Taking Great Photos – Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

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Thirds can be a wonderful thing: Going back for thirds of your favorite dessert, the third film in movie franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones*, and being third during a race that goes through a pit of starving lions where it only takes two runners to fill them to their hearts’ content.

Holy Hannah…what’chu talkin’ ‘bout, Teachinfourth?

I’m talking about thirds, specifically the rule of thirds (not the types of thirds in the aforementioned paragraph) and how it applies to the magic of photography.

Now, perhaps you’ve heard the phrase ‘the rule of thirds’ tossed around as you’ve attended varied social situations. Maybe you nodded your head and smiled, pretending to know what the rule of thirds was, but in reality you had only a vague—or no—idea of what it was really all about. Because of this inherent lack of knowledge, you didn’t focus on the rest of the conversation, but instead let your thoughts drift back to your fourth grade classroom where you first learned about fractional amounts of a whole. Well, today is your lucky day, because that math lesson from yesteryear is about to come in handy for the first time in a long time.

Now, do you remember when your teacher talked about thirds and said that you should always divide the whole into equal portions? Well, in the case of photography, we’re going to split the framing of the photo either vertically or horizontally into three equal pieces:

So, if you can remember these two simple, fractional ways to spit a whole, you’re already halfway to finally understanding the rule of thirds! After all, the rule of thirds is simply a way of framing your subject (or place) so that it isn’t directly in the center of the image, but broken up somewhere along the three imaginary lines going vertical and/or horizontal.

Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

Now, don’t get me wrong…there are times when your subject in the center of the frame is exactly what you’re looking for artistically; however, many times this is not quite so atheistically pleasing.

I’ll tell you what; I’m going to show you two different images. One of them was taken utilizing the rule of thirds, and the other was not.

So, what did you observe about the two above images? Chances are you noticed several differences between them; probably that one of them appealed just a little bit more to your eyes.

Just to let you know in advance, both of these shots were taken by my dad when he and I took a trip to the San Rafael Swell. We were standing at the overlook of Little Grand Canyon when my dad asked if I wanted him to take a photo of the view with me in it. I checked to see that the settings were correct for the light conditions and then handed over my camera.

My dad began snapping away.

A few moments later I looked through the images he took and realized that he—at that moment—hadn’t previously been schooled on how to properly utilize the rule of thirds. Quickly, I explained what I wanted him to do with framing of both myself and the mountains in the background. Dad took a few more photos with a slight change in the framing and way he held the camera. Immediately he could see the differentiation that that little change had brought about. For him to make it happen it required a conscious turning of his body slightly and zooming in just the tiniest bit; however, what a huge impact those tiny movements made on the final result.

You probably noticed right off, that the second image is much easier to look at. Not that the subject was better looking (though this can drastically help a photo) it was in the way the shot was framed that made it so easy on the eyes.

Let’s take a look at the two images again, but this time we’ll superimpose the fraction grids from earlier. You can see both of the third fractions and how the images are now broken into 9 different fields. For photography purposes, we want to focus on the four crosshairs that are points your eyes are naturally drawn to. By having your subject in one of these areas—and lining up your background with the imaginary lines when using the rule of thirds—it will simply make a better photo.

But what if I can’t line it up perfectly, Teachinfourth? What if all the lines don’t match up? What should I do then?

Well, you simply do your best at filling the thirds if push comes to shove. Try to find that places that naturally set off your subject—you could have their eyes lined up in this area to draw your attention to them OR another interesting aspect they have about them (such as a second head or a giant mole with hair sprouting out of it).

In some cases, finding this proper framing will involve moving your subject over just a bit, zooming in or out, stepping back, or moving over to the side. My point is, by utilizing the imaginary lines of the Rule of Thirds (and the crosshair points) you will nearly always get a far more interesting—as well eye pleasing—image. Also, in a scenic shot, you are still able to see far more of the view than simply in the background broken up in the middle by your subject—looking as if the background is having a battle and the person in front is caught in the middle. By sliding the person off to one side or the other, this allows your eye to travel much more freely from one side of the image to the other in a graceful, flowing motion, like a herd of unicorns galloping through a fairy wonderland with their tales and manes whipping back and forth in the sparkling air.

Don’t let the subject in the middle destroy that image of flowing motion.

Now, let’s take a look at an example or I gleaned from the web to illustrate terrible placement:

Okay, there are so many wrong things in this image that I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s simply concentrate on the fact that the family is in the dead center—stopping our herd of unicorns. Of course, I could also point out that they’re much too far back, are not on a similar level, and the direct sunlight in the face of the guy on the far left is washing him out.

