The K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple,Shutterbug) Photography Course

For First-time DSLR users.

By Ken Caleno (Dip. Phot)


Introduction: I have been a photographer for over 5 decades, and a digital photographer for the last decade. My aim with this course is to simplify the learning process of getting to know and use an entry level Digital Single-Lens-Reflex (DSLR) Camera, and its kit (18mm-55mm (dependent on make of camera))lens.


Step #1:
Grab your manual-Your manual will not teach you photography, but it will teach you to know your camera, and what all the “whistles and bells” are for, where they may be located, and how they function. Your manual will help you with the following-

Step #2:
Go into the menu of your camera, and find the menu “Reset” . Click this, and all settings, (if you have altered any) will revert to factory default settings.

Step #3:
Now is the time to set up your camera for optimum results, with just seven basic settings. These settings will be used as a base, to take you through several kinds of photographic options, with any deviation from these basics being emphasised in the text.


a) ISO setting………………………………............................................Lowest
b) Exposure Mode………………………………........................................Aperture Priority (A/Av)
c) White Balance………………………………............Set on “Cloudy” For warm images. (sometimes, even in bright sunlight, reflected blue skies can make an image look Bluish, (Cool)
d) Drive Mode-Set this to “continuous”, then you will always be ready to capture the unexpected moment
e) Metering Mode ………………………………....Set it to “Matrix/ Evaluative/Multi-segment”
f) Focus points………………………………...........Centre only-The reason for this is that on most entry-level cameras, The only focus point that has cross sensors, is the central one-as others will have only either vertical, or horizontal sensors only-and you have to be at 90 degrees to these, to be accurate with your auto-focus.
g) Auto-focus Mode………………………..Set auto-focus to single shot, then the shutter will only fire when the subject is in focus (every shot will be sharp)

Setting focus points in viewfinder

detach lens, (so you are adjusting focus on focus point, not image) - adjust dioptre (next to viewfinder) so focus points are sharply in focus. (easier against a white, or light background) Re-attach lens.


Right! Camera all set up for Optimum capture. Now let’s find subjects to make images of……

Situation #1: The outdoor Portrait


Portraiture, in photographic terms, is mostly about capturing the inner person, rather than just what they look like. The odd mannerism, or character trait that others may recognise who know the subject. This requires some communication between photographer and subject, to draw out the subject’s personality. There are several things to think about when making a portrait: light; simplicity; posture; lens focal length; composition; focus and metering. I’ll take these in turn to explain what to do.

SETTINGS:

ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: A/Av (Aperture priority)
White balance: Cloudy (6250 Kelvin)
Drive mode: Continuous (Don’t want to miss those fleeting glances!)
Metering mode: Centre-weighted
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot

Think about:
a) Upping ISO if light levels drop.
b) Spot meter from subject’s face if mixed lighting is employed, or if subject is backlit.
c) You may need to increase ISO, or use a tripod, if F 5.6 doesn’t give you a shutter speed of at least 1/ 125sec


Note: Focus on Subjects Eyes For portraits.

Light

Concerning portraits, It is better to use a non-directional (Diffused) light source, due to the gradual gradation of its shadow, which doesn’t mar the portrait. If you’re shooting outdoors, for the best modelling you will want the light to strike the model’s face from the side, at 45 degrees vertical and horizontal. First get out of the direct sunlight, either in the shade of a building, or under the shelter of a tree. This will result in your model being lit by a diffused, non-directional light source, skylight or reflected light from surroundings. If you position your model looking towards this light source , the face should be lit with soft, delicate light. All you need to do is to move your subject, or your camera, to get light crossing the face.. What you want to achieve here is to have one side of the face brighter than the other by two stops exposure, giving a 3-dimensional rendering to the portrait. In case there is no tree, or building, you may need to resort to scrims, reflectors or blacks to modify the light to suit. Scrims are sheets of translucent material that are held between the sun and the subject to diffuse direct light. Reflectors are panels of card or material that reflects light, providing a soft quality of light. Usually white, silver or gold in colour, light bounces off the surface and into the shadow areas of the face. Blacks are the opposite of reflectors and they absorb light, instead of reflecting it.
Or you can use your pop-up flash as fill in, and as a bonus this will produce nice catch lights in the subject’s eyes

Simplify

As your subject needs to be the centre of attention in your image, you won’t want unnecessary clutter in foreground or background. Try to emphasise your subject by putting them against a simple plain background, but, if you want to give a sense of location, attempt to find a viewpoint that is simple and uncluttered.

