EU-Mania

Right the last few times ive come into this section there's been a few people asking about the basics. so i thought id take it upon myself to write what i think will help them.

feel free to correct me or add your own things to this.

right starting off the 2 most important things are Shutter speed and Aperture


Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is how fast the shutter of the camera (the bit behind the lens) to expose the film. A rule of thumb is that if your holding the camera and not leaning on anything try not to go under 1/60 otherwise its likely it will blur.

shutter speeds are measured in seconds. higher shutter speeds are measured in fractions (e.g. 1/60th of a second) and can any where up to about 1/5000th but general speaking you never need to go over 1/1000.
if you are shooting something that is moving you will want to use a fast shutter speed. For example when i take pictures of racing cars or BMX id stick to about 1/800 and upwards.

Slow shutter speeds are used to shoot stationary subjects. you will need a tripod or a sturdy object like a wall for these sort of shots. Depending on the lighting, aperture and ISO of the subject. The longer the shutter speed the lower the ISO can be and the bigger the aperture can be(see below for definitions).

Aperture

right this isnt so vitally important to get right as shutter speed is but it is important.

in basic terms aperture is how much of the photo is in focus. the higher the aperture the more of the picture will be in focus. it is refered to in stops (genraly from f/3.5 - f/22)

high apertures make the hole in the lens small which allows in less light for more detail, thus making the shutter speed longer but more in focus.
low apertures are the opposite (obviously)

here's two pics i took sitting at my pc a sec ago to portray what i mean. look at the back ground to see the difference in focus.

low aperture, less in focus, faster shutter speed (f/ 3.5, 1/2 sec)


high aperture, more in focus, slower shutter speed (f/ 22, 15 sec)


ISO

ISO is how reactive the film is to light. the lower the iso the less reactive it is. the long the film takes to react the more light it needs (a longer exposure) and visa versa.

the lowest ISO on standard digital camera is 100 going up to 1600.

the lower the iso the less "noise" will be captures. noise looks like dust/fuzzyness over the picture.

heres an example

left : f/22, 0.8 sec, ISO 1600
right : f/22, 15sec, ISO 100.



ive decided to add a quick guide of what to look at on a Canon. this guide is specificity a 400D but most cameras use the same basis on button layout. i would appreciate it if someone did one for Nikon's.

before i start this is not a instruction manual, this is just a run down of what i would check/do if i were going to take a pic of a stationary car.

this is for Manual mode (M)

heres a picture to clarify what im talking about and what the importaint things to look at are.


FOR A STATIONARY SHOT (with a tripod)

for starters i would put the iso down to 100. to do this press the "ISO button" (see the pic) and use the pad to move over to the "100" option. then press the middle button. this should bring you back to the main info page (as seen in the pic).

next i would adjust the aperture. to do this in M mode you will need to hold the "AV button" and use the scroll wheel just behind the shutter release button.

which way you want to put it will depend on what you want the out come of the photo to be. if you (see mallos post for some examples) are looking to have a very small field of focus will put this down to the lowest it can be. this is extremely effective on focusing the attention onto a small part of the car, like a sticker.

if you want to have a lot in focus put it all the way up (max on standard cameras is about f22) this is effective if you are trying to capture a whole car.

right next up id set the shutter speed to match the lighting. you can do this but using the scroll wheel (the same one you used to change the aperture but this time dont hold any buttons down). to get the shutter speed right your aiming to get the bar on the light meter to measure up with the centre of the scale (as seen in the pic). if its hanging to the left of the scales you need to make the shutter speed longer and if its to the right you need to make it shorter.

the next thing is white balance. this really isnt essential and for most people auto will do. but if you want to have a play about with it press the "white balance button" near the bottom of the camera and have a play.

that brilliant know i just have too remember it when i go out to play tonight or tomorrow haha

Excellent guide dude, really useful the only bit i'd comment on is this:

max wrote:if you are shooting something that is moving you will want to use a fast shutter speed. For example when i take pictures of racing cars or BMX id stick to about 1/800 and upwards.

If you use a shutter speed that high, you'll essentially "freeze" the object so in the case of a car, it will just look like it's parked up. If you drop the shutter to 1/125 or 1/160 (mayber lower, depending on the light) you'll capture the wheels spinning and get some decent motion blur on the background.

Shooting motorsport at these lower speeds will take quite a bit of practice at panning to keep up with the car, thus keeping the car in focus and blurring the background


Shutter at 1/2000:


Shutter at 1/125:


(Not My Pics). Hope that helps

sorry forgot to mention that. good addition dude

Nice little guide there

awesome guide.... trying to get into Photography myself, just got myself a canon EOS 450D.

Now im gunna go play

i had a play last night after reading this and it's a great help as i know what i need to adust if its to light or too blurred thanks

whens the next update hehe

mmmmmmm F1.2 please

Si G wrote:mmmmmmm F1.2 please

lol we're not all sporting 2k cameras here

you can add stuff for more expensive cameras if you want but i dont have a clue about them because ive never owned one

hehe, i am just dreaming of my new lens when i get home, cant wait to get back to pick it up, but wont have it for the meet

ill be looking at what u lot do at the show hehe

Sticky

Some hints and Tips when taking pictures, From Devo & Me...

From Devo:
Cropping to emphasise an area

All photos come out 4x3 but often a bit of cropping can really help bring a photo to life





Adding to that with a wide angle lense and a crop can make simple things more dramatic:



Why not try some car shots from heights other than 5ft i.e. infront of your face.

Here's some low down shots that give an interesting new look to your photos.






DEVOS

Some of my examples from a low down:







This one was on the motorway i was low with the camera to get this photo, not always advised as can be dangerous unless you have some idea what you are doing:



Although most of the time the thing you want to focus on is right in the middle of your shot, sometimes you want to focus off centre. To do this, get the object into the middle of your shot, hold the shutter button half way down so that you camera focuses on it, then move the shot so that the object is off centre. As long as you hold the shutter button half way down, the focus will stay fixed. fully depress the shutter button and take your shot. This process is obivously much easier if you have the option to Manual Focus your camera.



This one was taking at a family gig, i focused on the the small nobs and bluring out the back ground which was the real main focus:



I find that a simple alloy wheel isnt always enough. So i like to add a different angle, if a car is on air or slammed on coilovers it can show the size or the wheel or the drop to change the angle and make for a very intresting look:







This wheel is shown through a fish eye focusing on the wheel and making a huge impact:











I find sometimes that a simple photos is not enough and look at what ive taken a photo of. for example in these photos i have simple make the image black and white and chosen a sutable section to keep the colour here are some examples:

Here a friends car and my are the main subject but with these cars both been in silver the picture wasnt going to be very exciting so i used the sign behind my car to stand out:



This is very similar as with havin 3 silver cars i chose to keep jonnys boot install the lights and display:



Here is the same, devo and danny jumping out of the way of the waves, with the sign that clearly warns you about them:



yes this is a faily easy thing to do in photoshop. Duplicate the background layer (your original photo) and desaturate it (ctrl + U). then use a mask or rubber to remove the bits you want to be in colour. So the photo below is bascially 2 layers... top layer is the full colour version, and the bottom layer is black and white. I've also added a slight Gausian blur to the black and white layer.

Bare in mind most of my pics are rubbish as was early last year lol

gave it a little addition to the first post