Hi there. I’m Tiff Firth, keen scrapper and very keen amateur photographer. I love the camera and I love children. The two go together to make the wonderful magic of freezing a moment of time forever. I have studied for my Diploma of Photography and have been seeing families for the last 2 years. I’ll go thru what’s in my camera bag at another time so I don’t bombarded you with too much info at the beginning ;o)

Lee-Anne’s asked me to post a regular camera tip for you in the forum. I don’t know everything, of that I freely admit, but I’ll help as much as I can. I’m a Canon girl and not very Nikon literate, but most of the basic information for learning the craft of photography is the same. I also use Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 5 (CS5) on a daily basis. Again, I am no expert in this area either.

I would love some feedback on what you want to know about your camera. Ie settings, lighting, metering, focus points, arpeture, shutter speeds, what the heck is ISO, and anything else you can think of. Just drop me a line in the thread and I’ll pop it on my list.


I’ll start off with an explanation of APERTURE.


It’s those funny number fractions that start with the letter f like f2.8, f8 or f22. On the dial of your DSLR camera its the AV setting. With point shoot cameras the flower is the macro setting (small focus) and the mountains is for landscapes (large area of focus)

I think of my eye, and the aperture is the size of my pupil that lets in the light. F2.8 is when the pupil is wide open and lets in lots of light. In the case with the camera it also means only a very small area of focus. F22 on the other hand is the exact opposite. The pupil is very small and only lets in a small area of light. This is also used to have the entire image in focus.



The easiest way for me to remember it is the small number is a small bit in focus, like the centre of a flower or an eye of a person, and the large number means everything is in focus, like a landscape.

To demonstrate this have a look at these pics of a sign using shells for the font. The first one is at f2.8 and only the first letter is in focus. The trees in the background are blurred so much to cause the circular effect called bokeh. (Google images to see other examples of bokeh)



The second pic is at f8. Half of the sign is in focus. (up to the letter V). The bokeh effect is much less dramatic and the trees are more dominating in the background.



This third image is at f22. All of the sign is in focus and the background is much more distinct.




I hope that helps makes the very basics of aperture easier to understand. I’ll delve into more details of it in the not too distant future.

Yay - totally what I need!! I've got lots of questions!!!!

ask away Babe!!

OMG! yes! your totally on to it! with the visual aids i so can understand! Thank you! i'm wnating to know what is the best setting to capture night shots of Christmas lights and fire works??

i have tried the some setting SP night opption on my finepixs2000hd fujifilm.....not like that means much but all i know is the photos come out blurred and i can't see my kids faces as the gaze at the lights....which what we all really want to see.....a that and some of the awesome christmas lights...lol

howdy samiam.
great questions. hopefully this helps.

the main issue is the lack of light when the shots are being taken. It sounds like the camera is being hand held while taking a shot with the shutter being held open for longer period of time to capture the light that is available. The photos are blurred because of camera shake. meaning any movement by you is going to show up on your image, even your heartbeat is enough to knock it out of focus.

you need to tripod the camera or set it up somewhere so it does not move. try using the same setting that you've mentioned and frame your shot. put the camera on timer or use a remote shutter release, press the button and see what happens. mind you if the children move while the shot is taken they will be blurred too.

you could bump up the ISO (which is the old film ASA rating) to say 800 and take the shot. check your image to see if that improves the blurriness of it.

the fireworks one is a great one to answer. perhaps I'll leave that until you master the first answer first if that is ok. remind me when you have fireworks coming up in your area and we'll workshop it.

cheers
tiff

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/ is an awesome Aussie www that overflows with knowledge.

This is my go to place to find an answer for photography stuff.

fireworks http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-fireworks

christmas lights http://www.digital-photography-school.com/16-christmas-photography-tips

artistic christmas lights http://www.digital-photography-school.com/20-christmas-lights-photos-with-a-twist love the one of the little girl holding the little boxes of light.

how about you all take out a string of christmas lights and give it a go this week. who cares it's not christmas. I'll give it a go tomorrow with my little boy!!!! post your pic here so I can see how you went. No one is judging anyone at all, and its all in good fun!!

I've started a new topic in the shutter therapy thread called Christmas Lights and my pic of Christmas lights wrapped around my little boy is there.

Thanks Tiff - I'll be keeping my eye on this thread!!

Hey niq - welcome aboard - nice to see you here

Do keep your eyes peeled here because I am sure the lovely Tiff will have bundles of inspriation for us in the upcoming months

sure will be girls!!!!
bring it on.

thanks niq16

Hi There Shutter sisters

I'm attaching some examples of arpeture just to get those juices flowing. I chased these last night at my kids school bus stop with a 100mm macro lens. Hand held.

just a couple more as I can only attach 3 images at a time.

notice that there is small bit in focus, the background is blurred out to enhance the subject. If the background was in focus then it would be too busy and the impact of the subject would be lost


small f stop just to remind you.

This is fabulous Tiff!! Thank you, just what I needed to actually move towards taking my camera off Auto lol. And gorgeous photos!

mwah Mindy32

thank you.

stay tuned for a new subject on Friday night people!!!!!

This one will interest all of you ( I hope)


tiff