Mastering Your Camera

I’m not the only one that contends that mastering your camera is an important first step in mastering photography. You’ll see it in blog posts, articles and videos.

Let’s take a deeper, more detailed look at what it means to master your camera and show that it’s not an impossible task, as intimidating as it may seem when you first start.

It starts with the question, “What does a camera do?” The hundreds of pages in the camera’s user manual and a similar number of options in its menus make it look like mastering it is a massive if not impossible task. It appears daunting, especially if you are not technically inclined. But in reality, what you need the camera to do comes down to just two things – control the exposure and control sharpness. Let’s see what core skills are required to master these two things.

Control Exposure

The purpose of exposure control is to ensure the right amount of light enters the camera so that the sensor can record the image you are photographing. You and the camera need to respond to both bright and dark scenes. The exposure controls are what makes it possible to match the exposure to the kinds of lighting conditions you encounter.

Tell Me More About Exposure….

There are three variables that can be adjusted to respond to the amount of light in the scene – ISO, aperture and shutter speed. These three variables form the famous exposure triangle.

Tell Me More About the Exposure Triangle….

ISO

ISO controls the sensitivity of the sensor. That is to say, it controls how much light is required to get a proper exposure. Low ISO numbers such as 100 decreases the sensitivity, requiring more light. High ISO numbers such as 1200 increase the sensitivity and require less light.

The trade off is that you get higher quality images with lower ISOs but you can photograph in darker situations with high ISOs.

Tell Me More About ISO….

To control the ISO, you need to know how to do the following:

· Set the ISO

Aperture

Aperture controls the brightness of the light entering the camera through the lens. It also affects depth of field. The primary concern of landscape photographers is an aperture that will give the needed depth of field. When shooting from a tripod, the shutter speed is usually not that important.

Tell Me More About Aperture….

You need the following camera skills to adjust the aperture:

· Set the aperture

Shutter Speed

The shutter controls how long the sensor is exposed to the light entering through the lens. Shutter speeds become important when shooting hand held. To get a sharp image you need a shutter speed that is no longer than 1/focal length.

Shutter speeds are also important when shooting blurs as in a waterfall. In these situations longer shutter speeds are needed.

Tell Me More About Shutter Speeds….

You need the following camera skills to adjust the shutter speed:

· Set the shutter speed

Camera Shooting Mode

Most camera give you at least four options for controlling exposure. They are Auto, Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual. Each of these modes gives you varying degrees of control over the three exposure variables. They all help you get a proper exposure.

Here’s a quick rundown on each.

Auto

With Auto mode the camera takes control of all three exposure variable – ISO, aperture and shutter speed. It makes the best guess as to what the optimum exposure is. You have no control over it. Serious photographers are generally not willing to give up all control over exposure.

You need the following camera skills to photograph in Auto mode:

· Set the mode to Auto

Aperture Priority

With aperture priority you set the ISO and aperture and the camera determines the shutter speed. You get the same exposure as you would with Auto but you can control the quality of the image (ISO) and depth if field (aperture).

This mode works well when shooting from a tripod as, other than in windy conditions, you don’t really care how long the shutter speed is.

Sometimes the camera gets the exposure wrong. It may overexpose or underexpose. What then? In Aperture priority mode you can use Exposure Compensation to get a more optimum exposure.

Tell Me More About Exposure Compensation….

You need the following camera skills to shoot in aperture priority:

Set the mode to Aperture priority
Set the ISO
Set the aperture
Apply exposure compensation when necessary

Shutter Priority

With shutter priority you control the ISO and shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture. This mode is especially valuable in shooting sporting events where a fast shutter speed is needed to stop the action. It can also be useful when photographing blurs such as moving water.

As with aperture priority, the camera may not get an optimum exposure in shutter priority. You can use Exposure Compensation to correct that.

You need the following camera skills to shoot in shutter priority

Set the mode to Shutter priority
Set the ISO
Set the shutter speed
Apply exposure compensation as necessary

Manual

Manual exposure mode gives you full control of the exposure. You set the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. The camera helps by giving a display in the viewfinder to show when you are properly exposed. The display also allows you to intentionally over or underexpose the image.

You need the following camera skills to shoot in manual mode:

Set the mode to Manual
Set the ISO
Set the aperture
Set the shutter speed
Adjust shutter speed or aperture to compensate for exposure as necessary.

HDR

There’s one more exposure situation that can be encountered. This occurs when the dynamic range of the scene, the difference between its darkest and brightest areas, is greater than your camera’s sensors can capture. There are several techniques for dealing with, but the one that is done with the camera is to shoot a series of images and different exposures. These are later blended in the digital darkroom.

