What you need to know about photography and your camera ... by Shani Marais

Introduction

The simplest form of a camera is a pinhole camera. Which is simply what it says – a light-tight box with a pinhole opening on one side of the box and film / photographic paper attached on the other side.

Light from the subject enters through the pinhole and forms a reverse picture on the photographic paper. The film is then processed to create a visible and permanent image.

Your camera is a modern pinhole camera. The fancy mechanics inside your modern model only make your life easier, but at the end of the day you don’t need a top-notch camera to create top-notch images. Only you can create that!

Get to know your camera

“Your manual is your new best friend!”

PORTRAIT
This mode blurs your background, making your subject stand out.


LANDSCAPE
Everything in your viewfinder / photo will be in focus (clear).


MACRO / CLOSE-UP
Use this mode to take close-up shots of flowers or insects, etc.


SPORTS
This is for fast moving subjects when you want to freeze the action.


NIGHT PORTRAIT
This mode is for shooting people outside at twilight or at night. The flash illuminates the subject and a slow sync speed captures a natural-looking exposure of the background. Tell your subject to keep still even after the flash fires. If you want to shoot a night scene without people, rather use the LANDSCAPE mode.


P – PROGRAM
This mode still does most of your thinking for you – i.e. aperture and shutter speed will automatically be adjusted, but you can change, say the aperture to suit you, while your camera will automatically change the shutter speed, or vice versa.

In this mode you have to set the ISO yourself, and also decide whether you will be shooting with or without flash.


TV / S – SHUTTER SPEED PRIORITY
In this mode you have to adjust the shutter speed yourself, while your camera will automatically choose the appropriate aperture. Once again – you can set the ISO and Flash manually.


AV / A – APERTURE PRIORITY
Here you set the aperture while your camera sets the appropriate shutter speed. ISO and Flash is set manually.


M – MANUAL EXPOSURE
In this mode, you have to set everything yourself.


Now that you have a basic idea of what those little pictures on your camera stand for – go through your manual and start playing.