On the off chance that you may be in Brisbane city today, there is an art/gallery event to showcase talent and help raise money for the endangered Bridled Nailtail Wallaby.

Entry to the event will be by gold coin donation – all proceeds will be donated to the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby. Art may be sold on the day and a percentage of sales will be donated.

The Gallery is at Level 3, 400 George Street for all day viewing 9.00am – 4.00pm. There is some great photography, painting, sculpture etc.

There will also be a lunchtime gig (hip-hop artist, singers etc) 12:30pm – 1:30pm

The bridled nailtail wallaby is unique (endemic) to Queensland. It is listed as Endangered in Queensland (Nature Conservation Act 1992) and is only found on two protected areas and one nature refuge. Australian Animals and Care Australia (AACE) have worked with DERM to help recover the bridled nailtail wallaby. However, AACE have limited funds to look after their captive population of bridled nailtail wallabies and AACE is facing extra challenges with the repair of the wallaby pens (after damage from the floods) and the decline in the volunteer workforce. Donations to AACE will go directly to their work.

1. Aperture
2. Shutter Speed
3. ISO

Camera lens and aperture by nayukim, on Flickr

In this article I will attempt to explain the first of these – Aperture. You may have heard aperture referred to in a number of ways. Have you ever heard someone talking about “f-stops” or “fast glass”? These are referring to the aperture of the lens. Aperture refers to the opening where light enters the lens. This is made up of a number of blades that overlap and can change the size of the opening to let in more (or less) light. Changing the size of the aperture has a number of effects:

• It will affect the exposure of your image, allowing you to control how bright or dark the image is.
• Depending on whether you’re using a large or small aperture, you will need to change the shutter speed to compensate (in order to achieve the same exposure)
• It will change how much of your image is in focus.

You can probably think of situations where you might want more light to enter the lens; dark indoor environments and night time photos are a good example. In order to do this, you will need to increase the size of the aperture. The size of the aperture is indicated by an “f-number” or “f-stop”. Without getting into the technical reasons behind it (if you’re intereseted, read this), you should know that larger apertures are small f-numbers like f/1.8 or f/2.8, and smaller apertures are the bigger f-numbers like f/16 or f/22. Below is a diagram illustrating the size of the aperture (the hole where the light comes through the lens) for different f-stops.

By increasing the size of the aperture, you increase the amount of light coming into the lens at any time. With more light coming in, the shutter doesn’t need to stay open as long to get in enough light. The result of having a faster shutter speed means you’ll get fewer blurry photos, but we’ll get into that in a later article!

One of the other side effects of increasing or decreasing the size of the aperture is that you will change how much of the image is in focus. Using a small aperture (remember, that’s a big f-number like f/22) means you’ll have a huge area that appears to be in focus in your image. Conversely, a large aperture (small f-number like f/2.8) means that only a select area of your image will be in focus. The term used to refer to how much of your image is in focus is referred to as “depth of field” or “DOF” – i.e. a shallow depth of field means that only a small part of the image is in focus. This is commonly seen in portrait photos where the subject’s face is in sharp focus, but the background is blurred out. This is great for drawing attention to the subject and covering up busy backgrounds. You could also use it in a family portrait – put your mother-in-law in the back row and focus on the front row

At the bottom of this page are four example photos taken in my garden to illustrate the effect that different apertures will have on your photos. You’ll notice that the backround is blurred out when using a large aperture (small numbers like f/1.8 or f/2.8) and is quite visible when using small apertures (like f/16). I should also mention that the focal length of your lens also affects the depth of field. Using a longer focal length (e.g. a 200mm lens instead of 55mm) will also create a shallower depth of field. The best thing for you to do is go and take some photos yourself to experience what you can do. Set your camera to aperture priority mode (usually “A” or “Av” on the dial) and take shots at different apertures, and try it at different focal lengths (e.g. 18mm, 55mm, 200mm) to see what effect it has.

REMEMBER: SMALL F-NUMBER = SMALL AMOUNT OF IMAGE IN FOCUS; LARGE F-NUMBER = LARGE AMOUNT OF IMAGE IN FOCUS

Happy shooting!

Shot “wide open” at f/1.8

Shot at f/2.8

Shot at f/8

Shot at f/16

Tip 1: Turn down your ISO. ISO is the light sensitivity setting in your camera. The higher the number, the more sensitive it will be to light. The downside of using a high ISO is that you will start to get “noise” in your photo (it will become grainy). To achieve the sharpest possible photos, use a low ISO like 100 or 200. This is best for taking long exposures of landscapes or buildings at night. If you’re taking photos of moving subjects (like people!) you will need to increase your ISO to achieve faster shutter speeds.

