The first thing I had to consider was exposure, whether my photos had too much or too little light, and how best to deal with it. ISO played a key role in controlling the exposure-an ISO of 100 would counter the brightness of the light, 400 would be best dealt with cloudy weather and anything from 3200 onwards would be used for nighttime photography. The exposure can change, however, when the shutter speed and aperture are not carefully balanced. If the shutter speed and the aperture are both too high then usually the light hasn't enough time to get into the lens resulting in a picture with low exposure. This is due to the camera focusing in on something quite far away and having to capture that in a fraction of a second. Obviously the complete opposite happens when the shutter speed and aperture are both too low which results in too much light and therefore high exposure. This happens because the lens is opened to capture the close image yet the shutter speed means it takes in too much light.

Shutter speed is essential as it can give you a crisp snapshot photograph or a blurred photograph depicting movement. The higher the shutter speed the quicker the photo is taken and therefore the photo itself is more defined. The photo entitled 'Fast Shutter Speed Leaf' has been taken at 1/4000s whilst being shaken and the results show a snapshot of the image. Whereas the 'Slow Shutter Speed Leaf' photograph has been taken at 1/15s and the leaf is completely blurred from the movement. In the photo titled 'Medium Shutter Speed Dog' the shutter speed is recorded at 1/25s and as you can see the photo is slightly blurred but still quite a snapshot.

The next thing I looked at was the Aperture which rates the depth of field. These are measured using f/'s. The higher the aperture the further the depth of field and the lower the aperture the more shallow it becomes. When you raise the aperture to f/20 then the subject further away can be brought into focus more clearer than if you used f/5.6. The photo called 'Shallow Depth of Field' which shows my watch clearly in focus whilst the background shows computers and people out of focus. I used an aperture rating of f/4.5 so that the subject closer can be put more into focus. The photo titled 'Deep Depth of Field' has an aperture rating of f/14 so my watch, the closer subject, is out of focus and the background is now the main point of focus. In regards to 'depthoffielddog' and 'depthoffieldgrass' I've used the same aperture, f/5, and only altered the focus of the camera. This is useful for close depth of field but doesn't help when your subject is further away.

In the photo 'Lightshow' I got someone to use their flash on their phone as I set the shutter speed to 5". This means the camera captures everything that happens in front of the lens for the duration of 5 seconds and makes a still of that. Using this technique you can create impressive light shows as it captures the movement. I played about with the flash feature too. It's not the greatest flash ever used on a camera but it does all it needs to do by projecting its own light over the subject and overexposing them. In the photo titled 'flash' you can see how the projected light shines a certain distance and then stops, leaving the rest covered in darkness. The photo 'flashinmyface' shows how I turned the flash on myself to show the overexposure of the subject and leaves the area behind it in complete darkness. This could be used so that subject stands out and is centre of attention.

For the above and below shots I used an object that is high and wide to give the full effect of the angles. Lower angled shots are used to make the audience feel like the subject is superior and standing, towering above them. The high angle is used in the opposite affect as it makes the audience feel bigger than the subject which is represented in a weakened and lower state.