Index • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Introduction……………………………………………3 Different mode of camera………………..4~5 The use of aperture…………………………..6~7 The use of shutter …………………………….8~9 The use of white balance……………....10~11 The use of ISO……………………………………….12 The use of picture style………………….13~14 Composition of a picture………………..15~19 (focus point)………………………………………….16 Equipment…………………………………….…20~24 (saving battery)…………………………………….21 Lens…………………………………………………25~27 Street photography……………………..…28~30 How to improve?..........................31~32 Epilogue………………………………………………….33
Introduction This book is for you guys that are not really familiar with your new camera but want some quick and useful tips on photography skills. This book content some knowledge I learn from photography class and from the internet. Also some are my own experience Hope they will be helpful!!
Different Mode Of Camera You see this turn table on every camera, it shows different mode, and I going to show you how to use different mode on there We will focus on the P, Av/A, TV/S, and M because other modes you can understand by it picture
P means Auto Exposure You only need to adjust the exposure value (Ev+ or Ev-) you want and the camera will decide the aperture and shutter for you. This is the most easy way to use your camera TV/S means Shutter Priority You can adjust the shutter yourself and the camera will decide the aperture for you. You can also decide the exposure value (Ev +or Ev-) yourself If you want to take pictures of some moving thing or people,
using this mode will be a good choice (will explain )
Different Mode Of Camera Av/A means Aperture Priority You can adjust the aperture yourself and the camera will decide the shutter for you. You can also decide the exposure value (Ev +or Ev-) yourself If you want to control the depth of field using this mode will be a good choice (will explain )
M means Manual exposure You need to adjust both aperture and shutter all by yourself and the exposure value (Ev+ or Ev-) will depend on your settings This is a mode that you will need to decide every things by yourself
There is no special rules for when to use different mode, just choose the mode you are familiar with
The use of Aperture The “F� on the camera means aperture, the smaller the number is the bigger the aperture is. Under F/4=big aperture above F/8=small aperture
When do we use big aperture? Big aperture can create depth of field. Except the things you focus on, other things in the picture will become blurry.
f/3.5
f/20
f/22
f/1.8 Why do we use small aperture? Small aperture can prevent depth of field. And also other special effects. What is your topic of this picture depends on what your aperture will be
f/29
f/5.6
Small aperture can form astral, the shape of astral depends on lens
(picture from internet)
The use of Shutter Shutter speed main function is to determine the exposure time. Changing the shutter speed is often use when shooting flowing water. 1/320 sec
1/6 sec
Slow shutter can create the sense of flow
High speed shutter can freeze the movement
How to prevent camera shaking? When we use slow shutter, the picture are easily to blur because our hand are not stable enough. So we need some skills and equipment to help. We often set the camera on the tripod to stabilize the camera when we use slow shutter.
Necessary
Long exposure (slow shutter) can also capture the light track. Usually use at night
Star track (long exposure for 20 minutes)
The use of White balance White balance controls the color temperature, it decide the atmosphere of a picture. A wrong white balance can destroy a picture but sometimes it is also a good way to express your own style and imagination. The unit of white balance is K, bigger number will make the picture look more red, smaller number will make the picture look more blue
The two picture are exactly the same but the feeling is different. The picture on the left is about 5200K, which is the correct white balance. But the right one have Retro Chinese style, which is the feeling I want
3200K
7000K
We could also play with the white balance, try different K to find the feeling that you want and also using white balance shift in our camera to create more color
The use of ISO ISO is actually quilt hard to explain, it means the sensitivity to light. So at the same situation, the shutter speed might be 1/10 when the ISO is 400, but if I change the ISO to 1600, the sensitivity to light increase and the shutter speed will become 1/40.
However, above ISO 1600 will create noise, and that what you can see the different between right and the left picture. Left one is using ISO 200, right one is using ISO 6400.
The use of Picture Style Many people think that the style of the picture can only be post-produce, which means adjust in computer. In fact the style of the picture can be mostly decide in the camera.
The style of a picture can roughly divided in to four point. Sharpness, contrast, saturation, and filter.
