Right, I've seen a few people post up that they are struggling with their DSLRs and are still using auto mode so I thought I'd help out and write a very simple guide to get people going in the correct direction. I'll do another two guides once people have understood this one
Firstly, I'd like to point out that I am very very far from being the expert and all of my knowledge comes from a book called 'Photography for Dummies'
and a lot messing about with settings on the camera while out and about.
The book can be bought
here from Amazon or just do what I did and go to the library and get one... I read this cover to cover first and then went through it using the camera at the same time.
A few term definitions first:
Focal length - Basically the amount you are zoomed in or out
Aperture - The hole that lets the light through the camera lens
SO, photography isn't about having a fancy camera. Having a little understanding about lighting and picture composition go along way. This guide will only be about the technical bits of DSLR cameras but if people would like a guide on them I'll do one once this is finished.
I think there are three main settings on the camera that you need to be aware of. These are:
-Shutter speed
-Aperture size
-ISO setting
Each of these three aspects will influence the other setting used when taking a picture. To keep things simple, I'll just focus on the shutter speed setting first.
On your camera screen the shutter speed will (generally) be displayed as 1/something. What this means is, when you press the shutter release button, the shutter in the camera moves out of the way and allows light to hit the sensor for that portion of a second. So, if your shutter speed is 1/200 light will hit the cameras' sensor for 1/200th of a second.
The only exception to this is when your shutter speed is a second or longer, it will be displayed as a whole number.
The shutter speed on my DSLR ranges from a 30 sec to 1/4000.
Something that can be found confusing is working out which setting is faster, 1/2 or 1/320. How I remember it is this: 1/2 is a much bigger portion of pie than 1/320 and is therefore a
longer shutter speed, or exposure time as it is sometimes called.
As a general rule, you want the shutter speed fast enough to stop any blurring in the picture.
How this affects your picture - If your subject is still then the shutter speed wont be a major factor to consider when taking a picture, but as a general rule you want to have 1/focal length. This helps to stop hand shake occurring in your images.
You can see on this image that the focal length is set to 17mm so to stop camera shake appearing in your image you'll want 1/15 or 1/20. Some people have steadier hands than others so can get away with slower speeds.
If your subject is moving, for example when taking pictures of fast moving sports events , the shutter speed is a very important factor. You'll want it high enough to stop any movement showing.
The goose in this picture was madly flapping its wings so I set the shutter speed to a fast speed, 1/500, before I took the picture and managed to just about freeze the image.
This next image shows a poor choice of shutter speed. As you can see, the limo was driving along the road where we had parked and what I had intended to do (long story
) was make the picture look like it had stopped in front of our cars. Unfortunately my shutter speed was far too slow and the limo blurred its way across the picture
So a practical exercise for you. If you are using Canon or Nikon DSLR's then select Shutter priority mode, functions TV or S respectively. If you're using Olympus or Sony I have no idea what the setting is, refer to the manual
. When using this function you can only control the shutter speed and the camera works out the other settings, perfect for seeing the affects of changing the speeds.
What I would suggest is to go and find something that is moving, like branches on a tree when it's windy and try these two settings: 1/30 and 1/400 and compare the difference in the final image. You'll probably find, providing it's windy enough, that on 1/30 the branches are all blurred but 1/400 shows that the tree is still.
Another good way of testing shutter speed is to get a friend/parent/son/daughter/random stranger to throw a ball vertically up in front of the camera. Take a picture of the ball using the two settings above and notice the difference, you may have you use a faster setting than 1/200 to completely freeze the ball in mid air. This method does take a bit of trial and error/patients though to make sure you get the ball in the frame.
Please feel free to post up any questions you have and I'll try and answer them. If you do try the practical bit, upload your images
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