Which camera?

There are three kinds of digital camera on the market. The compact, which is the one that most people have at home. The bridge, which is bigger than a compact, giving you more settings, zoom and a bigger but not interchangeable lens. The reflex, which is known as a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). This has an interchangeable lens. Why? Well, the field of view is very wide. With different lenses you can take different kinds of pictures, such as a portrait, a panorama or even a close up of an insect. Pratically, and without throwing too many horrible technical words at you, if you would like to build a career as a photographer, you must buy one of these and some equipment – filters, flash, a good tripod and more.

On average, a compact camera will be the cheapest one, the bridge is mid-range and the reflex is the most expensive. However, you can spend more money on a compact than a DSLR. For example, the compact Laica Q costs €4,000, while the reflex Nikon D3300 comes in at only €345. My bridge camera (Nikon coolpix P100) was more expensive than a reflex (Canon eos1100d).

So if you want to learn how to take good pictures, you can start with a compact one. Personally, I love my bridge. I know it's not the best, but instead of spending lots of money for a DSLR, I'm happy using this one and I enjoy my time with it.

Understanding my camera

Before going through the key elements to learn how to manage your camera, let me show you some things. Even though there are so many differents models and different kinds of camera, generally speaking, every camera has the same function and has been built with the same concept.

The main part is the lens and the mechanism is like an eye lens. It captures light and finds a focal point. Another component is the flash, which is fundamental to use in low lighting. Usually it will be useful in indoors or in the dark. I recommend disenabling it in sunlight, because it's unnecessary and it could produce a poor image. The next component, which was crucial in analogue cameras, is the live viewfinder. Right now, especially if you are not a professional photographer and you have a compact camera, you might want to use the retro display as a viewfinder. That's fine, but remember, if you use a live viewfinder, you'll save a lot of battery. The last tool is the mode dial, to set your camera before taking a shot.

The mode dial

The mode dial is an important element, because we can simply set our camera by rotating the ring to our favourite mode. Usually we find on it on P, Program; S, Shutter priority; A, Aperture priority and M, Manual. But that's not all, there's also the camera icon (usually green) and U, for user. The following image shows you what I'm talking about.

The image shows my bridge Nikon coolpix P100 mode dial. There are more options on the ring, but we'll come back to those later. Let's go a bit deeper into these modes and try to understand which is the best to use.

The green camera icon is for Auto Mode and if you are a beginner, it'll be the best option for you. Basically, when you take a photo on this mode the camera will do everything itself, and you don't have to worry about anything. On this setting, your camera will take care of Aperture, Shutter speed or Exposure time and ISO. Have you ever heard of these three phrases? If not, don't worry, I'll explain them in the following article. So, your clever camera will consider the average of all these parameters for you at once. Unfortunally, all that glisters is not gold, and when we've learnt more about the basics, you'll want to abandon it.

In the Program mode, your camera governs the Aperture and the Shutter, but it'll adopt the ISO parameter which you selected.

In the Shutter mode, you must select the ISO and the aperture, while your camera will set the shutter automatically.

Indeed, on the Aperture mode, the aperture will be selected automatically and you only have to set the shutter and the ISO.

The last mode is the Manual one. In this case, you have to set everything and your camera will give you total control of your action.

A magical hole

Inside the lens there is an adjustable hole that controls the light which comes into the image sensor. If you think about our eyes, when the light enters to the cornea (the external layer), it bumps into to the pupil (the black circle in the middle) which has an important function, shrink or expands, before going to the image sensor (retina). If you look at your eyes in the mirror and turn on a bright light, very close, you'll notice your pupil contracts. Without this regulation, we'll see the image appear white. In the dark, the scenario is the opposite. To receive enough light, the pupil dilates to absorb the light available. Now we understand there is a "pupil" inside our camera lens, but how big is the camera aperture?

It depends what camera you have. The next illustration shows you different apertures and you can check which range your lens has if you have a compact/bridge camera. If you have a reflex, perhaps you have more than one lens.

