1. P is not for professional. So you pick up your camera, switch the mode dial to P, or if you are really getting fancy perhaps even shutter speed or aperture priority. But how do you go shooting in manual mode? Are you on top of all the decisions you are faced with? Leaving your camera on manual for a while may feel awkward at first but after a short period you will gain a much better understanding of aperture, shutter speed and ISO and how the three correlate to determine exposure. After you are comfortable shooting in manual there will be situations in which you still shoot aperture or shutter priority however you will be better informed to select the right mode for the situation and to evaluate the decisions you are putting into your cameras hands.
2. Shoot with the lowest ISO you can whilst still maintaining a suitable aperture and shutter speed. The lower the ISO you use the less "noise" your photographs will contain, essentially your images will look cleaner, clearer, smoother and less grainy. As a bonus you will get away with enlarging your photos more than you could had you shot with a high ISO whilst better maintaining apparent quality.
3. Understand shutter speeds and how to use them to your benefit. The general rule for hand held photography in order to maintain sharp images free of camera shake is that you should use a shutter speed no slower that 1/focal length. Fop example lets say you are shooting with a 50mm lens, the slowest shutter speed recommended for sharp hand help photos would be 1/50th sec, if you were to use a 250mm lens the slowest recommended hand held shutter speed would be 1/250th sec. There are of course exceptions to this rule, you may be able to get away with slower shutter speeds if using a flash. Another option is to use a tripod which is a great idea in general as it leads to more purposeful and thought out images.
4. Depth of what? Depth of field, or the amount focus extends beyond and in front of the focal point can be used to great effect, as such it is a concept worth your learning. Lets say we are shooting a landscape and we want the viewer to feel like they can look into the scene. We may wish to use a large DOF so that the entire image from foreground to background is in focus. In such a case you would use a small aperture. Small aperture = large f stop number, e.g. f22. On the other hand having an entire scene in focus in a portrait shot may be distracting and steal the viewers eye from the subject. In this case you could reduce the DOF by shooting with a large aperture, or small f-stop number. E.g. f2. I strongly suggest you read further about DOF and experiment with it's role in photography.
5. Fill (flash) me up, baby. We all know that look of outdoor portraits in midday sun, a typical amateur look that leaves eyes dark and lifeless. When shooting in full sunlight it is common to try move people into the shade, this option however is not always suitable. It is now we welcome Mr fill flash. A fill flash is no different to your standard on camera or hot shoe flash, the difference is in how we use it. Rather than having the flash set to fully expose the subjects we let it fire light that is approx 1 stop weaker than the ambient light, as such it works to lighten the shadows and reduce the overall contrast of the subject so that we have an image that contains detail in both the highlights and shadows. Using this technique will allow you to capture pleasing portraits in full midday sun without having your subjects eyes render as black holes.
By understanding a few simple principles and techniques you can push your photography forward in leaps and bounds. Now get shooting!
2. Shoot with the lowest ISO you can whilst still maintaining a suitable aperture and shutter speed. The lower the ISO you use the less "noise" your photographs will contain, essentially your images will look cleaner, clearer, smoother and less grainy. As a bonus you will get away with enlarging your photos more than you could had you shot with a high ISO whilst better maintaining apparent quality.
3. Understand shutter speeds and how to use them to your benefit. The general rule for hand held photography in order to maintain sharp images free of camera shake is that you should use a shutter speed no slower that 1/focal length. Fop example lets say you are shooting with a 50mm lens, the slowest shutter speed recommended for sharp hand help photos would be 1/50th sec, if you were to use a 250mm lens the slowest recommended hand held shutter speed would be 1/250th sec. There are of course exceptions to this rule, you may be able to get away with slower shutter speeds if using a flash. Another option is to use a tripod which is a great idea in general as it leads to more purposeful and thought out images.
4. Depth of what? Depth of field, or the amount focus extends beyond and in front of the focal point can be used to great effect, as such it is a concept worth your learning. Lets say we are shooting a landscape and we want the viewer to feel like they can look into the scene. We may wish to use a large DOF so that the entire image from foreground to background is in focus. In such a case you would use a small aperture. Small aperture = large f stop number, e.g. f22. On the other hand having an entire scene in focus in a portrait shot may be distracting and steal the viewers eye from the subject. In this case you could reduce the DOF by shooting with a large aperture, or small f-stop number. E.g. f2. I strongly suggest you read further about DOF and experiment with it's role in photography.
5. Fill (flash) me up, baby. We all know that look of outdoor portraits in midday sun, a typical amateur look that leaves eyes dark and lifeless. When shooting in full sunlight it is common to try move people into the shade, this option however is not always suitable. It is now we welcome Mr fill flash. A fill flash is no different to your standard on camera or hot shoe flash, the difference is in how we use it. Rather than having the flash set to fully expose the subjects we let it fire light that is approx 1 stop weaker than the ambient light, as such it works to lighten the shadows and reduce the overall contrast of the subject so that we have an image that contains detail in both the highlights and shadows. Using this technique will allow you to capture pleasing portraits in full midday sun without having your subjects eyes render as black holes.
By understanding a few simple principles and techniques you can push your photography forward in leaps and bounds. Now get shooting!
About the Author:
Samuel Burns is an award winning fine art photographer and sydney wedding photographer. For further info check out his website, Samuel Burns - wedding photography Sydney
Post a Comment