The art of photography has been so entwined in media that it has become one of the essential areas of reporting. Many photographers have earned their name through consistent work built through an extended knowledge of cameras and the art of timing, however chances are you’ve never even heard of them. There are some names that have been carved out in time due to their game changing work, such as Ansel Adams (landscape photographer), Terry Richardson(Modern and fashion photography) and Don McCullin (Wartime photographer), but for the most part photographers will go unnoticed by consistent work, whether it is for sport, news stories or for entertainment. Despite this succesfully operating a camera is ever challenging work, knowing what apeture, lens, film speed and shutter speed to use in any specific situation, can be difficult and tedious work, but all worth it when the shot is perfectly composed.
Aperture
The aperture refers to the size of the hole in the lens of the camera that lets light in. It works the same as a persons pupil: the smaller the size of the lens, the less light is let in and therefore the darker the picture is. On most DSLR ans still cameras the aperture is described as the F-stop number, and the smaller the number the wider the hole in the lens. For example if you are in medium light, F8.0 is the average aperture and chances are will give you a more well balanced picture with enough for everything to be seen clearly.
An example of aperture’s effect on exposure
Aperture also effects the depth of field of a picture: the higher the F-stop is, the longer/wider the depth of field is and the more of the photo is in focus, the lower the F-stop the smaller/narrower the depth of field is and more likely the background is going to be blurred.
Aperture’s effect on depth of field
Shutter Speed
The shutter in a camera is the device that flips open to allow light in momentarily so the camera can capture the image. The faster the shutter speed is set at the quicker the shutter opens and closes to let light in, and vice versa. Shutter speeds come into effect more when the photographer is taking a picture of something with a moving image in (such as in most sporting situations), as taking a picture of something moving will require a higher shutter speed for it to have less/no motion blur. Shutter speed can also affect exposure aswell, -however not as much as aperture- as the longer the shutter allows light to enter through the lens, the more light will actually affect the resulting picture. Here is an example of this:
Shutter speeds affect on exposure
Image Compisition
There are general rules about taking an image, many photographers have developed their own guidelines to taking successful pictures, whether its sports, landscape or any kind of photography in general. The most prominent is the rule of thirds: this is the theory that the human mind seems to organize a static image into different sections split thrice horizontally and vertically (see image below). Photographers and editors use this to make images highlight certain areas, as well as making the image seem more natural/less clunky.
Rule of thirds lines
The key point of using the rule of thirds is based around where key points of interest (objects, horizon etc.) are placed in the picture, with the ideal location being across one of the horizontal or vertical lines.
Example of rule of thirds w/out lines
See how well this flows? The first thing that comes to mind is how good of a picture this location makes, rather than thinking about the camera used, the process, the person taking the picture etc. This is because it satisfies the rule of thirds and looks more natural to the eye.
Example of rule of thirds with lines
Notice how the statue sits on the right vertical line and the near horizon sits at the bottom horizontal line (or near enough). If the statue were to be placed further out than the line, then it would drag focus away from it and make it look like the background is the subject of the photo, if it were dragged further inwards then it would look clunky, as if it was meant to be in the middle, but the photographer misplaced it. This goes for the horizon as well, if it sat lower than the bottom line, then it would bring too much negative space (area of pictures with nothing in it) and make it seem rather unnatural and generally unpleasing to the eye; too high and it would take away from the ambiance of the picture, and bring it a more noisy atmosphere.
Editing
After the pictures have been taken, then some editing might be necessary to make them look just that bit better or correct any flaws in the raw image. For most photos the software of choice for editing is . Photoshop allows you to do almost anything with your image as far as adjustments go, however there are more options that you can use that don’t necessarily need paying for, the most common of which is Microsoft paint, a very bare-bones way to edit images that comes free with every Microsoft software product. There is other more professional image editing software that can be used for free, such as the ones listed .
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