Photo 101 - Hands on DSLR

7/28/2019 Photo 101 - Hands on DSLR

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Photography 101

Hands on with the DSLR

Jacksonville Photography Meetup

Group


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Introductions

Your name

Level of photography experience

Equipment you brought (camera and lens) Did you bring your camera manual?

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Purpose for the Entire JPMG

100/1/2/3 Series

Develop a basic process for taking pictures.

Understand that the camera is a tool in this process.

Here is the basic process: Decide the story that you want the photo to tell.

Determine the photographic composition that tells thestory.

Set the camera up to take the picture that tells the story.This is called the creatively correct exposure.

Take the picture, evaluate if it tells the story the way youwant to, make changes to the composition and camerasettings as appropriate, and retake the picture (lather,rinse, repeat.).

Develop a basic understanding of light.

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Class Purpose for today

Understand that the DSLR camera is a tool.

We are going to learn how to use the tool.

Hands-on, learn how to use the dials and settings.

AF, drive modes, selecting the focus point

Learn about lenses.

Know how to use your manual.

The goal is that you walk out of here knowing

how to manipulate your camera. You will alsolearn how to get the correct exposure (not thecreatively correct exposure).

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Prerequisites

You fully understand the photographictriangle, and the concept of stops of exposure.

Im going to assume in the conduct of the

class that you know the prerequisites, and if I

tell you to increase the exposure by two stops

using aperture, you understand what I am

telling you to do and know how to do it.

If you dont know how to do that, Im not

going to stop the class to explain.

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Photo 100 Review Exercise

Lets take a completely manual mode picture inthis room, without a flash.

In Manual Mode, set your camera for ISO 400, f8, and1/100 sec.

Look at the exposure level indicator, and what does ittell you?

Take the picture and look at it in the LCD?

Is it too dark or too bright? Does what you see matchwith what the indicator told you?

How can we change it to get a different exposure?

Keep adjusting until you get a correct exposure.Everyones final settings will be different, but they willall produce a correctly exposed image.

6JPMG Intro to Natural Light Portraits


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Photo 100 Review Exercise -- 2

What we just went through is pretty much acomplete review on how to get a correctly

exposed photo.

This is basically your thought process every time

you take a picture, from a technical perspective.

If you understand the discussion, and most

importantly the whys, then you are ready to

move on. This is really important. If you dont understand

what we just did, then you are going to have

difficulty in this class.7JPMG Intro to Natural Light Portraits


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Review - Correct Exposure

What is the correct exposure? The combination of ISO, aperture, and shutter

speed to get the right amount of light to the

sensor.

Most situations have at least 6 possible

combinations (at any single ISO) of aperture and

shutter speed to achieve the correct exposure.

Does everyone understand this statement?

Lets throw up some examples and talk through

them.

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Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation. What is exposure compensation?

An alteration of the camera-defined settings for the exposure.

Exposure comp is either plus, to get more light on the sensor, orminus, to get less light on the sensor.

Why would we want to set exposure compensation? We want to deliberately over or under expose (lacrosse visors, ie). The camera metering is being fooled (backlight situation).

HDR photography.

How does exposure compensation work? Aperture Priority Mode Longer/Shorter shutter speed.

Shutter Priority Mode More open or closed aperture. Program Mode Camera adjusts both aperture and shutter speed.

Are we able to set EC in manual mode? Why or why not?

Where do we see exposure compensation on the camera?

How do we set the exposure compensation (back to themanual).

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Exposure Compensation - 2

Exposure Compensation. Lets do an exercise on Exposure Compensation.

Go to aperture priority mode, ISO 1600, f11, and take apicture. Write down the photographic triangle settings.

Now set the EC to -2 and take a picture. What are the

settings? What did the camera do? Now set the EC to +2 and take a picture. What are the

settings? What did the camera do?

Go to shutter priority mode, ISO 1600, 1/15 sec, and take apicture. Write down the photographic triangle settings.

Now set the EC to -2 and take a picture. What are thesettings? What did the camera do?

Now set the EC to +2 and take a picture. What are thesettings? What did the camera do?

