Digital SLR Camera Photography

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. Basically that means the lens is not built in the body of the camera like digital compact cameras. With a digital SLR camera the lenses can be changed to adapt to your shooting conditions. For example you’ll use a tele lens for portrait and wide-angle lens for landscape.

Digital SLR cameras have more functions than a compact point and click. In this section I’ll cover some advanced techniques you can leverage with a digital SLR camera.

Pictures of my Canon 5D Mark II

I have put here a few pictures of my Canon 5D Mark II which is a digital SLR camera to show you different parts.

I use this camera for most of my work.

As you can see I’ve put on a battery grip. The original body doesn’t come with the body grip. I would recommend you use this grip as you’ll have a steadier grasp of your camera. Shooting in portrait mode will be easier too.

On this photo you see the digital camera with a tele zoom lens. This one is the Canon 70-200 F2.8 L Series.

I shoot modeling photos with this fantastic lens.

I’ll be posting photos of another digital SLR camera I use which is a Nikon D700 and do a comparison between Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700. Come back to this site soon…

Ok, let’s dive into different features that come with a digital SLR camera. Use them and you’ll get the most out of your camera. Your photos will look like they are taken by a pro.

1.    Exposure Modes

The way you use different exposure modes will makes the difference in your photography.

In general in addition to the « Scene Modes » (e.g. Portrait, Landscape, Sport) every D-SLR camera will give you the control of different exposure modes. These are known as PSAM. By the way, have you noticed that Scene Modes are not available on Pro-summer or Pro level cameras?

• P: Program Mode
• S: Shutter Priority Mode (Tv mode on Canon cameras)
• A: Aperture Priority Mode (Av mode on Canon cameras)
• M: Full Manual Mode

It is important to remember that only 3 main parameters will affect your exposure of a same scene under the same lighting conditions. They are: ISO, aperture value and shutter speed value.

It’s worth noticing that exposure reading will also depend on metering modes. Read more about metering modes.

Different manufacturers have different naming convention but they all come down to the same properties.

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P mode

Unlike what most people I’ve met would think, this is not the Professional mode but Program mode.

This mode is widely used. Professional photographers also use this mode when consistent exposure is the main concern. By consistent exposure I mean the overall exposure for the scene.

In this mode, the camera will choose an « appropriate » combination of shutter speed and aperture to give you an overall « good » exposure.

Unlike the full automatic mode where the camera does everything, in P mode you can change the white balance, ISO (some cameras now offer auto ISO ability) and image quality (i.e. you can choose RAW or JPEG format).

A « good » exposure takes in account the overall illumination of the scene and not only the subject. When shooting a subject in front of a bright background, P mode will likely give you a proper exposure for the background (blue sky) but also gives you dark face subject.

S mode

Varying the shutter speed values can give you some very attractive effects on your photographs.

Shutter speed will allow you to freeze motion if you shoot sport photography or when you want to freeze a fast moving object or subject.

Panning is a famous effect to blur the background when having the subject is sharp focus (cars, racing, air show…)

You can also use very long exposure (long shutter speed) to obtain a silky effect of water, waves, action motion …

The cream is to master flash and slow shutter speed with first or second curtain. Read more in the flash photography and off camera flash techniques.

Tip: Just keep in mind that slow shutter speed is usually combined with a low ISO setting and small aperture. When shooting in a bright daylight, the use of special filters can help you get the desired effects.

For long exposure time, the tripod is your best friend.

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A mode

This is the preferred mode by Professional photographers aside from the Manual mode.

In A mode, you can control the depth of field of your image and get the most out of your lens and camera.

A lens is said to be fast when it has a big aperture, or small aperture number. You will notice that we refer to aperture number and not value. On the lens aperture number is the inverse of the aperture value, which means, for example, for a Canon lens 50 mm f1.4, the aperture number is « small » but the aperture value is big or wide (1/1.4). A 50 mm f1.4 has a wider aperture (bigger aperture value) tham a 50 mm f1.8

With A mode, as mentioned above, you have control over the depth of field and consequently control over the shutter speed.

Why does A mode offer you more control than S mode ?

It’s because you camera (D-SLR) can go from 30 seconds exposure time down to 1/8000th of a second for any lens that you’ll put on the camera. That is more than enough for almost all types of photography.

On the other hand in shutter mode, you will be limited by the aperture values of your lens. These values vary from one lens to another.

M mode

This is the full manuel mode that you’ll need to practice as often as you could to take your photography to the next level.

To perform in this mode, I’d assume that you want to take control of the S and A modes combined.

