Alpha Photography Blog

Know your equipment

It might sound obvious, but there is a language of photography, and it starts with the equipment you use. What does Tv mean? How is P different from Auto?

Here is a summary of the basic creative functions on many cameras:

Ø P (Program Mode) – essentially Auto, but it allows you to manually activate the flash;

Ø Tv (Shutter Priority) – semi-manual, where you manually set the Shutter Speed, and select the flash, and the camera automatically sets the Aperture;

Ø Av (Aperture Priority) – semi-manual, you set the Aperture, and you control the flash, and the camera automatically selects the Shutter Speed; and

Ø M (Manual Mode) – fully manual. You set the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and choose when to turn the flash on.

Rule of thumb – if you don’t know what Aperture to set your camera to, start with f8.0.

Make sure your lens and sensor (for digital cameras) is clean. Always keep the lens cap on when not using the camera.

Recommended – put a Skylight filter on your lens (for SLR cameras), so if it gets scratched you don’t have to replace an entire lens, just the filter.

Memory cards – reformat after deleting all contents, otherwise a small amount of ‘residue’ will build up each time, gradually eating away at your available memory space. If you reformat with photos still on the card, this process will delete all photos.

Time of day

Depending on what your photographing, the best times of day are:

Ø Dawn (my preference – winter is easier J); and

Ø Dusk

That’s not to say you can’t take photos at other times of day, you just need to think more about how you take the photo.

If it’s a very sunny day, stand in the shade to take the photo and avoid taking the photo directly into the sun. Sometimes it can create a moody effect, but more often than not, it just blocks out the view.

Mist also can create a wonderful mood. You’re more likely to find mist in the mornings, when there is still soft light.

Ultimately, working with soft, angled light creates the most consistently good photos.

Composition

There are some composition fundamentals, which I’ll only briefly touch on here, as the next article will go into more depth on each. The one which will assist you the most is the Rule of Thirds – placing the main subject of the photo a little off-centre. Try it – you’ll instantly notice an improvement!

Briefly, the others that will improve your photos are:

Ø Keeping horizon lines straight

Ø Cropping

Ø Create perspective

Ø Positioning the subject in the photo and avoiding clutter

Aperture, Shutter Speed & Focal Length

There are 2 ways of controlling light – Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Aperture is defined as the size of the hole, through which light passes. It is measured in ‘f stops’, which are consistent across all lenses.

Shutter Speed is the length of time the shutter remains open, allowing light into the camera.

Measuring light is the key to ensuring correct exposure. All cameras have an in-built light meter. For the more advanced photographer, you can buy an external light meter which captures the ambient light readings and either you set your camera to the optimum settings it suggests, or it can communicate directly with your camera.

Focal length depends on the range of your zoom. Standard wide angle is 28mm, with most compact cameras starting at 35mm.

As a rule of thumb, your focal length is directly proportionate to the Shutter Speed you need to hand hold the camera and avoid camera shake. For example, if your focal length is 300mm, you need a Shutter Speed of at least 1/300 sec for a crisp image.

Likewise, if you’re shooting at 600mm, 1/600 sec, at a minimum, is required. This will depend on the available light as well, as you may not be able to adjust the Aperture enough to create a correct exposure. In this which you would need a tripod.

Film Speed

In the ‘old days’ of film, the most common film speed was ISO 200. This is a Standard for indicating the speed at which the film records the image onto the negative.

Even in digital photography, the cameras sensors work in a similar way. The lower the number, the slower the speed and the more information that is recorded (therefore, better resolution).

ISO 50 creates much more saturated images, while ISO 1600 results in a somewhat grainy photo.

It depends on the effect you want to achieve, and the available light, as to the ISO you choose to use, but ISO 200 or ISO 400 is a fallback to begin with.

File size

For the digital photographer, choosing the right file size is important. It’s the old cliché – is it quality over quantity you’re aiming for, or quantity over quality?

The most common type of file is JPEG, and you can choose superfine, fine, normal… The larger the file size the more pixels that are being used per inch, and the more saturated your image will be. This is particularly important if you want to enlarge a photo.

Using the largest JPEG setting, you sacrifice memory card space, but you’ll end up with more choice later on if you decide you’ve taken a fantastic photo and want to enlarge it.

With the influx of pro-sumer SLR digital cameras on the market, RAW format is becoming more common. Photos taken in RAW format take the actual data from the image, with no enhancements made by the camera, like they are when shooting in JPEG.

In order to actually use the RAW files, they need to be “translated” by software that comes with your camera. Only once this is done can the files be printed or manipulated in post-production.

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