Who understands SLR digi cams?

**ErikElvis** · 09-03-2006, 09:34 PM

Recently got a Sony A-100 10MP SLR. Is it possible to learn these things or am I gonna be snappin in auto forever? It can take some fast digital pics though..

**ninobrn99** · 09-03-2006, 11:52 PM

its really not that hard. it does take some time though.

**ninobrn99** · 09-03-2006, 11:54 PM

this'll help:
http://www.camerasinteractive.com/index.php#

**third_shift|studios** · 09-04-2006, 06:56 AM

here's what you need to know in manual mode:

aperture: aperture is how much light the lens will alow in at a certain time. A big aperture [ie f2] will allow in a lot of light and is good for shooting low light scenes, where as a small aperture [ie f16] will be more apropriate for shooting outdoors on a bright sunny day and light is more available. Now, the conflict you have to fight with is that the bigger the aperture, the less depth of field you'll have. So an f2 will give you maybe 10 feet of "stuff" in focus around your subject where as an f16 or f32 will have the whole scene in focus [good for landscapes]. You'll hear the term "stops" used to indicate increasing or decreasing the size of the aperture. So if i "stop down" from f2, i'm going to f3.2 [stop down, tightens the aperature, stop up, opens the aperatrue]

shutter speed: shutter speed is dependant on available light and works in conjunction with the aperture. You can use a faster shutter with a bigger aperture in low light situations. You can use a faster shutter with a smaller aperature in bright situations. You can use a slow shutter and a big aperture in very dark situations. you can use a slow shutter and a small aperature in bright situations to allow moving things to blur a bit to show motion.

The camera lies to you: When shooting, the camera will instictively think that the brightest thing in the picture is what you're shooting at, and it will make a recomendation based on that. So if you're shooting a black car on a bright sunny day, it will ignore the car all together and figure that the pretty blue sky is much more important and your car will look like a dark black patch on the photo. To compensate for this, we use bracketing....

bracketing: Bracketing is shooting the subject 2 to 4 times and using a different aperature for each one. This will make sure that one of those shots has absolutely captured the right amount of detail. I.E. i'm in a park, shooting a tree. In auto mode, the camera recomends 1/500 and my aperture to 5.4 So i set my speed to 1/500 and my aperture to 5.4. I shoot. Now, shoot again @ again a stop up and a stop down. When you open the image on your computer, compare them and you'll notice that one is best above all. Most importantly: DOCUMENT the shutter speed and aperture combinations in order. This will help you understand why the tree has more detail in one shot than another.

hope i helped.

**ninobrn99** · 09-04-2006, 10:01 AM

also, the faster the lens the better you'll get to shoot in darker conditions. lenses with f2.8 all the way through are pretty damn good. the kit lens isnt bad at all. ive actually been using mine quite a bit. my favorite is my 50mm 1.8. that thing kicks ass!! www.photography-on-the.net/forums is a great site!