I suspect that the saying may have originated from the practice of exposing for the highlights on slide films. Exposing for highlights on slide films usually means stopping down and increasing shutter speed as a slight underexposure on slide films usually gives more saturated colours.
Does decreasing aperture and shutter speed lead to brighter colours in pics?
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Seems like there are some so many things being discussed.
Exposure is a function of 3 factors:
Aperture - the size of the lens aperture which determines the amount of light that enters the camera lens and reaches the sensor/film plane
Shutter speed - the duration the sensor/film is exposed to light
ISO - the sensitivity of the sensor/film to light.
For a given exposure that the camera's meter measures, let us suppose Exposure Value 12 (EV12), it can be translated as 1/60 sec at f/8. Now we could correspondingly increase or decrease either the aperture or shutter speed to derive various premutations of EV12 (eg. 1/2000 sec at f/1.4, or 1/8 sec at f/22 or 1/250 sec at f/4) all give the same exposure. Obviously, the exposure value will depend on the amount of light available that the scene is to be shot at, either ambient or supplementary.
Suppose we stick to EV12, certainly the photographic effect of the different combination of aperture and shutter speed will convey a different rendering to the scene in question. If we opt to shoot at f/1.4, the wide aperture will give a narrow DOF and bokeh. Colours for areas there are out of focus appear soft and blurred. Conversely if we chose a long shutter speed, depending on the subject, say a waterfall, the colours might appear different due to the longer exposure.
Obviously different photographers might expose their subjects differently according to their personal preference, medium (digital, slide film or negative) or intended effect (low key, high key, etc.) Now in digital, like in traditional slide film, the idea was not to blow the highlights and lose detail, thus a slight underexposure to the base exposure is preferred, which has the added benefit of increased colour saturation. That method of determining exposure might not work with colour negative or B&W film where slight overexposure followed by underdevelopment of the film is a common practice. Deliberate underexposure of overexposure simply modifies the tonal range of the scene being shot.
Now in digital cameras today, you might have Natural or Vivid settings, which are nothing more than an in-camera algorithmns to boost the colour saturation, rendition or sharpness of the digital image.
All lenses vary in sharpness according to the aperture in use. That's a function of physics. Most lenses reach optimum sharpness stopped down but does it have a bearing on colour? Not directly imo but more by the effect of aperture and DOF. Obviously different lenses and different makes will render colour differently but that is a function of lens design, material and lens coating, which is not the issue here.
WB relates to the colour temperature that the scene is to be shot and will affect colour rendition but this is a different issue from exposure.
Exposure is a function of 3 factors:
Aperture - the size of the lens aperture which determines the amount of light that enters the camera lens and reaches the sensor/film plane
Shutter speed - the duration the sensor/film is exposed to light
ISO - the sensitivity of the sensor/film to light.
For a given exposure that the camera's meter measures, let us suppose Exposure Value 12 (EV12), it can be translated as 1/60 sec at f/8. Now we could correspondingly increase or decrease either the aperture or shutter speed to derive various premutations of EV12 (eg. 1/2000 sec at f/1.4, or 1/8 sec at f/22 or 1/250 sec at f/4) all give the same exposure. Obviously, the exposure value will depend on the amount of light available that the scene is to be shot at, either ambient or supplementary.
Suppose we stick to EV12, certainly the photographic effect of the different combination of aperture and shutter speed will convey a different rendering to the scene in question. If we opt to shoot at f/1.4, the wide aperture will give a narrow DOF and bokeh. Colours for areas there are out of focus appear soft and blurred. Conversely if we chose a long shutter speed, depending on the subject, say a waterfall, the colours might appear different due to the longer exposure.
Obviously different photographers might expose their subjects differently according to their personal preference, medium (digital, slide film or negative) or intended effect (low key, high key, etc.) Now in digital, like in traditional slide film, the idea was not to blow the highlights and lose detail, thus a slight underexposure to the base exposure is preferred, which has the added benefit of increased colour saturation. That method of determining exposure might not work with colour negative or B&W film where slight overexposure followed by underdevelopment of the film is a common practice. Deliberate underexposure of overexposure simply modifies the tonal range of the scene being shot.
Now in digital cameras today, you might have Natural or Vivid settings, which are nothing more than an in-camera algorithmns to boost the colour saturation, rendition or sharpness of the digital image.
All lenses vary in sharpness according to the aperture in use. That's a function of physics. Most lenses reach optimum sharpness stopped down but does it have a bearing on colour? Not directly imo but more by the effect of aperture and DOF. Obviously different lenses and different makes will render colour differently but that is a function of lens design, material and lens coating, which is not the issue here.
WB relates to the colour temperature that the scene is to be shot and will affect colour rendition but this is a different issue from exposure.
TS, your simple innocent query has been 'complexified'.
Let me try.
I did try similar tests few years ago (when I got my D70)- just exploring then - and just few days ago I noticed something similar to your query.
Assumption:
For a given situation/condition - only consider A,S and colour - (lens, film, WB,etc dun come in)
Objective
To see any color variation by playing the A/S, still acheiving the correct exposure.
Observation
1 my observation then: hardly can seen any difference; EXCEPT, when stopped down to low, it appeared better, and if I recalled it was most probably it is slightly underexposed - compared with initial 'correct' one. You can verify this easily.
2 Observation 2: However, when I wanted to increase the shuttle speed, and A opened max., I increase the ISO. You can see that the color pale - to a point you thought you took the pic with a freebie cam. I also observed this few days back when my friend is trying how good his D300 noise control is.
MY own observation/conclusion (my belief only - not enough test to demo)
*** A/S = min effect on color (at least within the commonly used range ..)
*** ISO = very significant
The guy in flickr, maybe he is profound expert, or he also half a bucket of ????! based on his puesdo scientific theory.
(BUT theoretically - there should be some effects - read somewhere about non linearity in the response - dun understand also.)
I don't think it affects the color satuation, only the exposure and DoF.
Maybe what that guy meant by more 'vivid' pics when he stop down the aperture could simply be due to the deeper DoF resulting in an apparent increase in sharpness due to more of the image in focus.
Maybe what that guy meant by more 'vivid' pics when he stop down the aperture could simply be due to the deeper DoF resulting in an apparent increase in sharpness due to more of the image in focus.
Btw I'm refering to shutter speed and aperture not iso.
I think it also boils down to what he wants for the exposure as there are more than one way to attaining the correct exposure but yet having different effects dependent on the subject and what the shooter wants to convey or capture.
I think it also boils down to what he wants for the exposure as there are more than one way to attaining the correct exposure but yet having different effects dependent on the subject and what the shooter wants to convey or capture.
when you shoot on film........ film basically have three types.
b&w negative, color negative and color positive.
if you shoot color negative, is recommended to overexposed (not more than one stop) it to get more saturated colors.
and when you shoot color positive, aka color slide film, aka color transparency film, aka color chrome film. you recommended to underexposed 1/3 to 1/2 stop for more saturated colors.
I can see Blogist is shooting on film, since he says decrease the aperture to up the saturation, so I guess he is shooting on color slide film for that photo.
hope this help.
b&w negative, color negative and color positive.
if you shoot color negative, is recommended to overexposed (not more than one stop) it to get more saturated colors.
and when you shoot color positive, aka color slide film, aka color transparency film, aka color chrome film. you recommended to underexposed 1/3 to 1/2 stop for more saturated colors.
I can see Blogist is shooting on film, since he says decrease the aperture to up the saturation, so I guess he is shooting on color slide film for that photo.
hope this help.
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