February Winner!

Thanks to all of our participants who submitted photos this month:

1.   Lee-Anne Thorton
2.   Bethany Hoskins - photo 1
3.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 2
4.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 3
5.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 4
6.   Melanie Smith
7.   Maxine Lozinski
8.   Mindy Smith-Bernard
9.   Juanita Stauffer – photo 1
10. Juanita Stauffer – photo 2
11. Michelle Kuijer – photo 1
12. Michelle Kuijer – photo 2
13. Carla Ganske – photo 1
14. Carla Ganske – photo 2

And using www.randomizer.org, a winner was randomly drawn:

Congratulations to Carla Ganske!  We will ship your Fancy Pants prize pack out to you shortly!

Stay tuned for the March tutorial and prize reveal tomorrow!

Cheers!

We’re back!!

Sorry about the delay in posting the last of the February submissions, and subsequent drawing of a winner – I’m happy to say that we survived our technical changes relatively unscathed and I’m back!! 

A bit of housekeeping – In the course of the technical changes, there may have been some dropped emails so if you emailed me and have not yet heard back from me, please re-send me your email!

And now to share the final submissions from our lovely readers!

Juanita Stauffer send me these two photos, using the Sunny f/16 rule:

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/16, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/16, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

Even though they are lovely, it’s hard to look at that snow when we’re so close to spring, isn’t it!?  Thanks for submitting, Juanita!

Michelle Kuijer, of ON, sent me two photos, showing her bracketed shots:

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/16, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

At these settings, the photo is underexposed due to the overcast weather.  Michelle opened up her aperture two more stops to f/8 for the next photo, for a better exposure:

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

Lastly, Carla Ganske, of AB, snuck in these two great photos of her kids:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi at f/16, 1/30 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi at f/16, 1/40 sec., ISO 100

 Thanks for your submissions, Carla!

As you can see from all of our submissions, the Sunny f/16 rule is only used as a guideline – more of a starting point for proper exposure of your image.  Using your bracketing will help you achieve your proper exposure, and as with all photography techniques, the more you practice, the easier and more automatic these settings will be!

I will post a winner for the February challenge tomorrow – and stay tuned for the March tutorial to be posted on Thursday!

Cheers!

February submissions

I’m a few days behind in posting submissions, because I’m obsessed with the Olympics this year!  At this time, the Canadian Men’s ice hockey team has just beaten Slovakia and will play USA for the gold medal on Sunday afternoon – will you be watching? 

Lee-Anne Thorton, of AB, sent me this lovely shot of “The Big Rock”, which is just west of Okotoks:

Taken with Canon EOS 30 D at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Lee-Anne used a 10-22mm lens and set her camera on the aperture priority setting with a polarizing filter and WB sunny.  Thanks for sharing, Lee-Anne!

Next, I received a few photos from Bethany Hoskins, of AB.  She first tried out the Sunny f/16 rule with a child’s toy on a bench:

Taken using Canon Rebel EOX T1i at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

She then moved the truck to a snowy background and took a few shots – first at f/22:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/22, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Even though the guidelines suggest using f/22 in snow conditions, you can see that the above photo is underexposed.  This could be because although she’s photographing her subject in snow, the surrounding trees provide enough shade to reduce the glare.  Bethany photographed the truck again – this time at f/16:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Bethany writes, “I struggled with this one - finding the correct exposure, even with these guidelines, seemed difficult.  I often find it difficult to find the right exposure to get good photos against the white snow.  It allowed me to practice the bracketing settings on my camera which is actually a really useful feature.  So thanks!” 

Bethany submitted one more, taken at the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit at the Calgary Zoo.   Because she was in the shade, she opened up her aperture two f/stops to achieve this exposure:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Thanks for your submissions, Bethany!

Melanie Smith, of NL, sent me this photo, complaining that the weather there is “for the birds”!  It’s not much better here, either, Melanie, if that makes you feel better!  

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS XT at f/7.1, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Because of the overcast weather, Melanie opened up her aperture to f/7.1 to achieve this exposure – Perfect!  Thanks, Melanie!

Another submission came from Maxine Lozinski, of AB – a photo of her pup, Maggie:

Taken with Canon Rebel SXi at f/11, 1/250, ISO 100

Notice how Maxine increased her aperture one stop to f/11, and in doing so, she increased her shutter speed a corresponding amount from 1/125 to 1/250 to compensate.  This is a perfect example of how the relationship of aperture and shutter speed works.  Thanks for sharing, Maxine!

One last submission tonight and it comes from Mindy Smith-Bernard, of ON:

Taken using a Canon Rebel XTi at f/16, 1/200 sec., ISO 200

I love the composition of this!  Thanks for your submission, Mindy!

