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White balance works using the concept of colour temperature. Simply put, it is used to achieve accurate colour reproduction, or to remove unnatural looking colour casts from your photographs. For instance, in bright daylight, you would use the “Sunlight” white balance to instruct the camera to reproduce colours as they will be seen by the human eye. Using the same white balance for shots taken indoors with say fluorescent lighting would produce an unnatural yellow tint.
Most of the time, the “Auto” white balance takes care of most situations, but in tricky lighting such as mixed lighting, cameras can sometimes be tricked into reproducing incorrect colours. One way to overcome tricky situations is to shoot in RAW format (Click here to read more about the benefits and drawbacks of shooting in RAW), which allows you to tweak the white balance in post processing without compromising image quality, so you do not have to bother yourself with setting the correct white balance before every shoot. Another way to achieve accurate colour reproduction is to use a “Manual” white balance.
One tip to taking sunsets is to use the “Shade” white balance. When the sun is low, the light is much warmer (looks orange) than when it is high up in the sky. However, the human eye is able to adjust the colours that we see such that they do not look very different from other times of the day. In other words, adjusting the white balance is not “manipulating” the original colours of the scene, but in actual fact, the colours at sunset are actually much warmer than how we perceive them. With the “correct” white balance selected, the camera is able to compensate for this to reproduce these colours more accurately.
Try the “Shade” white balance setting when you next photograph the sunset and you will be surprised at how much better your photo looks!
The minimum shutter speed depends on a few things: the focal length of your lens, whether it has Vibration Reduction (VR) technology, and on the ISO value.
Ideally, the shutter speed should be 1/F secs where F refers to the focal length of the lens. This guide is generally true for users with relatively steady hands. To be sure, you might want to go with 1/(F x 1.5) secs. For example, the slowest shutter speed you can go with a lens of 35mm would be around 1/35 secs or 1/50 secs.
However, the story gets a little different if you have VR technology on your lens. With this, it is possible to go as low as “2 stops” below what is stated as “safe”. “One stop” refers to multiplying, or dividing the value by “2″. For example, on a 16mm lens and VR activated, I was able to get decently sharp images at 1/4, where “4″ is “two stops” below “16″. VR is very useful as it allows you to perform better in low light. However, this is provided that your subject is stationary, such as an object or building (Read this to find out more).
Another factor is the ISO value. For instance, if you are using a 35mm lens, and your shutter speed reads 1/20 secs, you could increase the ISO value to double the shutter speed to 1/40 secs to prevent blurriness from camera shake. Try switching to Aperture Priority mode before adjusting the ISO to see what I mean by .
With that said, if you are not using the camera handheld, then the minimum shutter speed is of little concern. For general landscapes or in cases where circumstances allow, your best bet is still a good, sturdy tripod.
When you first enter the world of dSLR, once of the first questions that you may have: What’s that round thing on top that turns and has tiny pictures and alphabets that make no sense? It is called the mode dial. Simply put, it is a dial to change the camera’s mode (no pun intended).
The tiny pictures that you see on one side are the preset modes that you can switch to quickly when you can’t be bothered to tweak your settings manually. Selecting one of these modes allows the camera to do all that for you. For example, turn the dial to the “mountain” picture when you are taking landscapes and the camera might adjust the aperture, contrast, vividness by itself to give you the best results you can get. Some main presets are: landscape, sports, portraits, macro, and night shots. I will not go into these as they are more or less pretty straightforward.
Instead, I will be talking about the other half of the dial: P, S, A, M (for Nikon. Canon uses P, Tv, Av, M). Let us start with P. I will be addressing each of the other modes in subsequent posts. P stands for Program and it is similar to Auto in the sense that the camera does almost everything for you, but also allows you to adjust some settings, namely the flash, ISO value and white balance. When you enter this mode, you are free to tweak the aperture value (this is discussed here) by rotating the wheel near the mode dial and the shutter speed will be adjusted based on this value. In short, Program mode allows you to select an appropriate combination of the shutter speed and aperture value with a turn of the thumbwheel.
However, unlike the Auto mode, the flash will not be activated automatically despite having the shutter speed dip below a certain value. In other words, you are entrusted with the decision of whether or not you would like to use the flash. The same goes with the ISO value and white balance.
Other camera modes: Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual
After you have selected your first dSLR, you have to decide which lens you would like to go with it. (For some tips on selecting your first dSLR, refer to http://www.truphotos.com/2009/11/28/photography-basics/) For all entry-level models offered by Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus etc, the main body of the dSLR comes with a “kit lens”. You can also purchase the body and lens separately but most of the time, getting a package is cheaper than buying them individually.
For example, the Nikon D40, D60, and the D3000 comes with a 18-55mm VR lens in a package. This means that this lens is a zoom lens that is able to zoom from a focal length of as wide as 18mm to as near as 55mm. “VR” refers to Vibration Reduction, a technology by Nikon which stabilizes any unnecessary movement caused by the user. On the practical side, it allows you to shoot in darker areas with a lower shutter speed.
For someone just starting out on their photographic journey or users who are relatively new to dSLR, a 18-55mm standard zoom lens should be good enough to practise and hone their skills. Try to find out more about the functions and limitations of your current lens/camera and also identify where your strengths lie, ie, the type of photography they would like to improve further upon or would like to pursue. For example, if they are interested in landscape, they might want to consider a wide angle lens. For wildlife, a telephoto lens and so on.
For more information regarding the benefits and limitations of the 18-55 standard kit lens, refer to Choosing your first lens (Part 2).
