Photography Tutorial

[NobleEagle]

Well, I Understand that this topic may be a bit odd in anime websites. but I just want add some variation to this forum...moderator please go soft on me

awrigth, as you already know, photography these days is very easy to do, especially with the digital camera. today, even mobile phone have a camera. and that's count as a camera. so I think all of you have a camera already

a little warning though, this forum is dedicated to those who want to study and ask about photography. Photoshopper please use another thread

But before we start our lesson, lets review to popular photography term and it's meaning. if this thread going on (which I hope will be

) these term might comes out regularly. read before asking

:

1. Aperture. Aperture is a diaphragm size. it is used along with shutter speed to limit the light reaching camera sensor. it shows as F. so an aperture will be showed as F8, F16, F 3.5. the smaller the number, the bigger the diaphragm open. aperture also used to play with DOF (Read below). the bigger the number, the bigger the DOF.

2. Shutter Speed. Measuring how fast the shutter open to allow the light come into camera sensor. it measured in second. it will be 1/60,1/2000, or even 30. if the shutter open for longer time, the moving object on the picture will be appeared blur. while if the speed is fast, the image will appear to be frozen.

3. DOF (Depth of Field). As the name suggest, it is about how blur the background behind the object. if you ever see an image where the main object appear sharp but the background blur. you see a DOF play

4. White Balance. It will try to compensate color condition to achieve "ideal" photo. keep in mind that ideal here is a mathematical idea. it thinks that ideal light is white. that mean, they will try to adjust the color of the picture to white by mixing some color. add a blue and green color to picture taken in golden condition (Sunset) can make the light appear to be white. but it is not always ideal.

I'll post more later on. typing too much already

 

[Mr.Purble]

Well this is nice!! ^^

I was wondering if you could help me out. Im trying to figure out which camera i should buy since what i want is to take cosplay pics but that look professional not digital camera-ish.

Many thanxxx in advance. =]

 

[NobleEagle]

QUOTE (Mr.Purble @ Jul 31 2007, 10:24 PM)Well this is nice!! ^^
I was wondering if you could help me out. Im trying to figure out which camera i should buy since what i want is to take cosplay pics but that look professional not digital camera-ish.
Many thanxxx in advance. =]

I can recommend you a lot of camera but taking a good photo is not only a matter of good camera

. knowledge and experience also count

. some people can make a really good picture using a pocket camera

But for you, I recommend a DSLR like cannon 400D or 30D or Nikon D80 or D200. (if budget matter, you can choose the earlier version of those. still a very good camera, but less megapixel

. a DSLR is a good future investation, as you only need to buy a good lens afterward (the body can change easily, a good lens really count). hope that helps a little

Mr.Purble

next and last part about term (if I forget something, ask away

)

5. Megapixel. most consumer think a camera with more megapixel is better. but this is not always true. megapixel indicate how many pixel (a picture is consist of several million micro color block, which make up for a big picture. that's why if you zoom on a picture, you sometimes can see a block, a block is a pixel, so 1 megapixel mean 1 million block) HOWEVER a pixel can also be made larger by digital processing (like photoshop), some camera vendor (especially a cheaper one from china vendor

) incorporate this kind of method to apply this on the camera. the picture quality, however, cannot be raised this way, so the quality will be very poor

6. Zoom. 10X zoom can reach farther object than 5X zoom ? that's not exactly true. the X here mean the magnification between minimum focal length (distance covered) to the maximum. so for example, a 35 mm lens with 10X zoom can become 350 mm . but a 100mm lens with 5X zoom can become 500mm. farther than the 10X zoom

. however, the longer the lens, the more easily a picture is shaken (longer lens mean more sensitivity to movement. Including your heartbeat

) the basic equation of stable picture is shutter speed = 1/lens length (mm). oh yeah, never used digital zoom. it's just doing the same work as photoshop zoom. and unrecoverable one. avoid this entirely

and so time for tips and lesson. today let's start with the basic

1. Autofocusing. ok this is very basic, but very important nonetheless. to do this, you need to press the shutter button halfway before pressing it all the way to take the picture (some people i know like to just pressing it fully

) this technique (dunno if it can even called technique

) is used to let the camera auto focus feature work before taking the picture. failing to do so may make the picture blur. usually the focusing point is in the middle (though the newer camera usually have more than 1 focusing point). the focus area is marked with green circle/rectangular/any flashing green object. an orange flashing color mean no focus point chosen. repeat pressing the shutter button halfway. very useful if you think a sharp picture is a good picture