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Read the manual

• It cannot be overemphasized how important it is to use your camera manual in conjunction with this book. Every camera model has different controls and methods of accessing its functions, and manufacturers are increasingly using different terms for the same features.

POWER SWITCH The first time you turn your camera on you need to set the language, time and date. Always turn the power off when you are changing lenses, batteries and the memory card.

BATTERY The battery will need charging before you use your camera. Keep it charged so you don’t run out of power at a critical moment. It’s a good idea to keep a spare battery to hand.

SHUTTER BUTTON This releases the shutter and also turns on the lens focusing when pushed down halfway. Gently squeeze (don’t jab) the button all the way down to take a picture.

VIEWFINDER FOCUS To adjust the viewfinder to your vision, look through it at a blank wall and adjust the diopter control until the markings on the viewfinder screen come into focus.

COMMAND DIALS OR MAIN CONTROL Depending on your camera model, this control (or controls) sets most of the functions of the camera such as ISO, white balance, aperture and shutter.

MULTI SELECTOR OR SELECTION BUTTON Use for navigating the menu to set functions and to browse photographs in playback. This also varies according to your camera model.

The menu

Many of the functions of your camera are accessed through the menu. The navigational method is much the same as any other computer. Here Nikon screens have been used as illustrations, and although your camera will have the same functions it may display the menus in a slightly different way.

The number of menus that are available on a DSLR are too numerous to explore in detail here. These illustrations will explain briefly what their functions are and for fine detail you will need to turn to your camera manual.

SETUP MENU This contains all the basic functions of your camera. It is the first menu that you need to familiarize yourself with when you are starting out.

SHOOTING MENU All the settings for taking pictures are found inside this menu. Frequent-use functions such as quality, white balance, ISO and exposure compensation can often be accessed by buttons on the camera to simplify matters and save you time.

CUSTOM SETTING MENU You will use these menu banks when you get to the stage of wanting to fine-tune your camera settings to suit you personally and to exploit the full potential of your camera.

PLAYBACK MENU These are all the tools that are concerned with the viewing and management of pictures already shot and recorded on your memory card.

RETOUCH MENU With this menu, which is only available on some cameras, you can work on the image and make a copy while keeping the original untouched. This means you can print straight from your camera or card without needing a computer.

Factory presets

• Don’t let all the features worry you – the factory has preset your DSLR to basic settings that will get you started. You will be able to begin shooting as soon as you have charged the battery. Having got the feel of the camera, you can then get down to setting up preferences in the menus as you work your way through the book.

Exposure modes

Although the majority of cameras have a dial with which you set the exposure mode, some of them incorporate this function in the menu instead. Nevertheless, they all offer you the same choices regarding the type of exposure. These are aperture priority, shutter priority, program mode and manual mode.

Holding the camera

• Place one foot half a step in front of the other to maintain good balance. Hold the camera in your right hand with your fingers wrapped around the handgrip. Support the camera with your left hand under the lens. Keep your elbows pressed lightly to your body.

Preset modes

Your DSLR camera is a sophisticated computer and the preset programs are the result of an enormous amount of information that has been programmed into it. These preset modes set up the camera functions to match the subject you have selected, choosing combinations of shutter speed, aperture, flash, colour balance and focus that the camera decides is ideal for each subject.

Preset modes are very useful when you are starting but you can’t override the automatics. As your knowledge increases you will probably find this very limiting in creative terms and will want to move on to taking your own decisions.

Quick tip

• It’s all too easy to get carried away and forget to change your preset modes. Always check that you are on the right one for the subject you are shooting or the settings will be unsuitable.

Playback

The ability to see a picture as soon as you have taken it rather than waiting for negatives and prints to come back from a processing lab is one of the most attractive features of digital photography – particularly when you are shooting one-off events such as weddings or competitive sports.

The playback button

This button gives you access to the pictures that are recorded on your card. When you push it, the last picture taken will appear on the monitor.

Playback button

Image information

By using the multi selector, you can gain a lot of information from playback. All the technical data about the images is recorded and will stay attached to the pictures when they are transferred to the computer – exposure mode, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, date and time of the exposure, focal length of the lens, flash mode used, white balance setting and histogram.

Image information

Viewing multi images

Viewing multi images

This is the digital equivalent of contact sheets or thumbnails. You can bring four or nine pictures up on the monitor for review, depending on your camera model.