Compare that image with the following:

Now, the rule of thirds doesn’t always need to be followed. After all, when you have a large group, perhaps you can’t find that place that perfectly sets them off, but you can always find a way to arrange and frame them that will look better than had you simply looked through your camera and pushed the shutter button.

The really great thing about the rule of thirds is that it is an easy enough fraction to figure out when you’re lining things up. Many cameras today even include the option of showing the thirds gridlines to make it easier for you to place your subject or line up the landscape; that way your future image has the option of not only being so-so, but simply amazing.


However, remember what I said earlier…sometimes your subject needs to be in the exact center…there’s something about them that seems to scream, “I need to be centered.” With the rule thirds, as with just about anything, there are always exceptions. Play with your framing, take pictures of one item or person with different amounts of zoom, framed more to the left or right, or exactly in the center. My point is, take the shot that looks the best and go with it.

In the words of the theme song from Differen’t Strokes,

“Now the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some…”



Until next time, shoot until you get it.

*Not all thirds in movies are a wonderful thing…case in point: Shrek III, Matrix Revolutions, Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World’s End, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Jurassic Park III, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Neverending Story III: Escape from Fantasia, Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, Superman III, (ANY of The Land Before Time after the first one, and any of the Star Wars ‘prequel’ Trilogy).

P.S. If any of these tutorials have been helpful to you, would you consider sharing them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or your favorite social media? Much gratitude...in advance.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos Part 7 - The Breath

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The breath? Now, just what in the world is that supposed to mean, Teachinfourth? I breathe all the time, why should one breath be more important than any other I take?

Thanks for asking.

The reason ‘the breath’ is so important is that many of us go out to take photos; later, we sadly discover that all of the shots (or many of them) are blurry. But this cannot be! We checked the shutter speed, the aperture, and everything else. There’s no reason why these shots should be blurred...and yet they are.

This blurriness just might be due to the fact that you haven’t been taking what I like to call, “the breath.”

Many people, when pushing the shutter button, move their hands up or down slightly at the same time; many times, they don’t even realize that they’re doing this. Even this slightest movement of your camera (especially when zoomed in) can have a drastic effect on clarity the shot you have just taken. Now, though many lenses today have IS for helping the shots to overcome this shakiness (which is just an initialism for Image Stabilization) taking this small breath before you snap can have the biggest impact on your images for clarity.

(The red arrows indicate the IS switch).

It was a few years ago that I noticed that when I took pictures that were at a lower shutter speed, many of them came out blurry. This was simply from the fact that I was not holding the camera as steadily as I should have when snapping away. I can still remember my grandpa telling me, “take a breath right before you push the shutter down and hold it; try to hold your hands as still as possible.” He then went on to explain that leaning against something can help you to maintain your stability as well—or even better—using a tripod.

I began to ‘take the breath’ before I snapped my photos and began to notice a decrease in blurry images. This little tip worked like magic!


Of course, if you haven’t focused your camera properly to begin with, you won’t get clear images—no matter how still you hold it. Always make sure that your camera is set to automatic focus

Now, there’ve been times in which I’ve switched my camera to manual focus. I usually do this when the camera itself is having difficulty focusing on the part of the image I’d like to have clear (see the blue arrows). When I’ve not remembered to turn autofocus back on when I’ve finished, I usually wind up with a blurred shot or two afterward. Now, while in the digital age you may think that losing one or two shots isn’t that big of a deal; however, what if you whipped your camera out of your bag after your last use, and you quickly snapped a shot at that perfect moment your child kicks the winning goal into the net?

There are some images we just don’t want to miss. Like I said in an earlier tutorial, always put your camera back to your personal ‘default’ settings. That way it’s ready at a moment’s notice for use the next time.

Just like putting your car keys in the right place so you can find them for work in the morning


Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.


But wait, Teachinfourth…what if I don’t have IS on my camera?

All the more reason to utilize ‘the breath’ as often as you snap a photo.



Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos Part 6 – ISO

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ISO? Holy Hannah, Teachinfourth...what the heck is THAT? You give a few lessons in photography and then you throw out something that sounds like a disease?

I’m so glad you asked me to clarify....

You see, ISO is an abbreviation that stands for International Organization for Standardization—which is something you probably don’t even care about and—more importantly—will probably never use the name of ever again in your lifetime, but it does sound impressive when you can rattle that off at a party to a group of people who don’t know you; it makes you sound all intelligent and brainy.

For the layman’s definition though, ISO is just a fancy way of referring to how sensitive you’re allowing your camera to be to light.

Say what?

