TECHNICAL Flashcards
Auto focus
Camera focus by itself
Manual focus
focus set manually by photographer
presets: portrait
Shallow depth of field to keep the subject in focus but the background blurred. Will use fill in flash if scene is read as too dark
presets: macro
It chooses a shallower depth of field to focus on the subject, the close-focusing abilities on a dslr camera depending on the lens. It is most helpful for taking images of extremely small subjects
presets: landscape
Large depth of field. Increases contrast and adjusts colours to produce more vivid blues and greens. Uses flash if foreground is too dark, able to turn off manually.
presets: sport
Fast/high shutterspeed, at least 1/500-1/1000 of a second. Flash not needed due to high shutter speed but works best in bright lighting conditions
presets: child
Similar to portrait mode, attempts to produce a blurred background with subject in focus. A slightly faster shutter speed is employed in order to freeze motion. Settings are also adjusted for colour to appear brighter within the photograph
focal length
The optical distance from where the light meets inside the lens to the camera’s sensor. The higher the number/the longer the focal length, the more zoomed in the lens will be, but the narrower the angle of view will be
standard lens
Reproduces what the eye sees (minus peripheral)
macro lens
Extreme close up lens for macro photography, makes the subject appear greater than life size
Wide angle lens
Gives a wider field of view. It makes objects that are close appear larger, and those further away much smaller
Fish eye lens
Ultra-wide angle lens, extremely wide angle of view, produces visual distortion and a panoramic view
telephoto lens
They flatten the perspective of the scene and are generally used for sport and animal photography, it gives the illusion that the space between objects has been compressed
aperture (f stop) and depth of field
The smaller the f number the larger the hole (lol). Aperture affects exposure and depth of field. Larger apertures/holes create narrower depths of field (eg f stops 1.4, 2, 2.8.) Smaller apertures/holes creater larger depth of field (eg f stops 22, 16, 11)
shutter speed (blur and frozen motion, bulb)
How long the shutter is open. A quicker shutter speed (1/500 of a second) creates frozen motion, whereas a slow shutter speed (1/2 or half of a second, 1” for one second) creates motion blur as the shutter curtains open for longer. The bulb setting allows photographers to go beyond 30”
ISO (digital noise/grain)
How sensitive the sensor is to light. Grain/noise is caused by too high an ISO
White balance
Adjusts the colour balance of light so it appears a neutral white
Fluorescent wb
warms up lights, compensates for cool of fluorescents
Cloudy wb
generally warms things up slightly more than daylight mode,
flash wb
camera flash can be quite cool so this setting warms up the frame
shade wb
shade is bluer than direct sunlight so also warms image up
Tungsten/incandescent wb
cools down colours under warm indoor lights
Exposure compensation
overrides exposure set by the camera, manually set as +0.0 or -0.0 by the photographer
Built in/fill in flash
used to brighten areas of shadow
