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How Knowing Your Camera Well Will Make
You A Better Photographer
Know
your camera so well you don’t have to think about it every moment you are using
it. This will make you a better photographer.
The
less attention you have to give to you camera, the more focus you can pay your
subject.
Photography
keeps both your left and right brain hemispheres active. You must engage your
left brain to manage the technical aspects of your camera well. Your right
brain, which processes creative thoughts, must also be active. Neither side can
be allowed to overwork and overshadow the other.
The
best way I know how to do this is to have an intimate relationship with your
camera. Being close with your camera makes it easier and more enjoyable to use.
Practice
Using Your Camera Often
Frequent
use of your camera will help you develop a more visceral relationship with it.
Much like a musician needs to practice for hours on end to master playing
specific pieces of music. You must also practice.
A
guitarist or trumpeter playing scales over and over on the same instrument will
get a feel for it. Not only will they become faster and more skilled, but they
will learn to appreciate the tools of their craft with affection. It’s the same
using a camera.
You
might retort, ‘but we can’t play scales on our
cameras.’ No, we cannot, you are correct. However, there are
many techniques we can improve upon if we go about it often and with purpose.
What
To Practice With Your Camera
Practice
managing the most important functions on your camera. How to set the exposure.
How to focus, both manually and using autofocus. Using different focal
length lenses. And even changing lenses.
1. Practice
Changing Exposure Settings
Even
if you prefer using auto-exposure, you can practice improving. There will often
be times when your camera will give you a less than adequate exposure when
you’re using auto.
Purposefully take a similar
series of photos in challenging lighting conditions many times. This will help
you understand when your camera struggles to set the light right.Purposefully take a similar series of photos in challenging
lighting conditions many times. This will help you understand when your camera
struggles to set the light right.
Set
yourself a task to photograph ten different subjects which are front-lit. Then
ten with side lighting. And then ten with strong backlighting. Study the
results and look at the EXIF data for each photo. See the choices your camera
was making. Look at when the camera made better exposures and when it failed
to.
Run
through this same exercise a few times using manual exposure. You will become
familiar with how to manage your settings well. Once you know them, and keep
practicing, you’ll begin to change these settings without paying too much
attention at all.
2. Set
Your Shutter Speed
Spend
an hour or an afternoon solely focused on what your shutter is set to and how
it affects your pictures.
What
happens when you use a fast shutter speed compared to a medium or slow one?
Photograph
some moving subjects. Maybe a dog playing, people walking, or traffic passing.
Notice the relationship between the speed of the motion and the length of time
your shutter is open for.
With
static subjects pay attention to the overall sharpness of your photos. How slow
can you set your shutter speed before you begin to see blurring from camera
shake? It’s good to be aware of this, so you know when you need to use a
tripod.
3. Adjust
Your Aperture
Take
some time to pay attention to what your aperture is doing. This will help you
understand it better and the influence it has on the way your photos look.
Try
photographing the same subject at every different aperture setting your lens
has. You may need to adjust your ISO and/or use a tripod when your shutter
speeds become very slow.
Try
this same exercise using a wide, medium, and telephoto lens. Look at the
differences in how the resulting photographs turn out.
Becoming
more familiar with your aperture settings will teach you which is the best
f-stop to use in different situations.
4. Experiment
With Your ISO
ISO
is probably the least well-understood aspect of the exposure
triangle. Many photographers tend to set it and forget it.
This can be problematic, especially when you set your ISO to auto.
Higher-end
late model cameras do not have such problems with digital noise at high ISO settings.
Many other cameras do. Digital noise varies from camera to camera and brand to
brand, so you need to get a feel for how it is with your camera.
Set
your camera on a tripod or steady surface somewhere there’s not much light. Set
your ISO to the lowest setting and take a photo. Now change your ISO so it’s
double the setting your started with and photograph the same subject. Repeat
this process. Double your ISO before taking your next photo. Continue until you
reach the maximum ISO setting your camera has.
Now
study and compare the images. How do the first and last ones look when you
place them next to each other? How much digital noise can you filter out with
the software you use? What level of ISO are you happy to use?
Knowing
the answers to these questions will help you learn to set your ISO with
confidence in any lighting conditions.
5. Fix
Your Focus
Concentrate
only on getting your photos sharp where you want them to be.
You
have various setting options when your camera is set to autofocus. Practice in
multiple situations using single and continuous-servo focusing. Photograph both
static and moving subject. Which setting are you most comfortable with in any
given circumstances?
Switch
between single-point and multi-point focus areas. If you are used to letting
the camera decide where the lens will focus, switch to single-point. Learn to
place the point precisely where you want it. It will take practice, but when
you do, you’ll become proficient in no time.
Have
a go at manual
focus. This is a skill I learned because I had to. I
started using a camera before autofocus lenses were available. It’s an
excellent skill to have, even when most lenses are autofocus. But it does require
practice so you can get it right. The more time you spend with it, the faster
and more accurate you’ll become.
6. Juggle
Your Focal Lengths
Photograph
the same subject with your widest and your longest lens. And then with your favorite
medium lens. Work your subject from different angles and with different focal
lengths. Get a feel for how it looks in relation to what’s around it and in the
background.
Compare
your photos. Consider which ones you like the most and why. Which focal length
proved to be your favorite? Doing this type of exercise many times will give
you a feel for the properties of your lenses. It will help you understand which
subjects and situations lend themselves to which lens.
Conclusion
There’s
no right or wrong way to do photography. There are many technical ways to
achieve similar looking images. Having a good command of your camera and an
intimate relationship with it requires that you handle it regularly.
Practice
often with your camera, and you’ll build confidence to use it well in any
situation. Be like the guitarist who wants to be a rock star. Go over and over
the rudimentary aspects of your craft. The ones you struggle with and the ones
you find comfortable.
Soon
you won’t struggle, and you’ll pay less and less attention consciously to what
you are doing with your camera. This will free you up to become more engrossed
in your subject.
source: https://contrastly.com/how-knowing-your-camera-well-will-make-you-a-better-photographer/