Understanding Your Camera Settings
June 06, 2009 | By
Knowing your camera is one of the best things you can do to create great photos. Each camera is different, but most of the ones on the market today have a dial with little icons. These icons represent the settings that your camera can shoot in. These are settings that can range from full auto to full manual modes. This dial may look scary at first but only until you get yourself familiar with what they are and how to use them, and that is where I come in. I’m here to give you a crash course in mastering your settings.
Everyone is familiar with the auto setting, as this is the default setting on most cameras This setting can be identified as either a small icon of a camera or just the word Auto. An auto setting can be a double edged sword. Auto settings do not need any input from the photographer at all. You don’t have to be familiar with shutter, aperture and even ISO. The camera will automatically set the appropriate values and take the photo. The downside of this is that you are allowing the camera to guesstimate what it “thinks” is the right settings for the scene you are looking at. If you are new to photography, this will allow you to get familiar to the camera and see what it does and how you like it before delving further. If you are a little more advanced, you will probably never even use the auto setting. I honestly only ever use it if I need a quick snapshot of my cat. I do, however, think that it is all really personal preference. I also recommend trying out the other settings and playing with them and see what you are comfortable shooting with. I bet, in time, you will find yourself leaning toward the personal control the more familiar you are with your camera and the other settings.
The portrait setting is for you to use when shooting a person in fairly close proximity. This is seen as an icon of a person’s head. This setting automatically creates a large aperture to blur the background that is behind your subject. (You can see more information on aperture in a previous article) There can be 2 modes for this particular setting, portrait and night portrait. As you can tell, the portrait is for shooting people in the normal daylight hours. Night portrait allows you to be able to photograph a person when in a dark night-time ambiance and still retain detail.
The landscape setting, which is the icon of a mountain, is great when shooting a photograph that is scenic and in need of greater detail. This setting will automatically set up the camera with a smaller aperture. This produces a crisp detail on subjects close to the camera as well as a great distance away. Each aspect of the photograph should be in crisp clarity and thus producing a larger depth of field. Landscape, just like the portrait setting, has a night mode. This will allow you to capture evening shots as the sun has passed the horizon.
Movement can be captured by using the sport setting, which usually looks like a little man running. This is
the best setting to have when trying to capture a moving subject. Shooting a photograph in sports can produce a blur effect as well as stop motion. Both have their own advantages and it depends on the photo. The blurring will show that your subject is indeed moving and at a great amount of speed by having the background in focus and the subject will be the only thing blurred. If you use stop motion, it will produce a photo where every aspect is in crisp detail but you will want to have some aspect to show that there is movement. I used stop motion in this photo of the roller coaster. You can see the plume of water frozen in the air as the coaster passes by, so even though everything is in focus, you still get that sensation of movement.
Macro, the little icon of a flower, can be your best friend. Some cameras have 2 modes of macro, macro and super macro. The main difference between the two is the distance from your camera to what you are shooting. Macro will allow you to get close up photos of your subject, where you can be within inches of your subject. Super macro will let you get even closer, practically right on top of it with a clear focus. The distance ranges will differ between cameras so you will want to consult your manual for this information. Any time you want to photograph a small item at a close distance, place your camera in Macro. The focus will be set to adjust to the close quarters from your lens to the subject and will set the correct aperture to produce a shallow depth of field.
Aperture priority is a semi auto mode that allows you to change the f-stop and the camera will automatically choose the proper shutter speed and ISO for the shot. This gives you, the photographer, a little more control over how you want the photo to look but still have some guidance. This is great for a novice photographer who is still learning the ropes or who just wants to change one aspect to produce a different composition. This setting is usually depicted as the letter “A” or “Av”.
Shutter Priority is just like aperture priority except this setting allows you to increase or decrease the shutter speed while the camera chooses the right aperture. This is handy while you are learning about the differences in how shutter speed can affect your photo. Different speeds will produce different effects. Using this setting will help guide you in producing these types of shots without having to revert to a full manual setting. You can play around with the shutter and see how much difference you have between speeds. This will help guide you as you begin learning how to handle the full manual settings of your camera. This setting is usually depicted as the letter “S” or “Tv”.
The manual settings of your camera will allow you to have full manual control over each aspect of taking a photograph. The camera will not shoot anything other than what you tell it to. This gives you the greatest amount of control over the outcome of the photograph. This setting gives you control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash, white balance and more. You can change whatever you need to in order to set up the shot as you want to. In doing this, you have to think ahead as to how you want the photo to come out. If you want to create a certain mood, then you will have to set everything as you want it, prior to taking the photo.
Of course, cameras today have so many more settings and some have specialized modes. I will talk more about the individual settings in further detail in a future article. Now that you have an idea as to what your settings are and what you can do with them, you can take your camera outside and experiment with each setting and become familiar with each one of them. Practice using the camera is the best way to learn about it and find out what it does. As I have stated so many times before, each camera is different and you will want to look at your own camera and read the destruction… oh wait… I mean instruction manual. This can be the best thing you can do to take that step in understanding your camera.
Diana Hudson is a chick who loves all things handmade. She enjoys the challenges of being a work at home wife, animal rescuer, crafter, photographer and at times a wild child. She is the owner of NightMaiden Designs .
All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior
written permission of HandmadeNews.org.