The best way to do this is with Auto Exposure Bracketing. You tell the camera two things – how many exposures you want to take and the exposure interval between each shot. For example, you may want to take three exposures bracketed by 2 stops each. That would produce one exposure at the normal exposure setting, one two stops underexposed and the third shot two stops overexposed.

Tell Me More About Auto Exposure Bracketing….

You need the following camera skills to shoot HDR:

Set the mode to Aperture priority
Set the ISO
Set the aperture
Set the number of HDR shots
Set Auto Exposure Bracketing
Apply exposure compensation when needed

There’s one more skill that is needed to get an optimum exposure. We mentioned applying exposure compensation as needed such as when the image is over or underexposed. Another frequent condition is when there is highlight clipping in some areas of the image. But how do you know if you have an exposure problem? The answer is the Histogram.

The ability to display and read the histogram to identify exposure problems is another key camera skill.

There is a camera setting that is closely related to displaying the histogram, that being ‘the blinkies.’ Every camera manufacturer has a setting that will cause areas with highlight clipping to flash then the image is displayed on the LCD screen. This is another way of identifying highlight clipping problems.

Exposure Summary

To summarize, the camera skills needed to master exposure are:

Set the camera mode (Auto, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual)
Set the ISO
Set the aperture
Set the shutter speed
Turn on the histogram and blinkies
Apply exposure compensation
Set the number of HDR shots
Set auto exposure bracketing for HDR shots

That’s it; eight skills are needed and you’re well on your way to mastering exposure.

Controlling Sharpness

There are two factors that come into play when controlling sharpness and which one is used depends on your creative intent. You may want the image to be sharp throughout in which case you need to control the depth of field. You may wish to have a sharp foreground and a blurred background which also requires control of the depth of field. Or you may want an element of the image such as moving water to be blurred while the rest is sharp. These would be blurs created from motion of the subject or the camera. This requires control of the shutter speed.

Blurs

Blurs can include the entire image or an element within the image like a waterfall. You will get a blur if part or all of the image moves while the shutter is open. The more movement there is, the greater the blur.

Control of the shutter speed, therefore, is important. Longer shutter speeds will provide more blurs. (You may also need to make sure the unblurred portion of the image is sharp which requires control of the depth of field.)

Often times neutral density or variable neutral density filters are used to get longer shutter speeds, especially in bright conditions.

You need the following camera skills to get a blurred image:

Set the mode to shutter priority
Set the shutter speed

Depth of Field

Depth of field is the range in front of the camera where everything within the range is in focus and elements in front of and behind the range are out of focus. There are deep and shallow depths of field.

Tell Me More About Depth of Field….

Controlling depth of field involves three factors – the aperture, the focal length of the lens and the distance from the lens of the object you focus on or the focal distance.

Focal Distance

Since focal distance is one of the factors that determines depth of field, it is important that you are clear understanding of what you want to focus on. This is true whether you are using a shallow or deep depth of field .

You can use auto focus and let the camera decide what to focus on or you can take control of that yourself with manual focus. In many instances auto focus works just fine. But in marginal cases manual focus is the most reliable way to go.

Live view is an important tool for manual focus. You can identify the object you want to focus on, magnify it and adjust the focus ring on the lens to get a tack sharp focus.

There is an automatic way of focusing on the object you select. The camera uses an array of focusing points. But you have the ability to select one of the focus points. If you can select a focusing point that is on the object you want to focus on, then you can use auto focus. But don’t forget to switch the camera back to using all of its focusing points wghen you’re done.

You need the following skills to control focal distance:

Switch the lens from auto to manual focus
Adjust the focusing ring on the lens (in manual focus mode)
Select a specific focusing point to use auto focus.
Display a live view image
Magnify the live view image on the camera’s LCD screen

Aperture

We have already discussed aperture above. The thing to keep in mind is smaller apertures produce deeper depths of field while wider apertures result in shallower depths of field.

Focal Length of the Lens

This one is easy. Compose the image and then look at the lens to determine the focal length. This assumes you are using a zoom lens. If you’re using a prime, you already know the focal length.

Determining Depth of Field Settings

When in the field, once you get your shot set up and the composition dialed in, you now two of the three factors that affect depth of field. You know the focal length of the lens; you just have to look. And you know the focal distance because you’ve focused on the element you selected. The only thing you don’t know is the aperture or f/stop.

This is not something you can calculate in your head and you don’t want to guess. Today we have apps that can quickly answer that question. You should never go into the field without you smart phone loaded with one of these apps.

Sharpness Summary

To summarize, the camera skills needed to master sharpness are:

Set shutter speed
Set aperture
Switch to manual focus
Magnify live view image on the LCD screen
Use the lens’ focusing ring to manually focus
Select auto focus point