In the latest edition of my Digital Photography Tips, I want to talk “briefly” about the settings dial that is on your digital SLR or point and shoot digital camera. As always, I am going to work from my Canon 40D as a reference – but the settings I’ll discuss map very cleanly to other Canon and Nikon cameras. For the sake of this article I am going to talk about the 5 most common dial settings that you’ll encounter and the impact that each one will have on your photography.
Green Automatic is the Easiest But …..
On Canon & Nikon digital cameras there is a dial setting that is depicted as a green rectangle/icon. This setting is referred to as the “fully automatic” setting. When you set your camera to shoot in this mode, the digital camera is literally making every decision for you. In my last posting about exposure, I talked about Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Under the “fully automatic” setting, your camera is making a qualitative guesstimate on what it thinks the exposure should be. As the person pressing the shutter button, you’re only job is to make sure that your subject is framed properly and that your hand is steady and not shaking. Use this setting when you first start using your digital camera and you want to get the shot without having to stop and think about anything. One important note about this setting, the camera will also decide wether it thinks your subject and exposure could be improved by the usage of the internal flash. I like to leave my camera on this setting if hand my camera to someone take a picture of me or my wife and I’m the least bit concerned about the ambient lighting. One final note: unlike the other dial settings that I am about to discuss, ”fully automatic” is the only one that COMPLETELY restricts my ability to change Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed. The Camera is truly in TOTAL CONTROL.
In the next installment of my DP Tips, I thought it would be useful to give all the “newbies” out there a brief run down on the different factors that directly impact a digital photograph’s registered exposure.
Exposure: What is it exactly?
Put quite simply, exposure is an intrinsic characteristic of a digital photograph which quantifies and qualifies the quality of light that ultimately reached the digital camera’s digital sensor. In the olden days, photographers had to be concerned with a multitude of factors before arriving at the proper exposure for a given photograph. Fortunately, for us in the digital age – digital cameras are capable of “automatically” making very well informed “guesstimates” as to what it believes the exposure for a given photograph should be. In certain situations, the camera is very adept at performing this task and in other situations its’ calculations are less than ideal. Improving your photography in the digital-age requires us to understand exposure in one of 2 contexts: (a) how the camera formulates its exposure “guesstimates” and (b) how we can manually override the settings to create the perfect exposure.
In the next installment of my DP Tips, I thought it would be useful to give all the “newbies” out there a brief run down on the role of software and the importance of establishing a digital workflow.
Software – Use It Or Lose It:
Regardless of your skill level or experience, everyone needs to have an idea about the software that is available and what it can do for you. My recommendation for people starting to think seriously about digital photography for the first time would be to research and begin experimenting with some of the more prevalent and free software management tools out there. For most of us, Google’s Picasa or Microsoft’s Live Photo Gallery will give us all the features that we would ever need to: import, coordinate, manage and edit our photo collections. Many family and friends that I talk to (who have digital cameras) admit to taking pictures but then leaving the pictures pile up on the memory card until they are either forced to erase them or until they have saved up enough cash to buy a new card. This is a recipe for disaster. Get those pictures off your camera and loaded into a photo management tool on your home computer. Picasa and Live Photo Gallery provide basic photo management, photo backup, editing and tagging capabilities. Regardless of which tool you may choose to use, take my advice and spend a few hours researching the basic functions and features that each tool offers. This is the first step in understanding and establishing a digital workflow.
Abstract:
OK- so you have bought that fancy new digital camera (maybe even a DSLR) and now you want to know how to get the most out of it in 10 minutes or less. Read more for this amateur photographer’s bare essentials.
Bare Essential # 0: Use The Quick Help Guide:
Every digital camera comes with one and is usually a smaller, pocket version of the full product manual. Use it t familiarize yourself with your camera’s basic physical controls. Scan it to figure out how to interact with your camera’s on-screen menu.
Bare Essential # 1: Jack Up Picture Quality
I’ve seen and heard about too many people that fail to do the easiest and most fundamental of user tweaks. This article is not going to talk about shooting in camera RAW; instead we’re gong to assume that your camera defaults (as all digital cameras do) to standard JPEG format. Using the directions provided in the quick help guide, change your camera to shoot in the highest quality JPEG mode that is offered. Memory cards are so cheap these days that it makes little sense in trying to “save space”. Remember, the bigger the picture on the memory card, the more you can do with it later via software.
Bare Essential # 2: Start shooting in “Automatic”
For instant gratification with your newest toy, set your camera to shoot it’s first batch of pictures in the “automatic” mode that all digital cameras provide. Under this setting, your camera will make all the decisions for you, and should under most normal situations provide you with an exposure that is near optimal. If you end being serious about your camera, you may not use the “automatic” setting long term, but it is an excellent way to get a feel for what the camera can and can not do. My recommendation is to shoot in automatic for at least a couple of days in both indoor and outdoor situations.
Seeing that I have had multiple people ask me for my thoughts / opinions on buying a good digital camera, I thought I should just post this for anyone to read ….
(posted from recent emails to family and friends):
- The Canon EOS 40D is the DSLR camera body that I would recommend for the “tech savvy prosumer”; I’ve now owned & used one for the last 10 months.
- As you know, going into a digital camera purchase scenario, you are faced with either: (a) point & shoot digital or (b) DSLR (like the 40D)
- If you go the DSLR path, you need to be committed to learning how to use the DSLR – it offers a lot more features and to the untrained user could instill frustration.
- If you go the Point & Shoot path, after thinking you wanted a DSLR – do yourself a favor and buy the absolute best point-shoot that your budget can allow. The top of the line point and shoots are VERY, VERY good these days;
Starting today, I’ll be creating regular posts about my experiences with digital photography. Before you read any further or even consider subscribe to these posts, please understand what they are and what they are not.
What These Posts Are:
- My personal reflections on the immersion into a “relatively” new personal hobby.
- Personal advice on researching, buying, using and improving your digital photography.
- Thoughts on software, work flow, lenses, post-processing and flash photography.
- Pointers to great sites on the web for advanced tips and techniques for the amateur photographer.
Podcasts