Tip 2: Use a tripod. Taking photos in low light usually means you’ll be using longer shutter speeds, which makes it too hard to hand-hold the camera without shaking. Ideally if you’re shooting any slower than 1/60sec you’ll want to use a tripod to maintain sharpness. There are many different tripods available, but esentially they all do the same thing – hold your camera steady! I’m still just using a cheap $60 pan/tilt tripod which does the job well enough for landscape shots. For more flexibility you might want to get something with a ball head and fully adjustable legs – like this one.

Tip 3: Take a torch or a flash. Objects in the foreground will often appear dull, even with a long exposure. By painting the object with the light of a torch or flash it will stand out more, whilst still being able to expose the background properly. Due to the long exposure time, it doesn’t really matter if you’re running/walking through the frame – because you’re not in one spot for the whole exposure you won’t really show in the final image. A torch also comes in handy for setting up and changing camera settings (and navigating your way through barbed wire fences). It can also be useful for helping your camera to find a focus point in the dark!

Tip 4: Keep it steady. When you’re shooting with longer exposures, you’ll want to avoid the camera shaking at all. When you press the shutter release button, you’re always going to shake the camera – even just a little bit can ruin an otherwise sharp photo. The mirror inside your SLR camera can also introduce shake – see if your camera has a “mirror lock up” option to stop it from moving. By using the self timer, you can press the button and the camera will have a few seconds to stop shaking before taking the photo. Another great (and cheap) option is to buy a remote shutter release. I picked up a wireless remote for my D90 for just $3.99! Another handy hint to avoid camera shake is to weigh your tripod down with something heavy (like your camera bag) and tie up the shoulder strap! This will stop the breeze from blowing it around too much.

Tip 5: Try to eliminate lens flare. If your lens came with a “hood”, try using it to block out any surrounding lights. Filters can also cause lens flares and other strange looking effects in your images. I usually keep a UV or polarizing filter on my lens during the day, but I take them off if I’m doing any night photography. Flares can make for some interesting effects though, so play around and see what works best to achieve the look you want. The wonder of digital photography is that you can review your photos on the fly and decide whether you need to try again!

Tip 6: Water is your friend! Try taking some photos near a river or lake at night when the water is fairly calm. You’ll get some wonderful reflections off the water and it can give great symmetry to your images.

Tip 7: If you’re trying to take photos of people or moving objects, it would be a good idea to use a fast lens. What I mean by that is a lens which can open up to a really wide aperture to let a lot of light in. Something like a 50mm f/1.8 lens is a must for every photographer, and can be purchased for just over $100! By using a much wider aperture and increasing the ISO a little, you should be able to take reasonable shots without using long exposures – very handy when the subject won’t stay still.

Tip 8: Light painting – set your camera to a long exposure and wave some lights in front of it. They could be torches, LED keyrings, glowsticks or anything else you can find that lights up. You can create some really cool effects with light. Try tracing around your friend’s figure with a torch, or throwing a bunch of glowsticks in the air. The results are always different and the only limit is your imagination. Some people have really turned it into an art form.

I hope some of these hints will help prepare or inspire you for your next night photography expedition. One last tip? Take warm clothes. Even in summer it can get quite cold at night – especially near the water. Please leave any more tips in the comments!

Another technology that Adobe has revealed is the “unblur” feature that they are working on for a future version of Photoshop. Using this feature you can actually rescue photos that otherwise would have been relegated to the trash heap. I finally have a reason to be thankful that I keep ALL my photos! The algorithm will work out what movement caused the photo to be blurred, and then automatically correct for it, resulting in a sharp photo from absolutely rubbish input. It even works on blurry text photos taken with a mobile phone (as you can see in the video below).

So, I put it to you – is this a good thing or a bad thing for photographers? I have seen lots of people whinging about these advances in photo technology, saying that now everyone is going to think they’re a professional photographer and it will just make it hard for “real pros” to make a dollar. I really don’t think this is the case, though. People whinged about digital when it came in, saying that it would never replace film. Even today I hear people saying that digital just can’t stand up to film. Yet for any foibles that digital had, it quickly became the standard for professional photographers. The fact is that technology moves along whether you like it or not, and it can certainly bring along some useful features. Whether you choose to cling to the old technology for one reason or another, that is completely up to you. Whilst these technologies seem amazing and will certainly be a big bonus for photographers, I still don’t see that they are any replacement for a good skillset. Whether you shoot with a film camera and manual focus lenses, the latest digital, or the new Lytro camera, there is still no substitute for being able to capture the mood of your surroundings, waiting for the right moment, framing the shot perfectly and pressing the button. What are your thoughts?

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