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title: Camera Basics
tags: Camera
description:
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> [TOC]

How a DSLR Camera works -
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# Two Major skills that a photographer needs to develop:
## 1. Technical Skills

Youtube Links
1. Exposure
- https://youtu.be/3eVjUrY9a9c
2. Camera Setting
- https://youtu.be/iWfdxE1om6A
3. Master Camera in 20 mins
- https://youtu.be/HTUjJoMNWqo
4. Colour Temprature
- https://youtu.be/APLq7aPlDhk
5. What is ISO
- https://youtu.be/cy9wPDKd-dU
6. What is Shutter Speed
- https://youtu.be/SsIEcGbwgN0
7. Depth of Feild
- https://youtu.be/ZGNUqNFfD8M

**Important Rules**
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### A. Exposure Triangle

- The exposure triangle is made up of three components. These three components are; the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO.
- In the exposure triangle
1. Aperture controls the amount of light that enters the camera through the lens
2. shutter speed controls the length of time that the camera's sensor is exposed to light
3. ISO controls the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light.

#### 1. Aperture

- The aperture is simply the opening in your lens.
- General value = f1.8 - f22
- F22 --> lens is mostly closed --> more depth of field --> every thing is sharp --> every thing is in focus
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#### 2. Shutter speed
Amount of time shutter is open
- The amount of time that the shutter is opened allowing the imaging sensor to be exposed to light is called your shutter speed.
- Typically the shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second, for example, 1/200th or 1/8th of a second. However, there are cases where you may even allow your shutter speed to be open for seconds at a time. Extremely low light photography, shooting light trails, or capturing photographs of the stars are examples of where this might be the case.
- A shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second is needed to freeze fast moving subjects
- Shutter speed of 1/3rd or slower of a second is used to show motion.

##### Shutter Speed Rule:
- Take the focal length of your lens and that becomes the shutter speed you cannot go below. For example, if you’re photographing at 50mm, your minimum shutter speed is 1/50th of a second. If you’re photographing at 200mm your minimum shutter speed is 1/200th of a second or faster.
- These numbers are for 35mm equivalent focal lengths so if you are using a crop sensor camera (one which is not full frame) multiply by that first, and then apply the shutter speed rule (Nikon’s is 1.5x so if you’re shooting with a 200mm lens on a Nikon crop factor camera body go with 200 x 1.5 = 300 or 1/300th as your minimum shutter speed.)
- Also, this rule tends to break down at the extreme end. For example, 1/20th may be too slow of a shutter speed even if you’re photographing at 20mm. The same goes for 1/500th with a 500mm lens because the weight and sensitivity to movement are so magnified at this end that you’ll probably need to shoot even faster or use a tripod.

#### 3. ISO
- sensitivity of light
- Minimum value=50
- can go up to 6400
- ISO is a measure of sensitivity to light. When you increase the ISO on your camera what essentially happens is that you are telling the image sensor to be more sensitive to light.
- This means that for the same size opening (aperture), and the same amount of exposure time (shutter speed), you capture more light, and thus achieve a brighter image.
- The trade-off is that with a higher sensitivity you also get a great chance of generating more noise (unwanted grain or speckles) in your images.

### B. White Balance
Also Known As Color temperature
- Color temperature is measured in units of Kelvin (K) and is a physical property of light.

### C. Focus
Focus in photography is the process of making adjustments to the lens to find the maximum resolution, sharpness, and contrast for your chosen subject. You can do so either using manual focus or the autofocus system of the camera.

- WHAT ARE THE FOCUS POINTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
- Your camera is also capable of focusing on a single point within your viewfinder’s frame or by using multiple points within that frame. In most cases when your subjects are slow moving or stationary you’ll want to use single point focus mode. You’ll switch to a multiple focus point mode when you’re photographing action such as birds in flight or sports.

### D. Histogram
A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonal values of your image.

- it shows the amount of tones of particular brightness found in your photograph ranging from black (0% brightness) to white (100% brightness).
- Dark tones are displayed on the left side of the histogram.
- As you move rightward, tones get lighter.
- The middle portion of the histogram represents midtones, which are neither dark nor light.
- Vertical axis of a histogram displays the amount of tones of that particular lightness. Histogram is exposure-dependent, but is also affected by tone curve and other settings.

### E. Metering

* Metering is calculation of exposure triangle and setting it by itself
* In phones metering occurs with auto focusing as you click on a place
* Metering and focus work together in cameras, they can be selected by selecting the focus points

1. Matrix or Evaluative Metering
* Matrix Metering or Evaluative Metering mode is the default metering mode on most digital cameras. It works by dividing the entire frame into multiple “zones”, which are then all analyzed on an individual basis for light and dark tones.
2. Center-Weighted Metering
* Center-weighted Metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. Compared to Matrix Metering, Center-weighted Metering does not look at the focus point you select and only evaluates the middle area of the image.
3. Spot Metering
* Spot Metering only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculates exposure based on that single area, nothing else. I use this mode a lot for my bird photography, because the birds mostly occupy a small area of the frame and I need to make sure that I expose them properly, whether the background is bright or dark.
* Where the target area to calculate the light is 1-5% in spot metering.
4. Partial Metering
* Partial metering mode is a Canon metering mode used specifically for their camera models. It's essentially a “bigger” spot metering mode, where the target area to calculate the light is around 10-15% instead of the 1-5% most cameras use in spot metering.

