ootd on thanksgiving, 11/24/2016
It's gonna be our first time camping at RMNP. Therefore we need to know how we can stay at the RMNP campground and also what are their necessity. Our finding as below:
Moraine Park Campground - Open All Year
Water is typically on from mid-May through mid-September Click Here to start Reservation OR call 1-800-365-2267
Reservations are take 5 months in advance of desired camping date.
# of Sites: 247
Max RV: 30 feet
Elevation: 8,150 feet.
Reservation Period: Approximately mid-May through mid-September
First Come, First Served Period: Approximately mid-September through mid-May
Location: Moraine Park Campground is located in a ponderosa pine forest, just off the Bear Lake Road. The rolling terrain is also dotted with boulders. Many sites look out over the large meadows of Moraine Park.
Other Information: Moraine Park Campground can accommodate vehicles up to 35 feet and trailers up 27 feet. Commercial horseback riding is available nearby. Trails to several lakes and other scenic areas begin at or near the campground. Elk, mule deer and other large mammals are in the area. Ranger led campfire programs are held in the amphitheater at Moraine Park during the summer months.
Glacier Basin Campground (Individual and Group Sites)
Open from Approximately mid-May through mid-September Click Here to start Reservation OR call 1-800-365-2267
Reservations are take 5 months in advance of desired camping date.
# of Sites: 150 Individual and 15 Group.
Max RV: 30 feet
Elevation: 8,600 feet.
Reservation Period: Varies from year to year but typically mid-May through mid-September.
Location: Glacier Basin Campground is located on Bear Lake Road approximately 1/2 the way from US 36 and Bear Lake.
Other Information: Glacier Basin Campground can accommodate vehicles and trailers up 27 feet. Glacier Creek flows along the border of Glacier Basin Campground. In the campground lodge pole pines provide shade from the summer sun. Several trails pass near the campground, taking hikers to Spraque Lake, Glacier Gorge Junction, Storm Pass, and Bierstadt Lake. Ranger led campfire programs are held in the amphitheater at Moraine Park during the summer months.
Spraque Lake Accessible Campground
Open from mid-May through mid-September
This is a special wheelchair accessible backcountry campsite near Sprague Lake.
It is half a mile (1 kilometer) from the trailhead to the campsite. Click Here to start Reservation
# of Sites:2 (12 campers including a maximum of 6 wheelchair users.)
Elevation: 8,430 feet.
Key Regulations: If you are hearing or sight impaired and have a certified assistance dog, your dog may accompany you to this or any other campsite or trails in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Other: 3 night limit. <-- This may not be correct, please check at the Back Country Office.
Location: The Spraque Lake accessible campground is located on the south side of Spraque Lake just off the trail around the lake approximately 1/4 mile from the parking lot. Spraque Lake is located on Bear Lake Road approximately 3/4 the way from US 36 and Bear Lake.
Other Information: This campground is technically classified as a backcountry campsite and is controlled by the Back Country Office. See Backcountry Office for detail and reservations.
Aspenglen Campground
Open from mid-May through mid-September
# of Sites: 54 ("First Come, First Served" Basis.)
Max RV: 30 feet
Elevation: 8,230 feet.
Location: Aspenglen Campground is situated along the Fall River, just inside the Fall River Entrance on US Route 34, west of the town of Estes Park.
Other Information: Aspen Glen Campground can accommodate vehicle trailers up to 30 feet. Fall River borders the campground, providing a restful murmur as it flows from Fall River Pass, down into Horseshoe Park past the campsites. Commercial horseback riding is available nearby. Trails up to Deer Mountain begin at the campground. Elk, mule deer, Rocky Mountain Big Horn sheep and other large mammals are in the area. Ranger led campfire programs are held in the amphitheater at Moraine Park during the summer months.
Longs Peak Campground
(Tents Only-Open All Year)
# of Sites: 26 --Open Year 'Round On a "First Come, First Served" Basis.
Max RV: Tents Only
Elevation: 9,400 feet.
Location: Longs Peak Campground is situated just off of Colorado Route 7, nine miles south of the town of Estes Park.
