It's About Time

There's just something about a photograph. It captures a moment in time. Future generations may, in turn, be able to experience that very moment you were behind the camera. But how long that moment was -- well, that's up to you. It's one of those creative liberties you're able to take as a photographer.

This is where you'll find Time Value (TV) or shutter priority mode helpful. In this mode, you select the shutter speed, and your camera automatically chooses the aperture. In fact, you can customize anything in TV mode except aperture.

You can convey a sense of movement by choosing a slower shutter speed. This will effectively blur your subject's movement. The image above was taken at 1/100th of a second. My camera was mounted on a tripod, so there wasn't any camera movement. However, the blur of the subject's hand helps to imply action. Had I used a faster shutter speed, such as 1/1000, the subject's movement would have been as frozen as the landscape. Implied action is a creative element in photography, and the way use it is to shoot with a slower shutter speed.

You can also pan the camera while shooting at a slower shutter speed, as I did above. Just make sure you follow the subject carefully. This image was taken at 1/100th of a second, but the blur is more evident because of the camera movement. The result is a more artsy-looking photo in my opinion. 

A few other ways to play with shutter speed: zoom the lens while using a slow shutter speed. Experiment using one of two techniques: either hold the camera still and twist the lens to zoom it; or, hold the lens still and twist the camera to zoom. This produces two completely different, abstract-style images.

You can also use an extremely slow shutter speed to transform a nighttime landscape into day. This is because the longer your shutter remains open, the more light hits your camera's sensor. Keep it open long enough and darkness will become light.

Note that there are a couple of things that will limit your choice of shutter speed. The first is the amount of ambient (or surrounding) light in your scene. If you're taking pictures in an extremely bright area, you'll be able to use much faster shutter speeds. However, if you're in a low-light situation, you'll have to use a slower one. The second thing that will limit your choice of shutter speed is whether or not you have a tripod with you. If you're holding a camera and shooting at 1/15th of a second, your image will be blurred simply because your heart was beating. Blur can occur because of subject movement or camera movement. The camera movement problem can be solved simply by mounting your camera on a tripod. Bottom line: use a tripod if you're in a dimly-lit area.

So what happens if you're not happy with your camera's available shutter speeds?

• Scenario 1: You're taking a picture in low-light but don't have a tripod available. Your camera only allows you to take pictures at very slow shutter speeds. If you hand-hold the camera, the image will be blurry. Solution: Raise your ISO setting. This in essence makes your camera more sensitive to light. But be aware that a higher ISO setting will introduce additional noise to the image. That's the trade-off.
• Scenario 2: It's a bright, sunshiny day. You want to blur the water in a cascading city fountain. Your camera won't let you take pictures at the really slow shutter speed you desire. A few solutions: lower your ISO setting, which makes your camera less sensitive to light; Use an ND (neutral density) filter, which is like putting a pair of sunglasses over your lens; or simply wait until later in the day, when the sun isn't as bright.

Getting with the Program

Your camera's Program mode is one notch up from Automatic. It offers the point-and-shoot convenience of Auto, but also allows you to tweak many of the camera's settings (that is, to Program it, hence the name).

Program mode works well if you're shooting candid shots, and don't have the time to fiddle with settings. Your flash won't pop up in Program mode (the way it does in Auto), so it works well in places like museums, where flash photography is often prohibited.

If you're new to a digital SLR camera, you'll probably begin in Automatic mode. It's a logical place to start, especially if you know nothing about your camera's settings. Program mode, however, is a great way to move forward. 

When you switch your camera to Program mode, it makes its best guess for the aperture/shutter speed combination, based on the amount of light that's hitting the sensor. It isn't entirely foolproof. However, since you're in Program mode, you're able to tinker with those settings if you want to.

While in Program mode, you can make changes to ISO, white balance, and the aperture/shutter speed combination. You can also use the flash if you want, but you'll have to pop it up manually.

