anita's blog 2020

Automatic modes- Auto mode tells your camera to use it’s best judgement to select shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focus and flash to take the best photo possible. This mode may give you nice results but, you’re not telling your camera anything about the type of shot you’re taking so it will be “guessing” at what you want. 

Portrait mode- Portrait mode will automatically select a large aperture which helps to keep your background out of focus. Portrait mode works best for taking pictures of a single subject.  

Macro Mode- Macro mode lets you move your closer into your subject to take an up-close picture. Macro mode is great for photographing small objects.  

Landscape mode- Landscape mode is almost the exact opposite of portrait mode in that it sets the camera up with a small aperture to make sure as much of the scene you’re photographing will be in focus as possible. Its goof for photographing wide scenes.  

Sports mode- Sports mode tries to freeze the action in the photo by increasing the shutter speed. It is a good mode for photographing any moving objects including people playing sports, pets, cars, wildlife, and so on.  

Night mode- Night mode is for shooting in low light situations and sets your camera to use a longer shutter speed to help capture details of the background, but it also fires off a flash to illuminate the foreground. This mode also blurs your background. 

Movie mode- Movie mode extends your digital camera from just capturing still images to capturing moving ones. 

Semi-automatic modes 

Aperture Priority Mode (A or AV)- In Aperture priority you choose the aperture and where your camera chooses the other settings, to ensure you have a well-balanced exposure. Aperture priority mode is useful when you’re looking to control the depth of field in a shot. 

Shutter Priority Mode (S or TV)- In shutter priority mode you select a shutter speed and the camera then chooses all of the other settings. Use this mode where you want to control over shutter speed. 

Program Mode- Program mode gives you a little more control over some other features including flash, white balance, ISO. Check your digital camera’s manual for how the Program mode differs from Automatic in your model. 

Fully Manual Mode 

Manual Mode- In manual mode manual you have full control over your camera. Although you have full control, you need to think about all settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash, etc. 

1. When taking portraits, never select all the focus points.
2. Always try to focus on the eyes of the person your photographing because they act as windows to the soul.  
3. Create a shallow depth of field to help eliminate distracting backgrounds.
4. Provide direction with the position your subject is in.
5. Break the rules, don’t follow a traditional rule, step outside of the box. 

Cindy Sherman’s work has a wide range. She can go from serious model type photos to photos of people dressed as clowns. I like her work because she doesn’t stick to one style of photos, she has a variety of them. I couldn’t choose between those two photos she took because I liked them a lot so I just put both of them! What I like about them is how powerful the women in the photos look. They are what I like to call, baddies.

The definition of conceptual is something having to do with the mind, or with mental concepts or philosophical or imaginary ideas. In this case, conceptual is when you get random objects to come together for a bigger meaning. In my photo, the biggest object is my adidas track jacket. I chose to include my track jack because adidas is one of the only brands I wear, and I want to be sponsored by them some day and maybe even become a model for adidas. That track jacket is also one of my favorites out of all the ones I have because it goes with almost anything. The next item that’s in the picture is the Sasuke Uchiha sticker on the left side of the jacket. I chose to put that sticker of Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto Shippuden because I love to watch Naruto and anyone that knows me knows that Sasuke is one of my favorite characters from Naruto so of course I had to put that one in. The next sticker is on the bottom right of my jacket, a sticker of Kakashi Sensei, my favorite character from Naruto. My favorite sticker in this picture is the Kakashi one no doubt about it, which is also why I included it in my self-portrait because I love watching Naruto so much that its apart of my lifestyle now. The next things in the picture are the pom poms. I have my pom poms from when I was in cheer in middle school because I am a cheerleader again this year and I’m very excited about it. This item also goes with the cheer bow. So basically, these objects represent my girly side unlike my other objects did.  Last but not least, I put my pair of black continental 80 shoes. I put these in my self portrait because they’re one of my go to shoes that I wear all the time and I love them so much ! 

A fisheye lens gives a 180° field of view.  

A telephoto lens gives an 800mm field of view. 

Before buying a lens, find out what you want to be shooting and what your budget is. 

Wide angle lenses should be used when prominent foreground objects are present. 

When using wide angle lenses, get close, have interest in the foreground, but do not try and include too much in the scene. 

Having a wide angled lens also comes in handy when shooting tight areas like small rooms, cars, caves, etc. Because they can give volume to the small area.  

Standard lenses tend to range from about 35mm up to around 85mm. 

Standard lenses are great general or basic lenses. 

A standard lens can be used for wide angles and for zoom-ins.  

When taking telephoto photos, you have to zoom in a lot and get close if you really want a good photo. 

Telephoto zooms come in handy when taking portraits.  

When using a telephoto zoom, don’t get lazy and let your lens do all the work, physically get closer to the object that you’re photographing as much as possible, and shoot away. 

A “fast” lens is usually one that has an aperture of f/4, f/2.8 or larger. 

If sports is one of your primary subjects, a telephoto zoom such as a 70-200 f/2.8 is an excellent choice. 

If you want to look like the pros you’ll want a 300mm f/4, or 300mm f/2.8 or 400mm f/2.8. 

Don’t forget to make your shutter speed fast enough! 

1/500 to 1/1000 shutter speed is the minimum. 

If you’re using a longer lens to try and capture movement, try and shoot in a direction in which the object is coming at you instead of shooting parallel movement.  

If you want to shoot smaller objects, try using a macro lens.  

If you want to shoot architecture, tilt-shift or perspective correction lens should be your choice.  

 

There is a zone where a camera can only focus its lens at a single point, but there will be an area that stretches in front of and behind this focus point that still appears sharp. This zone is called the depth of field. The depth of field is not a fixed distance because it can change in size. It described as either shallow when only a narrow zone appears sharp. It can also be described as deep when more of the picture appears sharp.   

To be able to control the depth of field you need to know how to control your aperture first. You need to know how much depth you want in your picture. If you’re taking a portrait. it’s better to have a shallow depth of field so that the focus is on the person’s face. Having a shallow depth is also good when you need to separate a subject from a busy background, street shooting, event shooting, and many other things! On the other hand, when taking landscape photos, you want to make sure you have a deep depth of field so that everything in the frame is in focus.