For my first mommies with cameras lesson I mentioned the exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.  Of the three, I think ISO is definitely the middle child if you will – the one that needs to wear a black, curly haired wig so that people will notice her instead of Marsha Marsha MARSHA!  So let’s give ISO some love and attention, shall we?

With respect to film photography, ISO numbers (100, 200, 400, etc) refers to how sensitive the film is to light.  With digital photography, ISO refers to the digital sensor’s sensitivity to light.  The same rules for apply whether shooting film or digital – the lower the number, the less sensitive the film/sensor is to light, and vice versa.  Higher ISO numbers are more sensitive to light but subject to more noise in your photos.  (side note – if you have ever seen a photo that seems to have a sandy texture to the actual photo, chances are the photos has a lot of “grain” or “noise”).

Simply put, if you want crystal clear images with little to no grain, you should shoot at the lowest ISO number you can.  But there are definitely circumstances where using a higher ISO would allow you to get a photo you could not otherwise get.  Case in point:

(Aperture 2.8, shutter speed 1/20, ISO 1600 – straight out of the camera)

This photo from last weekend’s wedding was shot at 8:50 in the evening, long after the sun had set.  I didn’t want to use the flash since the ambient light was pretty.  Had I photographed this at ISO 200 my shutter speed would have been very long, which means everyone would be really blurry.  The only way to get this photo was to bump up my ISO setting, so I could have a faster shutter speed of 1/20.

Here is the same image with some basic editing:

Voila!

Whether you have a DSLR or a point and shoot you can adjust the ISO – check your manual for exactly how to do it with your camera.  And the next time you’re in a low light situation and don’t want to use flash, think of Jan Brady, a.k.a. ISO.

Kauai, 2009

It’s hard to believe it’s already (almost) May, isn’t it?  Once again I have left my MWC post for the very last day of the month…

When we drove home from our trip to Mammoth earlier this month, my husband was kind enough to stop at various rest stops so I could snap some photos of the glorious mountain landscapes.  I have to admit, though, that when I got home and looked at most of the photos I’d taken, I thought they looked just ok.  They certainly didn’t reflect how spectacular the mountains were in person.  So what gives?

There is more to landscape photography than simply pulling up to the rest stop and grabbing your camera – a lot more.  And since many of you mommies (and readers in general) are potentially heading out on vacation this summer, I figured you might want some tips for better “vacation” photos i.e. landscape photos.

Click here to get National Geographic’s quick tips for better landscape photography – and if you just want some travel photography inspiration.  The photos, as you can probably imagine, are stunning.  Scott Bourne, a well known photographer, recently posted these 5 tips for better landscapes over on Photofocus (which has lots of great tips and information for photographers).

My favorite tip from both of these articles?  Pay attention to the foreground when composing your landscape shots.  Landscape shots can be kind of boring without an interesting foreground element.  Try to look for both a gorgeous background and strong foreground when composing your landscape photos.

Hope these tips help you get some gorgeous vacation shots.

So, what exactly happened to the month of March?  I realized today is the last day of the month and I have neglected to post my monthly lesson for all you mommies out there.  And perhaps to add insult to injury, I am wholesale lifting a lesson I posted on my old blog about a year ago.  Please forgive me, but I am rather sleep deprived as I have a 4.5 year old that is (1) unable to use the bathroom at night by herself, and (2) apparently has a very small bladder.  I also seem to have an almost 2 year old that is teething and otherwise not able to sleep through the night.  Good times.

I digress.  I remember when I would first print photos taken on my digital camera and think “whoa, that photo is really yellow.”  Anyone else have that problem?  One possible reason for the yellowish (or in some photos, the blueish) tinge would be an incorrect white balance setting for the lighting conditions.  Say what?

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic color casts in your photos so that objects that appear white in person also appear white in your photo. Here’s an example:

The photo on the left has a bluish tinge to it, but with the correct white balance, the photo on the right is a more accurate representation of the scene being photographed. Proper white balance takes into account the “color temperature” of a light source, such as candlelight, indoor lighting, sunlight, shade, and so on. Your digital camera has an automatic white balance (AWB) setting, but there are situations where a white balance adjustment will produce a much better result.

You might have noticed that some of your photos come out with an orange, blue, or yellow look to them, even though to the naked eye the scene looked quite normal. The reason for this is that images different sources of light have a different “color” (or temperature) to them. Fluorescent lighting adds a bluish cast to photos, whereas tungsten (incandescent/bulbs) lights add a yellowish tinge to photos. Generally speaking, for cooler (blue or green) light you’ll tell the camera to warm things up and in warm light you’ll tell it to cool down.  Your eyes automatically make adjustments for the various types of light present, but your camera does not.

Beyond the automatic white balance setting, digital SLRs (and many digital point and shoot cameras) have the following white balance settings:

(Thanks to Alexis Miller for this nifty diagram).

