Photography 101 : Know more about Exposure

Now, let's talk about Exposure...

EXPOSURE
When you combine the ISO setting, the aperture (or f/stop) setting and the correct shutter speed, you are putting together the pieces of the camera puzzle that create your exposure.

The Exposure is the image created by the light entering the camera and being recorded onto the film or digital sensor. To achieve correct exposure, you need to balance your ISO setting for the lighting situation you are in with the f/stop setting and shutter speed to allow for the correct amount of light to enter the camera.

Exposure is a tricky thing and whole books have been written on getting it correct and then intentionally messing it up for artistic purposes. Most modern cameras now come with some pretty nifty built in “cheats” to give you correct exposures. Most point and shoot cameras handle exposure automatically for you and do a very nice job. Bridge and SLR cameras will also do the heavy lifting for you by shooting in fully automatic modes. They also contain with what are referred to as “Creative Modes” that will adjust your aperture and shutter speeds for certain situations such as sporting events, portraits, landscapes, or night shooting.

Once you have moved beyond the fully automatic and creative mode shooting, bridge and SLR cameras also have a few more tricks to help you achieve your correct exposure (in combination, of course, with the ISO, f/stop, and shutter speed):

The first of these is the built in light meter. Metering is the process of gauging the light and dark areas of your image and correctly aligning the ISO, f/stop, and shutter speed to give you correct exposure. All bridge and SLR cameras give you the ability to change all three settings independently, but thankfully these cameras will also do all the metering math for you with their built in light meters.

Along with the light meter in your viewfinder, you’ll most likely also have several auto-focus points. On most bridge and SLR cameras, you will be able to see your auto-focus points when looking through your viewfinder and focusing on your object or image. These auto-focus points light up to indicate what the lens is focusing on. You can also manually adjust the focus points to accomplish a specific focus (if your subject is not in the middle of the viewfinder, for instance.)

Finally, another factor in exposure is White Balance. Digital cameras will also allow you to set or alter your white balance. Most film cameras handle white balance in the film itself and you purchase your film to match the lighting situation you will be in, whereas most digital cameras will allow you to set or alter your white balance. On a digital camera, you can set your white balance for each image just as you can set the ISO for each image.

White balance is simply a fancy way of setting the color temperature of your image. The human eye is very adept at compensating for color changes in light and allowing us to view light in a very large spectrum. Camera sensors are not quite as intelligent, and they must be told what color the light is for a given situation in order to compensate for that color. For example, morning sunlight is very blue in color while evening sunlight is very yellow. Incandescent bulbs are very orange while fluorescent bulbs are very purple. Each of these settings will affect the color temperature of your photo. To compensate for this, all digital cameras come with some pre-set white balance settings such as Auto, Daylight, and Tungsten, among others. Properly setting your white balance for your lighting situation will greatly increase the impact of your photos and decrease the amount of time you spend editing them.

Obviously, we are just skimming the surface when talking about Exposure. We will address it again in future articles and play around with it in the form of challenges.

For further reading on this topic, we recommend the following book:
Understanding Exposure (revised edition) by Bryan Peterson

Photography 101: Know more about ISO, Aperture & Shutter Speed

I'm absolutely fascinated about photography and really trying to learn and deepen more my knowledge about this digital hobby. Thanks to my very loving husbad...hehe, for providing me my dream slr cam last summer. The camera made me more passionate about photography. Since I have no time to attend to a photography school, aside from the fact that it's also very expensive, I just do self-study by searching some sites that provides free tutorials and helpful tip and tricks. Let me share some of the articles that i've found over the net that will surely benefit and educate those photographic enthusiasts like me.

The best way to think of photography is to think of light. That’s really what photography is -- capturing the light of the moment on film (or recording it onto a digital camera’s sensor). Virtually everything involved with a camera revolves around manipulating the available light to produce a photograph, and there are three main terms that interconnect with this manipulation: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.

