Shot of the Day...

This was taken around 2:30pm today, and it was pretty bright outside. Most of the pictures I was taking in Aperture Mode were all completely overexposed. So, we moved into the covered patio by our front door. This was taken with my D90, 50mm lens, 1/250th sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, White Balance set to cloudy, and Matrix Metering. Pretty cute, watching her so enchanted my the same snails I hate!

National Scrapbooking starting at Jessica Sprague's site...

Here are two layouts I did today. Yes, I did get the house cleaned and managed to go to lunch with my girlfriends. It is okay to give children maximum doses of Benadryl, right???? LOL, no I didn't...one took a nap and the other is at a friends house. Perfect!!!! So, I am sitting here with my hubby and we are both geeking out. He is playing some "kill everybody" video game and I am drinking a mojito (he made me!) next to him with my laptop. Life is good! Here are the layouts...

Supplies for the first layout used were:
Crystal Wilkerson August 2009 Basic Buttons
Frame: House of 3 Rounded Square4 Frame
Font: Bleeding Cowboy
Digital Kit used for all below was Macosx/mco Bohemian Summer Digital kit
Alpha: Boho Alpha 3
Papers: MCO Boehmian Summer Digital Kit, papers 10,11,3, and 1
Stitching: MCO Bohemian Summer Digital Kit Stitching Snippit 2
Glitter Stars: MCO Bohemian Summer Digital Kit Green Glitter Stars

The second layout's supplies are:
Brushes used: 3 large retro brushes by Eliburford, and NRJ Chalk
Fonts used: Bosshole, Bernard MT Condensed, and Century Schoolbook
Digital Kit used was Colorul Callaboration ScrapArtist by Creating Keepsakes
Stitching: AAB CK Yarn from kit
Papers: Yellow Green Circles, NRJ orange pp2 and Lili CK pp2

Sun Rays...

So, as far as I can tell lens flare/sun rays in your photograph is pretty trendy these days. Plus, I love it! I thought I got this information from Pioneer Woman Photography Blog at www.thepioneerwoman.com/photography/category/basic-photography/composition/ . However, when I went back to reference it...I couldn't find it. Basically, if I can remember what I read today...to catch sun rays you need to shoot with a higher f/stop and position your subject between the sun and you. I did this on these shots. There is one shot that really shows the rays, which is neat. The others were a little surprise for me. When I looked at them in photoshop, there were little sunbursts on the glass, super pretty. You can see them if you click on the images to make them bigger. Those particular shots I did not have the subject directly between me and the sun. I was worried about my image sensor. Somewhere on the net I have read that pointing your image sensor at the sun is bad, just as it is for your eyes. So, I figured I would only take a couple right towards the sun. Also, I did this near dusk, so the sun was low in the sky and not as intense. I shot these with my trusty 50 mm lens, f/22, using aperture priority, since I had the bright sun in my view finder and didn't want to expose my eyes to the sun while I metered.

Aperture...

Low f/stop... bigger aperture.... less in sharp focus

High f/stop.... smaller aperture....more in sharp focus

Well, I think this one is pretty straight forward. It seems like I might be missing something though, since I totally understand it. ")

Aperture is the hole in our camera that allows light to the image sensors. Much like the pupil(aperture)of our eye to the retina(image sensor). F/stops are like the iris of our eyes, regulating the size of our pupils(aperture) and at the same time the amount of light hitting our retina(image sensor).

F/stops are a little confusing, since they seem to go backwards. A low f/stop number, like F/2.8 is actually a big aperture...allowing more light to the image sensor(like our pupils at night, big and letting in more light). While a F/22 is a big number allowing in less light, smaller apertures (like our pupils during a bright day, small and allowing less light in).

The size of aperture also determines depth of field along with amount of light allowed to hit the sensor. A low f/stop number, big aperture, will give a shallow depth of field. A shallow depth of field when you have a focal point of interest that is sharp in focus and the foreground/background are sightly blurred. I personally love this, especially for taking pictures of my girls. A lower F/stop creates bokeh, which is that slight blurring of the background/foreground and leaving your subject in sharp focus, great for portraits. The opposite of shallow depth of field is greater depth of field. Greater depth of field would be a high f/stop number, like f/22. More of your image is going to be sharp and in focus with a higher f/stop, small aperture. A greater depth of field is great for landscapes.

