Sriram Krishnamurthy on the art of Digital Photography

1. Photography 101
Good Tastes Club
Nov 20th, 2011

2. A picture is worth a thousand
words
Some iconic images ….

12. Some can shock too
• WARNING – Disturbing images follow

16. So how do YOU shoot great
pictures?
• Get an expensive camera
• Get an even more expensive lens
• Buy Adobe PhotoShop !!!

17. What is a photograph?

18. Two Basic Principles
• Composition – The Artistic element
• Exposure – The Scientific element

19. Composition
• Elements in a photograph - what to capture
and what not to capture
• Foreground, middle ground and back ground
• Perspective

23. Rule of Thirds
• Rule of Thirds says that important
compositional elements should be along the
intersection of 2 equally spaced horizontal
and vertical lines of a picture
• Do not place the same dead centre

26. What makes a Digital Camera
• Camera Body
(Sensor, Screen, Controls, Memory
Card, Flash etc)
• Lens
• Accessories (Tripod, Filters, Light Meter etc)

27. Types of Digital Camera’s
• DSLR’s (Entry level, Mid Level & Pro Gear)
• Point and Shoot (no viewfinder only screen)
• Prosumer – the in between
• Mini DSLR’s or MILC’s

28. Focal Length
• The distance from the Lens to the sensor at which
parallel rays converge to a point is called focal length

29. Focusing & Zooming
• The process of adjusting the lens to sensor distances so
that objects on the plane of focus are clearly defined is
called focusing
• Focusing can be automatic or manual in your camera
• Zooming is changing of the angle of view to get closer or
away from the subject
• Zooming are of 2 types namely optical and digital
• Digital zoom is used by most point and shoot cameras

30. Effect of zooming

31. Exposure
• Exposure ∞ Quantity of light * Duration of
light * Sensitivity of sensor to light
• Quantity of light is controlled by Aperture
• Duration of light is controlled by Shutter
Speed
• Sensitivity to light is controlled by ISO setting

32. Aperture and f numbers

33. Aperture
• Aperture controls the quantity of light entering the
camera and hitting the sensor
• Its used to control the depth of field (DOF)
• DOF is the range of distance that appears acceptably
sharp
• Shallow DOF is used for close ups and large DOF for
landscape photos

34. Focus

35. Effect of controlling DOF – f 2.8

36. Effect of controlling DOF – f 22

37. Shutter Speed
• Shutter speed controls the length of time the
sensor is exposed to light
• Its typically expressed as 1/50th of a sec to
1/100th, 1/250th, 1/500th of sec and so on
• Its used for freezing movement or creating an
impression of fluidity

38. Shutter Speed of 1/1000th second
– freezing of action

39. Shutter Speed of ½ second –
Motion blur

40. ISO
• ISO is a measure of how sensitive the digital sensor is
to light
• Its generally expressed as 100, 200, 300 and so on
• ISO 100 is regarded as normal and in case of low light
shooting it can be increased for better results
• High ISO’s like 400 or more may give a grainy and
noisy image so its advisable to use lower ISO

41. Exposure Triangle

42. Some Top Tips – Buying a Camera
• Look at DSLR or MILC – Versatile long term investment but
at a slightly higher price point. Buy with kit lens
• 60% of DLSR market dominated by Canon & Nikon
• 60% of MILC market dominated by Olympus, Panasonic &
Sony
• Very good Compact & Prosumer cameras also offered by
Samsung, Fuji, Casio & Kodak
• Sensor size and mgeapixel count

43. Some Top Tips – Shooting Photos
• Read the manual end to end. They will give
you lot of pointers on how to get the best out
of your camera
• Explore settings such as Scene
menus, Aperture control and Shutter Speeds
• Don’t use Auto Mode unless unavoidable

44. Some Top Tips – Shooting Photos
• Remember the Rule of Thirds
• Avoid using flash – Place camera on some surface
• When shooting portraits aim your camera at eye level
of the subject
• Process your images using any image processing
software

45. THANK YOU