STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
TECHNICAL SHEET
PHOTOGRAPHER
ACTIVITY BADGE
2
CONTENTS
Page 3
Get To Know Your Camera
Page 4
Aperture And Depth of Field
Page 5
Colour And Mode
Page 6
Analogue and Digital differences
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3
GET TO KNOW YOUR CAMERA
FOR THE SECOND PART OF THE
PHOTOGRAPHY BADGE YOU NEED TO
SHOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE MAIN
FUNCTIONS OF A DIGITAL CAMERA AND HOW
THESE AFFECT THE FINAL IMAGE AND PRINT.
YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO SHOW KNOWLEDGE
OF THE TYPES OF REMOVABLE
MEMORY AVAILABLE.
Spend a while reading this sheet to
understand the workings of the camera,
before you head off to take photographs.
This incredible pic of a dog splashing though water has been
CAMERA FEATURES
taken using a fast shutter speed to ‘freeze’ the movement
and capture some of the water droplets mid-air. A wide
ISO settings
ISO stands for International Standards Organisation.
The camera’s ISO settings measure the sensitivity of
the image sensor. The lower the ISO number, the less
sensitive your camera is to light which means your
pictures will be less grainy. High ISO settings can
produce grainy (or ‘noisy’) pictures.
aperture is often needed when using a fast shutter speed
and this has given the image a narrow depth-of-field, so
the dog stands out from the background.
Shutter speed
The shutter speed is the amount of time that the
shutter stays open for. It is measured in fractions of a
second, for example 1/60th of a second is average.
The higher the fraction then the faster the shutter
speed is and the less exposure time for capturing
the subject.
A slow shutter speed was used to capture this shot of a girl.
She is standing still so she appears sharp while the train
behind her and the two passers-by are moving and
GOOD TO KNOW
appear blurred.
Higher ISO settings are generally used to
get faster shutter speeds, in darker
conditions, indoor events and at a sports
arena when you want an action shot in low
light.
Fast shutter speeds can create interesting
blurred backgrounds, so can be useful if you
are taking action shots at a race and want to
create a feeling of speed.
Tip
Holding your camera correctly will help to avoid camera
shake. This is where movement of the camera results in an
image that is slightly out of focus, blurred, or ‘soft’. Pick up
your camera by the grip with your right hand, leaving your
index finger free to use the shutter button and the main dial
(if you have an SLR camera). Your thumb should naturally sit
across the back of the camera. Then cup the camera in the
palm of your left hand to support it, using your thumb and
index finger to operate the lens as required.
Still Photography Technical Sheet
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4
APERTURE AND DEPTH OF FIELD
An aperture is a space through which light passes.
A large aperture lets more light into the camera and
a small one lets less light in. The size of the aperture
also affects how much of your photo will be in
focus. The higher the aperture number, the smaller
the space for light to pass through is and the more
detailed your picture will be, this means that more of
the background will be in focus.
The area of sharpness in an image is called the
depth-of-field, and it is one of the main creative
controls you have over your pictures. It is possible to
make some of the out-of-focus areas appear sharper.
Using a smaller sized aperture such as f/16 will give
you more depth-of-field than a larger one,
such as f/1.4.
AF - AUTOFOCUS SYSTEM
The AF (autofocus) will automatically adjust your
camera lens to help you get sharp images of your
subject in different conditions. It can often focus on
objects up-close. Sometimes, you may want to take
a photograph where you have to make a creative
decision on what to keep in focus and what to let
become a little less sharp. Your camera can’t decide
that for you.
FOCAL POINT
You can control how much of your photo is in
focus by adjusting your aperture. Create an image
with a sharp subject and blurred background and
foreground by selecting aperture-priority (Av) on the
mode dial and adjusting it. A lower aperture number
will mean less foreground and background will be
in focus.
The photographer here used a very wide lens aperture, f/1.4.
The focus is on the second bollard from the front.
The depth-of-field is very narrow so most of the scene
is out-of-focus.
A large aperture (e.g. f/1.4) lets more light through the
lens than a small aperture (f/16).
This landscape shows the extreme depth-of-field given by a
A camera lens can only focus on one plane of the subject.
small lens aperture, f/16. Everything from the foreground
This is the only area of the scene that is really sharp.
grass to the distant horizon appears sharp.
