Don't Shoot In Auto - Advice For DSLR Newbies | Hacker News Reader

Don't Shoot In Auto - Advice For DSLR Newbies

pcmag.com

24 pointsgeofffox18 comments

Pretty good article, covers all the basics. Some key points I cannot stress enough, from the article and me.

* Built in Flash = Badness. Never use this. But if you really must, put a white piece of paper in front to diffuse the flash.

* 50mm f/1.8 or better. It's a must!

* DoF Preview. Use this feature!

* Get optical filters for all your lenses (keep the lens front element from scratching, UV doesn't really make a difference in Digital), specially when travelling and outside. Remove this for night shots (internal reflections more visible due to many point lights).

* Circular Polarizers, they do wonders for sky, water, or various reflections from subject/items.

* Use center AF only and get used to aiming at subject, AF hold, and shoot. Kind of painful, but less painful than having the camera guess the wrong AF point for a great moment.

* Auto (Bad), Tv (Sports, Action, Fast things), Av (still, portraits), Program (Keep on this by default).

* Join a photography forum or community and post photos to be critiqued and people to give you feedback.

I'm not too sure how useful the DoF preview feature is, in what common circumstance do you recommend I use it?

Also, you shouldn't restrict yourself to the centre AF point; focus-and-recompose will produce blurry images if your depth-of-field is shallow. You should learn to quickly select an appropriate AF point when composing your shot.

re: Program mode by default

I disagree. If you have good lenses, leave your SLR in Av and use Depth of Field as a dynamic. For most sport you want to leave your lens wide open anyhow.

Good rules of thumb: - Av or Aperture priority for landscape/portrait photos - Tv or shutter speed priority for action/sport shots - Unless you print on a billboard scale or are pro, you don't need high level SLRs with whatever grand amount of mega pixles. - Don't sacrifice too much shutter speed. Better to pump up the ISO and use noise removal software.

I am very interested in photography. Can you please suggest a good D-SLR and a good book for a newbie? Thanks!

My one biggest lesson in photography and some may disagree with me but the lens is much more important than the camera. There will always be a newer better camera but a quality piece of glass can be kept. Look into prime 50mm lenses. They can be affordable and very good.

Canon Rebel XSi.. got a nice balance. The next version was announced, so expect to see price drops pretty soon (or get the XTi, which is the latest)

Also consider a nice lens. Should be at least half of your budget, but makes the photos.

The article is more than "don't shoot in auto", but I have to wonder who buys an SLR without knowing how to use it. If you know nothing about photography, you should probably save your money and get a point-and-shoot instead.

(With that in mind, I spend most of my time in Auto or Program AE. Those both do a great job 99% of the time.)

I have to wonder who buys an SLR without knowing how to use it

Really? It's almost everyone who buys an entry level SLR.

Maybe people that know nothing want to learn. After all, how would you learn about photography without taking photos?

If I had the money, I would definitely buy an entry level SLR without knowing how to use it, then figure out how to use it.

This was probably very true a few years ago. Now you can get an entry-level Canon Rebel or Nikon for $500, and it seems everyone has one.

I agree with you that point and shoot is better for someone who just wants to take pictures though - a cheap point and shoot takes pretty decent pictures these days.

the thing is, with a good quality SLR, auto is amazing for quality shots, especially if you take photos in a "bursty" way (ie 4-8 shots at once) because it'll sample a number of candidate good fstop vs shutter speed configuration points, and thence if you've configured it properly and chose a sane ISO, you can also construct a High dynamic range photo and hence with a little work, get the naked eye experience in the photo! (and you can always delete the one's that don't work well for you)

playing with fstop and shutter speed by hand is all well and good and fun, but unless you're taking art shots or action shots, auto on a good quality modern camera will definitely be very very nice on average.

why is this being downmodded? Am I incorrect in some fundamental way? then enlighten me!

If you are using a DSLR in burst mode it probably won't choose a variety of apertures and shutter speeds. It will determine what it believes to be a correct exposure for the scene and set an aperture and shutter speed it considers appropriate, if the shutter speed and aperture change they will probably only vary relative to each other; the exposure will be the same. You can do something similar to what you've described by putting the camera into auto exposure bracketing mode where the camera varies shutter speed to give a predetermined degree of over or under exposure per shot in sets of three (or more) shots. In the somewhat unlikely event that your camera was unable to sufficiently capture the dynamic range of a scene you can merge multiple photographs of the same scene with differing exposure values to produce an image with greater dynamic range that can then be compressed through tone mapping.

If you don't think "playing with fstop and shutter speed by hand" is only worthwhile for "art shots or action shots" then why bother framing a shot the way you want it? Decisions about aperture and shutter speed affect more than just exposure.

The best $20 I ever spent on photography was the book Understanding Exposure. Fantastic book and will improve your photos dramatically

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