How fast is your shutter? #mamarazzi #photography101
I am a big fan of the semi-automatic modes on a camera. Everyone seems to believe that the only way to shoot decent images is to be fully manual and be in control of all aspects of the image.
well…yes…maybe…. but there is a really big BUT…
You have to be able to know what you are doing in manual and moreover know how to set and change your settings very quickly….. not such a problem i grant you if you are shooting a landscape..because a landscape isnt going to get all ants in its pants about sitting still on that lovely bench you have just plonked it on with its siblings.
No, most of us are mamarazzi, we are photographing our children and lets face it kids are often busy little things who don’t take much to being asked to stay still.
Unless they are asleep…and then you can knock yourself out playing with manual settings on your camera. 😉
But the truth of it is we want to capture memories and moments along the journey that is our own family story and i can tell you for nothin’ no kid of yours is going to look back at a picture of them proudly taking their first wicket in cricket and solemnly say to you ‘so what ISO did you have that on mama?’ 😉
Sometimes you just have to get the shot. In the can. If you don’t have time to faff with camera settings or you are not sure..wizz round to the ever faithful green square on that expensive camera of yours, pop the shutter and be PROUD. Remember whats important and prioritise.
So anyway… semi-automatics. Like it suggests it controls some of the picture taking parts but not all. The main two that all most reasonable cameras will have is AV(aperture) or TV/S (shutter).
Basically they work like this:
Aperture Priority – lets you control the aperture (thats what gives you the blur) – the camera then picks the shutter and the ISO
Shutter Priority – lets you control the shutter (coping with movement) – the camera picks the aperture and the ISO
Now in theory – your camera should pick the right settings so that you get a reasonably exposed image. But that will depend on where you are and what the light is like.
These settings are a great way of learning how that one particular process (aperture or shutter) works.
Shutter- Speed
Do me a favour and if you have a dslr go and set it to a shutter speed of 1/10. Right press the shutter and listen and watch the front of your camera. The snapping sound is the shutter opening for one tenth of a second.
You can have it open for longer, if you can scroll up to a number with a symbol like this ” on the side. That is an entire second..so you can have your shutter open for 8 seconds if you like? Enough for you to go in and out the kettle on! Now wind it back up to 1/500 (if you can) and listen to how fast it goes..POW. Its all about action and thats what you are talking about with shutter speeds.
You can experiment with slow shutters – gives that lovely blurry effect and can give a real impression of movement..
These two pairs below are the same image but shot with a different shutter. Its more dramatic in the water one but you can see in the picture of my son how much clearer the jump is on the faster shutter (look at his finger tips)
So when you are planning on taking some pictures of something or someone moving fast then switching up to shutter priority would be a good move. Or if you want to capture the flow of water like the first two images here then go back down to a slow shutter speed and get some of those gorgeous effects. Just a little note though when your shutter is opening very slowly the camera will be effected by any movement…your hands moving, breathing..so you might want to think tripod or just jam yourself against something like a wall and hold your breath when you press the shutter 😉
There is the classic jumping on the trampoline..try and do this without shooting through the mesh..its a bit tricky to pull off when your subject is moving all the time.
Playing with shutter speeds can give you a lovely capture of smallest of movements. Hair blowing in the wind…and other things blowing in wind. In the interest of authenticity i didn’t edit out the spit 😉
The one that we all are after, the school sports day shot.
Slower shutter produce really dramatic effects, like slowing down and blurring the gorgeous flames of the fire
couldn’t do a post on shutter speeds without the firework one. I didnt have my camera on a tripod for this shot. I should have but what i did do was wedge myself against the doorframe for a bit more stability.
There you have it, so how about popping your camera onto shutter mode and getting out there and having a play.
Do let me know how you got on!
#silentsunday
Which lens should i choose? #mamarazzi #photography101
The question i probably get asked the most..apart from how do i get my kids to sit still for a photo 😉 is ‘what lens should i go for?’
A lot of people have no got dslr’s and the fabulous thing about these cameras is that you can choose from an army of possible lenses that do all sorts of different things. So where do you start?
Let talk a little bit about what the lenses actually ‘do’ Generally speaking you can choose between zoom or prime lenses. A zoom lens…er….zooms and a prime lens doesnt. Easy peasy
The focal length is a measurement that is usually measured in millimeters and very simply put will effect how close or far your subject appears from you when you are looking through the viewfinder.
The merits of prime.
Personally some of my favourite lenses are prime lenses. The benefits of prime lenses are that often they are sharper and can bust out some pretty wide apertures ,meaning that you can create more of those dreamy blurry backgrounds that we all love and the added benefit of shooting at a wide open fstop is that you are letting more light into your camera. Hands up who takes a lot of pictures inside?
Well if you don’t live on a house that light pipes funnelled into the ceiling or an entire wall of glass open to light then this factor really helps! Canon and Nikon both have a relatively cheap 50mm prime lens..fondly referred to as the nifty fifty 😉
The merits of zoom.
What zoom lenses might lack in crispness they make up for in flexibility and function. A zoom lens allows you to use multiple focal lengths. Which is good for those of us who want to stand over the other side of school playing field on sports day and zoom in on little Johnny doing the sack race.
