Transform your Photography by simply getting out of “Full Auto”
“Learn to control your camera and the results will amaze you!”
Great photography can be learned by simply taking control of your camera and learning some of the basic manual settings. Average photography is usually the result of letting the camera “automatically” control your exposure settings. Want to get better photos? Then you must take control of the exposure starting with a basic understanding of how the camera works and how to control it.
Your fancy DSLR camera has lots of buttons and the main one most photographers use is the power switch and the shutter button. Those buttons and setting are there so you can express your creativity and produce the image YOU want instead of what the camera thinks you want. The results can be amazing.
The Basics of Exposure
So how does a modern digital camera work and how do we as creatives control the setting to get the desired result? To answer this question you must first understand the exposure triangle.
The exposure triangle consists of three parts. Aperture, shutter, and ISO control the amount of light entering the lens and hitting the sensor to “Expose” the photo properly. To much light and the photo is “blown out” and over exposed. Not enough light and the photo is “too dark” and under exposed. Both aperture and shutter also give us creative ways to craft our photos using depth of field and freezing or blurring movement.
Aperture-depth of field
Aperture is much like the pupil in the human eye. It’s that small circular opening the expands and contracts to let various amounts of light hit the retina. In the camera the aperture works exactly like the pupil by changing the size of the opening that allows light to enter. A small opening only allows a small about of light to enter and is mainly used on sunny days for landscapes. Besides controlling how much light enters and hits the sensor, aperture also controls the “depth of field”. Depth of field is defined as the area where your subject is in focus. For example Aperture of F8-F16 used for landscapes on sunny days lets just enough of the bright sunlight in and has a large depth of field. This means that almost everything in the photo is in focus. That’s what we want in a great landscape photograph.
Portraits are an entirely different matter. In a portrait we want the main subject “in focus” but the background to be blurred or “out of focus”. We have seen the great portraits were the background is blurry and dreamy. This is controlled by aperture. Aperture settings of F1.8 (which is a large opening) allows a lot of light in and has a shallow depth of field.
Shutter Speed
The shutter opens and closes very quickly to let light in. Close your eyes then quickly open and close them. The shutter works the same way by opening then closing letting in light for a predetermined amount of time. The longer it stays open the more light enters the camera. As photographers we use this amount of time the shutter stays open to control movement. Fast shutter speeds like 1/500 of a second will freeze motion like sports. Slow shutter speeds like 1 or 2 seconds will allow flowing water to blur and create dreamy creamy waterscapes.
Now let’s shoot!
So it’s time to break out the camera and go and take some family photos. First we need to determine whether we use aperture or shutter speed to get our desired result. Let’s assume you want to take a family member’s portrait in the backyard. It’s simple, put your camera in Aperture priority mode. Now I’ll set the aperture to its lowest number like F2.8 so we reduce the depth of field. Set your focus point on the subject’s eyes, press the shutter half way down to get focus, move the camera to place your subject where you want them in the frame. Then snapthe shot…… Wow… tack sharp subject and a dreamy blurry background.
Next let’s go to a daytime football game where we want to freeze the action. Put your camera in Shutter priority mode. Set the shutter speed to 1/250 to 1–500th. Half press to focus and shoot…. The action is frozen… amazing….
Now lets UP your Game
Try this at that daytime football game. We are going full manual to get a great shot…
- Use your zoom telephoto lens and zoom in close, really close.
- Set your ISO to 400
- Set your Aperture as low as you can. F2.8 -F4
- Set your shutter speed to 1/500–1/1000 (experiment with different speeds in live view mode to balance the brightness of the photo)
Now focus and fire away and you will get that action frozen and the background blurry. Awesome!
You’re on your Way
Using Aperture priority mode and Shutter priority mode instead of Full Auto mode has started you down the path to greater photographs. These semi automatic modes help you understand the creative side of aperture and it’s relationship to depth of field. Shutter priority mode can freeze motion or blur moving object such as water and clouds. You’ve now taken the first steps toward going full manual, congratulations.
The best advice I could give you now is to just get out there and shoot lots of photos. Try different settings and adjust…. You can do this and the results will become amazing.
For more examples view my Portfolio on Flickr
