Basic Photographic Skills & Principles.

[Michael Slowe]

This may not be the right forum for this but the 'Newcomer's' one doesn't seem to be much frequented.

I am constantly amazed at some of the posts to one of the professional forums on the Creative Cow (great by the way). People are asking questions indicating a astounding lack of the basic skills of photography. They are asking how to lessen your depth of field for instance. This is a desirable objective given that the size of the chips used in video cameras (and this even applies to the bigger chipped high end cameras), gives too great a depth of field compared with a 35mm still camera.

The simple rule of thumb is that the longer the focal length of a lens (or zoom setting) the shallower the DoF and if combined with a larger aperture setting (low F numbers) the required effect can be facilitated. With a still camera you can of course ensure a wider aperture setting by decreasing the amount of light entering the camera by using a high shutter speed. With video this is not possible without risking undesirable side effects so you have to use neutral density filters to decrease the light supply. Usually these filters are built in to the camera spec.

We all know these principles don't we? However it seems that even people making a living from video never became proficient with a still camera in the good old film days. Modern 'press button' technology has encouraged a very slip shod approach.

[Brian Saberton]

I've always advocated that anyone buying a camcorder should study the principles of still photography and not only that but also to visit art galleries and see how artists use light in their paintings.