Photo Friday: ISO

Warning: Photo Fridays are random. If you have a question and would like me to answer, leave it in the comments or email me. The email button is over there! ---------->

Links to more camera subjects at the bottom of this post.

Today I'm talking about ISO.

The acronym ISO refers to the International Standards Organization. But we really don't care about that. In basic terms, ISO is a way to adjust how sensitive your camera is to light.

Check out your camera's manual and see how to change your ISO setting. You'll see a few options. 100 is the lowest ISO for most digital cameras and 800 is the highest for most non-pro DSLRs.

If you set your camera on the lowest ISO (100) you are telling your camera that you have lots of light to work with. This is a great setting for a sunny day, shooting outdoors. If you don't have quite that much light (for example if you're outdoors, but it's cloudy) you should bump your ISO up a little, to the next setting (200). Heading indoors? Better go up to 400. You might even need to go all the way up to 800or 1600 if your camera will let you, depending on how much indoor lighting you have. By setting the camera on a higher number, you're telling the camera "Hey, I don't have much light to work with here, so I need to you to be really sensitive to what light there is!"

Are you thinking "Why do I need to worry about ISO when I have my flash? Flash brightens everything!" Because flash sucks.

Most people have cameras with flashes that pop up whenever there isn't enough light to shoot with. Direct, on-camera flash is the worst thing you can do to your photos. It's harsh, it's unnatural looking and doesn't it totally make whoever you're photographing blind? Stop using it. Instead of popping the flash up, change your ISO. Your results will be better, I promise.

One downside about shooting at high ISOs is the "noise". The higher ISO you use, the grainier (or noisier) your photos will be. Here's an example of a photo shot at different ISOs. See how the grain (noise) increases as you take your ISO higher?



For me, the trade-off is totally worth it. I'd rather have my image a little grainier than use that blasted flash.

Here's a recent example. While at the Experience Music Project, my family was recording a fake CD. It was really dark, but the light in the sound booth was this awesome pink color. If I had used my flash, it would have blinded Colin and blown out the existing light. Flash=suck.



So I bumped up my ISO to 6400 and shot! Sure, it's a little grainier than usual but to me it's a great trade-off.

Get out your cameras and play with your ISO. Feel free to link to some of the pictures you took!

Learn more about aperture here and shutter speed here.

Photo Friday: Lenses

At Bad Girls Weekend I was asked several questions about photography. I took several notes of questions some of the woman had and hopefully will start doing Photo Friday again to answer them.

Fingers crossed.

Today: Lenses

People email me all the time about camera recommendations. I usually tell new-er photographers to grab a Canon Rebel XTi but stress that your lenses are really a more important part of your camera. Most of the time the lenses that come as part of a camera kit are crap--I recommend buying the camera body by itself and then adding lenses.

So how do you pick a good lens? First, you have to think of what you'll be shooting. Do you want to shoot your kids playing outside on the playground? A newborn snuggled up? A flower garden begging for a close-up? Once you know what you want to shoot, it's easy to pick a lens based on focal length (how much you can zoom in) and aperture (how blurry you want the background to be) Don't zone out on me--I'll explain!

Focal Length

Every lens has a focal length. That is how close or far away from your subject you can shoot. Grab your camera and look at the lens - on the front where the glass is, there are some numbers and the letters mm.

If your lens has two numbers, like 18-55mm, that means it's a "zoom" lens. With a zoom lens, you can shoot things close to you and farther away. Many beginning lenses--especially if you got it with a kit--are zooms.

If it has just one number, like 50mm, that's called a "prime" lens. I love to shoot with prime lenses, mostly because they make me move around and I get new and different angles than if I shoot with a zoom. You can't zoom in and out, but that's what your feet are for!

Aperture

Aperture is one of those things that scares people! It sounds confusing but it's really not that tough to figure out. Trust me, if I can do it--you can do it!

Apertures are the same thing as F-Stops, so if you see an F before a number (like F8), we're talking about your aperture. The simplest way to explain apertures is this: the smaller the aperture number, the blurrier your background will be. The bigger the aperture number, the more in focus everything will be.