Break it down a bit more? You got it…

Tell you what, let’s jump into our time-traveling DeLorean and program the time circuits back to the days before digital cameras hit the market for the majority of the general populace—yeah, sometime around 1999—Prince’s planned year of partying—and we’ll let the flux capacitor and plutonium chamber do the rest.

Now, you remember those little cylindrical canisters your parents—and possibly you—used to buy that allowed you to take 24 pictures, right? Well, ISO is pretty much the same thing as the speed of film you used to buy, but all without the film. Usually when you went to the store, you probably bought 100 or 200 speed film—unless you were planning on taking photos at sporting events, or in low-light situations, in which case you probably forked out a few extra bucks and purchased the 400 speed. Anything higher than that and you had to head to the local business that specialized in film processing and photo supplies to get it.

So, with this in mind, just know that when you pick a higher ISO setting on your digital camera you are telling it—in essence—that you want to take photos at a fast shutter speed in low-light.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

However, there is always a trade-off when it comes to something like this. I mean, you can’t just magically switch a setting and instantly get better photos without sacrificing something, right? After all, this isn’t Hogwarts...I mean if this was all there was to it, then why not always crank up the ISO to the highest possible number and fire away?

Such a good question.

Well, the reason for this is all because you’ve got to give a little to get a little…and here’s what it is that you have to give up: the higher your ISO setting, the greater ‘noise,’ or grain, you’ll see in your photos.

Wait just a minute, Teachinfourth…why in the world would I want to shoot at a high ISO if I’m only going to get a grainy photo as the result? I mean, what is the point of that?

That is such a good question, I’m glad to see that you’re paying attention.

Well, let’s say that it’s Twilight (no, not that movie about hormonally-ridden teenage girls, overaged pedofile vampires, and shirtless, hunky werewolves) and let’s say that you’re trying to take a photo of a group of friends—without a flash—but all the shots you take come out either really dark OR blurry beyond belief.

Yeah, this has happened to you before, hasn’t it?

Well, if you step up your ISO just a bit, you’re telling your camera to be more sensitive to the existing light. Your camera responds immediately and does just this, giving you a more decently-exposed photo but it also—unfortunately—allows a grainy appearance the higher you go; however, isn’t it much better to have a grainy shot of all your friends than an image that looks like it was shot in Batman’s secret lair?Or one that looks like it was taken while running through the forest from an axe murderer because of that fantastic blurring action you’ve got going on?

Sometimes grain is highly preferable to the alternative…

Yeah, much better.

Here is an example of a photo that I took of my friend’s son where I wanted to freeze the action of him swinging in the late evening-ish light. I wanted to take the photo without a flash because I wanted nothing but natural light, but the sun was just about set and the swings were under heavily-leafed tree branches making quite a bit of shade. In order to stop the action AND get a photo that was properly exposed, I decided to take the shot at 1/500th of a second to ensure that I had no blurring whatsover. I also kicked the ISO up to 1600 because of the low lighting. If you click on the image to bring up a larger version, you’ll see that there is a definite graininess to it.

Now, compare that shot with the one I took below. This one was taken on a shoot several hours earlier in the day where there were much brighter conditions; in addition to this, my subject was not moving so I didn’t need as fast of a shutter speed. I took this shot at 1/125th of a second with an ISO setting of 100. If you click on this image, you will notice that there is little to no noticeable grain in the shot.

The top image, though grainy, is preferable to the first few shots I was rewarded with which were blurry (because of the slow shutter speed) and dark (because of lack of sufficient light). I jacked up my ISO and was willing to take on more grain to capture a beautiful moment in low light that would have been impossible in any other way without a flash or adding another source of artificial light.

So, just as a reminder, you have three things that work together make up a good photo: ISO (sensitivity to light), shutter speed (how quickly the photo is taken) and aperture (the opening size of the lens letting in light) and they all play an important role in exposing your image correctly. These three things work together like lettuce, peanut butter, and bacon creating the ultimate BLT (without the tomato) in a trio of awesomeness. *(Well, actually white balance does play an important role as well, but I don’t want your brain to explode out the backside of your head).

Take one of these three items out, and a good photo is simply not possible.

Have I lost you?

To make this a bit easier, follow these simple tips if your photo is a bit too dark and you can’t do anything about the light source (just remember though, if you’re in full automatic mode, your camera probably won’t allow you to do any of these things...you need to be in just about any of the other modes):

1. Bump up your ISO a bit (but remember, each time you do, you add just a little bit of grain to your image).
2. Open your aperture a little bit more (but remember, this will diminish your ‘in focus’ area).
3. Decrease your shutter speed (but remember, decreasing your shutter speed gives you a greater chance of a blurry photo).

