I like keeping it as it comes to my mind. Because normally one would expect to see basic terminology of photography within my second post of photography series, however, well, me is me. So let me give you an overview of Fundamentals of the hobby. Some could find it technical enough and hence boring, however if you would like to know which camera (or a new mobile with a camera) or lens to buy and do not want to look like a fool not having the faintest idea about what ISO or shutter is, follow me down the “meh” tunnel 😀
Fundamentals of the hobby
Aperture: May it be a digital sensor or the negative film of an analogue camera, light needs to reach those to create the photograph. And aperture is the orifice through which light enters the camera. What you might have seen in the form of f/16, f/8 is the aperture and the bigger that number is, the smaller the aperture will be and exposure to light.
Diaphragm: The aperture is a mechanically controlled feature in modern DSLR cameras and the set of overlapping blades controlling it is called diaphragm.
Exposure: The amount of light that reaches the camera sensor is exposure. It is a sum of different factors contributing to it and they are aperture – which we have learnt above -, shutter speed and the infamous ISO.
Focal length: “How far is the center of your lens to the sensor of the camera” is answered by this feature. The longer that distance is, as you would expect the longer the camera, hence being determinant in the type of lens. Longest are called telephoto while the lenses with shortest focal length are wide angle ones.
HDR: Yet another term that you’d come across if it has to do with visuals in the recent years. High Dynamic Range, HDR for short, tries to represent a scene as close as possible to how we see with our own eyes by combining multiple photos with varying exposures.
ISO: Here we are. International Organization for Standardization is a quantity of a sensor’s sensitivity to the light. In low light situations such as night shots, a higher ISO would help although it would make the image too bright in other conditions, vica versa. ISO is easily customizable in modern DSLRs so, yeah, play with it to your artistry.
Kelvin: Probably you have seen this “K” as in 1000K or 3000K etc. and it is the god of thermodynamics Lord Kelvin’s unit that describes the temperature of the color. White balance of your shoots is closely related to this particular measurement.
Macro: Looking to see the amazing microscopic beauty of the bee on that flower? What you need is a macro lens to be a part of macro photography. It captures the very fine details of small objects in a larger than life proportion.
Shutter speed: The final component of exposure is how long the camera sensor is exposed to light whilst shooting the photo. As the shutter closes slower, more light would find its way in becoming excellent assets in night time or astrophotography. On the other hand a faster shutter speeds will capture the motion “in the nick of time” making them absolute must-do’s in fields like sports photography.
So there you go, peeps. I did my best to introduce you to the world of photography and as boring as it might seem getting to know the terminology will let you build a more intimate relationship with the camera in hand and that carves the path to becoming a better photographer indeed.
I’ll take a pause in my photography posts for a while – I might do a couple of more later but I’d like to spice things up here. So, see you next time and happy shooting.
These are the basics to know when you start your new hobby, stay tuned for more info.
See you out there