Knobs and Dials
The one thing guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of many who pick up a decent camera is the ‘confusion’ of dials and controls; yet you don’t need to sport a beard and smoke a pipe to understand what they do.
A very simple explanation is that light enters the lens, passes through a shutter – the bit that opens and closes very rapidly - and records an impression on to the film or CCD/CMOS sensor (the electronic version of film). The more light that hits the film or sensor, the lighter the exposure will be. Too much light and this is called over-exposure; too little light results in under-exposure. For a sensor or film to be correctly exposed there is an exact amount of light that’s needed, and this amount of light is identical each time – unless the objective is to deliberately over-expose or under-expose for creative reasons. The camera’s light meter tells you how much light is needed to make a correct exposure and the photographer just needs to know how to interpret that information so that he can set the dials to make the picture the way he/she desires…
The knobs and dials control the size of the hole, (known as the aperture), in the lens that the light travels through, as well as the speed at which the shutter opens and shuts. The bigger the hole and the slower the shutter speed, the more light you get. A small hole with a fast shutter speed results in less light so you might tend to use that combination only when the conditions are very bright. You can deliver identical amounts of light to the film/sensor by using various combinations of aperture sizes and balancing these by changing the speed of the shutter.
A good analogy for the way that varying the size of the aperture/hole affects the speed needed to operate the shutter would be if you were to think of filling a bucket with water. Use a funnel (which would equate to using a small aperture on your camera) and the process would take longer than if you just filled the bucket from the tap without the funnel. Why would you therefore want to fill a bucket via a funnel? I can’t think of a clever answer to that question, but in the case of photography, the combination of aperture and shutter speed you’ll select to deliver the required amount of light to the film/sensor, will depend on the effect you want to create. For example, you might combine a large hole and fast shutter when taking a portrait when the idea is to show a face that’s in-focus and a background that’s blurred; this is called ‘shallow depth of field’. Property photos are usually best taken with a small aperture and a slow shutter speed – because the desired effect would usually be to have the entire picture in focus; ‘deep depth of field’. ‘Deep/Shallow depth of field’ simply describes whether all of your photo appears to be in focus or just parts of it . The bad news for property photographers is that to achieve a deep depth of field you have to use a small aperture and a slow shutter speed. So to achieve the best interior property photos you need a tripod.
You may need to read the previous paragraph again until you understand it. It’s a statement of the blindingly obvious but I’d agree that it sounds more complicated than it actually is. That’s the only real problem with photography – it’s a simple process that sounds complicated, but really it isn’t. You could, of course, set the camera on Program mode and let it do it’s stuff; but odds on, you’ll get second-rate pictures if you do that, because the camera will be in control, not you and the result will be a picture much of which won’t be in focus. Persevere with your understanding of the camera’s Manual settings and when the penny drops you’ll reap the dividends.
A less-known-about but nevertheless important dial increases or decreases the sensitivity of the sensor to light. In the days of film you might have used a 100ASA film in good sunlight conditions, or a 400+ ASA film in dull conditions. The 100 ASA film is less sensitive to light but the result is less grainy than you would get with a 400 ASA film. These days, on digital cameras you flick a switch called the ISO setting. Most cameras produce the best results at 100/200 ISO or less, however when conditions are dull you can increase the setting to 400 ISO or, depending on your camera, perhaps an even higher setting and still achieve a pretty good picture. You get what you pay for however. The higher ISO settings can look very grainy especially on the cheaper digital cameras, whilst on the more expensive ones it’s possible to shoot at 1,000 ISO or more, giving you a great deal of flexibility when shooting interiors. In other words, the more you spend on your camera, the faster you can work when photographing inside because you will be less reliant – but not totally independent – of a tripod.
Digital cameras also, usually, have a White Balance setting. The camera sees light differently to the way we see it. Room light (tungsten or fluorescent) is seen as white light by us but the camera sees these light sources as red or green respectively. So, if your interiors tend to look red or green then it’s probable that the automatic white balance setting that most cameras are set on, hasn’t coped well with the lighting conditions of the room. In those circumstances, you may need to find out how to switch your camera to the dedicated tungsten or fluorescent setting so that the camera will know how to compensate. On a cloudy day you can usually make your outside shots look warmer by switching your White Balance to the cloudy setting. All this means is that you camera, when used on Auto White Balance setting, will probably give your images a blueish tinge; but when the Cloudy setting is used, it will make the images appear warmer by adding a little red to them – making them look more inviting.
If you or your negotiators don’t know your way around your camera to the extent that you can control it rather than let it control you, then unless you were born lucky, your results won’t be consistent, unless they’re consistently poor. Take the time and trouble to read the manuals, learn what to do, and you’ll reap instant benefits. You are, after all, your clients’ marketing department and it’s your responsibility to make sure that your photos do justice to the homes you’re selling. Once your clients realise what you can achieve, in time you’ll become recognised for your ability to show your houses in their best light, and as a consequence of that, you’ll win instructions to market the better looking houses. If you’re not into manuals then take a look at my site, Doctor-Photo where you’ll see my section on training. I’m also happy to take questions via email, which you will find by visiting the site.
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