Midterm Review
25 questions: T/F, Multiple choice, and fill in the blank.
Know the two different kinds of meters
Know the differences between the reflected (reading light bounced back from the subject) and
incident light meters (reading light falls on the subject)
What is the light meter calibrated to read? 18% gray=middle gray=mutual gray
In photography, if you meter something white or light (darker-underexposed) and when you
meter something dark (brighter-overexposed)
Know the sequence of your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO (full stops)
Three controls of exposure:
-aperture (f stop)
-Shutter speed
-ISO
The sequence of aperture:
1.4, 2, 2.8 , 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22
The sequence of shutter speed
B (Bulb) 1 ½ ¼ 1/8 1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000 1/2000
Sequence of ISO
50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200
Stop: a movement with ISO, aperture or shutter
Know what aperture (DOF), shutter speed (motion) and ISO (film grain) will affect your image
visually other than exposure.
Plane of focus: the point in a camera where all the light rays converge, forming a sharp image.
In a camera, this corresponds to the film plane.
DOF: the area of acceptable sharpness (focus) from foreground to background which includes
the critical plane of focus.
Know about Film speed and grain
When to use different ISO
How to keep camera steady, how to avoid camera shake
Know about exposure bracketing
Understand equivalent exposure
1
Know the differences between exposure bracketing and equivalent exposure
Camera obscura
Focal length
Focal length/angle of view/magnification of the objects
Speed of lens
Different focal length of a lens
When the focal length of a lens changes, what else can change?
Know the relationship between focal length of a lens and camera shake (what is the slowest
shutter speed you can get a way with at certain focal length.)
Edited: November 5, 2023
2
Basic Camera Controls
Lisa Teng
Understand the basics of a camera
• A light proof box
• A lens
• Light sensitive material (photo paper, film or
digital sensor)
• Aperture (an iris of a lens)
• shutter
How are photographs taken?
Exposure
• Controlling the amount of light that gets into
film (or an image sensor) during the progress
of taking photographs. It determines how light
or dark an image will appear when it's been
captured by your camera. this process is
determined by three camera settings:
aperture, ISO and shutter speed. But the two
main controls that your camera use to control
exposure are SHUTTER SPEED and APERTURE.
HOW
• Water=Light
• Faucet=Aperture
• The amount of time the faucet is
open=shutter speed
Under exposed Perfectly exposed Overexposed
How are photographs taken?
• In order to capture an image, we need to
know how LIGHT works with APERTURE,
SHUTTER SPEED.
Aperture
• Is a lens opening that allows light to go
through shutter and record its information
onto the film or an image sensor.
Aperture
aperture setting or f-stops
1/2 light
X2 light
Aperture as a Controller of Light
aperture control the brightness of the light
A wide aperture will have a smaller area of focus and can help to blur the
background and foreground depending on where you place your subject
in the frame.
Shallow depth of field
A narrower aperture increases the area of focus
• Can you tell me which image is taken with
wide aperture and which image is taken with
narrower aperture?
aperture setting or f-stops
1/2 light
X2 light
What do we learn about aperture
so far?
Shutter
AKA Leaf shutter
• Imagine shutter as CURTAIN
• Example of focal-plane shutter on an SLR camera
• It opens and closes at different speeds.
• shutter speed determines how long the shutter
stays open and therefore how long the film is
exposed to light.
• This dictates how much motion blur you get
• Other factors such as light, aperture and ISO will
also affect the result.
Each shutter setting is HALF (OR DOUBLE) the
time of the next one and is marked as the
denominator. Eg. 1 (1/1), 4 (1/4), 500 (1/500)
Cutting the light in half
Letting in twice as much light
Each shutter setting is HALF (OR DOUBLE) the time of the next one
and is marked as the denominator. Eg. 1 (1/1), 4 (1/4), 500 (1/500)
Shutter as Controller of Light
Shutter as a Controller of Motion
Francesca Woodman
Untitled, New York, 1979
Francesca Woodman
Several Cloudy Days, Rome, Italy,
1977
Francesca Woodman
Untitled, Rome, 1977–1978
Shutter as a Controller of Motion: Panning
Aperture as a Controller of
Depth of Field
• A change in aperture size affects the
sharpness of the image as well as the amount
of light entering the camera.