Changing any of these will help you take a well-exposed photo in low light conditions; however, you need to decide which trade-off you are willing to make, and which one will do the best job for you.

Okay, it’s about time to return to the present day and the age of digital, but as a final note, would you like to know my general personal rule when it comes to ISO? Yeah, I knew you would. Here it is: I always shoot at the lowest ISO possible because I want to avoid unnecessary film grain if I can, but I’m willing to take grain if the alternative is no photo at all.

Here’s a good starting place: if you’re outside on a sunny day, start off at 100 and go up from there if you need to. If it’s cloudy out, consider starting off at 200 and then traveling up or down as needed considering how dark it is. If I’m going to be indoors and shooting without a flash (which is my preference), my personal rule of thumb is to shoot images at an ISO set to 1600 just to be safe. If I see that my images are exposed well enough, I take my ISO down as much as I can, but 1600 is usually my starting point.

Wow, we’ve covered a lot today in a short amount of time, so I think it’s about time for you to go out to recess.

Oh, on one final note: remember that when you’re done playing around, put your camera’s settings back to the way they were. I can’t tell you just how many times I’ve accidentally left the ISO far too high or the aperture too wide, literally destroying the depth of field and ruining my next few shots when I’m in a rush, grab my camera, don’t check the settings, and start clicking away.

Now, take your camera, go practice, have fun, and fill a normally TV-ridden evening with a mock photo session with your kids, pets, or the objects around your house. Just like with riding a bike, you’re never going to get any better if you don’t get off the couch, jump on that sucker, and hit the pavement.

Expect some crashes. Don’t be surprised to get some brilliantly awful images that you’ll immediately delete and never admit to the world that you took. But as you get more comfortable with your camera and the way it works, you’ll get better. Also, don’t forget that your camera came with a manual…use it. Look up little hints in the index from time to time and figure out how to access some of its cool features. You just might surprise yourself with some of the things its capable of.

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.



Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds


P.S. If you liked this post, and know of someone who could use the information in it, would you pass it along? I knew you would...after all, you're awesome like that...

Oh, and just for fun:

Taking Great Photos - Part 5: White Balance

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Have you ever taken a photo before, and the rich colors of the moment end up looking more like something shot underwater at your local swimming pool?

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about don’t you?

I know that you’ve taken your share of these types of photos; to your utter dismay, you may have tried to fix them with your favorite photo editing software, and they still looked terrible. Maybe you converted them to black and white images, or perhaps you trashed them and found yourself frustrated that the camera didn’t work right in the first place.

…that stupid piece of technology.

Am I right?

Well, I know that in the past I’ve taken my share of photos in the shade, inside a building without a flash – heck, sometimes even in bright sunlight – and experienced a bluish cast over the images, and I’ve found myself throwing my hands up in the air with frustration (well, figuratively…despite that really cool Taio Cruz song. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever thrown my hands up in the air before because of a photo, it just sounded cool to say that).

But why does this happen? I mean technology has come so far over the years, why can’t cameras always take a decent photo?

I’m so glad you asked.

For starters, one thing you need to realize is that the best camera sensor in the world will never be as good as the sensor in your eye at balancing color, adjusting for hues, focusing, and everything else. Technology is good, but let’s face it…your eyes and brain are simply better. The reason for this is that digital cameras are color blind in a sense…they have a hard time automatically adjusting white balance all the time, this will often be evidenced by those wonderful bluish or orangeish casts you sometimes see in your pictures.

You know the types of photos I’m talking about.

A good example of how amazing your brain and eyes adjust is when you walk outside your house on a sunny day, the light is immensely brighter and your eyes automatically compensate. Also, they allow everything to be balanced as for light – the sky AND the landscape around you.

Cameras? Not always the case.

Now, I’m going to cut about 95% of the technical gunk out of this lesson to make it as simplified as I can, deal?

Groovy...

To begin with, it’s important to understand that different objects look different with different light sources. (Wow, I used the word ‘different’ three times in that last sentence…go me). You see, I used to own this shirt that I always wore to school, and some of my students swore was an olive green color, other students were positive that it was brown. Well, they were both right. If I were standing in the classroom under the fluorescent lights, the shirt had an olive hue to it, but in bright sunlight, it was more of a distinct brown.

My point with this is that a camera can’t always tell the difference with color and light; your eye can.

Taking this further, in different types of light, things can look tainted. The type of light you have changes everything in a photo, and in the full AUTO mode your camera takes its best guess at what the settings for the photo should be; however, it usually assumes you are either using the flash OR are taking the shot in bright sunlight.

