Photography for the non-photographer

I want to write this post because I have lots of friends who are delving into the SLR world. Cameras are getting cheaper and thus, it's easier to afford a cool camera with lots of features that can be really hard to figure out. I'm not a professional photographer. I never plan to be. There are also TONS of tutorials out there from professionals that are probably way better than this. However, I'm attempting to put it into ultra simple terms for friends and family and anyone who will not go crazy if my terms aren't 100% technical. If you are a pro, yes... I understand that the f-stop and such is a fraction and when I say "bigger" it really means "smaller" etc. I'm not worried about that right now. I'm just trying to write a post so that a super beginner like my sister who just bought my SLR off of me can read it and go, "Oh, that makes sense". As she gets more involved in the terminology and stuff, she can figure out the math. ;) Until then, I hope this helps a few people out. Here we go!

There is one thing that makes a great photograph.... LIGHT! It's all about light, really. The camera has to have enough light to "burn" the image onto the "film". So, there are lots of ways to control the amount of light that gets into your camera. I'll discuss three of the basic ones here: ISO (film speed), Aperature (amount of your photo in focus), and Shutter speed (how fast your lens closes). I'll also add all the metadata for each of these photos in hopes it will mean something to you at the end of the post. ;)


ISO: Remember when you had a 35mm camera or started buying the disposable ones and the 400 film was for inside? That's because if your film is faster, it can "absorb" more light with a faster film speed. ISO is the quickest way to "lighten" your photos. However, it comes at a cost. It makes your photos less crisp and more grainy. This is especially a big deal if you plan on doing any cropping or large prints.

Below is a photo I took on a sweet date with Rob at the Melting Pot for our anniversary. (Thanks, Honey! Love you!) Anyway, it was a nice, dark little corner booth. I had to bump up the ISO to 3200 to get the shot. It's nice and in focus, but at great cost to the crispness. If at all possible, you want to keep the ISO below 200. I like Cannon because I can get my ISO down to even 100 for super crisp. However, it's not a "bad" photo. Reminds me of the sweet man I married - five VERY long years ago...
(strawberry: 1/4s at f/1.8, ISO 3200)

Here is a little gathering of the bible study girls at our house. It was night time and I didn't want to use a flash. But, there was not enough light to see the girls. (Katie: 1/125 s at f/2/2, ISO 400) The ISO here is 400 which is still a little grainy.
(Adeline: 1/125s at f/2.2, ISO 800) I bumped it up to 800 here. Adeline has twice the ISO. She's brighter, but even more grainy. At this point, I probably needed to use a flash or other light source.
Here's a good example of ISO "noise" (hall girls: 1/500s at f/1.8, ISO 3200)
Here, I like the lower ISO for crispness. I also prefer the silhouette look. (hall silhouette: 1/800s at f/2.2, ISO 400). I cheated a little here as well and adjusted the shutter and f-stop, but it really isn't important for this photo. I'll get to those numbers soon.
Next, let's look at the f-stop, or depth of field. This is my favorite part of photography. Your depth of field has a lot to do with what is in focus, where the eye is drawn. There are ways to do this with composition and lighting, but I really like the effect of just a small detail being in focus. You will also hear of the term "Bokeh" which is this same principle of the background being very blurry. The "smaller" the f-stop, the smaller your range of focus. That's why I was lusting so much after that 85mm 1.2 lens. It gave me the power to get some really artsy shots.

Here is an example of a shallow depth of field. (Hand: 1/100s at f/2.8, ISO 400)

Here's another example. Notice how the girl with the knees is the only one really "in focus"? (knee girl: 1/60s at f/1.2, ISO 400). Yes, only 1.2. That lens ROCKS! ;) Too bad it was super heavy and way out of my budget.
One thing that took me a while to figure out with depth of field is that it depends also on how far away you are from your subject. This photo looks pretty shallow. (Whitney: 1/125s at f/2.2, ISO 400)

Same settings from further away make it look deeper (praying group: 1/125s at f/2.2, ISO 400)
The f-stop also controls your light. The smaller the depth of field, ("lower" f-stop) the more light gets into your camera. So, if your photo is too dark and you aren't worried about something being out of focus, you can lower the depth of field. That's one reason why the smaller f-stop cameras are referred to as "fast" lenses. This can be tricky, however, because sometimes you need a larger depth of field to make sure everyone is in focus. Group shots typically take an f/18 or higher, depending on the distance from the photographer.

(couch ladies: 1/100s at f/2.0, ISO 400)

The above photo could be either good or bad. Good if I wanted to highlight Whitney, bad if I wanted to see everyone. This has burned me on several occasions. Remember my angst with the big sister/little brother T-shirts? I didn't "own" this concept yet.

