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Let’s go through some basic photographic lessons and techniques. Words and photography by Simone Costi A lot of photography jargon can seem like double Dutch. You’re not alone – it can be confusing, but once you decipher it all it’s pretty simple. First off, let’s run through the basic functions on the camera. Now every camera is different, but they do tend to have many similarities. I’ll go through the most common functions. The majority of the stuff we’ll deal with in this article pertains to SLR cameras. Modes Most cameras have a variety of modes to choose from, which are a great help if you’re a beginner. Once you have the hang of your camera, I’d suggest forgetting about the standard modes and selecting the modes on your own as it allows for greater creative control. Green mode is the basic picture taking option. The camera does everything for you, however, it does not necessarily mean it is the ideal option for taking shots. Portrait mode is recommended for taking portraits. Once again the camera does all the work. Action mode allows you to capture images of moving subjects, such as sports, kids and pets. Landscape mode is, as it says, suited for taking landscape or scenery pictures. Macro mode lets you get up close and take clear shots of flowers, bugs or other small things. Night mode is great for night time photography, mainly evening portraits. Those are the ‘no-brainer’ functions, which are fine, but you have a bit more fun working it out on your own. P is program mode, which is one of the most popular options to use. The camera automatically sets the shutter speed and aperture to suit the lighting. This is also an easy option, but a very common one if you don’t have the confidence or time to play around with the shutter and aperture. However, it doesn’t give you the creativity that Av and Tv modes do. Av is the aperture priority mode. In this mode you get to set the aperture. The aperture is like the camera’s eye, which opens and closes to let the light in and to take the picture. By changing the aperture on this mode, you are choosing the size of the camera’s eye and therefore the exposure. Changing the aperture also effects the depth of field, which is how much of the image is in focus. A small aperture (a little eye) creates a large depth of field (more of the image in focus), where a large aperture (a big eye) results in a small depth of field (less of the image in focus). While you select the aperture, a shutter speed is chosen automatically to match it. Tv is the shutter priority mode. Here you can choose what shutter speed you want to use. So the shutter speed can be fast or slow. A fast speed is used to freeze the moving subject, for instance, a bird flying. A slow shutter speed is used to promote movement, such as flowing waterfalls. When you select a shutter speed, your camera will chose the aperture for you so the exposure is correct. Shutter speed and aperture work together. When you alter one, the other one changes to accommodate it. M is manual mode where you choose both the shutter speed and aperture on your own. You can also choose auto or manual focus on your camera. The camera focuses for you on auto, and on manual you have to move the lens till the image is in focus. Most people use a combination of both, depending on what they are shooting. Alright, so we’ve got your camera and its functions sorted. Lenses These days, most SLR cameras come with a lens, however, one might not be enough. When I bought my film SLR, it included a 28-80mm zoom lens and a 100-300mm zoom lens. When I bought my digital SLR, it came with an 18-50mm wide angle zoom lens. As you’ve probably already worked out, there are a few different types of lenses and you can get them in varying sizes. Standard wide angle lenses cover from about 15-50mm. They’re good for all round stuff, especially portrait shots. Wide angle lenses are best for landscape photography, as they take wide-angle shots, meaning they can fit a fair bit in the picture. They tend to range from 8-28mm. Zoom lenses are great and if you’re only going to get one lens, I’d go for a 28-200mm one. It can handle portraits and stuff a fair way away. They generally go up to 300mm at the most. Telephoto lenses are super long lenses and range in size from 300mm to 1000mm. You can also get special lenses, like fish eye lenses, which take those really neat curvy looking shots. Another popular lens is a macro lens, however some lenses have a macro switch on it. My Sigma 28-80mm has this option, where I can choose to shoot in macro. Filters It is essential to have a UV or a skylight filter on your camera. Not only do they help protect the lens, but these filters help eliminate the glare entering the shot and produce brighter, clearer results. You can also get all sorts of coloured filters to change the tone of your shot, but I reckon sticking to the basics is wisest for travel photography. Technical stuff aside, there’s a few really handy basics that will improve your photography immediately. First of all, hold the camera steady. Use a tripod or lean against a wall for support. You can actually get inexpensive little mini travel tripods from camera stores. Tripods are especially important when you’re doing macros/close ups or time delay shots. Sometimes you can get away without one for macro shots, but more often than not, there will be noticeable camera shake and that crystal clear flower with dew on the petals will end up looking like a big smudge of colour. Keep the sunlight behind you where possible as this will allow natural light to do its job. Also, if you haven’t already worked it out, shooting into the sun will often cause a big white blob on your pic and everything in the foreground will be dark. It might sound funny, but watch where you stand when you take photographs. For instance, when shooting close ups of flowers your shadow might fall on the bloom, which you definitely don’t want. Or if shooting landscapes, your shadow might be cast into the foreground of shot. However, I don’t mind this effect, especially when photographing outback type stuff as it helps illustrate just how desolate and lonely it is out there. You could just snap away at anything without actually lining your subject up. This will create an okay photo, but not really get the best result. To line your subject up, whether it’s a person or a tree or a fence, imagine your view finder has been divided into thirds, both horizontally and vertically and looks like a grid. Then when you’re aiming, line up the subject with one of these grid lines. This will work with scenery, people and close ups or macro shots of flowers. Filling the frame is also an important technique in photography. It is a pretty simple one to apply to your shots too. Basically, fill the frame with your subject (which often requires zooming-in), rather than zooming-out and trying to fit in everything around them. Survey your subject and its surroundings. If you’re taking shots of a building, make sure a car isn’t going to zoom through right as you press the button. If you’re taking scenery pictures, make sure a lonely garbage bin isn’t sneaking into the frame. Keep in mind that you can position your camera both vertically and horizontally. For things like tall trees, hold it vertically to accentuate their height rather than chop it off. Then for flat sweeping plains, hold it horizontally to emphasize the vastness of the area. And if you’re not sure, well, just shoot it both ways! But the most important thing of all is to blaze away and have a ball. |
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