Think about what you want to shoot. Do you want a photo of your baby's toes, up close with the background blurry? Set your aperture on it's lowest number and zoom in close. Are you trying to take a photo of all the kids and the dog in front of your house? Set the aperture on a higher number to keep it all in focus.

An exercise: Change the dial on your camera to A or AV mode and change the aperture to the lowest number it will let you (check out your camera manual on how to do this) Shoot something still and see how it looks. Now change your aperture to a bigger number and shoot a few more. See how everything looks more in focus? Play with it and you'll start to understand it better!

A fantastic lens is the Canon 50mm (focal length) 1.8 (aperture) which is around 100 dollars! Nikon makes a 50mm too!

I use my 50mm 1.8 all the time! See in the picture of Kate below--just part of the picture is in focus? That's the 1.8 aperture. If I would have had it at a higher aperture (like 4 or 6) more of her body and background would be in focus.



Does that help at all? If you have any other lens questions, I'll answer them in the comments!

iPhone Pictures

*all pictures using ShakeItPhoto for the iPhone.

Vacation Pictures: North Carolina

After Seattle, Jen I went to Bad Girls Weekend. That alone deserves it's own post (coming soon) It was (as has been recounted on MANY other blogs) AMAZING!





And, oh the babies! So many chubby, gurgling six-month old babies. I might have gone a little baby crazy if I hadn't been puked on several times. Instant birth control.



We visited a house there called WhaleHead Club. Some crazy duck-shooting woman and her husband lived here. Together they were rich and shot and skinned ducks. Somehow I think the tour guide there wanted us to get more out of it. We did sneak off into several dark spots during the tour--which just ended up being basements.



More coming soon!

Vacation Pictures: Seattle

Seattle was AMAZING! We stayed with our good friends the Eggers. It was rainy, cloudy and cold--in short, PERFECT! I loved being able to wear pants without sweating, seeing snow on the mountains and showing the kids around Seattle.

We went to the Experience Music Project downtown and had a family jam session. Let's hope the CD of us yowling singing never makes it into public circulation.



Saw the local tourist traps. Colin didn't believe the throwing fish at Pike Place Market was an actual thing--we showed him!





Viva Seattle!

If I die, direct Blake to the freezer.

I've been obsessed with freezing things lately.

I think it started with burritos. Did you know you can make your own frozen burritos? I hate normal frozen burritos (leads back to my hatred of lame cheese and beans. Beans. Gag.) I'll link the good stuff--I don't think you guys care about my frozen flax seed muffin recipe.

Frozen burrito ideas here and here.
Frozen cookie/cookie dough here.
Frozen homemade french fries here.
Frozen meal ideas here.

*Ooooh, if you make burritos, use this Mexican rice recipe. It's amazing. Or use this crock pot chicken recipe.

Freeze on, friends.

Behold, The Funniest Picture Of All Time.

Yes, that is Blake getting hit in the nuts by Colin's elbow.

Yes, he's probably going to kill me for posting this.

Yes, I've snorted every time I see this.



*Photo Credit: Deann B Photography (mostly because I begged her for this picture)

Rain Gutter Shelves

My rain gutter shelves turned out awesome. Blake thought it was super weird that they weren't made out of wood. Or something that is designed to go on the inside of your house. Whatever.



We did them in Colin's room too. Just imagine this shelf, but filled with Star Wars books. They rule.

hot and not.

Hot. I made homemade granola using this recipe (What? Guys think making granola is hot. Haven't you heard the expression "Check out that girls granola making skills in that dress?")



Not. I got too interested reading Jane Austen playing the Wii, that it burned. Doesn't look to bad--taste like burnt wood chips.

Hot. I swear to you the entire Internet in on sale right now. Glittery (can you be glittery on the Internet?) sale signs. Buy this!

Not. I'm broke.

Hot. My family could so kick your family's ass.



*Photo credit: Deann B Photography

Hot. I would like to have her hair (not the roots, just the bottom part)



Hot. I have just hit the motherload for Christmas inspiration.





*Photo credit: Someone who is not me.

Not. Christmas is over (have you heard?) Internet, remind me next year.

Hot. Blake is building these for me today.

Not. After his nap.

What are your Hot and Nots?

i've assembled so many lego sets, i don't have the brain power left for post titles.