Not always what you want your camera doing for that award-winning image, is it?

Now, many times your camera does a fine job with the full auto setting for everyday use; however, if you don’t take anything else from this particular lesson, let what you do take be this little gem: sometimes your camera needs just a little bit of help.

So, how do you help your camera know the type of light that is being used at a particular moment?

Well for starters, you’ll need to pick your own white balance. Now, don’t get scared…this isn’t a big deal, all you have to do is change your camera to a mode that is NOT FULL AUTO. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to and find the white balance setting in your camera’s menu (don’t be afraid to consult your user’s manual). Now, this shouldn’t be too difficult to find, and your camera should give you a few options that look something like this:

Now, remember how I said I was going to cut 95% of the technical junk out of this lesson? Well, because of that we’re going to forget the Custom and Kelvin settings. If you’re a die-hard photographer and want to learn more about these, contact me via email or carrier pigeon and I’d love to tell you more, but for the rest of us, the other settings will more than suffice…now, these settings are actually pretty self-explanatory. The images show the type of lighting you use that particular setting, and the camera will compensate for the lack of color in the light you have chosen by the setting you picked.

Did I hear your head explode just a little bit on the inside?

I thought so; let me break it down…

On a cloudy day, if you were to shoot using the Cloudy setting, it automatically adds warmer colors to your image so it isn’t too ‘cold,’ or blue. Using the Shade setting does a similar action and helps you to avoid that ‘underwater’ look you find far too often from non-flash shade pictures. Using the Daylight setting compensates by adding cooler colors so that the image doesn’t have a too warm of look overall. The Incandescent (Tungsten) and Fluorescent settings will add in the necessary warmth or coolness to your shots so that the people in them don’t look like zombies fresh from the grave, or people affected with jaundice.

But wait, Teachinfourth, I've seen your camera and it's fancy. How can you expect me to change up settings with my little point-and-shoot and take good pictures? That's not really fair!

You know, here's a funny thing about fairness. I went on a trip with a good friend of mine up to Park City not too long ago. I didn't feel like hauling out my big camera, so I instead pulled out my little Canon point-and-shoot. While standing in the shade of the building, I quickly snapped a shot for my friend...after all, she claims she's the queen.

As you can see, because we were standing in the shade of the building the camera really didn't know what to do; therefore, it looks an awful lot like my friend is swimming in a smoke-ridden haze. However, after a quick visit to the setting menu and a change to the "Shade" option, the second shot was taken which shows the lighting as it truly looked.

Now, neither of these photos has been color corrected, and the color is exactly how it looked straight out of my 'cheap' point-and-shoot camera. How is that for fairness?

Also, just to prove my point on adjusting for color, your eye would have automatically adjusted for in the shade AND the sunlight in the street. Both would have been easily visible and there wouldn't have been a blue cast at all - unless perhaps you have cataracts.

So, there you have it.

And once-again, in a nutshell:

1. Switch to a mode that is not Full Auto.
2. Find the White Balance in the menu of your camera.
3. Pick the balance setting that best matches your lighting conditions.

On a final note, remember to switch your camera back to the ‘automatic’ setting when you’re done. I’ve gone indoors to shoot a basketball game before and changed up all my settings; immediately afterward I’ve gone to shoot an outdoor event and – being excited – forgotten to switch my white balance settings. The first few shots I’ve taken (before remembering and switching up my settings) have always been awful. A good rule of thumb for changing your settings is to always put things back to the way they were when you’re finished…

Just like putting away your toys when you’re done with them.

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.



Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos - Part 4: Shutter Speed

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How often have you wanted to capture that moment of glory as your child kicked the winning goal in soccer, or crossed the finish line just ahead of the rest of the competition, but you ended up with nothing but a digital card full of blurred images and disappointments?

If you’ve ever found yourself in this terrible predicament, then you’ve come to the right place, because this lesson is all about shutter speed.

First off, shutter speed is simply telling your camera how quickly to take the photo. I know…pretty simple and straightforward, right?

Perhaps.

But what if you don’t know a few of the basics of how fast is really fast and what is—in actuality—pretty slow?

Houston, we have a problem…

If you shoot in aperture mode (which is where I probably take 95% of my photographs and the topic of the last lesson) the camera adjusts the shutter speed automatically; however, there are times when I want to switch over to shutter speed mode to take a photo because there are times that I’m all about speed...