ISO, APERTURE, AND SHUTTER SPEED

When you pick up your camera to take a photo, the first thing you need to consider is how much available light you have and the speed of your ISO setting. ISO stands for International Organization of Standards, but you really don’t need to remember that. What you do need to know is that ISO is the setting on your camera that tells your camera how quickly your film or digital image sensor will capture the light that it’s exposed to. The lower your ISO setting (100 speed, for example), the slower the exposure of light onto the film or image sensor will be. The faster the ISO (1000 speed, for example) the faster the exposure of light onto the film or sensor will be.

In other words, for lower ISO settings, you will need more light to correctly expose each image. Because a low ISO uses more light, the resulting image of a stationary object will be very sharp and clear. The higher the ISO setting, the less available light you will need, but keep in mind that the resulting image will be have more grain (or in the case of digital cameras, more digital noise).

Most modern film cameras will automatically set the ISO for you when you put in a roll of film. The benefit of digital SLR cameras, as well as some point and shoot or bridge cameras, is that you can adjust your ISO setting for each shot you take. As a general rule, for bright outdoor shots, choose 200 or 400 speed. When you move to a setting with less light, such as when you go indoors, you can quickly increase your ISO to 800, 1000, or higher to keep on taking photos.

Once you’ve gotten the idea behind ISO, then we need to move on to Aperture. The aperture is the opening in your lens right in front of where it connects to your camera that either opens to allow light to pour through the lens or closes to constrict the flow of light. The aperture acts like the iris of your eye in that it can control the volume of light provided to give you an accurate image.

Most point and shoot cameras have a fixed aperture (meaning you can’t change it), but virtually all bridge and digital SLR cameras have adjustable apertures. Apertures are referred to by their f/stop (a technical number obtained by taking the focal length of the lens and dividing it by the aperture of the lens). For example, you’ll see numbers like f/1.8 or f/5.6 used to describe a lens. In addition to indicating the aperture, f/stops represent the lens speed and indicate how quickly light will enter the lens and focus onto the film or digital sensor.

Here’s the important part -- the lower the f/ number the faster the lens will capture light onto the film or sensor. For example, if a lens is listed with an f/stop of f/2.8, then that is as wide as the aperture on the lens will open, as well as being the lowest f/stop allowed by that lens. At the lens’s lowest f/stop, nothing will stop the light from entering the lens and being captured by the camera. Light will flow through the lens like water that’s been unleashed from a dam. This is very nice in low light situations since low f/stops allow you to take pictures that you normally wouldn’t think possible, but there is a drawback. Because nothing is slowing the light from entering the camera, your lens will only focus on a small portion of the image and leave a large portion of the image blurred. This can be very nice or very frustrating.

With larger f/stops like f/22, the aperture on the lens closes down to the size of a pinhole and the light very slowly enters the camera. Because the light flow is restricted, the film or image sensor has much more time to capture that light and you will get images where almost everything in the image is in focus.

By the way, if you’ve heard the term “depth of field,” this is what it is referring to – the portion of your image that is in focus. A large depth of field would have more in focus and would use a larger f/stop. A shallow depth of field would have less in focus and use a smaller f/stop.

After you’ve set your ISO and considered your lens aperture, it’s time to move on to Shutter Speed. Now you’re probably beginning to figure out that if your lens aperture is at f/22 and light is slowly trickling into your camera, then anything moving would be a blur. The same could be said for instances when you have your ISO set at 100 and you’re trying to capture someone in motion. This is where your shutter speed comes into play with your f/stop and ISO settings.

Your shutter speed is how quickly the shutter, or the little door that opens in front of your film or image sensor, operates. It can range from several minutes to 1/1600 of a second or more. When you set your shutter speed on your camera, you’ll see numbers like 60, 120, 250 and so on. These actually represent 1/60th of a second, 1/120th of a second and so on. Generally speaking, if you are holding your camera and it is not mounted on a tripod, you should keep your shutter speed at 1/60th of a second or faster. To capture quickly moving objects your shutter speed should be around 1/1600th or faster.

