Getting Better Photographs for real with Thomsen Photography in Eagleville Northwest Missouri

OK, here we go with some basic photography stuff that will help you get better photographs.
Just like anything else, there are certain things you need to know about camera's. If you are happy with auto mode and letting the camera do everything so all you have to do is " point" and "Shoot" then you aren't alone, and quite frankly that will get you some good pictures sometimes and sometimes even a great photograph. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with taking pictures that way. If you go to websites such as flickr or any other photo type site you will see that 80 percent of people posting photo's there do just that. And they are posting some really cool stuff! The thing is, if you know some basic things about a camera and light, you can up the level of your photo's. If you have had your camera for some time and you are starting to notice that it just isn't getting you the photo's you'd like as often as you'd like.... Then your in the right place. It's time to step out of "Auto"... Again, nothing wrong with Auto, but it's time for something a little more. There are all sorts of camera's (it's a multi billion dollar gig) all sorts of bells and whistles in the modern digital world. All that aside, there there are 3 things in all camera's that make the exposure of a scene. Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. Those three things are what make the exposure.

Aperture is the size of the hole through which light from the outside world passes.

If you look at the picture it is easy to see that the aperture in photo number 1 is large and Stops very little light from getting through.

In photo number 2 the aperture is very small and therefore it will Stop allot of light.

Why am I describing the holes in terms of how much light it STOP's??? because that is how your camera tells you the size of the hole or "Aperture".... in " f - STOP's" So..........

The larger the f- STOP the smaller the hole. Why did they come up with such a seemingly weird way of talking about how big the hole in the lens is???? Because of mathematical formula's the folks who were making the first camera's had to deal with in order to get things right.

THANKFULLY we aren't going to be talking about major mathematical formula's to get better pictures....YET!

For now, just know this. f/1.4 is a BIG hole and f/8 is a small hole.


So....... How do we apply this knowledge and get better images you ask? I'm so glad you did.

when you put your camera in "aperture" mode (check your user manual if you don't already know how to do that) you get to pre determine what size YOU want your aperture to be.... Why would you want to do that you ask? I'm SOOOOO glad you did.... It is one of the ways you control exposure, plus look at the photo's below.



If you notice, the background of the top picture is relatively focused compared to the bottom photo of the same guy, same place , same camera, DIFFERENT APERTURE!!!

The top photo was taken at about f/8 (small hole) the bottom was taken about f/4 (larger hole)
the effect is called Bokeh. (pronounced like a bunch of flowers)

So you see, understanding what your camera does and more importantly the effect it can have on the photo, is GOOD TO KNOW!...

OK , so you can see that I'm not just bull- crapping around with this... help me recruit more (followers) so I can post more often and we can get this ball a rolling!
Thanks for reading this post
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS so I know your here so we can keep going...Obviously I'm not gonna keep doing this if there isn't anyone benefiting from it.
Regards,

Allen and Autumn
Thomsen Photography
660-867-3146
tphoto@grm.net
http://www.thomsenphotography.net/