Now put your camera down and leave the settings as is.10JPMG Photo 101


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Highlight Alert

What is Highlight Alert? It tells you, for the picture that you just took,

where you are loosing details in the highlight

areas (the bright areas are too bright).

You should always have the highlight alert setting

enabled (turned on) for your camera.

How do you enable the highlight alert? Lets go to

the manual and turn it on. Now lets look at the last picture that you took,

with the EC set to +2. Are there any blinky areas?

If so, what do they tell you?

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Highlight Alert -- 2

What are your options if you have the blinkysin your picture?

First, do you care about where they are? If no,

then leave the photo as is.

If you dont to lose the detail in those areas, then

you need to decrease the amount of light in the

exposure, by adjusting the ISO, or shutter speed,

or aperture.

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Understanding the Histogram

What is the histogram? It is a graph that shows the distribution of the

dark and light pixels in the image.

The X-axis (horizontal) represents dark to the left and

light to the right. The Y-axis represents how many pixels there are, at

that level of dark/light. The higher the line, the more

there are.

Lets go to the manual. How do I get to the histogram? What does it tell me?

View the histogram from the last picture taken.

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Understanding the Histogram - 2 Lets do an exercise.

Your camera should still be set up for EC of +2. Take

another picture and bring it up on the LCD, with the

histogram. The picture is overexposed, and see how the

histogram looks.

Now set your camera for an EC of -2. Take another

picture and bring it up on the LCD, with the histogram.

The picture is underexposed, and see how the

histogram looks.

Now set your camera for an EC of 0. Take another

picture and bring it up on the LCD, with the histogram.

The picture is underexposed, and see how the

histogram looks.

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White Balance White Balance and the color of light

What is the color of light? (ROYGBIV the colors of therainbow).

Refers to the relative warmth or coolness of the light. Red iswarm, blue is cool.

So what is white balance then? The correct White balance (WB) makes objects which appear white in

person are rendered white in your photo.

Photographers may use a white card to determine proper WB. Showhow it is used.

Setting the WB tells the camera the light color that it is operating in.

Now, how do we set the white balance, and what are the

possible settings? (The manual again.). ExampleLets set WB to sunlight, take a picture. Does the

picture have a color cast? Now set it to shade, take a picture.Color cast? What is the correct WB for this room? Take apictures and look at it. Do the colors look correct?

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Metering Modes

Metering modes What is metering? This is the process of the camera

determining the subject brightness.

What are the available metering modes? (Lets go to themanual for this). Why would we want to use each mode

(what situation)? Evaluative / Matrix. General purpose.

Partial or Spot. Mels dark person and white wall example.

Center weighted averaging. Light/dark stage in a darker/lighterroom example.

How do we set the metering mode? (To the manualagain..).

Lets do a demo. Lets darken the room and take a pictureof the projector monitor. Set each of the metering modesand see what the exposure is. What does the demo teachyou?

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Drive/Release Mode

Setting the Drive Mode (Canon)/Release Mode(Nikon)

What is the drive/release mode?

How many shots can be taken when the shutter is pressed.

Instantaneous, or delayed?

Single shot/single frame.

Continuous/continuous.

Self Timer. How do we set the drive mode (back to the manual).

In the class, you should be set to single shot/frame.

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Auto Focus

Setting the Auto Focus (Canon/Nikon) mode What is the Auto Focus mode?

How the auto focus acts when you engage it, either via theshutter or the AF On button.

One Shot/Single Servo AF For single shots of still

subjects. AI Servo/Continuous Servo AF For moving subjects.

AI Focus/Auto Servo AF Combo of the two, acts likeeither, depending on whether the subject stays still ormoves.

How do we set the AF mode (back to the manual).

For the class, you should be set on One Shot/SingleServo AF.

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Combining Drive and AF Modes

Now lets think about the combination of AFmode and drive mode, because they work

together, hand in hand.

How do we use the AF mode and Drive modetogether?

For sports or moving subjects?

For portraits or still subjects? For subjects that may or may not move (babies?)

When I want to be in the picture?

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Setting the AF Point

Setting the AF point. What is the default for the auto focus point?

