Scenes Beyond the Lens

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They say picture paints a thousand words. Indeed it is; but in order to produce such grandeur, it needs a lot of skills, finesse, and the right equipment for those amazing moments.

With this in mind, a sufficient knowledge and skills in photography are valuable. Photography is the process, activity, and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium with the use of a photographic lens inside a device commonly known as the camera. This process manipulates the time exposure of sensitive materials and sensors to lights or sunlight, thus, saves the captured image in the film.

There are different aspects of photography. We have the old-fashioned one – film photography and the modern one – digital photography.

Film photography is very famous way back since George Eastman started the company called Kodak in 1880’s. It gave an opportunity for enthusiasts to practice their passion for photography. Though until now, few are still using such crude method because it is less expensive. Nevertheless, the result is equally elegant as with the modern method.

On the other hand, digital photography became popular to professionals in 1991 when Kodak introduced the first advanced digital camera much more sophisticated than the point and shoot camera. With this development, other manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon and Pentax produced their own advanced digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras. Hobbyists and professionals alike, thus, now have more options to produce higher quality images depending on their needs.

However, no matter what type of photography one is hooked into, there are things that are common to both digital and film photography. Whether to use a digital SLR or a film-based camera, their basic controls – focus, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and ISO speed – are still the same; although, some are equipped with additional features.

Focus is the adjustment to place the sharpest focus on the subject where it is desired. Aperture is the adjustment of the lens opening and is measured in the f-number,, which controls the amount of light passing through the lens. It also has an effect on depth of field and diffraction – the higher the f-number, the smaller the opening. Furthermore, shutter speed is the control for the speed of the shutter to moderate the time exposure of the imaging medium to light.

Photography is for everyone who wishes to capture the moments. All aspects must be taken into considerations – the environment, the lightings, the timing, and of course, the camera that one is using.

For the minimalist and conservative ones, they prefer to use the more affordable film-type cameras. Although, viewing and editing of their shots will take much more time. A tedious process of developing the film in dark rooms is performed before the actual pictures can be obtained. This method needs a lot of skills to produce the desired effects on the pictures; failure to do so would result to more time and money being spent.

For the practical and the chic ones, a classy point and shoot digital camera is enough to take good pictures on events, vacations, parties, and other important gatherings. This type of camera is preferable for occasions because they are more convenient to bring with – sleek design and basic functionalities of a digital camera. This camera is handy and trendy when it comes to design, but the price is much more expensive than the film-type cameras. However, editing and reviewing of the shots are much easier and convenient to users because of the technology we have now known as the memory card, where we can edit and delete the unpleasant pictures and save the good ones.

Digital SLR then came. This camera is intended for the professionals and hobbyists alike. This type of camera needs a separate lens in order to create a much higher quality and crisp image than the other types of the camera. The only trade-off in this type is the price. However, if one does not mind the baggy price and the baggy setup, then this is the camera for them.

Photography is an art of capturing the moments in life. It doesn’t matter what type of medium one uses as long as he captures the scenes far beyond that lens.