Shutter speed can make all the difference in the world when taking a photo. Did you know that when you blink it takes somewhere around 30/100th (3/10ths) of a second? Seems pretty quick, doesn’t it? However, that’s long enough to have missed seeing that shooting star, that flash of lightning, or the moment that your kid slipped into the room and shanghaied some of your chocolate. My point is - things can happen quickly.

When I was younger I believed that taking a photo at 1/10th of a second was pretty quick. I can remember being blown away thinking, Wow, that’s really fast. And sure, while 1/10th of a second might seem quick in terms of most things requiring movement in the real world, in the realms of cameras and photography, it’s actually pretty slow.

As a general rule, I shoot most of my photos somewhere around 1/100th of a second. If you’re handholding your camera, anything below 1/60th of a second will probably come out blurry…not saying it will, I’m just saying that there’s a greater chance of it.

Most photos that you take and will be satisfied with will probably have been shot with a shutter speed somewhere between 1/60th and 1/500th of a second.

The general rule I use for action is to shoot at at least 1/250th of a second or the image will be blurred. To freeze all of the action I try to shoot at 1/500th of a second.

Of course, most compact cameras have that little icon of the running man to help you out with action shots. When you switch to this mode, the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed to be quicker, and it also adjusts the rest of the modes (ISO and aperture) so that the image will (supposedly) have enough light in order to take the shot and have it look good.

This works sometimes, but not always.

To gain more control over your camera, switch to shutter speed mode (it might be buried somewhere in a digital menu, so consult your camera’s manual to find out where this mode really is) and start playing around with it. Take some shots of frisky pets, cars racing by on the street out front, or your precocious four year-old as he does something he’s not supposed to and tries to make a quick getaway.

My point is, experiment. You’ll never get used to taking photos with varying shutter speed and knowing what really works until you do it.

Just like practicing the piano…okay, maybe not piano.

This past weekend I attended a student’s basketball game. I always take along my camera with the intent of practicing action shots – it also keeps me from having to talk to anyone there if I really don’t feel like it.

I took out my camera and moved to the end of the court, watching the boys play in the no-so-well lit gymnasium. The lights were something of a cross between incandescent and fluorescent bulbs that seemed to make everyone look like they were extras in a Twilight movie. However, even with bad lighting and fast action being a horrific combination for photography, capturing that iconic shot was still possible.

When I first started to shoot, I took the first few pictures – not thinking - in aperture mode; my shutter speed was only 1/60th of a second. It only took me a few moments to realize what I was doing. I knew that there was just no way I’d be able to capture any of the action properly. Mostly I ended up with a dozen shots that looked something like this:

Not very pretty, is it?

Yeah, I didn’t think so, either.

I quickly upped the shutter speed to 1/350th second and recommenced shooting. The outcomes I began to garner were far more aesthetically pleasing:

By increasing the shutter speed, I was basically commanding (I just love that word) the camera to work even faster and take the image quicker, thus freezing the action before said boy actually hit the floor while diving for the ball.

Brilliance.

But what if you want movement? In this case, you slow the shutter speed down.

I did this last year when I was invited to a different student’s basketball game. I decided I wanted to experiment with giving the feeling of the movement happening instead of freezing the action altogether. As a result, I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/30th of a second and panned with the player as he bolted across the gymnasium.

The shot of which I speak is the one I used for my header:



I got exactly what I wanted: the feeling of motion and increased visual impact.

But what about those amazing shots where the photographer has blurred the surface of the water so that it looks smooth as silk? How do they do that?

Shutter speed, baby…shutter speed.

You know that you can also get those amazing shots, too if you slow your camera’s shutter speed down to about 1/4th of a second or lower. You probably already realize though that you won’t be able to hand-hold your camera, you’ll want to have a tripod and probably set your camera to take the photo on timer so that you aren’t touching the unit at all. Even a slight touch such as pushing the shutter button can cause moment to the camera and give you a blurry shot.

Did this help? Do you feel empowered? Did you forget what I said at the beginning?

If so, here’s the cliff notes from the whole post:

• Most action shots should be taken between 1/250th and 1/500th of a second to freeze what's happening.
• To blur a subject partially and add motion, slow to 1/30th of a second (or so) and pan along with them.
• To get blurred water, try shooting at 1/4th of a second or slower (you’ll need a tripod).

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.



Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos – Part 3: Aperture

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Part 3: Aperture

Some of you hear that word and your mind goes completely blank. Apa-what? For others they feel a thrill of excitement because they’ve heard the word before, they know where the dial is to change it, but have no idea what it does from there.

Sound familiar?

Aperture is, in a nutshell, just how large or small of an opening there is in the lens of your camera—the diaphragm. Now, before you start to go and get all confused with numbers and settings, just think of it this way.