Other Information: There is a three night stay limit during the summer; fourteen nights during the winter. Shaded by Longs Peak rising almost 5,000 feet above it, the campground is nestled among boulders and trees. Many people camp at Longs Peak Campground before and after climbing Longs Peak. Other Hiking and climbing choices exist in the area. A trail to Eugenia Mine and up to Storm Pass and Estes Cone Branches off from the Longs Peak Trail. A long hike on the North Longs Peak Trail leads from Granite Pass on the Longs Peak Trail to Glacier George and the Spraque Lake areas.
(West Slope)
Water is on from mid-May through mid-September.
This campground is not plowed in the winter!
# of Sites: 100 --Open Year 'Round On a "First Come, First Served" Basis.
Max RV: 30 feet
Elevation: 8,900 feet.
Location: Located on the west side of the national park, ten miles north of the Grand Lake Entrance.
Other Information: Shaded by a stand of lodge pole pine trees, the campground is in the Kawuneeche Valley near the Colorado River. The Never Summer Mountains are to the west. Moose, elk, deer and many other smaller animals are abundant in the area. Fishing in the Colorado River is a popular activity; a Colorado fishing license is required. Ranger led campfire programs are held in the amphitheater at Timber Creek during the summer months.
source:http://www.rmnp.com/
So based on this campground, the only campground that suit for us is Timber Creek because of the no reservation needed, all year long open and tent only campground.
More about Timber Creek campground.
Timber Creek Campground is open year-round on US Route 34 about eight miles east of the Grand Lake entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, and across the Continental Divide on Trail Ridge Road from Estes Park. The 98 sites are first-come, first-served; reservations are not accepted. Water to the campground is on from late May through September but here are no electric, water or sewer hookups at any camp sites. Firewood is for sale in the summer.
Camping fee $20/site/night. After water is turned off the fee is $14/site/night. Length limit: 30 ft motor home / trailer. No more than eight people and two tents, or one vehicle and one camping unit (tent, RV, or trailer/tow vehicle) may occupy each site. Additional vehicles must park in overflow parking areas. Checkout time is noon. Stays are limited to seven nights from June through September; and 14 nights the rest of the year.
Limited parking. Restrooms.
Park brochure and campground map (pdf) of Timber Creek Campground
Elevation: 8900 feet
I bet there's a lot of beautiful places that we want to see once we get to the Estes Park, but because of the time limitation we just just look into the most favorite activities among the visitors. The listed is based on the review from the other traveler website who already been there and he has suggested the most beautiful and must see places which as listed below:
10. Sprague Lake
Sprague Lake is just one of the many beautiful mountain lakes that can be found in Rocky Mountain National Park. Why visit this one? Well the setting cannot get much prettier with several large 12 thousand feet plus mountains as a backdrop. There is also a nice trail around the lake that will help you catch all those wonderful views.
9. Alluival Fan
What was created by a tragedy when a dam burst, hundreds of millions of gallons of water flowed into Estes Park killing 3 people, has turned into a interesting local to cascading water.
8. Cub Lake Trail
A family friendly hike to beautiful scenery is what you will find along the Cub Lake. It is also a wonderful place to see wildlife especially in the fall when large elk herds will congregate during their annual rut.
7. Bear Lake
Bear Lake is a trailhead hub for several trails. We highly recommend going to this area as early as possible in order to park near the parking lot if the lot is full you can always take the shuttle that serves that area of the park. I know you will be anxious to hit those trails, but make sure you save time to hike around the lake.
6. Sky Pond
The hike to Sky Pond is wonderful for the fit day hiker. There are plenty of things to see on the way there from lakes to waterfalls. The hike starts out around 9,000 feet and tops out at over 10,500 feet so not a hike you would want to do on your first day at altitude but one that should be done before leaving the park.
5. Old Fall River Road
A one ray dirt road that is much as it was when it was first made during the early part of the 20thcentury is what awaits the adventurers that take the Old Fall River Road. The scenery and views are incredible and offers something different for those that have already traveled the Trail Ridge Road.
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Adams Falls is probably the most popular waterfall in the park due to how short it is. If you are not much of a hiker then this is the hike for you.
Adams Falls is probably the most popular waterfall in the park due to how short it is. If you are not much of a hiker then this is the hike for you.
3. Estes Park
Estes Park is a gateway town to rocky National Park. It is just perfect not to commercialized like some other gateway towns that we have been to, but with enough attractions and other things that if a person wants to take a break from seeing the park they will still be entertained.
