Take Better Pictures Presentation for ARPA. This presentation covers: - the basics of photographic composition - using available light - the most important digital camera menus - exposure compensation

1. Take Better
Pictures

2. Marlene
Hielema

3. Marlene Hielema
• Commercial photography!
• Photography Instructor @ SAIT, ACAD
• Online photo courses
• Corporate training in photography
• Individual training in photography

4. www.imagemaven.com

5. Facebook - ImageMavenPhotography

6. YouTube - MarleneHielema

14. Made just for you
imagemaven.com/arpa

15. What you’re going to learn
• Composition in photography
• The basics of light
• How to set up your digital camera to
take better pictures

16. Composition

17. “Good composition
is the strongest way
of seeing.”
Edward Weston

18. Rule of Thirds
Comes from painting and graphic arts. Used as a
guide for positioning key elements in a frame.

19. Rule of Thirds
Place important elements at the
intersection points,

20. Rule of Thirds
or along the sides, top and bottom of the grid.

21. Rule of Thirds
Avoid placing your subject or horizon in the middle.
X

22. Rule of Thirds

23. Rule of Thirds

24. Rule of Thirds

25. Rule of Thirds

26. Rule of Thirds

27. Rule of thirds
also works
for verticals

28. Fill the Frame

29. Fill the Frame

32. Fill the
Frame

35. Simplicity

36. Simplicity

38. Simplicity

39. FRAMING
Framing

41. Framing

43. Framing

44. Framing

45. S-Curve

46. S-Curve

47. Leading
Lines

48. Leading
Lines

49. Leading
Lines

50. Leading
Lines

51. Leading
Lines

52. Leading Lines

53. Leading Lines

54. Angles

55. Angles

56. Angles

59. Point of View

60. Point of View

61. Point of View

62. Point of
View

63. Point of
View

64. Point of
View

65. Summary Composition
‣ Rule of Thirds
‣ Fill the Frame
‣ Simplicity
‣ Framing

66. Summary Composition
‣ S Curve
‣ Leading Lines
‣ Angles
‣ Point of View

67. Improving your
composition is the
easiest and least
technical way to
improve your photos

68. A well-composed photo
has more impact than
a perfectly technical
one that is poorly
composed

69. ???

70. Basic Lighting

71. Main
source

72. Light
✴ Quality
✴ Quantity
✴ Direction
✴ Colour

73. Quality
Overcast Sunny

74. Compare

75. Sunny

76. Sunny

77. Overcast days work great too
When you have
overcast days you can
shoot in any direction
because you don’t have
shadows to deal with.

78. Overcast

79. Overcast

80. Overcast

82. Overcast

83. Overcast
Great for
portraits

85. Quantity
Outdoor Light - Overcast Day

86. Quantity
Window Light - Overcast Day

87. Which do you prefer?
Notice quality and quantity differences?

88. Quality and Quantity
On-camera flash indoors is the harshest light
Flash on / Flash off

89. Outdoors using Flash
Flash on / Flash off

90. Light Direction

91. Light Direction

92. Light Direction

93. Light Direction

94. Light Direction

95. Light Direction

96. Work with shadows

98. Light Colour
Sunrise & Sunset
The most beautiful light

101. Summary Light
✴ Quality
✴ Quantity
✴ Direction
✴ Colour

102. When you pay
attention to the light
in and around your
subject, you can
improve your photos

103. ???

104. Camera Handling

105. Camera Handling

106. Camera Handling
• Use the strap
• Hold camera with
right hand grip
• Support camera
underneath with
left hand
• Use left hand to zoom and
focus lens
• Elbows in to keep it steady

107. Camera Handling
• Small cameras are much
harder to hold still and level
• With electronic viewfinders you need
to hold them farther away
• Harder to see what you’re shooting
• Watch for shaking, moving
• Make sure you don’t cover your flash
with your fingers

108. NEXT:
Digital Camera
Set-up

109. We’ll cover the
most important
camera menus

110. Learn how to set up
your camera
READ your manual*
*on an as needed basis

111. Auto or Program?
Automatic Mode
The camera makes
most of the decisions
for you.
• ISO
• White balance
• Flash

112. Auto or Program?
Programmed
Auto (Flexible)
The camera
automatically selects
aperture and shutter
speed - you do the
rest.

