Digital Photography Tip #8: Camera Modes Explained

Cameras today are pretty complex devices. They can evaluate light, figure out appropriate shutters speeds and apertures, and even determine the "kind" of light you are shooting in and adjust it appropriately. So what's with all of the choices on the cameras. Well, let's just say that the camera isn't always a smart as we think it is.

First off, almost all decent digital cameras have two kinds of modes: Automatic Modes and Creative Modes. Let's first look at some common Automatic modes and what they do:

Automatic modes are basically that: automatic. They require no input from you whatsoever. You select the mode and the camera does all of the "thinking" for you. Actually, all it really does is a series of mathematical calculations based on the mode you chose and the amount of light it is dealing with. Here are some common modes explained:

Automatic Modes

Auto: Does everythng, has no idea what you are pointing the camera at, but tries to get the best picture it thinks you want.

Sports/Action: (usually a symbol of a guy running) This mode tells that camera that you are taking pictures of moving subjects. The camera does everything in its power to keep the shutter speed fast enough to stop action without compromising exposure.

Portrait: (symbol of a face or person with a hat) This mode tells the camera that you are taking portraits of people. The camera tries its best to blur the background by using a wide aperture and will also keep the shutter speed reasonable for handholding. It will usually force the flash if there is not enough light.

Night: (symbol of a moon or stars) This mode adjusts all of its settings such as ISO, shutter, and aperture to get the best exposure in a dark place. Normally the flash will not go off, but the camera will use a long shutter speed, so holding the camera usually causes blurry photos.

Landscape: (usually a symbol of mountains) This mode tries to keep your aperture as narrow as it can get away with so that you can get the maximum depth in your shot. If need be, it will reduce shutter speed so that handholding will be difficult. Flash should not fire in this mode either.

The above modes are usually just version of automatic mode, where you are giving the camera an educated guess as to what you will be shooting at. If you are comfortable with this, then fine. However, chances are that if you've actually still decided to read my blog after the last 3 posts, then you might be motived to get more out of your camera. Keep reading, then.

Creative Modes

The creative modes are modes in your camera which assume that you are going to be taking some creative control of the settings. Some of them let you do everything, others let you do barely anything, but in all cases, you have some choices (unlike many of the above automatic modes).

Program: (usually designated with a "P" symbol) This mode is like automatic mode. The biggest difference with this setting over automatic is that it does allow you to choose ISO and white balance settings. Beyond that, it's main job is to get you the best exposure it can. It also won't use the flash automatically, which some people like. My personal thoughts are that this mode is for people who still want to give up much of their control to the camera. If that's you, then this is your setting.

Shutter Priority: ("S" on Nikon Cameras, "Tv" on Canons) This mode is considered a semi-automatic mode. You choose the shutter speed, and the camera chooses the aperture for you to get the best exposure. This mode is good for when you want to get creative with shutter speed but don't care about the depth of field. Reccomended when shooting lots of action or sports shots outdoors. Most all other controls can also be changed in this mode.

Aperture Priority: ("A" on Nikon Cameras, "Av" on Canons) This is probably one of the most popular modes among photographers. It is the reverse of shutter priority: You choose the aperture and the camera chooses the best shutter speed to get you a decent exposure. I use this mode almost 90 percent of the time, myself. It is recommended for adjusting your aperture for background blur or for landscapes with lots of depth. I normally shoot in Aperture priority mode with the widest aperture (smallest number) that my lens will allow for nice background blur. Most all other controls can also be changed in this mode.

Manual: (M on most cameras) For those who want to control everything, this is your mode. In this mode, you have to adjust the aperture and shutter speed yourself. The camera is your slave. You change everything you want, and the camera lets you take the picture. No guarantees that it will come out right, unless you know what you are doing. Not for the faint-hearted photographers, but there are certainly times when this mode is quite useful.

Well, there you have it. I hope this post was at least somewhat informative, despite the fact that I probably just poorly summed up what you can easily find in your own camera manual. Feel free to send me any questions or feedback. I'll most certainly be posting more info on this site so keep coming back.

Photography Tip # 7: ISO

So far, I've been probably boring most of my beloved blog readers with more photography geekery than you are willing to handle. Either way, this next tip, if used and understood well, can really help your low-light photography a whole lot.

To review, we have learned that in order to get a good exposure in a photo, we need to balance the choice of aperture (f-stop) number with the shutter speed. To get more light for our exposure, we can choose to choose a wide aperture, such as F/2.8 or slow down our shutter speed. If we were shooting in full manual mode, we would need to depend on both of these adjustments to get our correct exposure.