Your eye.

Seriously, you’ve got that little black area in the middle called the pupil (and not the type that goes to school—curse you, multi-meaning words!). As the light changes in your surroundings, your pupil dilates – it gets bigger and smaller. Many of us have taken part in the activity in elementary school where the teacher would have you look into someone’s eyes as the lights were dimmed or brightened. Or maybe you’ve watched TV and noticed doctors doing this with their little penlights to see if somebody has a concussion. However, my favorite illustration of aperture is from the movie, Jurassic Park.

Do you happen to remember that scene where the T-Rex is looking into the jeep during the rainstorm at Lex and Tim? If not, click HERE and watch from time code 1:10 to 1:17.

Now, as the T-Rex’s eye moves into the flashlight’s beam, it dilates – or gets smaller – allowing less light into the eye. This way, he wasn’t completely blinded in this intense light situation. Well, camera lenses are constructed in kind of the same way; they have an iris of sorts that allows more or less light to pass into the camera.

Does aperture make a little more sense now?

No?

If so, that’s probably because you might now know what the aperture is, but not what it really does. Well, if you have a camera that allows you to control the aperture (consult your manual to see which setting it is on your particular camera. On the Cannon it is often the letter A or AV that allows for this; on the Nikon look for the letters AP). The aperture helps to decide how much ‘in focus’ (or depth of field) there will be in your shot. A small opening, such as f22 (this is called a f-stop) is a very small opening which means that a LOT of the elements in your shot (both near and far) will be in focus altogether. A LARGE opening such as f2.8 will give you a very shallow depth of field (limited distance of things in focus all at one time).

So, in simple terms:

The smaller the number, the less there will be in focus. The larger the number, the more there will be in focus.

Kapish?

By changing the aperture settings on your camera, you are deciding how much of the shot you’d like in focus all at once. Now, the following image I didn’t take, but rather pilfered from the web. After all, why redo all of the work when somebody has already invented the wheel? So, because I didn’t take the photo, credit for the shot goes here.

As you can see, a smaller number such as f2.8 causes the depth of field to be very shallow, while a larger number such as f11 will increase this distance. However, don’t forget that that aperture is NOT depth of field; it only helps to control it. After all, focal length (how long your lens is, how zoomed in or out you are, and the distance from your subject) affects the depth of field. However, we won’t go into all that stuff because remember, we’re just covering the basics.

So, use a low number when you want a picture with the soft background, such as close up portraits. When you want scenery photos such as a shot of the Grand Canyon, you’d want a larger number so that many more elements would be sharp and crispy.

Make sense?

Good.

One final example…here are two images of the same shot.

Yes, it’s me, and my friend’s son, Tanner while down at Zion Canyon about two years ago. As you can see, with a shallower depth of field it helps to eliminate the distracting folks in the background and allows your attention to be drawn to what’s really important—your subject. In this case it would be those two devilishly handsome young men in the foreground.

And there you have it…aperture and depth of field; both are powerful tools you can use to help your photos be just a little bit better than they otherwise might have been.

Now it’s your turn! Play around with the aperture settings on your camera. Take multiple photos of the same thing from the same angle: a flower, rock, a child, or other object and see how the different settings affect the ‘crispness’ of your image. After all, you’ll never get any better if you don’t practice.

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos – Part 2: About Your Camera

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Part 2: About Your Camera

Your camera is apt to become your best friend if only you’ll let it. I rarely go anyplace without my camera and a small notebook. If somebody were to ask me if I’d rather have my camera or my iPod along with me for everyday use, I’d pick my camera—every single time.

When you first bought your camera, you probably did so because of some snappy advertisement, or perhaps a friend ranted and raved about just how amazing the thing was, or maybe you saw photos that the camera had taken before and you thought to yourself, “I am coveting that, I must have it.”

Of course, perhaps this wasn’t the case at all. The camera might have been a gift from somebody else and the person buying it had no idea of the things it was—or was not— capable of.

Maybe you felt ripped off when the photos you took were not quite as amazing as those you were tempted with at the outset.

So, just what can you do that requires little to no effort on your part, and still yields better photos?

I’m so glad you asked…

Most cameras today have a dial of sorts on the top or back that allows for you to change modes without really knowing anything about photography. For example, the little green camera icon means ‘automatic.’ You’re in essence telling your camera to do it all for you. This is not a bad place to be, and can yield some fantastic results. One thing I’d recommend if you are planning in shooting in the full auto mode is to take more than one photo and meter from several different colors/shades/hues.

