Freedom!
I posted this image at Posterous the other day: The images that I post there automatically go to several other places and Facebook is one of them. I added the… Read more Freedom! →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 9
Finally, here we are at Manual Mode. When you are using Manual Mode you have complete control over your camera. You are 100% in charge of everything, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and everything else. You are also 100% responsible for any mistakes that you make! Manual mode is not as scary as it may seem. Once you set your ISO and White Balance you can let those settings go to the back of your mind until you need to changed them again. It does not matter if you choose the… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 9 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 8
Shutter Priority There are some situations where you want to be sure that you are working at the same shutter speed to create motion blur or freeze action. In these cases you will want to use Shutter Priority. When in Shutter Priority you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture. One thing you have to keep in mind with Shutter Priority is that your depth of field will change when the aperture changes. Most of the time this will not be a problem. You will have to… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 8 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 7
Aperture Priority Like I said in my last post I walk around with my camera set to Aperture Priority, well, almost all the time. I do this so that I don’t miss any images that come along unexpectedly. With my camera set to Aperture Priority I have already chosen the f-stop that I want to use and the camera chooses the corresponding shutter speed needed to get an exposure that should be acceptable. Why did I say should be acceptable? Well, the camera’s light meter can be fooled (more on… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 7 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 6
Exposure Compensation You have a neat little setting that you can use to help your camera make better exposure decisions. It will work in any mode that you choose to be in, expect Manual. That setting is Exposure Compensation. If you are making images and they are coming out overexposed (to bright) or underexposed (to dark) you can use this setting to help bring the exposure inline with what you expect or want it to be. You might even find that you prefer to leave it on a particular setting.… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 6 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 5
Setting White Balance Where ISO deals with the amount of light, White Balance deals with the color of light. The part of the brain that processes the information from our eyes does an excellent job of “white balancing” the light we see. We can walk from outdoors (daylight) to an office building illuminated by fluorescent lights and then into an office illuminated by tungsten bulbs and our eyes will adjust automatically. You may get a glimpse of the green colorcast from the florescent lighting or the orange colorcast from the… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 5 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 4
Setting the ISO By setting the ISO you are are taking control of how sensitive the sensor in your camera is to light. It may not sound like much but this is the first real step toward taking full control of your camera. Setting the ISO is as easy as choosing a number in the ISO settings menu. Which number you should choose has to do with the amount of light available to make images. As a rule of thumb 100 – 200 ISO is good for outdoors while 400… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 4 →
Taking control of your camera step by step Part 3
Program Mode To get away from the “Green Camera” mode and Scene modes that your camera offers, while still letting the camera make most of the exposure decisions, switch to Program (“P”) mode. Program mode is very similar to the “Green Camera” mode in that the camera is choosing the aperture and shutter speed. Where these two modes differ is in the amount of options that you have to choose from in the menus once you switch to Program mode. The limited control over the camera that you gain by… Read more Taking control of your camera step by step Part 3 →
