Camera's Functions

[revenant]

Originally posted by Jango


Call me nickpicking, but the proper term is f-stop. And I think u mean a BIGGER f stop indicates a smaller hole.

To add on to aperture explanation, aperture not only controls light, but also Depth Of Field (DOF).

Hi Revenant, wah I type all those things in HWZ u dont understand meh? Like learning how to swim, reading theory will only get you to a certain point. To understand further, you need to get a camera and start shooting.

sheesh, kana exposed

I understand a bit only, think you explain a bit cheem. Now i understand some because of the examples Flare gave.

Oh btw, can give me examples of using bigger f-stop and smaller f-stop? I not too sure it';s for what use. Is it for the bluring of background and foreground ?

 

[Flare]

Hee Hee... Ok lah Ok lah... F-stop... hee hee And yah... a bigger F-stop means a smaller hole and a smaller f-stop means a bigger hole... type so much never notice my typo...

And yes... the aperture setting (the F-Stop) is used to control the blurring of background (BOKEH~)in addition to controlling the exposure. A larger Aperture (Small F-Stop) will have very limited dept that is in sharp forcus... so when you focus on something in the foreground, the background is blurred... Maybe someone with a digital SLR can demonstrate this... My Digital camer is fixed lens, so this effect is not apparent.

Hey... We having a photoshoot coming saturday... See if someone here is kind enought to loan you a spare camera... I have a 64mb compact flash card that i'm not using... Don't mind lending to you. A hands on is worth a thousand words. And I got a very good newbie book... Digital Photography for dummies... which the dummy, me, bought a couple of months back...

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Flare
Hee Hee... Ok lah Ok lah... F-stop... hee hee And yah... a bigger F-stop means a smaller hole and a smaller f-stop means a bigger hole... type so much never notice my typo...

And yes... the aperture setting (the F-Stop) is used to control the blurring of background (BOKEH~)in addition to controlling the exposure. A larger Aperture (Small F-Stop) will have very limited dept that is in sharp forcus... so when you focus on something in the foreground, the background is blurred... Maybe someone with a digital SLR can demonstrate this... My Digital camer is fixed lens, so this effect is not apparent.

Hey... We having a photoshoot coming saturday... See if someone here is kind enought to loan you a spare camera... I have a 64mb compact flash card that i'm not using... Don't mind lending to you. A hands on is worth a thousand words. And I got a very good newbie book... Digital Photography for dummies... which the dummy, me, bought a couple of months back...

hey, thanx for that. But I don't wanna trouble anyone here.

So, whenever we have to blur the background, we have to use a smaller f-stop ( bigger hole ) and vice versa? Why is it that bigger hole have a smaller DOP?

What's fixed lens? Lens that's fixed onto the camera itself? Those adding on filters/lens are able to show the blurring effect more signficantly?

 

[Flare]

Correct... U ask question like that need to find physicist to explain liao...generally, a big hole allow light to eneter in different directions... so when you focus, not all the light are focused the same way. WIth a small hole, most like travel in similar direction... focus them is easier... Something like tat lah... my Physics not good...

Fiexed lens... which most consumer digital camera are, cannot change lens like SLR... U see... for consumer digital camera.., they have a very short actual focal length... even tho my Dimage 5 can zoom from 35mm up to 200mm equivalent (in 35mm film language)... But the real focal length is like 7.2mm to 50.8mm... Which is very short... Long focal lens has a "better bluring effect".

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Flare
Correct... U ask question like that need to find physicist to explain liao...generally, a big hole allow light to eneter in different directions... so when you focus, not all the light are focused the same way. WIth a small hole, most like travel in similar direction... focus them is easier... Something like tat lah... my Physics not good...

Fiexed lens... which most consumer digital camera are, cannot change lens like SLR... U see... for consumer digital camera.., they have a very short actual focal length... even tho my Dimage 5 can zoom from 35mm up to 200mm equivalent (in 35mm film language)... But the real focal length is like 7.2mm to 50.8mm... Which is very short... Long focal lens has a "better bluring effect".

orh.... ic...

So the aperture settings is mainly for blurring effect? Smaller f-stop, bigger hole blur background. Bigger f-stop, smaller hole, blur foreground. What if I want the photo to be normal? Both foreground and background to be sharp, use the "middle" f-stop?

 

[Flare]

Well... then... Use the smallest hole (biggest F-stop) available... But at that setting, its possible that not everything will be in focus... Unless the subjects are relatively far away, where you can focus on them at the "infinity" focus (Everything beyond a certain distance from the camera will be sharp)... useful for land scape.

But remember! The aperture settings affects the exposure as well!

 

[siron]

lotsa explainations here!

 

[Flare]

Hahaha... finger tired ah~ But must help mah... cannot sit around and do nothing...

 

[siron]

Originally posted by Flare
Hahaha... finger tired ah~ But must help mah... cannot sit around and do nothing...

Cool.. Good Work!

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Flare
Well... then... Use the smallest hole (biggest F-stop) available... But at that setting, its possible that not everything will be in focus... Unless the subjects are relatively far away, where you can focus on them at the "infinity" focus (Everything beyond a certain distance from the camera will be sharp)... useful for land scape.

But remember! The aperture settings affects the exposure as well!

orh....what if you want the objects at both near and far to be sharp?

i think i know about aperture settings, exposure i not very sure leh

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Flare
Hahaha... finger tired ah~ But must help mah... cannot sit around and do nothing...