But what happens when you max out these settings and its still not enough light to get a correct exposure? Let's say I'm shooting an indoor basketball game, and my lens is stopped down as far as it can (say F/3.5) and the shutter speed is as slow as I can make it to stop the action (around 1/500th of a second) and my images are still coming out too dark? Well, to borrow from Apple's iPhone commercial, "There's an app for that.". Okay, not really, but there is a setting. It's called, ISO. ISO, which stands for International Standards Organization (don't ask), is a rating to the amount of sensitivity your sensor has to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive. So an ISO of 200 is less sensitive than an ISO of 800.

In the photography film world, you would buy a film that is rated at a specific ISO. However, in digital photography, we have the option to change this sensitivity on the fly. If my camera is not getting a good exposure due to poor lighting conditions, I can choose to change my camera's ISO sensitivity to get more light. The increased number makes my camera's digital sensor more sensitive to the light, which gives me a better exposure.

It should be noted however, that the trade-off to ISO is digital noise. The higher the ISO number, the more noisy and grainy your images will look. It is generally advised to keep your ISO on your camera to its lowest rating for the best color quality and gradation. However, if you are in a situation where you need more light for the shot, this setting can be a great option. If you do not know where the ISO setting is on your camera, I suggest you read your manual or look for it. Take a few shots at different ISO numbers and check out the results. Some people actually like the look of digital noise in their shots, while others hate it.

To conclude on this nerdy stuff, we have been looking at the 3 elements of exposure, also known as the "exposure triangle" to photographers: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. All 3 of these settings can make or break your shot. Learning how to use them will almost certainly help to make you a better photographer. That being said, the upcoming posts will focus on some of the modes of your camera and what they do and how I use them.

Photography Tip #6: Shutter Speed

Today's post will also step more into the geeky side of photography, so just be warned, if you're looking for a quick tip. The goal of this post is to lay the foundation for more complex information in the weeks ahead

So far, we've looked at what aperture is, and how it affects the exposure of our shot and the depth of field in our image. Aperture, by far seems to be the most valued element in what photographers call the "exposure triangle". However, there are other elements that also affect our shot and exposure, particularly shutter speed.

A camera's shutter is a mechanism that opens and closes (or electronic that turns on and off, depending on the camera) when the button is pressed on the camera to take a photo. The length of time that the shutter opens or closes can range anywhere from fractions of a second to minutes and even hours. Whenever you take a photo, either you or the camera decides on how long the shutter should remain open.

Generally, when taking photos of of action that you would like to freeze, such as a sports event, you will want the shutter speed to open and close in fractions of a second to capture a sharp image. In other cases, you may want to make the shutter stay open longer to maybe capture a silky image of a waterfall, or create light trails of cars moving at night.The trade off here is light. The quicker that the shutter speed is, the less light gets into the camera. The longer the shutter speed, the more light. So a shot at 1/500 of a second is going to let in less light than a shot at 1/60 of a second.

It is important to keep your eye on the shutter speed at all times in any camera mode. If you have an automatic setting where you allow the camera to control the shutter speed, there may be cases where the camera will slow the shutter down to get you a balanced exposure. The problem here is that if the shutter is too slow, then you will not be able to hold the camera steady enough to keep the image from being blurry. This is the most common problem with people who try to take photos in low light without a flash. The camera tries its best to make sure that your shot has enough light, and in dark rooms, it usually has no other option but to slow down the shutter speed to get it, thus giving you blurry images.

There is a lot more that I could touch on this topic, but for now I just wanted to introduce the shutter and talk about how it affects your shot. In the next post, we will look at the third element that we can use to control light and exposure called ISO.

Photography Tip #5: Aperture explained

Today's post is going to be an exercise, to be sure as I try to explain as simply as I can the term aperture and how you control it. But first, let's define it. The simplest way to define aperture is this: How wide the hole is inside of your camera lens. If you've ever seen a James Bond film, where they show some dude running around with a camera on him that widens and narrows (before they get shot), then you've seen aperture in action.


In a camera, an aperture is inside of the lens itself and is made up of multiple blades which form an circular hole. It is the size of this hole that controls two major things in a photo:

1. The amount of light coming into the camera (which is what affects the exposure)
2. The depth of field, which is how you get those really cool blurry backgrounds in portraits and such.

Controlling the aperture is something normally done by the camera in an automatic mode. The camera will assess the amount of light that is available in the scene and then adjust the aperture size accordingly to allow enough light to take the picture. In most cases, the camera makes this adjustments based upon mathematical calculations on this amount of light.

In photography, the aperture has a measurement used to represent the width of the opening. This width is measured in units called F-Stops. For example: F/8.