2. Trail Ridge Road
When I think of Rocky Mountain National Park this road is the first thing that comes to mind. This will road will take you to see the real mountain tops. Lots of things to see and do from this road and make sure you stop off by the Alpine Visitor Center.
1. Trail to Emerald Lake
Our favorite hike to do at Rocky Mountain National Park of course we have not done all the ones that want yet, but we definitely enjoyed our time on this trail. It took us by three beautiful alpine lakes and we got to see some wildlife up close. All-in-all it was just an excellent day hike. Happy Travels!
Source: http://plainadventure.com/
Hack 1 – Turn the flash off of automatic!
Camera manufacturers are often too eager to make the flash pop up even when it gets slightly dark. This is actually a retention tool for them. If the flash pops, the photo won’t look as good but people won’t be blurry because the flash freezes them in place. If enough new photographers see blurry photos (even though they are caused by improper photographer technique) they will assume something is wrong with the camera and take it back for a refund.
Instead, keep the flash closed and increase the ISO. In all the camera modes except Manual mode and Shutter Priority, increasing your ISO will cause the camera to increase your shutter speed to have a better chance of freezing people in motion. Now shoot the photo. It will use the ambient (available) light, which typically has more color and character instead of a bright face and black background.
Hack 2 – Get in close to your subject…then get closer
Most people think that they have to step way back and get a lot of space around the subject to get the whole scene. Your subject is not a mime that is stuck in an invisible box, it’s okay to cut off their foreheads, legs, or lower half every now and then! Try getting a close-up of someone’s face from the eyebrows to the mouth. Here is a quick example:
The problem with zooming way out for every photo is that it doesn’t make it plainly obvious to the viewer what is the point or subject of the photo. I’m a huge fan of subtraction – the less there is in your photo the better. The best images are simple and very clear to the viewer what “story” you are telling with your images.
Hack 3: Eliminate the clutter
This is huge! The best images are ones that are simple and have breathing room for the subject. Try to find the simplest background possible. It’s no different than walking into a super cluttered house versus walking into a clean minimalistic space with very few items to distract you.
If you are taking a photo of a person, take the extra second to look around and find a minimal background that doesn’t distract the viewer.
Hack 4: Look for repeating patterns
Ever hear someone say that a photographer “just has the eye for it?” I disagree. This is a learned skill, not something that you are born with.
As you walk around, take notice of buildings, windows, patterns in brickwork, etc. I was walking by a building I walk by all the time and something suddenly ‘clicked’ and I realized there was a really cool pattern in the brickwork I had never noticed before. I ran home and grabbed my camera to shoot it before I forgot again.
Hack 5: Shoot from interesting perspectives
I would argue that 99% of photos most viewers ever see are shot from eye-level where the photographer was standing – the same viewpoint we see 99% of our lives from. It’s no surprise when you go to the top of a huge building and look down at a city that it’s visually stunningbecause we don’t see that perspective very often. You see this birds-eye-view used a lot in food photography.
The same goes for getting down on your stomach and shooting straight up to the sky. Anytime you are afforded a unique viewpoint it’s always interesting to the viewer.
Hack 6: Look for symmetry
Your viewer will do backflips if you can find an image that perfectly reflects the same thing top to bottom, or right to left! How many times have we seen something every day then see a photographer create an image that is an entirely different view of that item?
I took a photo trip to Italy and consciously tried to capture as much symmetry as I could. Here is a quick symmetrical shot:
Always keep an eye out for perfect symmetry!
Hack 7: Straighten your lines
Instead of just clicking away when you see something interesting, take the extra second to make sure horizontal lines are horizontal, and vertical lines are vertical. We all have the habit nowadays of just pointing our cameras in the general vicinity of what we are shooting. I propose you take a moment and line yourself up perfectly with that building or person.
Hack 8: Max out the aperture
What most people perceive as “artistic” photographs (AKA better than most) are ones that use a big aperture (small f-number) to blur the background or foreground, to call more attention to a subject. If you are using a kit lens your aperture will likely only go down to f/3.5, which isn’t a very big aperture.
