Back to Basics

To start a blog about something would usually suggest that you know quite a fair bit about a certain subject. This time last year I would have never thought about even attempting to start one. I would have found it an extremely daunting task but as your interest in a subject increases so does your need to learn the basics. As the saying goes "you've got to crawl before you can walk". The old me, like a lot of people would just skip the basics and jump right into the more difficult stuff. "I don't need to know that" is what I would have said in the past. The fact is if you skip the basics in photography you will never really know how your camera works. It's all too easy to just go "shotgun" with a digital camera in automatic mode. Yes you might get some good images but if you take the time and learn about how to shoot with the manual settings on your camera then you're gonna achieve better results. Now I am in no way a professional and don't claim to be but If somebody asked me to get them a shot with a good depth of field or a sports picture of an object in motion then I could do that with some confidence. There would be no point in saying you could do that if you didn't understand the logic of how to get the shot. It's not rocket science. In fact it's quite easy but if you don't understand Aperture & Shutter Priority mode then you are just counting on luck to get a great shot. That's we're I started. The best place to look for basic tutorials is on YouTube. They show you which settings to use on the big brand cameras like Canon & Nikon and guide you through step by step. Below I have shown two examples of using Aperture Mode on your camera. This is represented by (Av) on your cameras dial. The first shows a shot taken on setting F1.8 were the foreground is in focus and the background is blurred. The second shows the opposite. Taken on a setting of F22. Use the wheel on the top of your camera to adjust between F-stops. With this setting the background is more in focus giving a greater depth of field. The reason the background is now sharp is because the shutter inside the camera has stayed open longer. In these two photos the difference in shutter speed is nearly 1 second. I know what your thinking....that's not long. But when your trying to hold a camera steady you'll see it is gonna affect your image. The fact is both of these photos were taken whilst on a tripod. You will also notice a slight difference in exposure between the two photos.This is because the shutter was open for longer and has let more light into the camera on the second shot.The internal sensor has in turn been exposed to more light. The easiest thing to remember is the camera lense is just like the human eye. Most people would know this. When it's bright and sunny your eyes pupil constricts/narrows to let less light in so your retina isn't damaged. The opposite then happens when it's very dark. The pupil dilates/widens to let more light in so can see better. Your cameras sensor is pretty much the equivelent to the retina behind the eye. So there you have it, give it a try and see what results you can get. This mode is great for portrait photos. You'll see a big difference. Personally i'm a big fan of images with a shallow depth of field, especially when you try to include a bright colour or a mixture of colours in the background like i have done in the examples below.