Week 4 - Shutter Priority

The task for this week was to shoot some pictures of running water using various shutter settings to see the effect this has.

Decided to go to the river Bollin near to where I live and thankfully the weather was really nice, dry and sunny.

Whilst changing the shutter settings it became very clear that the faster the shutter is, the more you have to compesate the light by changing aperature or ISO.  Whilst in Shutter Priority the camera (sony a230) doesnt allow you to change the F numbers so I had only the ISO to play with.  This resulted in having a larger ISO for the shorter shutter and the oppposite when using a longer shutter. 

I did notice that when using a longer shutter of 0.5 upwards there was simply to much light resulting in a very over exposed shot with no detail or image at all.  I'm thinkng a long shutter would be better in low light situations where you didnt want to use a larger ISO.

Shutter 1/400ISO 200, F/4.5

Shutter 1/400ISO 400, F/4.5

Shutter 1/30 ISO 100, F/6.3

Shutter 0.5 ISO 100, F/29

You can also see from the above F settings that as the shutter is open longer the aperature gets smaller (larger number, smaller hole).



Shutter 1/3200ISO 3200, F/4.5

Shutter 1/15 ISO 100, F/11

Shutter 0.5  ISO 100, F/32

Shutter 1/4000ISO 3200, F/14

Shutter 1/15ISO 400, F/32



Managed to capture this cheeky chappy and added some slight effects using lightroom which I have got my hands on today so need to play with it and work out exactly what you can use it for.

Shutter 1/400ISO 800, F/8.0

Not the best shot I know, really quite hard to get shots of moving subjects, especially when using a tripod, or maybe its just me!!!!

 



Has anybody seen an aeroplane!!!

Popped down to the airport this evening to play with the shutter priority to try to capture some movement and secondly, to see how an aircraft coming in to land would shoot.

After watching the Karl Taylor dvd, seeing Daves crazy photo from his steering wheel and some shots that have been blogged by others on the course I decided to jump on board with the lights streems.

So, here is the pic I shot of a rather large aircraft which seems to have dissappeared leaving only the light streem.

Working on Shutter priorityS2.5 / F25

This is the main road just opposite the runway, turned out to be a pleasant shot captuiring the movement.

S5 / F14

And again with some photoshopping!

Rule of Thirds

Reading through the coursework from Dave and looking at the Rule of Thirds I have looked at a quite a few of my old pictures to see if I have used this rule without being aware.

I have found images that do follow this rule but I can honestly say it wasnt intentional, likewise I have also found a images where the rule doesnt apply.

These example below show where the rule does apply, these are images taken before starting the course where I have used the auto setting.

Here are some examples where the rule doesn't apply, and then where using the crop tool in photoshop to apply the rule.

 

This is me so clearly I never shot the image but thought this was good example to show how the rule can work.

This is something I will start to think about more when taking a shot to ensure I use the frame as best i can.

However it can be difficult if shooting a subject far away, in this case I would take the shot and then crop it accordingly

Inspired by Karl Taylor

Just watched the Karl Taylor dvd from Dave, gives some really good tips and the more I hear Aperature and Shutter being explained the more I understand it.

Got a good idea for a theme to which was helpful, based on movement in pictures and capturing the light trails.  Being 5 minutes from the airport I think that could be a good place to do a few test shots tomorrow evening.

I'll post some pics tomorrow night hopefully.

Good example here of Karls, you can see how the effect of slowing the shutter right down has created the movement in the water.

Week 3 - Aperature priority

Landscape and Aperature priority was the task this, I decided to go to Tatton Park in Knutsford.  So I took quite a few of the same shots and each time using the tripod amended the F setting from low to high.

Thought I was doing something wrong to start as there didnt seem to be much difference in the outcome, however when comparing the lowest to the highest there is a difference.  Used ISO 100 for all examples.

Eg 1

F5  Shutter 1/15

F25  Shutter 2

Eg 2

F3.5Shutter1/1000

F22Shutter 1/25

In the second example it clearly shows the affects of the larger aperature, a brighter picture from the increased light and more detail in the trees in the background.

Eg 3

F3.5Shutter 1/800

F22Shutter 1/15



Eg 4

F32Shutter 1/13

F4Shutter 1/640

So i think I'm starting to get it!!!

Week 2 - another idea for a theme!

Built Environments, lots of interesting buildings about, could do the theme in black and white and adopt the dramatic feel that Ansel Adams used for some of his famous Lanscape photos.

http://www.anseladams.com/
Perhaps the world’s best known black and white landscape photographer, Ansel Adams is remembered for his beautiful photos of the American landscape. Adams was a master of black and white printing processes and pioneered the zone system, a method of analysing exposure to produce high quality black and white prints.

Picture By Ansel Adams

Picture by myself, again its one i have taken before staring the course in full auto mode.  Changed to black and white and played with the exposure a little to try and get a dramatic, haunted look i guess.

Plenty of buildings about, churches, cathedrals, estate's, office's etc so could be fun!

Week 2 - Start thinking about different themes for final project

I think the Nature theme will definately be one of my first choices, here are some pictures taken before I started the course.  Have a Sony A230 and before starting this course shot everything in Auto mode. 

Hopefully as I start to understand the camera settings and how to use Aperature, Shutter and ISO I'll be able to shoot much better shots.