For those who have graduated from a simply point and shoot or cellphone camera to a DSLR, the OVERWHELMING number of camera settings, even the exposure triangle, is incredibly large to digest all at once. It can be thought of going from 8[SUP]th[/SUP] grade math to 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] semester college calculus without the basics of high school algebra, trig, etc.
Many new to DSLR photography get lost in trying to remember a particular group A of settings for bright sunny day. Group B of settings for cloudy bright day
and so on. Way too soon it comes down to a list of over 100 groups of settings for 100 different lighting situations, etc, etc, etc. Too often, the end result is either the camera gets put in A all the time, or it gets put down completely, maybe even sold off in frustration.
Like many on this forum, I started in the days before digital photography was invented. With film, there are a number of standard settings under standard conditions to remember. But most of all, one carried a separate light meter that once the film speed (ASA then, ISO today) was set in the meter, it was simply a using the readings it produced to set your camera. Although there were two types of meters, they both produced the desired results.
With the evolution of digital photography, internal computer firmware in the camera itself has gotten smarter and smarter, and can automatically figure out the best settings to use
much of the time. Hey, theres absolutely nothing wrong with shooting in A mode if it will produce the results one is looking for. I do it more often than Ill admit to. But the rest of the time, it frequently comes down to a challenge of how to set the camera to get the results one wants to produce.
Perhaps Im a lazy photographer, but I tend to let the camera tell me what it wants to do and then do it MY way. By that, I mean that Ill take a test shot either in A mode or whatever other settings I last used on the camera (remember, I said I was lazy) - then look at the results on the screen. If everything came out too dark, I know I have to either open up the aperture, speed up the ISO, or slow down the shutter speed, or a combination of two or all three. There may be additional test shots to better fine tune my settings to get what I want. For what I shoot mostly, I frequently have the luxury of having time to take several test shots, look at the results, and adjust as needed. But it all comes down to the exposure triangle
aperture, shutter speed, and ISO speed. I think of it as trying to fill up a swimming pool. Aperture is hose size, shutter speed is how long is the water turned on, and ISO speed, how deep is the pool?.
This doesnt mean that I shoot everything in full manual mode. Hardly. I was at an outdoor car show just a week ago and I was shooting strictly on Av mode. I set the aperture to control depth of field (I think of DOF as a layer of one or more sheets of plywood perpendicular to the ground
how thick of a layer of plywood (how many sheets) do I want to have in focus?) and shot from there. Why? Because the lighting on each car was slightly different some were under trees, etc and, I shot some cars from all 4 sides
DEFINITELY different lighting situations and I definitely wanted to maintain the DOF to get the entire car, or at least, most of the car, in focus. I had also locked down the ISO to produce most of my shutter speeds at 1/100[SUP]th[/SUP] and faster to prevent my own hand shake beyond what the IS on my lens could handle from blurring the picture. And as it was all parked cars, single shot AF as well. Bottom line, it wasnt a matter of this setting, nope, that setting, then back to another setting, all day long. I remembered to speed up the ISO when we went indoors to see the cars there, but thats all I changed the entire day.
Once the exposure triangle is understood, it then becomes a matter of deciding what do you want to do with the next picture? Narrow DOF? think wide open (or nearly so) aperture. 20 foot DOF from 30 or so feet away? Think f8 or f16, or thereabouts. Racecar at speed? Think 1/500[SUP]th[/SUP] shutter speed. Keeping up with a toddler 2-3 weeks after they learned to run? 1/250[SUP]th[/SUP] shutter speed! - THEY MOVE FAST and their speed is amplified as they are close to the camera! Posed adults? 1/125[SUP]th[/SUP], but I could go slower with consequences I may or may not find acceptable.
It isnt a matter of 20 or 30 subject ideas and settings, its a matter of understanding the nature of the subject (people, mountains, cars), their distance from you (your toddler, mountains, airplanes), and the overall lighting (sunny, not-so-sunny, shadows, indoors, nighttime). Somebody standing 30 feet from you in front of a mountain scene should have you thinking of DOF-person (or group) or everything in the frame? Basically, do I want MORE or LESS DOF? Then decide on a shutter speed to prevent their motion and yours from causing a blur, and let the ISO choose itself as long as it wont go past the too noisy limits of your camera.
Again, if you have the time, take a couple of test shots with your camera, and look at the results on the screen. It took a long time for me to start looking at the histogram for the picture as well, but once I did, I was able to quickly recognize under/over exposure and could make immediate corrections. Without the histogram, (or is it called histograph?), it would be impossible to tell that I was blowing out the bright areas as it all looks white on a 2.5x2.5 LCD.
Bottom line, take one step at a time. One of the biggest mistakes people make is they get a new camera and try to jump in at full manual shooting. Without an understanding of what the various indicators in the viewfinder mean, (especially the red squares), getting a good exposure, in focus and well lit, is near impossible. As you get more and more familiar with the exposure triangle and the effects of each setting, continue to experiment. Move the camera to P mode or even Av or Tv and see what effects each setting change produces. So called second nature doesnt come overnight. Learning to drive and automatically handle situations like seeing brake lights 3 cars in front of the guy in front of you wasnt learned the day you got your drivers license. Fortunately, the cameras these days are smart enough to do a lot of work for us and fill in the gaps (so to speak) in our knowledge. Theres still a handful of options on my current camera Ive never even tried to adjust because I dont understand what they do, even after reading the manual several times. Im getting satisfactory results with what I DO know so I may someday experiment with them.
Yes, while learning to use your camera and get the results you seek will take time
and failures along the way. Perhaps the best inspiration I can think of at the moment is Thomas Edison. After trying over 1000 experiments to create a long-lasting light bulb, all in failure, he was asked if he was going to give up. His response was (and I paraphrase): I now know 1000 ways NOT to make a light bulb! I know countless ways NOT to make a good photograph!
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