Christopher Tillisch's Photography 1 Blog

  What is Natural Light? Natural light in the most simplest terms is light that is produced from the sun or the moon. Unlike artificial light, which allows the photographer to miniplate the light available, natural light can't be easily adjected. Natural Light Advantages and  disadvantages O ne of the best things about natural light in comparison is it is free, it doesn't require a huge investment in money, and it doesn't require much time or effort to setup. One of the biggest downfalls with natural lighting is the ability for adjustments relating to light and aperture?   What is Hard and Soft light? Hard Light: Is a type of lighting with a more dramatic   transition  in shadows from dark to light. Soft Light:  Is a type of lighting with a more gradual transition in shadows from dark to light. What makes light hard & soft? To classify a photo as either hard light or soft light, there are some key details you should note. Some include the dis...

What is the Rule of Thirds?      The Rule of Thirds in the simplest terms is a technique that good photographers use to capture and view a subject in a different perspective. Instead of Traditional photo that focuses on the subject in the center; the Rule of Thirds focuses on photo and subject in one section of the photo. A photo grid made up of nine sections with two parallel horizontal and vertical  lines that divide up a photo can be helpful when taking the subject from another perspective. Rule of Thirds - Horizontal When Utilizing a horizontal technique, you should line up the subject with either the top or bottom set of lines traveling horizontally. Off to the right is an example of the horizontal Rule of Thirds. Rule of Thirds - Vertical When Utilizing a vertical technique you should line up the subject with either the right or left set of lines ...

What is composition? Composition is the inside layouts, subjects and elements of a frame that makes a photo unique. Why is it important to understand & utilize composition in photography? It is important to understand this concept in photography due to many of the elements in composition having an critical effect on a wide variety of photos. Composition can also be broken down into different categories such as texture and perspective. Different effects on a photo can be achieved by modifying any of the key elements in composition. Aspects of a “snapshot”. A snapshot is any photo that focuses just on key subjects and objects in the frame. It is very critical to take and focus in on the subject as much as possible to make the object stand out as much as possible when viewing the photo. Aspects of a “photograph”. Unlike a snapshot that only focuses on certain objects, a photo on the other hand presents and focuses on the entire  frame in a photo rather then one subject. Taking a g...

       The definition of white balance in the simplest terms is any additional adjustments made to the colors and lighting of the photos to make the photo appear more natural during the final post production stage. It is important to adjust any cast colors to make the picture look more like the original because every source of light emits different color temperatures. Our brains are able to adjust the temperatures and colors of what you are viewing to change how you view a scene. Most DSLR camera's are somewhat capable of accomplishing similar results, but the only difference from the human eye is the camera is only able to guess the temperature color based off ambient light. While a DSLR is only able to take mostly accrete photos of a scene's temperature, it can run into some errors when taking shots in unusual type of lighting the camera does not recognize.  How is color temperature measured?      The temperature of a photo taken with a DSLR is ...

The exposure triangle in simple terms is how all of the three settings on a DSLR camera are dependent and interconnected with each other. The triangle is composed of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. All of the three key settings in the triangle have effects on the lighting and different photo manipulation techniques with applying the effects to the photo. For example, if you change the camera's aperture to a lower setting, you should also consider changing the ISO to a higher value to make the photo have more light. This is just one of the many examples of how changing one camera setting effects a different setting. It is also important for photographers to experiment with different values on the triangle so they can get the larger picture.   

Camera ISO's are one of the top three most important concepts in photography. ISO in simple terms is a camera setting on DSLR camera that allows for bighting or darkening of the scene when a photo is being taken. A low ISO's can also be useful to a photographer who is trying to capture a scene that is already bright, while a high ISO can come in handy when the photo is very dark to begin with. What is the visual difference between low & high ISO? The major drawbacks to using a high ISO is the photos you capture with have more grain or (noise) present in your photos. Even though you can capture more light with a higher ISO, it isn't always the best setting to use with different lighting. Having a low ISO will allow you to take a photo with more clarity compared to using a high ISO. This doesn't mean that using a low ISO's doesn't have it's own drawbacks as well. One of the major disadvantages of using a lower ISO would be the small amount of light that i...

Aperture in the simplest terms is the camera's ability to open its lens to let light pass through the camera. It allows the user to adjust the brightness and light that enters through the lens into the camera.  How does aperture affect  exposure ? Aperture is able to change the exposure of a photo by having many different results on a photo's exposure. When you change the aperture on a camera, you are changing the size of the camera opening to either allow more light into the camera sensor, or very small amounts of light in through the lens. Having your camera to have a high aperture will allow the camera to pass more light through the lens while a low aperture will result in less light being able to pass through the camera. How does aperture affect depth of field? Aperture effects the depth of field on how objects the foreground, and the background are in focus. If you want the background to have a burry effect and the closer object to be in focus, you should have a high...

The term "shutter speed" comes from the camera's shutter which acts as a curtain that moves in front of the sensor on DSLR cameras. The shutter allows for either large amounts of light in to reach the sensor, or very small amounts of light depending on what you are trying to shoot. When you take a photo with a DSLR camera, you will notice the clicking sound on the camera when the shutter is moving back and forth over the sensor. That is one of the major downfalls of using a phone as your primary camera instead of a DSLR.    How can someone measure a camera's shutter speed? Most DSLR's on the market display the shutter speed using either fractions or whole numbers of a second when configuring the shutter speed. When you take the photo, most camera will automatically attach the shutter speed and any other related settings used in the photo to be viewed when you put the photo onto a computer. How does it effect the camera's exposure? Any time you decide to change...

  What is a DSLR Camera?                                                                                                                    A DSLR camera in the simplest  terms stands for "Digital Single Lens Reflex" Camera. Many experts use a DSLR camera due to it's many functions and settings available for taking a great shot compared to other standard cameras.   How does a DSLR Camera Work? A DSLR camera works by first allowing light to enter in through the lens. The light then passes through the camera's aperture which allows a photographer to configure the amount of light that is able to enter past the aper...

Hi my name is Christopher, and I currently attend Cumberland Valley High School as a 10th grade student. I enjoy spending most of my free time working with computers and photographing nature in my backyard with my DSLR camera.  This is a photo of me and my brother Sean standing with a friendly squirrel who lives right across the street from me. We named the squirrel peanut because his favorite food is peanuts. Peanut doesn't seem to mind me taking photos of him as long as I feed him. I also enjoy editing my pictures using Microsoft Paint, PowerPoint, and Publisher. As you can see, this photo has been clearly edited and took me a lot of effort and time to produce this type of photo without using Adobe Photoshop.   What I enjoy doing with my free time                                       I enjoy to photograph nature that is in        I...