Photography has exploded with the advance of digital cameras and especially mobile phones. A basic understanding of photography can help us capture the images we want.
As a minimum, we need to be able to turn on the camera, frame the shot, focus and take the photo in the time available. For staged settings such as portraits, landscapes and selfies this is rarely a problem. For situations where either you or the subject is moving a more responsive camera is helpful. In almost all cases it is vital to wait until the subject is in focus before taking the shot.
We may wish to control the field of view by moving closer to or further from the subject, by using a zoom lens or by replacing our lens with that of a different focal length. Our field of view will depend on our distance from the subject and on a combination of sensor size and lens focal length or zoom lens setting. Longer lenses and smaller sensors give narrower fields of view. Shorter lenses and larger sensors give wider fields of view.
Most modern cameras will control the exposure by choosing appropriate settings for shutter speed, lens aperture and iso sensitivity or gain, but the photographer will need to assess whether to override these settings if their camera allows it.
As well as influencing exposure, the lens aperture controls the depth of field. To blur out the background, decrease the camera to subject distance while increasing the camera to background distance and use a wide open aperture such as F2. If that is insufficient then use a longer focal length lens or use a camera with a larger sensor. To increase depth of field and get everything in focus, do the opposite.
As well as influencing exposure, shutter speed controls camera shake and motion blur. Mount the camera on a tripod to control camera shake and use slow shutter speeds to blur moving subjects. Use fast shutter speeds to prevent camera shake when hand holding the camera and to freeze fast moving subjects. Some cameras and lenses are equipped with image stabilisation which can also help reduce camera shake.
As well as influencing exposure, iso sensitivity or electronic gain is likely to impact the electronic noise in the image. For paparazzi who must get the shot in low lighting conditions, high iso is helpful. For everyone else, a tripod where circumstances permit, a slower shutter speed and lower iso is a better option if image quality is a concern. You can experiment with your own camera to assess the iso settings and electronic noise levels that are acceptable to you. Alternatively, you can use a flash or continuous lighting to manipulate exposure and avoid undesirable iso settings. All that said, iso performance on modern cameras is advancing significantly year by year.
Once you have set any preferences for aperture, shutter speed and iso, the resulting exposure needs review. With mobile phones and mirrorless cameras in wysiwyg mode, this is easy. You can see the exposure you will get on the phone screen or electronic viewfinder. You can adjust exposure, iso and depth of field and see the affect on the screen or electronic viewfinder, all before taking the photo. Electronic viewfinders can also display different image settings such as colour, contrast and sharpness. Motion blur aside, these viewfinders show you your final image before taking the photo. This is a huge benefit to creativity.
With a typical digital SLR with optical viewfinder, a different approach is needed. Typically this involves taking the photo, checking the image on the rear display and then post processing the image on the computer. Personally, I now prefer to use an electronic viewfinder, get things right first time and keep post processing to a bare minimum.
If you leave your camera on its default settings, the results can be a bit dull. But if you seek out and use the options for adjusting exposure, depth of field, colour, contrast, sharpness etc then you can make your images really pop. Many cameras allow you to store different combinations of settings as profiles which can be applied on the fly to suit the scene being photographed. Much of this can be done in post processing, but not all of us enjoy post processing.
Better cameras provide options for shooting in RAW as well as jpeg format. RAW images contain more detail such as increased colour depth and allow edits to be undone. I prefer to shoot jpeg + RAW, use jpegs whenever possible and resort to the RAW image where post processing cannot be avoided. Typically colour, contrast and sharpness settings only affect the jpeg images and leave the RAW file unadulterated. For post processing, RAW files are far superior and edits can easily be undone.
Better cameras provide different autofocus options to cater for different situations. You may be able to chose to focus on a single spot and to select the location and size of the spot, or to ask the camera to identify whatever is nearest to the camera regardless of its position in the frame. The default automatic option is likely to work well most of the time but will struggle for more demanding situations.
Finally, although most modern lenses are autofocus, modern mirrorless cameras have breathed new life into older manual focus lenses. Focusing a manual lens using an electronic viewfinder is a piece of cake and much easier than using the optical viewfinder on a DSLR. Where time allows for manual focus, these older lenses can have several advantages over modern autofocus options: they are typically cheaper, smaller, better constructed and produce images with better depth, micro contrast and 3D pop.
A visit to a site such as flikr.com will allow you to search for and view photos taken by different lenses and cameras. It will not tell you what the equipment is like to carry and operate, but can show you the resulting photos.
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