Highlands Ranch Photo Club Meeting
September 11, 2007
DeDe welcomed everyone to the August meeting. Meetings are held at the Highlands Ranch Library the 2nd Tuesday of each month.
The club has a small amount remaining in our fund after purchasing a digital projector. We will discuss possibly buying a laptop computer with next year's dues at our December meeting.
DeDe invited anyone interested to consider becoming one of the club officers for next year. She has been in charge of meetings while Richard has sent out e-mail notices to club members. Both of them would be willing to have someone else take a turn at the jobs.
DeDe has set up a field trip for September 29 to Victor, Colorado, for a gold mine tour and fall color. DeDe has been on this tour of a working gold mine before and highly recommends the tour. The tour starts at 10:00 and takes about half a day. There is no fee, but bring a bag lunch. Car pools will leave Highlands Ranch at around 7:00 a.m. More participants are needed or she will have to cancel the tour. Anyone interested should contact her by e-mail as soon as possible.
Debra Miller
Exposure, Shutter Speed and Film Speed
This month's presentation was by Debra Miller. She reviewed a number of pointers on taking successful photographs. Debra used a variety of mostly outdoor shots to demonstrate the principles she presented.
EXPOSURE is the amount of light reaching film or the digital sensor. A smaller aperture increases the depth of field, while a larger aperture decreases the depth of field. For shooting scenery, the sharpest focus is somewhere in the middle. Her rule of thumb was to focus about one-third of the way into the field of vision. For animals, you may wish to minimize the depth of field so the background is out of focus. For landscapes you would want to maximize the depth of field so things are in focus from near to far.
SHUTTER SPEED is the length of time the shutter stays open. A faster speed freezes motion and is good for fast shots, while a slower speed can be used to pan or show movement.
FILM SPEED or ISO SETTING is used according to the requirements of the photographer. A higher film speed is more sensitive, but also tends to pick up "noise" or graininess. A low film speed is capable of a sharper focus but may be a problem where the subject is moving.
The correct exposure depends on what you are trying to achieve. The photographer must work with shutter speed and aperture combinations to find the combination that works best for a particular situation.
Debra talked about light metering and explained that the camera tries to focus as if the subject is 18 percent gray. For a medium tone subject or scene, the automatic focus feature will likely get good results. If the subject is darker, the photographer may need to decrease the light stops. If the subject is lighter (like snow), the photographer may need to increase the light stops by 1 1/2 to 2 stops.
A variety of photographs were shown to illustrate the difference that direction of light makes in taking good pictures. Front light is very even, but may be flat or boring. Side light is interesting because it casts shadows and reveals textures. Back lighting can be very dramatic with the sun behind the subject, making leaves glow, but it is hard to judge the correct exposure.
Debra also talked about the difference in light quality at different times of the day. She demonstrated using several photographs of the same scene shot in midday harsh lighting and then in that "magic" hour close to sunrise. The differences were quite amazing.
We were also shown examples of bright light compared to overcast light. Overcast skies can act like a diffuser, allowing color and texture to shine through. Strong midday lighting, in contrast, often makes some areas overly "hot" while other areas are too dark. Overcast lighting is good for autumn leaves, flowers, waterfalls and forests.
White balance is another adjustment that can be made in the camera. This means adjusting the colors for fluorescent lights or other situations so they appear a normal color. Auto select does a good job on many digital cameras, but there are also presets and custom adjustments that can be made on some cameras.
The histogram is another tool which can be useful for adjusting light settings in the camera. This is a graph showing how light and dark areas are distributed in the photograph. It can help the photographer decide if the exposure needs to be brighter or darker. In a correct setting for a normal scene, there will be a mound-shaped curve showing distribution all across the scale. If things are heavily on the light or the dark ends, there may need to be an adjustment made. However, very dark or light subjects should have a correspondingly heavy concentration on one end or the other.
Debra took a few minutes to discuss the value of tripods. She had several with her to demonstrate how they could be used. She feels a tripod greatly improves image quality. In addition, the tripod allows the photographer to get ready for a shot and hold the correct composition while waiting for lighting or the subject to be ready.
She also showed how a graduated neutral density filter works. The square filter is half dark and half light. It slips into a holder which is attached to the front of the camera. These filters are also available for a point-and-shoot camera.
Debra recommended these Web sites for additional information about topics from her presentation:
We very much appreciate Debra's presentation of some of the key factors that can improve our photography. Her photo examples made the principles crystal clear.
Show and Tell
- Dave had recently attended a photo shoot sponsored by Englewood Camera which featured Canon representatives. He highly recommended the experience which allowed anyone to try out different cameras and lenses.
- Jim brought photos from the recent balloon festival and Roxborough shots from a day the park opened early.
- Rick shared shots of the lunar eclipse as well as various shots from a trip to Mt. Evans.
- Bob brought shots of the lunar eclipse, some taken with a telescope, as well as cranes in early morning fog, bugling elk and blue herons.
- Dave had shots from a balloon festival at Erie and photos from Hanging Lake. He talked about shooting the same scenes in both bright light and overcast. The colors were much better with the overcast lighting.
Notes for Upcoming Meetings
October 9 - Zach will talk about black and white photography. Bill has seen his photographs and highly recommended the presentation.
View reports from previous meetings - News Archives
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