capturing the moment ch 3

8/9/2019 Capturing the Moment Ch 3

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Capturing the

Moment

TAKING PHOTOS OF WHAT YOU REALLY SEE

Volume 1: Observe, Aim & Capture.


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Getting used to your camera is vital.

I will give ideas on how to set up the camera with reference (among other things) to user settings,

bracketing and back-button focusing.

As they say Keep it simple, stupid

CHAPTER 3

1

Camera settings


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The camera has a hugenumber of settings, put

there to confuse the unwary. With twenty or thirty

knobs and buttons, long menus, lenses to adjust

and a couple of seconds to get it right, there issimply too much to change and will inevitably

lead to missed shots. The aim of this chapter is to

simplify things as much as is possible.

Our own eyes have even more things to control than a camera

does, (lens, iris, multiple muscles going in all directions) but this is

all done behind the scenes, with zero conscious effort. If we can doit with our eyes, can we do it with our cameras?

Well, no, but we can approach this with practice.

Most settings on the camera are set once and can then (thankfully)

be forgotten.

To set your specific camera up with its basic settings, check online;

there are numerous sources out there that will help you, although

most settings will simply stay at their default, so dont worry.

I will mention three or four settings that I believe will save you

much time and many shots.

Ill start with the most difficult, focusing, then briefly mention

three or four others before talking about the User Settings...

FOCUSING

The ability of the eye to focus is amazing, unless of course you

suffer with one of the thousands of things that can go wrong with

it.

I have recently undergone a series of four operations to correctproblems in my eyes (its an age thing) and now appreciate even

more the power of our vision.

Critical in focusing is the lens of the eye. This often changes shape

to control focus (thats called accommodation). Not all lenses are

equal.

If you have ever been close to a horse and wondered why it looks

down its nose at you, it is not because of a feeling of superiority

(that appears to be a particularly human thing). No, it is because its

lenses are varifocal! The focal distance is long at the top and short

at the bottom of the lens. As most things at eye-level for a horse

are distant, it has to move its head up to see us clearly when close.

What it makes of us is anyones guess, but they do sometimes use

that opportunity to take a chunk out of us.

Zebras have the same type of lenses, and are even more likely to

take a chunk out of us. Zebras, along with horses and their ilk,

attack first with their teeth. This has led them to evolve enormousjaw muscles, similar to those of carnivores, with confusing skull

features to go with them.

This makes both ends of a zebra equally dangerous, something I

discovered while attempting a rectal palpation on one as a student

in the United States.

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An unforgettable experience. Dont try this one at home.

Raptor eyes have

exceptional capabilities

for accommodation.

Thus, as a potential prey

moves closer or furtherfrom them, the

predator's eyes remain

focused by rapidly

changing the shape of

the lens.

Camera lenses, on the other hand, are not flexible. They control

focus by moving in and out. Fish have a similar system but in

mammals this occurs only with dire consequences. I have seen this

happen many times in dogs; it sadly results in the lens dislocating

and leaving the poor animal blind and in pain.

Cameras too have evolved imperfectly. The automatic focusingsystems found in modern camera are far better than the old system

of manual focusing.

They are not, however, perfect.

Many DSLRs have a choice of three types of focusing;

Fully Automatic (AF-A in Nikons, AI focus in Canons)

This is where you let the camera figure out the focusing all by

itself. This is a relatively new feature and not all cameras have it.They are probably better off without it anyway. It is far from

perfect, because, once again, the manufacturer of your camera

isnt there with you to work out what you want. Naughty

people.

Single Shot - (locked) Focus (AF-S Nikon, AF Single or One-

shot in Canon cameras).

This is where the object of your photo is not moving. Focus is

set, picture is taken. Simple.

Continuous Focus (AF-C Nikon, AF Servo Canon)

This is where the subject is moving. Focus is locked onto your

subject and, as the subject moves, focus stays on it. Very clever.

Changing between these settings is fraught with problems. It

usually means fiddling with the camera using a knob anda button

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at the same time. Then the subject, which was static, now moves!

You then have to re-fiddle with your camera and well, its too

late. Then when you pick the camera up later for a different shot,

how did you leave your camera set up?