Sharpness: sharpness means how many details can the picture show. We will increase the sharpness when we are taking picture of landscape. We will decrease the sharpness when we are taking portrait because decreasing the sharpness=soften.
Contrast: contrast means the color which is Contrasting colors will be emphasized. It is not good to add contrast when we are doing portraits because when we make contrast higher the color will be emphasized like I said and so does the saturation. This will make the face look darker.
Saturation: saturation means the color of the picture. If we decrease the saturation of the picture the color will look more plain.
Filter: Basically filter is changing the color of the picture. Filter can make your picture in to monochrome. Based on personal preferences to choose the color.
Composition of a picture What is a “GOOD� picture? Every one have different thought, but there is still some way we can use to stimulate our sense
Tic-tac composition People will prefer to place the topic on the four dot The four dot are calculated from the golden rule, 1:1.681 which human eyes will be attracted by the topic you place there.
Placed the object in the middle will create Oppressive feeling, leave some space in the picture will make people feel more comfortable
Hint: focus point
When we are learning composition, enable to control the focus point is really important. The camera has AF (auto focus) and MF (manual focus)
We often use AF because it is faster, however every time the focus point will be different so if you are sure where your object or topic will be in the picture, setting the focus point by yourself will be faster and easier to get a clear picture. This is how we change the focus point Basically every camera is the same
Here is where we select AF&MF~
Dichotomy (half)
Trichotomy (three part)
Extended composition (Vanishing Point)
Frame composition
Light and shadow composition
Subtraction composition Taking the whole scene is not always the best choice~
More example of different compositions
Remember, the composition is very important, but do not "rigid" The most important thing is to enjoy the fun of shooting By Steve McCurry Try to shoot pictures with topics
Equipments There are two essential elements to form a good picture. Skills and equipments. When you think your skill is not good enough, equipments can make up for your deficiencies. When your become very skillful, equipments can bring you to another level Tripod: tripod is very important for a photographer because our hand can not be always stable especially when we are doing some long exposure, it is impossible that hold the camera for 5 second without moving. That why we need tripod to stabilize our camera. Better to choose tripod that made by carbon fiber, because they are light and also stable. Shutter line usually use with tripod because when we are doing long exposure, in order to avoid any shaking, we will use shutter line. Also when we use BULB shutter, which is we can control the exposure time ourselves (over 30 second), we need shutter line, too
Saving your battery Battery let your camera work, without camera, your camera is just a heavy trash When we are traveling we often prepare 2~3 batteries for backup
But anything could happen, if your battery is dying and you still have 6~7hours of trip before you get to the hotel and the scenery is so GOOD?? Here are some tips for you ~~ I have this experience so they are reliable~~ 1. Let your camera stay on, if you keep turning on and off, it actually waste more energy than you think!!! 2. Stop using live view and use your viewing window, live view kills a lot of energy!!! 3. If you can, use MF instead of AF, it can save energy~ 4. Don’t use flash light!!! 5. Do not delete or check the pictures you took, it is wasting you battery, have faith in yourself!!!!
Neutral density filter, or ND is a dark glass. It purpose is to reduce the light that come in, we can say it is a sunglasses for camera. When we want to use slow shutter to create sense of flow but the sun is too bright so you shutter speed can not drop, and you need ND filter. ND lens have different level, from ND4 to ND400, the number represent the darkness. ND8 is the most common one.
Slow shutter can be use at different situation. When you think the shutter speed is not slow enough, put the ND lens on and reduce the light
CPL filter stands for Circular Polarizing Filter. It can saturate the color more and cut down the reflection. When we are taking a picture with sky, it is best to let your camera and the sun become 90 degree
When we are trying to reduce the reflection, it is better to let your camera and the ground become 30~40 degree.
CPL has two filter, remember to spin the one that is moveable or the CPL won’t work. Spin the filter until the electronic viewfinder become the picture you want
Graduated Neutral Density Filter is a kind of ND filter, it is a very useful thing when you take picture with a sky in it.
