Photo settings for specific events, technical stuff

Go ask the photography teacher at your school. They pay them to teach kids this. Then make it a requirement that all newspaper photographer sign up for the class.
Have you been into a HS photography class lately? My daughter took it. They made her bring her camera home because the teacher didn't know how to operate it. The only thing they learned was how to do everything WRONG in photoshop. The Photography classes in high schools generally SUCK. You have to be a certified teacher to teach, but you don't have to know a damn thing about photography. If you do know photography, chances are slim that you're certified to teach AND the school has the budget for it AND/OR you are already employed by the school WITH the open period to teach it.

Really? DAmn. I was serious. When I was in high school the photography teacher had been teaching the class for like 20 years. You had to use an all manual camera.
 
Go ask the photography teacher at your school. They pay them to teach kids this. Then make it a requirement that all newspaper photographer sign up for the class.
Have you been into a HS photography class lately? My daughter took it. They made her bring her camera home because the teacher didn't know how to operate it. The only thing they learned was how to do everything WRONG in photoshop. The Photography classes in high schools generally SUCK. You have to be a certified teacher to teach, but you don't have to know a damn thing about photography. If you do know photography, chances are slim that you're certified to teach AND the school has the budget for it AND/OR you are already employed by the school WITH the open period to teach it.

Really? DAmn. I was serious. When I was in high school the photography teacher had been teaching the class for like 20 years. You had to use an all manual camera.

I had a great teacher too, but sadly, that is going the way of the wind because of budget and requirement restrictions. There are a few great programs here and there still. But not many!
 
I think if I were the editor sending out student photographers, I'd send them out with instructions to use Auto, or Sports, or Portrait modes as indicated above. The camera will do the rest.

But after perhaps their 2nd or 3rd outting, I'd encourage those that wanted to learn something other than 'auto' photography to start to experiment with aperture and shutter priority settings. They can start in auto, look at the settings the camera used, and then make an experiments setting aperture or shutter speed from there... After a bit, let them vary ISO and or manual flash settings,etc. They have the advantage over shooting film as they can immediately see the result on the screen. If it's too dark, or too blurry, etc, they can adjust to make improvements. It won't take them long to figure out the shutter speed is too slow, or too short, or focus problems due to thin depth of field, etc.

Even though I have many years shooting film under my belt, seeing and making adjustments on the fly has been a boon to my digital photography! We don't have "Mr Kodak" printing what settings for what lighting on the sides of their yellow boxes any more. Don't need them, either. The camera can do most of the work automatically.
 
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bratkinson said:
They can start in auto, look at the settings the camera used, and then make an experiments setting aperture or shutter speed from there... After a bit, let them vary ISO and or manual flash settings,etc. They have the advantage over shooting film as they can immediately see the result on the screen.

I'm not a expeimented photographer at all, and I agree with that. I've learnt my camera auto and scene modes are a great 'teacher', and from the settings it choses I start experimenting. It helped me improve.
 
If your school has decent cameras, just shoot in P or scene mode. Tell your guys if they want to be on yearbook staff then they have to be decent photographers. I learned everything I know by experimenting on a 8 year old Canon P&S. I mean, you just have to go and take pictures. That's the best way for them. As far as what to tell them, give a basic rundown of aperture and shutter and ISO, followed by "If all that is nonsense, use auto and pay attention to the settings the camera uses in different situations. Then, when you want to take a step out, switch to an advanced mode (ASM, even P) and do your best.

In every mode except full manual, the camera will pretty much take care of exposure. Whatever other options you choose just go to artistic effect (or ruin the image lol)
 
Go to this link

Exposure value - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Take a look at the
Table 1: Exposure times, in seconds or minutes (m), for various exposure values and f-numbers (Print it out if you like)


And then take a look at
Table 2: Exposure values (ISO 100 speed) for various lighting conditions (Print it out if you like)


These should give you a rough idea to based on if you have a camera that doesn't have light meter or you do not trust the light meter at the time of shooting due to whatever reasons.
 

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