The last category I will explain is shutter speed. It's pretty obvious. The faster the shutter speed, the less amount of light gets in. A shutter speed of 1/1000s (which is 1 one thousandth of a second) will freeze humming bird wings, theoretically. I have found that anything longer than 1/125 s makes my children blurry. But, I have very quick kids. For portraits, I can maybe get an adult to hold still enough for 1/60s. Sports will need faster, like 1/500s or so. Also, you have to account for your own shaking of the camera. A good rule here is to have it the inverse of your longest number on your lens. For example, a 35-150mm lens would need 1/150s to not shake, no matter what your subject is doing. A 50mm lens can tolerate 1/50s - as long as your subject is not moving like one of my kids! Fireworks and stars need more time to "burn" on the lens and therefore will need to be much slower, like 1/2s or so. Here are some examples, both good and bad with shutter speed. This is probably the most common amateur mistake.

Here is a photo of a spinning light. I put the shutter speed super fast so you can see the individual lights. However, the entire rest of the photo is black, or underexposed. Not very pretty. (pin lights: 1/200s at f/3.5, ISO 200)

Now, I've lowered the shutter speed and you see how the lights are "trailing". Also, you see a little more of the background of Adeline. (Adeline light: 1/8s at f/1.8, ISO 200)

Here's another sample with Ella. She was super still. (Ella: 1/4s at f/1.8, ISO 200)
Suzy? Of course she wasn't so still. Notice how both subjects are blurry? This shutter speed is actually twice as fast as Ella's. (Suzy: 1/2s at f/1.8, ISO 200)

Here's another different example. Here we are at the park. Lots of natural light. (Suzy Bee landscape: 1/60s at f/5.6, ISO 400)
Same shot, only faster. Notice how the shot itself is a little darker and Suzy is less blurry? That is because it let in less light, but captured her before she could move. (Suzy Bee portrait: 1/160s at f/5.6, ISO 400)
This is a little advanced, but it's called "panning". If you want a crisp subject that is moving, you can hold down your photo button and then "pan" or move along with your subject. It's pretty hard to master, but fun to play with. Here's one of my "prize pans". One of the things that makes this super hard is that you have to be really steady on the camera end so that it doesn't shake too much. To brag, this was taken with my 200mm lens. (Suzy swing: 1/10s at f/11, ISO 100)


I don't have lots of overexposed samples. I typically just delete them. But, you can kind of get the idea here. This photo itself isn't too bad, but my face is really blown out and overexposed. This type of shot is where you would want to increase the shutter speed to make me darker and provide some fill light for Andy so he's not too dark. Reflectors are great for this. However, this is still a great snapshot of my sweet boy trying to eat my apple. ;) (Apple stealer: 1/125s at f/2.2, ISO 200)
Here's an example of how you can adjust multiple things to get a result you want. I wanted a photo of Suzy putting this little glowing ring in her tutu. I thought it was funny and looked like her little heart. (Suzy ring dark: 1/125s at f/3.2, ISO 800)
My ISO was already pretty high and I didn't want it any MORE grainy. So, I went for a faster shutter speed combined with a smaller depth of field. The result is a little brighter and a little blurrier. But, I still like it. (Suzy heart light: 1/100s at f/1.2, ISO 800)

The last little tip I have for you is called the "Sunny f16 rule". It basically means that if you have a shutter speed of 1/250s and are using f16 on a sunny day with 200 ISO, your photo will be great. Sharp and just right with light. If you move the f-stop down to f/11, you will move your shutter up to 1/500s etc. For each click you move one up, you will move another down. However, if it's cloudy or hazy or something, your f-stop will begin lower. For example you will start out with cloudy f/9 at 1/250s. Then adjust your clicks from there. This concept is really handy if you want to take a photo in auto mode and then adjust your aperature and shutter speed by counting clicks forward and backward. This point took me a while to "own", so don't worry if it doesn't make sense just yet. It will once you figure out the above relationships between ISO, f-stop (AV mode), and Shutter speed.

So, there you have it. I hope this is helpful. Like I mentioned earlier. It's really just very basic and simple terms. Digital Photography School is a great website with lots of tutorials and more technical explanations as well as simplified explanations much like this one.

Whatever your level of photography, I hope this helped you and I look forward to reading everyone's blog and seeing your great pictures - no matter what settings you used! Some of my favorite photos are technically "wrong". But, they are snapshots of my life and I know my children will love them anyway... long after I am here to critique them. :)