When you combine the ISO setting, the aperture (or f/stop) setting and the correct shutter speed, you are putting together the pieces of the camera puzzle that create your exposure.

For further reading we recommend the following book:
Designing with Photos by Allison Tyler Jones, published by Autumn Leaves

You can also find out more online about your specific camera at these camera resource centers:
Canon Digital Learning Center
Nikon Digital Learning Center

Photography Workshop @ Trinoma

Three Column Blogger Template Tutorials

In this tutorial, I'll explain how to create a three column template in Blogger layouts, using the Minima template as a starting point. The Minima template is the easiest Blogger template to customise, as this is the simplest two column template, and has few parameters regarding margins, padding and the like. Once you have developed the third column, it will then be easier to alter font-size, colours and such so leave this until later on. We're going to concentrate on the actual layout first.

First of all, set your template to Minima (not the stretch template, but any colour will do!), then follow these instructions:
1. Go to Template>Edit HTML, leaving the "Expand widget templates" box unchecked.
2. Now, find this section in the HTML code

#sidebar-wrapper { width: 220px; float: right; word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ }

Copy this entire section, and paste it directly below. We're going to change the elements I've highlighted in red to the following:

#left-sidebar-wrapper (this makes the css for this section unique) float: left (this will make the new sidebar float to the left of the main column)

This will provide the styling for the new sidebar element which we will create next.

3. Now, you need to find this section further down the page:

Immedietly before this section, you should paste the following piece of code:


Let me explain the elements of this code to help you understand what we've just done:

This section tells the browser that the left-sidebar element exists here, and to look in the css for the appropriate styling for this element.


This tells the browser the class of the sidebar element and all other elements (widgets) which may be included in this section. The ID of this element must be "left-sidebar" in order to make it unique, otherwie this would cause problems when viewing. It is preferred so that it will feature in the layout, even if no widgets are placed within it.



4. If you preview your template, you will notice that the right sidebar will be beneath the main section at the moment. This is because the outer-wrapper is still only wide enough to accomodate one sidebar. So now we need to expand the oputer wrapper to accomodate this new sidebar. Find this section in the HTML code:

/* Outer-Wrapper ----------------------------------------------- */ #outer-wrapper { width: 660px; margin:0 auto; padding:10px; text-align:left; font: $bodyfont; }

We need to increase the width of the wrapper by the width of the left-sidebar-wrapper, in this case 220px. So, change the value in red to 880px.

5. You may also want to change the width of the header-wrapper to 880px so that it spans the new width of your blog:

#header-wrapper { width:880px; margin:0 auto 10px; border:1px solid $bordercolor; }

6. At this point, you should save your template. At present, your new sidebar will not be seen as there are no widgets contained within it, though it will still be present in the markup of the page. Once you have saved your template, go to Template>Page elements in your Blogger dashboard.
7. Your layouts section should now look something like this:

You can now add a page element (or two) to your new left sidebar.
8. But we aren't quite finished yet! If you add anything to this left sidebar, you will probably notice that it jams right up to the main section, like this:

This is because there is no space defined between the left-sidebar and the main section. We need to create this space in the template's HTML. To do this, we will add a margin to the left hand side of the main posts section. Find the following code in your template's HTML and add the code defined in red:

#main-wrapper { width: 410px; float: left; margin-left: 20px; word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */ overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ }

This defines a margin space of 20px between the left-sidebar and the main column. You should also ensure you adjust thw width of the outer-wrapper from 880px to 900px to ensure the width of your blog is enough to accomodate this margin too. Either that, or you could reduce the width of your main column/a sidebar by 20px to serve the same purpose. Now, your previewed template should look more like this:

9. Finally, save your template and enjoy your new sidebar!

The same principles described here can help you create a three column template from any Blogger template, though you may find that you'll need to adjust the width, margins and padding for your new sidebar in order for it to look the way you would like.
Also, you can configure your new sidebar to float to the right, and have two sidebars on the right of the main column if you prefer. Simply set the CSS of your new sidebar to float: right; instead.

credits to Zimbio for this tutorials :P

At Long Last!

