Photography Basics!

[jwnolte]

you may have some pretty basic questions here about manual photography, which is good. I have seen a lot of people who just point and shoot for terrible results or set the camera on “automatic” and fire away, producing very bland, unimaginative photos. The best way to learn is to learn the manual way. I shoot a Nikon D100 and I almost never use the auto settings because they are often wrong in that they do not expose the photo the way I want it. Later on, you will learn that shooting bmx photos means you must use manual settings on your camera and on your lights because it gives you maximum creative control.

First, what camera do you have? if your camera does not allow manual control of aperture and shutter speed, the creative possiblities are pretty limited. if you have manual control, you will need to master the basics of balancing shutter speed and aperture for good exposures.

the settings you will use depend on how much light there is and what part of the scene you want to expose and to what degree you want to expose it. if your camera has manually-adjustable settings, it must have some form of built-in light meter that tells you when the scene in the frame is exposed correctly. Learn your light meter, love your light meter, BECOME ONE WITH THE LIGHT METER! every manufacturer has a different kind of light meter but they work about the same.

start with your aperture set at, say, f/5.6 and your shutter at 1/125 sec. point your camera at your subject. your light meter should tell you if the setting will over- or under-expose the scene at that setting. if the light meter says it is under exposed, you need to let in more light by opening up the aperture (set to a lower number like f/4 or f/ 2.8 ) or a slower shutter speed like 1/60 sec. If the scene is over-exposed, you need to set your camera at a smaller aperture (higher number- f/8, f/11, etc) or set your shutter speed at a higher speed. Or some combination of the two.

Your shutter speed controls your ability to stop action. For shooting bmx, you want the highest shutter speed possible for your lighting situation. You can always achieve this by setting your aperture wide-open ( f/ 2.8 or f/4 ), however, a wide aperture also means a narrow depth of field. ideally, you want a decent depth of field and a fast shutter speed to freeze action of a basic exposure. Manipulating your depth of field is a useful artistic tool because it can allow you to put emphasis on one small aspect of your image or show a wider focus on the overall scene. Learn how to use it in conjunction with shutter speed to convey motion and interest in your images.

When you have “perfect” lighting conditions (ha!), you can achieve this. Since perfect lighting conditions never exist, you have to do one of two things: 1. compromise or 2. manipulate or create the light you want.

1. compromise. a) If you are looking at your subject jumping a dirt jump and there is nothing but bright blue sky in the background, the exposure settings that your light meter gives you are going to have a fast shutter speed with a narrow aperture. However, when you take a photo based on those settings, your rider is going to be in a shadow or a total silhouette (which can also look very cool!). So you can compromise by estimating the exposure needed to expose your rider and sacrifice the sky. So you will have a well-exposed rider but the sky will be completely blown out. to do this, expose for the nearest object that has the same amount of light bouncing off it as your subject.

another general tip: shoot with the sun to your back, especially if you dont have a flash. if the sun is in front of you, it will over-power your subject and put him in a shadow. when there is no sun, or you have to shoot with a bright background, that's where flash comes in. more on that in a minute...

b) Another example might be that you are photographing a rider who is in sunlight grinding a rail but behind him is a dark, shady tree. When you meter the scene, you will need a longer exposure with a wider aperture to expose the tree and shade, but the rider, who is several “stops” brighter than the shade will be blown-out and over-exposed. So you will need to switch up to a faster shutter speed and/or smaller aperture to expose the rider correctly. The space behind him will be a dark, murky blur but the rider will be well-exposed.

2. light manipulation/creation: this is where flash comes in. you can create light with a bright constant light (waste of time), you can bounce, amplify or block the existing light (doesn’t work in bmx, too large-scale) or you can create your own brief bursts of light using a flash (or flashes when you get more advanced and spend every penny you have on radio slaves and other expensive toys.)

So in the event of scenario a), you can expose for the sky, then pop a flash or flashes at your rider so he will be exposed as well. How this occurs all depends on the flash you are using, the film speed you have and how fast your camera can sync with your flash.

every camera has a limit as to how fast it can “sync” with a flash or x-sync. For my D100, the maximum shutter speed that will sync with a flash is 1/180 s, although my maximum regular shutter speed is 1/4000 s. on my Nikon FM2 manual film slr, the max is 1/250s. some newer cameras sync up to 1/500 s. since a flash will only burst for many thousandths of a second, it will freeze the action even with an apparently slow shutter speed. this is why it's important to under-expose the background's ambient light, so you freeze the rider hard against the background and don't get blurs. Most modern cameras can handle at least 1/125 and some of the newest can do 1/500 or faster. If you have an older camera, it might only be 1/60. look at the shutter speed dial on your camera. Is there and “X” or a lightning bolt next to one of the shutter speed settings? That is your maximum flash sync. If you set your shutter speed faster than that and use a flash, your flash will pop while the second shutter curtain is moving, so only half or part of your frame will be exposed by the flash, creating an image that looks like part of half of a frame. Basically, don’t use a shutter speed above your x-sync if you are using flash. (there are ways around this on some modern cameras, but that's light years from where you are now. tuck that away in your mind for later.)

