Everyone has an outlet to release their creativity. Whether it is drawing, painting, digital art, to making music, expressing yourself is a way to keep yourselves sane in this busy world.
Recently, there has been a huge boom in social media over the last few years while also popularizing taking pictures. Everyone loves pictures. We communicate through it in Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and many other outlets. It is simple and it is easy. It is a fun and easy way to store those special moments and show off all the cool places you have been to, especially if you live in Los Angeles.
Lately, I have had a peak interest in photography. I have been already had experience in using my company’s digital SLR in taking product images for our website but had never got to picking up a camera for myself. With the holiday season starting, I saw an opportunity for a good deal on a camera and decided to take the plunge and got myself a Canon EOS Rebel T5 with an 18-55mm lense.
I’m still getting used to taking more photos in dynamic environments rather than a small photo shooting area where the lighting is always the same but some of the things I am trying to perfect are adjusting the ISO, aperture and exposure levels to take better pictures. Here is what I learned so far.
ISO – The ISO setting on your camera is the sensitivity to light. Lower ISO’s are less sensitive to light and higher ISO’s will make your camera more sensitive to the light coming in.
In other words, for darker settings, you want a higher ISO to increase the light sensitivity. Lower ISO’s are favorable in well lit settings since you do not need as much light. A high ISO in a bright room will make your photograph washed out so you will need to adjust accordingly to get a better image.
Aperture – The aperture in your camera is the amount of light that goes into your lense. It is a small hole in your lense where the size can be adjusted through the F-number setting. In this case, the smaller the F-number, the bigger the hole, and vice versa. How does this affect your image? A smaller aperture will make the focus of your image sharper, while blurring out the background. a higher aperture setting will make the entire image clearer.
Exposure – Exposure, or shutter speed, is how long your camera is exposed to light before you take the snapshot. A higher shutter speed will instantly take that image for you, allowing you to capture those special moments before they get away. A slower shutter speed will take into account the motion that occurs in your object. This is how you create those motion blurs of light in freeways at night, or smoky light trails from fire.
These are just the basics I have learned. If I have explained it incorrect or something is wrong, let me know! Photography is a fun hobby and living in Los Angeles, there are so many events and things to do, that having a decent digital camera is always a good thing to carry around. It is not as convenient to carry as a smartphone but you have much more control of how your picture comes out with on a digital SLR.
Here are some of my favorite shots I’ve taken so far! These were taken at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show. My shots are still a work in process but I can see this becoming a long term hobby!
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