At long last!...i was able to fixed my two column template to three column one ...weeeh!..lol! I've been looking lately for a three column template, but whenever I found a nice one & tried to upload the codes to my edit html tools, it's always giving me an error!...arrgh.Dunno what's keeping it to have an error, I keep on following the correct step on how to install it but to no avail...shhhss!! I've been wanted for a three columns ever since and been trying to look for a pretty nice layout for my blog. I want to fully customize my sidebar and the usual two column template has a limited space for adding additional widgets. And now, I'm pretty impressed with the result. Though, i'm still kinda not contented with color combi...hehe. Still need to figure out on how to adjust my head banner. I'll just post the tutorial here later if you want to try customizing your templates too! :)

Unleash your Creativity

I started to try my hands at digital scrapbook designing just last month. I know about scrapbooking thing but not into it. I just don't have the time to go out and buy those necessary kits needed, though I really want to try. So one time while doing my usual surfing, i got into this digiscrapping site. So upon checking the page, i saw these different kits like papers, bottons, ribbons etc., that are free to download. But still didn't catch my attention yet. Until i clicked the galleries...whoa!! i was stunned by those awesome layouts made from those unattractive kits! I was instantly hooked up to these new hobby and I can tell you guys...it's very addicting! In a way, relaxing for me too. All you need to have is a photo editing software (i recommend Photoshop), a basic knowledge of course in photo editing and a lot of creativity. Since I'm into collage making, I am really excited about this new hobby, as it is something I can do more at home with my daughter.

Really a great diversion for me to be able to do something creative yet keep the house somewhat clean and of course taking care of my little one...and oh btw, mind you guys..I'm a full-time mom! Full-time as in no helper ( i had before, but latter decided to pursue her college degree), no yayas (well, let me say..I'm just not that comfortable), no parents (already based in US,hayys...missed them na nga eh), nor in-laws, no hubby (because he's working outside the country as well) involved to help me around!..haha!..yet i can still manage to have these pastime pa...imagine that?..lolz! Well, i have my brother living with me naman but he's also working. I already mastered the skill of multitasking and very effective na in time-management...haha! Maybe i just missed working back again that's why I'm always keeping myself busy na lang by doing these stuff. And of course the passion to learn and explore this new digital work of arts...i'm so loving it!

Well, it's really abvious that I'm really amused and excited to learn this new hobby. It's not more than a hobby, as what ive said before, it's more on a relaxation part for me. Kaya if a really have a spare time, you can find me in front of my pc, busy working again..haha! Working on my daughter's, family and friend's photos and will surely share them here at my site. If I'm already an expert and have an advance knowledge in this kind of digital craft already, I'm very much willing to share my workings with everybody. Then in the future, maybe i can use this new skill to earn some extra cash..haha! Who knows diba?

What is Digital Scrapping anyway?
In case you are just discovering the world of digital scrapbooking...here is the “condensed” version :) Digi scrapping is basically the same thing as paper scrapping...only you create your layouts on your computer using software. The software varies...from the simple to the super complex...and from the inexpensive to the very expensive. Just like you go to your local scrapbooking store to purchase supplies...computer scrappers go to online stores and purchase their digital supplies (papers, eyelets, tags, ribbons and pretty much everything you would see in a “real” store”). We then use our software to place everything where we see fit on the page...and then have the option to either print...or just let it sit on our hard drive or a CD. Have fun scrapping!

Interested to learn digital scrapbooking?

Click HERE to see the basic step-by-step tutorial on how to create your first layout using Photoshop.