Technique Archives - Page 4 of 4

Stopping Down

What Does Stopping Down Refer to When Talking About Photography? When taking photography, ‘stopping down’ refers to the process of narrowing the aperture within a lens to increase the sharpness of the image being captured. when a photographer stops down a lens they increase the aperture value, limiting the amount of light allowed to pass through the lens, and on to the image sensor of film. The ability to stop down is dependant on the conditions within which a photographer is shooting, low light conditions require wider apertures and stopping down in these situations could lead to under-exposure. supplemental lighting …

Subject Distance

What Does the Term Subject Distance Mean When Talking About Photography? In photography subject distance is the distance between the focal plane of a camera and the subject being photographed. Knowing the subject distance of a scene can be extremely useful when choosing the correct equipment required to capture an image; When working with subjects at close distances it is extremely important to choose a lens with an MFD which is less than the subject distance (providing the subject will be the object of focus). In this situation a lens with an MFD greater than the subject distance will not …

Tone Map

What Is a Tone Map and How Is Is Used When Editing Photographs? When editing photographs applying a tone map means that you are changing the RGB value for pixels of a certain color or ‘tone’ within an image. Take for example a pixel with the RGB value 0,0,225 or blue; If you were to alter or ‘re-map’ the tone of the blue channel to produce a pixel with the values 0,0,180 and applied this map to all of the pixels with the value 0,0,225 within the image, you have tone mapped the image, drastically altering it’s appearance. Tone mapping is …

Tripod

What Exactly Is a Tripod and How Is It Used in Photography? In photography a tripod is a three legged device which is designed to securely and steadily hold a camera. Most tripods have a central pole and height adjustable legs and are used in conjunction with mount to which a head is fixed. The main purpose of a tripod is to allow photographers to capture images using slow shutter speeds (long exposure) for example in astrophotography where there is not enough ambient light to hand hold the camera with out introducing shake into an image. Tripods are also widely …

Zoom

What Does Zoom Mean When Talking About Photography? In Photography to zoom is to make the subject of a photograph appear closer than its actual distance (or subject distance) from the focal plane of a camera. Zooming is achieved either optically, using an arrangement of lenses to manipulate the light entering the camera, thus making the subject appear closer, or digitally by cropping an image to make the subject appear closer than it really is. In nearly all situations optical zoom is preferable to digital zoom as the latter will result in a reduction in the resolution of the image …