Listen, I know that sometimes it can be overwhelming to pick up your camera, throw it in manual and start shooting. The overwhelming part being shooting in ‘M’ mode. Why? Because that’s the mark of someone who knows their camera right? Well, whether that’s true or not, we can discuss later. But for now, let’s talk about where to start so that we’re not overwhelmed, no matter how well you know your camera.
So, what’s the first thing we should consider when deciding which settings to choose? Truth be told, it’s going to vary from person to person. Everyone will give you a different answer. But today, I’ll tell you how I start when composing my photos.
Obviously, no two pictures are the same, so the content of your photo will affect your starting point. At this point, we’re all fully aware that to shoot in manual, we’ll need to adjust our shutter speed, aperture and iso respectively. And, here folks, is where some of you might start stressing. My advice to you? Three words, Depth Of Field. Yes, let’s start with that. Really, choosing your depth of field means adjusting your aperture. Remember, the lower the aperture, the more depth. The higher the aperture, means less depth and more of the photo will be in focus.
Personally, I like to start by choosing which depth of field I want in my photo. That’s because, simply adjusting your depth of field can dramatically take your photo from ordinary to professional. To see what I mean, take a quick look at the two sample photos in this article.
The one with basically no depth of field taken into account, has all the background in focus and no real focus or point to the photo. It’s just a photo of a coffee cup, big deal.
I want to focus on the coffee cup in this photo, blurring out the background, turning it into a professional photo.
Once I’ve got that figured out by adjusting the aperture to my satisfaction, I can move on to setting my shutter speed accordingly. Naturally, ISO will follow after that. (We’ll get more into the other settings later as well.)
Notice how much changing depth of field changes the photo? What is your eye drawn to? Did you notice the steam coming off of the coffee this time? You probably didn’t even notice the steam in the first photo. This shows how much your attention can be directed just by changing depth of field.
Long build-up for a short answer eh? Haha well it’s not really as simple as that. I mean, choosing aperture first works for a lot of situations, but what if you want to shoot in low light situations? Well you’ll just have to wait in anticipation as we’ll discuss this next. And as always, thanks so much for joining me on my pictorial rants!!