Tomorrow’s the last day for submissions, so if you haven’t already, get outdoors and try our February tutorial – then send me your submission to be entered into a random draw for the February Prize Pack from Fancy Pants!

Cheers – and GO CANADA!!

February tutorial: Sunny 16 Rule

This month’s tutorial is a fairly simple concept to grasp, but its’ application can be difficult to use if you don’t understand the correlation between shutter speed and aperture. I discussed this correlation in the Spring 2008 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker, and again back in October, in Part II of that month’s tutorial.  However, since it’s so important in understanding photography, we will delve into it again a bit later on.

First, however, let’s look at the Sunny f/16 rule.  This guideline in photography was developed as a rule of thumb to achieve correct exposures without a light meter, while outside or in direct sunlight.  It states that “on a sunny day, set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the [reciprocal of the] ISO film speed.” (reference:  www.wikipedia.com).  So what does it mean?

Well, if you are shooting at an ISO of 100, the reciprocal of the ISO film speed would be 1/100, or the closest available shutter speed*  of 1/125 (*Note: many digital cameras deal in 1/3 increment values for shutter speed, but for this tutorial, I will deal with whole values only.  Thus 1/125 is the closest available shutter speed when considering this).   Therefore, the Sunny f/16 rule means that you can usually assume, when shooting with a film speed or digital ISO of 100, that an aperture of f/16 and shutter speed of 1/125 will give you the proper exposure on a sunny day.  This is also true for any equivalent setting.  This is where the understanding of the correlation between shutter speed and aperture kicks in!

To review:  Imagine that you have your kitchen faucet’s tap wide open, filling your sink to do a mountain of dishes.  At this speed, let’s say it takes a couple of  minutes to fill your sink with hot, sudsy water.  Now imagine that the tap is barely open, so that water is just trickling out.  It would take much, much longer to fill, right?  Aperture and shutter speed work the same way.  For example, per the Sunny f/16 rule, the following is a proper setting on a sunny day:

ISO 100 > f/16 > 1/125*

Now, as I described in the Spring 2008 issue, the following settings would be equivalent to f/16, 1/125 sec.,  at ISO 100:

f/22 > 1/60
f/11 > 1/250
f/8 > 1/500
f/5.6 > 1/1000
f/4 > 1/2000
f/2.8 > 1/4000

But what if I want to shoot our subject with a very short depth of field, as in our January assignment?  As per the above table, you would set your aperture to f/2 and your shutter speed to 1/4000, which is a very fast shutter speed.  You can also achieve the same exposure by changing your ISO, as we discussed in the October tutorial.  By using a less sensitive ISO speed, you can use a slower shutter speed.  Check your camera’s manual to see your minimum ISO speed.

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/16, 1/400 sec., ISO 400

But what if it’s not sunny?  Well, the following adjustments can be made to your aperture for variable lighting situations:

Sunny > use f/16
Slightly overcast > use f/11
Overcast > use f/8
Heavily Overcast > f/5.6
Dawn/Dusk > f/4

(Because of the reflective nature of sand or snow, you should DECREASE your aperture when following this rule to f/22)

The Sunny F/16 rule, like everything is not fool proof.  You may need to adjust your aperture a half-stop or more, if your subject is backlit.  It is best to use bracketing (see October tutorial: Part I) to ensure that you capture to best exposure.  Consider this example:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

When applied to this setting, the Sunny f/16 rule dictates that the optimum exposure should be f/16 > 1/125th sec., or the equivalent of f/11 > 1/250th sec.  However, in noticing that my daughter’s hat cast a slight shadow on her face, I decided to open up my aperture one more full stop to f/8.  While there is still a slight shadow, her features are visible and her skin tone is not overexposed.

Alright – are you ready to play along?  The trick will be to find a sunny day in the middle of winter – but you can use the chart of equivalents above for overcast situations!  If you have any question, please leave me a comment on this post or email me! 

Your February assignment:

Using this tutorial as a guide, apply the Sunny f/16 rule to determine the proper exposure for your outdoor photo.  Please remember to include your camera settings to be eligible for the draw!

Deadline: 11:59 pm EST, February 28th, 2010

Please submit your photo(s), using our submission form, for a chance to be entered into our draw. A randomly chosen entry will be drawn after the deadline. Please click HERE to review the rules regarding this draw before submitting. Please note – submissions that are not relative to the tutorial and/or do not abide by these rules will NOT be posted on the blog, or entered into the drawing.

Our February prize pack will be revealed shortly!

Happy Clicking!