Hi and welcome to this series on photography basics, we will look at some initial concepts which are used in capturing images and how they will affect the image.  Now this applies to all forms of camera in one way or another even cameras in a mobile telephone as there are a number of new apps now allow you to alter some of the aspects were going to be talking about.  Pocket, bridge, mirrorless cameras and DSLR’s, these are all commonly operate using the concepts we will be talking about.

What we’re talking about here are the key elements in taking a photograph not about the camera itself but the elements that are involved in capturing the light used in taking the actual photograph. These include the initial three key points which are normally referred to as exposure triangle:

•          Aperture
•          Exposure
•          Sensitivity 

These are the three parts which we call the exposure triangle. We will look at each one of these parts in detail in the upcoming blogs over the next few weeks.  To start with, let’s look at Aperture.

Now accepting these three parts of the exposure triangle go all the way back to when photography first started. What we’re talking about here is not taking a photo with phone or a modern camera or even an old film SLR but all the way back to the really big cameras that you’ve may have seen in old movies.  These were basically large wooden boxes with a lens using a wet plate imaging process.

What used to happen is that photographers used to ride around in wagons of all things which turned into their darkrooms they took photographs on a metal plate or glass which is coated in chemicals, develop that and then printed directly from the glass or tinplate to get a positive or negative image.  This was always done in black-and-white as the chemicals and processed colour had not then been developed.  Colour images in the old days actually had people in the labs painting by hand the various colours onto the image.

The art of photography developed over time, they move from the simple wooden box camera through to similar large format camera and gradually got smaller and more compact wet plate versions.  Once a functional film emulsion was developed (Kodak-Eastman) which allowed the art to enter the media, enthusiast and consumer market.  As the number of photographer rose and being market driven, cameras moved toward the Kodak ‘Box Brownie’ (1946-57), then the Instamatic camera range (1960-70s) with the film used getting smaller and easier to use, all the way down to the disc camera, half the size of a postage stamp as well as being available on a cassette (110 or 125 size) which went into the back of the camera.  All these were easy to use, the film sent to a photo lab to be developed and printed.  Also then allowed for the Polaroid Land instant camera to be developed where a photo was taken, developed in your hand and then the carrier image was peeled away from the chemical emulsion. Throughout all of these variations of consumer level cameras the trusty 35mm film format became the staple for most although the professional studios still used medium format which is 2-3 times the film size.

To a large extent film was superseded by the digital age.  Although the first Charged Coupled Device (CCD) used in the original electronic camera was developed by Kodak in ~1975, consumer digital cameras took some time to be size, weight, cost and functional available for the general public in the 1990's.  Although there has been some resurgence in the use of film in the last few years.

So what does it all mean to us? Well the exposure triangle has always been there from the early days and even today plays a very large part in taking a photo. A lot of cameras and a lot of you may have just used point-and-click cameras or fully automatic modes on your camera or indeed use a creative setting on your camera. These manipulate components of exposure triangle to achieve a certain outcome be a back-lit scene bit overly bright seen it may manipulate the sensitivity or the exposure by using formal compensation so let’s have a look at a diagram to try and understand where this is coming from we can see is that each of the key points are the points of triangle but between those points variations can occur by moving the position of the measurement along that line we are just one of the three key aspects and that in turn will impact the photograph. Knowing I would get too complicated just now so will make each of his honest answer three key points however with the advent of digital photography and a couple other things that now come into play.

As abstract pattern last series 1 of the key decision points is what you’re going to use image for and how you may want to process or maybe even manipulate the image. So we need to look at things like the file type to be captured and maybe the colour space all of these things can be added to the triangle in the modern world. Most of these things are a single decision point so cannot adding a layer of complexity is just something that we sent at the start and then progress with. The only thing to remember is that if you decide to go with a compressed image type you may sacrifice information in that image but will talk about that later.

Hopefully this is whetted your appetite little and when would start talking about the three key areas in the coming weeks you’ll be able to put the elements of exposure triangle together and get a better understanding about why things work how they work and how you can use them to your advantage. Until next time, catch you later.