GOOD TO KNOW
However, a wider area of the scene may appear to be sharp.
You can set the aperture using aperturepriority AE (Av) mode. This way you choose
the aperture and let the camera decide the
shutter speed for correct exposure.
This area of apparent sharpness is called the depth-of-field.
Still Photography Technical Sheet
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5
COLOUR AND MODE
PLAY AROUND WITH COLOUR AND TONES
IN YOUR IMAGES. YOU CAN DO THIS BY
CHANGING THE MODE SETTING ON YOUR
CAMERA AND CHOOSE THE PICTURE STYLE
YOU THINK IS BEST.
Playing with perspective
You have probably seen the classic photo of a road tapering
into the distance and leading the eye to a car. This is known
as receding perspective. You can see this for yourself if you
take a photograph looking down a road, the lines of the road
or track appear to meet even though we know they are
still parallel.
MODES
Try them all out and see the effects for yourself!
S: The default mode is the S for Standard
— it will produce sharp images, good
contrast and strong colours.
Landscape enhances the greens
and blues in your picture and increases
saturation (this shows the amount of grey
in a colour).
Portrait softens edges slightly and
produces more accurate skin tones.
Neutral produces natural but subdued
colours.
Faithful creates colour as closely as
possible to how your eye sees it in daylight.
Monochrome is for black and white
photos. You can also add different filters
(yellow, orange, red, and green) and toning
effects (sepia, blue, purple,
and green).
If you select Auto then the camera will
choose the style for you based on
the scene.
Expert tip
Some cameras have a Grid Line display mode which shows
a grid on the LCD screen. You can switch this on to help you
get used to the ‘rule of thirds’, it can also help you keep your
horizons level.
TECHNICAL TIP
Most picture modes will also allow you to
adjust the ambience and lighting settings
for your image which will enhance the
tones and colours.
Ambience:
Standard, Vivid, Soft,
Warm, Intense, Cool,
Brighter, Darker,
Monochrome
Lighting:
Daylight, Shade,
Cloudy, Tungsten,
Fluorescent, Sunset
Still Photography Technical Sheet
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6
ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL DIFFERENCES
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Within seconds of taking your digital picture, you can
see the captured image on the built-in LCD screen
and decide whether you want to keep or erase the
image. You can also tell whether the shot is good
enough and whether to re-shoot, although remember
that is not possible, if capturing an action shot or
one-off event.
Digital sensors are arranged in an ordered grid. Film grains
are scattered randomly in the emulsion.
ANALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY
RAW OR PROCESSED FILES?
When shooting with film you have to be careful not to
shoot too many images because these would all have
to be processed, which can take some time, as well
as paid for. There are usually 24 or 36 shots per roll
of film. With digital photography photographers can
shoot away knowing they can delete any
unwanted shots.
RAW
RAW files are also known as
digital negatives because they
can be processed and printed in
different ways to produce different
results, just like the negative of a
film camera. If you are planning to edit images after
they have been downloaded to your computer it is
better to shoot RAW files. They keep all the data
captured by the camera and it is your computer that
processes the data.
USE AND RE-USE
Digital photographs are captured as digital files
and stored on removable media cards. Unlike film,
the cards are reusable. Once the files have been
transferred to your computer, you can clear the
images from the card and reuse it again. This cuts
out all the film and processing costs.
SHARE AND CARE
Jpeg
A Jpeg is a standard format that is
readable by most image programs.
The images are processed within
the camera discarding any unwanted
image data to create a much smaller
file, and they are ready to use immediately for
printing, posting on Facebook or sharing with friends.
Meanwhile, digital images can be digitally copied or
saved over and over again without any loss of quality.
Copies can be sent to friends, posted online and kept
in more than one picture library.
If the images are not quite perfect, then the digital
images can be improved afterwards in a picture retouching software such as Photoshop.
This is not the case for images taken on film. Extra
prints have to be made using the original negative.
It is possible to scan film transparencies to create
digital files, then copy, share and re-touch the images,
although the effect may not be the same as using
digital in the first place.
Still Photography Technical Sheet
Tip
If you’re taking digital photographs, think about composition
and how you will fill your frame when you take the picture,
rather than leaving it to edit later on.
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