Using your camera’s basic exposure controls does not have to be a challenge. Here’s how to use the aperture priority and shutter priority modes to take better photographs.
When you use the aperture mode, you control how large the lens opening is. With a small lens opening, you can have a very sharp focus on one object in your picture, but objects that are not the same distance from the camera will not be as sharp. That’s because of what’s called depth of field. In other words, at what distance away from the camera are objects in sharp focus. If the lens opening (aperture) is small, you have a narrow depth of field. If you’re photographing a flower, you may only want objects 12″ to 15″ to be in focus to get a super-sharp image of the flower.
If the aperture opening is larger, objects up close and not so close to the camera can both stay in focus (greater depth of field). At a large aperture opening, you might have objects in focus from 3″ to as far as you can see. To compensate for adjusting the aperture, when you increase or decrease the aperture, your digital camera will adjust the shutter speed up or down.
A small aperture and a slow shutter speed is great if you’re taking a close-up of a flower and want it to be extra-sharp. But if you’re photographing a moving object, you must have your shutter speed set fast enough to stop the motion. This needs to be at least 1/125th of a second if you are following the motion with your camera. This will put the object in motion in focus but blur the background. If you are holding the camera still and shooting a scene with motion in it, you probably need your shutter speed to be anywhere from 1/250th to 1/1000th. When the shutter speed is increased, there will be less time for light to come through the lens, so the lens opening (the aperture) must be larger to compensate. You can control the shutter speed in the shutter priority mode. Then the camera will adjust the aperture to match.
The best way to learn about how to use your camera’s aperture priority and shutter priority modes is to practice when you’re not under pressure. Don’t wait until you’ve traveled to an exotic garden to learn to photograph flowers or until you’re at a racing event to learn to freeze motion with a fast shutter speed. Practice controlling depth of field by having a friend hold up a sign with the settings you’re using. Take several photos with different setting. Then study the photos to see the results. If you’re going to a race, practice photographing cars on the highway, but put your friend in the foreground with a sign again showing your camera settings. This will give you a quick, practical education.
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Dave Hunt has shot landscape and scenic photos in almost all states of the US and in most countries in Europe. He is the author of numerous articles on photography, travel and recreation. You can find more articles, tips and how-to’s, along with and the latest news and information on digital photography at: http://www.digitalphotographygeek.com For tips on travel and vacation ideas, visit: http://www.deskatravel.com and http://www.bahamasbeat.com |
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Digital photography is very popular these days. If you have recently shifted from film cameras to digital photography, it is essential that you understand the various terms and abbreviations associated with it:
A PIXEL It is the smallest part of a digital image. Pixels are combined with millions of other pixels to form a photo image. The resolution of digital cameras is expressed in terms of pixels.
The total quantity of pixels in a photo image is the RESOLUTION. The quality of the picture becomes sharper and better with the increase in resolution; more pixels mean better the quality.
One million pixels make a MEGAPIXEL. A picture with three or four megapixels will have much better quality than a picture with just one.
DPI (dots per inch) is used to describe the quality of a printer or computer monitor. Laser printers have about 300 dpi resolution, while monitors only have 72. Photo quality inkjet printers have a dpi of at least 1200 dpi. Here again, more the dpi, better the quality.
MEGABYTE represents computer memory. One megabyte equals one million bytes of file storage capacity.
JPEG stands for joint photographic experts group. It represents a format for storing images in digital cameras. JPEG files can be displayed easily on the Internet and e-mailed.
The digital files of all digital cameras need to be stored on a MEMORY CARD. The sizes of these cards depend upon the amount of storage capacity required. For convenience, buy as big of a card as you can afford. This is one computer-related storage space you?ll use all of, routinely.
LCD is an acronym for liquid crystal display. Most digital cameras have this feature so that the photographer can check the scene before clicking, then review the picture after taking the photo.
Happy clicking!
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