I still talk about my little girl, however my little girl is not so little anymore, she is five… but she is still my baby and my youngest so she is the little one out of the two 🙂
So when my little girl came him from nursery with this little head piece I knew I had to pull her aside for a few photos. I mean, how awesome is this little head piece and she made it all by herself. This little girl however, have a mind of her own so I often refer to her as “my wild one”. At times she is amazing when I take photos, however those times are rare and don’t happen often. She usually have in mind other types of photos then me or even worse… she has no interest in being in front of the camera. This day was one of those days where she wanted me to take photos but not the type of photos I wanted.
I photograph utilising natural light, I work with the camera settings, adjust ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture to work with the current light conditions that I am in and also to ensure I get the desired depth of field. When I first started to learn how to work in manual I was quite amazed at how your settings rely on so many elements, you constantly have to make sure the settings are correct depending on how the lights hit the room or where the light is in relation to where you are in relation to the light.
On the night in question, I had challenging light conditions so had high ISO, low aperture and low shutter speed. So when my daughter refused to sit still for a couple of portrait sessions to capture her new head piece… the photos became blurry. Low shutter speed don’t handle fast movements and you can see the movement happen.
For those of you who don’t know what these camera settings means I thought I would try to explain it.
ISO
ISO control how much noise is in your images, more noise means more grain and also less clarity. In Auto the camera will set its own ISO, however working in manual mode or in programs you often have the choice to adjust ISO.
Low ISO = low noise and require a good light conditions
High ISO = more noise and require less light
In low light situations you would increase your ISO to enable more light into the sensor.
Shutter speed
The shutter speed controls how the camera handle movements. Low shutter speed you will get blurry images and not capture a clear moving image. With fast shutter speed you can capture your child moving and get a clear and crisp facial expression.
Low Shutter speed = require less light, don’t handle fast movements. Low shutter speed is often used in landscape photography to capture flowing water or even at night to capture the lights of cars driving past.
High Shutter speed = will capture fast movements and require good light conditions
Aperture
Aperture controls the depth of field. The Depth of field determine how much of your image is in focus. If you want a lot of the image in focus you would choose a high F stop and if you wish for less of the image to be in focus and for the background to be blurred out you would need to choose a low f-stop.
Small Aperture = shallow dept of field, require less light
Large Aperture = wide dept of field, require more light
In any situation you photograph you need to adjust camera settings for the desired result. As you can see above, Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO are all used to manage light conditions and ensure the desired result.
On the night in question I set my camera to take a couple of still portrait images which required less shutter speed as I expected my girl to sit still. However she refused to look at the camera as that was not what she had in mind. After three clicks with the shutter speed she took the head piece off and said… take a photo of me jumping. At this point I did not adjust my camera settings to account for the increased movement and as a result they are out of focus and you can see the movement as it is happening. I thought it was a great opportunity to share these poor images that my daughter wanted me to capture in order to explain the relationship of shutter speed, ISO and Aperture.