The biggest impact item, and cheapest investment in gear that can make your photos go from okay to awesome is a lens with a huge aperture. I recommend purchasing a 50mm f/1.8 new on Amazon for $130-200 (Canon 50mm f/1.8 or Nikon version) or you can usually find them in perfect condition, used, for between $80-150.
Hack 9: Know where the light is coming from, and the quality
It’s funny how easy it is to take great photographs if you are just simply aware of these two things. Think about this: if you are shooting a photograph of someone outside and the sun is directly behind him or her, they will show up as a dark silhouette. If all you did was switch positions with this person so they are facing the sun, they will be nicely lit.
Being aware of the direction and quality of light can also ties into step 4 above. I walked outside of a building, looked down an outside walkway and noticed the shadows formed a really cool pattern because the sun was very bright and coming in from the right. This made an interesting arch pattern that almost looked like an MC Escher sketch.
Hack 10: Use the Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is the simplest and most under-utilized tip in the book. Are you ready for the quickest and easiest lesson yet? Here we go: go into your camera and turn on the “Grid” function which will show a grid in your viewfinder with horizontal and vertical lines when you look through it. 99% of new photographers put their subject smack in the middle of the frame when they compose the photo. The viewer also sees 99% of photos with the subject right in the middle of the frame because they look directly at a person, item, etc. This gets really boring really quickly, as we discussed earlier.
The tic-tac-toe rule
Imagine a tic-tac-toe board when you look through your viewfinder. Some cameras have a ‘grid’ function you can turn on to see this through the viewfinder. You always want to line up the point of interest where the lines meet each other. When you compose your photo, line up the point of interest at either 1/3 to the right or left of the frame, and/or the top or bottom 1/3. You want to give your subject room to breathe in the frame.
I caught this at a huge Halloween party Miller-Coors sponsored. You can see who got the attention at the intersection of the top and left 1/3 marks. Note the people on bottom all line up with the bottom horizontal 1/3 line.
Wrapping up
If you follow these 10 hacks, your photography will take a giant leap forward. I recommend experimenting with one of these hacks per day for 10 days. After you get used to thinking about each one, you will eventually internalize the lesson so it will just happen instinctually. That’s when photography really gets fun. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Source: http://digital-photography-school.com/
My partner is going to have 5 days off day started from Wednesday until Sunday for this spring break in April 2016. So, we decided to go for camping and hiking at Rocky Mountain in Colorado.
The Planning
The total mileage is 1696 from my home Dallas to Estes Park, CO and is going to be 13 hours 15 minutes. We need to overnight in middle of the journey so, we choose budget hotel somewhere in Pablo CO. After that we will be headed to Denver,CO if possible for lunch before we continue our last stop to Estes Park as we need to get the permit before we can overnight camping at the park for two nights. By the way, we need to call them two days ahead before we came. We going to have our dinner at the park and then go to sleep for tomorrow. We going to have a breakfast before we start out hiking. Then we going to stay overnight again before we go back home tomorrow. Then after have our breakfast on the next day, then we will start our journey to home and then overnight at Amarillo,NM before continuing our journey.
The car rental and mileage
To save mileage for our car, the best option is to rent the car from Enterprise. Total cost for deposit and taxes included is gonna be 200 dollar and the gas cost is around 200 dollars. Thanks to Obama for the low gas prices now.
The lodging
It is impossible for me to drive all the way to Estes Park, so we have to overnight somewhere in the middle of the journey. For this trip, we already made the reservation for two hotel in Pablo and Amarillo. The total cost for both hotel is 92 dollar.
The food
We are going to do fishing over there and just bring some protein snack, fruits and some raw eggs. We need to buy the UV filter water as we going to get the water from the waterfall at the park.
The camping gear preparation
Well, because this is gonna be our first time of camping and hiking, we do not have any of those gear and any experience at all except when we were young. So for the mental preparation, we look at others video on YouTube who teach us how to camping and the preparation of the gear and due to tight budget, we have to do more research on the gear that we need to bring on. Over there, they do have the camping gear for rental, but we decided to buy it because the cost of rent and to buy is almost the same and also we can keep the stuff for our next adventure. After done some researches ,these are the list that we bought from online and at the store nearby:( Please watch the video below). Some of item like hiking shoes which is not included here is because we do not need it because we already have one. All item just basic item that you might needed during your camping. So feel free to bring along what ever u think is necessary for you.
