Discount digital cameras

Photography 101 Part One Equipment: camera, meter, flash, tripod

This article is a simplified photography course directed at new
photographers out there who want to know where to start.

If you really want to learn photography the first thing you need
is a good affordable and reliable camera. It must, and I repeat
must, be able to shoot in fully manual and fully auto focus
modes. (This leaves out any digital cameras on the market right
now, sorry.) To really learn photography you must understand the
equipment. You’ll need to learn how manipulating the shutter
speed, aperture, and focus will have a dramatic effect on your
photos. Meters, if you have a camera that can work in a fully
manual mode it should have an internal meter suitable for what
you will be doing. Tripod, you’re going to need one whether it’s
portrait work or landscapes you’ll need one eventually. Luckily
you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight
and durable. Flash, you can buy a separate camera mounted flash,
which is great if you can afford it. Consider what kind of
photography that you will be doing though. If you’re going to do
mostly nature and landscape, you may only need the fill flash
that comes with most cameras today. If you plan on doing
portraiture alone you will want to consider a camera mounted
flash that has an adjustable angle. Film, film speed to be
exact. Slower speeds (25 to 400) are intended for portraiture
and landscape photography. Faster speeds (600 and above) are
intended for actions shots and photojournalism. So first you
need to know what you going out to photograph and make sure that
you have the appropriate film for the job. Now that you have the
camera loaded with film consider shutter speed. Do you want to
blur motion, or freeze it? If there is no motion at all what
shutter speed do you need to expose the scene with natural
light. From 1/60th and down to the bulb setting will blur most
motion. For example if you want to blur the water in a
waterfall, a setting of 1/30th should work. (You’ll need a
tripod though.) 1/125th is a normal setting for most shots. On
many cameras the 125th setting is marked in a different color to
make it obvious. If you want to freeze action you’ll need to
start with 1/500th and work up from there. The faster the motion
the faster the shutter speed needed to stop motion. Many cameras
go up to 1/2000th of a second. If you’re trying to use natural
light alone in a scene you will want to determine the aperture
first and then see what shutter speed you need to properly
expose the scene for available light. (Keep in mind sometimes
there isn’t enough light.) Aperture, these are the set of
numbers on your lens closest to the body of the camera. They can
go from 1.8 to 22, and they are referred to as F-stops. These
numbers determine how much light reaches the film inside of your
camera. Most internal meters will blink on the appropriate
aperture for the shutter speed that you’ve set, or the speed
you’ve set will blink if your F-stop is correct for the speed.
Both the F-stop and shutter speed can be changed to expose the
scene correctly. Consider that the faster the shutter speed the
more light will be needed to expose the scene correctly. This
makes logical sense if you think about it. If the shutter isn’t
open as long, fast shutter speed, then there is less light able
to make it to the film and so the scene must be brighter to
expose correctly. To learn, bracket your shots. Take the first
shot at the aperture suggested by your meter, move one stop up,
take a photo, one down, take another photo. Flash, I personally
like shooting with natural light whenever possible and at most I
use a fill flash. But if you’re going to do portrait work then
most of the time you may be indoors and you will need a flash
sometimes. For the amateur the fill flash units that are on the
top of most of today’s cameras are wonderful for basic work. You
will have to read your manual on your particular flash unit to
learn what it can and can’t do. This is where the camera that is
fully manual and fully auto is great for the amateur. You can
usually set it so that the camera will meter and set the flash
output accordingly and then you still can control the shutter
speed and aperture. This week’s assignment: Have several rolls
of 400 speed film, find a subject that you can work with
preferably something that won’t move, and shoot one roll of
film. Shoot some of the roll in the morning, afternoon, and
evening. Bracket every shot, take notes on time of day and light
conditions, and what your settings (aperture) were for each
frame, keep the film speed the same for the entire roll. Have
the film developed and examine the photos. You should be able to
see a difference in each frame. You’ll need to repeat this
procedure until you feel that you understand the relationship
between shutter speed and aperture, and every camera and meter
has it’s own quirks and differences, you’re camera will act
differently than someone else’s. This way you will learn you own
particular camera as well. Once you have a sense of how aperture
works you won’t need to bracket every shot you take, you may
only need to do it in cases where you want to be extra safe on
exposing the subject correctly. If you have some specific
questions please visit my Photography Forum at:
http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

About the author:
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and
Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and
internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly
Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an
educational background in photography, business, and commercial
art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography
principles to her web design.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 11:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.