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PHOTOGRAPHY
Back to Basics
(Or what the heck am I doing?)
Photography is a passion to some, a hobby to most, and a habit to others, but whether or not you are in thrall of photography or are just doing it for a family album there is always a touch of pleasure when you press the button to take a picture.
Back in the film days, we you snap a picture, use the film up on the dog or the car, send it off for processing and a week later they would arrive back. If you had a good picture you were on top of the moon, if you had a bad picture, you would berate yourself for wasting film.
Digital is now the leader, and while faster it is certainly not cheaper, especially when you come to buy your first camera, for a half decent one you will have to pay over £200, not like the film days when a good camera would only set you back about £20 and the film was £2-3 per roll of 24exp.
Now when we take our photograph, we don’t sent it off to be processed, instead we load them onto a computer and if you have an editing software program, you can spend hours mucking about with the images. No waiting.
With the demise of film, there has become a great space where people buying a digital haven’t got the faintest clue how to use it properly. They can use it in auto mode, pressing the button and getting a picture but the range and scope of the camera is greater than that, it’s a shame that so few actually know how to do anything more.
I would like to talk a bit about various camera settings, what they mean and what they do. I won’t be filling this up with technical talk; I’ll leave that for other people to do.
First of all, you will need your camera’s manual. It will tell you where the various features and settings are in the menu/on the camera. Get your manual and camera before reading this, go through each section, referring to the manual and winding out how to change or at least look at the different settings on you camera.
It is important to realise that each setting affects the other settings, understanding how each works and affects the others is the key to mastering your camera.
Every camera is different, however all share a common language: ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, White Balance, Quality. I’ll be covering these in sequence…
ISO
Iso is the film speed of the sensor (confusing, I know, but hold on) To put it in basic terms, the lower the number of the Iso, the longer it takes for the sensor to capture the photograph, the higher the Iso number, the faster the sensor can take a photo.
The ISO only affects the sensitivity of the sensor (the digital film) nothing else.
With speed, comes image degradation.
The faster the Iso (higher number e.g., 800) the less smooth/more grainy the image. The opposite is true also; if the ISO is set to a slower rating (e.g., 200) then the image will be smoother with hardly any sign of grain.
(Grain is noise in the image, it looks rough and gritty)
Like anything it comes down to a choice, do you want smooth noise free pictures, the downside is that you may need to put the camera on something steady, like a rock or tripod. If you don’t mind a bit of grain and you want to be able to hold your camera, a higher Iso is just the ticket.
In bright daylight, a low Iso will be fine, your settings will allow the camera to be held with out any fear of blurring.
For sunsets, a low Iso might be desired for a smooth, creamy looking sky, but the light levels are pretty low so you will get blurring if you hold the camera, a sturdy rock or tripod will be needed.
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Another Back to Basics by Michelle Jones This time about the 'rule of thirds' Michelle has written this article to carry on from he 'Back to Basics' article to help you get more from your camera
I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.