The tricky part in understanding the measurement is that the smaller the number, the wider the aperture opening. So an F-Stop of F/1.8 is a larger opening than F/8.



If your goal is to get a lot of light into the camera for something such as shots indoors in low light, then you usually want a smaller number such as F/3.5 or F/2. Most cameras lenses can usually open their apertures as wide as F/3.5 and close them down to as far as F/16 or even F/32, depending on the camera lens. Some lenses are especially known for their wide aperture abilities, being able to open up to something such as F/1.8. These lenses are commonly known in photography as "fast lenses".

Another feature of a wider aperture is that it makes the depth of field more shallow. If you are taking a photo of a person and you would like to blur the background, then you will want to use the widest aperture (lowest number) that your lens will allow. This is one of the factors in helping achieve that goal (although keep in mind that there are still other factors to consider in getting that effect, that we will discuss in later posts).

Conversely, if you would like to have a very deep depth of field, so that you get everything in sharp focus in both the foreground and background such as in a landscape photo, then you would want to use a narrow aperture, such as F/8 or F/16. The trade off, of course is that this adjustment lets less light into the camera (remember the higher the number, the smaller the hole) and so you may need to adjust other settings to get this light into the camera.

So I know that this post is kind of dry in explaining aperture, but my hope is that it is at least enough information to help you understand just what it is. In our next post, I'll be talking about shutter speed, and how it relates to aperture in getting a good exposure. If you have any further questions related to this article, please let me know in the comments or in an e-mail and I'll try to answer them in a future post.

Photography Tip # 4: "Don't Get Stuck On Auto"

I'm not normally a control freak. In fact, if there is a way for something to make my life easier and takes less input from me, then so be it. I think that is why I work with computers. I love efficiency. Taking photos can be the same way. Every camera on the market today has that wonderful "green" setting called "Auto", where you simple point the camera at the subject and push the shutter button down, and "tada!", the picture is done. With great advances in technology we now have the ability to give it all up to the camera to take the photos for us, while all we need to do is find something to take a picture of.

This is where I bail out though. From all of my experiences with photography and cameras, Auto mode is kind of a let down. Now, don't get me wrong, you can get some really great shots in automatic mode on your camera, no doubt. But the problem is that you let the camera assume too much. When you take a picture in your house and the lights aren't that bright, the camera has too assume that you want the flash to go off, and that you want everything in the scene in sharp focus. Chance are, you're not going to get that beautiful blurred background that you've been admiring in other people's photos, because your camera has no idea that you want that in Automatic. The camera may also not know that you hate flash photography where everyone has that "deer in headlights" look.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that deep down, you really want to control your photos. You really want the photo to come out according to your wishes, not the camera. The question is, are you willing to learn something? Are you willing to figure out how to control the settings on your camera to get what you want? Will you read the manual to learn how to do this? If so, then you've come to the right place! In the next several posts, I'm going to begin talking about the various aspects of the cameras controls and how you too can manage these to get the kinds of photos you see the pros get. Really, its not as hard as you think. The first step is the process though is that you need to be willing to take that camera off of Automatic mode. Trust me. You can do this. I believe in you!

Photography Tip # 4: Fill the Frame

This point of advice comes kind of close to saddening me. About 10 years ago, a relative of mine took a photo of my father, grandfather, and myself: a triple generation of Alberts in one place. It was an important photo for many reasons. One of the main reasons for me, is that my grandfather passed away not too long after. I was given a copy of the photo only to be horrified of the picture. The person who took the photo chose to get so far back, that they also included part of their house, the neighbor's house, the backyard, and several cloud formations with us in the photo. You can barely make out the 3 figures in the photo who were actually the subject. This is probably an extreme case, but it leads me to this next tip: Fill the frame.

What does fill the frame mean? It means to include only what is important in the photo and nothing that isn't. Taking photos of your friend? Do you really need that tree and volleyball net in the photo too? The general rule of filling the frame is to first think about the shot and get in close (if you can). Whenever you set up your shot, first look through your camera's viewfinder or on your LCD screen to see if there is anything extra that you don't want there. This tip is closely related to backgrounds, but it is still somewhat related. I can have a great background but take a lousy photo of something or someone if I include several items that I don't want someone to look at in the picture.

In conclusion, pick a subject, get close and fill the frame. You'll be thankful you did.

Photography Tip #3: Know Your Camera, Bring Your Camera

Today's photography tip may seem like a no-brainer to some of us. Of course we need to know how to turn it on and operate it to take a picture. But this tip means much more than that. I'm not talking about just being able to turn it on and push the shutter button, but even more than that. For instance, does your camera take bracketed exposures? Can you shoot video? Do you know how to select different focus points on your camera? Does your camera have a depth-of-field preview button? What's the quickest way to turn on continuous shooting? Can your camera even do any of that stuff?

