Basics of Photography Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera {Digital SLR}

Before you do anything else!  Make sure your camera has a good battery  Make sure your camera has a memory card in it

Main Command Dial on the Nikon Secondary Command Dial DIAL Watch changes

Shutter Speed  WHAT?

Shutter Speed – controls the amount of light that comes in, measured in time – split seconds – during which the shutter opens and closes to allow light to hit the “film”

Why change the shutter speed?  You can put the dial on S and manipulate the shutter speed if you want to change the way action is captured in your pictures VideoVideo:

What shutter speed does

Today’s Assignment (indiv) With the camera set on “S” - Take 10 pictures of the same action using 10 different shutter speed settings – save them in the Shutter Speed folder with your last name

Aperture

Aperture – also deals with light - measured in F-stops, it is a hole that opens and closes to let light in  Photography is about light.  Without light, there is no photograph. End of story. Light controls what you see in a photograph and how you see it. And because natural light changes constantly, we need to be able to control its intensity as it passes through the lens and into the camera as we take a photograph.

So what? Who cares?  The aperture, or F-stop, affects the DEPTH OF FIELD  You care about that a lot because it is all about WHAT IS IN FOCUS  The lower the f stop number, the wider, or bigger, the aperture.

There are times when you will want to control the aperture yourself because if your camera just automatically decides what is in focus, you may not like what you get

Video:

Today’s Assignment (indiv) With the camera set on “A” - Take 10 pictures of the same subject (lined up objects) using 10 different F-stop settings – save them in the Aperture folder with your last name

ISO

Used when you just can’t get enough light! We will use the P (Program) mode to manipulate the ISO AND - btw This is the mode you will REALLY use sometimes

In the menu, you can change the ISO in P mode

 Video: Video:

 If we make the ISO high, we can shoot at night or indoors!  If we are in really bright daylight, we should make the ISO lower – good for detail and color quality!  Playing with shutter speed and ISO can help us get better action photos indoors – but it takes patience!

Sacrificing detail 

Today’s Assignment (indiv) With the camera set on “P” - Take 9 pictures of 3 different lighting situations, using 3 different ISO settings in each of the 3 lighting situations – save them in the ISO folder with your last name

What’s really real?  You will probably use Auto mode more than anything else  You will go to P mode when you are inside somewhere or it is getting dark  The pictures you take indoors or when it’s dark won’t be very good anyway SO …...

You should use a camera that has the flash unit on it if you know you are going to be in those low-light situations – Auto mode for the flash

USING THE PHOTOS Basic Organizing and Editing

After taking your pictures  Unload your memory card ASAP – it will get mixed up with the others and/or lost if you wait too long  Unload the pics into your topic folder in our class drive for this year – Please pay attention to this!

 Start opening the pictures and deciding which ones are good; make a new folder inside the topic folder called “Good Ones” and put them into this new folder (preview mode)

After the good ones are in the folder, give them names. Name the picture(s) with the name of a person that is in the picture or the specific event, and make sure you are still saving it in the “Good Ones” folder Remember - someone else should be able to find your pictures and use them!

Photoshop Steps 1.Image > Image Size > Document Size > Width = 8” 2.Image > Image Size > DPI = Image > Auto Tone > Auto Contrast > Auto Color 4.File > Save As > add the word “edited” to the name

And that’s all I have to say about that