Understanding Your Digital Camera

Art and Techniques

Tim Savage

• Editore: Crowood
• Anno: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781847978035
• Argomento: Art
• Categoria: Photography Equipment

This book has been written for photographers who want to switch their camera off automatic mode and take control of its image-making potential. With visual examples throughout, it explains how to use the camera's settings and functions to take better and more creative photographs. By introducing new techniques based on concepts already taught, it explains the key principles of camera craft and thereby helps the photographer determine the outcome of the image they take. Many topics are covered including: a guide to photographic equipment; exposure and how to control the shutter, aperture and ISO settings; flash control, metering patterns, focus modes and drive options; colour settings, including white balance, picture styles and colour spaces and digital photographs are explained in terms of histogram, resolution, image size and quality settings. Fully illustrated with 378 colour photographs.

Chapter 1

Inspiration

•	What makes a ‘good’ photograph?
•	Composition and shooting tips.
•	Sharing, learning and reflecting upon your own photographs.

In recent years photography has increased exponentially in popularity, with almost everyone owning a camera of some type. Whether it is a DSLR, compact, hybrid or even a mobile phone or tablet camera, digital technology continues to produce better, faster, cheaper, smaller and more feature-rich options. Indeed, few would argue against the fact that photography has become a great deal easier than it was a decade ago. In the days of film, a photographer would be required to load the film, specify the film speed, compose the scene, focus the lens, and specify the exposure using a combination of aperture (the size of the hole that admits light) and shutter speed (the length of time the hole is open) in relation to the meter reading. If using the flash, calculations would be required in relation to the distance between camera and subject. After each exposure the film would need to be wound forward manually, before eventually being rewound, removed, processed and printed, incurring both financial cost and time delays. In contrast, modern digital cameras have become so sophisticated that photographers can all but disregard exposure parameters. This flexibility and freedom allows contemporary photographers to concentrate their full attention upon the subject, timing and composition. Within seconds of the shutter firing, feedback is immediate, with an image being displayed without delay or financial cost.

Fig 3
A Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera.

Ease of production is matched by virtually limitless manipulation, duplication and sharing possibilities. Digital photographs can be instantly stylized through a range of enhancements and online tools such as Instagram. These images can then be distributed within seconds. This increase in production and sharing has led to a surge of mediocre images created by photographers using automatic camera settings combined with image-processing algorithms. In order to stand out from the crowd, the creative photographer must seek to rise above this level of mediocrity; to understand the camera and to use it as a tool to realize his or her own vision rather than accept the unexceptional results generated by automated modes.

WHAT MAKES A ‘GOOD’ PHOTOGRAPH?

A great camera is perfectly capable of taking a poor photograph. A picture may be sharp, well exposed and technically correct, but if it does not engage the interest of the viewer then the photographer has failed. Photography is like food or music, in the sense that an appreciation of it is largely an issue of personal preference. This lack of certainty can be disconcerting to photographers seeking a formula for success and many choose to use the reactions of others to their images as a barometer of success. This can be a useful way of receiving feedback, but the person best qualified to judge the quality of a photograph is the person who took that photograph. Gaining confidence in your own image-making is an essential aspect of becoming a photographer.

Fig 4
Collecting photographs is an effective way of identifying your own tastes and preferences.

One effective method of defining your own personal taste is to collect photographs. Browse online and in print, magazines, newspapers and social media. Collect and store pictures that stand out. Once a few hundred images have been accumulated it is usually possible to identify some common traits. You may see trends emerging in features such as subject, lighting, focus, depth, textures and colour. For example, textures rendered in black and white could be a recurring theme, or perhaps isolated areas of focus within portraiture. Once you have identified your own personal tastes, they can be consciously applied when creating images.

COMPOSITION AND SHOOTING TIPS

Understanding personal taste is the first step towards making work that will appeal to your own preferences. For many students of photography this process begins by considering composition. Composition refers to the arrangement of the key elements within the boundaries of the photographic frame. There are numerous ‘rules’ and guides that can assist with geometric aids to production. For readers interested in compositional theory an online search for ‘the golden section’ will provide detail of the mathematical formula commonly used within the creative arts. The golden section underpins the photographer’s ‘rule of thirds’ (see Chapter 3). In terms of compositional theory there are a few simple pointers that, when combined with the lessons learnt from collecting images, may help when you are seeking to improve the aesthetics of your images.

First, when framing a subject, you should be clear and bold about what the image is about. The job of the photographer is to direct the eye of the viewer. Distracting elements can draw attention away from the main subject. Simplify an image wherever possible. In the examples, Fig 5 was shot against a busy graduation background, but for Fig 6 the photographer moved closer to the model and shot from an angle that provided a less distracting background. The flash was used to lighten facial shadows and provide a ‘catch light’ in the eyes. These changes provide a clearly defined subject and background, and a better picture.

Figs 5 and 6
Keeping the composition simple avoids distracting elements within the frame.

Having considered the way in which the viewer’s eye engages with the subject, consider how, once the eye has landed within the composition, it explores out towards the boundaries of the frame. Does attention drift towards the edges or is interest focused upon a specific point? Using lines is an effective way of directing the path of the eye. In Fig 7, the lines naturally present combine with perspective to draw the eye towards the centre of the photograph into the main subject.

Fig 7
Lines and contrast can be used to direct the viewer’s eye within the composition.

Lines can also be used to define patterns, symmetry and provide a sense of balance with the photographic frame. Human perception responds positively to the symmetric placement of subjects or scenes. In Fig 8, the composition frames the axis of symmetry.

Fig 8
Lines can be combined with pattern and symmetry and to provide a sense of balance within an image.

Another point to consider is the viewpoint adopted by the photographer. Most adults experience the world from a height of between five and six feet. Changing the camera’s perspective through height, angle or pitch is a simple way of representing objects and environments in an unfamiliar way. Fig 9 is an image of two children playing inside a shower cubicle. By photographing them from above, the camera captures them from an interesting perspective.

Fig 9
Adopting an unfamiliar viewpoint can give an interesting perspective.

Colour may also be used by a photographer to draw the eye and to create a sense of balance and visual harmony. In Fig 10, the colour relationships within the photographs are opposites in the colour wheel: green is complementary to red while blue is complementary to orange. The subject of these images is not what they are of, but what they are ‘about’: colour.

Fig 10
Opposite hues used within the same image.

A photograph is sometimes referred to as a frozen moment. I...