Rules of Photography



I started taking photography seriously some 3 years ago, when my husband gifted me my Nikon P510, just before our flight to New Zealand. This was an interesting change from my previous point and shoot camera with limited features. Once in New Zealand, we registered with the local library and I started getting books on photography regularly. Below image include some that I read:

I thought of giving a brief on when I read about and started applying certain Rules of Photography before starting writing on them.

Let's get started

Rule 1:

Rule of Third's

This rule involves dividing the scene in a grid of 3*3 as shown below. It says to position your subject or important elements in your image along the lines or at the points where these lines intersect for creating more visual interest and drama in your images. This is the most discussed and applied Rule of Photography. Most of the high end cameras come with the setting to overlay this grid on the photo which makes our job much easier. 

Below are some images with the Rule of Third's in work;

                                      

Rule 2: 

The f/ Rules

Sunny 16

This rule helps to get correct exposure outdoors on a bright sunny day. This rule is also called the f/16 rule. The basic rule is "One a bright sunny day, set the aperture on f/16, shutter speed as the reciprocal of the ISO setting". 

For example: 

If your camera's ISO setting is set on 100, and if you are shooting on sunny day, then set your aperture at f/16 and shutter speed at 1/100sec for the ideally exposed shot.

Sunny 16 rule lays basis for some other f/ rules for different lighting conditions.

Light Conditions    Aperture Value

Sunny Day                  f/16

Partly Cloudy             f/11

Cloudy                        f/8

Overcast or shade       f/5.6

Sunset                         f/4

The above table gives you the ideal aperture values for different light conditions where you can set your shutter speed as the reciprocal of  ISO value. You can use this as a guide to capture images with good exposure.

In the end I want to say that Rules are meant to be broken and no image is good bad. It's photographers' perspective of the world. Saying so, it is good to keep these rules in mind as it will force you to think about the shot more carefully.

Hope it will be helpful.

Happy Clicking!!

Exposure Triangle for photography

For a long time now I have been thinking to write on this. It's not rocket science, it's pretty easy to understand. The photography scholars explain exposure as a triangle that helps us to make required amount of light travel to the Image Sensor to capture good exposed pictures. The three edges of the exposure triangle are: 

1. Shutter Speed
2. Aperture 
3. ISO

One essentially has to mention the above three, when one intends to include or share the EXIF (Exposure Information). One has to have a balance between the three to take correctly exposed pictures. If you take a picture in bright sunny day and you realize that it has come too dark or too bright, then your picture is under or over exposed respectively.

Lets understand all the angles of the Exposure edges in brief:

Shutter Speed

It is the measurement of time for which the shutter is open while taking a picture. It is usually measured in seconds or fraction of second. For eg. 10sec, 1/240sec, 1/2sec.. Shutter speed is also known as Exposure Time. Higher the exposure time or slower the shutter speed, more the light falling on the sensor.

Aperture

 It is the measurement of diaphragm of the lens. It is measured as f-stops. For eg. f/5.6, f/1.8, f/16. Higher the f number, smaller is the opening and vice versa. The smaller the opening (Higher the F number) less amount of light travelling through the lens.  

ISO 

It is the measurement of sensor's sensitivity to light. Higher ISO means sensor is more sensitive to light. While Shutter Speed and Aperture helps to control the amount of light coming into the camera, ISO helps to determine how much light is needed by the sensor for good exposure. Taking images with higher ISO than required, produces noise in the image, that is why it is recommended to take pictures at lowest possible ISO levels. If you double the ISO (for example, from 200 to 400), the camera needs only half as much light for the same exposure. So if you had a shutter speed of 1/100 at 200 ISO, increasing the ISO to 400 will let you get the same exposure at 1/200 second (with Aperture unchanged).


All three are the settings to control the amount of light travelling to the sensor. One can master to maintain a balance between the three and capture good exposed pictures with practice.

Happy Clicking!!

*Image Credit :Altermundus.com