onlinephotographylessons Archives

Mobile Photography Tips

In this lesson we are diving into manual photography. Did you know you can adjust the exposure triangle settings on the camera on your mobile phone as well? We touched on this a little in Lesson 3 but I’m going to share a great article written by iPhone Photography School on how to expand your use of the manual features of your phone HERE. (Because it really is a great article and I couldn’t have said it any better or added anything.

I also wanted to share THIS article from 500px which is a photography website that I love and is home to some incredible photography by amazing artists. If you love taking photos with your phone I HIGHLY recommend checking this article out but it also has some great general photography tips for everyone!

Manual Mode on your Camera

It’s time to try being TOTALLY in control of your camera settings! Turn that dial to the “M” setting (on BOTH Nikon and Canon). You have learned how to adjust your aperture in Lesson 2. You learned Shutter Speed in Lesson 3. You learned how to adjust your ISO to compensate for the brightness of your photos when altering these settings. Now you just have to put all of these tools together and make your own choices and you can start experiencing creative freedom with your camera.

In previous lessons I introduced you to the Exposure Pyramid (or triangle).

It will be good to review this again and refer back to it as needed to remind yourself how your adjustments to Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO will affect the amount of light that is let into your camera (and how bright or dark your images will be).

It’s time to make another new friend, who will be your BEST friend when shooting manually; the metering scale.

The metering scale is the green bar across the bottom of your image when you look through the viewfinder on your camera. It tells you when your image is at ideal exposure. That fat pointer in the center of the meter is where your sweet spot is for ideal exposure. The line underneath is where your exposure is sitting at the moment with your current lighting situation and settings. If your line is to the left of the center mark- you are underexposed, to the right- overexposed. As you can see in the image above I was a little underexposed. (Also, it’s a dumb image that I just quickly snapped to get a photo of the meter). Another thing to note is the broken line circle you see on the fruit bowl. That is where your meter is taking the reading from so you should place that on the subject that you want to be correctly exposed when looking at your meter (apparently I was very interested in the bottom of the bowl here).

Now let’s look at the numbers we see across the meter. The 60 to the left is the shutter speed. I would actually almost never shoot at this speed while hand-holding the camera. Any slight movement while shooting from either the photographer or the the subject would cause blur. I try to keep shutter speed around at least 100 when shooting non-moving subjects (obviously higher if the subject is moving). The 4.0 is our f-stop or Aperture. The 2000 is ISO. The 12 is the number of images I have left on my card. Without even seeing the image you can tell that I am shooting in low light by looking at the meter. I know this because the line at the bottom shows that I am almost correctly exposed with a low shutter speed (which allows more light in) and high ISO (which means the sensor is more sensitive to light). In very bright and sunny conditions my ISO would have to be at 100 (the minimum) and in order to get my image properly exposed (the meter line in the center of the meter) my shutter speed would be much higher. That is how the exposure triangle works and how each setting affects another. In a nutshell, shooting in manual is just deciding what is most important to you for each specific image and then adjusting the other settings to get the correct exposure (or get that little line in the middle of your meter).

Exposure

Now we need to talk a little bit about exposure. Shooting manually sounds pretty easy if you just worry about getting that little line right in the middle of the meter. Sometimes it’s not that easy though. Since my daughter is a gymnast, I used that as an example in Lesson 3 when we were discussing action photography and it is a good example here as well. Gymnastics is obviously a high action sport. It also is typically in low light conditions and flashes are not allowed. This means you will need a high shutter speed (which means less light in your camera/darker image) to capture the action, a fairly mid-range aperture makes it easiest to hit your focus (but also lets in less light than a smaller, more wide open aperture) and then to compensate for all of these low light conditions you will need to bump up your ISO pretty darn high. Unfortunately the higher the ISO, the grainier the image. So what’s the solution? Well for me the best solution was to upgrade to a camera that can handle higher ISO better without all the grain. But if that’s not in the budget you might do the best you can, underexpose a little and then brighten your image up with a little basic editing in software like Lightroom or Photoshop. Brightening an image too much in software will affect the quality and can add grain as well, but you can control how much to usually find a happy medium.

Overexposing an image, like missed focus, can be something that you cannot fully correct even in editing software. If the image is too overexposed it will not capture some of the details in the photo at all so even lowering the exposure in software will not bring them out because they were never captured in the first place.

Homework

Practice, practice, practice. Seriously, just switch your camera over to Manual mode. Choose a subject (best to start with a still subject- a plant, flower, statue, or a model who will hold still for you). Choose and aperture. Think about how you want the image to look for this step- do you want the whole image fully in focus or just the subject with a blurred background? Try setting your ISO at 100 and see what your Shutter Speed Needs to be set at to achieve a good exposure using the meter. If it is above 100, you should be ready to shoot! Play around adjusting the aperture and in slightly different lighting scenarios and pay attention to what you have to adjust to get the exposure right and how your image turned out. POST some examples in the facebook group (or join if you haven’t yet) and ask questions there.

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Probably one of the most challenging and frustrating types of photography to master is action photography. It can also be one of the most rewarding though. Being able to freeze a split second in time that you probably missed with the naked eye can result in some amazing photographs. There are a lot of things that have to happen just right though in order to get that perfect shot.

