out of the pumpkins he’s sitting in, then [...]

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Taking a visual journey

The dock in the pond at the base of Idaho's Bruneau Dunes creates the type of diagonal line we talk about in the column; leading the eye into the image.

Continuing our chat about composition, let’s review a bit from last week. Putting the horizon line in the center of a landscape has a tendency to cut the image in half, where the two parts do not necessarily create a more harmonious whole. When you are standing or crouching in position you have to make [...]

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Up close and personal

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Today we continue with a lesson on candid portraits, that is, portraits shot outside of a portrait studio. In this situation you have two choices: shoot tight on just the face and shoulders, or shoot wider to allow some of the environment to show. Tighter is good when the background is distracting, or when you [...]

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Terrifying words — ‘Manual Mode’

The lens aperture on a camera acts like the iris and pupil in your eye, opening and closing to let in varying amounts of light. Photo by Curtis Fletcher / stock.xchng.com

What’s with this manual mode stuff when we have a camera that does perfectly good auto? There are times when you are going to want to override your camera’s settings for shutter speed and aperture — and they are directly related to each other. I explained this to a friend of mine using sound effects [...]

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