Here’s some Tips/Tricks I’ve found that help me get good imagery.
I’ve fielded enough “how do you get shots like that” questions, I figured I’d write it up… Enjoy!
Tip/Trick #1: keeping the camera on ‘P’/”Program” mode effectively turns your expensive DSLR into a really expensive & awkward ‘point&shoot’.
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o P/Program Mode is basically ‘safe’ mode, & you will typically get decent, run-of-the-mill shots… -BUT-
o If you want to get very nice shots, it’s important to start turning off the various ‘Auto’ modes, so you create (much) more control over what the camera is shooting. See Below…
Tip/Trick #2: If you want really nice shots, it’s important to:
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o Shoot a Lot! -AND-
o Review your shots, taking note of what you did: Aperture, Shutterspeed, ISO/gain, WB (white-balance: eg Auto, Sun, Incandescent, etc), etc
o Take notes to yourself (you might even reference the photo filename &/or day), so that you can compare/contrast, & watch/confirm your progress over time. It really works!
Tip/Trick #3: It’s better to Get an ‘imperfect’ Shot, than futzing around for a ‘perfect’ shot than you never manage to take…
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o Whatever camera you have handy, is better than the camera you have at home!! Ideally, get a top point/shoot like the S95 or S100: pocket-size, f/2.0, full manual control, & RAW…
o LEARN YOUR CAMERA!! Messing with the dials/menus & missing the shot isn’t worth it, & will just frustrate you enough to ‘not bother’…
o “Don’t Worry, you can Fix Some Stuff in Post“: Photoshop is your friend—there’s a lot of stuff you can do to fix things afterwards (composure, exposure, color-balance, even some focus problems)… but not if you don’t have some sort of shot to work with…
BASIC SETTINGS to Maximize Picture-Quality:
“Av” Mode: Aperture Priority: I highly-recommend this mode. It’s usually best to open the aperture to maximum, as often as you can. This does the following:
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o Increases your shutter-speed (makes the number smaller: eg 1/250, 1/500, 1/1,000, etc). This makes it easier to stop motion, to avoid blurry running children, etc),
o Shortens your depth-of-field (helping create a blurry background, ie ‘bokeh‘ which is optimal for ‘portraiture’, & instantly increases the ‘production value’ of your shot).
o Note: in a regular zoom, the aperture ‘ramps’ as you go from wide to long. So, set Av mode, go wide on the lens, & then set the aperture wide-open. The aperture will ramp down (number goes larger as lens stops down) as you zoom-out, but the aperture will also ramp up as you zoom wide again. If you set the aperture when you are zoomed-in, the aperture sometimes won’t decrease (lens stops open) when you zoom-out/go-wide.
o The only time you need to stop-down the lens (close-down the aperture, ie increase the f-number, ie f/8, f/11, f/22, etc), is if:
§ You really want everything to be in focus , foreground & background
§ You’re shooting in very bright sunlight, & even with the ISO at 100 or lower, the exposure is too much for the shutter (eg, the shutter is 1/10,000+)
o There’s no real need to worry that “max wide-open creates optical artifacts”: that’s true for professional photographers who’re going to be blowing-up the image 4’ wide or printing in a magazine. Unless you’re doing that, wide-open lenses are just fine. If you’re really worried, click one stop from fully-wide, & you’ll be great.
ISO/ASA (really: ‘digital gain’): Most good DSLR’s (Canon, Nikon, etc) will shoot extremely clean photos at ISO 400, or even 800. Above that, you start getting what looks like ‘grain’, & sometimes a bit of color fringing. Test! Or look at comparison-charts on the-digital-picture.com for your camera & lens.
- o Note: It’s important to actually choose an ISO. if you set ‘Auto’, then even if you’re in ‘Av’ mode, the camera will variously (randomly?) adjust both ISO & shutter, which can alternately give you ‘digital grain’ or low gain & long shutter, letting the shot blur(!)
o So it’s much better to set an ISO, be in Av mode, & let the camera choose the shutterspeed for you.
Shutterspeed: Try to be at least 1/125 or ideally 1/250 to stop fast motion. Or in other words, stop your lens wide-open, & adjust your ISO until you get the shutterspeed you want for that shot.
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o (you can ½-click the shutter-release, & look in the viewfinder… or just shoot a test shot to see what the camera thinks is the right shutterspeed).
o I hardly use Tv (shutter-priority) mode, unless I want to blur motion, eg waterfalls or waves at the beach…
WB (White Balance): Auto is okay, EXCEPT:
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o Indoors: Bulb. Canon DSLR’s are NOTORIOUS for crappy indoor WB. Just remember to reset it to ‘auto’ when you go outside! Or: get used to doing adjustment on your computer, eg with “Canon Digital Photo Review” application/etc
o Sunrise/Sunsets: Auto-WB will ‘fight’ the beautiful colors at sunrise/sunset, so choose a setting that ‘looks nice’ in your LCD (ie, don’t assume that ‘Sun’/’Noon’ setting is correct for sunsets/sunrises!)
INTERMEDIATE SETTINGS & Concepts to Maximize Picture-Quality:
AF (auto-focus): Fix the auto-focus target to the middle of the screen. This way you always know what’s being focused-on(!!)