Another way to emphasise your subject, is to fill the frame; alternatively, you could use shallow depth of field rendering the background out of focus-subject will appear sharp, with background blurred. Best way to do this is with a large aperture, in your case with a kit lens- F 5.6 (you will need to position your subject a good distance from background at this aperture to get the bokeh (blur) you require.)

Subject Posture


You will need to gently coax your portrait subject into an appropriate pose for his/her portrait,-not an easy task for the beginner. They must feel relaxed and confident if you are to portray them adequately. If they turn their body at about 45 degrees to camera position, then look back to just over your left shoulder, this will induce dynamism into the portrait and will make the body look slimmer. Sometimes it just pays to talk to your sitter-ask them to tell you their story, and you must be aware of the nuances of character as their story is related, and be ready to capture those little subtleties.

Lens focal length

The ideal focal length of lens for portraits, is somewhere between 80mm and 135mm, using 35mm(Full-frame) film standards. So that means the telephoto end of your kit lens , 55mm- is equivalent to 86mm in 35mm (Full-frame) terms. Using this 55mm setting will enable you to make a head and shoulder shot from just a few feet away, without distorting your subject’s features, which a shorter focal length would do. If you want to include more of the scene , you can use shorter focal lengths, but you will need to keep a fair distance from your subject to avoid distortion.

Composition
How do you intend to crop your portrait in the viewfinder frame? Head shot?; Head and shoulders? Three-quarter length? (quite popular); Full length? How about angle of view?
Shooting from our eye-level, isn’t necessarily the most appropriate solution. From above eye-level your subject will appear submissive, or passive, and from below they will look domineering,


Focus


They eyes we are told, are the “mirror of the soul”, so it will pay you to focus on the eyes, using centre focus point, holding shutter button halfway down, then recompose your image for the crop you want.

Metering

Centre-weighted metering mode is ideal for front-lit and side-lit portraits, but backlighting can confuse the meter. Try using spot mode on subject’s face for backlit situations

Got it all together? Go take your shot-chimp your camera’s monitor screen, and if it’s too dark, or too light, use your exposure compensation, or increase ISO if necessary.
Look for Exposure Compensation in your Camera Manual, so you know where to find it, and how to use it


#2: The Indoor Portrait by Window light


SETTINGS :

ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: A/Av Aperture priority
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: Centre-weighted
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot

Think about:

a) you may need to go to F8 to control depth of field, and maintain subject focus.
b) You may need to resort to manual focus to ensure eyes are sharp
c) ISO-Start at lowest setting and increase up to 400 if necessary to ensure a shutter speed of at least 1/125 sec.


For indoor portraits, window light is a great source-First choose a window on the side of the house away from the sun-you don’t want direct sunlight, it’s too harsh. When you position your model close to a window, you get a soft light to one side of the face, and because the inside of the room is relatively dark, the other side of the face will be in shadow -a 3 dimensional look for your portrait.
Again, by using a reflector, ( Gold gives a warm tanned look, White will be most used, and Silver gives a glint to the model’s eye) you can arrive at the 2-stop difference - For

instance F 11 for window -lit side of face, and F 5.6 for the shadow side- ( 3:1 ratio) for the ideal portrait. Or you can use fill-in flash as a last resort if reflectors, scrims or blacks aren’t immediately available.

As before, focus on the subject’s eyes, and use posing, composing, and character finding ideas from previous situation.