How you use a flash depends on which one you have. There are some basic rules to manual flash though. Many have auto-thyristors that put out a measured amount of light. when enough light bounces off your subject, the flash shuts off. this takes fractions of a second, but that's how it works. so if your camera is set at f/5.6 and your shutter at 1/60, you want to set your flash to put out enough light to expose a scene at f/5.6 to get an even exposure. the shutter speed doesnt matter at this point because the flash is so darn fast it doesnt even register on the film (unless you go above the x-sync of course.)

ideally with flash, you actually want to under-expose the background to make the rider pop out more. so if the ambient light (existing, natural light) is f/5.6 @ 1/125, set your flash to put out f/5.6 and set your camera at f/11, which is two stops below what the ambient light actually is. this will make the background darker (under-exposed) but the flash will expose your rider correctly for the f-stop setting you are using.

setting up a scene and taking test photos is a good way to save time, energy, exposures and film, if you are using it.

to get a good exposure, stand exactly where you will be standing when you snap the picture and have the rider stand (pose?) for a minute where he is going to be when you take the photo. Look through your viewfinder and set your camera accordingly. Also, ALWAYS USE MANUAL FOCUS because the camera will never focus fast enough to catch the rider at the exact moment you need, unless you have a really fancy camera with a very advanced, precise auto-focus motor. Set the shutter speed, aperture and focus ring where you want them and wait for the rider to come back and do his thing. This is the beauty of bmx/skate photography instead of documentary photography, you get to tell your subject what to do if they want the photo to come out good.

You can also save money on film by taking your film to a lab and having them process just the film with NO PRINTS and have them burn the images on a disk. This costs less than buying prints and allows you to manipulate the images on your computer. If you don’t have Photoshop, download GIMP. It’s a open-source program, so it’s totally free and legit, no software pirating involved.

ISO 400 is a good middle-of-the-road speed. Use that most of the time while you are learning. When you get more advanced, use lower-speed films to get better detail. Most of the stuff you see in magazines is shot on medium format film cameras with ISO 50 film.

[willisparkasfcuk]

Bloody hell, your know your stuff!

[Trimix]

Indeed. Awesome.

[jwnolte]

i want to go into more detail because this is only the tip of the iceberg of what is needed for decent basic exposure. i have found that photography books don't help a whole lot with bmx photography. i went to college for 4 years studying photojournalism and i didn't learn anything useful about bmx photography from my profs. i had to figure out manual flash control and radio slaves on my own.

[jwnolte]

i found this video today. all of Part 1 and the second half of Part 3 are all about BMX photography.

http://www.photographytv.tv/

[Marcelwk]

For my D100, the maximum shutter speed is 1/180 second, I think.

That's pretty slow.. Don't you have troubles with blur on your pics? My camera can go up to 1/4000 second and I shoot bmx in sunny conditions with 1/1000...

[jwnolte]

That's pretty slow.. Don't you have troubles with blur on your pics? My camera can go up to 1/4000 second and I shoot bmx in sunny conditions with 1/1000...

i was talking about how fast the shutter can sync with a flash. i went back and added a few sentences to clarify. thanks for pointing that out, i was not very clear.

every camera has a limit as to how fast it can “sync” with a flash or x-sync. For my D100, the maximum shutter speed that will sync with a flash is 1/180 s, although my maximum regular shutter speed is 1/4000 s. on my Nikon FM2 manual film slr, the max is 1/250s. some newer cameras sync up to 1/500 s. since a flash will only burst for many thousandths of a second, it will freeze the action even with an apparently slow shutter speed. this is why it's important to under-expose the background's ambient light, so you freeze the rider hard against the background and don't get blurs.

[DylanSmith]

OMG! i heart you right now, i'm about to buy a Nikon d40 and needed to know all this stuff! thanks man

[Wombles]

Ill have a read of this tomorrow. It's interesting! Good work man! Rep if i can : D

[jwnolte]

more on flashes:

unfortunately, using an auto-thyristor flash is unpredictable at best. sometimes the flash illuminates the foreground and not the rider. using more than one flash causes the auto-thyristor "eyes" to see the light from the other flash and they flashes basically cancel one another out. there are three ways to solve this by setting the power on your flash manually: you can use a hand-held flash meter (expensive but useful) to get the most accurate reading, you can guess-and-check with a digital camera (not very reliable and impossible with film) or you can to calculate your f-stop and flash power using guide number equations.

working with Guide Number equations to set your flash power manually is a pretty reliable way to do it if your flash is really putting out as much power as it's supposed to be. flashes that have manual adjustment settings go in fractions: 1/2 power, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and so on. it will take some searching, but you can find out what your flash'es guide number is from the manufacturer or find a website with a guide number chart. the general rule is:

(G= guide number, D= distance, F=f-stop number)

G=D x F

or

D = G / F

or

F = G / D

guide numbers usually refer to the amount of power that a flash puts out at full power at ISO 100. you will have to do a little fiddling to figure out what it will be at other ISOs. to find out what your guide number is at ISO 400, double it. so a flash with a guide number of 118 would actually be 236 at ISO 400.

example 1) so lets say the guide number on your flash at ISO 400 is 240 and your subject is 15 feet away and it's nighttime. what f-stop and power to use? we will use the third equation:

240/15 = F
F =16
so you would set your flash at f/16 with your flash on manual power at FULL.

example 2) same as above but you want a narrower depth of field than f/16 will provide. remember, the smaller the f-stop number, the narrower the depth of field. so is you set your aperture to f/8, thats twice as large as f/16, so it will take half the light to expose the image. so you can drop your flash down to 1/2 power. want to use less power for a faster recycling time on the flash power? open your aperture another stop to f/5.6 and drop your flash power down to 1/4 power.

example 3) that was too easy, so lets throw some ambient light into the mix. lets say you are shooting with a wide-angle and your subject is 7 feet away. the ambient light is at f/4 @ 1/125 second and you want to under-expose that a bit, so you stop down to f/8. but you need to rider to be correctly exposed at f/8, so we use the first equation:

7 x 8 = 56

so the guide number you are using here is 56? the guide number for your flash is 240, but thats the guide number at full power, so you have to crank that flash down a few notches. how much of the total guide number is 56?

240/56= 4.3, so 56 = slightly more than 1/4 of the totall power of your flash. set your flash at 1/4 power and bob's your uncle, you should have a proper exposure.