Close up

You can zoom into close up on a portion of the picture in stages using the +magnifier button, and likewise zoom out with the – magnifier button. Using the multi selector, you can also manoeuvre the magnified section of the image around the monitor to check details of your picture for sharpness and colour.

The histogram display

This is a graphic representation of the image exposure; the left side of the graph represents the shadow areas of the image and the right side the highlights. If the peak of the graph is over to the left the image will be underexposed and if it is on the right it will be overexposed. When the peak is in the centre it represents a normal exposure. This graph can be a bit confusing, but it’s not something to worry about until you become more experienced.

A problem with digital photography is that it’s hard to retain detail in extreme highlights. The histogram is useful to check this. If the graph runs into the right edge of the box (below centre) you’ll be losing highlight detail, so you’ll need to reduce the exposure.

Protecting images from deletion

Use this button to mark individual images so that they are safely protected from accidental deletion.

Protecting images from deletion button

Deleting individual images

To delete an unwanted photograph from your memory card, press the delete button. You’ll need to confirm this with a second press of the button, or with a different one, depending on your camera.

Don’t be too hasty in deleting images at the time of shooting – you may make decisions you’ll regret later. Wait until you have the chance to go through them at leisure. Also, time can add significance to a picture; a shot taken on the first day of a holiday can have much more meaning in the context of the holiday as a whole than seemed likely at the time, for example.

Deleting individual images button

Playback tips

• Playback is really useful when you are shooting portraits – you can show your subject a picture to give them more confidence in your work.

• Each photograph you shoot has a number, shown on the monitor when you view it. You can record the frame number to link the picture to any notes you are taking at the time.

Underexposed

Overexposed

Correctly exposed

Image quality

There’s more to a successful photograph than an interesting subject and pleasing composition – the quality of the image must be good.

Understanding ISO

Before you make an exposure, you must choose the ISO setting on your camera. The ISO (International Standards Organization) index is a system for calibrating the sensitivity to light of film emulsions and digital sensors. The ISO settings on most cameras go from 100 to approximately 3200, depending on the make of camera, and the higher the ISO number the more sensitive the film or sensor is to light. The ISO rating of digital sensors is based directly on the film ISO, so the 200 ISO setting on a digital camera is the same sensitivity as 200 ISO film.

ISO button

The practical difference between the ISO setting on a digital camera and the ISO speed of a film is that when using digital the photographer is able to change ISO settings on every frame. In contrast, once you have set the camera’s ISO for a film you must leave it on that setting for the whole film as it will be developed for a specific ISO. However, you can raise the ISO rating of a film from the manufacturer’s given speed (known as ‘pushing’) and have it ‘push processed’ successfully as long as you are consistent with the ISO of that film.

ISO sensitivity

Being able to change the ISO on every frame if you need to has great benefits. If you go from shooting in bright sunlight to low interior light you can increase the ISO from, say, 200 to 1600, thus increasing the light sensitivity of the sensor; the manufacturers call that amplifying the light. With an analogue camera, you would need to change films, which can seem painfully wasteful if you have shot only a few frames of expensive transparency film.

For this comparison of a fine-grained and grainy image, the film grain effect in Photoshop was used. Note that fine detail is lost and the colour is less saturated. The same is true in the case of noise, the digital equivalent of grain.

So why not always use high ISO ratings? The answer is that as a general rule of thumb in both digital and film, the lower the ISO (thus the slower the film) the higher quality the image will be in terms of tonal range, sharpness and colour; the higher the ISO the grainier (in film) or noisier (in digital) the image will be. A digital picture shot on 200 ISO will be sharper and smoother (with no noise) and have more colour saturation. In the case of film, a 50 ISO black and white film will be almost grainless, very sharp and of higher contrast than a 1000 ISO film.

A question of taste

However, we now arrive at an old chestnut – what is good quality? Depending on the subject, a grainy picture may well convey more to the the viewer about the subject than a smoothly fine-grained one. Indeed, you will see that there are a number of deliberately grainy pictures in this book. To some, the smoothness of digital images looks plastic and unreal, and they choose to add film grain effect in Photoshop.

In both film emulsions and digital sensors, the manufacturers have succeeded in pushing the speed of ISO with improved picture quality further and further; some 400 ISO films now have little more grain than the older 100 ISO films, while top of the range digital cameras can go beyond an astonishing 25600 ISO.

