Maybe it’s an old photography forum wife’s tale but someone, somewhere must have referred to the P or Program function on their DSLR as the “professional” setting.

To be honest that doesn’t really matter as you’re not going to be using that P button anymore….. and certainly not his ridiculous big green cousin Auto.

In today’s post we’re going to be looking at basic camera settings and some of my favourites…….

This is the first part in our back to basics series, to be honest there might not be anything here that hasn’t been written in hundreds of ‘photography basics’ books but it’s my slant….. so enjoy!

If the camera is an extension of your hand…..

You know the saying but if you think about it a hand isn’t really the most stable thing to hold anything…. or at least the most precise. This is why we have tripods people so make good use of them.

If we don’t have a tripod handy then use your body to create a stable frame to hold your camera.

It all begins with the feet so keep them shoulder width apart…… I’m assuming you’re standing at this point…… hold the camera with both hands and bring your elbows in close to your body.

This is one of the most stable positions you can make whilst standing with a camera….try it out!

For my more….erm…… advanced way to hold your camera have a look at The steady grip – Holding your camera in low light

That big button

You know the one….. it takes the pictures! Actually that’s not strictly true as that big button has two functions and should be used as such.

The first function is a fact finding mission. This is when we press our friend just enough to get a reaction, just a slight one, we’re after flashing lights and a little beep and recognition. The information we get from that little fact finding mission is invaluable. It not only suggests how much light we’ll need to let into our cameras but for how long…….. it’s also nice enough to make sure that our pictures are focused.

Press this bad boy all the way and this is when the magic happens.

Be warned….. give your camera enough time to go on that little fact finding mission and get things focused……. this is, in other words, a two step button…………..use it as such.

The three wise men

Photography is all about recording light and to do that a little more creatively we have to understand the talents of the three wise men.

Sir Shutter of Shuttersberg (Shutter Speed)

This fella controls how long we let light into cameras and onto our most sacred of things…….. our sensors. The faster this wise man goes the easier we find it to freeze action… or rather the light that is reflected from what we’re hoping to capture.

There’s a few key shutter speeds that I’d like to highlight:

200 – This is normally the fastest speed you can use when using a flash (there are always exceptions but don’t worry too much abut those quite yet).

125 – This is the slowest speed I like to shoot people at. It’s just a personal preference but it freezes subtle movement.

60 – This is the slowest speed I like to use without a tripod. Any slower and there’s a good chance of camera shake aka blurred pictures.

Lord Aperture of f-stopshire (Aperture)

He’s a confusing fellow although perhaps the most creative and sought after of our three wise men. Unlike his two friends Aperture lives inside our lenses. What makes Lord aperture so confusing is that he’s all a little back to front. But first I should explain what he is so it all makes sense. The Aperture is a set of different size holes between your light and your sensor.

The bigger the hole …. the more light comes in… makes sense? The confusing thing is the bigger the hole the smaller the number we give it. Why? Good question…..Google it….. in the mean time here’s why I like to think it is this way.

Take f2.8 (very big hole) this might be letting loads of light into your camera but it only concentrates on small area at a time…. what it creates small area of focus and what we lovingly refer to as a shallow depth of field. The smaller the aperture, or f number, the more shallow the depth of field.

Simple rule: if you want more of your scene in focus then use a higher (smaller) aperture.

Because we’re terribly artistic types and we want to create the illusion of depth (make the background all blurry in other words) then we spend a small fortunes on what all the cool kids call fast glass. That’s nice lenses with really massive apertures in for those of you not down with photog street slag.

How large our area that we can keep in focus isn’t just effected by the size of our apertures though (oh no that would be far to simple). There are a things like the distance you are from the subject and the focal length of your lens to think about……. luckily for iPhone users….. there’s an app for that - Depth of field iPhone apps

Here’s a couple of my favourite apertures…..

f5.6 – a portrait ‘go to’ aperture. If you’re shooting an 3/4 image of a person and you’re a couple of feet away then this always gives a nice depth of field.

f8 – My safety aperture. Not too shallow and not too dark. A handy aperture to use if you just want to make sure things are in focus.

f2.8 – My favourite aperture on my favourite lenses….. very bright and nice and shallow. Great for portraits at a distance or funky detail shots.

The Chairman of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO)

Former governor of the board at the American Standardisation Association and Chief at the German Institute for Standardization before we deeded it was best to trust someone in Geneva.

ISO can be a noisy chap and is about as standardised these days as the weather (couldn’t think of a better analogy) ISO is more of a hangover from the film days. Remember when we used to buy 200 speed film? Back then no self respecting landscape photographer would be seen without there roll of 50 and 400 speed was the standard speed for an overcast British summer.

These days ISO is more an imitation of his former self and can sometimes have strange qualities.

Simply put ………the higher the ISO,  the more sensitive the sensor is to light.

This is a good thing. It means we can shoot in darker areas, use faster shutter speeds and smaller (although bigger number remember) apertures.

This all sounds great but be aware of what using a higher (and more grainy) ISO will do to your image.

The good news is that as cameras get better (and of course more expensive) the better the quality of the grain when using high ISO.

My advise would be to experiment with your camera and see what results it gives at your higher ISO settings.

My Favourite ISO (using my 5DMKII)

100 – As sharp as I can get

1250 – I really like using this inside with a little low flash bounced off the walls and some disco lights.

400 – For me it’s still the British outside all rounder

Prioritise

You might be a little daunted by the prospect of going all the way to the big M so on our way there let’s stop off and visit our homages to our three wise men.

Shutter priority

Sometimes know as TV or more sensibly in Nikon cameras S.

You choose the shutter speed and Mr Nikon or Mr Canon goes ahead and finds a suitable Aperture for you. If you’re trying to use too fast (and too dark) a shutter speed then your old faithful S won’t be happy…. keep an eye on that otherwise you’ll just end up with dark pictures.

Shutter priority is perfect for freezing action or when there’s a certain shutter speed you want to keep above….. especially if you have shaky hands like me.

Be aware that to use those fast shutter speeds your camera is going to want to use those massive apertures you have…… this will mean you’re going to get a very shallow depth of field if you’re using high shutter speeds in low light. The opposite is of course true.

Aperture priority

AKA Av. No prizes for guessing what this does. As with Shutter priority keep an eye on your camera’s suggestions.

AUTO ISO

This doesn’t come highly recommended unless you’re happy with the way your high ISO values look.

It can be occasionally useful especially if you have a changing light source but you’re not keen on changing your aperture or shutter speed settings.

WB

White Balance or why has everything gone yellow?

In different types of light have different colours which we don’t see (or realise we’re seeing). Light bulbs in our home make everything orange and our flash has a nice blue quality to it.

My advice….. if you’re shooting in RAW then stick it on auto…….. don’t worry too much about taking manual white balances or using grey cards. It’s not that it isn’t important ……. it’s just not as important as it used to be ………..(I’m just going to duck and hide whilst my fellow professionals ridicule me and throw fruit and veg).

In all honesty white balance is important but simply shooting a grey card (not taking a meter reading) in each scene and adjusting afterwards whilst processing the RAW files is quite effective.

Mind you if you have a chance (and you’re an Aperture user) then you really sound see Guy Gowan’s white balance fix….. it’s very cool. www.guygowan.com