NOTE: Set aperture to window lit side of face. (Key light)


Situation #3: Landscape a) basics


ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: Av
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: Matrix
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot

Think about:
A Tripod-Mandatory for Landscapes
A circular polarizer and or Neutral Density/Graduated neutral density filters

Your job, as a landscape photographer, is to create a 3-dimensional tableau from a 2-dimensional plane, and you do this by making your image appear to have depth.
To create this illusion, your image must consist of a definite foreground, middle ground and background, and by having some detail in each of these areas. Aim for a
balance between these three areas.

One of the most important things to understand when taking landscape photographs is how depth of field works, and how you can make use of it to make better images. It is usual to include foreground details in the shot, as this helps to balance the whole image, and helps to lead the viewer's eye into the image. But- how do you ensure that both the foreground objects and the distant landscape are in focus?

When you focus at a particular point in the image, other objects some distance in front of and behind the subject will also be in focus. The range of these in-focus objects either side of the focal point is called the depth of field. Exactly how far in front and behind your subject will remain in focus can be controlled by altering the F-stop setting of your lens.
You really want to have as much of the scene in focus as possible, so the obvious choice is to use a very small aperture setting to maximise depth of field. But, maximising the depth of field won't ensure that your entire scene is in focus. You need to know exactly where to focus your lens. If you select a point of focus too close , the foreground and middle-scene will be covered by the depth of field, but distant objects will be blurred.

As the depth of field extends both in front and behind the focal point, ( 1/3 in front of focal point, and 2/3 behind ) the solution is to use manual focus, and to focus on a point somewhere between the foreground and the distance, so that the extreme distance (effectively infinity) is contained in the "sharp zone", the closest object in your frame is at the nearest end, and everything in the frame is in focus. This point, at which the depth of field is maximized within the field of view, is known as the hyperfocal distance. The amount of distance that appears in acceptable focus will start at halfway from this point to effective infinity.

There is a mathematical equation for working this distance out, but as we are Keeping It Simple, Shutterbug, I’ll give you a hyperfocal distance that will include all from 750mm( 2 feet 6 inches) to as far as the eye can see. (infinity)

Use your 18mm-55mm kit lens at 18mm and F11, focused on a point 1.5 metres ( 5 feet) away from camera lens, and all will appear acceptably sharp between distances stated above. NOTE: If you are more that 5 feet (1.5 metres) tall-you can focus on your feet!
You will need to lock focus to do this- So look in your camera Menu for AF-Lock (Manual will help you find it! By doing this you lock the focus as you focus on your feet,( usually by pushing and holding a button at back of camera) then compose your shot, then shutter
button halfway down will lock exposure, then continue with full press to make the exposure.

Polarizers

Polarizers are grey in colour, and you need to sacrifice up to two stops in exposure to use one. The front part of the filter can rotate to adjust the amount of polarization. The proper, intended use for these filters, is to cut glare and reduce reflections from all materials except shiny metal objects. A polarizer will help you to see through the glare of a river or a lake’s surface. Wildlife and nature photographers use polarizers sparingly, to cut the sky’s reflection on animal fur and feathers, and the land itself. To set a polarizer for such images, you point it at something earthy-brown in colour-this can be a tree bark, dirt, etc., then the front lens of the filter is rotated to give the brown dirt a dark chocolate-y colour-then it is ready to use for your nature, landscape and wildlife images. Polarizers can also deepen blue skies, making white clouds stand out, but realise that over-use can accentuate noise in blue skies. To cut glare the camera needs to be at 30 degrees to the water surface, or shop window to work 100%.To use for darkening the blue in skies, the camera needs to be around 90 degrees to the sun to have any visible effect, you just turn the front element to the shade you desire .It is a good idea to have your white balance set to cloudy, even on sunny days, as sometimes images can come out cool-looking. ND Grads, as the Graduated neutral density filters are usually called, come in 1,2,3,4,5,6 up to 10 stops, but a 2 stop is a good medium one to start with-These are used when there are more than 3 stops difference between the land/sea, and the sky-where the sky will be blown out, or the land/sea in heavy shadow.