113. Shutter Priority
You select the
Shutter Speed
and the camera
determines the
correct Aperture.

114. Aperture Priority
You select the
Aperture (f-stop,
lens opening)
and the camera
determines the
correct shutter
speed.

115. Size
Quality
White
Balance
ISO

116. Size Matters
5 MP
7 MP
12 MP
18 MP (million pixels)

117. Pixel Dimensions
aka File Size, or Resolution
Width x Height
Eg. 4000 x 3000 pixels
= 12 Mega Pixels

118. Pixel Dimensions
Example: Image sizes of a Nikon D40x
Small ! 1936 x 1296 = 2.5 MP
Medium 2896 x 1944 = 5.6 MP
Large 3872 x 2592 = 10 MP

119. Pixel Dimensions
By comparison a file going into a
screen presentation only needs to be:
900 x 600 pixels = 0.54 MP

120. Compression
• JPGS are small because they are
compressed
• Lossy compression
• Throw out file information
• A little or a lot

121. Compression
Normal - Fine - Super Fine
Basic - Normal - Fine
Good - Better - Best

122. Compression
Always use the
best possible
compression quality

125. ISO
Measure of the
Sensitivity of the
camera sensor to light

126. ISO
Bright Sun
100 or 200 ISO

127. ISO
Overcast or late
day 400 ISO

128. ISO
Night or Indoor
800 ISO or higher

129. ISO
As ISO
increases, so
does NOISE

130. Starting point
• Set ISO according to shooting
situation
• ISO 400 is a good starting point
• May need ISO 800 or 1600
indoors

131. ISO 80 ISO 1600

132. ISO 80 ISO 1600

133. White Balance
The colour
temperature
of light

134. White Balance
Type of Light Colour Temp. deg. K
Candle Flame 1,500
Tungsten, Incandescent 3,000
Sunrise, Sunset 3,500
Midday Sun, Flash 5,500
Bright Sun, Clear sky 6,000
Cloudy Sky, Shade 7,000
Blue Sky 9,000

135. White Balance
Cameras measure
the colour of light
reflected from
the scene
The camera has NO idea, what the actual colour temperature is.

136. White Balance
A large brightly
coloured area can
effect your Auto WB
readings.

137. In some cases you
may have to use a
pre-set to get
better results.

138. Photo Colour Wheel
Warm colours
R Y
M G
B C
Cool colours
The goal of Auto WB is to neutralize the colour

139. WB Pre-sets

140. WB Pre-sets

141. WB Pre-sets

142. WB Pre-sets

143. WB Pre-sets

144. Examples

145. Examples

146. Examples

147. Examples

148. Examples

149. Examples

150. 3350 K 6500 K

151. Tip: Sunrise & Sunset
Try using Daylight
White Balance to get
warmer colours

152. Histogram

153. Histogram
Back of the camera showing Histogram preview

154. Histogram

155. Histogram

156. Histogram

157. So, what do you do
when your
histogram
is not the way it
should be??

158. Exposure
Compensation
+/-

159. Exposure
Compensation
- 2..1..0..1..2+

160. Exposure Compensation

164. ???

165. What you
learned
today

166. Composition
‣ Rule of thirds
‣ Fill the frame
‣ Simplicity
‣ Framing
‣ S-Curve
‣ Leading lines
‣ Angles
‣ Point of view

167. Light
✴Quantity
✴Quality
✴Direction
✴Colour

168. Camera set up
Most important menus
• File size
• File quality
• ISO
• WB
• Histogram

169. Take Better Pictures
Workflow
• Set up camera
• Consider the light
• Compose photo
• Click the shutter
• Check histogram
• Repeat

170. The best way to learn
photography is by
taking pictures . . .

171. Free e-course
Look for the cows

172. Other Online Courses
imagemaven.com/learn

173. Thank You!