I can already hear your brain exploding.

Meter shots? Didn’t you say that this was effortless?

I did, let me explain.

Metering is the way of allowing the camera to pick how fast it’s going to take a shot, and at what aperture setting. Here’s all YOU have to do: point your camera at whatever you want a shot of and push the shutter down about halfway. This allows your camera an opportunity to adjust its settings.

Let’s say that you are planning on taking photos of your aesthetically pleasing daughter or devilishly handsome son. When you point the camera at your child, allow the ‘points’ in the viewfinder get information from your child’s face for a few shots. After taking a few, meter again from their hair, their shirt, and so on. By metering from these different places, each photo will look slightly different as for color. Later, when you are going through your photos you can delete those images that are much too dark or bright (never forgetting that minor corrections for color, hue, and brightness can be made with the most basic of photo editing software)

Now, back to your child…

If you were planning on taking one photo of your son or daughter in a particular pose, take fifteen or twenty instead, moving your position slightly from side to side or back and forth. You see the photographers on TV doing that all the time during photo shoots. They’re always saying things like, “Work with me, work with me. Show me sassy, show me flirty, show me shy…”

I figure that if it’s good enough for the actors on TV, and people at the Oscars, then it’s good enough for me.

You’d be surprised what moving a few inches in one direction or another really does.

You have other icons on your camera such as the one of a woman (or maybe she’s not on your camera, how do I know?). This mode is for taking portrait-type shots and generally tends to soften the background when you focus on the subject, narrowing the depth of field. Don’t worry, I’ll talk about depth of field later, just know that it’s the space of the photo in focus. Using this mode softens the background and gives it a blurred look - much like the boy pictured in the viewfinder above.

If you have an icon of a mountain, this is the mode that tells the camera to expand the depth of field (make more in-focus space) so just about everything is clear and crisp.

The runner icon is for sport shots. This tells the camera to utilize a higher shutter speed, allowing you to freeze the action of that amazing moment of glory.

Consult with your camera manual and find out about the modes your camera is capable of doing all on it’s own when you feel like living on the edge and switching from the green automatic setting.

Don’t worry about shutter speed and aperture; we’ll hit both of those soon.

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath
Part 8: The Rule of Thirds

Taking Great Photos – Part 1: Introduction

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Part 1: Introduction

I’ve had many people ask me over the years, “Teachinfourth, how are you able to take such great photos?”

Wow, how much time do you have?

While many may claim that natural ability and ‘the eye’ are key elements (which they are) there is no reason why the common man (or woman) cannot take great pictures of their family, friends, people they stalk, and beauty of the world around them.

By the way, I was just kidding about the stalking part. Please don’t think that I condone stalking – that is, unless you’re stalking me, and the main reason thereof is to shower me with lavish gifts, heaps of money, and summa cume laude.

If that were indeed the case, please feel free to stalk…

I digress.

To help those who’ve asked (and those freeloaders who didn’t), I have decided to start a series of photography hints and helps. This will be a collection of posts to help you understand just what photography is, how to compose a great shot, and a little bit about all of those buttons and dials on your camera that you never seem to touch. I feel the reason we don’t mess with these buttons is that they are so deliciously scary that we believe that the camera just might explode if we touch them.

Don’t worry, your camera really won’t explode; well, that is unless your camera is a bomb. If this is case, then this is not the tutorial for you; I would suggest consulting the MacGyver series.

Now, just understand that you shouldn’t get too excited; in this series I will not be explaining everything. I do not consider these mini-lessons to be ‘explain-it-all’ tutorials, but rather small helps and hints which will (hopefully) be of assistance to those of you out there who want to do just a bit more with your camera other than just point, shoot, and hope for the best.

*Kapish?

Thanks for reading the introduction. In a sense I feel that this is like those pages in the novel we all skip because we don’t feel that it is important to the overall story, and we want to get on to the good part. I’m flattered that you felt it important enough to read in its entirety.

“So, when do we start, Teachinfourth, today?”

Patience my young padawan, patience.

I look forward to creating this series, and hope that you are able to walk away with something of value. If not, you might just want to consider taking up bomb diffusing as a pastime instead.

Until next time; shoot ‘til you get it.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: About Your Camera
Part 3: Aperture
Part 4: Shutter Speed
Part 5: White Balance
Part 6: ISO
Part 7: The Breath


* This is a term used to say something to the affect of, "Ya feel me?", "Ya get the overall gist of what it is that I’m saying?" , or “Do you understand the extent of what it is that I have just told you?" Also used to ask the person being spoken to whether he or she would like to add to the statement.