Monday

Using My Camera to the Best of My Ability


The first thing about improving your photography that needs to be done is learning how to use your camera. Each camera brand and style is different and therefore it is important to learn how YOUR camera works. My camera is a Canon Rebel T2i; a fairly common camera in the last two years due to its economical cost and quality. First thing everyone must do is read the camera manual. I am not a fan of reading text that comes from a camera but it must be done if you want to have the best photos possible. Putting your time in and doing research on your camera is first and foremost the most important thing anyone can do when want to enhance their photography. Once you’ve finished reading the manual then I would suggest going online and reading supplementary texts on specific topics you have questions on; such as posing, angles, lighting, demos, and advice. Because I only want to use my camera for recreational purposes lighting and angles was the biggest area I needed advice on, and boy did I find it. But that will be included in a future post.

For my camera I was shooting everything in automatic, which although seems the best for camera newbies, such as myself, it was actually producing photos below the quality I wanted. I decided to shoot in Manual mode for the duration of this assignment. It took a lot of getting used to but it forced me to learn the most about my camera and how it works and which functions affect which. In manual mode you are forced to control the aperture and the ISO all on your own. Every time I shifted positions the lighting would change which meant I needed to change either my aperture, ISO or both.

The aperture controls how long the light is let in, in terms of fractions of a second. The ISO controls the amount of the light the camera is should except while the aperture is exposed. Below is an example of what the aperture looks like when exposed for different settings. The lower the number the more light it will allow in and the more bright the picture will be.

No comments:

Post a Comment