Real beginner questions - Just got first camera that more than auto mode

absolutconfusion · Dec 23, 2011

Thank you in advance for reading this and answering any questions.

I just bought a Leica Dlux 4 for my own xmas present. It is my first camera that has more than an auto mode.

I am using the camera for street photography and to take candid shots of the family and friends.

I am planning on shooting in aperture priority mode as my first learning step and I have a few questions.

1. Is learning on the aperture mode a good first step?

2. I read the manual and some books and understand the idea behind aperture. I also found out how to change the aperture settings and change what part of the screen I can focus on. How do I know which aperture is correct before I take the shot? Is it all thru experience or is there a way to check it?

3. Is there anything else that I NEED to learn asap before I start taking pictures - like ISO, white balance, etc?

Thank you,

J

TamiAz · Dec 23, 2011

I'm new at all this and I highly recommend checking out You Tube...I've been watching videos from the following people and have learned quite a bit.

Fro Knows Photo (Jared Polin)
Greg Cazillo
Adorama TV
Photography one on one (Mark Wallace)

moze229 · Dec 23, 2011

1. Is learning on the aperture mode a good first step?

I learned in full manual. (Well, I'm still learning and always will be. But this is where I started.) To me, this was the best option but it may not be for everyone. What this did for me is force me to learn all of the settings for every shot that I wanted to take to get the intended outcome.

2. I read the manual and some books and understand the idea behind aperture. I also found out how to change the aperture settings and change what part of the screen I can focus on. How do I know which aperture is correct before I take the shot? Is it all thru experience or is there a way to check it?

Practice. Do a search with your favorite search engine for "Depth of Field" or "DOF". It'll all be there for you.

3. Is there anything else that I NEED to learn asap before I start taking pictures - like ISO, white balance, etc?

Yes - all of that. I mean, you can take all the pictures that you want but they may come out horrible until you understand those things.

Tiberius47 · Dec 23, 2011

absolutconfusion said:
Thank you in advance for reading this and answering any questions.

No worries.

I am planning on shooting in aperture priority mode as my first learning step and I have a few questions.

Aperture priority is a good place to start. I shoot in Aperture priority most of the time.

1. Is learning on the aperture mode a good first step?

Yeah. It gives you the best control over depth of field. I use it as a general everyday mode. However, it's good to know when to use shutter priority and manual mode too.

2. I read the manual and some books and understand the idea behind aperture. I also found out how to change the aperture settings and change what part of the screen I can focus on. How do I know which aperture is correct before I take the shot? Is it all thru experience or is there a way to check it?

There is no "correct" aperture setting for a particular photo. It's an artistic choice made by you, based on how you want your depth of field. If you want close things and distant things to be in focus, set your aperture somewhere around f11 or f16. If you want the background out of focus, set it to f2.8, or as wide as you can. The camera will figure out a shutter speed to give you what it thinks is a good exposure.

3. Is there anything else that I NEED to learn asap before I start taking pictures - like ISO, white balance, etc?

It's always good to learn about those things. Have a read of the tutorials in my signature and they'll give you a good foundation course in photography.

Josh66 · Dec 23, 2011

absolutconfusion said:
Thank you in advance for reading this and answering any questions.

I just bought a Leica Dlux 4 for my own xmas present. It is my first camera that has more than an auto mode.

I am using the camera for street photography and to take candid shots of the family and friends.

I am planning on shooting in aperture priority mode as my first learning step and I have a few questions.

1. Is learning on the aperture mode a good first step?

YES! It will help you figure out when to use which aperture, and once you know which aperture you want - it's pretty much the fastest mode to use (less stuff you have to change). If you have plenty of light, you can pretty much put the aperture where you want it and let the shutter speed fall where it may. Does that camera have a depth of field preview? (Look for it in the index of the manual.) If it does, it will help a lot until you just know how much DoF a given f-stop will give you.

absolutconfusion said:
2. I read the manual and some books and understand the idea behind aperture. I also found out how to change the aperture settings and change what part of the screen I can focus on. How do I know which aperture is correct before I take the shot? Is it all thru experience or is there a way to check it?

DoF Preview will help a lot if you have it. If you don't have it, you'll mostly be relying on experience.

absolutconfusion · Dec 24, 2011

You guys rock!

Thanks for all the information - I will check out those links and work on the camera some more.

I look forward posting some pics to get it critiqued.

Thanks!

chunx · Dec 24, 2011

I really enjoyed reading this thread. Thanks for asking your "beginner" question as I am a beginner, too! So far I've been doing what you are so I hope it's ok

Josh66 · Dec 24, 2011

RE: DoF preview - I don't think there's going to be a button for it, since there is no viewfinder on that camera. Hopefully the back LCD will give you a real-time DoF preview though.

