Photography Basics – Pointers on Using A Camera

A DSLR Beginner's Guide to Depth of Field, Composition & Apertures

Oct 4, 2009

Learning to use a Digital SLR is not as difficult as it may seem. A few simple tips will help the learning process.

This article continues teaching about photography basics and a few tips for new DSLR users.

Depth of Field

A very important factor in creating artistic and interesting shots is depth of field. The human eye can focus on close objects and leave the background blurry, or focus on a background leaving the front object blurry. How much of the image is in focus in a photograph is referred to as depth of field. Depth of field can be manipulated by changing the aperture or by moving the lens closer or farther from the subject.

A wider open aperture will give a shallower depth of field, meaning less is in focus; this is great for portraits where the background might distract from the subject or for focusing the attention on a particular object in a photograph. Meanwhile, greater depth of field means more is in focus; this comes in handy for landscapes where everything should be in focus.

Composing a Photograph

Even with an expensive camera, photographers need to compose their shots well. Framing an image well and using the rule of thirds will help to make photos more appealing to viewers. Taking pictures from new and different angles will make photos more interesting.

Consider what type of background will not distract from the subject, but rather enhance the subject's allure. Different types of light will yield very different results – often the hour before sunset makes for great photographs and shooting an image with cross light creates interesting shadows.

Aperture Tips

Taking a photograph with the lens' largest possible aperture diameter, for instance f3.5, will usually yield a less clear picture than the same picture taken a few stops slower, for instance f6.3. On the other end of the scale, taking a picture on f22 to achieve maximum depth of field might result in a less clear picture than f11 because of light defraction. It is a good idea for photographers to take some similar photos at different apertures and compare them zoomed in 100% to find the ideal aperture range of each of their lenses.

RAW vs. JPG

Most DSLRs allow photographers to choose between two image formats, RAW and JPG. JPG is the standard image type used on most computers these days. It has the advantage of being compatible with almost every computer and software available as well as being a manageable file size for the given photo quality. JPG can be edited after the photo is taken, but not to the same extent as RAW.

The advantage of RAW is that it stores a lot of data meaning that the photo can be edited to a much greater extent than most image file formats. The disadvantage is that each photo is a large file and many software programs do not read RAW, including Windows XP's built in image browser. Many photographers use JPG for day to day shooting and RAW for photos they know they will want to edit.

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