A Fool-Proof Way to Make Better Photos Without Buying Any New or Fancy Equipment: A Photography Lesson in Two Parts (This is Part One)

That’s my Dad up there. My Dad is awesome. He is smart, witty, and can make or fix just about anything in his workshop. He once helped me build a castle and taught me the perfect free throw. He’s essentially the coolest. 

Since he’s so awesome, the last thing I want to do is take a bad picture of him and post it here on the Internet forever. (Yes, kids! The internet is FOREVER. Don’t post stupid stuff.) So when I’m snapping a photo of my dad or any other person that I love… the main thing I want to pay attention to is Light. 

In the above picture, you can see my Dad gazing longingly at the open sky and lake stretched out before him. He looks pensive and awesome. But see how glaring that Light is on his face in the first picture? It enhances the sharp features on his and face and gives a nasty shadow on his jaw… not awesome. 

Since the sun was coming in the from the left, all I did was hold up something in my left hand that was big enough to block the sun from his face. (A poster board or a friend holding a sheet are good places to start.*) Viola! A much better photo there in the second frame. I didn’t change any of the other settings between these two photos. (I did put it in black and white to make it easier to see the shadows, but both photos are editing the exact same way. 

So Here’s the Lesson: Next time you’re taking a photo of someone, pay attention the light. Check for harsh shadows and move them into the shade if you can, or reposition yourself to eliminate the sharp lines. If you’re standing under a tree, check for the leaf pattern caused by light filtering through— you can get some crazy, blotchy shadows if you’re not paying attention. Have fun and keep an eye out for Part Two! 

*Also, avoid taking pictures in direct sunlight. Clouds act as a natural light diffuser, which spread out the little light particles and makes shadows much, much softer. You can get the same effect as above by simply waiting for a cloudy day!)

Alright party people.

Photo Lessons are back and back with a vengeance. I’m not making any promises, but I’m going to try to do a new lesson/tip every week or so. And all the trees of the field clapped their hands SAY YEAH. 

So let’s get to it. Today we’re gonna talk about Depth of Field: AKA How to Make Your Photos Dreamy and Awesome Without Photoshop Just A Lifetime of Knowledge And A Little Math (which we will henceforth refer to as DoF:AKAHtMYPDaAWPJALoKAALM.) Aight.

So we’ve all seen or even taken a photo with a gloriously creamy and deliciously beautiful background: Maybe you’re taking a picture of your cat or a flower or your niece who just lost a tooth. You get up close, focus in real tight on the subject, and WHAMMO… creamy and delicious background behind your subject.

So what exactly is happening here? How can you purposefully make this happen in photos? Do I need to be a photoshopping ninja, blur tool in hand?

If you have your camera set on auto (which, ain’t no shame in that, people) your camera is automatically (huzzah! thus the name) doing some computations to ensure that you have a perfectly exposed photo. There are 3 distinct parts that make up that computation:

1. ISO
2. f/stop
3. shutter speed

Say what?

• ISO is the “film” sensitivity setting. Back in the day when it snowed a lot and people walked barefoot, up hill both ways, you had to buy different film depending on the lighting you would be shooting in. Shooting in the evening? Better get a roll of 800 ISO film. Shooting in the bright daylight? 400 ISO please. It’s all about how sensitive the film is to light.  The darker the situation, the higher the ISO needed. The brighter, the smaller the ISO.  *If you’ve ever taken pictures that have turned out grainy and you don’t know why, check your ISO. It’s probably really high. When the ISO is high, the film is more sensitive and therefore extracts more information out of the light it is taking in. So if it’s bright, your camera is all like WHOA WHOA GOTTA EXTRACT MAX INFORMATION YO but there’s a lot of light and a lot of info already so. Thus, the grain.* 
• Ok, but my camera doesn’t use film, it’s digital. Tomato, Tomahhto. Digital cameras use the same idea for ISO with their chips. So basically film sensitivity: chip sensitivity. 
• F/stop is the aperture, or the size of the iris in your lens. Think of it like your eyeball. When it’s dark (or you just went to the optometrist and your eyes are dilated) your iris opens up to allow more light in.  Essentially, the hole in your eye gets bigger because it’s dark and needs as much light to see as possible. Same with the camera. The wider your aperture, the more light gets into the camera. Now, the f/stop is actually a fraction (1/the number) so the “bigger” the number in the f/stop, the smaller the aperture/hole/iris. The smaller the number, the bigger the aperture/hole/iris. Smaller hole=less light, bigger hole=more light. Everybody with me?
• What does this have to do with getting a blurry background? That’s all I want to know! To understand WHY your camera gives you that blurry background, you’ve got to understand HOW the camera works. So we must press on.
• Lastly, the shutter speed is pretty self-explanatory. It’s simply how fast the shutter opens and closes after you hit your shutter button. This is also a fraction, but it’s time instead of space.  If you have your shutter set to 1/250 it will close a lot faster than 1/16. If you understand math, good for you. This probably makes a lot of sense. If you are dumb at math like me, just think higher number shutter speed=faster, smaller number=slower. Or, if you’re into food (like me) and you’re at a party where a pie is being split into 250 pieces, you should leave that party and go the party where they are cutting the pie into 16 pieces. You’ll get a better piece and that party is probs more fun anyway.
• The only catch for shutter speed is that it also determines how much light gets in. Think of it as opening and closing your front door in the summertime: The longer you leave that door open, the more your mom is going to yell at you because you are letting too much expensive A/C out. The faster you open and close that door, the less likely Mom is to yell at you and take you for ice cream.

So now that we’ve got the bones, let’s build the body. Combining ISO, aperture and shutter speed gives you your exposure. Right now we’re going to be focusing on aperture, since that’s what determines your Depth of Field and ultimately how creamy and beautiful your background is.

• Bigger f/stop number (actually smaller fraction and smaller hole, but bigger number on the bottom) will give you a Bigger Depth of Field. Bigger Depth of Field means you can see more clearly everything in the photo. In my example (f/22), you can see individual leaves, like the first time you ever put on glasses after being blind for the first 8 years of your life.
• Smaller f/stop number (actually a bigger fraction and bigger hole) will give you a smaller Depth of Field and will proportionally drop off the background, giving you that lovely look. (f/4 example and f/11 example for the midway between.)
• The creamy hexagonal/round orbs you see in the background of photos with a short depth field are called Bokeh. Trivia! 

PRACTICE: Here’s your homework.

• Put your camera on the “A” setting on the dial. (Note: this is not auto. This is “A” for aperture.) This will allow you to control the f/stop but the camera will compute the rest (the shutter speed needed for a good exposure.) Practice in the A mode until you get the feel for what the different f/stops will produce. 
• In the “A” mode, you only control the aperture but you still need to make sure your ISO is on Auto for the time being.
• Next lesson we’ll talk about Shutter Speed, then ISO, and then how to put them all together so you’re rockin’ full manual mode like a boss.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions! (Click on the photos to enlarge to see the differences in DoF)

See Also: Lesson #1: White Balance