Looking at the LCD, focus on something close using a large aperture (f/2 or f/2.8), the watch the LCD as you stop down. Hopefully it will give you a real-time preview... You should notice things that were out of focus starting to come into focus.

wvsmphoto · Dec 24, 2011

My advice is learn all you can about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. This will teach you how the three all relate to exposure and give you full control over every photo you take your camera should have some sort of metering system for exposure there is lots of great info do a search for 31 days to a better photo

Best of luck,
Matt

Sent from my iPhone using PhotoForum

absolutconfusion · Dec 25, 2011

Ok, I spent all day reading all the links and watch the videos everyone recommended.

So, now I have a few specific questions:

1. I read that I need to focus on the target's eyes while I am in aperture mode. In my camera, I found the focus function and it brings up a grid. I can then move my focus to a certain grid. So when my target's face is on the left side of the frame, I should just move the focus grid to the left side of the frame and take the shot? I am doing the right steps?

2. I do not have the function to have a focus preview. So I am guessing that finding the right aperture is based on my experience and just artistic preference. Is this correct? Also, are there certain aperture templates for certain situations?

3. My camera has an intelligent ISO function - should I use this function or should I control my ISO?

Thank you in advance for everyone's help!

-J

MTVision · Dec 25, 2011

absolutconfusion said:
Ok, I spent all day reading all the links and watch the videos everyone recommended.

So, now I have a few specific questions:

1. I read that I need to focus on the target's eyes while I am in aperture mode. In my camera, I found the focus function and it brings up a grid. I can then move my focus to a certain grid. So when my target's face is on the left side of the frame, I should just move the focus grid to the left side of the frame and take the shot? I am doing the right steps?

2. I do not have the function to have a focus preview. So I am guessing that finding the right aperture is based on my experience and just artistic preference. Is this correct? Also, are there certain aperture templates for certain situations?

3. My camera has an intelligent ISO function - should I use this function or should I control my ISO?

Thank you in advance for everyone's help!

-J

You should focus on the subjects eyes all the time when doing portraits - not just in aperture mode. When you say grid do you mean and rule of thirds grid - 3 lines horizontal and 3 lines vertical? Usually you would toggle your focus points. Some cameras have a lot of focus point while others have only a few. Your subjects face will only be on the left side of the frame if that's where you put it and you should put the focus point on the eyes. There is something called focus and recompose but I wouldn't bother with that right now.

2. Depth of field preview - don't really need it.

Small aperture (f/12) will usually give you a large depth of field meaning pretty much everything is in sharp focus. Very useful in landscape shots.

Large aperture (f/1.8) will give a very shallow depth of field. This is used to isolate the subject. Subject will be in sharp focus and background will go out of focus. Useful for portraits.

The closer you are to your subject will usually give a shallower depth of field. If you have a lens that opens to 1.8 I would recommend not shooting at that aperture. Very shallow depth of field and can be difficult as a newbie to nail focus

Depth of field is affected by focal length, aperture, distance to subject and distance from subject to background. Playing around with an online DOF calculator will help you to understand depth of field. Knowing what type of DOF you want will come with experience but you will provably have a good idea of what you want the picture to be. Do you want everything in sharp focus? Use a smaller aperture. Do you want to isolate your subject and make them stand out? Then use a larger aperture.

3. Set your own ISO. You are much smarter then the camera. You want to shoot at the lowest possible ISO. That doesnt mean you can't shoot at anything but ISO 100. It just means that you should start out low and raise your ISO if needed. If you set your aperture to F/5.6 and your shutter speed is 1/20 (too low to handhold) then raise your ISO until you get a shutter speed fast enough for a handheld shot!

RebeccaAPhotography · Dec 25, 2011

Get the book understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson. Great book to learn about the proper exposure triangle

real easy read and has examples to show and things for you to do. Good luck.

Joel_W · Dec 25, 2011

Congratulations on your 1st non auto only camera.

I shoot in Aperture preferred mode 75% of the time, the rest is in manual mode, so you're starting off in the right direction. I also use a tripod 90% of the time, so shutter speed isn't a priority for me. If you're hand holding for cityscapes, then you need to set your ISO high enough so that your shutter speed will be fast enough to avoid camera movement, as well as subject movement. 1/125th is usually the slowest I'll go hand holding. As others have already said, DOF is up to you,and what you want to achieve in your photograph. Not sure, take a few pictures of the same subject and vary your f stops.

Experience is by far the best teacher.

cepwin · Dec 25, 2011

I wanted to comment on TamiAz's youtube recommendations. I've only seen froknowsphoto and adoramaTV. There both worth while. I particularly like fro's videos and tutorials...he maybe listed as Jarad Polin and I'd highly recommend checking out his youtube channel. His friend Adam Lerner also has a good channel but not as much beginner tutorial stuff. Also the "NewtoPhoto" channel is excellent for beginner stuff.