The pic shows a sequence of "f" with a number, meaning "focal-ratio" or "focal length". You won't find all these focal ratios on your camera, but only a portion. For example, with my bridge I'm able to take pictures from f/2.0 to f/8.0. If you have a digital reflex, you may have a lens of f/3.5-f/5.6. But the advantage of a reflex is that you can change the lens either to aim f/1.4 or f/16. With a low focal length (f/1.4-f/2.0), we are going to take pictures focusing on a small portion of the screen, while with a high focal length (f/11-f/16), we are going to take an image in focus for all the screen. Tecnically speaking, with a low "f" we have a Macro and a with a high "f" we have a Wide-Angle. We'll discuss these shortly.

Right, if you want to take a picture and only worry about the aperture, you can select "A" from the mode dial.

It's only a matter of time

Now to understand how to take a picture manually, we must learn another important parameter, the "Exposure". Normally, Exposure time or shutter time is the time when the camera shutter is open and takes in the light. Normally, the range is 1/2000s-1s. Of course there are some extreme examples – to catch lightning at night you could use an exposure equally to 15s.

In this case we can change the time if you select exposure priority, A.

Sometimes you might notice your image too dark (black) or too light (white), especially when you are not using the program or auto mode. In the first case the picture is underexposed, in the second case it's overexposed. Setting the right time will produce a balanced image.

While on one hand different exposures can provide the right image, on the another hand, with this parameter you can set your camera correctly for different scenarios. With low exposition time, you'll freeze the image, because something or someone is moving. For example, people who are playing football, a tree in the wind or fast cars. With a high exposition, you'll able to take a better picture of a waterfall, fountain or traffic at night. Given that your shutter will be open for a few seconds, you can't hold the camera in you hands. You must use a tripod.

Understanding the ISO selector

I want to be honest with you. When I began using my camera, the ISO was the least of my problems, but I was wrong to ignore it, as we are talking about the third and last pillar of photography. The ISO is the level of sensivity of your camera sensor to available light. A low ISO number means low sensitivity, while when we increase the ISO, we'll increase the sensitivity as well. But what it does mean? Let's have a look at these two images.

The left picture looks very clear compared with the second one. The right image was taken with a high level of ISO (6400) and the other with a low ISO level (160). You might have a different range of ISO, but the main point is, if you are going to take a picture in sunlight, you should use the lowest ISO possible. Your image will always be sharp. I recommend a low ISO level anywhere, especially if you have a tripod.

But why is there an option to set a higher ISO? When you are in the dark, without a tripod, you can try to increase the ISO. But the risk of taking a "noisy" picture is very high.

Well, now I think you are ready to bring your camera and take some pictures outside, in auto setting or manual.

Let's focus on the whole image

When we discussed aperture section, we saw a different diaphragm aperture. When we want to take a wide-angle picture, we must use a law f/number (f/1.4-f/2.0). We compared a lens to our eye, remember? Let's do this experiment, try to look at a point (cover with one eye) in front of you and extend a finger between your eye and the wall. Now try to look at both of them. Can you focus on your finger and the point at the same time? I know, it's quite hard, but squeeze your eye until you can see an image. At that point, you'll able to focus on both of them. Just like your eye, the lens works identically. Remember this trick when you are outside deciding which aperture to use when you want a wide-angle image.

An example of wide-angle image is a panorama. In that case you will focus on all the picture.

Devil in the details

Macro images are probably my favourite. In this case, we'll focus on only one small portion of the picture. If you remember the example of our finger between eye and a particular point, you can use it for reference. If your eye is wide open and you try to focus on one of these objects, you'll be able to look at one of them only. To take a macro image, you must work with a high f/number (f/11-f/16).

Panoramic photography (not for beginners!)

A panoramic photo is a sequence of images, normally from west to east. It's better to hold your camera vertically. When you turn your camera around, you must check that you have at least 30% of your previous image in that one. Maybe four or five shots are enough. I recommend using manual mode because between two images, you may have a different brightness. To take a panoramic photo you need some tools. First, you need a tripod as without it you cannot make a panorama picture. Second, you need a panoramic head, but that's not really as important as the tripod itself. I have one myself, but I created the following images without it. Finally, you'll need some digital software to process the images and stitch them together. very wide image.