Optimum Settings for the Perfect Photograph

Cameras are more and more complicated and we are tempted to play with all the buttons. But sometimes less is more or at least there are a few basic rules we should try to stick to in order to get the best images possible. In this article we have selected 10 tips that we suggest you follow to optimize your camera (and time!).




Choose the Aperture-priority mode

 

No need to change all the time the exposure mode. We recommend that you choose the Aperture Priority Auto (or A) and that you stick to it. In this configuration you choose the aperture and the camera selects automatically the appropriate shutter speed. You can play with depth of field while adjusting aperture. As a reminder, small aperture (high f numbers, like f/36) increase depth of field meaning the subjects in the background and in the foreground are in focus. If you want to focus on a specific subject and want the rest to be blurry choose a small number, the smaller the better depending on your equipment.


Auto ISO or 400

 
ISO sensitivity is the digital equivalent of film speed. The higher the ISO sensitivity, the less light is needed to take a photograph. With films, exposure is controlled by aperture and shutter speed settings only because the ISO is already chosen by your film. With Digital cameras you can choose several settings but we suggest that you stick either to Auto or 400 ISO.

Auto ISO is the easiest choice, the ISO sensitivity will be automatically adjusted by the camera. It is useful when your lightning conditions change all the time. The quality of camera's have so much improved that it can be a reasonable choice.400 ISO might be the best solution if you prefer to stay in control. 400 ISO is the film standard and covers nearly 90% of our photographic needs. You won't the see the quality difference between an image shot at 100 ISO and 400 ISO and you will still be able to play with depth and motion blur.



Want to discover all the other optimum settings for your camera?

Check out the full article on All About Photo

Berlin: Vivian Maier & Lu Yuanmin

_{Shanghai Meets Chicago, Chicago Meets Shanghai
Vivian Maier & Lu Yuanmin
From May 1st to July 26th, 2015
kunst.licht gallery
Scharnhorststrasse 24
10115 Berlin, Germany}

Vivian Maier, New York (Baby with Doll) 1951 - 55. Courtesy kunst.licht gallery

 <sub>Vivian Maier grew up in the French alps during the 1920s before moving to the USA where she captured the 50s and 60s of post-war Chicago with perplexing clarity through her photographs; pictures that predominantly feature the people on the street, ordinary people going about their daily lives. She never shared these photographs, altogether more than 100,000, with anyone, and it was only the recent discovery of her material that exposed her to the world as one of the biggest talents of photographic art in the 20th century.
While Maier was wandering through the streets of Chicago with her Rolleiflex, Lu Yuanmin was growing up in another world, in the Chinese metropolis Shanghai. His formative years were deeply affected and distorted by the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. But this did not stop him from starting to capture, with the same passion as Maier did in Chicago, everyday life in Shanghai with his camera. If anything the experience of these years of turmoil fostered a deep passion for humanity in him.

More info: HERE</sub>

Screening and conversation with Michael Ackerman and Jem Cohen

When: April 22, 2015 at 7:00pm
Where: The Half King Photo Series
505 West 23 Street near 10th Avenue, at the foot of the High Line steps

Spanning 20 years of Ackerman's photography, "untitled projection" moves through different bodies of work from various places: New York, Atlanta, Paris, Havana, Berlin, and Poland. It includes pictures of strangers and people Ackerman is intimate with. It attempts to join and re- edit different stories to form a somewhat cinematic, yet non-linear narrative. It is both autobiographical and not.

MORE INFO: HERE

The Flying Houses in Moscow

The series "the Flying Houses" from French photographer Laurent Chehere will be on view in Moscow April 14th until June 21, 2015 at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography.

Address: 3 Bolotnaya embankment, bld.1 Moscow, Russia.

All about Laurent Chehere