Hello, my fellow photo-crazy friends! If you’re a beginner who’s just got a DSLR and can’t wait to experiment with it, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a list of eight tips that beginners in photography might find useful while figuring out all the photography jargon. Do note that I’m no professional myself – most of these tips are based on my personal experience, which was mostly by trial and error. I’ve been using a DSLR for a few years now and I thought of sharing a few things I’ve learnt on the way.
1. Use the flash sparingly
Yeah, I know that your DSLR has a super-bright neon lamp that can spectacularly brighten up the darkest of places, but use it only if you need to. Usually a combination of the other settings (such as increasing aperture and exposure compensation) while sticking to the ambient light as much as possible gives best results.
2. Keep your ISO low
The ISO number reflects the amount of light sensitivity that you want to have in your photo – darker the place, higher the number. However, ramping it up way too high produces a lot of graining and loss of smoothness. Use it at the lowest possible setting.
3. Use a tripod
Most DSLRs these days come with in-built image stabilization or VR, but they can’t always offset the amount of camera shake while clicking. Using a tripod whenever feasible minimizes that and gives the best results. In case you’re shooting a video, then it’s a must!
4. Use a greater aperture for portraits
The aperture refers to the amount of light entering your camera. A higher aperture (lower f-number) usually leads to a better background blur effect and emphasis on the subject; for landscapes or wide-angle shots, it’s just the opposite.
5. Try out panning
Panning is a beautiful technique of capturing fast-moving objects with the background blurred totally. It involves moving your camera while shooting the photo along with the subject – and yes, it needs a lot of practice, but the results can be fantastico.
6. Always shoot in RAW
The RAW format allows for a good deal of post-processing where you can tweak the exposure compensation of the photo after it has been taken, among other advantages. It’s usually called NEF on Nikon cameras. For DSLRs that support this feature, it’s definitely a plus.
7. Use the manual focus
Most cameras these days have brilliant auto-focussing abilities; yet sometimes, they don’t just catch the subject. Switch to the on-screen live mode, zoom in and set the focus manually if this happens. This especially comes in handy while shooting videos because otherwise, the camera tries to change focus again and again in the middle of the video and we don’t want that, right?
8. Be quick!
The thumb rule of photography is – being in the right place at the right time. If you encounter something that came all of a sudden, don’t waste even a second on framing or anything else – I’ve missed countless occasions because of these. Set it to autofocus, just point and shoot!
These were some tips off the top of my mind. If you have any fantastico suggestions or tips to share yourself, please comment. I’d like to know too! :)
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