|
Garry Black Photography |
|
OTTAWA WORKSHOP |
|
10 Basic Digital Photography Tips |
|
1. Set the Exposure Mode on your camera to Aperture priority. Use small f-stops (e.g., f/11, f/16) for a greater depth of field (larger depth of focus). In doing this though something that you'll have to watch out for, is that as you increase the depth of field (higher f-stop) the shutter speed slows down. Be careful that your shutter speed doesn't get too slow, as it's possible that you'll get camera shake and blur. You might have to increase the ISO or use a tripod when using a small f-stop. Use large f-stops (e.g., f/4, f/5.6) for a narrow depth of field (small depth of focus) to isolate and emphasize your subject. You will also gain a faster shutter speed with a larger f-stop. 2. For the best quality image that your camera's sensor can delivery use the lowest ISO setting (50, 100 or 200) as possible. The lower settings will produce less "noise" in your photos. 3. Camera movement (or shake) during an exposure will cause sharpness problems. To get sharp photos when hand holding the camera a general guideline is that a telephoto lens requires a faster shutter speed than a wide angle does in exactly the same situation (lighting/location). A good rule of thumb is that the minimum shutter speed should be equivalent to the focal length of the lens you are using. e.g. 28mm lens - 1/30 second; 300mm lens - 1/250 sec. Note that I've rounded off the the shutter speeds to the closest settings. Of coarse these are just guidelines, if you have a IS (Canon) or a VR (Nikon) lens then you'll be able to get away with slower shutter speeds. There are other times when handheld shooting isn't really feasible, either because of the ISO that you want to use and/or when the shutter speed is very slow, in those cases you'll need to use a tripod. 4. Focus - sort of related to #3 above. There is a difference between out of focus because of camera shake and out of focus because the lens wasn't properly focused on your subject. With auto focus it's important to pay attention to what the camera/lens is focusing on. 5. Colour Balance Settings. This tip really only applies if you're shooting JPG files, don't use the AWB (Auto White Balance) setting. It's far better to use the Daylight setting outdoors and Tungsten or Fluorescent when inside. If you're shooting RAW files then don't worry about this too much. White balance information is saved only as an EXIF metadata tag (information tag), so it doesn't have any effect on the raw file. In fact the only camera setting that does have any significant effect on the raw capture file is the ISO setting. Apart from the ISO, virtually every other camera setting has no effect on the raw file. (Note: the aperture and shutter speed settings don't really effect the information in the RAW file but they do profoundly effect your picture). All of the other camera settings are stored with the picture as an information tag. This information tag may or may not be used by the raw conversion software. So it's probably best to error on the safe side and make sure to set the white balance to Daylight. 6. You don't need a macro or micro lens in order to do close up photography. What I use is a set of extension tubes, the most popular brand is Kenko. These are hollow tubes that are mounted between the camera and any lens, auto focus and exposure information is also maintained when using them. They basically work by allowing the lens to increase it's minimum focusing distance, the closer you can focus the greater the close up. The set contains 3 tubes of different lengths which can be used individually or in combination with one another. Cost is is just under $300. A less expensive alternative is to use a close up filter, these screw into the front of the lens like any other filter would. The trade off with close up filters is that you usually loose a considerable amount of edge and corner sharpness. The last alternative is your telephoto lens, which may have some macro capabilities built in. It wont get as close as you could with extension tubes or a close up filter, but it might just be good enough. In the workshop I'll be covering the techniques to use all 3 methods. 7. Format your memory card with your camera, not your computer. 8. Get an external card reader. One of the easiest and fastest ways to transfer images between the memory card and computer is to use a card reader. This method is faster than using the transfer cable that came with your camera. In addition, the card reader avoids tying up your camera and draining its batteries when it is left on for long periods of time while transferring images. 9. The LCD screen on your camera uses lots of battery power, so to maximize battery life set the review time to the least amount of time which is reasonable enough for you to see your image. 10. Make back up copies of your images. Unfortunately I had to learn this lesson the hard way, I've had 2 hard drives crash. I now keep 3 copies of my images, RAW files are backed up on a hard drive and also on DVD's . The processed tiff images are on another hard drive. In addition to that there are quite a few images (7000) that are also with the stock agencies that sell my pictures, so that's really a 4th backed up copy. |