If your desire is to move beyond the normal snapshots or to be an even better photographer you first need to know how to use your camera. Many of us own cameras that can do amazing things that professional photographers would have given their right arm to have on their cameras even 5 years ago. Learning how to use these features will make you a better photographer, guaranteed. Even more, once these controls are mastered, you will find yourself spending more time on your framing and setting up that perfect shot rather than spending time saying "now where's that button that...doh!! I missed a great shot". Don't be that guy (or girl). Read the manual.

The second part of this tip SHOULD be a no-brainer. Nobody I know predicts the future. In fact, I'm pretty convinced that our own local weather guy is probably as accurate as my dog is at picking lottery numbers (believe me, the dog's pretty lousy at it). If you don't take your camera with you, you're never gonna know if that great shot is right around the corner. There is a story about how the great landscape photographer Ansel Adams took his most popular photo of Half-Dome in Yosemite while on his way to happy hour to hang out with his friends. It just so happened that he kept his camera and trip in his car at all times. You never know when you are going to have that chance to get a great shot. Is your camera too bulky? Get a smaller one. You can't take great photos if you don't have your camera with you.

Photography Tip #2: Watch your backgrounds!

I was discussing with my wife the other day on how often I find excellent photos that are ruined because the photographer took no time to consider one of the most important elements in a photo: the background. I've heard a photographer once say, "There are two basic elements to a photo: the subject and the background". Most people don't find a problem picking out their subject that they want to capture in the photograph, but many of them do so in haste, without considering what is behind them. Here are some quick pointers on how you can instantly improve your images just by focusing on the background:

1. Be patient- In most cases, a bad photo is taken because the photographer did not take the time to set up the shot. If the shot is rushed, then chances are you're going to have that great photo of your friend or family member with an unsightly pole or stick jutting out of their heads, or another distracted element connected to them. When this situation occurs, take time to examine your scene before you take the shot.

2. Move around- Sometimes people forget that they can move when they have the camera. If you look through your camera's viewfinder or LCD screen and notice that the background behind your subject is ugly or obtrusive, then move around and re-frame your subject. Its amazing what moving one step to the left or right can do to a photo!

3. Blur the Background- Ever notice a really cool shot with a blurry background? Well, there's a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo that goes into how that's actually done, but for the start, I'll say that if you have a portrait mode (the picture of a person's head) on your camera, try using that to give the background a little blur. This will help take attention off of anything that might be distracting in the background. The portrait mode usually tries to blur that background for you. it also helps to get closer to your subject for this to work. Give it a try sometimes, and see how it works. In later posts, we'll talk about how you can blur that background yourself without crossing your fingers that the camera's figured it out or not.

4. Tell your subject to move- Okay, maybe this won't work if its a building, tree or monument, but if you're photographing people or smaller "moveable" things, this can be a photosaver. If you look and notice that your friend is standing in front of a couple of bushes that make him look like a devil with horns, ask him to move to a better position. This get's harder with groups, but if the photo is majorly important, its worth the effort in asking.

5. Keep your eyes peeled- If you are going to an event or are in a place where you are planning to take photos, pay attention to places or scenes that might offer a good background for your shot. With people, this usually should be a non-distracting element such as a plain wall or perhaps an element which compliments your subject (like something that would bring out the color in their eyes, etc.). There are many options here and the limits are only your creativity. The key is to make certain that whatever you put behind your subject doesn't steal the show, so to speak.

These are just a few basic tips to the topic of backgrounds. In the future, I'll be adding other tips as well, so stay tuned for lots more!

Photography Tip #1 (Continued) DSLR Cameras

The other day we looked at the ever-popular question of "What kind of camera should I buy?". After discussing the pros and cons of point-and-shoot cameras, let's now look at the other option: The DSLR.

DSLR's, or Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras are a digital adaptation of the ever-favorite Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera that's been around for years. Without going into the geeky-specifics, DSLR's are considered by most to be an advanced camera option. Let's look at some of its strengths and weaknesses:

Pros: Better overall image quality, flexibility of manual controls, typically rugged construction, interchangeable lens options, larger controls and buttons (usually).

Cons: Heavier and bulkier form-factor, more expensive, slow adaptation of common point-and-shoot features such as live view and movie mode.

One thing to keep in mind with the above pros and cons, is that some of those are subjective to the photographer. I personally could care less about some of the movie and live view features, but for others, this might be a big consideration.

