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Olympus PEN-F Fast Start

Lesson 2 of 31

Photo Basics

Olympus PEN-F Fast Start

Lesson 2 of 31

Photo Basics

Lesson Info

Photo Basics

so I want to cover a few photo basics, and this is for anyone who just kind of wants toe. You brush up on some of the basics about this camera. We're gonna talk about sensor size and shutter speeds and apertures. And if you already know all about this, feel free to skip ahead to the next section. Camera controls, because that's where we get into each individual features. So let's just do a little brush up on the basics, if you will. So this camera is a mere list camera, as we talked about in the previous section. We have many different lenses to choose from, and in each of the lenses is going to be an aperture, which controls the amount of light being led into the lens. And so these aperture settings, like 1.4 F 2 to 8. As we change from one aperture to the next, we're letting in half assed much light as we close our aperture down to the minimum opening F 22 on many lenses. And then as we open up, we're letting in twice as much light as that image circle gets larger and larger, with ea...

ch setting And so each lens will have its own range that it can go from now beyond just controlling the amount of light that is led into the camera. It also controls the depth of field notice on the right side of the screen, the yardstick at the top in the bottom. How out of focus, that is. And that is because we're shooting with a very shallow depth of field. And you can see as we stop the aperture down, we get mawr and more depth of field. As this gets closed down all the way to F 22 we're gonna have nearly that entire yard sick in focus. The red lines on the right are indicating the areas of sharp focus. So as we get down to this is gonna be our maximum depth of field. So when our aperture we're letting in more and less light. But we're also controlling the depth of field with a muralist camera. Obviously, no mere light goes directly into the image sensor. You'll be able to see the image on the back of the camera and of the better of the mirror. Less cameras. You will also have an electronic viewfinders so that you could hold the camera up to your eye for sharper focusing for a better view of the scene in bright light. Now what's going on at the sensor level is kind of interesting because remember, light is coming in so that you can see all the time. The camera has a shutter unit. Actually, it has to. So when it's time to take a photo, what happens is the first curtain will close over the sensor, and then the sensor is charged, ready to take a photo. It's turned on the camera, then exposes for that brief shutter speed of time. And then the second curtain will close, and it uses this system so that each pixel is exposed for exactly the same amount of time. The second curtain then has to open up again so that you can see on how to compose your next shot. So there's a lot of movement going on at the sensor level now. Obviously, the shutter speed is controlling the amount of light, depending on how long it's open. But it's also controlling how well it freezes action. So for something like a whale jumping out of the water a 2/1000 of a second. It's a good, fast shutter speed for stopping action 500 is good for stopping fast. Human Action 125th of a second is more of your pedestrian shutter speed and average one. As subjects move faster and you move into slower shutter speeds, you're going to get into mawr blurriness than so people walking will be blurry. At an eighth of a second. This picture is taken with a tripod, which is why the bridge is sharp. If you like doing the waterfalls with the really slow water movement, that's gonna happen in around one second. And you can do some interesting nighttime exposures using shutter speeds 30 seconds and beyond with this camera. So that's what's happening at the sensor level in this muralist camera. And that's kind of the basic set up of how this camera is capturing light and you are working with it now. The sensor in the camera is a really important function, and there's a lot of different sensors out on the market that are of a different size, which makes for different size cameras and lenses and systems in general, and so this is using what I would consider kind of a medium, smallest size sensor, which there's pros and cons to each and every different size sensor. The big advantage here is that the camera and the lenses are pretty small in size. The largest of the common sizes is based off of the old 35 millimeter film standard, and that was a very popular standard for a long period of time, which is why we're still talking about it many years after. It's mostly coming on. And so that is, was what is referred to as a full frame sensor. And this uses a 4/3 sensor, which is about half the size. And so they will be crop factors that photographers will use to compare them back and forth. And this one uses a two times crop factor. And so, if you remember using a 35 millimeter camera and you really enjoyed working with a 50 millimeter lens, you'll now need to use a 25 millimeter lens on this camera in order to get the same angle of view. That gives you a big advantage when it comes to telephoto work. But it's a little bit more challenging when you get down to the wide angle cause you have to find those really wide angle lenses that are designed exclusively for the 4/3 system. But it's a great travel system for anyone who's really into lightweight. One little note on connecting the strap. A lot of people seem to have issues. Getting this hooked up properly is that there'll be a strap adjuster and you want to make sure the tail goes on the underneath side. That way the pressure of the strap keeps that strap locked in, and it doesn't slip off and fall. We don't want to have that happen. And finally holding the camera, I want to make sure you do it the correct way the right hand was gonna grab there right side of the camera. Pretty obviously. But what is your left hand doing? How is holding the lands and so generally what you want to remember? And this is pretty easy is thumbs up. Holding the lens is a good thing. It's gonna keep your elbow a little bit closer into your camera body, and you'll be able to hold your camera at a little bit slower of a shutter speed now, as we go through this class, there are going to be a lot of options for setting a particular feature, either in an auto mode or a manual mode. And I always like to try to teach people how to do it manually. And we have things like focus and exposure and white balance and all sorts of other things. And when the time is right, you can flip it into auto when you know it doesn't really matter as much. Or you just need a little bit of help in getting things set quickly, being able to set it in auto. But knowing how to do it in manual is really gonna help out. And so I like to work with my camera in manual so long as I have the time and I'm willing to put out the effort and I have the knowledge of what it does. So hopefully this class will give you the knowledge to operate this camera in a manual mode. But when and where necessary, feel free to flip it into that auto mode to help take photos in amore quick manner, so that should cover you up on some of the basics of this camera and photography. And if you want to know more about photography, I have a class called Fundamentals of Photography, and this is a long class, but it's a very in depth.

