Playing with Lights

Playing with Lights

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  Happy day’s aheadmates! And very warm Welcome to all blog readers!! Today I am going share about TTL metering and White Balance My Previous Sharing Basic Camera Settings|Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Crazy Focal Length(s)|Part 1 TTL Metering What is Metering? Where to find it? How it works? Does it helps in taking better shots? Bla bla bla.. A lots.. Really a lots of questions comes to our mind when we hear something new for the first time! So sit back and relax, let me help you sort out the answers for every possible question you're going through! Let’s begin... What’s Metering? Metering is a camera element which helps in attaining the correct exposure using the combination of Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO (Exposure Triangle). Before the Digital Era (DSLR's), metering was done with the help of handheld light metering equipment. This helped in achieving the optimal exposure.
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  What’s TTL Metering? Through-the-lensmetering is briefly called as TTL metering widely. It plays a key role in Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras and it works with intensity of light reflected from the scene through the lens. This metering has various different types of modes already built in our DSLR's, few common modes are as follows... Beginners|Amature Metering Modes Matrix Metering (Nikon)Evaluating Metering (Canon) From the name itself some could have guessed how it works. Yes! It scans from top to bottom of the entire frame and give a approximate exposure value but only on absorbing certain key areas in the frame. Its best method for beginners in understand about lighting a frame. But it's also a kind of lazy man's job because it does the entire work for you without the input of your knowledge. This metering mode was first introduced by Nikon. And now it's used in every single DSLR's we buy. Average Metering In this mode the camera scans the entire frame and produces an average exposure value. This helps in a balancing the exposure for entire frame without blowing out the sky or darken out low grounds. The difference between Matrix and Average metering mode is the final exposure value is calculated from certain areas of the frame in Matrix whereas the entire frame is calculated for average exposure value in Average Metering Mode. Semi-Professionals|Professionals Modes Center-weighted Average Metering In this mode 60-80 percent is covered from the center of the frame where the rest are feathered (blur/not counted). According to the Golden Points in Rule of Third Composition placement of our main subject is around the center of frame hence this metering is commonly used by many user.
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  Spot Metering In thismode the camera calculates around 4/5 percentage of your frame for the exposure value. It helps in get the good exposure for the spot calculated but others might be under or over exposed. Keep in mind that every Professional is a Beginner when he/she is trying some new. So try out every metering modes, experiment them, learn them, understand them and use them on correct occasions. And also remember these modes are given for understanding the lights, so get out of the box and try to do things manually than relying totally on machines. And by the end of this blog will give some example try them out. And now it is time to have a walk-through about White Balance (WB).
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  White balance What iswhite balance? White balance is most important element everyone should learn, use and understand. In camera White Balance is used to even the colours present in the frame to achieve the exact colour which we see through our eyes. White Balance is represented as Kelvin (k). E.g.: 1500K, 2800K... White Balance is identify as AWB which denotes Auto-White Balance in camera. In White Balance there are two different temperature values namely Cool Temperature and Warm Temperature which are further divided into subcategories according to the colour temperature. Namely Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten/Incandescent, Fluorescent and Flash What is the use in using white balance? In general human eye balances the colour in order to achieve white naturally so we can’t recognize it or sense it because it’s a very quick action. But cameras aren’t that intelligent to do so but still they are doing the best what they can... Hmm sometimes fail so never mind ;)… So coming to point the colour balancing is important without which things will be totally different... For example imagine a day with cool tone and a night with warm tone, definitely a bad day for sure (-_-)... How it works? Working of white balance is simple, the subject’s temperature is identified in order for proper colour accuracy. In technical terms we are balancing our camera white balance on screen, for example a candle we see is warm toned (gold/yellowish) has a colour temperature within 1500K – 1900K so adjusting camera to that required white balance setting we achieve the exact colour of the candle we see through our naked eye. Now comes the confusing part but yet simple to understand and remember, since candle as the least value in colour temperature in camera it tends to give the accurate or somewhat near accurate colour to it, whereas when you set the same temperature in the camera on an open ground during daylight it appears to be in cool temperature. In simple words the warm turns to cool and cool turns to warm in camera. It's like applying antidote for your wound. So learning or experimenting the colour temperature is very important for picturing the accurate colour. How does it affect my pics/clips mood and tone?