Assalamualaikum (Peace be uponed you).
Lil' bit about me
My life adventure has started when I was still in second year in University Putra Malaysia in 2001. I enrolled into the University in 1999 with Bachelor Degree in Aerospace Engineering. Sounds tough huh. You bet! Many of my friend had to change course to Science Physics due to lack of performance on the second year but I trusted my intuition and took the challenges and finally graduated in February 7th 2004!
Youth Project
In August 2001, there was a project from Minister of Youth and Sports with Kelab Rakan Muda Penerbangan dan Rekreasi to select only 16 trainee pilot. We also acted as a small ambassador to give a letter invitation to Asian countries which involves with the Sea Games XXI. The project was lead by Captain Latif Endot ( Now a Datuk) cum as a Professional Pilot together with 16 selected successful candidates. It was going to be the world of records for Malaysia!
The selection process
I still remember the day I was being selected among 40 candidates. I still could not believe it myself! The training started about 2 weeks at Rakan Muda HQ in Kuala Lumpur. After the training then all candidates had to take 7 papers and had to pass at least 70% for each paper in order to be qualified as a trainee pilot.
The Successful Candidates
The 16 successful candidates were:
Aziaton Masribut, Wan Mohd. Safuan, Tan Soo Min, Mohd. Fadlynizam Mohd. Razali, Nadia Mohd. Khairi, Shahrizal Azley Suleiman, Delwin Teo Kok Fong dan Mohd. Khairul Kamaruddin.
Mansor Sarip, Mahadi Kamal, Zaini Zainal, Sivanesh Balakrishnan, Noryuszalina Mohd. Yusop, Julian Tan Kok Ping, Norfazilah Abu Haris dan Mohd. Razman Faizal Sulaiman
All candidates were required to take physical test before Jabatan Penerbangan Awam Malaysia (DCA) can issued a valid Student Pilot License( SPL ).
The Expedition
The expedition was started on July 15th 2001 and ended on August 31st 2001. We flew to Singapore, Thailand, Philippine,Brunei,Thailand,Indonesia,Vietnam,Laos and Cambodia with 3 experimental aircrafts; Eagle MD3, Zodiac and RV6.
That was once of a life time experience for me even though I need to take a retest on my second exam on the next day!
Alhamdulilah (Praise be to God ) for everything!
Photos:
I hope this story of us can inspire others and the government can produces many more talented youngster and build great projects for them. I am hoping so much that Malaysian can be a great nation and example for others to follow. Also, I want the Prime Minister to recognizes our effort as we gives full commitment on this expedition. What we want is our name will not be forgotten and can be printed in Malaysian Book of Records whom flew 8000 miles nautical with the Malaysian experimental aircraft and sacrifices their life and time for our beloved Malaysia, Tanah Tumpah Darahku!
More article about the expedition. Please read here:
Artikel Penuh: http://ww1.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2001&dt=0715&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Rencana&pg=re_07.htm#ixzz41xGnNacR
© Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd
Ski trip to Red River New Mexico 2016
This year winter we were excited to plan our trip for skiing. After done some research, the nearest place to go skiing was New Mexico. It took about 10 hours to get there but because I was the only one who was driving, so we decided to overnight at Clayton after tiring 7 hours driving. Next morning, after breakfast we drove again for another 3 more hours. I did not feel tired at all because of the breathtaking views welcoming us along the way ;). S before going for skiing we ate our brunch at the cafe nearby the resort. Actually we bought our lift ticket including rental fees from Groupon for 60 dollar per person. Unfortunately, after we just realized that the coupon can be used only not peak season. Man! but fortunately they allowed us to use the coupon after we paid the difference amounts. So actually we paid the full amount of the ticket. So because our budget was so tight so we just decided to buy for one day and then before heading home on the next day, we again stop at one of the coolest lodge at Sierra Bonita Lodge in Gudalaputa. Well, even our trip was so short, we still had much fun!
Last week we went to Brazos Bluffs Ranch for horse back riding. One of my favorite activity to do during winter. We got a super deal, 55 dollar for two for 60 minutes ride from Grupon. wohoo!!! I was super excited even though I have to drive about 1 hour 39 minutes from home. The ride was so fun though I could not took many photos. So people from Texas, if u guys looking for something to do with your family, I recommend this as you can enjoy this ride while enjoying the beautiful scenery along the trail. Please enjoy our latest short video from Homsis Video Channel.