The next time your photographing in strange or difficult lighting – for example photographing bath time with your kids, or when there is low candlelight as the only available light, play around with the white balance settings and see if that improves the colors represented in your photos.

One of my personal photography goals for 2010 is to continue to push the envelope when it comes to shooting technique.  I love love LOVE lens flare.  So much so that my old blog was first named “Lens Flare.”  So when I saw this post over at Photojojo, I was immediately intrigued.  Water on lens + shooting into bright sun = killer lens flare.  I had to try it, but I’m too chicken to put water directly on my lens, especially my 50mm that I shoot with ALL THE TIME.  So I incorporated this trick + water spots and voila:

I tried both wide open aperture settings (f/1.6) and much smaller (f/16) – the above photo is at f/16 and I much prefer it to the wide open setting.  Not sure how often I’d try this technique, but I do kind of dig the combo of Cling Wrap + water spots.

If any of you try this let me know how it goes…

Welcome to my first mommies with cameras lesson of the year!  First, some background on what inspired this lesson series – when I decided (very stupidly) to take my daughters to see Santa 2 days before Christmas, we stood in a monstrous line waiting to see old St. Nick.  I brought my camera with me thinking maybe I could snap a couple of shots of my girls with Santa – that is, until my 20 month old screamed bloody murder at the sight of him.  So I only have a photo of my 4 year old with a very red Santa – perhaps a little too much rum in the egg nog?

I wasn’t the only mom with my DSLR.  In fact, most of the moms in line with me had some sort of DSLR.  As I watched the moms taking pics of their kids, I realized most of them were using their cameras in AUTO mode.  Don’t get me wrong – AUTO mode works a lot of the time and can get you a decent photo.  But I wondered how many of those moms were using AUTO exclusively?  How many of them had no idea how to use any other functions on their super-fab DSLR?

If you are a mommy with camera out there, I’m guessing you are tired, you are busy, you don’t have time to sit and read your camera manual cover to cover.  In fact, if you are not a mommy and just have a new DSLR I’m guessing you are tired, busy, and don’t want to read your camera manual cover to cover.  These monthly lessons will be easy to read and a primer on the various modes and functions of your DSLR.  So let’s get started!

First, a couple of myths to dispel:

1) I can’t take good photos – I have a crappy camera.  SO not true.  Many of the topics I plan on covering are very basic and apply to all forms of photography, whether you have a fancy schmancy camera or not.  Good composition, great lighting, and sharp images are all benchmarks of good photography and do not necessarily require an expensive camera.

2) If I have a fancy camera, I will take better photos than I did with my old crappy camera.  This is also not true.  Your DSLR can take decent enough photos on AUTO, but there are so many more aspects of photography that determine if a photo is “good” or even “great.”  Push yourself to try moving beyond the AUTO setting once in a while.  Learn more about composition and lighting, as these are critical to good photography.

Now that that’s settled, let’s begin with this fundamental concept: photography IS light – in fact photo is the Greek word for “light.”

How your camera reads the available light = a photograph.  Get it? (No?  That’s ok – keep reading)

In order to take a good photo you need to control the light – so how do you do that?  It’s all about the exposure triangle:

1) Aperture

2) Shutter Speed

3) ISO

Each of these 3 deserves a lesson on their own, and we’ll get to that.  But for now, picture a window.  Here is how these three concepts relate to a window:

1) Aperture = size of the window.  The larger the window, the more light comes into the room (for this metaphor, room = camera).

2) Shutter Speed = the shutters on the window.  The speed with which the shutters close the window up and stop the light from coming in = Shutter Speed.

3) ISO = how “sensitive” the window is to light.  Whether the light has any glass on it or has UV protection or is tinted = ISO.

Your camera’s AUTO mode can take good photos in good conditions – good lighting, non-moving subjects, etc.  But the next time you encounter less than ideal conditions – low lighting, fluorescent lighting, fast-moving toddler, super-dark foreground, etc., your camera will probably kind of freak out in AUTO mode and deliver a crummy picture.  Learning the exposure triangle (and later, your camera’s various modes), is the framework that will allow you to shoot good photos under various conditions.

Some of you are probably saying “what the WHAT?”  Too many new terms to throw out in one post, Mel.  I struggled with how to make this post informative and yet not too overly complicated.  The best way to learn about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO it to just practice – start by moving your camera from AUTO to Aperture Priority (A or Av on your camera mode dial) and adjust the numbers.  See what a photo looks like at F-stop 4.0 versus F-stop 16.  Using Shutter Priority (S or Tv) See how different a photo is taken at 1/50 of a second (shutter speed) versus 1/500.  If you are a daredevil, try adjusting both in manual mode (which is how I shoot 99% of the time).  You might have to read your manual to get the hang of how to change the settings, but once you do it’s easy to practice.  So go ahead – give it a go and see what you and your camera can do!

Extra credit?  Hit up Digital Photography School for some easy lessons on Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and the Exposure Triangle.

That’s it for this lesson – and believe me, this is plenty.  Any questions, leave me a comment or send me an email.