This article is going to focus in on our equipment and the value of knowing how to use it correctly. For those who may have recently purchased their very first SLR camera or for those who have had one but never really took the time to really learn all the functions I hope this article is helpful. Maybe even those who are experts might find some useful information in this article as well. As usual feedback is very welcome, and I am always open to learn something I might have left out or looked over please feel free to email me or post a comment and point that out to me.
The new camera comes and your blood is rushing, your heart is pounding like a kid on Christmas tearing through the packaging to reveal your new jewel. (Well that is me in most cases). There is nothing wrong with grabbing your camera out and setting it to auto and go to snapping shots. This will and can be very useful information later about how your camera reacts to different situations. I shoot everything in the manual setting, because I believe this is were your camera can operate at its best and produce the best images possible. There is a lot to say about aperture and shutter speed mode but, it is my true feelings that if you want to squeeze all the juice out of your equipment’s ability only allow it to make the most insignificant decisions you can.
Your camera fresh out of the box comes with a user manual, reading it will be helpful depending on the brand of your equipment some are more helpful than others. This is a good step toward understanding what your equipment can and cannot do. Buying a book is another route and there again depending on who wrote the book your experience will vary. Through my eyes getting your equipment out and shooting with it day in and day out is not only going to be the best way to learn how to use it but, also the most valuable way to remember and apply real world techniques to your work.
Get out there and shoot, if you’re a newbie, set it to auto and expose several hundred pictures over a couple of weeks under different circumstances. By that I mean different lighting circumstances. Different times of the day, under harsh lighting conditions, and under what you think are better lighting situations. As you gather these photos over whatever period of time you take. Arrange what you consider to be the best ones and the worst ones into categories along those lines. Study the Meta information your camera used to compile the images. You’re ISO, Shutter Speeds, Aperture (F-Stop), the white balance and so on.
You should start to get a picture of how your camera reacts to different lights, and under different circumstances. Then make the switch, switch over to manual and go to town. Basically today’s cameras tell you what your exposure values are just by metering a scene. Find the meter setting on your camera, this is usually wide, center-weighted, and spot metering. While your camera is on and the screen is displayed hit your display setting until you have the most information showing that your camera will display. You should see at the top a light meter. This is in my opinion one of DSLR’s best functions, and will become your best friend on the camera. Set your metering to center-weighted or spot and push the shutter button about half way down. This will allow you to meter the light values in or near the center of your shot. The light meter on your screen should display something like a 0 in the center and then 1,2,3 to the right and the same to the left. If you arrow is moving to the right of the zero this is indicating an over exposure and if it is moving to the left it is indicating the under exposing of the light you are metering. Understanding this is probably one of the biggest steps to understanding not only your equipment but, the age of digital photography as a whole. (As a side note, and this is were everyone’s equipment will vary. Just because your meter is showing perfect exposure does not always equal perfect exposure in the final image. Adjusting shutter speeds, aperture, and ISO during the actual image taking process will help ensure you get the best pictures. This meaning your camera may sometimes show under or over exposure values in the meter in order to produce the best exposure in the final image. This will vary, and this is what I mean by understanding your equipment.) This may sound overwhelming but, it will become second nature if you really apply yourself. When you do in the end the effort will show through greatly.
I am going to try to keep these articles short for now and continue this article at a later date in order to allow the information therein to better set with you the reader. Thank you very much for your time and come back in the near future for the follow up to this article. anthonypostonphotography.com
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