Last week I covered the three things you should do if you buy a DSLR or mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. Second and arguably most important on that list was mastering your camera's "Manual" mode. Here we're going to dive into exactly how that's done.
In "Manual" mode, you take over the decision making for your camera. You ask yourself What am I trying to show in this image? How do I want it to look? How do I gather enough light to get the job done?
The answer to all those questions rests in three settings: shutter speed, aperture (aka "f-stop"), and ISO. They all do different, important things, but each impacts how much light your sensor absorbs. If they're out of balance your shot comes out under- or over-exposed. But understand them and you can push your photography to levels impossible in "Automatic" mode.
Here's how they work.
We'll start by exploring shutter speed.
0.4 seconds; f/9; ISO 50 (Note: I've listed the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO numbers under each image in this slideshow where they were available. Don't worry if they don't make sense yet. By the end of this post they will.)
Shutter speed is the easiest to understand of the three settings.
Think of your camera as a dark room: shutter speed is the length of time its door stays open and light flows in. The longer you leave the door open, the more the room fills with light and the brighter your image gets. Slow shutter speeds lead to brighter images. Fast shutter speeds lead to darker images.
But there's a hitch: If you leave the door open too long, the objects in your frame have time to move and can smear your image. This creates motion blur.
Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds, with the rare exception of cameras like the Hubble Space Telescope that need to expose for hours or days to take in enough light.
For the image above, I asked TI digital culture reporter Kim Renfro to whip her hair back and forth. Exposing for 0.4 seconds – a very slow shutter speed – her whole head appears as a featureless blob. Moments later I took another shot, this time exposed for only 1/1000 of a second.
1/1000 sec; f/1.8; ISO 1250
Suddenly, Kim is frozen in time and space. (Note how I changed the other settings as well to account for the 400-fold decrease in time for light to flow in.)
Unless you want to see motion blur in your image, like in the lens-swinging football photo at the top of this page, your shutter speed should be fast enough to freeze your subject in place. Any faster and you'll likely have to compromise your ISO to get enough light (more on that later). The one exception to this rule is bright sunlight and other situations so brilliant you actually need to speed it up to keep light out of your camera.
Here's what shutter speed looks like on my Nikon's right-side display. The number "50" means 1/50 seconds:
Since every camera is different, you'll need to look through your user manual to learn how to adjust shutter speed on your camera.
Here are some general rules of thumb for shutter speed:
- Your shutter speed fraction should almost never have a lower denominator than your focal length (the "zoom" of your lens, measured in millimeters). So if you're using a 50 mm lens your shutter speed probably shouldn't be slower than 1/50 seconds, if you're using a 200 mm lens your shutter speed probably shouldn't be slower than 1/200 seconds. This keeps the shake of most peoples' hands from blurring their images in normal situations.
- At around 1/160 seconds your shots will freeze most normal human gestures. But don't be afraid to go slower in a dark setting if your subjects are still enough.
- At around 1/800 seconds your shots will freeze most sports. You're going to have to go faster to stop a baseball pitch or hockey puck though.
But these aren't hard and fast rules. The better you understand shutter speed, the better decisions you'll be able to make in each situation.
Here are some images from out in the wild. Even though the room was dark, I shot this image at high speed in order to freeze every droplet in the air:
While for this one I slowed the shutter way down and held the camera steady in order to best capture the soft light:
In this image the shutter speed matches the police officer, but lets the train blur:
The flash in this shot freezes the scene in place. A long shutter leaves a ghostly after-image in the color of the club's light:
Next, let's talk about aperture (aka f-stop).
1/400 sec; f/1.4; ISO 200
If shutter speed is the length of time your camera's door stays open, aperture is the measure of how wide it opens.
This has two key effects.
First, wide apertures allow in more light, while narrow apertures allow in less light.
Second, wide apertures leave more of a scene out of focus than narrow apertures.
The second point is a bit difficult to understand at first, but it's important. Look at the image above. See how the highlighter is in sharp focus but almost nothing else is? That's because this was shot at a very wide aperture.
Now look at the image below:
1/80 sec; f/11; ISO 2000
See how much sharper the rest of the scene is? That's because the aperture is much narrower here.
