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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-24-2012, 04:38 PM
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To expand on the best bits that I've read:
1. Experiment
2. Get down to eye level with your subject. Avoid shooting down onto your subject.
3. Get "Understanding Exposures" and read it with your camera at your side. Experiment after reading each section before moving on to the next chapter. Otherwise you'll get information overload and your studying will be a waste of time.
4. Light coming through a window can be very beautiful, however, it can also be very dim. I recently shot with window light on an overcast day and my exposure was 1/30 @ f/3.5 ISO 1600. Since my subject was not moving, I didn't need a fast shutter speed to stop movement other than camera shake (which is the movement caused by the user hand-holding the camera). Light coming from a window facing North will generally produce the highest quality of light - your mileage may vary.
5. When you review the photos, pay attention to the shutter speeds and apeture setting used. This will help you learn things such as: How slow of a shutter speed can I hand-hold the camera; How fast of a shutter speed do I need to stop action, or how slow do I need for a creative blur.
So with your ISO cranked up, camera set to AUTO, and baby looking cute, the rest is up to you. This is the hard part. Buying stuff is easy, setting the camera to AUTO is even easier. Knowing how to compose and when to click is difficult at first, but here's some tips:
1. Focus of baby's eyes.
2. Avoid busy and/or overly bright backgrounds. The viewer's eyes will go the brightest area in the picture, and that should be baby and not the light shining on the wall in the background.
3. Compose by using the Rule of Thirds - which is explained everywhere on the web
4. After a while, you may want to consider getting a 50mm prime lens. They start off at $100 or so. Reason for this lens is that it can allow 2-4 times more light through to the camera than your kit lens. Also, because of it's large lens opening, you can further experiment with shallow areas of focus, which is called depth of field (DOF). This will isolate your subject in a way that's impossible with a zoom lens on your camera.
Post your pictures so we can see how you're doing, plus it'll help us help you.
Good luck,
Frank
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