Guide for your ISO settings

• 50-200 ISO For very bright sunny days or when you want the ultimate in smooth, sharp images.

• 400 ISO A good all-round setting, suitable for overcast skies or when you need a fast shutter speed.

• 800 ISO For interiors, low-light outdoor subjects or action photography when you don’t want to use flash.

• 1600 ISO For night shooting or indoor low available light, or with very long lenses. Grain/noise may be a problem. Try using your noise reduction setting.

• 3200 ISO Much the same as 1600 but with more grain/noise. The grainy effect of fast film can look great with black and white subjects.

The picture of the horse (below left) is a small section of a 16 × 12 inch print. Shot on Ilford FP4 125 ISO film, it has little evidence of grain. The ballet photograph (below) is a similar section of a 16 × 12 inch print, in this case shot on Kodak TMAX 3200 ISO film. Here the grain is very obvious.

Memory cards are very delicate and shouldn’t be dropped or subjected to extreme temperatures. Protect them in a padded carry case.

Digital quality

Digital cameras use three different file formats to store the images on the memory card: JPEG, TIFF and RAW.

The file format that you choose has a big influence on the final quality of your pictures and also on the amount of pictures you can store on the memory card.

JPEG format

This type of file is processed by the camera’s computer, which applies all the settings that you have selected, such as colour balance, contrast and sharpening, to form the digital image. It then compresses the image to the file size and quality (fine, normal or basic) you have chosen.

Although the large size and fine setting takes up more space on the memory card, it’s best to select it because you may want to do a bigger print in the future. Even if you think you are only aiming for postcard-size prints, there may be some shots you are so pleased with that you want to print them poster-size, and if you have used a smaller file size you have ruled out that option.

Fine (less compressed) JPEG files produce high-quality images and are used by many professional photographers.

RAW format

If you save your file in RAW format, you are storing all the image information that is received by the camera. It’s the digital equivalent of the analogue camera’s negative. Every detail is in the file for the photographer to download onto the computer and make adjustments to later; just like the film photographer will take his or her negative into the darkroom and use the information on it to make a print, so the digital photographer will open up a RAW file in Photoshop and process the image to make a final interpretation. This is then saved as a separate file, and the RAW file is kept untouched ready for future use.

The disadvantages of RAW files are that because they are not compressed by the camera they take up more space on the memory card, and the camera also has to pause more frequently to write them to the card. While professional cameras can do this fast enough not to cause a problem, keeping up with the action at a sports event, for example, isn’t practicable with many consumer-level cameras.

The CD provided with your camera should include software to enable you to process the RAW files. If not, you may have to buy a program or download a free one.

Some cameras have the facility to shoot RAW and JPEG at the same time. Many professionals use the JPEGs as a digital equivalent of a darkroom contact sheet from which to choose the best pictures then get to work on the RAW images.

TIFF format

In terms of quality, TIFF files lie between JPEG and RAW files. They are compressed, but not as much as JPEGs; they lose no detail, but take up much more space than a JPEG, though less than a RAW file.

You have a choice of file formats. Shooting high image quality and large file size will allow you to do large prints if you ever need them. Use RAW if you plan to do extensive retouching on your pictures in Photoshop.

So, your choice of file type depends on how many pictures you want to get on the card and on the quality you are after. However, not all cameras offer TIFF as an option for storage.

Memory cards

In the digital camera, the memory card replaces the function of film in terms of recording the images. The cards are available in different memory capacities; which you decide to buy will depend on the number of images you want them to hold, and their size. They also have different transfer speeds – the faster they record, the faster you can shoot.

Make sure you turn your camera off before you insert or remove a card. Before you use a card for the first time, you must format it in the camera. Reformatting a card which contains images will permanently erase them, so make sure you have copied them first.

It’s a good idea to have several smaller capacity cards instead of one large one, especially when you go on holidays. That eliminates the possibility of losing all your pictures if you damage or lose a card.

Downloading

There are different ways of downloading the pictures from your memory card. You can download directly from your camera to your computer using the USB cable supplied, but it’s quicker to download via a separate card reader. As a precaution, many photographers download their images onto a portable storage device or laptop computer while on location. Some printers have card readers built in and you can print directly from your card without needing a computer.