DSLR's have been becoming more and more affordable for the casual shooter than ever before. Almost all of the major manufacturers have an entry-level dslr category with a dslr between the 500-700 dollar range. The appeal that most people find in these cameras is their almost instantaneous shutter response. DSLR's use a mechanical shutter which can respond very quickly (fractions of a second) compared to the usual electronic shutter found in most point-and-shoot cameras.

Another appeal to DSLR's is the flexibility to change the lenses. Many point-and-shoot cameras offer a specific range of zoom on the camera. There is usually no way to change it. If you find that your point-and-shoot does not have enough zoom or wide angle, then your only option is to buy a new camera. With a DSLR, you can purchase lenses in any range that you need, and switch them out when you need to.

Some common misconceptions that beginners make with DSLR's is the notion that if its bigger, its got to be better. Not true. In fact, I'd argue that the equipment has nothing to do with taking good photos. I've seen a quote saying that 90% of all cameras are better than 95% of all photographers. The truth in that quote is that good photography doesn't require a professional camera or fancy equipment. It may make the job easier for some, but the real photographer is going to have skill. I've seen people take amazing photos with simple point-and-shoot cameras, while others with thousands of dollars of equipment couldn't take a decent photo to save their life.

So what camera should you buy: The best one that you can afford that will enable you to achieve your goal as a photographer.

Photography Tip #1: What Kind of Camera Should I Buy?

I decided to start off my post with a question of cameras, because this seems to be one of the most prevalent question among anyone who is interested in getting into photography. Unfortunately, there is no real right or wrong answer on this one. Cameras come in many sizes with varying abilities and features. Because people also vary in their abilities, features, etc. the best way to answer this question is to buy the camera that is right for you.

Its very hard to know what camera is right for you at first. The more people learn about photography, the more they can figure out the kinds of photos that they take and the kinds of situations where they take those photos. Once you begin to figure that much out, you will begin to see the limitations of your current camera (if you have one) and move on from there.

That being said, there are two basic types of cameras out there for most people: The point-and-shoot camera and the DSLR. Let's take a look at the differences.

Point-and-Shoot Cameras

Pros: Small, lightweight, less expensive, live-view, many varieties and styles, integrated movie and stop-motion options, purchase almost anywhere.

Cons: less rugged, fewer manual controls, poor low-light performance, no interchangeable lenses.

Many people ususally get into photography with a point-and-shoot camera. These cameras have come a long way in their ability to deliver great features and flexibility for the average person. Their small form factor make them easy to carry around, and they typically include a range of shooting modes which can help the novice shoot in any condition with varying results. Even a number of advanced amateurs carry one around for its portability. In my own experience, point-and-shoot cameras are wonderful for about 80-90 percent of shooting situations provided that you have enough available light. It is when you bring this kind of camera into low-light situations where one can have problems. Many of our family snapshots are taken indoors in poor incandescent lighting, which gives us noisy and yellowish images. If you allow the camera to use its flash, you end up with everyone looking like a ghost, or horrible red-eye. Many of these problems can be corrected with a little bit of knowledge, and we will discuss this in later posts, but even then your mileage may vary.

All of this info is not meant to scare anyone into purchasing a point-and-shoot camera. Their flexibility and wide range of features make them a great option for many. In many cases, a point-and-shoot camera can be all of the camera you may ever need. There are many brands available, from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and others. And jumping between brands is not quite the penalty that it can be if doing the same with DSLR's.

In conclusion, if you typically find yourself shooting the casual snapshots of family outings or other events and require features such as movie mode, stop-motion features, and live-view. And require a small form-factor, then I'd consider a point-and-shoot camera. There are many options within this category that will meet and probably exceed your expectations.

The next post will continue with a look into the DSLR option of cameras. If you have any questions related to photography or what I have just written, please feel free to post them in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them in future posts.

A New Direction

It is probably quite apparent to those who read my blog that I'm not really good at keeping it updated. Let's just say that I try to avoid any narcissistic belief that everybody in the world just finds my life that fascinating. Recently I've been considering some of the reasons that I follow blogs. For most people that I know, I enjoy checking out updates to see how people are doing, and what they are up to. Provided that you don't write a 6000 word essay each time you post, I'm probably reading your blog regularly. That said, I subscribe to and read about 47 different blogs a day.

But what keeps me coming back mainly is that I get new information. I happen to find that most of my blog subscriptions are photography related, since that is my passion as of late. So much so that I've been thinking that its time that I give back. For the next several posts, I'm going to start focusing on sharing some tips and images from what I've learned in the area of photography. So if you are interested in learning more about how to take better pictures, or use your camera more creatively, or just just looking at and critiquing images, make sure you check back here for more info. Also, if anything in my posting proves to be useful or interesting in any way, please let me know.