Digital SLR Camera Guide
Introduction
The experts at TED’s have created this guide to help you learn more about the exciting world of digital SLR cameras and photography. You’ll find it’s easy to understand and, particularly for the first-time SLR digital buyer, gives you the type of useful information you’ll need to choose the camera that’s ideal for your needs.
Most people looking to step up to a digital SLR traditionally fall into two categories. First, those people who already own a ‘point and shoot’ digital camera and have become an enthusiast and now want to take their photography to the next level. The other group, are those experienced photographers who already use a film SLR camera and now want to make the leap into the world of digital.
One of the great joys of taking pictures is the ability to control the result. Professional and advanced amateur photographers use a variety of controls to improve the result and bring personal expression to their shots
A more advanced camera, particularly a SLR (Single Lens Reflex) provides a suite of in-built functions that allow a greater level of creative input into the photo. Of course, as you might expect, a more advanced camera leads to more questions.
The Big Questions
- How much should be shot on automatic, how much on manual?
- What settings should be used?
- What differences do they make?
- How should the settings be made and which ones can be left on auto?
A digital SLR is a doorway to an exciting and enjoyable art form, so it is worth taking the extra time to understand the various controls and be familiar with setting them.
When you’re moving up from a basic digital camera to a digital SLR (dSLR) it’s important to understand the three areas of difference.
1. The viewing system allows you to look through the lens of the camera and see exactly what you are capturing. If the composition is tight, particularly in close-up, this prevents you cropping off the subject’s ear, foot or hair.
2. The sensor or light sensitive chip is usually physically larger than in a point–and–shoot camera and gives higher picture resolution.
3. And of course a feature that is a significant benefit for the more serious photographer is that the lens can be removed and replaced with one of a different focal length. You can utilise a telephoto lens for long distance sports action shots or a wide angle lens for those panoramic landscapes, or creative angles. Or you might choose a zoom lens that can move from wide–angle to telephoto. The range of specialist lenses available gives you the ability to extend your picture making quite dramatically … and impressively.
Understanding DSLR Exposure
|
Photographers control exposure by the amount of light that reaches the image sensor. The amount of light is controlled by the speed of the shutter (the exposure time) and the opening of the lens that lets in the light (the aperture). The larger the aperture, the more light that is let in, and allows for a quicker exposure time. The aperture opening is often called the lens’s f–stop and is marked on the lens by numbers — generally ranging from f2.8 to f22.
Digital SLR cameras have a control wheel enabling you to quickly move from the camera’s automatic setting to a shutter speed/aperture combination to suit the subject you are taking. The wheel links the shutter and aperture combinations. When a slow shutter speed is used, then the aperture needs to be smaller — less light coming in— to balance the longer time the shutter is open. For long shutter speeds, below a 30th of a second, the camera would need to be on a tripod so the photo is not affected by hand shake.
The camera program dial will have preset functions such as action, portrait and landscape. It also has a creative settings, marked P,A,S-T,M |
 |
These controls take a little longer to learn, but once you’re familiar with them you can achieve some amazing results.
SLR Lenses - the options
|
Lenses are classified by their focal length, measured in millimetres. A 300mm is a long telephoto lens best suited for sports or wildlife photography. A 24mm lens is a wide-angle lens and good for landscapes or buildings. Zoom lenses cover the most common ranges. A dSLR allows you to choose the lens to suit the type of pictures you are taking.
A useful tip about changing lenses on dSLRs: Dust can enter the camera and stick to the light-collecting sensor and show up as dark areas on your picture. So try it’s advisable to avoid changing lenses in dusty conditions and see your instruction book about cleaning any dust from the sensor. |
 |
Image Resolution and Quality
Most dSLR’s will have a sensor that is 6 megapixels or more. Megapixels is the term used to measure resolution. The more pixels the better the resolution, but the less pictures that can be stored on the memory card. Because of this the cameras offer a range of Image Size settings.
The Large Size will use all the pixels on the sensor for the best resolution, while the smaller sizes will use less pixels with less resolution. For best print quality use the largest resolution size. If you need a smaller image later on, for perhaps emailing, then it is possible to make it smaller with software.
There will also be a setting to change the quality of the image file. JPEG is the file type most commonly used. It compresses the size of the file and you can store more images on the memory card.
A big part of the fun of digital photography is working with your photos in the digital darkroom. To enable you to enhance and play with your photos later on, dSLR’s feature a file type called RAW. This is a high-resolution that many professional photographers use as a true digital 'negative', recording all the digital information.