• The area of acceptable sharpness in a picture
is known as the depth of field.
Three ways to control your DOF
The smaller the aperture. The greater
the depth of field
F/2.8, 1/400, ISO 1000 F/22, 1/6, ISO 1000
The shorter the focal length of the
lens, the greater the depth of field
50mm, ISO 100, F/22, 0.6 sec 70mm, ISO 100, F/22, 0.6 sec
The farther you are away from a
subject, the greater the depth of field
F/13, 1/125, 32mm, ISO 6400 F/13, 1/125, 32mm, ISO 6400
Smaller sensor=Great DOF
Taken with my phone
Four Factors affecting the DOF
Four Factors affecting the DOF
• Aperture (aka F/stop)
• Focal length of the lens
• Subject to camera distance
• Camera Sensor Size
ISO, film speed and grain
The higher the ISO number, the
more sensitive the film (or digital
sensor) is to light.
Here are some examples
Film Speed (Sensor Sensitivity)/ISO
Film Speed (ISO) and Grain
• Faster the film speed the more light sensitive
it is and the more grain (noise) it has.
When to Use Different ISO
• ISO 100/ ISO 200 Shooting in very strong light
or shooting a non-moving subject with a
tripod. (smoothest grain)
• ISO 400 Variable light condition
• ISO 800 Shooting indoor or outdoor in limited
light
• ISO 1600 or higher Shooting a moving subject
in limited light
“Stop”
• The term “stop” is used to refer to a change in
exposure whether the aperture, shutter speed
or ISO is changed.
Do you see anything in common
among these photos?
Equivalent Exposure
F16, 1/8 F4, 1/125 F2, 1/500
Aperture
F1.4, F2, F2.8, F4,F5.6, F8, F11, F16, F22
More light/shallower DOF Less light/greater DOF
Shutter speed
1, ½, ¼,1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000
More light/motion blur Less light/motion freeze
ISO
50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Less sensitive to light/less grainy More sensitive to light/more grainy
Exposure Meters
• Exposure meters vary in design, but they all
perform the same basic function. They
measure the amount of light for a given film
speed (ISO), they calculate f-stop and shutter
speed combinations that will produce a
correct exposure for a scene that has an
average distribution of light and dark tones.
Reflected Meter
• Meters built into
cameras
• Hand-held
• Measured the amount
of light being reflected
from the subject in
your scene
Incident Meter
• Hand-held meter
• Measure the amount
of light that falls on
the subject in your
scene
To meter your scene with your DSLR, SLR, and a
mirrorless camera, first set it to manual mode, set
your desired ISO valueand half-press your shutter.
You will see the exposure value on an LCD screen
similar to this.
It’s a two-stop + underexposure.
Exposure Level Indicator in a camera
Your camera has an exposure level indicator scale (a.k.a. exposure
scale or exposure meter), shown here. The center of the scale
(sometimes labeled with a 0 but often with just a slightly different
mark) indicates a standard exposure — the combined exposure value
with inputs from all the camera’s exposure settings that the camera
thinks will produce the best photo.
Negative numbers indicate values that would underexpose the photo.
Positive numbers indicate values that would cause overexposure.
The image above shows the example of 2/3 of a stop underexposure.
In order to adjust your exposure setting to normal exposure (0), you
can change any of the 3 settings, F-stop, shutter speed and ISO. Just be
aware that when you change any of the 3, it will affect the depth of
field, motion blur and digital noise in an image.
18% GRAY=Middle Gray=Neutral Gray
Slightly Underexposed; gray Adding exposure by 1 stop to allow
snow more light in; white snow
Subject
Underexposed brighter than
18% gray
Subject
darker than
Overexposed 18% gray
Exposure Compensation: +/-
underexposed
overexposed
Works in Aperture priority,
shutter priority and program
modes.