Forget it, there is a much simpler way, but it is a way that requires

some practice. Please stick with it, this technique will paydividends. Trust me, Im a doctor. (Animal doctor actually, but

what the hell)

Back-Button FocusingPlease use this technique. It is amazing and will give you many

more keepers.

This technique is based around the way you hold the camera.

There is a button that naturally falls under your thumb.

This button may be called AF-ON or maybe called AE-L AF-L as

in my Nikon. Either way, this button can be set up to focus the

camera instead of the normal half-press of the shutter button.

The big disadvantage of this technique is that it must be learnt.

This puts some people off. If you have read this far it shows that

you have the perseverance needed to find this an easy thing to do.After a day it becomes natural. Please do it!

To set up back-button focusing, you will need to refer to your

manual or watch a video on the internet. On my Nikon it means

setting the AE-L AF-L button to AF-ON and setting the focusing

mode to AF-C. Simple to do, and once set you can then forget it.

So what does back-button focusing do?

This technique is oh-so-useful with animal photography. Pick youreveryday static object. Heres a cute one - she is marginally bigger

now but moves rather less slowly, until food is involved...

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Touch the back button once to focus, take the photo.

Job done, only then the little chap starts to move! (This happens

when retrievers are young, not so much when older.)ing

Memorying

Instead of fiddling with all the focus settings, simply keep the

back-button pressed down; focus remains locked on. Magic!

If you need more persuading, heres a list of the advantages:

No need to switch between stationary and continuous

movement focusing mode

No need to refocus when you let go of the shutter

No need to switch the lens to manual mode

No need to refocus when something moves in the way

Its a brilliant system, I strongly advise you to use it.

Quickly onto other settings:If there are 2 Memory Card slots, set slot 2 to Backup (more on

this in chapter 8)

Image Quality: As mentioned in Chapter 1 - set this to RAW (Type:

Lossless compressed, 14-bit)

White Balance- Set to Auto

Color space- Set to Adobe RGB

ISO sensitivitysettings - Set to Auto

Leave the rest alone for now unless you have specific need, but

also search the internet for more info on your particular camera.

USER SETTINGS

User Settings are the other camera feature designed to save you

time and save your photos.

The setup of your camera needs to be altered for different kinds of

shot. You need to think of depth of focus and the exposure settings

depending on whether it is a wildlife shot or a landscape. I love

taking pictures of all kinds of different things, each requiring a

different setting in theory, but in practice this can be simplified.

Here are some examples of different kinds of shot you may wish to

take:

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A sunrise landscape with detail in foreground.

Note that the exposure is different for the foreground than for the

sky. We will revisit this later.

A sunrise with no foreground detail:

This was exposed just for the sky. No detail is left in the

foreground leaving an attractive silhouette. Two photos were taken

to merge into a panorama.

A daylight landscape:

This needed both foreground and distant background in focus at

the same time.

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A landscape with foreground only in focus:

An animal in daylight:

Moving fast and in the distance.

An animal photo in poor lighting:

Buildings:

All these vastly different scenes are dealt with superbly by the

human eye, but a camera cannot cope without help from you.

Therefore I make good use of the User Settings. Once you have

your camera set up as described above, you then need to make a

couple of changes and save these to the User Settings via themenu options.

It is easy to do, the rational behind it will become clear over the

following chapters as I go through the examples above and more.

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User Setting 1:

Set the command dial to A for aperture. Set the aperture to the

widest possible opening.

Save to User Setting 1

User Setting 2:

Set up bracketing, usually just by pressing the bracketing button

and using the dials at the same time (see user manual). Set the

number of exposures to 3. Set the exposure difference to 2 stops

between each shot. Set the command dial to A for aperture and

set the widest possible aperture as above.

Save to User Setting 2

User Setting 3 (if this exists):

Set command dial to S for speed. Set the speed to 1/640thof a

second.

Save to User Setting 3.

As there is no such setting on Nikons, I switch between User

Setting 1, User Setting 2 and S on the command dial.

CONCLUSION:

Each time I take a photo, I use one of three settings (User 1, User 2

or S) then I only need to alter the aperture (on the front dial on the

Nikon) and press the back-button and shutter.

Simple.

Well, now we need to

further discuss the

many and varied

types of photo that

you can take.

We will start with my

personal favorite,

animals.

Remember the teeth?

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Who needs teeth...

capturing the moment ch 3

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