The extra picture information contained in a RAW image means it is possible to apply corrections (sharpness, contrast, light balance, cropping, etc) that specifically suit the scene and match the result to your intended creation.
ISO - speed of the image sensor
This setting is used to control the sensitivity of the image sensor. Like film, ISO is a rating of speed of the sensor. Unlike film, it can be changed in the camera to suit the lighting conditions. It can be changed from shot to shot. On a dSLR all you need to do is press the ISO button and turn the control wheel. You will see, in the viewfinder-readout or on the top control panel, the ISO speed increase or decrease as you turn the wheel. The higher speeds, 400, 800 are best for poor lighting or for fast action shots. The lower speeds, 50,100, 200 are best used for good lighting or with flash.
Rather than use the ‘auto’ setting you’ll find it’s good practice to set the ISO to 100 or 200 as the standard setting. You can then learn to change it to suit the individual lighting and subject conditions. A higher setting lets you use a faster shutter speed for action or a smaller aperture to gain greater depth of field.
Like film, the higher the ISO setting the more chance there is of grain or ‘noise’ in the image. Digital cameras are not as sensitive to this as film cameras, and if it shows up, you can change it to a lower setting; something you can’t do when shooting with film. You can also select the RAW setting to improve the noise level even further.
Exposure Compensation or Exposure Value Setting
Use the Exposure Compensation button to correct light or dark pictures. You can ADD light by turning the control wheel to move the slider to the + side of the scale. If the picture is washed out, move the wheel to the –side to SUBTRACT light. Then take another picture.
Exposure compensation lets in more or less light by altering the shutter speed or the aperture, or both. You’ll find that as your experience grows you will be able to set the camera to the Shutter Speed (T or S) mode or the Aperture (A) mode and make the changes directly. To correct a dark image, use a slower shutter speed or a larger aperture. To correct a light image, a faster speed or smaller aperture will need to be set.
Manual Setting: Allows you to make specific corrections and see the results in the LCD. You can creatively use manual to set an additional warmness or coolness into the photo.
Focus Modes
Focussing allows an object to be recorded sharply in your pictures. On dSLR cameras there are two basic settings: Manual and Autofocus. In the M or MF setting you look through the viewfinder and turn the lens-focusing ring by hand to make the picture sharp. In the Autofocus (AF setting), the camera uses sensors in the viewfinder to measure over a range of ‘zones’.
Continuous autofocus: the camera keeps focusing as the subject moves
Single shot: it focuses once and will then need to be reset if the subject or camera moves.
Tracking mode: will shift focus automatically if the subject begins to move
It is possible to change the zones that are measured and some cameras feature five or more zones. The zones include:
Single area: Takes its reading from just one spot
Multi-area: Takes readings over a wide range and averages them
Selective multi-area: Hold down the AF button and cycle through highlighted areas on the screen, to select the correct subject distance.
Metering Methods.
DSLRs provide a number of options to measure the light in a scene.
Matrix: This option determines the best exposure by averaging points from all over the picture area. It is suitable for most subjects.
Centre-weighted: Uses the centre of the picture as the reference. This is good for portraits, or where the main subject is in the centre of the photo.
Spot: measures only from a small central part of the scene. You’ll find this option is useful for a subject against a dark or light background. The spot to be measured can be chosen by rotating the command dial.
Flash - the SLR options
The flash is either built-in, or the higher-end cameras will have a flash shoe to connect a separate flash unit.
If the camera has a built-in flash, pressing the lighting bolt icon button will pop-up the flash. On some cameras, the flash will pop-up automatically in dull lighting.
If the flash is not bright enough, you can increase the flash exposure. Holding down the flash button or the +/- button and turning the control wheel will change the power of the flash exposure. Going to the +side increases the exposure, to the –side decreases it.
 |
Flash Sync Modes: By holding down the flash icon button and turning the control wheel you gain access to a range of flash options: |
Normal: The camera will set a fast shutter speed to ensure your background won’t be blurry from camera shake. Not only is it good for shots when the light is low; it is also useful for people pictures on a bright sunny day when dark shadows fall across the face. It fills in the shadow areas with some light and it is called ‘fill-in flash’. |
 |
Red-eye: This helps correct the red-eye effect of flash in a darkened room. It will either pre-flash or shine a bright light at the subject to cause the iris on the pupil to close down. There will always be a delay from the time you press the shutter until the picture is taken. |
Slow: This mode allows a longer shutter time to help record some of the background detail, but the downside is that you might get camera shake or subject blur. Obviously a small tripod can come in handy here. |
Rear or Front Curtain Sync: These creative settings control when the flash fires on a long exposure. At the beginning– Front curtain or at the end of the exposure–Rear curtain. In front curtain, a shot of a billiard ball, would have a sharp ball and then a blur as it moved across the table. Using Rear curtain would result in a burry ball with a sharp shot of it at the end. It is a creative choice.
