Digital SLR Photography 101

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Digital SLR Photography 101
Steve Jacobs City of Moreno Valley
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Digital Single Lens Reflex
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How Cameras Work
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Important Terms

• Lenses
• 70-500mm (telephoto zoom)
• 50mm
• (standard)
• 0-35mm
• (wide angle)

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Important Terms

• Lenses
• Macro (close up)

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Important Terms

• Aperture / F stop

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Important Terms

• Aperture controls amount of light coming
• in through the lens.
• SEE APERTURE HAND OUT

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Important Terms

• What does Depth of Focus mean?

F22
F4
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Important Terms

• Depth of Field/Focus (DOF) is affected by
• three things
• 1. Aperture
• 2. Camera to subject distance
• 3. Focal length

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Important Terms

• Aperture

Focus Point
F4
F11
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Important Terms

• Camera to subject distance

50 mm lens
4 feet
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Important Terms

• Camera to subject distance

F4
F8
F16
F11
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Important Terms

• Camera to subject distance

2 feet
Macro lens
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Important Terms

• Camera to subject distance affects DOF

F4
F16
F8
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Important Terms

• Focal length also distance affects DOF

100mm F8
28mm F8
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Important Terms
Everyone understand what aperture or F-stop
means?
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Important Terms

• Shutter controls amount of time that the light
  hits the sensor or film plane.

Shutter open 1 second
Shutter open 30 seconds
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Important Terms

• Fast shutter speed

250/F5.6
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Important Terms

• Slow shutter speed

30 seconds/F16
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Important Terms

• Bulb (for shots longer than 30 seconds )

1 minute/F22
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Important Terms

• 18 gray

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Important Terms

• White paper

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Important Terms

• Black jacket

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Settings Controls

• Exposure Compensation
• Bright situations
• Dark situations

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Settings Controls

• Exposure Compensation

0 compensation
1.5 compensation
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Settings Controls

• ISO (Light sensitivity)
• 50 outdoors/sunlight (low grain/noise)
• 1600 indoors/no flash (high grain/noise)

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Settings Controls
ISO 100 ISO 1600
1/30th F2.8
1/500th F2.8
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Settings Controls
ISO 100 ISO 1600
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Settings Controls

• Menu settings
• Formatting flash
• memory card
• Automatic Exposure
• Bracketing
• Resolution
• RAW vs. JPEG

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Settings Controls

• Drive mode
• Single shot
• Continuous shooting (burst)
• Self timer

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Settings Controls

• Metering mode
• Evaluative (best)
• Partial (spot metering)
• Center-weighted average (center to lower)

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Settings Controls

• Metering mode
• Evaluative (best)
• Partial (spot metering)
• Center-weighted average (center to lower)

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Settings Controls

• Evaluative metering (best)

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Settings Controls

• Partial metering (small, center area)

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Settings Controls

• Center-weighted metering (center lower)

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Settings Controls

• Partial and Center Metering

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Settings Controls

• Evaluative metering (best)

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Settings Controls

• White balance
• AWB (automatic is best)
• Daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent,
  
• flash, custom white balance (for fine tuning)

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Settings Controls

• Why change White Balance? Mood!

AWB
Tungsten
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Settings Controls

• Auto focus
• One shot (focus adjusts for still subjects)
• AI focus (focus adjusts for moving subjects)
• AI servo (focus exposure adjusts for moving
• subjects)

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Settings Controls

• Flash sync

External flash up to 1/8000th of a second
1/200th of a second
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Settings Controls

• Depth of field preview
• Preview the DOF before taking the shot

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Settings Controls

• Command Dial
• Green Mode, Scene Mode, Priority Mode

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Settings Controls

• Green Mode
• Auto everything (shutter, aperture, flash
  settings)

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• Portrait

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• Landscape

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• Macro

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• Sports

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• Night shot

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Settings Controls

• Scene Mode
• No flash

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Settings Controls

• Priority Mode
• Advanced control of shutter, aperture, flash
• settings, ISO, file format etc.

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Settings Controls

• Program (like but with more control)
• Camera suggests shutter speed and aperture, but
  user can adjust (AE shift). Good for portraits
  when you want dark backgrounds.

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Settings Controls

• Shutter Priority
• User selects shutter speed and camera chooses
  correct aperture

25 seconds
3 seconds
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Settings Controls

• Shutter Priority
• User selects shutter speed and camera chooses
  correct aperture

15th of a second
10th of a second
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Settings Controls

• Aperture Priority
• User selects aperture and camera chooses
• correct shutter speed

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Settings Controls

• Aperture Priority
• User selects aperture and camera chooses
• correct shutter speed

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Settings Controls

• Manual Mode (full control of shutter speed
• and aperture)

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Settings Controls

• Manual Mode (full control of shutter speed
• and aperture)

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Settings Controls

• A-DEP (automatic depth of field/focus)
• Without A-DEP

OUT OF FOCUS
IN FOCUS
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Settings Controls

• A-DEP (automatic depth of field/focus)
• With A-DEP

EVERYONE IN FOCUS
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Settings Controls

• Why I like Aperture Priority
• Can control ambient light

Program Priority
Aperture Priority
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Settings Controls

• Why I like Aperture Priority
• Can control DOF

F22
F4
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Settings Controls

• Why I like Shutter Priority
• Creative possibilities

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Settings Controls

• Why I like Shutter Priority
• Creative possibilities

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Creative Tips
Now a few creative tips
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Creative Tips

• Get closer!

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Creative Tips

• Good

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Creative Tips

• Better

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Creative Tips

• Best

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Creative Tips

• Final image

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Creative Tips

• Simplicity and color

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Creative Tips

• Themes or concepts

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Creative Tips

• Black White

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Creative Tips

• Light

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Resources

• www.megapixel.net
• Digital camera reviews and links prices
• www.photo.net
• Great how to photo tips and articles
• www.istockphoto.com
• Affordable stock photos, graphic designs
  video

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Contact

• Steve Jacobs
• City of Moreno Valley
• 951.413.3058
• stevej_at_moval.org