SLR crash course #2

Ok. We're now in the second part which is the technical mambo jumbo of digital photography. Now that the basics are out of the way, we can focus on the important stuff. With everything in tow (given that you were able to acquire all the necessary items from the first part), we're gonna discuss on what settings are appropriate to use in an outdoor setting.

This photo shoot is one of the easiest. It can get tricky, but you don't have to tinker with your camera settings too much. There maybe different brand of cameras out in the market today, but most controls/buttons function just the same.

"P" mode (Program AE)
You'd want to use this mode instead of the full auto. This gives you a "little" bit of control over your camera. Then you'd want to put your ISO to 100 or 200. The smaller the number, the better the picture quality, since this would give you less noise (little grains in your photo). But, if you have moving subjects you can move up to 400 or 800.

Next would be, putting the camera on continuous mode. This is a safety jacket in your part. You might end up with 4 or more images of the same kind, but probably half of them would be blurred. And this would guarantee you at least one good picture.

Exposure would be another important setting that you should not overlook. I took a picture of the LCD of my Canon to point which one is the exposure button (the one where my thumb is) and the exposure meter (the one that's highlighted in blue).



Here are sample pics I took. The one on the left are still unedited and on the right are photoshoped.





You might notice those little icons with the sun, a cloud, a house, etc. This is where you'd want to go auto. To adjust this, the button is located just underneath the exposure button. Switch it to "AWB". This would adjust color temperature of white light. I wouldn't recommend you shooting in this mode, but since you're just starting, this would be the best course for now.

I almost covered most of the important things. Go ahead, and try your camera out. Hopefully, these tips would be able to help you.