Category: Tips

Here are a few basic composition hints

• Imagine your view finder split into 9 rectangles by two vertical gridlines and two horizontal gridlines. Try and position key parts of your subject on the “thirds” of a picture (where the gridlines intersect). These are the ‘sweet spots’ to which the eye is naturally drawn
• A good picture should “tell a story” immediately.
• Crop! Crop! Crop! What doesn’t help hinders.
• Get in close to your subject. Fill the frame (but remember cut-off by viewfinder and processors).
• Watch out for distractions on the edge of the picture eg light patches, electric sockets, fire extinguishers etc.
• Light in the early morning or late evening is often best, creating shadows, silhouettes and emphasizing textures. Light directly overhead is often ‘flat’ leading to ‘bland’ photographs. Don’t be afraid of shooting against the light, but if you do, carefully consider your exposure settings.
• Use Advancing (warm) & receding (cool) colours – to your advantage. The advancing colours eg; Reds, yellows, violets and terracottas create a warm cosy compact feel, the cooler receding colours eg; light blues and greys make the space feel bigger.
• Try framing the picture with trees, arches, or other shapes.
• Use differential focus and depth of field, where the photographer chooses to have part of a photograph ‘in focus’ and part of it ‘out of focus’ – to “lose” or “blur” backgrounds or foregrounds. This technique removes distracting details / objects and permits the eye to concentrate on the key subject matter of the photograph.
• Use natural lines to “lead the eye in” to key parts of the picture. (eg; roads & paths, fencing lines, hand rails etc)
• Consider using portrait format, not always landscape.
• You can “lose” an uninteresting ‘middle ground’ by using a low viewpoint.
• Pack couples or groups closely together in posed people pictures.
• In landscapes, look for some foreground interest, eg perhaps a boulder or a person, to give depth to the picture.
• Don’t have skylines / horizons centred horizontally across the middle of a picture (ie; have different proportions at the top and the bottom of the picture eg; one third to two thirds). Keep skylines and horizons level! (NB; this can often be corrected in photo post processing)
• If you have an uninteresting featureless plain sky without cloud definition, include only the minimum in your composition.

A good big ‘un always beats a good little ‘un!

We recommend the following video

The full automatic setting of modern digital cameras usually gives excellent results. However, if the outcome is not what you are expecting, or you wish to achieve a particular effect, eg to put the background out of focus or to blur motion, you need to know how to set your camera controls.

The links below provide some basic checklists for the main camera types that people use:

• basic compact checklist
• basic DSLR/Bridge checklist

(DSLR/Bridge cameras)

This page explains the basics of exposure to help you choose an appropriate shooting mode

Exposure basics

Image exposure is independently affected by three camera settings:

• aperture
• shutter speed
• ISO speed

Aperture and shutter speed control how much light reaches the camera sensor by determining how much light enters the lens and for how long the sensor is exposed to that light. ISO speed electronically adjusts the sensor sensitivity, large ISO numbers are more sensitive than low ISO numbers.

The table shows typical values. Since optimal settings are camera and lens specific, these values can give only general guidance. Over time, for your camera and your way of taking photos, you will develop a ‘gut feel’ for what works and what doesn’t.

In many lighting situations, choice of settings for ‘correct’ exposure will be a compromise.

For more background, see camera exposure [new window]

Depth of Field

It’s important to understand the term ‘depth of field’, which is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in acceptably sharp focus. For more see depth of field [new window]

Summary of exposure settings and typical values

Shooting modes

Full Auto is a fail-safe initial choice, often resulting in good photos, but you cannot change settings if you want to be creative.

Provided you have a basic understanding of exposure, we suggest you experiment with other modes (examples below).

For all modes, the first step is to set a suitable ISO, but be prepared to change that later if necessary. Then choose your mode and use the camera dial or menu to adjust the setting.

Advantages and disadvantages of selected shooting modes

For other modes, read your camera manual or see:

• aperture priority and shutter priority exposure lesson 1 [new window]
• List of digital camera modes [new window]

Before you start

Dials and other settings may not be as you expect so always spend a few minutes with the camera’s manual and checking out the basic settings and control features and check how to do the following.

• Set the image stabiliser to on [if available, might be on the side of the lens or in a menu] – this avoids blurred images from camera shake at slow shutter speeds.
• Select ‘auto’ or ‘manual’ focus as desired [if available this may be on the lens as well as the camera itself] – manual focus can be usefule in ceratin circumstances that will otherwise confuse the auto focus eg; birds against a moving background of a tree.
• Switch the flash on and off. Usually this is best kept switched off to avoid harsh lighting and inadvertently using flash in prohibitted areas/locations.
• Set the shooting mode selection as desired (eg; auto, manual, aperture priority, shutter priority or selected ‘scene’ modes)
• Adjust ISO sensitivity. [generally as low as practical]
• Select ‘focus points’ to the most suitable [generally select just the central focus point]
• Set ‘light’ metering options to most suitable.

To take a photo

• set zoom (if available) to suit subject [wide angle – good depth of field; telephoto – narrower depth of field]
• [Depth of field = distance between the nearest and farthest objects in sharp focus]
• if shutter speed is 1/60 second or slower, find a way of steadying the camera [touch/half press shutter release button to check speed]
• focus camera [point at main subject, touch/half press shutter release button to focus]
• compose photo [keep shutter release button half down to maintain focus and other settings, don’t alter zoom]
• take photo [fully press shutter release button]

Before you start

Dials and other settings may not be as you expect so always spend a few minutes with the camera’s manual and checking out the basic settings and control features and check how to do the following.

• Select your preferred ‘shooting mode’ if available eg; auto, aperture, shutter and change as necessary during a photo session.
• Set the image stabilisation [if available might be a button, in a menu or a shooting mode]
• Turn the flash ‘on’ and ‘off’ as desired, and understand flash behaviour with various shooting modes [switch off for less harsh lighting]
• Choose the macro (flower) setting for closeup photograps, [off otherwise]
• Set ‘scene modes’ if an option
• Adjust sensor sensitivity (ISO) settings

To take a photo

• set zoom to suit subject
• focus camera [point at main subject, touch/half press shutter release button to focus] respond if there are warnings eg if too close to a subject for proper focus
• compose photo [keep shutter release button half down to maintain focus and other settings, don’t alter zoom]
• take photo [fully press shutter release button]