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Digital SLR photography — learning from examples

Published April 19, 2009

In the first article we covered the basic ways SLRs (and other cameras) work. Because when you understand that stuff you’ll start getting a feel for which settings to choose. Now I’ll run through a couple of examples to show it in action. Needless to say, this is just the start to experiencing the fun of taking control of your camera.

PART 1 | PART 2

Great Cormorant

Bird sitting still in bright sunlight

When your subject isn’t moving it makes things so much easier. First of all, it gives you some time to think about what you’re doing. So instead of worrying about just getting a shot, you can figure out how to make it a good one.

In the picture above, I’d seen a Great Cormorant sitting quietly at the edge of a lake in full sunlight. A strong breeze was making a bit of a mess of distracting waves in the lake behind it (you can see how strong the breeze was by the way those crest feathers are being ruffled) and so I wanted to blur those waves away.

What’s the main priority?

You want to reduce the depth of field, to make the bird stand out and the mess going on behind it to blur away. And you control depth of field with your aperture setting. So there’s your main decision made for you: aperture priority mode.

So you select aperture priority in your mode dial — AV or A or whatever your camera calls it — and choose a small number. Because a small f-number will give you a small depth of field. In this example I opened my lens up to the smallest f-number it could manage, which was f/5.6.

If you look carefully, you can even tell that I chose a big aperture, because I wasn’t able to get the whole bird in focus. I focused on the bird’s eye, which meant that the feathers below its shoulders went a bit soft. But that didn’t worry me, because it also meant those distracting ripples were completely blurred away.

What about the theory?

f/5.6 lets a lot of light through the lens, especially in bright sunlight, so to ensure you don’t over-expose your shot you’d expect the camera to only keep the shutter open for a very short time. And sure enough, it chose 1/2000 of a second, which is mighty fast. This had the added benefit of stopping even the slightest motion blur in that bird’s head.

Dragonfly

Fast-moving dragonfly in bright light

In my opinion, the best dragonfly shots show the wings, even if the insect is flying. Now, a flying dragonfly isn’t the easiest photographic subject to work with, but the same rules apply.

First of all, what’s your main priority?

We want to clearly see the dragonfly, including the wings. Those wings are moving quickly so then our priority in this case is to prevent motion blur.

What does that mean for your camera settings?

You want to freeze the action with a fast exposure. That means shutter speed. So your first setting is decided for you: Select shutter speed priority on the mode dial. That might be called TV (Time Value) or it might be an S setting or maybe your camera calls it something different. Once I had flicked the mode dial around to shutter speed priority I chose 1/1250 second for the shot. The camera then took care of the aperture settings for me.

What about the theory?

1/1,250 of a second might be fast enough to freeze the action of a dragonfly wing, but it’s not much time for your camera’s sensor to collect enough light. So your camera’s going to open its lens aperture up a real lot to make up for it, even in bright sunlight. Big aperture (small f-number) means small depth of field, which means the background blurred away. Which was fine by me.

 

PART 1 | PART 2

Photography

Beginners’ series on digital SLR photography

The essential basics

Digital SLR photography — a beginners’ guide
A quick guide to understanding your new toy

Learning from examples
Picking up where the first article left off

Understanding aperture
This is one of the fundamental tools for controlling exposure.

Understanding shutter speed
This is another of the fundamental tools for controlling exposure.

 

Making sense of technical stuff

Megapixels
How many is enough?

How much camera gear do you need?
Sometimes, less really is more

How to choose a lens
Making the right choices can improve your shots and save you money

newTips for using tripods
Getting the most out of them

JPG versus RAW
Which is the best way to work?

Understanding histograms
Making sense of this handy tool

APS-C vs full frame
The differences explained, and what it means to your photography

Pixel density in sensors
Helping APS-C cameras photograph distant objects.

Fast lens, slow lens
What’s the difference?

Understanding colour temperature
It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Understanding resolution
What it means, as it applies to digital photography

 

Photography words explained

What’s a 100% crop?
I explain a term you often hear in digital photography

newWhat are specular highlights?
You’ll recognise them when you see them

newWhat is bracketing?
A commonly-used word for a handy trick

 

Photography at night

Photographing small critters
in the dark

How I take my shots when there’s no light

newTaking pictures of the moon
You need a fairly long lens, and these simple tricks

Common problems and their solutions

Washed-out colours in photos
Why it happens, and how to prevent it

Understanding exposure compensation
Why your photo subject can look so badly exposed, and what to do about it

Understanding dynamic range
Dealing with too much contrast

Working in harsh light
Getting some of the colour back into midday photography

Getting sharper pictures
Understanding the things that stop your photos from being tack-sharp

Noise in your images
What causes it, and what can you do about it?

 

Taking things further

Using a telephoto lens to blur the background
Here’s an easy-to-understand explanation of why it happens

Macro photography part 1
Using your DSLR for bug shots

Macro photography part 2
Ironing the bugs out of bug shots

One simple trick
The easiest way to get better wildlife photos

Wildlife photography
Tricks the pros use to get better pictures of critters

Bird photography part 1
Small, distant, and feathered does not have to mean a bad photo

Bird photography part 2
More hints for beginner bird photographers

How I take photos of frogs
These tiny critters require a technique all their own.

Using software to ‘fix’ your photos
A few suggestions for image editing

 

Advanced stuff

Image Stacking
Using software to achieve extraordinary Depth of Field

Sneaky deep-etching
A fast way to cut complicated objects out of their backgrounds

 

Other photography stuff

BLOG (sort of)

The elusive waterskiing duck
It started out as a fun idea …

PHOTO GALLERY

Pics of Australian critters
Some of my recent images

PHOTO SALES

Looking for the right picture?
A small selection of the photos available


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