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o …then you can ½-click the shutter-release, hold, & re-position your framing for the composure you want, & your subject’s face (&/or ‘most-important point’: cf ‘Golden Mean’/Rule-of-3rds below) will still be in focus
Metering: Choose ‘spot’ exposure-metering: this will also be in the center of the screen, so now whatever you focus on, will be optimally exposed…
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o Ideally, focus on your subject’s face, and now that will be in focus, and exposed correctly… And your shot will look great, even if other parts of the shot blow-out (too bright) or get crushed (too dark).
o Occasionally your subject will be moving too fast, so learn to either
§ Quickly switch the Metering back to ‘Evaluative’, -or-
§ Aim at something with a similar exposure at a similar focal depth (often the subject’s shirt, etc)
§ Advanced: you can set the camera to set exposure separate from the shutter-release, ie with a different button (cf Canon “Custom Settings”, etc). Then you can set exposure once for a series of shots, & not worry (& it will increase your frames-per-second significantly)
Composure/Focus Target: “Rule of 3rds/Golden Mean”
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o Wide Shot: The person’s body is in focus, & place them at one of the ‘corner’ points of the ‘grid lines’ (ie, the optional rectangle, ~1/3 inset from edge-of-frame, ‘square within a square’ of the viewfinder):
o Medium Shot: Their torso is at a corner point
o Close-Up: Their face is at a corner-point
o Super-close-up: Their eye is at a corner-point
Rule: as long as their eye(s) are in focus, the shot is in focus. If the eye(s) aren’t in focus, it isn’t ‘creative focus’, it’s just blurry
Creating blurry backgrounds, or ‘bokeh’:
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1. Widen your aperture to max
2. Zoom-in as much as you can (ie, max the telephoto)
3. Increase the distance between your Subject & the background
Note: there is often an inverse relationship between aperture & zoom: until you invest in expensive ‘fixed-aperture’ zooms, most zooms decrease the aperture as you zoom-out. This is to avoid bad optical problems, such as pincushion distortion, color fringing, etc, but WRECKS the bokeh(!). So: practice with your zoom, & find the optimal zoom distance which allows some level of bokeh. Here’s a few guidelines:
o f/5.6 or above is usually extremely difficult to get good bokeh. Use f/4 or wider if possible
o Wide-angle, eg under 24mm focal length, is difficult to get good bokeh, unless you’re shooting f/2.0 or wider.
SHOOT WITH RAW:
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o Yeah, there’s lots of arguments/religious warfare re. “JPEG is Faster” & “I can edit my JPEGs JUST FINE”
o Ignore those ppl. Once you open a RAW file in the native software (eg, Canon Digital Picture Professional, or Nikon (whatever?)– RATHER THAN ADOBE RAW– you will unlock amazing levels of super-clean adjustment: from exposure, white-balance, color-correction, sharpness… to simply zooming-in & reframing: VERY VERY CLEAN.
o The only time to not shoot RAW, is if you absolutely must need super-fast burst, &/or have no spare memory card. Sure, the file is bigger, so get a faster laptop, & back-up media…
o Correspondingly- unless you’re a professional on daily-turnaround assignment, there is no reason to shoot “RAW + JPEG”. You’re just slowing the camera down, making the file fatter, & you can do all that afterwards on your laptop… w/ arguably better quality.
THREE RECOMMENDED ‘PICTURE PROFILES’ (to be used as a ‘starting-point’):
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· Indoors:
o Purpose: to shoot without flash as much as possible indoors, you need to get the shutterspeed at least 1/125
o Av, aperture wide-open
o ISO: 800 or 1600 (test!)
o WB: ‘Bulb’/Incandescent.
o Lens: wide as possible, no more than 50mm zoomed-in, or you will lose a lot of light
· Outdoors:
o Purpose: Shoot without a flash with as much bokeh as possible.
o Av, aperture wide-open (unless you’re overexposing at ISO 100 or below)
o ISO: 100-200 for noon/bright light, more if you’re zooming w/ a non-fixed aperture lens. 400-800 at dusk is fine.
o Lens: zoomed-in as much as possible.
o WB: Auto… Except at sunset!
o Subject: Ideally subject is as far away from the background as possible.
NOTE: Avoid having the sun behind you: the subject will have a lot of front-on, flat/uninteresting light (or at noon, they’ll be washed-out). Similarly, avoid direct overhead ‘noon’ light: it creates harsh shadows & is really unflattering to faces.
Much Better to have the sun behind or on-profile to your Subject! This allows the sun to create highlights or ‘rim light’ against their hair, etc.
· Portraiture
o Purpose: Shoot with as much bokeh as possible.
o Av, aperture wide-open (unless you’re overexposing at ISO 100 or below)
o ISO: 100 or lower, for minimal ‘gain’ artifacting
o Lens: zoomed-in as much as possible.
o WB: ‘bulb’ if indoor, auto if outdoor.
o Subject: with back or profile to the sun, allowing the sun to create highlights or ‘rim light’ against their hair, etc. Get the person out from under direct sunlight, & position something white’ish nearby to ‘bounce’ the sunlight on their face… Also, Ideally the subject is as far away from the background as possible.
Recommended Lenses (of course, this is a personal preference, but many top shooters have found this a good ‘starting-point’):
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· 24-105 f/4.0L – Fixed-aperture ‘L’ lens, terrific “walking-around” lens w/ great bokeh, esp fully zoomed-in.
· 70-300 f/4.0-5.6L – Fantastic image-quality super-zoom. 4 stops of dual-mode IS, focuses in near-dark, & pin-sharp at 300mm wide-open(?!) Its nearest competitor is the 100-400 f/4.0-5.6L, which has 12yr-old technology, & is really outclassed…
· 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 – This is a prime (non-zoom), & perfect for indoors. Super-fast, & good ‘portrait’ distance. The f/1.8 is a very low-price lens, & not built as robust, but the optics are good
· 100mm f/2.0 – This is a prime/non-zoom, which will have terrific bokeh at f/2.0
· 135mm f/2.8 ‘soft focus’ – I would borrow/test this lens; soft focus is pretty soft, ideal for portraiture, but I personally like the option to selectively blur in photoshop/etc
HOPE THAT HELPS!!
Now get out there & SHOOT!!! 
PS: If you want More where this came-from, check-out my post: “Does your Shot Work?”
