Tips for SLR Photography
1. Always
check to see that your mode dial is turned to the right mode as it could get changed accidentally.
It can easily happen when handling the camera.
2. Always check the ISO setting to make sure it's correct and appropriate for the subject and amount of available light.
3. Always check to make sure your lens is set to autofocus mode (AF) and not on manual (M). Of
course you will know it is not focusing but it you are new to SLR photography, you might not realize why. Also check to make sure that stabilization
is set to ON if you have a stabilized lens. (It is called IS on Canon models and VR on Nikon
models.) Some Olympus and Samsung models and the Sony SLR models have stabilization built into the camera so make sure it is turned ON
in the menu.
4. On most lenses, unless the lens manual says otherwise, be sure to turn off stabilization if
you are using a tripod as it can cause blurry photos and you don't need it on a tripod. (If you
are using a monopod, keep it turned on.)
5. Canon and Nikon SLRs and probably most other brands have at least 2 autofocus modes, one shot
and continuous. If you are shooting moving subjects such as birds, sports, car racing, etc. set
your camera for continuous focus to track the subject. Canon calls this
mode AI Servo.
6. When using a tripod, to keep from moving the camera when pressing the button set it to self-timer
or purchase a shutter cable release to trip the shutter. On my cable
release, I press it half way to focus and set exposure and all the way to release the shutter.
Knock-off cable releases for Canon and other brands are available on eBay
(as well as lens hoods) for much less than buying name brands! I purchased
my cable shutter release and a lens hood from HK Supplies http://stores.ebay.com/Hong-Kong-Supplies They call
it a remote switch. They also come in wireless if you need to get further away than 3 feet. Check
on eBay for
7. If you do a lot of flash photography, purchase an external flash unit that fastens on the
hot shoe or can be used off the camera with an optional cable. Flashes are not cheap but well
worth the money as they are so much better than using the built-in flash for quality
images as you can bounce the flash off walls and ceilings for even light
without harsh shadows or washing out faces/subjects.
8. Memory cards: Most SLRs use Compact Flash memory and some use it plus another type. Some really
small new models may use only SD or XD. Use CF when available as it's sturdier and harder to
misplace due to larger size!. The best and most reliable brand is Sandisk. Choose the Sandisk Ultra II or
Extreme III or IV types as they are faster and it does make a difference! Stay away from generic
brands as they may not be reliable and may have very slow speed.
9. Lenses come in many varieties. There are single focal length lenses and zoom lenses. Single
length “Prime” lenses have a slight edge in sharpness over zoom lenses but it's not an important
factor with most of today's zoom lenses. Single focal length lenses range from wide angle 12
- 20 mm to long telephoto such as 300, 400 to 600 mm. The 50 mm, 85 mm, 135 mm and 300 mm are
popular sizes with Canon users.
Many SLR users prefer zoom lenses as they provide several focal lengths
in one lens. Wide angle zooms (such as 10 - 22, 12 - 24, 18 - 55 mm, etc.) are used for shooting
indoors and for architecture and landscape shots where a wider angle is needed. Medium focal
length zooms (such as 24 - 105, 18 - 200, 70 - 200 mm, etc) have a wide range of uses and are
handy as a "walking around" lens as they work for a variety of
subjects and have the ability to zoom in closer than wide angle lenses. Telephoto zoom lenses
include the 70 – 300 & 100/200 to 400 mm focal lengths and are great for wildlife
and sports.
Most
photographers prefer lenses in the 85 to 100 mm range for portraits, either prime or zoom lenses. They let you shoot from a good working distance of 10 – 12 feet
allowing you space between you and the subject and still filling the frame. They are long
enough to not cause facial distortion that you may get with a wide angle lens and to give some
blur to the background. Good zooms: Canon 24 – 105 f/4 IS and Nikon 24 – 120. 18 – 105, 18
– 200 VR.
Quite a few Canon and Nikon lenses are available with image stabilization. Canon calls these
IS lenses and Nikon calls them VR (vibration reduction.) They are more expensive but if you can
afford them, by all means get them as they reduce camera shake which is useful in low light situations.
Now Sigma and Tamron are making stabilized lenses for various manufacturers'
cameras too. See Canon
lenses and Nikkor
lenses
Keep in mind that Sigma, Tamron and Tokina make lenses for Canon, Nikon,
Pentax, and Sony (probably Olympus too) that are cheaper than your camera manufacturer's lenses.
Some of the new models have image stabilization. Sigma designates theirs OS for optical
stabilization. If your camera has stabilization built in, then you can really save $$ on lenses
by purchasing standard lenses without stabilization. Keep in mind that Sigma and Tamron may have
quality control issues, so if you get one, purchase it from a place that doesn’t have a restocking
fee if you return it. I recommend bhphotovideo.com and adorama.com. Test the lens well when
you get it as you will have only a week or two to return it if it’s defective. This goes for
camera brand lenses too!
Lenses are rated fast or slow according to the size of the aperture. If a lens has a wide aperture
such as f2.8 or even f4, it would be called a "fast" lens because it would let in more
light which would allow for a faster shutter speed. This allows shooting hand held in lower light situations
to avoid camera shake and allows taking photos in really low light such as sports in the evening.
If you do night or sports photography, a fast lens would be essential and even then you may have
trouble if the area s not well-lit. The same goes for wildlife photography
if you take advantage of the "golden hours" and shoot early or late in the day or on
cloudy days. Fast lenses tend to be heavier and more expensive than standard lenses because the
glass and overall diameter is larger. A popular lens for low-light sports is the Canon 70 – 200
f2.8 IS.
A standard zoom lens would be in the f3.5 to 5.6, f4 - 5.6, f4.5 to 6.3 ranges of apertures.
These zoom lenses have the widest aperture at the wide angle setting and go to the smaller aperture
at the longest zoom setting. Some lenses have the same aperture throughout the zoom range, making
them faster, such as the Canon 17 - 55 mm f2.8 and the Canon 24 - 105 mm f4.
10. Telephoto extenders: Extenders are available for Canon and Nikon cameras
and probably others. They are made by Canon, Nikon, etc. as well as by Kenko, Tamron and Sigma.
They only work well with fast lenses, no slower than f4 or they will not autofocus. The most
popular and best extenders are the 1.4X size (as opposed to 2X). The 1.4 X takes out one stop
of light so that an f4 lens becomes an f5.6 lens. The 2 X extender cuts out 2 stops of light
so that f4 becomes f8 and they are not as sharp either. I recently purchased the Canon 300 mm
f4 lens and a 1.4 X extender and have been getting pretty good results with it. It is not as
sharp as the 300 by itself but in most cases they sharpen up nicely in Photoshop. It takes longer
to autofocus with an extender on the lens.
11. All lenses have a “sweet spot”, which is a range of focal lengths where the lens is sharpest. Usually this is found when you back off a bit from the widest angle or longest telephoto ends. For instance, if your lens goes from 18 – 55 mm, you might find that it is sharpest at 24 – 50 mm all the way across the frame. Be sure to view your images full size to check for sharpness. It may not be apparent if you are looking at the image in a smaller size and making only small prints.
The other parameter for sharper photos is aperture. Many less expensive lenses and some expensive ones do not have maximum sharpness wide open at the largest aperture nor at the highest f-stops like f/22 up. The general recommendation is to set the aperture for 2 stops higher than the maximum aperture if you have enough light. That’s why fast lenses are preferred. If your lens’ widest aperture is f/4, then you will get maximum sharpness at f/8 through f/16. This varies from lens to lens and more expensive lenses probably only require one stop, i.e. from f/4 to f/5.6. And a few will be sharp wide open. You have to test the lens to find out!
Shooting in Aperture Priority Mode
The shooting mode of choice for most outdoor photography professionals and for myself is aperture priority mode, A or Av on the mode dial. This mode allows
you to have some creative input as to how your subject is presented. If you want your subject
to stand out from the background by having only the subject in sharp focus and the background
blurred, just set your aperture to a low number (for example, f/2.8, f/3.5, /f4, f/5.6). The
camera will set the shutter speed automatically. Then just focus on your subject and shoot! That’s
all there is to it. You get a sharp picture of the subject but the background is blurred. How
blurred it is depends on the lens you are using and how close the background is to the subject. Using
a longer lens such as 85 – 200 mm will blur the background while a wide angle lens under 50
mm will not blur it too much. So if you have a zoom lens, zoom it nearly to the end to maintain
the “sweet spot” unless you are too close to the subject and have to pull back on the zoom.
If you want as much as possible in the scene to be in focus (the foreground, the middle, the background) simply do the opposite and set the aperture to a larger number such as f/16 or f/22. Keep in mind that these small openings necessitate longer shutter speeds so you might want to use a tripod except during the brightest part of the day.
If you aren’t sure exactly which aperture to choose for a particular subject, set it for f/8 or f/11 or one of the in-between settings such as 9 or 10 and look at the resulting image and magnify it to see if what you wanted in focus is in focus. In lower light situations, choose f/5.6, 6.3 or 7.1 for medium depth of focus if you don’t have a tripod handy.
Shooting in Shutter Priority
This mode
is normally used in instances where you want to show motion or freeze action. In order to
show motion a slow shutter speed is selected, from longer than one second to 1/60th second
or so, depending on how fast the object is moving.
Panning is
also a good way to show motion. Set your shutter speed to 1/60th to 1/125th second
for starters and press the shutter button after you have started the pan. Keep a smooth movement following
the subject. Use burst (drive) mode and continuous focus mode and capture several images if
possible.
To freeze the action, a shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/2000 of a second is required, depending on how fast the subject is moving. Unless you have really good light, to get that high a speed using a higher ISO setting may be required, such as 400 – 1600.
Shooting in Manual Mode
I advise that you become fully comfortable in your understanding of aperture and shutter speed and how they work together, and with using aperture priority and shutter priority modes before trying Manual mode for anything important. You should understand that large apertures (low f-numbers) and slow shutter speeds let in more light and smaller apertures and fast shutter speeds let in less light. Keeping this in mind, and using the light meter you see in your viewfinder make using Manual mode fairly easy.
In your Viewfinder you should have an Exposure Meter indicator that looks like this:
[ -2..-1..0..+1..+2 ]
When you frame your subject and push the shutter button half-way down, the meter reads the light in the scene (taking the camera settings into account) and indicates the exposure on this indicator. Negative numbers mean there's not enough light, positive numbers mean there's too much light. "0", according to the meter, means the photo will be properly exposed at the selected settings. So, what you have to do is dial in Aperture and Shutter speed settings that give you "0". BUT you have to keep in mind that the meter tries to make the scene medium tone, so if the subject is lighter than medium tone, then your meter should be above 0. If it’s darker than medium tone, it should be below 0. You are doing your own “exposure compensation” here.
There will be several different combinations of aperture and shutter speed settings that will have the correct exposure so that it reads "0". Choose the one that will give you the effect you want, i.e. more or less depth of focus, blurring or freezing action. Set whichever one is more important first, and then set the other. It’s really important that you have a full understanding how aperture and shutter speed affect the look of your photo before you begin using Manual mode. Keep studying and practicing until you “get the hang of it”!