FAQ for New Photographers

Getting started in photography can be an exciting adventure in learning and creativity.  It can also be frustrating when you’re trying to learn the basics of photographic principles along with the basic functions of your camera.  Whether you’re shooting digital or film, you’ll probably want to get off the Program (P) mode and really start to use your camera to reflect your creativity.  Hopefully, after you read this, it will give you a better understanding of what you need to know to get on the right path.

First, one of the most important documents you can have is your camera’s operating manual.  Learn the camera inside and out.  You never want to be in a situation where you need to make an adjustment in-camera and have to fumble around looking for a feature or control, all the while the lighting, posing, composition, etc. of the shot could be drastically changing.  Or maybe it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments that you only have one chance to capture and you miss it because you didn’t know what adjustment to make in time.

Okay, so once you’re familiar with your camera, you’ll probably have a lot of questions as to how use it to make a picture that’s correctly exposed and composed.  I’m going to try and answer some of those questions now.

What is exposure?

Exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph.¹  Huh?  Okay, it’s basically the way that three things work together to allow light into your camera to expose your picture.  What three things?  ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.

Without going into too much detail about how these three things work, I would suggest that you read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.  It’s a great learning tool to easily understand the relationship between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, and how they are connected.  If you have to have something to read now, you can learn some about it here too: www.photoxels.com/tutorial_exposure.html

What is exposure metering?

In these wonderful days of technology, most likely your camera comes with some type of automatic exposure metering.  If not, then there’s the ability to get an individual light meter to evaluate your exposure settings for you.  Basically, what exposure metering does is evaluate the available light and helps you to understand whether or not you’ll be correctly exposed.  Some light meters will give you exact settings and tell you how to set your camera.  In-camera meters will evaluate the light based on your camera settings and will tell you whether you will be correctly exposed or under/over exposed.

Cameras usually come with more than one type of exposure metering such as spot-metering, matrix-metering, evaluative metering, and center-weighted metering.  Your camera’s operating manual will tell you which settings you have and how to get to them.  If you’d like to learn a little more about it: www.basic-digital-photography.com/a-guide-to-exposure-metering-modes.html

What is the Sunny 16 Rule?

The Sunny 16 Rule is a general guideline to getting the close-to-correct exposure on a sunny day without using any metering.  The rule basically says that if it’s sunny and your subject is in the sun, you can set your camera at f/16 and your shutter speed at 1/ISO (or the closest setting to it).  So, if your ISO is set at 200, then you can set your camera to f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/250 (closest to 200) and you should get a generally good exposure.

What is fill flash?

Fill flash is using your flash to expose the foreground of your shot when your background is significantly brighter than your subject.  Using this technique, you will set your exposure for the background and then compensate for your subject’s underexposure by firing your flash.

Should I shoot in JPEG or RAW?

It should go unsaid, but just in case, this only applies to DSLRs.  File format is a personal preference or is dictated by the size of your memory card.  RAW files are ultimately better for post process manipulations allowing you to modify your exposure, color temperature, and a host of other modifications before you even touch it in Photoshop.  It is also a much larger file so it will take up more space on your memory card and requires conversion before post processing can take place.  JPEG is a smaller file and allows you more captures, but less manipulation and requires no conversion.

What is an 18% grey card?

An 18% grey card is a card that reflects 18% of the light which falls on it and can be used to help determine your exposure requirements by metering for the grey card.  It can also be used to help with setting your custom white balance.  It’s considered a tool that every photographer should own.  Learn more here: www.acecam.com/magazine/gray-card.html

What is a Better Bounce Card?

A Better Bounce Card is a quick and inexpensive tool to use with your hot-shoe flash to get more light to bounce onto your subject.  www.abetterbouncecard.com

What kind of lens should I buy?

This is a question that gets asked a lot by newer photographers and is one that isn’t easy to answer.  The type of equipment that you buy, whether it’s lenses, flashes, filters, etc., will be determined by your shooting needs and your budget.  If you’re going to primarily shoot sports, you’ll need good, fast telephoto lenses.  If you’re going to shoot portraits, then a couple good prime lenses and a good zoom lens or two will do.  Keep your budget in mind, because it doesn’t take the best glass to make the photographer, but you want to buy the best lenses that you can afford.

What is a histogram?

A histogram is basically a graphical display of the brightness of your image.  One side represents white and the other side represents dark.  Knowing how to look at a histogram can help you as a photographer to know right away whether your exposure was good or not.  I suggest learning as much as you can about how histograms work.  This will get you started: www.photoxels.com/tutorial_histogram.html

What is the rule of thirds?

The rule of thirds is a basic photographic composition theory that suggests that a photograph can be segmented into “nine equal parts by placing two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines.”²  The rule of thirds used in photography or other art is considered by many to be more pleasing to the eye.

Should I calibrate my monitor?

The easy answer is YES.  An un-calibrated monitor will show colors, contrast, and brightness all wrong, so that when you are processing your photos one way, others will see them completely differently.  Your reds might look red on your monitor, but orange on a calibrated monitor.  Your blacks and whites might look good to you, but grey to someone else.

How can I calibrate my monitor?

You can buy hardware to help calibrate your monitor or there are some simple, if not perfect, ways to calibrate it.  A simple Google search of “monitor calibration” will bring up numerous websites to help you.

What are all those acronyms I see when I read photography forums?

AEB – Auto Exposure Bracketing
DSLR – Digital Single Lens Reflex
CS2 – Photoshop CS2
CS3 – Photoshop CS3
C&C – Comment and Critique
DOF – Depth of Focus
EXIF – Exchangeable Information File Format
HDR – High Dynamic Range
IS – Image Stabilizer
ISO – International Standards Organization
PP – Post Processing
PS – Photoshop
PSP – Paint Shop Pro
SLR – Single Lens Reflex
VR – Vibration Reduction

What are my rights as a photographer?

Depending on what you’re trying to shoot and where, you may or may not have a right to be there shooting pictures.  Here’s a link to a great tool to help you determine whether or not you’re within your rights: www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

Okay, I think that’s a pretty good start.  There is so much information to be had on photography that you can read in magazines, books, on the internet.  It’s all out there for you to find and most can be found with a simple Google search.  Nothing, however, will help you learn like actually shooting pictures.  So, get your camera and get to taking pictures.

References

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_(photography)

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds