A guide to photography

1. Capturing the Image
Made by: Yousma Khan

2. How to create a quality image?
1.Composition
2.Focus
3.Exposure

3. 1.Composition
 All the different elements that make up an image i.e. how you frame the
world while capturing an image (balancing, filtering and framing).
The art of composition revolves around 2 factors;
 Visual Weight: In order to balance a frame, the visual weight of each
element is considered. The color, texture or brightness determine as to
how much eye-catching effect or weight an object has.
 Balancing Act: Is based on adjusting the position of objects within the
frame in accordance to their visual weight.

4. Examples of Visual Weight

6. Examples of Balancing Act

8. Types of Balance
 Symmetrical Balance: This is where the point
of interest and the element with the most
visual weight is in the middle of the frame.
 Placing your main point of focus in the
center of the frame is the easiest way to
balance your images.

9. Examples of Symmetrical balance

10.  Asymmetrical Balance: Positioning objects off
center by balancing their visual weight with
another part of the image that is equally strong.
 The interest points are off-center e.g. applying
the rule of thirds.

11. Examples of Asymmetrical balance

12. 2.Focus
 2 focusing modes i.e. manual and auto-focus, give photographers the flexibility to match the subject
with the focusing method that is the most suitable.
 Manual focus: Adjusting the focus of your image without any technical aid. Bringing the lens into focus
by hand.
 Autofocus and its 2 types:
1. Single mode: The button is held halfway as the lens focuses on the main subject. If the subject moves,
one must refocus.
2. Constant/continuous mode: Focuses on the subject when the shutter button is half pressed, meaning
that the camera will adjust the focus in order to maintain the sharpness of the subject(focus tracking).

13. Different Terms depicting focus modes

14. Depth of Field
 Area of sharpness within an image
 Large depth of field- image that displays
sharpness from the foreground into the
background.
 Small depth of field-image with only 1 area
or object which is sharp.

16. Depth of Field Control Techniques
1. Aperture(F-stop number): High aperture number
like f32 or f22 =large depth of field, meaning that
objects in the foreground, middle ground and
background of the image appear sharp. If a low
aperture number (f1.8 or f2) is selected, then only a
small section of the image will appear focused=small
depth of field.

18.  Focal Length: how much of the
scene will be captured(angle of
view).Is represented in
millimeters(mm).

19. The longer the focal length (more than 50mm on a 35mm camera) the smaller the
depth of field will be. The shorter the focal length (less than 50mm on a 35mm
camera), the greater the depth of field effect.

20.  Distance from the subject: The closer you are to the
subject, despite the aperture or lens you select, the
shallower the depth of field will be in the images
you take. Close ups or macro shots have very
shallow depth of field, whereas landscape shots,
where the main parts of the image are further away,
have a greater depth of field.

22. 3.Exposure
 The amount of light entering the camera which best suits the sensitivity of the sensor.
 Photographers alter the level of light with 2 camera controls-the shutter and the aperture.
 Shutter: Determines the length of time that the sensor is exposed to the image. The longer the
time, the more light hits the sensor and the greater the overall exposure will be. Are represented
in in terms of fractions of a second.
 Aperture Control: Changes the size of the opening in the lens through which the light travels.
Making the aperture or hole larger lets in more light giving a greater exposure. Reducing the size
restricts the light and results in less exposure overall. The higher the f-stop number, the lesser the
light and vice versa.

23.  Low light conditions-Wide aperture and slow shutter speed
 Bright conditions-Small apertures and fast shutter speeds are normally used

25. Controlling Motion in your images
 The shutter can also affect the way in which motion is captured
in your images.
 Fast shutter speeds freeze the action e.g. sports and action
publications show images on every page taken with high shutter
speeds. They are clear and sharp, with the main subject jumping
out from the background. 3 techniques can be used for these
type of images:
 Shoot with a higher shutter speed
 Shoot with the lens wide open
 Shoot with a fast light source

26. Blurred Motion Techniques
 Sometimes, images where the motion is frozen don’t carry the emotion or
atmosphere of the real event.
 To solve this problem, photographers started using slower shutter speeds
to capture events. The results are blurry but they do communicate more
of the feeling of the motion present in the original activity.
 The shutter speed, the direction of the motion through the frame, the lens
length and the speed of the subject are all factors that govern the amount
of blur that will be visible in the final image.