Time of day

You may have read, or heard of “The Golden Light” and wondered what it all means. “Golden Light” happens twice a day, everyday -It’s that hour after sunrise in the morning, and again, the hour before sunset in the evening. You have shadowless images right up until dusk in evening’s golden light, Great for portraits, and beautiful landscapes.
Overcast days also are shadowless and ideal for portraits. Between 10:00am and 2:00pm, the sun is directly overhead, and not much good for any kind of photography-except maybe for architectural detail.

At twilight, that is from about 30-45 minutes after sunset, is the ideal time to capture night landscapes, just before the sky turns black. Here is where you find the “Sweet-spot”-the balance of natural ambient light and artificial lighting in city scenes. Best to arrive at your chosen venue about 30 minutes before sunset, then you can capture your sunset images first, then wait for the right time for the twilight shots.

A tripod, of course, is mandatory as exposures will be quite long. So, if you are able to lock up the mirror on your camera, this will help with avoidance of shake. If you have a remote control, terrific!-use this, too. If you don’t have either of these functions, just set self-timer for 10 seconds.
Aperture priority; bracket exposures, (1 stop over; One stop under) using shutter speed as the variable unit. Chimp your screen after each shot, to check progress.
White balance, of necessity, will be tungsten, of course, to reinforce the blue sky, and to help de-saturate the yellow artificial light, which can be overpowering. Experiment and try using Fluorescent White balance for brilliant color in the sky. Lowest ISO as usual-at least, at first! Aperture depends-F8 to F11 is the sharpest range for your lens, but you may need to forsake the threat of diffraction, and go for F16 or 22, if you are getting lens flare.

On Composing your Shots

Composition is the art of arranging the elements of your image in the most effective manner. There are a lot of Pythagorean mathematics concerning composition, But I want to “Keep It Simple Shutterbug“, so I’ll just put a few Ideas forward-I hate rules-they limit creativity.
Ok, The Prime factor is to have a point of interest in your images .

You then need to decide where best, within your viewfinder frame to place this point of interest

Now you need to guide the viewer’s eye toward this point of interest.

Ask yourself three Questions:

1. What is My main point of interest?

Answer: The most prominent person, topic or theme


2. How may I emphasise my main point of interest

Answers:

a) By placement in the frame
b) By selective focusing
c) By blurring motion (slow shutter speed)
d) By Freezing motion (Fast shutter speed)
e) By filling the frame with my point of interest
3. What can I leave out of the image to improve it?

Answers:

a) All things that are irrelevant to my point of interest
b) All elements that detract from my point of interest
c) Foreground and background clutter



Landscapes b) Sunrises/Sunsets


ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: Av
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: matrix
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot

Think about: Manual focusing- If auto focus fails


A pretty, colourful sky on its own, doesn’t really say much, but if you can find a situation where there is a subject in the foreground that would silhouette against the sky, such as an old, gnarled tree, or a church steeple-then you have the making of a great landscape-Shop around for the best angle, by rendering your subject recognisable, while eliminating unnecessary distractions from foreground/background.
The wide-angle 18mm -24mm end of your kit zoom lens will be the focal length of choice for this type of scene (This will allow room to crop out any other distractions)

Sometimes you will find that auto-focus has trouble finding focus, due usually to inadequate contrast-That’s where manual focus needs to be employed-
just switch off auto-focus and focus by revolving the lens’s focusing ring. As for metering, this could give problems balancing contrast of sky and land, so for silhouettes, try an aperture of, say, F8,filling the majority of your viewfinder frame with sky-You camera will take a reading from the brighter part of the sky, and expose for that, rendering all else as silhouettes. But if you want detail in the sky and the land, the answer is a graduated neutral density filter, or “ND grad.” These filters come in several grades both soft and hard, from 1 to 10 stops. They are half grey and half transparent-The upper, grey part, holds back the sky, while the land gets exposed correctly

Then there is the question do you want the sun in the image? If you do, you will need to watch for lens flare, and you don’t want the Sun dominating the scene- A lens hood, (Which you should always use) will often solve the problem.


