Digital Photography Techniques for Learners
On the Antimuseum photo blog, we are mostly geared towards stories about photography, but from time to time, it’s good to be able to get into some serious technical stuff, such as digital photography techniques, for instance. Some of the things we will go over in this article are focal length, depth of field, speed and aperture, and photography in low light settings. All of these are pertinent to achieving the perfect photos in all aspects of photography.
Digital Photography Techniques for learners
Focal Length or lens sizes in photography
Focal length tells us the angle of the shot, how much will be seen in the picture we are taking. This can only properly be determined when the picture is correctly focused on your subject. This is something you must pay attention when buying a new lens and also when selecting which glass to take with you on a photo outing.
Your lens’s focal lens will tell you the angle you will get when you take a photograph. This factor affects what is in your shot and how small or large the subject is. The larger the focal length, the further the subject is and the less angle of view, which is how much will be in your shot. Conversely, the smaller the focal length, the smaller the subject, and the greater the angle of view.
50mm is said to be the standard focal lens, it’s more or less similar to what you can see with your naked eye. My favourite lens is a 35 mm vintage Nikkor lens. You can catch a glimpse of the kind of result it produces.
There are many different types of lens lengths, ranging from 4 mm to 300 mm, and these vary in being fixed, zoom, or telephoto lenses. A fixed lens is one where there is no zoom option, the focal length is fixed therefore to get a clear photo, you physically move to the proper location. A zoom lens is one that the camera does the work for you, it is automatic in that way. Neither of these is better than the other, it’s more of a personal or philosophical question on which is better really.
The widest lens is the fisheye, these can range from 4mm-24 mm and are used for landscapes and architecture mostly.
Ultra-wide lenses can range from 24mm-35 mm on average and are also good for landscapes and architecture. These lenses are not the best for portraits because they often cause the subject to become distorted around the corners. A wide lens will be better for portraits than the fisheye, though there are better options. This is a photo of a 15 mm-30 mm wide-angle telephoto lens taken by me at 15 mm for reference.
Yet, there are cases where 24 mm lenses can be used for portrait photography. However, these digital photography techniques aren’t meant for leaners.
The standard glass, perfect for everyday photography lens, is said to be the 50 mm lens. Not all photographers agree on that, though. As far as I am concerned, my favourite lens for all-around photography is the vintage 35 mm Nikkor f/2 lens. Yet, on my Nikon Z7, the standard lens is a 40 mm Nikkor f/2 Z Mount. In fact, anything between 35 and 50 mm will do. But 35 mm lenses will allow you to shoot both inside and outside of buildings without changing lenses, it’s also a great lens for portrait photography (as it doesn’t produce that much distortion) and this versatility is the reason why it is my preferred lens.
In my Antimuseum photography studio, for portrait photography, I favour an 85 mm fixed camera Nikon f/1.4 lens. It’s a lens which is ideal for portrait photography. This is a fixed lens, which makes me move around the studio and find the best angle. It helps me work with my subjects to create a good picture. Below is an example of one of my portrait photos, for which I used the 85 mm.
A telephoto lens is a long-photo lens that has a long focal length such as 300 mm for instance. Wildlife photographers will even use 600 mm lenses, which are very costly. On these, the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. These types of lens offer a narrow field of view and a shallow depth of field. This offers clear and precise photos, regardless of the distance from the subject. Telephoto lenses are very popular to take photos from far away from the subjects, coming in both fixed and zoom options. These lenses vary from 105 mm all the way up to 600+ mm. There are short, medium, and super telephoto lenses. Here is a comparison of a concert I shot using a 50 mm and 105 mm lens.
Depth of Field
Depth of field (aka DOF) is the part of the photo that will show up clear and focused, versus the parts of the photo that appear blurry. This is important to know so the viewer knows right away what the photographer wanted him or her to look at. Depth of field is important in photography because if you don’t have a proper depth of field for your photo, the viewers will not really know what they are supposed to be looking at. Sometimes, you want everything in focus if it is architecture or some landscape, which is deep depth of field, but this is not the case all the time. When you want to easily recognise the subject of the photo, a shallow depth of field should be used. It also removes distractions from the picture.
The photo below is from a recent trip I made to London, which uses a deep depth of field to show the road, houses, the sky, and everything in between. Deep depth of field is good for landscape and architecture shots, it is most popular in landscape shots to show off all of the beauty of the scene.
Conversely, below is another photo from London that I took using a very narrow depth of field. Narrow depth of field will help the viewer focus on a centrepiece but still appreciating the colours and shapes in the background. Here, I’m merely focusing on the ‘Private Gardens’ sign, but the green and purple flora in the background give depth to this piece.
No one that is better than the other, be it shallow or deep depth of field. It’s a matter of taste. It depends on what you prefer for the picture you are taking and the story you want to tell.
Let’s mention autofocus, here. Autofocus is a bit like letting your camera go on autopilot. It might be nice for sports with continuous autofocus to follow players, but if you want to retain full control over your pictures, there is nothing like the manual mode. Above all, I favour manual lenses, especially when shooting landscapes or architecture photos.
Speed vs. Aperture
Both speed and aperture are very important to the art of taking pictures. To operate properly, you need to have a balance between the two. Speed controls the amount of time the shutter is open for a frame, this is also called exposure time. The aperture is the size of the opening that controls the amount of light let in for a frame, these are f stops. On the Nikon Z7 mirrorless camera, the fastest shutter speed is 1/8000 of a second and the slowest shutter speed is 30 seconds. Longer exposure times on the latest mirrorless cameras can even be extended to 15 minutes and if needs be, the “bulb mode” will let you set the time of exposure to your liking. This will change depending on what you are capturing and how much light you need to let in during that timeframe. Aperture ranges from f 22, very small aperture, to f 1,4 which is the largest aperture. This controls the intensity of light that is let into the frame.
There are cases where speed will take priority over aperture to get the framing of the photo, or the opposite case to let enough light in, but without the proper speed no light will get in, and without the right lighting, what does the speed of the photo matter? These two can be tricky to balance, but finding the proper middle ground makes all the difference. The combination of speed and aperture together determine exposure, which is called f stops.
Below is a photo taken at the Longchamp horse races. This photo was taken with a 5.6 f stop for aperture, 1/1000 of a second speed, and 450 mm focal length with a multiplying factor to be able to attain this look. This was taken using a telephoto lens that ranges from 28mm-300 mm. What’s more, it was taken with a Nikon D7000 APSC camera with a 1.5 crop factor. This means that my 300 mm zoom lens had been turned into a 450 mm zoom lens. Using a full-frame camera like the ones I’m using now (D810/D850/Z7 all from Nikon), I can achieve the same result by cropping manually within my photo and retaining a photo that is at least as large as this one if not bigger.
Here is a link to a PDF full of technical descriptions of all of these photos taken by me.
I hope you will find this information helpful. In case you are wondering, we are all still learning, and as I wrote this I learned even more. Stay tuned for more pictures on this blog and more digital photography techniques which could be useful to you.
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Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris
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