Class Description

We know what it’s like to dive right into taking pictures with your new camera. But dense technical manuals make for a terrible first date. Get the most out of your new Olympus PEN-F with this complete step-by-step walkthrough of the camera’s features.

Join expert photographer John Greengo for a fast-track introduction, and unlock your camera’s full potential. In this class you'll learn:

How to use the electronic viewfinder
How to take advantage of the customizable interface
How to use the video options

John is a CreativeLive veteran instructor and an experienced photographer. He has extensive experience teaching the technical minutiae that makes any camera an effective tool: aperture, ISO, the Rule of Thirds, and the kinds of lenses you’ll need to suit your camera body. This Fast Start includes a complete breakdown of your camera’s exposure, focus, metering, video and more. John will also explain how to customize the PEN-F’s settings to work for your style of photography.

Lessons

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Reviews

Jay Linsenbigler

Awesome course and thorough description of the PEN-F capabilities and functions. HOWEVER, John's "big boy camera" bias comes through when he describes some of the creative functions as "just fun". I highly disagree- because like other tools and features- it depends on HOW the photographer uses the tool or feature. Like HDR, the creative features can be used tastefully or look "overcooked". Film photographers who use a variety of different films in film cameras- is this "just fun", or do they offer creative options? I encourage John and any listeners to look up the Olympus Visionaries and many other professionals using Olympus cameras in their daily work to see the amazing results they create with them. Instead of the same old Nikon and Canon "muscle-flexing" biases- lets look at what the pros produce with the camera tools. All modern cameras are superb and capable of great results. And this PEN-F camera offers groundbreaking control over the image making IN CAMERA at the time of exposure- which can be used to adjust an accompanying RAW file if needed. Not everyone wants to sit in front of a computer for hours doing post processing.

Jay Linsenbigler

Kate Mooney

The Pen 5 is an amazing camera - however it is capable of so much that getting to know it can be somewhat overwhelming at first. John systematically and logically works through every part of the camera in really clear and easy to understand steps, quickly converting my initial apprehension into confidence and excitement for the endless possibilities of this camera.