1. Get off program mode and make friends with manual. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are fundamentals all photographers must understand fully if they wish to be in control of their camera and thus produce stronger images. You may ultimately decide you prefer shooting in one of the other modes such as aperture or shutter speed priority however spending some time shooting in manual is a great method for coming to grips with how your camera and light works. You may one day decide you prefer using an automated mode however will do so understanding exactly what decisions your camera is making for you.
2. Shoot with the lowest ISO you can whilst still maintaining a suitable aperture and shutter speed. The lower the ISO you use the less “noise” your photographs will contain, essentially your images will look cleaner, clearer, smoother and less grainy. As a bonus you will get away with enlarging your photos more than you could had you shot with a high ISO whilst better maintaining apparent quality.
3. Understand shutter speeds and how to use them to your benefit. The general rule for hand held photography in order to maintain sharp images free of camera shake is that you should use a shutter speed no slower that 1/focal length. Fop example lets say you are shooting with a 50mm lens, the slowest shutter speed recommended for sharp hand help photos would be 1/50th sec, if you were to use a 250mm lens the slowest recommended hand held shutter speed would be 1/250th sec. There are of course exceptions to this rule, you may be able to get away with slower shutter speeds if using a flash. Another option is to use a tripod which is a great idea in general as it leads to more purposeful and thought out images.
4. Depth of what? Depth of field, or the amount focus extends beyond and in front of the focal point can be used to great effect, as such it is a concept worth your learning. Lets say we are shooting a landscape and we want the viewer to feel like they can look into the scene. We may wish to use a large DOF so that the entire image from foreground to background is in focus. In such a case you would use a small aperture. Small aperture = large f stop number, e.g. f22. On the other hand having an entire scene in focus in a portrait shot may be distracting and steal the viewers eye from the subject. In this case you could reduce the DOF by shooting with a large aperture, or small f-stop number. E.g. f2. I strongly suggest you read further about DOF and experiment with it’s role in photography.
5. Understand fill flash and when and how to use it. On camera flash can look flat and unflattering however used as fill with the flash power set to approx 1 stop under ambient you will be able to open up the shadows and obtain portraits under full harsh sunlight whilst avoiding the heavy shadows in the eyes. This will lead to more professional looking portraits with greater detail and more flattering light.
It is worth taking the time to get your head around a few simple concepts, in doing so your photography and your ability to produce good images under a variety of conditions will increase beyond what you thought possible.
For some more great articles check these out – Sydney wedding photography, the perfect desitination and photographing your first wedding
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