Capturing Action shots with your Phone.

The camera technology available in smartphones these days is pretty incredible. I’m not gonna lie, if I’m just trying to get some cool action shots for social media or sometimes even for a little album of memories…I often prefer to use my iphone for many reasons. There are a lot of features that make it easy to get really great action shots.

Bursts~

For most phones, if you hold down the shutter button the camera will automatically take burst photos. This feature works great for action shots because instead of trying to pick the perfect time, you will quickly get several shots of the action and can pick out the best one.

Video~

Another way to guarantee you get just the right moment in an action shot with your phone is to take a video. This method is great if you are wanting both a video and still shots at the same time anyway and also ensures you capture every single second of the action. To choose your still action shots from the video, simply hit the play button and then hold your finger down on the film strip at the bottom. Slide through the strip as slowly as needed until you find the moment you want to capture and then take a screen shot (this can be tricky and you might want to practice how to best accomplish this). Once you get your screen shot you can crop it down to the desired image size.

Light/Shutter Speed

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, also when a camera’s shutter is open when taking a photograph. The amount of light that reaches the film or image sensor is proportional to the exposure time. As far as I know (at least for iPhones) you cannot directly adjust the shutter speed on your phone camera. You can however control the lighting which can in turn adjust your shutter speed. When you shoot in areas that aren’t well lit your phone will compensate by slowing the shutter speed to let in more light. This will result in blurry action shots. For sharper shots, shoot in well-lit areas when possible or increase your exposure (slide up that little sunshine icon on your iPhone or tap it on android) to allow more light into the camera.

Shutter Priority Mode

On your DSLR camera the Auto “Action Mode” is called Shutter Priority Mode. It is marked with and “S” on your Nikon camera and “TV” on Canon (which stands for “Time Value” because “S” would be too obvious). When using this mode you can choose your shutter speed and ISO and the camera will adjust the aperture. Remember our friend the Exposure Triangle from Lesson 2?

If you look at shutter speed, the faster your speed (best for action), the less light will be allowed into the camera. Therefore, your ISO will need to be higher and/or your camera will adjust your aperture to be smaller (or wider open). Using this mode is an easy way to get some good action shots in good light. This may be the best option for you if you are trying to capture action shots of soccer, baseball, football or other outdoor sports and activities. As you may have noticed though, my daughter is a competitive gymnast. Meets are indoors and usually the gyms are poorly lit (at least for action photography). Also, flash photography is prohibited in gymnastics because the flashes can be distracting which is dangerous for the gymnasts while they are practicing or competing. In this type of situation, Shutter Priority mode can be tricky because your camera will most likely set a very small aperture which can make it difficult to focus on your subject. Once you learn to shoot in manual mode (choose ALL settings on your own) you can meet somewhere in the middle and then, if needed adjust your brightness with some basic editing (we will cover both of these in future lessons).

So when and why would we want to use a long exposure (slow shutter speed)? Well, slow shutter speeds are used for when you want to capture the motion, instead of freezing it. When working with slow shutter speeds you will want to use a tripod because the exposure time is long and it will be nearly impossible to hold the camera still throughout the entire exposure which will result in the whole image being blurry instead of just the motion. Photographers often use slow shutter speeds for waterfalls, to catch headlights and taillights of traffic in motion, and for fireworks. It is also useful in very low light settings when you are photographing a still object but need more light.

Focus

In Lesson 2 I discussed focus in general. The same rules apply in action shots however your subject will be (obviously) moving so you will have to adjust your focus along with them. This will happen every time you hold the shutter button down halfway prior to taking your shot. If you want to be able to take a lot of shots quickly without refocusing for every shot you might consider changing your camera settings to allow for something called “Back-Button Focus“. Back button focus is not only helpful in action photography, but ALL photography because you can quickly take several shots and only refocus when you want to. The way it works is be removing the focus actuation from the shutter button and instead assign this function to a button on the back of the camera. Now when you shoot, you’ll press your back-button to lock focus and then press the shutter to take the image. This is especially helpful for moments like when my daughter is competing on the balance beam and I know her distance from me is going to be the same throughout her routine. I only need to set the focus once and then can raise the camera whenever I want and shoot. The focus will stay the same and the shutter button will immediately capture the moment instead of trying to find the focus. I have set my focus button to use the AF-ON button on the back of my camera. Your camera’s manual (or google) will tell you how to reset this for your camera.

Continuous Shooting Mode

Continuous shooting mode on your camera works in the same way that “bursts” work on your phone. By holding down the shutter button, your camera will take several shots continuously which can help you capture just the right moment in action shots.

Homework:

With your phone, try the different action techniques listed above (pets and kiddos make great subjects).
Move your camera to Shutter Priority Mode and practice some different action shots. Adjust the ISO and Shutter Speed and see how it changes your aperture. Don’t forget to watch your focus.
Post your images in the facebook group!

Click to join the Facebook Group!

Happy Accidents

Tag Archives: onlinephotographylessons

Happy Accidents Photography Workshop: Lesson 4…Shooting in Manual (and some more great phone photography tips).