There might be more to aperture, but for me at this time...I am fine with a basic understanding. Now that I have figured out aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, and somewhat metering...Exposure will be next big step. To create correct exposure is a whole other topic. Trying to create perfect exposure seems to be difficult for me. I always seem to be overexposing my pictures and having to fix them in photoshop. I will be reading up on this for a while.

A shot a day...

April 29, 2010 shot of the day


Here is todays shot. This was taken yesterday and I thought it was a neat shot.

Taken in aperture mode with f/4, 1/640 sec, matrix metering, white balance set for cloudy, ISO 400. We were out playing in the shade of a tree after it had rained, so it was sunny, but not to bright.

Each day I want to post a shot, and have them all in their own category. I am not too sure how to do that yet, so for now...I think I am going to just add pictures to this post.

Photo Walk...

Here a couple of shots I liked from a photo walk my friend and I took last night. Crown Camera a local photography shop in town hosted it, and it was a lot of fun. Most of my pictures really were horrible, but I really liked these. The first two were taken at ISO 200, White Balance set to cloudy, F/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/800sec, and Spot Metering in manual mode. The last one had the same settings, except the shutter speed was 1/320 sec. I did adjust the exposure in photoshop, it was a little overexposed to begin with. All in all, I am pleased with these shots. I guess 3 out of 100 is good, right? ;)

Shutter Speed...

My disclaimer, remember I am a total rookie learning as I go. These are just my notes to help me become a better photographer and maybe help others along the way.

Shutter speed is the amount of time your shutter stays open and allows light to hit the image sensor in our digital camera. Shutter speed is measured in seconds, usually in fractions. Don't freak out, the fractions aren't difficult to understand. :) The bigger the denominator (the bottom number on the fraction) the faster the shutter speed. The smaller the denominator, the slower.

To freeze action in your photography you will want to use a faster shutter speed, and slower to cause blur (movement). Examples of times to use higher speeds would be to catch an action, like your child playing baseball and wanting to freeze some movement. Or if you want to see the water of a waterfall to look all soft and marshmallow like use a slower shutter speed, with a tripod. A tripod is suggested since anything below 1/60th of a second might show some camera shake. The picture of my daughter's feet on the potty is a good example of this. I wasn't trying to catch movement, but I was trying to allow a lot of light on to the image sensor since we were in the bathroom with little natural light, and I did not want to use flash. Some cameras offer REALLY slow shutter speeds, like a whole second to several, and even a setting called "B" or "Bulb". The Bulb setting allows you to leave your shutter open as long as you want to.



Slow shutter speed is usually 1/60th of a second to 1 second. Long shutter speed is considered 1 second or longer. Fast shutter speed is considered to be 1/500th of a second or faster. As you experiment with these different speeds in manual mode, be sure to keep an eye on the little ruler mentioned in my earlier post. This will ensure you have correct exposure. If you have a faster shutter speed, allowing less light in, you will have to compensate with a lower f/stop number, bigger aperture. Shutter speeds increments about double with each setting, examples would be 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, and so on. This is good to know since aperture also doubles with each stop. So, if you want to change your shutter speed, but want to keep close to the same exposure you can adjust your aperture. This works both ways, if you want to change aperture (change your depth of field) then either open up aperture and lower shutter speed for similar look or go the opposite way.

Here are some guidelines from www.photography.about.com
The speeds listed are the needed speeds to freeze the action under normal conditions. If you want to blur the action, decrease the shutter speed. To adjust for a very fast situation, increase the shutter speed.


Football - 1/400

Baseball/Softball/Hockey - 1/350

Kids Running - 1/350

People Jumping - 1/250

Golf Balls - 1/3200

Water Splashing - 1/350

How does shutter speed effect focal length? If you are using a lens with a longer focal length you will want to use a shutter speed that is faster than if you are using a shorter focal length. If you are using a focal length of 50mm (which is what I use most of the time) you will want to make sure your shutter speed stays above 1/60th of a second. Then if you are using a longer focal length, like a lens that is 200mm, you will want to use at least a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second. Notice the denominator in both examples is bigger than the focal length. A general rule is to use a shutter speed that is 1/(focal length number) of your len's focal length. However, if your lens has image stabilization, you can use a lower denominator in the shutter speed and should be able to get your shot. Image stabilizers in your lens should allow you to go down in speed by about 8 times lower than the general rule.

A great site to check out for more information on shutter speed, and some GREAT examples of being creative with shutter speed is http://www.diyphotography.net/shutter-speed. There is a picture of stars and stationary objects that is so cool. I am going to have to try this one night, loved it!!!