Landscape c) Waterfalls and streams

ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: Av
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: Matrix
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot

Think about:
Apertures of f22 and smaller
A tripod (Mandatory)
Long Exposures (1/2 - 2 seconds)

You are going to want your waterfall and stream/river shots to depict a silky flow, to give a dreamy sense of motion. A bright and sunny day you do not need-water flow shots benefit from lower lighting conditions. To further control exposure you can use an ND (neutral density) filter and/or a polarizer. A wide angle setting is often the best for this type of shot.


Situation 4:Nature a) Flowers

ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: Av
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: Matrix
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus : single shot

To reduce blur from camera shake while in the shade, you may need to increase ISO to 400

Tripods are mandatory for tack-sharp close-ups.

You may need to switch to manual focus to fine-tune, focusing on either the nearest petal, or the centre of the bloom, and it will pay to use bracketing to nail exposure.
What you end up with, is one shot as metered, one shot at one stop under-and another shot at one stop over. Basically, what you do is take one shot as metered, then adjust aperture or shutter speed accordingly. (see your manual for this as camera makes often differ in how this is done.)
So-You have a bright, sunny day- a garden full of beautiful flowers, and all you have is your camera, a tripod and your 18-55mm zoom kit lens.
Search for flowers in shady places-if there aren’t any, create some! You could use a black cloth as a background, or a black plastic bucket, with a voice activated stand, ( a friend) to hold the bucket behind the flower. Look for flowers that stand out proudly from the rest, making them easier to isolate.

Make sure your flower specimens are clean and complete-Set aperture to 5.6 the blur backgrounds, look for the best angle to capture the flower’s essence.

You will need to be patient where breezes occur, and just wait for the right moments.

Situation 5:Nature b) Insects and bugs:

ISO: 100-400
Exposure mode: Av
White balance: Auto White Balance
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode:Centre-weighted/spot
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus : single shot or manual focus, if required

Tripods are mandatory for tack-sharp close-ups.

If you are going to try hand-held, you will need to use shutter speeds in the range of 1/250-1/500 sec

Aperture within f5.6 - f11 range

Focus,(if you can) on the eyes of the insect-if insect is sitting parallel, most of its body will be sharp, but if head-on, make sure head and thorax are sharply defined.

You will desire your insect to stand out from the background, so use your widest practical aperture, to render the background an out of focus blur.

IF autofocus is giving you problems, switch to manual focus, for accuracy.



Situation 6 Action shots

ISO: Lowest
Exposure mode: S/TV Shutter priority
White balance: Auto White Balance (Indoor)- cloudy (outdoor)
Drive mode: Continuous
Metering mode: Matrix
Focus points: Centre
Auto focus: Single shot


You won’t be able to cover a lot of sports with just the 18-55mmlens, but you can still catch action shots, for instance, a cyclist on a BMX track, you can freeze the action, and blur the background to give an impression of great speed, by using a technique known as “panning”. Panning will take some practise, but when mastered, you can make some great shots. What you do, is point your feet towards where you want to capture the action-now turning from the waist, twist your upper body towards the direction the rider will be arriving from. Set auto focus to continuous, and twist your body back, while shooting and keeping rider in sight-don’t stop shooting until you have gone past the point of action. Shutter speed is relative to speed rider is travelling, so shutter priority is the way to go. This is one time when a cluttered background can do you a favour, It will reinforce the blur making your shot more realistic. Try using a shutter speed of 1/30sec up to 1/60sec.
For sports like field events, (Long jump high jump, pole vault, etc.,) you could try capturing the top of the action, Like a child on a playground swing.



Copyright: © Kenneth William Caleno (Dip Phot) 2012 and beyond....