Bracketing
Taking a sequence of pictures at the same scene at a range of
exposure setting.
-1 Normal Exposure +1
Bracket with shutter speed:
F8, 1/250, ISO 400 F8, 1/125 ,ISO 400 F8, 1/60, ISO 400
or
Bracket with F-stop:
1/250, F11, ISO 400 1/250, F8, ISO 400 1/250, F5.6, ISO 400
Why Bracketing?
• Depend on where you point your camera,
your exposure meter might not always get you
the right reading, therefore; you will have at
least one well-exposed picture.
• Having different range of exposure, you can
later blend them in photo software.
Film Speed (ISO) and Grain
• Faster the film speed the more light sensitive
it is and the more grain (noise) it has.
When to Use Different ISO
• ISO 100/ ISO 200 Shooting in very strong light
or shooting a non-moving subject with a
tripod. (smoothest grain)
• ISO 400 Variable light condition
• ISO 800 Shooting indoor or outdoor in limited
light
• ISO 1600 or higher Shooting a moving subject
in limited light
Understand AP/SP/M/P/Auto Modes
Aperture Priority Mode
• Abbreviated A or Av (aperture value)
• User is able to choose a specific aperture
value while the camera selects a shutter speed
to match.
• Main purpose is to control depth of field.
Shutter Priority Mode
• A camera setting that allow users to choose a
specific shutter speed while camera adjusts
the correct aperture to ensure correct
exposure. (S or Tv)
Manual/Program/Auto Mode
• Manual (M): User manually set the shutter
speed and aperture.
• Program (P): camera calculates both shutter
speed and aperture for you. But other camera
setting (eg. Flash, white balance and exposure
compensation remain manual.)
• Auto: everything is automatic.
Keeping the camera steady
• If you are hand holding a camera, use a
shutter speed that is faster than the focal
length of the lens:
1/60 or faster with a 50 mm lens
1/250 or faster with 200 mm lens
Determine the slowest shutter speed to avoid camera shake:
the denominator of the shutter speed should be greater
than the focal length of your lens.
Exploring the basics of DSLR
Lisa Teng
How SLR works
How focal plane shutter works
[Link]
Pixels and megapixel?
• Pixels are the basics of a digital image
• Pictures are represented digitally as a grid of squares, like a page of
graph paper
• Megapixel refers to the size of an image, usually in reference to a
photo from a digital camera or camera phone. A megapixel means
one million pixels.
• A digital image is composed of a grid of pixels, another word for
colored dots
• Do you know how many megapixel your camera has?
SLR: Single-Lens Reflex
• Full frame
• Crop sensor
• The term refers to the size of the image sensor in your camera
JEPG vs Raw file
• JPEG: a file already processed and compressed in camera and the
process of compression will degrade your image
• Raw: Unprocessed;
Advantages and disadvantages to
different size sensor
Full frame Crop sensor
Capture image More noise
with very little
noise
Allow shallower Good with greater depth of field
depth of field (e.g. landscape photography)
Bulkier Smaller and lighter
More expensive Cheaper
Equivalent to a Smaller than a piece of 35 mm film
piece of a 35mm
film
• Make sure your time zone and date and time are set properly
• Format your memory card
• 📷 Image quality->Raw
• White Balance: auto
• ISO Sensitivity Settings: make sure ISO auto control is turned off
• Color Space: Adobe RGB
• Exposure compensation: off ( or set to 0)
• Focus Mode: AF-S (single servo AF0, AF-C (Continuous servo), AF-A
• Know how to reset your camera to its factory default
Lens and Focal Length
Lisa Teng
Lens and Focal length
• Function of a lens
• Two major differences in lens characteristics:
1) focal length 2) speed of lens
• 3 types of lenses: Normal, short and long lenses
• Fixed and zooms
• Prime lenses
Forming an image
• Do you need a lens to form an image?
