Know Your Camera

One of the most important things in photography is to know your camera. Anyone can take a good photo, regardless of the camera they are using, but the key is to know what your camera can do, and what it's limits are. I don't mean all the fancy 'bells and whistles' that the top-end DSLR cameras come with, but simple things like how low a light you can still shoot a clear hand-held photo at, or how close is too close for a sharp close-up.

My camera is a Canon EOS Rebel XT, with a Canon Ultrasonic EFS 17-85mm lens with Image Stabilizer. I photographed it with my older Rebel....

This camera is capable of all kinds of things, but I'm not interested in technology, so I just use my camera much like a 'point & shoot', just paying attention to amount of light, shutter speed, and depth of field (more on that at a later date). I also shoot everything in RAW, so I have to process everything in Photoshop, and have more say in how the final photos turns out.

You don't need a fancy expensive camera to take good pictures. It always bothers me when I post a photo I'm really happy with, and someone comments.."Wow, what a great picture! What camera do you use?"  as if the only reason it's a great photo is because of the camera. It's not. The camera is just a tool. A good photo is taken by the person holding the camera, and if they know their camera and what it's limitations are, then they can take wonderful photos too.

Shooting in Low Light

One of the most common reasons for a blurry picture is because you are trying to take it in too low light. My camera lets me know the light level, and what the shutter speed is (how long the camera needs to take a sharp picture). I can get away with something as low as 1/10th of a second with my Image Stabilized lens, but it's still a bit risky. The more light there is, the faster the shutter speed, and the sharper the picture will be. I'm guessing most point-&-shoot and phone cameras don't give you shutter speed or light levels. So you need to experiment to figure out how low a light you can get away with. And don't just shoot, then post a blurry picture with an apology up front about "excuse my lousy photo". If you need to make excuses, maybe you shouldn't be posting it. Put in the effort to take a better one.

So, to illustrate my point, I tried taking a photo of my doll corner this morning. The light level was way too low, and I knew it wouldn't work, but I shot anyways....

Hand-held with normal breathing

Hand-held, holding my breath

Neither works, even with a lens with image stabilizer. The images are pretty bad, and totally unusable. I know there are cameras and cellphones that can take much better photos inside, but my camera just won't, even at the slowest ISO setting, at least not at this low light.  But I want to take a photo, so what do I do now? Use a tripod! So I went to get my tripod, set my camera on 'timer mode' and tried it again. 
By using the 'timer' mode I don't have to press the button and risk shaking the camera. So now I have my clear photo....

How Close is Too Close?

Everyone likes a nice close-up of their doll. But so often I see blurry photos of dolls posted. One reason could be trying to take a photo with a hand-held camera in too low light, OR taking a photo too close to the subject. Every camera has a limit as to how close you can get to a subject and still get a clear photo, and it's important to know what it is. My camera has an automatic sensor which lets me know when I'm too close, and then it refuses to let me take the photo. So I had to disable the sensor by switching to 'manual focus' so I could force my camera to take a photo anyways.

*When shooting a close-up always focus on your subject's eyes. Even if some other parts of the photo are out of focus, it can often be forgiven if the eyes are sharp.

The photo on the left was taken too close, and the one on the right a bit further back...

Which would you rather post?

I"ve started my Photo Tips Tutorial, and will be adding to it each time I post more tips here in my Blog. That way the tips will be much easier to find at a later date. I've decided to go with a 'thumbnail' format, with each separate tip on it's own page. You just look over the thumbnail titles and choose the one(s) you are interested in. Again, that's so you don't have to scroll through endless tips to find the one you are looking for. 

I've also reorganized the entire Tutorials page, and have grouped 'like' items together - all the patterns together, all the wings together, and so on - just to make things easier to find.