Bob's Photography Lesson 1

Bob's Photography Lesson 1
In Camera Work
The Initial Settings



In camera work refers to what can be done with your camera to get the best photograph.  Having a lot of experience shooting slides, back in the days of film cameras, I used to do everything in camera.  Now, with digital photography, I don't have to worry so much about getting it perfect when I shoot.  But getting the best I can, in camera, helps me come up with a better photo when I am done.

I have a Konica/Minolta Z-10, with the 8x zoom and many shooting modes.  I also have a Sony DSC-P50, which has limited shooting modes.  For this article, I will assume you have a camera similar to the Sony, and tell you what you can do with that kind of camera.

In photography, there is always a give and take relationship when you make your settings.  The settings you choose will usually give you one advantage while taking away another advantage.  Do you want to get more pictures, or higher quality?  Do you want to work in lower light or get higher quality?  These are questions you need to ask yourself when deciding on what settings to use.  I usually go for higher quality, and make up for it by getting a larger memory card.  But other photographers my want other advantages.

Picture Size:

The Sony is a 2 mega pixel camera.  It's an older camera, and these days, you probably have more mega pixels to work with.  The principal, here, is the the more mega pixels in your photo, the more detail you will capture, and the larger print you can make.  The less mega pixels you have in your photo, the more photos you can get on your memory card.

On Gather and other sites, the size of the picture you will be posting is limited, so using the 640x480 mode, which is much less than one mega pixel, is a good mode if you only want to post on line.  But, you probably want to view the picture at full screen on your own computer.  Here, 1024x768, 1280x1024, the two mega pixel mode (1600x1200), or even the three mega pixel mode (2048x1536 on my camera) would be better, depending on the mode you like to use your monitor in.

For printing 8x10 photos, I found that the 2 mega pixel mode was adequate (according to what I have read, it is just barely enough).  I haven't tried to print anything larger than that, so I can't really judge what to use for larger sized prints.
If you want to sell your pictures to a stock photography site, you need to use the largest mega pixel setting your camera has.  Such companies are looking for photographs with the highest detail, so don't short change yourself if you are planning to sell your photos.

I currently have the 2 mega pixel camera and a 3 mega pixel camera.  My choice is to always use the highest setting.  But, I am a perfectionist in such matters.  If you want to do a more family oriented style of photography, I recommend using 2 mega pixels for your lowest setting, so you can get good looking 8x10 photos when you want them.

Picture Quality:

Next you will find a setting for picture quality.  This will have settings like fine, standard, and economy.  The fine setting will give you the best looking picture, but use more file space, giving you less pictures in your memory card.  The economy setting will give you as many as 4 times as many pictures on your memory card, but the picture won't look as good.  The standard setting is the in-between setting.  I prefer the fine setting, and haven't even tried the other settings.  You may find that the standard or even the economy settings suit your needs.

ISO Setting:

ISO is one of the most important settings on your camera.  The higher the ISO setting the lower the light you can work in, but the picture quality suffers with a higher ISO setting.  People use high ISO setting when the find they have to hand hold their cameras in lower light settings, when they are using longer zoom settings, and when they are taking pictures of action.  You can get around the ISO setting by using the flash or a tripod.

In this picture, I was using the lowest ISO setting.  Notice, below, how the sky is smooth looking, no grain.

In this picture, there was a lot of action and low light, so I used the highest ISO setting.  Notice, below, how grainy the picture looks.  However, the motion blur is minimized.

If I am taking pictures of still subjects or landscapes, I use the lowest ISO setting, and often use a tripod.  When using a tripod, I use the 2 second timed shutter release setting, because when I press the shutter button, it shakes the camera, causing motion blur in the photo.  With the 2 second timed setting, the camera is stable when the picture is taken.  If my camera had some kind of remote shutter release, I could use the normal shutter release setting because I wouldn't be touching the camera.  That's what I used to do with my film camera, but for some reason, most digital cameras don't have this feature.

For taking pictures of the family at Christmas and such, I use the lowest ISO setting with the flash and hand hold the camera.  When I am taking pictures of a band on stage, I use the Auto ISO setting (which usually chooses the 200 setting) and hand hold the camera.  I was at a hockey game, recently, (the only digital sports shooting I have done) and used my highest ISO setting (400) and a tripod, as well.  I had no problem with motion blur doing that.  Your camera may have higher ISO settings, so you may not need to set it higher than 800 for indoor sports, unless the arena has bad lighting.  In all these cases, I did not use the timed shutter release.
ISO settings don't affect the size of the file on your memory card.  They do affect picture quality, giving a more grainy look with higher settings.  The highest setting on your camera is probably pushing the limit and will look rather grainy compared to a lower setting.  My hockey pictures looked pretty grainy, but I had to trade that off to get less motion blur.

For ISO, I don't always choose the lowest setting, but I use it whenever I can.  While I like a picture without grain, getting a picture with unintended motion blur and no grain is not what I am looking for.  So, I make the trade off.

Macro Setting:

Your camera probably has a button with a tulip symbol next to it.  This is your macro setting, used for close ups.  It allows your camera to focus much closer than the normal setting, but needs to be shut off for longer distance shots.  Some cameras can get as close as 1 centimeter (.4 inches), others can only get as close as 5 inches.  You will have to look this up in your camera manual for the camera you have.  Usually, the more you zoom in with your lens, the farther away the closest focal distance is.  That distance, and the farthest distance you can use in macro mode, will also be in your camera manual.  If you don't have a manual for your camera, try StevesDigicams.com, they may have a review for your camera, and will have that information.

The Focus and Hand Symbol:

As you are taking your picture, you will have symbols that tell you if you are in proper focus and if you have enough shutter speed to take the picture.  It is best to point your camera at your subject and press the shutter button half way.  This will allow the camera to read the exposure and focus on the subject.  The focusing symbol is different in many cameras, so look it up in your manual.  Pressing half way will allow you to know if you are in focus before you snap the picture.  If you get a bad focus indication, release the shutter button and press it half way, again.  In low light, you may have to do this often.  When you get a good focus indication, press the shutter the rest of the way to take the picture.  If you are in doubt, take a second picture, I do that often when using auto focus.

You may also see a hand symbol when you press the shutter half way.  This means that the shutter speed is too low.  You can use the flash, a tripod, or increase the ISO setting to fix this.  Or you can do your best to hold the camera steady.  Resting your camera or elbows on something can help a lot here.  If you have a better grade camera, you can use a higher shutter speed, but I will discuss that more in a later posting.

Here, I was attempting to get a picture of the guitar in low light without a flash or a tripod.  The focus was good, but even though I rested my elbows on a monitor speaker, I got camera shake.  When I go to a bar to take pictures of a band, I travel light and don't take a tripod.  I didn't use the flash for this because I wanted the LEDs that lit up the guitar body to show up.  Looks like I need to use a tripod to get a successful picture of this with my current camera.  Better cameras than mine have higher ISO settings and I might have gotten away with hand holding this shot.

I hope the information, here, helps you get better pictures.  I have made lots of recommendations, but you are the final judge of what settings to use.  I was going to write more, but this got longer than I thought it would.  So I will be posting more stuff as time goes by.  I will get into getting better exposures, better composition, accessories, and using the more complicated settings in cameras that have them, as well as post processing on your computer.