There is no secrets here, the more to use it, the more you’ll feel confident and there is no better method than trial and errors.

In this mode the possibilities are endless.

Remember to try different types of metering, at different ISO to compensate the « limitations » of your lens and light situation.

2.    Histogram

The histogram is a very powerful tool and I would encourage you to use it as much as possible.

Golden rule:

In digital photography, just like film photography, exposure is based on the square law where 1=2.

Adding 1 f stop will double the amount of light to hit the sensor or the film. But let’s focus on sensor as we are discussing about digital photography especially digital SLR.

The histogram represents 255 levels of details, from 0 to 255 (or 0 to 2⁸).

A perfect exposure does not always give you a bell shape histogram.

A perfect in camera interpreted exposure will give you a bell shape histogram.

This is why:

As a reflected light meter, the built in camera meter sees everything as a 18% medium grey. What this means is, for example, when you meter for a black wall the image will turn up grey same as if you meter for a white wall, your image will also turn out grey.

It is a simple but important thing to bear in mind when you want accurate metering and exposure.

The use of exposure compensation will help to determine the accurate colors.

We will discuss about the zone system in another article to explain the different between what your camera sees and what you want it to see.

So basically, in digital photography, when you record an image (take a photo) the ideal would be to record the maximum of details within the dynamic range of your sensor.

The best way to record the most details is to obtain a bell shape, slightly on the right of your histogram.

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Tips:

• If your histogram is too much on the left that means your photo is under-exposed and it loses details in the shadow. Compensate by dialling in some positive exposure compensation (also known as EV for Exposure Value).

• If your histogram is too much on the right then you have clipping. Your photo is over-exposed and details in highlights are blown. There is no way to recover details that are lost in the highlights. You will need to dial in some negative exposure compensation to recover the details.

• Use your histogram as often as possible. If you are shooting on a location where the light doesn’t change dramatically lock in your exposure using manual mode for consistent results.

3.    More on The Burst Mode

This mode is almost present in every D-SLR. This mode allows you to take several photos per second.

This mode is very useful for “action shots” when your subject is moving and when you need to give a sense of motion in your photography.

I use this mode a lot during wedding photography, especially during the ceremony.

For consumer digital cameras, this mode is known as sport mode in pre-programmed scene mode.

Alongside with the burst mode I use continuous tracking focus.

The idea burst mode is to take as many shots as required of the scene at a time. We are shooting with digital cameras and there is virtually no additional cost in having more than not enough in focus images.

While I trust my auto focus tracking system, there are conditions where it is not accurate enough for my needs.

For example in low light churches, the bride walking down the aisle is a crucial and must have moment, I usually use M mode to have a consistent exposure, burst mode with AF tracking so I can have several images of the “action” and to cover for the out of focus images.

Golden rule: Bear in mind that high ISO decreases your dynamic range.

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4.    The RAW Mode

With modern D-SLR you have the choice between having the camera to process the images for you (i.e. JPEG mode). Or capturing the scene using the most of your sensor and edit the image later on in what is called “post processing”. In the last case you want to shoot in RAW mode.

Canon’s Raw files are recorded with extension .CR2 (Canon Raw file version 2, I guess). Nikon’s Raw files are recorded with extension .NEF (Nikon Electronic Format).

The Raw files will roughly weight the size of your sensor (i.e. 12 MB file size for a 12 MP, mega pixel, camera or sensor). This is in 12 bits.

Some higher end cameras will allow you to capture images in 16 bit mode, which is roughly 4 times more details than in 12 bit mode. (12 bit = 2¹² and 16 bit = 2¹⁶)

The benefit or RAW format is that you capture everything, good or bad. You will simply discard what doesn’t belong to the image.

By comparison, a JEG file is 8 bit and a RAW file is between 12 and 14 bits. Again Square Law is exponential.

I remember the time when my 512 MB compact flash card cost me more than $200 and I could only record about 65 images in raw with a Nikon Coolpix 8800.

Now I shoot weddings and take an average of 3000 to 5000 photos in Raw format, up to 21 megapixels with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I pack some 80 Gig worth of memory and it doesn’t cost me a leg. That’s the big advantage of digital.

Also, I started using computers when 120 MB hard drive cost $400 and now I am using a Mac Pro with 4 TB for about double the price.

When you deal with mixed or difficult lighting conditions (mix color temperatures) it is best to shoot in RAW if your camera allows you to do so.

It will be easier to correct color temperatures in post process from a RAW image than from a JPEG image.

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