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  When you aretaking or recording something after white balancing means it gives you a total new look of the picture or clip taken without adjusting them. For example say you want to a take a nice night shot which leads to grains/ noise in reality, but… adjust the white balancing temperature to cool and few adjustments in the exposure triangle allows you to take a night shot at day light. So is that all we white balance means? It’s simply NO! White balance helps in changing the colour or achieve creative lighting also in a multiple light setup occasions. Nowadays the movies, short films, photographs and so on which we see are well white balanced that is why we feel the impact of the scene or snap before a dialogue/ motion delivery. And every tone value / colour present in frame as a specific meaning to convey. For example take yellow colour which represents joy, happiness, and energy. A simpler example would be from my favorite movie Independence Day resurgence, on the shot above. The whole frame is tinted in Aqua tone which represents emotional healing and protection. Hmm… So hope I made you understand about White balance a little... Now let see about the sub-categories for better knowledge. AWB
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  In this settingthe camera adjust itself to even the colours present in the frame for its best outcome. It is identified as AWB in camera which refers to Auto-White-Balance. It works fine mostly. Can be used if lazy but what’s the challenge in it right! Custom In this setting the camera allows us to even the colours manually for our best outcome. Each camera has their own minimum and maximum white balancing temperature. So I approximately assume from 2500k-10000k. It’s pretty challenging and only experienced can handle well... But is good to learn new things daily. Shade In this setting the camera is fixed to a temperature between 7000k-9000k and anything comes under this temperature will have even colour but below or above it may end up in warmer or cooler temperature. As from the name one can understand where to use it, Yes! shaded places during Daylight! One must understand the difference between shade and cloudy before using it. Cloudy In this setting the camera is fixed to a temperature between 6200k–7000k so anything comes under this temperature will have even colour but below or above it, may end up in warmer or cooler temperature. During a rainy season this will help a lot to achieve even colours. So that's the difference in using cloudy and shade.
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  Daylight In this settingthe camera is fixed to a temperature between 5500k–6200k so anything comes under this temperature will have even colour but below or above it may end up in warmer or cooler temperature. It’s a mid-day light which is already neutralized, so in order to achieve true colour this setting is used. The sad thing is most of us won't even think of taking the camera in hand during this time :(... Flash In this setting the camera is fixed to a temperature between 5000k-5500k and same rules. This is artificial light setting called as flash or external flash which we use for adding some light to the present frame with the ambient light. This light also is neutralised so in order to achieve the true colour this setting is used. Used highly by studio and wedding photographers. Fluorescent In this setting the camera is fixed to a temperature between 4000k-5000k and same rules. Yep! It balances fluorescent lights or cool lights. So this means its helps a lot at indoor. For example practical lights we see in wall ceilings in movies. Tungsten/Incandescent
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  In this settingthe camera is fixed to a temperature between 2500k-3000k and same rules. This setting balances tungsten lights or warm lights. It is also used mostly at indoors. For example table lamps. Below is the mixture of white balance presets of the same image took at morning (DAYLIGHT).
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  That's all folks.Today I fed your brain with TTL metering which is the basic metering preset in the camera for taking better photographs with a few sec glimpse on it and also the very importance of white balancing which helps in showing true colour to you and your followers. So I wind-up this blog with my tips below and do post your feedback in the comments section below which helps me in improvising my next blog. Like and share knowledge a small token of appreciation from you to me. Thank for reading enjoy clicking around and mail your clicks, doubts anything regarding camera, lights, etc... Gikz Tips TTL metering system can be seeing through view finder ones you half click the shutter button. This show the exposure of your image. For example if the pointer is in (-) that is towards the left side the exposure is under so blacks will be more in the image after click and if the pointer is in (+) that is towards the right the exposure is over so whites will be more in the image after click. In order to understand TTL metering system try the same subject on same location but different timing. Just fix the pointer in the metering say -1 by adjusting the exposure triangle settings after applying one metering preset say center weighted average metering. Start clicking on different timing with same -1 pointer on metering system. Try every preset each day. No matrix metering preset. In white balance few camera allows to customize through Kelvin in Custom mode and some allow by placing a 18% gray card or a pure white card in front of it and take a snap at infinity focus in order to achieve accurate colour. In order understand White balance take the same subject at the same location at the same approximate time with different white balance presets like Daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, shade, cloudy and flash. First tryout at outdoor then try the same thing with candle in a dark room. Sure you will be surprised on seeing the result. No AWB/Custom preset.