This photo was taken in Program mode, and I took some creative liberty with it to demonstrate that you're able to customize the settings. First, I set the ISO to 100, which helps to ensure a clean (non-noisy) image. I could afford to do that, because the scene was already very bright. Second, I set the aperture to f/4.0 because I wanted to shorten the depth of field. Third, I metered the light on the subject, rather than the entire scene. It made the snow whiter, and did an overall better job at exposing the subject than Auto mode did. Finally, there was enough light reflecting up off the snow onto the subject, so I didn't feel it necessary to activate the flash. These are the kinds of things you can do when shooting in Program mode - but only if you'd like.

So, if you're a beginner and just want to experiment with your camera's settings, try Program mode.

Fly the Plane

Fly the plane. That is, take your camera off autopilot.

Every camera has an "Auto" mode. Your camera has a remarkable ability to sense the amount of light in a scene, and - bless its high-tech image processor -  it adjusts everything for you if you just stay in Auto mode. Sounds great, huh? Well, there are two problems that you'll run into if you go the Auto route.


Problem #1: Your camera doesn't see light the way your eyes do.

Your eye is in itself an amazing piece of handiwork that technology hasn't been able to replicate. It can sense both subtle and dramatic changes in lighting conditions, processing it all at the same time. Let's suppose for example that you're enjoying the great outdoors on a snowy, winter day. You can clearly see the texture of the snow as well as all the subtle tones of landscape features. It's a completely normal part of our experience. But it's something a machine can't do perfectly.

Your camera, on the other hand, sees things differently. While enjoying the fresh-fallen snow, you pull out your camera, flip it into Auto mode, and shoot away. What happens? The image processor in your camera says to itself, "this scene is way too light. I'll darken it up a bit." The problem is, the snow may take on a gray tone, and if any of your friends appear in the picture, they too will be underexposed. Shooting in Auto mode can be convenient, but there are times when it simply doesn't work well.  Bottom line: the smartest camera is unable to automatically adjust the exposure of individual elements in an image. Instead, it averages the exposure on everything.

The photo above was taken in automatic mode. I didn't do any post-processing on it, other than cropping and changing the resolution so that it fits properly into this post. You may notice that the flash went off. The camera recognized that the scene was bright, and that the subject was backlit. So it set off the flash.

But what happens if you don't want your camera to do that? That leads us to the other issue you run into in Auto mode.

Problem #2: Automatic mode doesn't allow for many creative techniques.

Suppose you want to do a portrait of a friend outdoors. You want the background to be blurry, so the viewer's attention is honed in on your friend. Or perhaps you want to take a picture of a fountain, and you want to convey a sense of movement in the water by blurring it. These are things you can't do in automatic mode, because your camera is making all the decisions for you.


Does this mean that Auto mode won't be of any value to you? Absolutely not. It's a great way to get accustomed to a new camera. But ultimately, if you keep everything on autopilot, your growth as a creative photographer will be stunted.

An Intro

Photography is primarily an art. And what makes a piece of art (a photograph) pleasing to the eye can be quite subjective. What I consider a beautiful image can leave somebody else completely unimpressed. And vice versa. What this means in practical terms is that no matter how hard you try, you'll always have your critics. Somebody out there won't like that very special picture you took. However, you'll also find yourself scratching your head sometimes, wondering why your friends are so impressed with that horrible picture you took the other day. That's because photography is an art. It is subjective.

That being said, photography is also somewhat of a science. It involves playing with the physics of light; It comes with its own toolbox - mechanical settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO - that you'll use to create a desired artistic effect.

My goal in creating this blog is to explore with you some of the techniques of capturing a good image. Before I start, I want you to know that I'm not a professional photographer, but rather a self-taught enthusiast. What I've learned - and am in the process of learning -  I'm passing on to you with the goal of better quality pictures. I hope to speak in layman's terms, so that photography seems like an accessible sport.