Education

A comprehensive guide to DSLR photography: 5 EXPERT TIPS

This post is specifically meant for you if you are a beginner of the subject.

Most beginner photographs use the auto mode in their DSLR cameras to take snapshots in the best possible manner.

I am not saying that that’s a poor practice. For an amateur photographer, the auto mode is almost close to a heaven. But such a practice is seldom capable of using the camera at its full potentials.

So if you want to unfurl your wings and up your photography skills, you need to step out of the comfort zones of the auto mode. You have to go “manual.” This guide can come in handy for you.

Things discussed in this article

  • Mastering different shooting modes (inclusive of manual and priority mode)
  • Understanding ISO values
  • The “exposure triangle.”
  • How to focus.
  • Mastering exposure compensation.

start now

Let’s start now.

Shooting modes

You will found all shooting modes on a tiny dial that should be labeled with things like “auto, Tv, Av” and so on. The mode of your shoot can determine the behavior of the camera as soon as you press on the shutter.

camera

Now let’s go through the different shooting modes of DSLR in greater detail.

  • The aperture priority mode (A): It’s a “semi-automatic” photo-shooting mode. In this mode, the photographer will have to set the aperture at the start and the DSLR will set the shutter speed on its own. The larger the aperture, the more is the light.
  • The shutter priority mode (S): It’s another semi-automatic mode that works similarly to that of the aperture priority mode highlighted above. The shutter priority mode is directly linked to that of the shutter speed. The lower the speed, the more light passes through the camera sensor before it’s captured finally for the photograph.
  • The manual mode (M): You will be having full control over everything in this mode. You will be able to set your shutter speed and aperture speed on your very own through the aid of the manual mode.
  • Program mode (P): This mode gives you a partial control over your camera. You might be able to set either the shutter priority or aperture priority through this mode at a single time. You can’t do both together.

Understanding ISO

The ISO value of a camera is a measure of the sensitivity of the sensor of a camera. There’s a thumb rule that you should maintain especially when ISO is considered. The higher the ISO, the faster is the sensor.

Tips:

  • You can increase your ISO settings to get clearer images in dark conditions.
  • Lower your ISO settings to get clearer images in brighter conditions.
  • The lower the ISO, the less is the noise. So do accordingly.

ISO

Know the “exposure triangle”

Take a peek at the exposure triangle that’s provided in the image below.

The exposure triangle

The exposure triangle

So you can very well see from the image above that aperture, shutter speed and ISO are the three components of the exposure triangle. They are all linked with one another. A change in one can affect the others. So your photoshoot strategy should shape up on basis of this exposure triangle.

Focusing

Your DSLR will have a host of autofocus modes. But in here we will discuss only two of them that are the most important ones of the lot.

  • Autofocus single (S-AF): This mode’s the best for still photography, especially for capturing stationary objects (e.g. ideal for portraits and buildings).

S-AF mode

S-AF mode is ideal for capturing portraits^

  • Autofocus continuous (C-AF): This mode’s the best for taking images of moving objects or subjects (e.g. sports images and wildlife).

C-AF mode2

C-AF mode is ideal for capturing moving objects/subjects^

Exposure compensation

You can apply the exposure compensation system to compensate the brightness of an image in case it comes too dark.

You will found the exposure compensation button near the shutter itself.

exposure compensation

You might have to use exposure compensation in taking these types of photographs^

So that brings us to the end of this article for now. Hope these beginner tips mentioned above come in handy for you. Ciao!

If you have any questions, please ask below!