|
Using External Flash
While the built-in flash is convenient, it does have a limited range. To obtain additional light and quicker recharge time, you can add a supplementary flash unit
to the camera accessory shoe or by a direct connection cable. This gives a wider range of lighting possibilities. Some dSLRs also offer radio connection to the external flash and no cables are needed. |
 |
Rear Menu Buttons
Menu Icon
Tapping this button gives you access to the menus within the camera. Changes to WB, Flash mode, picture quality and others can be finetuned in the picture-taking mode. A range of technical settings to the file type and colour ranges can also be set through menus.
Histogram display
This is available in the playback mode by pressing the ‘Info’ button or the toggle selector button. Histograms help determine the correct exposure.
The histogram is a graphic display of brightness distribution of the photo from 0 (black) to 255 (white), and all the range of tones and colours in between. The X axis represents the brightness values 0-255. The vertical axis represents the number of pixels at each brightness. A graph that is spread out between the dark and light areas would indicate correct exposure. If the histogram values are bunched up at the left (dark end), then the picture is under-exposed. If at the right (light end), it is over-exposed. You will need to make some corrections to the exposure value or shutter speed and aperture combination to obtain correct exposure. The histogram feature on cameras is for an indication only. It will not exactly match the histogram feature found in image enhancement software.
|
|
|
UNDER |
OVER |
CORRECT |
More features to play with
Highlight Alert
When this feature is enabled, any overexposed highlight areas that are outside the histogram range will blink black and white in the LCD indicating that the exposure needs to be adjusted. If it is only a few small areas you may chose to ignore it. If a large number of areas are affected, change either the exposure compensation with the –ev setting; or you can select a smaller aperture or faster shutter speed to reduce the overexposure. After you have made the change, take another picture. You may need to make more corrections if it is still ‘blinking’.
Multi-Burst Exposure
Hold the multi-burst button and turn the control wheel to choose between the burst options the camera offers. The burst mode will continue to take pictures while the shutter is held down and the image buffer is not full. Some cameras will take a burst of over 100 shots. Keep in mind, this is a very quick way to fill up a memory card.
Bracketing
In difficult lighting situations, it is possible to take a series of three pictures. One normal, one underexposed, one overexposed. The range of the differences can be set from 1/3 of an EV up to 3 EV or more. This way it is possible to obtain the correct exposure without making changes to any of the settings as one of these three shots will be correct. In software programmes like Adobe Photoshop CS2 you can combine the best values from each of the bracketed exposure to make one print that uses the best of all three shots.
Your photos - viewing options
Playback features
|
The play icon. > on the back of the camera allows you to review your pictures.
An ‘Info’ button will provide basic shooting information and a histogram, while the checkerboard button will display up to 9 thumbnail images.
To see the image in detail you can also view at a higher magnification, and the mode dial will move the selection box around your picture. |
 |
To sit back and enjoy your pictures, set the slide show to cycle through automatically. With a cable connection between the camera and a TV monitor you can easily share pictures with your family and friends. Set the View menu to the PAL format for Australian TV.
 |
Transferring to the computer.
There are a number of options when it comes time to transfer the images to your computer. You can connect it directly using the USB connector supplied with the camera. These days the computer systems such as Windows XP or Mac iPhoto software make the transfer very easy to do.
Your camera will also have supplied software to transfer the images, and this offers albums and renaming features which enable you to easily locate photos.
An alternative to directly connecting the camera to a computer is to use an inexpensive USB card reader which acts like a disk drive in the system.
Of course if you don’t have access to a computer don’t worry because Ted’s can burn the images directly from your card to a CD for easy of use and transportation.
|
 |
 |
Deleting
Images can be erased one at a time or all the images can be erased. The rubbish bin icon should be pressed and then correct option selected. |
Buying a digital SLR camera
When you are looking to make the move to a digital SLR camera you can’t go past Ted’s. You’ll find a wide selection of brands and staff who are well qualified to answer any questions you may have as well as help you select your new camera. Naturally, they’ll be more than happy to demonstrate the cameras and point out the features that will be useful for your style of photography. Additionally, they can take you through the many accessories that will help you get even more enjoyment from your new camera.
Click here to view our range of SLR Cameras | 
