Indy's Camera Review - Digital SLR's
Usage Notes
©2009 James Melatis - webmaster@indigotide.com
Photography 101
If the subject is moving, if you are shooting hand-held, or if you want to freeze the action, try using a faster shutter speed, 1x to 2x the focal length setting of the lens. Always consider that the longer the focal length is, the more sensitive the camera is to motion if the camera moves a little. The old rule for film cameras is the minimum shutter speed is the reciprocal of the focal length. Set the focal length, then calculate the shutter speed. 300mm = 1/300 sec. or faster. If there is enough light to get away with it, the faster the better. It is hard to get a blurry image at 300mm at 1/1000 sec.
OR ELSE use a tripod to minimize shake with a slower shutter speed to let in more light.
OR ELSE you might be able to use a shorter focal length, re-calculate the shutter speed, and get closer to the subject.
OR ELSE if the focal length is short enough to put you within flash distance, there is always the speedlight.
The lower the F Number, the wider open the aperture is, and the more light is let into the camera. If you get the subject in focus, the minimum exposure, and don't care that the background is blurry, let the camera pick the aperture setting and don't worry too much.
This really becomes an issue if you are using aperture priority, flexible program, or manual to deliberately stop down the lens (higher F Number - narrow aperture) to increase the depth of field. It is completely contrary to rule # 1 and 2. This depth of field technique usually works best in bright sunlight where the subject is still. In this case, you can use a tripod and set the shutter release timer to minimize shake with any shutter speed. If you are shooting hand-held when stopping down (narrow aperture), the trick is to find the right balance of narrow aperture, increased ISO, and a steady hand or faster shutter speed.
If it's flashing, it's over exposed and you have lost some details you can't get back. After setting the EV, re-take the shot as bright as you can without blowing out the highlights. When you forget, you make mistakes, and your pictures are washed out, grainy, dark, or foggy. For best results, expose correctly, or slightly underexpose and tweak in Photoshop if needed. If the image seems slightly dark on your computer display, try a test print before increasing the brightness in Photoshop.
When learning D-SLR exposure techniques, think prints, not video. Learn the differences between what is on the monitor, the EV setting, and what it will look like when printed. To really understand this point, try bracketing some different exposure values under different background and lighting conditions. Print the samples and compare the inkjet prints to what you see on the monitor. I have found that even when the image seems slightly under exposed and looks too dark on the monitor, it often looks great when printed on glossy paper. The reverse is also true. If you increase the brightness in photoshop or raise the EV when taking the shot to get the image to look perfect on the monitor, the image sometimes looks washed out, contrasty, or loses important details when printed. Understanding this difference will greatly improve the quality of your inkjet prints and certainly will waste less ink and paper.
Bright or pitch dark, use 3D matrix metering when the background and subject is uniformly lit or uniform brightness. Switch to spot metering when the subject is opposite brightness from the background. The background may be lighter or darker than you want, but the subject will be properly exposed. If you are out in the field without the option of adding fill lighting, one trick is to zoom in to get rid of the contrasting background, and then use matrix metering.
By increasing the ISO, you might get the calculated shutter speed you need to freeze the action or camera movement with available light. The faster shutter speed will help to prevent blurry or too soft images. However, if you increase the ISO too much, the image will get noisy. Instead of blurry, you get grainy. Also, colors are more saturated at 200 than 800 ISO. Try for 200 ISO for stills with a tripod if you have good light, experiment with 400 to 500 instead of 200 ISO when shooting hand-held, and watch out for noise issues above 500 ISO.
Soft focus can be a problem with dirt in the lens, a bad lens, lens contact, low battery, or just camera shake. If you suspect the lens or camera, try a still at the same settings and conditions with the camera on a tripod. If the problem goes away, the lens is probably fine. Usually the subject is just too far away for the focal length you are using. Unless you are shooting landscapes with the lens set to infinity, keep your subject within the usable detail range of the lens. 50mm lens = 50 feet maximum to subject. 300mm Lens = 300 Feet maximum to subject. Most often, it is not a problem with the focus at all, but blurry images. The image looks soft or out of focus because the camera or subject moved during the exposure. (See Rule# 1)
Set the in-camera sharpening to HIGH and leave it there.
Set the color mode to Adobe RGB and leave it there.
Always take advantage of the highest resolution and quality. Shoot RAW, the largest size, uncompressed. You can always crop or scale down in Photoshop. I have saved many shots this way that otherwise would have been unusable.
Instead of the USB cable, use a card reader to transfer files to your computer and save battery power.
For too soft JPEG's, just set the in-camera sharpening to HIGH and try to concentrate on getting the exposure and focus right. The best fix is to shoot RAW and sharpen if needed in post processing. For the best quality, it's better to shoot RAW anyway.
Get each lens it's own UV/HAZE filter, and keep it on at all times. $30 is cheap insurance against a scratched $600 lens.
Always keep a lens or body cap attached to the camera body at all times.
Keep in mind that like film, if you over expose the sensor, you loose information that can't be replaced later.
Like film, if you under expose too much or don't have enough light, the picture gets too noisy or grainy.
When learning proper exposure techniques, think prints, not video. (See Rule #4) Understanding this difference will greatly improve the quality of your prints.
Remember that the camera can see things that your eyes can't, like colors at night. A 15 second time exposure at midnight and the same shot in auto at noon is capable of producing the EXACT same color print, except the night shot has stars in the sky, and the day shot has shadows.
Be careful when changing lenses so as not to damage the CPU contacts. Replace the caps on both ends of the un-used lense immediately and put it away to prevent dust or fingerprint smudges.
Like any tool, it is only as good as the operator. You have to learn its quirks and workarounds. Practice, practice, and practice. Consider that a true photographer can probably take better pictures with an oatmeal box, than a novice can with the best fully automatic camera available.
You might want to shell out $700+ for the latest Adobe Photoshop. Make sure the camera comes with Photoshop plug-ins for the camera's RAW Format.
You also need a fast computer with lots of memory and disk storage to handle the very large images.
At the very least, to get the best results, expect a lot of post processing and consider the additional workflow.