But try to remember that no zoom lens works at its best at its most maximum output. So you might think you’ve snapped him clearly coming across the finish line in first but ultimately it may be exceptionally blurry. Another thing that a cheaper zoom will do is change the aperture as you punch out the zoom. This is something that lots of people get stumped by. You have a nice shot all lined up, perfect lighting and everything…you think to yourself ill just zoom in a bit then you snap the shot and it is dark. The reason for this, is variable aperture. These lenses cannot maintain a wide open aperture when they are changing their focal length.
Make sense? no? well what it means is that it will allow less light in because it will automatically change the aperture whilst you are using the zoom. So you just need to think about your light.
There are zoom lenses that can maintain the aperture throughout…but they are pretty pricey. Not that there is much that isnt in photography to be honest 😉
Focal length
There are so many different options when it comes to focal length.
Wide angle: as suggested, it has a wide angle, great for when you want to get as much in your picture as possible, they can distort the view though..so if you have a person right at the edge of your frame they might take on an interesting bend! A bit like the funfair! But i think they can make for some very dramatic shots although you have to be careful as they can be a little unflattering on faces. less than 20mm – extreme wide angle (fish eye) 20-35mm – wide angle
Standard and portrait lenses take images that are much more flattering to the human eye. Standard focal length (50mm) is what the human eye ‘sees’ naturally. Apparently it is the lens that a forensic photographer would use as it most truthfully depicts a scene! 35-70mm (standard angle) 70-105mm (portrait)
Telephoto: magnify a given object, making them seem closer – anything 105mm and up!
I could go on and on about lenses. Most pro photographers will always say ‘its all about the glass!’ That meaning its all about the quality and ability of your lens rather than your camera. Might be food for thought eh?
Here are some examples…
beautiful 50mm lens with its wide aperture, you can create lovely depth of field and you can pick out those lovely details
60mm macro lens. I really loved this lens then had to say goodbye when i moved to a different camera body that it wouldnt fit onto. 60mm f2.8
35mm medium wide lens and you can get some detail and show more of a scene. The very beautiful Miss Violet 🙂
190mm f3.5 Using a telephoto lens can get you up close and personal to your subject, so you can capture those little moments without being in their faces!
one of my favourites again, the 50mm. True to the eye and perfect for capturing those details…especially inside!! This was in quite a dark living room.
35mm again capturing more of the scene…
A true portrait lens of 70mm. This was taken with my 70-200mm lens.
This is what i was talking about with regards to extreme wide angle. This is 17mm. You can see the bending effect. I think it works quite nicely with this image though.
105mm portrait. Good thing about telephoto lenses is they can give you that lovely blur or ‘bokeh’ behind your subject
15mm fish eye – extreme wide angle but i think the quirkyness of this image works really well as it has strong lines made by the railway lines. Love this little lens. Its fun!!
I am by no means a total expert but if none of this makes sense shoot me a comment on twitter @apartyofseven and ill do my best to help.
Happy shopping 🙂
A time for every season…#motivationalmonday #themondayclub
A couple of weeks ago I went out for afternoon tea with a lovely lady who featured in my silent sunday for that week. It was a big birthday, you know one of those that can suddenly make you look back at where you have been. Maybe looking back a little and evaluating. This lovely friend of mine has a pretty flawless positive outlook, she is all about grabbing life and running with it.
It was a delightful afternoon, we got frocked up and headed off into town. Most of the ladies who went had been students in this city we all live in and heading into town used to mean a very different thing to all of us thats for sure. It was a lovely time of laughter and connections. Remembering stories and celebrating those to come.
I am a great believer in the seasons of life. That we have times that are fit for a certain purpose and there comes a time to move on from one stage of life without clinging to whats behind. Not always the easiest thing to do it has to be said. But we have seasons in our life and its no use trying to slow them down or stop them. Just have to get in it and embrace it while you are there then bid it adieu with fondness when its your time to move on.
One season in my life i had to very much consciously move on from was baby bearing days. After my 4th baby who at the time we thought was our last baby (oops !). Alongside trying to really enjoy those little newborn days i was pretty aware that they were my last go on the merrygo round of new babyhood. Being honest i was a little sad and had a few moments when i really felt like i was loosing part of my life. But then i gave myself a little talking to.
My turn on the back of this season was over, in the same way that my student days where no more and id rather stick pins in my eyes than go and stand and stick to the sweaty floor of Rock City, listening to a band and drinking lager out of plastic pint cups!
I worked out that its okay to be nostalgic about it, you have earned the right for that in the middle of those long sleepless nights and vomit covered days staring blankly at cbeebies. Sure go ahead get out the pictures, roll down memory lane, get the bunting out and have a good old coo and ahh at your memories…but dont get sad. Its life and its a constant flow. You are never meant to stay there, like the boys from take that said ‘one day this will be someone else’s dream’ 😉
Whilst im moving into the school years and loosing years of my life to being a taxi service…there are others who are choosing Universities and trying to teach their teenagers to cook macaroni cheese!…and others who are on the first steps of parenthood discovering those two blue lines.
I loved being a mama to a new baby. Those moments, those tiny teeny moments…guarded and locked into my heart forever. But we are excitedly looking into a different season and yes crossing into a different decade, for me, may have marked that a little bit too.
Its going to be a good decade!
My giveaway this week is a another fabulous box from LUSH! Yay more sunshine in a box 🙂 All you have to do is follow the rafflecopter and pop back next week to see if you got lucky! Angela Glynn you were the winner of THE LORAX dvd. Please get in touch to claim your prize!
