Currywurst and Fleamarkets

A cold and chilly weekend in Berlin. We had our last guests for the year and had a fantastic weekend sampling some of Berlin's best weekend fare. Currywurst, brunch at Anna Blume and then fleamarket rummaging at Boxhagener Platz.  I managed to pick-up an old Polaroid which I was promised still worked - I ordered some film from The Impossible Project yesterday and now I just need to wait and hope that the camera is still in working order.

Amazing Aperture

This week we're talking about aperture.  For me, aperture is where the real fun of photography is, but it's also the most counter-intuitive.  Aperture does two things - it is another way of controlling how much light your camera receives and it also controls your depth of field.  Depth of field is a fancy way of describing how much of your photo is in focus.  These two aspects interact, but I'm going to explain them separately as this makes the most sense to me.  

Aperture as a control mechanism for light.

Loosely defined aperture is how wide your camera's shutter opens when it takes a photo.  This is different to shutter speed.  Shutter speed is how quickly your shutter opens.  I'm a visual learner and I find that the easiest way to explain this is via a "clapping" demonstration.

1. Bring your palms together in a prayer or clapping position.  Now, slowly move your hands out until they are about 30cm apart and then bring them back together.
2. Repeat this process, but this time do the movement quickly.  
3. The difference between step 1 and 2 is shutter speed.
4. Repeat step 1 (seriously)
5. Now, repeat this process at the same speed, but this time only separate your hands by 10cm
6. The difference between 4 and 6 is aperture.
7.  Repeat, draw a diagram, say it aloud.  Learn the difference.  It's important.

Aperture is measured in f-stops with the narrowest being around f/22 and the widest f/1.2.

Looking at the diagram above it is easy to imagine which lets in the most light.  F-stop numbers such as f/16 and f/11 let in a smaller amount of light compared with f/4 and f/2.8.  Notice how I've resisted using the terms "bigger" and "smaller" - that's because when we talk about aperture, the bigger apertures are f/2.8, f/1.4 and the smaller apertures are f/16 and f/11.  

Aperture as a mechanism for controlling light matters (again) in poorly lit situations.  As well as raising the ISO to increase the amount of light reaching the camera (see ISO post here), we can also increase the aperture.  A wider aperture such as f/2.8 will let in more light which will allow us to have a quicker shutter speed.  If you're confused about this, do the clapping demonstration again and imagine the amount of light entering through your hands while they are separated.

In these three photographs I set my camera to Aperture Priority and the only thing that I changed was the aperture.  In order to correctly expose the photograph the camera had to have a faster shutter speed to compensate for the wider aperture setting.  (Note: Lenses with wide aperture are often called quick for this reason). The only other difference between the first photo and the two below is that I edited it slightly to increase the colour saturation of the foreground flower to make it stand out a bit more.

Next week: Aperture as a mechanism for controlling depth of field

365 review

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has left suggestions for what to do in New York!  Seems as if I'm going to have to make a trip to the High Line and perhaps while I'm down that way wander around Chelsea.

I'm into my second month of the 365 challenge and it's getting both easier and harder.  I'm finding it easier to remember to take the photos but with the days shortening I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find time to take a photo before or after work.  I missed four photographs in October, most of them due to light issues.  

This month I'm planning on joining Justine Gordon for a 'black and white' month.  Black and white photography is a little more forgiving when it comes to lighting and I've recently fallen in love with this medium after going to an exhibition of Marianne Breslauer's work.  If you're interested in joining Justine (or me) in the black and white challenge you can head over to her blog or visit the flickr stream.

Here's my favourite from the first five days

New York

In a little under two weeks I'm going to be here! Even more exciting, that means that I'm beginning my holidays.  Well, kind of anyway.  I arrive in New York on Friday afternoon, have a meeting on Saturday and then fly to Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.  I am dreading the New York - Melbourne flight.  I've done it once before and promised myself that I'd never do it again.  Well, I eat my words.

But if you guys did the maths like I did I have roughly 24 hours in New York to myself.  What should I do?  I don't really have long enough to venture very far and I'm staying near Pen. Station.  Suggestions?  Coffee, vintage markets, secret photo places... I want it all.  

London

Rather stealthily last weekend I popped over to London for a surprise 30th birthday party. It was such a wonderful weekend full of good food and the very best of company.  For extra special "surprise value" we all bumped into each other at Kings Cross and St Pancreas tube stop.  This meant lots of phone calls and text messages to ensure a good 'meeting spot'. If you don't know London, Kings Cross is literally heaving with people on a Saturday morning and trying to find anyone in the crowd even when you're both looking for each other can be challenging! But we found each other and ended up having a delicious lunch at the River Cafe before being really very lazy on Saturday and camping out in front of the TV with cheese, biscuits and a bottle of red wine.  And on Sunday... we went shopping.  My first visit to Liberty and it didn't disappoint!

October Photo Hunt

My submission for the Photo Hunt Challenge. Twenty photos over one month doesn't sound like a lot but it was a challenge in the truest sense.  Many of these photos have been posted here over the month, but I needed to put them all in one post for review.  

Oh... and I'm sure that the old man in the 'Dining photo' is famous, but I have no idea who he is - he's British is the only clue.  Politician, Actor? Am I making it up?  Please help me out!

In Disguise

Crisp

Fall Colours

Jack O'Lantern

a shot from the ground

a landscape

a fall tradition - Oops, forgot about this one.

books

Dining

Child

Faces in Nature : (pulled from the archives). If you squint hard, on the bottom right there's an old woman. I really struggled with this one!

Tilt-Shift Photography

B&W with selective colouring

bokeh

best photo of oct 23rd

from the kitchen

something vintage

something creepy

something golden

a self-portrait

Reflections

Short and sweet this week, but a great effect...

Over the last couple of weeks we've been talking about ISO and Shutter speed.  I thought it might be fun to turn back to composition.  Today I'm going to be teaching you all an incredibly simple trick which can give you really cool effects.  It's also a technique that is difficult to execute unless you use Program Mode or Automatic and can be done with any camera.  Today we're talking about reflections.

First step:  Set your camera to program mode or automatic.  If you're using automatic, make sure you switch the flash off.

Second step: If you can, adjust your ISO to an apropriate level

Third step: Find some water - it doesn't have to be particularly deep or big - the photo on the left was taken using a muddy puddle which only had about 1-2cm of water in it.

Fourth step: Try to get your camera as close to the water as you can, without actually touching it.  The camera body and lens should be at a 90 degree angle to the water surface.

Fifth step: Take your picture! 

Sixth step: Have a look and laugh about how bad you are at keeping your camera straight.

Seventh step: Repeat steps 4-6 until you are happy with the photo (be patient, you'll get better at it).

That's it!

I told you - easy-peasy.  And you can do this with almost any body of water.  The best reflections will come when the water is still, although you can get some creepy looking effects with all the trees going loopy by throwing a few sticks into the water as you take the shot.

Fun, huh?

Next week: Aperture