Lets look at the manual, as each camera is a little different.

Does your camera have face detection, and is it engaged?

Focus point/area on the sides or top/bottom,

depending on the situation. Zone focus area.

Single point focus point.

When would we use each AF point mode?

How do we set the AF point mode (back to themanual).

We will not do an exercise on this now, because everycamera is different. We will come back to this later.

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AF Point Display

What is the AF Point Display? It shows you in the viewfinder which AF point(s) is

active, and also which point(s) is/are used for thephoto.

When you enable AF Point Display, the active AF

Point(s) show up in the viewfinder at all times. When you half press the shutter, the viewfinder will

show you which AF Point(s) are being used for thephoto.

How do we enable AF Point Display? Lets go to themanual and enable it.

Lets now see how it works.

I recommend always having this on.

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Image Quality

Setting the image quality (RAW and JPG) What is RAW?

The digital negative.

All information is available in the file.

Requires special software to display on a computer. What is JPG?

Standard for displaying pictures on computers.

Image is compressed, so some information is lost.

Different degrees of compression define JPG size and quality.

Why would we shoot raw or jpg, or both?

How do we set the image quality (back to themanual).

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Lenses Fixed versus variable focal length (zoom).

foot zoom versus lens zoom. The focal length (50mm, for example) describes the width of the

field of view (FOV angle).

Wide angle versus telephoto. Wide angle can see left to right a lot.

Telephoto sees longer distances, with a narrower FOV.

Macro For extreme close up images (flowers, bugs, etc).

Fixed and variable aperture lenses Look at the end of the lens to see what it says.

Fast and slow lenses. For variable aperture lenses, the first aperture is at the

shortest/widest focal length, and it gets progressively smaller tothe last number, at the longest/narrowest focal length.

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Lenses -- 2 Lets do a variable aperture exercise.

Zoom your lens out to its widest/shortest focal length.

On the camera, set your aperture to its most opensetting.

Now, slowly zoom the lens while watching the

aperture setting on the camera. What happens?

Now you see how variable aperture lenses work?

Ok, you ask, why have these lenses?

They are less expensive to make, and thereforeaffordable for the general public.

You just have to be aware of how the aperture ischanging as you are zooming the lens.

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Lenses -- 3 Image Stabilization (Canon) / Vibration Reduction (Nikon) /

Optical Stabilization (Sigma)

What is IS/VR? IS/VR is used to reduce blurring associated with the motion of a

camera during exposure. Camera shake, as opposed to subjectmotion.

In general, IS/VR allows the photographer to take pictures usingslower shutter speeds than otherwise practical.

The advantage is the ability to take lower-light photos on still subjects,without having to resort to additional light (flash).

Use only at low shutter speeds (slower than 1/100 second). Why? Youdont need it, and it makes the camera slower.

How do we set IS/VR on and off? (Look for the switch on thelens).

How does IS/VR work? Camera shake versus subject motion.

Demonstration ISO 800, Shutter priority mode.

Set shutter speed to 1/30 sec (IS on/off, move hand, hand still).

Does everyone see from the demo what IS/VR is and does, and what it

doesnt do? 25JPMG Photo 101

Exercises and Scenarios


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Exercises and Scenarios

How can we set up our camera, and what

lenses will we use?

Lets talk through some scenarios that we will all face. BTW, there are no right or wrong answers here.

Do you always want to be in manual mode? NO NO NO!!

But you want to be able to understand what the camera is

doing, so that if the picture doesnt come out the way thatyou want, you know what to look at to fix it.

Vacation walk around photography outdoors (exampleis the St Augustine Photo Walk)

Vacation walk around indoors (museum)

Concert at the Florida Theater (or childrens concert)

Family gathering in the house Babies, kids, friends, pets

Others?26JPMG Photo 101


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Questions?

Thank you for attending.

Please let us know what you thought of the

class. (Both good and bad, please).

If anyone is interested in volunteering to hostor assist at meetups, please communicate to

the organizers.

Thank you again, and have a great day!!

27JPMG Photo 101

Documents

Photo 101 - Hands on DSLR