The black part can cover the overexposure part and the transparent part won’t make any effect on the picture So the lower part won’t become dark
Compare
Without
with
Lens There are a lot of different lens, I mean a lot. But how to choose them, what lens is suitable for beginners, what are the lens that we really need and what lens should we use in different situation.
18-55mm
18-55 is the basic lens for every camera and another name for 1855 is also called kit lens. Kit. Some people will give up this lens as their skills improve, but there are many reason that we should keep our kit lens, for example keep it for a back up lens. Kit lens is also a easy controlled lens and it light so it will be a good lens for city sightseeing or simple photography.
35/50/85mm
These lens are call fixed focus lens, it usually have big aperture like f/1.4 or even f/1.2. When we are using these kind of lens we need to move to change our distance between we and the subject. 50mm lens is closest to human perspective, usually use for street photography of practice composition. 24-70mm(middle focus)
This kind of lens are very common, many people use it. The sharpness of this lens is very good people often use it as a travel lens because it can produce good quality of landscapes
18-200 or 270mm We call these types of lens travel lens, because it content the length between wide lens and long lens. Most people will use them when they travel because it convenient Wide (under 16mm) or Ultra- wide lens (under 14-11mm)
This kind of lens have very wide view so we usually use it when we shoot landscape. They can create very good momentum
70-200mm This kind of lens is often use for eco photography, like animal, birds and insect. Sometimes we also use long lens to take portraits because long lens can create compress feeling
Street photography Street photography is a special kind of photography. It can be hard but also easy at the same time, depends on how you do it. Street photography can train a photographers to improve the ability that we need First of all we usually use fixed focus in street photography. In this way we will need to move our body to change the distance between we and the subject. I took this picture with a 50 lens, at that time I am right in front of the cat and squat down. It was actually a good model, but I think is because there were no one beside us. Using the fixed focus lens can closer the distance between the subject. “If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough” - Robert Capa
Use black and white filter to let people focus on the topic that photographers want to show in the picture maybe the moment, the look, or the feeling of the photographer. Doing street photography can train the photographers to improve their control of their camera, because the scenes, the moment you want, will never wait for you
Extended composition
All about street photography is training photographers to express their feeling , this can help photographers to find out their own style and also train our sensitivity of beauty
How to improve? Knowing the basic knowledge of photography, doesn’t mean you can create good pictures. There is no limit in photography, so here are some ways that I find on the internet and also some ways I use to improve myself
limitations There are some ways that we can limit ourselves to improve. 1. Use fixed focus lens 2. Limited pictures The reason of using fixed focus lens is to move your body. We are often restrict by focal length because it only provides us distance but not angle. Using the fixed focus lens is a very good opportunity to practice your composition skills and train your observation.
Nowadays we have 32 or even 64 GB SD card, so we usually will take too many pictures but most of them are not good. It will be a good way to limit the pictures you take, like 300 a day. In this way you will think more before you take the picture.
Use M mode Manual mode (M-mode) allows you to fully grasp the aperture, shutter, ISO and other settings, shooting night scenes, water, rail car, or some variation in light difference a good use of the occasion, knowing how to use the manual mode to shoot, you photography skills will improve. Take and share a picture everyday Practice makes perfect, take a picture everyday even with cellphone. Try to find the best picture of the day to share in order to discover your personal style and also receive opinion from others to improve. Imitate and learn Imitation is one of the best shortcut to promote their own progress. No matter landscape, portrait or any subject, as long as you think looks good, try to think of ways to shoot a similar situation atmosphere or image effect. Although it is impossible to achieve 100% the same, but during this process, you get a lot of work from others valuable experience skills. Imitation is not shameful, the point is, you can come out of your own style
Epilogue Hi guys, I have been “playing with camera� for about 7 years, since I was in 4th grade. However, the first five years, I was just a kid pressing the shutter for fun. Now I am still a teen who press the shutter for fun, the difference is, I am now looking for my foot hold in this endless photography world For who that just enter this fam, I hope you can find your own spot very soon. It will be a long but always full of astonishment journey. Wish you all the best.