Lesson 10 - photography course for kids

Manual Setting and Recap of whole Course

Manual Mode

Most people new to photography find Manual Mode scary.  Keep practicing with it.  You will find you will start trusting yourself and your manual mode more than trusting your camera with the auto settings.  After all you know the look you are after and the camera can't read your mind.....yet.....

Manual Mode
 
This is usually the ‘M’ setting on your camera.  This setting allows you to adjust all the photo settings.
 
This is how I think through a photo when I use the Manual setting if I want to take a portrait or still scene:
 

1. What is the lighting conditions and how big do I want the photo?  Set ISO to match.
2. What depth of field do I want? Do I want a blurry background or a nice crisp scene?  Set f stop to match.
3. I probably don't want any motion blur with portraits or still scene so I then set shutter speed to create no motion blur, and get my exposure correct.
4. Take test shot.
5. Adjust if needed, e.g. photo is too dark or light; change ISO and/or shutter speed to let in more or less light.

If I am taking a night shot or I want to blur motion then I swap steps 2 and 3.
Step 2 will be:  Set a slow shutter speed to create the movement blur I want, or because it is low light in the dark. (I will probably be using a tripod too).
Step 3 will be: Set f.stop to help with correct exposure
Step 5 will be:  Adjust if needed, e.g. photo is too dark or light; change ISO and/or F Stops to get the exposure I want.

MANUAL PHOTO CHALLENGE
Do all the photo challenges again using Manual Mode only!!  You can do it, you know how and practice practice practice.
 

Photography course recap

Congrats on completing the photography course for kids and beginners!!

Below is some points to remember.  I type or write each separately, laminate them and hang them each on a key ring to pop into my students camera bags for easy reference.

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PANNING
 
Following the moving subject with your camera, even when you are pushing down the shutter button.
The background will show movement while keeping the subject reasonably clear.
 
FOCUS LOCK
First put subject in centre of photo and push shutter button halfway down to lock in focus, then while still holding down the shutter button you can place the subject where you want in the frame before fully clicking the shutter button.

 
BLURRING BACKGROUND WITH DISTANCE
The further away the subject is from the background, the more blurred the background will be.
The more you have to zoom into a subject the more blurred the background will be.
 
AV SETTING
Aperture Priority
Lets you control the depth of field and the camera will take care of the shutter speed.
The bigger F Stop number
The bigger amount in focus
The bigger amount of light needed.

 
‘S’ OR ‘TV’ SETTING
Allows you to set your shutter speed and the camera will choose the f stop.
A fast shutter speed will freeze movement.
(e.g. 1/250, 250th of a second)
A slow shutter speed, blurs movement (e.g. 0.3”, 3 seconds)
 
ISO
100 – Good for big sized printing; for bright daylight or flash photography
200- For daylight or flash
400- Cloudy day, evening, light indoors.
800 – Indoors
1600 upwards – bad lighting

 
MANUAL – STEPS
What size prints are needed and what are the lighting conditions?
Set ISO to match.
Set f stop. for wanted depth of field.
Set shutter speed.
Take shot and adjust if needed.
 
BULB
When adjusting shutter speed, if you turn the shutter dial to the left as far as it will go it will reach BULB.  A Bulb exposure keeps the shutter open for as long as you hold down the shutter button.