### F. File types
#### 1. RAW

- RAW files store all of the information originally captured by the camera – which means that adjustments to white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, and sharpness can all be easily applied in image-editing software after the photo has been taken

1. Benefits
* Image quality is outstanding
* Extensive post-processing options
2. drawbacks
* Significant time is needed to convert and edit photos
* Bigger file sizes require more storage and longer post-processing times

#### 2. JPEG/JPG
- JPEG simply stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group”, which is the name of the group that created the format.
- PG is a universally agreed upon image format that can be viewed across pretty much every device out there. So it’s easy to take a JPG image file and share it to social media platforms
- JPG is also a compressed file format. The greater the compression, the greater the loss in quality, but the smaller the file size and the less storage space is needed to save it.

1. JPEGs should be used
* When the photos are intended for personal use, for social media, albums, and small prints (and are not intended for large prints)
* When you don’t intend to enhance or edit the photos much in post-production
* For sharing images via email or messaging apps

2. JPEG benefits:
* The small file size means that more images can be stored on a single memory card
* You get quicker file transfer times
* JPEGs are easily displayed

#### 3. HEIF
- HEIF, or High Efficiency Image Format, is the newest file type on this list. The format was designed in 2015 and was soon implemented by Apple to store iPhone photos.

1. HEIF benefits
* Smaller than JPEGs
* Relatively high-quality file storage

2. HEIF drawbacks
* Limited compatibility

#### 4. TIFF
- TIFF stands for “Tagged Image File Format,” and it’s another file type that’s commonly used in the photography industry. (For instance, TIFFs are generally requested by publishers). TIFFs can be smoothly converted to JPEGs, so even if the end file format will be a JPEG, many photographers prefer to edit a TIFF.

1. TIFF benefits
* You can make extensive adjustments in editing software
* TIFFs let you print at the highest quality and at much larger sizes

2. TIFF drawbacks
* Much bigger file sizes (so more storage is needed)
* Longer transfer and loading times due to file size

#### 5. DNG

- These days, just about every camera uses a different proprietary format to capture RAW files. Even cameras from the same manufacturer often use different formats. The DNG, or Digital Negative, was created by Adobe in an attempt to provide a standard RAW file that can be used by all manufacturers and cameras.

1. DNG benefits
* Can be accessed by image-processing software such as Lightroom and Photoshop
* Possibly the safer long-term option because it guards against future incompatibilities
2. Drawbacks
* If your camera cannot create DNGs automatically, it takes extra time to convert camera RAW files to DNGs
#### 6. PNG
- Designed in the ’90s as an improvement on the GIF file format, PNG files are reasonably small, relatively high quality, and displayable on browsers – so they’re ideal for internet use.
- PNGs are compressed in a lossless format and therefore retain plenty of detail for viewing and editing.

1. PNG benefits:
* Lossless compression offers good image quality, which isn’t compromised when editing
* PNGs can maintain transparency, which is important for graphics such as overlays and logos
2. Drawbacks
* File size is larger than JPEGs

## 2. Artistic Skills

### A. Composition

The composition of your photograph is arguably more important than the subject itself. After all, interesting subjects can be made to appear boring, while boring subjects can be made to look quite interesting, all due to the way the photographer has chosen to compose the photograph.
- Rule of Third
- The basic concept of the rule of thirds is to place your subject, or your primary area of focus, (basically where you want your viewer to look) on one of the four cross sections of the grid in your viewfinder.
- Leave room in front of your subject, not behind. In most cases, you will want to leave room in front of (i.e. where your subject is looking or leaning) rather than behind it.
- It’s such a fundamental part of photography that the camera manufacturers have provided a grid in the viewfinder.

- Leading Lines
- A leading line is simply a line within your photograph that leads the viewer to something interesting.

- Symmetry
- The two halves of the image are mirror images of each other. Such a composition automatically creates a sense of harmony and aesthetic balance—an easy way to achieve a beautiful shot

### B. Lighting
The type of lighting that you use is one of the most important elements of any photo. Light in photography refers to how the light source, which can be natural or artificial, is positioned in relation to your subject. The position and quality of light can affect any number of things in your final photo, from clarity to tone to emotion and so much more.
#### Types of lighting:-
- Natural Light
- If you want to use natural light in your photography, it’s important to understand the angle of the sun and how that will affect your composition.

- Backlit
- Backlit photos are when the light source is behind the subject, with the subject in between the light and your camera.

- Soft Light
- Soft lighting occurs when your light source is diffused, so that the effect is more subtle than it would be with a direct source of light.

- Rim Light
- Rim light can be created using a form of backlighting, where the light is at an angle from behind or above. The light will hit your subject in a way that creates a highlight around the subject.

- Key Light
- This is the most important light in the picture and ideally, it is the most visibly present light in the image.

- Fill Light
- Fill light is used to decrease contrast on the subject.
- If the image has shadows that are far too dark, Fill light is used to bring out shadow details.

- Catchlight
- A catchlight is the little white spot often seen popping up inside the photo subject’s eye.

#### Types of Photography:-
- Portrait photography
- Long exposure photography
- Landscape photography
- Product photography
- Sports and action photography
- Street photography
- Architecture photography
- Event and wedding photography
- Aerial and drone photography
- Wildlife photography
- Night photography