• Concept of a pinhole camera
Camera obscura (Darkroom)
Abelardo Morell
Abelardo Morell
Camera Lucida
Function of a lens: to project a sharp and
undistorted image onto the light-sensitive surface
Two major differences in lens characteristics
are:
• Focal Length:
one advantage of using SLR is interchangeability of its lens
• Have you heard people talking about “fast lens”?
Speed of lens: is not the same as shutter speed. More correctly called
“maximum aperture” which is the widest aperture the lens can open.
Allow you to shoot in dim light with faster shutter speed.
Focal Length
• Focal length of a lens: normal, long or short lens
• Focal length affects images: how much of the scene is shown and the
sizes of the objects
• SLR: Interchangeability of lens
film
Focal length affects images: how much of the scene is shown and the sizes of the objects
3 Types of lenses
• Normal Focal Lens
• Long Focal Lens
• Short Focal Lens
Normal Focal Lens
• Normal focal lens for 35 mm SLR or full-
framed DSLR is 50 mm
• Normal focal lens for cropped sensor
DSLR is 35 mm
Normal Focal Lens
• The most like human vision: the field of
view
The image is about the same angle of
view as the human eye sees clearly when
looking straight ahead and the relative
size and spacing of near and far objects
appear normal.
Normal Lens for different film size
Medium format 6x6 film size
35 mm film camera or a full Normal Focal Length: 80 mm 4x5 view camera
frame digital camera Normal Focal lengths: 150 mm
Normal Focal length:50 mm
Cameras that uses film sizes larger than 35mm have proportionally longer focal lengths.
Long Focal Lens
• Any lens longer than normal
• Your field of view gets narrower
• Magnification increases
• Things are farther away appeared
closer
Short Focal lens
• Any lens shorter than normal focal
length
• Field of view gets really wide
• Means you can take wider vista but
most things in your shots are
smaller
Focal Length
Is measured from an optical point near the back of the lens to the image it forms on the film or digital
image sensor. It is measured when the image is sharply focused on an object in the far distance. The size
of the an object in the image is directly related to focal length.
double Gauss lens
Field of view concept
Fixed and zooms
• Fixed focal lenses: have a single fixed focal length, that means they
have one field of view
• zoom lenses: have a variable focal length which will have variable field
of view.
Long lens vs short lens
• Referring to focal length longer than normal and shorter than normal.
• Short lens gives wide angle of view
• Long lens gives narrower angle of view
• Not about the physical length of the lens
Examples:
Schneider Xenar 300mm f/5.6 lens for 8x10 large format camera
Canon 40mm f/2.8
50mm 100mm
24mm Focal Length
Focal Length
Focal Length
500mm 1000mm
200 mm Focal Length
Focal Length Focal Length
Prime Lens
• Fixed focal length
• Large aperture for low light shooting
• optimized to a specific focal length or purpose which means optical
performance is generally better than the zoom lenses
• Sharper and fewer visible aberrations
• Compact size
• Price is more compatible than zoom lenses
Prime Lens: Normal Lens
• similar to human vision
• 50 mm for SLR or a full frame DSLR
• makes it a good first lens for beginners because it is easy to imagine
what images will look like
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Nan Goldin
Larry Sultan
Prime Lens: Short Focal Length Lens
• Shorter than normal focal length of the lens
• Wider angle of view
• Show more of the scene
• Work well with landscape, architectural photography and street
photography
• Considerable depth of field
• More distortion (when close-ups)
• Relatively light weight as it is small
• Popular fixed short focal lengths: 28mm, 35 mm
Stephen Shore
Michael Jang
Bruce Gilden
Andreas Gursky
Prime Lens: Long Focal Length Lens
• longer than normal focal length of the lens
• Narrower angle of view
• Show less of the scene
• Magnify the size of the subject in the frame
• More compression, shallower depth of field
• Greater the distance you can be from your subject
• Less distortion
• Popular prime lenses for long focal length: 85mm, 100 mm
Beat Streuli
Beat Streuli
Beat Streuli
Jan Groover
Jan Groover
Jan Groover