You don't need to understand why this is in order to use it, but for the curious a good mental shorthand is flowing water.
Shoot a jet of water through a long, narrow opening – say, a hole drilled in a dam – and all the molecules should move in a fairly straight line after coming out the other side. In your camera, all the photons end up pretty much in order after zipping through a long, narrow aperture. So even those not focused by the lens end up somewhere close to where they "should" be.
But take some dynamite and bust that dam open and the water is going to crash all over the place. There are just more routes for water molecules to pass through an opening that broad. The same thing happens in your camera at wide apertures. Except for a very narrow band focused by your lens, the photons scatter creating a blur.
Here's the aperture reading on my Nikon, known as an "f-stop":
As your f-stop number goes down, your aperture gets wider. That means an f-stop of f/2.8 is wider than f/3 but narrower than f/2.
Here are some things to keep in mind about aperture:
- Wide apertures' blurring effects are more pronounced when the object in focus is closer to the camera.
- Wide apertures can help your subject pop from the background, but you lose the context and detail of your composition.
- Some lenses show a "vignetting" effect at their wider apertures. This is a circular shadow around the edges of your frame – an optical effect of the glass in your lens. Some people like it. Some people don't. Instagram filters usually add fake vignetting.
- Make sure your aperture is narrow enough that you can keep your subject in focus as it moves. The fastest sports photographers may shoot wide-open, but the rest of us have to compromise.
- Better lenses have wider maximum apertures than cheap ones. Many top-tier primes go as wide as f/1.4, and most good lenses go as wide as f/2.8. Junky kit lenses often contract from f/3.5 to f/5.6 or narrower as you zoom in.
In this shot, I kept the aperture narrow to keep all four actors' expressions in focus:
While in this one I opened the aperture wide to see the fencer's expression through her blurred-out mask:
For headshots, I usually aim for a middle ground:
The last important camera setting is ISO.
1/1000 sec; f/9; ISO 25,600
Look at the camera settings for this image. The shutter only opened for 1/1000 of a second, and the aperture was only f/9. That means that light had just a sliver of time to slip through a pinprick into the camera. So how did this shot of the Tech Insider newsroom (half-empty for lunch) not come out completely black?
The answer is ISO, or the sensitivity of the camera's sensor.
When your camera is set to a high ISO, it absorbs more light. When your camera is set to a low ISO, it absorbs less light. It's an easy way to brighten or darken an exposure without changing your shutter speed or aperture.
Of course, there's one big honking disadvantage to just raising your ISO every time you walk into a dark room. The higher the ISO of your image, the grainier it comes out.
Here's an image shot in the same lighting as above, but with the aperture and shutter speed adjusted to allow for a much lower ISO:
1/50 sec; f/2.8; ISO 400
Generally, more expensive cameras add less grain for each step up the ISO ladder. Here are some basic guidelines for working with ISO:
- Under-exposed images tend to be grainier than over-exposed images at the same ISO.
- On a professional-tier camera, grain should stay within acceptable levels until about ISO 3200
- On a quality consumer DSLR, grain should stay within acceptable levels until at least ISO 2000
- Most cell phones and other point-and-shoots show serious graininess after around ISO 800
- If you're shooting in the studio or outdoors during daytime, keep your ISO to your camera's minimum – usually 100 or 50.
Here's what the ISO reading looks like on my camera. I have to hold down an "ISO" button to make it appear.
I bump my ISO up most often when shooting news, where I have no control over a scene's timing or lighting.
This hard-right Israeli settlers' march through an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem took place well after midnight.
Most of the settlers kept their backs to the bright streetlights – as did the police. You can see grain in the images, but my wide-open aperture leads to a bright enough exposure that it's not overwhelming:
Let's review!
Shutter speed is the length of time a picture is exposed. Slow shutters let in more light but allow motion blur. Fast shutters let in less but prevent motion blur.
Aperture is the measure of how wide a lens opens for a picture. Wider apertures let in more light and have a narrower plane of focus.
ISO is the sensitivity of your camera's sensor (or of a roll of film) to light. Higher ISO comes with more grain.
Go forth and capture the world in your lens.
Source: http://www.techinsider.io/how-to-take-great-photographs-2016-1
