The Camera

The Camera

1. The "obscura effect," or "dark room" in Latin, is how Greek and Chinese philosophers discovered how to work a camera. If you go to a dark room and focus light into a small hole in the wall, the image is projected onto the opposite wall upside down. It works because the small hole acted like a camera lens by focusing and showing the light on the wall.

2. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton and Christian Huygens became closer to understanding a camera by being able to make a high quality glass lens. 

3. In the 19th century, a man named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce added film to take the first photograph that took over 8 hours to expose. At this time, the camera consisted of a glass lens, a dark box, and film.

4. The modern camera is still a lot like the first ones our ancestors used. A camera still works by having light go through the lens and expose the film. Plus, in the end you still end up with a photograph.

5. At the same time, the modern camera is different from the first ones. Photographers no longer use plastic film. Instead, they use digital film. Now the photographs get saved onto a reusable computer memory device and they get put onto an electronic sensor called a CCD. Modern photography is cheaper and more environmentally safe than it ever has been.

Camera Modes

6. Cameras have many modes, two of them being Automatic and Program. These two are pretty similar but have a few differences. When using Automatic mode, the photographer doesn't have any control over the settings. The camera will take care of everything, including control flash and exposure. The Program mode takes control of most things and allows the photographer to change the control flash and a few other camera settings.

7.  Another setting is the Portrait mode. This mode is used for taking pictures of one main focus and blurring out the background. To get this result, the camera will use the fastest available lens setting or aperture.

8. The Sports mode isn't just used for sports. This mode is used when trying to stop the action within a picture. The camera will set it to have the fastest shutter speed.

The Half Press

9. You should use a half press on the trigger button because it will help you with three things. It will give your camera a faster response time, give you more control over the focus of the picture, and it encourages better composition. To do a half press, you press on the trigger button halfway. When you're ready to take the picture, you press down the rest of the way.

Controlling Flash

10. This symbol is called the "Disabled Flash." It turns the flash off so you use natural light. You would use this setting when you want a more dramatic photo.

11. This symbol is called the "Auto-Flash." It's an automatic setting and the flash will go off whenever the camera thinks it needs more light. You would use this if you are just starting out on photography and aren't sure whether to use a flash or not.

Introduction to Exposure

12. If there is too much light, your photo will become overexposed and will be washed out.

13. On the other hand, if there isn't enough light, your photo will be underexposed and your picture will be too dark.

The Universal Stop

14. A "stop" is a term used to show a change in the brightness of light. For example, if you have one lightbulb and add another, the light will increase by one stop. If you take the second one away again, it will decrease by one stop. 

15. If you were to go to a planet with two suns instead of one, the light would increase by one stop.

16. If there were four suns instead of two, the light would increase by two stops.

Shutters and Aperture

17. A longer shutter speed will give your photos more light.

18. A shorter shutter speed will give your photos less light.

19. The aperture is an opening in the lens, much like a pupil in an eye. The aperture reduces the brightness of light as it passes through it.

20. To give your photograph more light, adjust the aperture to have a larger opening. To do this, change your aperture settings to, for example, f4 to f2.8 to make it brighter. The lower the number, the more light will be let through and the brighter your picture will be.