AboutJohn and Chris Expertise We are both professional photographers, with over 15 years experience. We can answer questions about photography, as well as questions about cameras from the 60s to 90s. (extensive 35mm, quite a bit of other formats.) Please, no darkroom questions.
Expert: John and Chris Date: 1/19/2006 Subject: Hi John & Chris,
I am...
Question Hi John & Chris,
I am a novice amateur in photography. I have Canon Powershot S70 camera and I want to make the best use of it to my satisfaction.
Recently I went to a place called Mumbai (India) and took some photographs, but when I later saw them on big screen the quality wasn't that good. What I figured out was perhaps because of the poor light condition of the place due to fog this might have happened.
Can you suggest some precautions, do's and dont's about taking photographs in bad light conditions?
Also I am not able to understand the combined working of Shutter speed and aperture. When I want to take the picture of a subject near to me and blur the backdrop, what should be the ideal positions of sutter speed and aperture?
Apart from this please share whatever you feel would be necessary for me.
Thanks and Regards
Rahul.
Answer Rahul,
About photographing in poor lighting conditions:
I would suggest setting a higher ISO, which you will find under the "func" or function button. This will allow you to use a higher shutter speed. But if the actual quality of the light is poor (foggy or misty) there is really nothing you can do. We all have to deal with weather.
Shutter-speed and aperture work together to make the right exposure. If one setting changes, the other one has to change also. There are no "ideal" positions for these settings because the light and subject changes all the time.
Generally speaking, if you want to blur the background (this is called shallow depth of field) you need to have a large aperture. A point of confusion for the novice are the numbers used for aperture. A small number like f/2.8 is actually a LARGE aperture... and of course it follows that a large number like f/22 would be a SMALL aperture. Once you have chosen an aperture to use, you will need to choose the shutter-speed based on the lighting. The camera can do this for you automatically if you use the aperture priority (AV) mode. In this mode, you set the aperture you want and the camera sets the shutter for you.
Shutter priority (TV) mode is just the opposite... you set the shutter-speed you want and the camera sets the aperture for you.
There is also a full automatic mode that sets a shallow depth of field for you. On the mode dial is a picture of a persons head. This is "portrait" mode and its job is to try and set the background as blurry as it can.