Sorry ah

Nvm if there's any voting for best helper, i cast my vote for you

 

[Flare]

Originally posted by revenant


orh....what if you want the objects at both near and far to be sharp?

i think i know about aperture settings, exposure i not very sure leh

The best bet will be use a very tiny aperture and a lens with a short focal length. Some short focal length len's infinity focus is around 5-10 meters... So just take a few steps back... But if really cannot... Use a point & Shoot (Who says these are crap?!?)... Those without zoom typically focus at infinity... anything about 3 meters or more away (some cameras even less) will be in perfect sharp focus. Hee Hee...

But really, the really tiny aperture available on SLRs will do the trick I believe. My camera don't have f22 (Super small hole available on SLRs) So I not sure.

And the bigger or smaller hole will affect the amount of light entering the camera, striking the film, CCD or CMOS. A certain amount of light is required to give a correct focus... something that is not too bright or too dark. Since throughout the day, and in door, the amount of light available is not the same. So the camera has to determine what is the shutter speed, and size of aperture needed to get that required amount of light on the film, CCD, CMOS. Big Aperture/hole more light, and vice visa... So... If you want some blur background thingy, you set a small F-stop (Big aperture)... So more light is getting in right? So what to do? Open the hole for a shorter period... which means a faster shutter speed. If you Set camera at Aperture Piority... You choose the Aperture (Big hole BLUR blur or small hole sharp sharp) and the camera will decide what is the shutter speed required to correct expose the image... In other words, allow the right amount of light in.

Hmmm... Hope this is clear.... Don't mind helping lah... actually I come check this thread very often... Me was like you once... But at that time, don't know of this forum... So I know how hard it is to understand all those gibberish from books... So now I know liao must help help...

 

[Jango]

To understand DOF, here's a very good article. Read and try to understand. The chart at the bottom explains almost everything!

http://www.photozone.de/depth.htm

 

[Flare]

Wah... power website~

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Flare

The best bet will be use a very tiny aperture and a lens with a short focal length. Some short focal length len's infinity focus is around 5-10 meters... So just take a few steps back... But if really cannot... Use a point & Shoot (Who says these are crap?!?)... Those without zoom typically focus at infinity... anything about 3 meters or more away (some cameras even less) will be in perfect sharp focus. Hee Hee...

Is short focal length without zoom and long focal length with zoom?

And the bigger or smaller hole will affect the amount of light entering the camera, striking the film, CCD or CMOS. A certain amount of light is required to give a correct focus... something that is not too bright or too dark. Since throughout the day, and in door, the amount of light available is not the same. So the camera has to determine what is the shutter speed, and size of aperture needed to get that required amount of light on the film, CCD, CMOS. Big Aperture/hole more light, and vice visa... So... If you want some blur background thingy, you set a small F-stop (Big aperture)... So more light is getting in right? So what to do? Open the hole for a shorter period... which means a faster shutter speed. If you Set camera at Aperture Piority... You choose the Aperture (Big hole BLUR blur or small hole sharp sharp) and the camera will decide what is the shutter speed required to correct expose the image... In other words, allow the right amount of light in.

So, can I conclude that if want to take a blur background photo in-door, set a smaller f-stop and faster shutter speed? Does this applies to out-door or anywhere also?

Hmmm... Hope this is clear.... Don't mind helping lah... actually I come check this thread very often... Me was like you once... But at that time, don't know of this forum... So I know how hard it is to understand all those gibberish from books... So now I know liao must help help...

hehe, that's what we call "ying shui si yuan". Something like that cause i never help you before but you're helping back the forum

 

[revenant]

Originally posted by Jango
To understand DOF, here's a very good article. Read and try to understand. The chart at the bottom explains almost everything!

http://www.photozone.de/depth.htm

It's indeed good but I see liao blur blur. Maybe because I don't know some of the terms.

 

[revenant]

wah.... see people post such nice photos, I'm so eager to get my first digicam but really not so much money

hmm..... Can I know what's the lowest price cam available to do nite shot and the blurring effects?

If only someone want to sell off his 2040, seems a good cam with manual functions

 

[Flare]

Yes... short focal length means less zoom and long focal length means big big zoom.

The controlling the aperture for DOF is the same for shooting for all conditions... in door, out door, Macro.... But please remember... the lighting conditions might greatly limit and restrict what you can do... While, indoors, even though things appears bright to your eyes... it can be tens of times dimmer than out under the sun. So let's say you want to get everything sharp and use a small aperture (large f-stop) indoors... you might need a very slow shutter speed. This might not be ideal if your subject is moving or you have no means to hold the camera steady... So you might need to use flash or compensate a little.... But usually, under the bright sun... things are much easier. Quite a bit of physics inolved in photography... hee hee...

Please note that for most consumer digital cameras, the out-of-focus background effect is not so good sue to the design of the lens, unless you are shooting in macro mode... But there are some photoshop tricks you can do to creat a similar effect.

 

[revenant]

hmmm...... ehh I think I don't wanna learn so much and bother you guys. My budget ain't that high to get a good cam afterall

 

[copland]

Originally posted by revenant
hmmm...... ehh I think I don't wanna learn so much and bother you guys. My budget ain't that high to get a good cam afterall

Maybe you can persuade cwloo to sell you his A20 so that he can buy the A40