It’s very important to me that you, regardless of the amount of experience you have with your DSLR, be able to start making better pictures right away. I want you to feel free to use this book in a flexible manner, at your own pace, skipping to the sections you love, making photographs of what you love immediately!
I’ve designed the book around what I call a stepping-stone model, which naturally aligns with the range of control your camera provides, from full Auto mode to Manual mode and everything in between.
If you still want to shoot in full Auto mode for a while, by all means do. There are plenty of tips, techniques and ideas throughout the book that you can start applying to your photography right away. If you already know about some of the more basic information, proceed to the more advanced stuff. I do recommend that you use your DSLR’s instruction manual in conjunction with this book, because although the settings and features discussed are accessible on any DSLR, each brand, as well as different models within a given brand, functions a little bit differently.
I should also add that camera instruction manuals sometimes lack information or have unclear information. If you can’t find the information you need in your manual, do a Google search for it: Type your camera make and model and the feature you have a question about in the search box. YouTube videos with demonstrations are the easiest to follow because you can actually see how it’s done.
When you’re ready, we’ll take our first step away from full Auto mode and begin to explore your camera’s other exposure modes.
We’ll start with the Scene modes, modes such as Portrait, Macro, Sports and Landscape, which can be found on your DSLR’s mode dial. These Scene modes inform your camera of the type of photo you wish to shoot, and your camera in turn automatically chooses settings it thinks would best capture the shot.
The Scene modes are better to use than full Auto mode because they give your camera some insight into the creative goals you are trying to achieve; for example, Sports mode will yield a fast shutter speed to freeze motion.
From Scene modes we move on to Program AE (automatic exposure) mode, frequently referred to as P mode. In P mode, the camera takes care of the aperture and shutter speed settings while you are free to explore some of your camera’s other settings and features like the metering modes, exposure compensation, white balance, controlling ISO, AF (autofocus) modes and AF point selection.
Both Scene modes and P mode can be excellent teaching tools, but I don’t recommend shooting blindly with them. Take note of the camera settings that are generated for different situations. It will make learning how to control your camera in the more advanced exposure modes a lot easier.
When you feel ready to gain more control of your DSLR and thus improve your photos even more, it’s time to explore the two semiautomatic exposure modes, which are Aperture Priority mode (displayed on your camera’s dial as A or AV, depending on the make of your camera) and Shutter Priority mode (displayed as S or TV, depending on the make of your camera).
In Aperture Priority mode, you, the photographer, dial in the aperture setting while your camera takes care of choosing the shutter speed in an effort to yield a well-exposed photo.
In Shutter Priority mode, you set the shutter speed while the camera takes care of the aperture setting in an effort to produce a well-exposed photo. Why are these modes important? Well, because the camera does not have a brain. It doesn’t know if you want to freeze motion or have a nice blurry background for a portrait. All it cares about is yielding proper exposure.
When you use these semiauto modes, you tell the camera how to best serve your creative goal for the shot. Also, I should mention that it is important to take note of what the camera does in reaction to the setting you choose (meaning, if you set the aperture size, take note of the shutter speed setting that the camera generates, and vice versa). As you explore the semiauto exposure modes, it’s also important to continue to master some of your camera’s other features that you first explored in P mode (the metering modes, white balance, controlling ISO, AF modes, etc.).
All of this mindful practice and observation will make utilizing full Manual mode a piece of cake!
This stepping-stone model, although it progresses from the basics to the more advanced, is not completely linear. Shooting in Manual mode is not always the most supreme, best choice. (Some professional photographers disagree with me, and others share my opinion.)
Depending on what type of photo you are shooting, you might choose Aperture Priority mode or Shutter Priority mode over Manual mode. I myself shoot mostly in Aperture Priority mode and sometimes Shutter Priority mode when freezing or capturing motion progression is paramount. I move to Manual mode only when I need creative control of both aperture and shutter speed for the shot. Many professionals do the same, while others prefer to always shoot in Manual mode. It generally boils down to a matter of choice and preference, as we will soon see (except for special cases where Manual mode is necessary, like when using studio strobe lights and for shots of fireworks and lightning).
When it comes to something like street photography, that dial often goes to P, even for professionals, as they don’t want to miss that in-the-moment shot due to fussing over camera settings.
Information is repeated throughout this book to drive home the important points and make them stick, to show you how to apply the information in a number of different scenarios, and to accommodate the folks who prefer to flip around the book as opposed to reading cover to cover. If you do like to skip around a lot, I recommend you read through Chapters One and Two first, as they provide you with all of the technical information you will need to draw upon when exploring the other chapters.
Limited Control
(P Mode and Scene Modes)
More Control (Aperture Priority Mode and Shutter Priority Mode)
Full Control (Manual)
Mobile Photography
Post Processing
You’ll notice that in Chapters Three through Six, I give tips that are coded with various icons. Each icon correlates to the amount of control you are ready to or wish to exert over your DSLR. I also weave in related mobile photography tips and pertinent photo-editing software tips, which are coded with icons as well. The figures here illustrate these icons.