Out of Place

Today we are going to look at taking photographs of things that are out of place. You can interpret this literally or figuratively. Maybe you want to take a picture of a stuffed bunny inside the dishwasher, or something bright yellow with an all blue background. Be creative!

Because of the compact design, cell phones do not offer the same flexibility as a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but this does not mean we cannot accomplish similar things. To do that, we need to expand our knowledge base surrounding how cameras work.

The most important component of photography is light. To take amazing photographs, you have to learn how to harness and use light to your advantage. Understanding how cameras use light will help. There are three settings on actual cameras that manipulate light, or create the exposure of the photo - Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. These settings all work together to determine how much light reaches your camera's sensor.

Aperture (f-stop) refers to how wide your lens opens when taking a photo. The wider the lens opens, the more light hits the camera sensor. To complicate things, the values attached to this setting run counterintuitive. Because this value represents the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the opening, smaller apertures (f-stops) mean wider openings (and more light) and larger apertures mean smaller openings (and less light). The aperture setting also controls the depth of field. The blurry background you often see in photos is created using a small aperture value. The further away the background is from your subject, the blurrier your background will be. In addition, the closer your subject is to you, the blurrier the background will be.

I am not familiar with all cell phones, so I will use my own as an example. Be aware that yours will likely be close, but not the same. For reference, I have a Google Pixel 7a. My cell phone has a fixed aperture of 1.89. I do not have the option to change that, and you likely do not as well. Some smartphones do have manual settings for their camera, but most do not, particularly the most popular brands. If you have the option to change your f-stop, play around with it and see what effect it has. An f-stop of 1.89 allows for a small depth of field and that blurry effect that you see (if the subject is close or the background is far away from the subject).

The second aspect of exposure is shutter speed. Shutter speed refers to how long the shutter stays open when taking a photo. Again, almost all cell phones do not directly allow you to change this setting. You may see options in your camera menu that allow you to indirectly change this setting. My camera has a setting for "long exposure". This leaves the shutter open for longer than usual. Why does it matter how long the shutter is open? The longer a shutter is open, the more light hits the sensor. A really fast shutter speed does not let as much light in. When we adjust the shutter speed to leave the shutter open for longer, we need to compensate by adjusting the aperture (to a larger number, a narrower opening) to allow less light in. Too much light overexposes the photo. Why else is shutter speed important? A fast shutter speed freezes motion whereas a longer shutter speed will blur motion. So, if someone is running down the street and you want to capture a photo of them in focus, you would need a fast shutter speed. On the other hand, if you are taking a photograph of a waterfall and want to show "motion", you would want a longer shutter speed.

The third setting, ISO, refers to the camera sensor's sensitivity to light. A lower ISO means less sensitivity to light and a higher ISO means more sensitivity to light. Of course, again, this is a setting that the cell phone rarely allows you to change. ISO can be a valuable setting in low light. If there is not enough light, we may not be able to adjust our aperture and shutter speed enough for proper exposure, so a higher ISO can help make our sensor more sensitive to light. One of the downfalls, a higher ISO can lead to "noise" in the photo, or pixelating of various degrees.

Why is any of this important when the camera can pick the settings for us? Isn't auto mode on any camera enough? Nope. Depending on the lighting scenario, the camera often picks settings that do not arrive at the proper exposure. A perfect example would be any picture where your subject is backlit (the sun is behind them). If you rely on the camera to choose proper exposure, your subject will be super dark.

So, how does this help you if you likely cannot change any of these settings on your camera?

• If you want the blurry background effect, you can get closer to your subject or move the subject further from the background. If you do not want the blurry background effect, do the opposite.

• If you want to blur motion, use a long exposure feature if your camera has one.

• Recognize that the more light there is, the faster the camera will set your shutter speed because of the fixed aperture. Look for more light if you are ending up with blurry body parts from moving subjects (particularly children!).

• We cannot control the ISO, but you can control sensitivity to light if you have a "Night Mode" on your camera.

• You can also adjust a photo's exposure, or brightness, on the camera screen. You'll likely see a sun symbol on your screen if you tap it while in camera mode. You can slide this up or down to make the photo brighter or dimmer.

• You can make sure the right part of your image is in focus by clicking on your screen where you want focus to be.