How many settings or features do you really need on your camera?

Camera technologies and features can sometimes distract beginning photographers from what is really important. I was always comforted in knowing that there were really only a few things, that actually affected the appearance of pictures made in my film camera. This is why manual film cameras with only five adjustments or choices (shutter speed, aperture, focal length, focus, and film choice) can make a picture equal in quality to a camera with a multitude of automated features. Automated features automate the setting of these primary camera adjustments (e.g. auto focus and auto exposure modes) but they will only technically improve your pictures to the degree that they increase your chances of getting the shot you want. So given an equally sharp lens and the same film, you can potentially make equivalent pictures with either a fully manual camera like the Nikon FM10 ($320) or a fully automated camera like the Nikon F6 ($2450). Knowing all of this, beginning film photographers on a budget would often buy less expensive manual camera bodies and save their money for more expensive and sharper lenses, which contribute more to the quality of the image recorded by the film.

Unfortunately the evolution to digital capture from film has increased the number of primary controls or choices. So what are they? Let me first list all the choices a film photographer had before moving on to digital. These choices can be considered in four steps that can be remembered using the alphabetically ordered letters CDEF. (I was introduced to the CDE part of the reminder by Freeman Patterson. You can find mention of CDE in his instructional books. It has always been one of the most helpful reminders to me, as I was making pictures. Thank you Freeman!)

Composition
1. Focal length
2. Camera position
3. Point of focus

Depth of field
4. Aperture

Exposure
5. Shutter speed

Film
6. Film type (color balance, colors, contrast level, speed, appearance of grain, etc...)

(Note: the aperture setting also affects exposure, but in most situations you want to give priority to the depth of field you choose for creative reasons by selecting a specific aperture setting. This then leaves you only with a choice of shutter speed to achieve your desired exposure.)

There are two other brief observations that I'd like to make:

1. Focal Length: Many photographer's using zoom lenses often ignore or forget how the selected focal length affects the pictures they make. Consider walking closer or further away from your subject as an alternative to zooming in or out, and then choose.
   
2. Camera Position: Sounds simple but this is one of the most important choices that differentiates photographers that produce amazing pictures, from those that don't. Encapsulated here is the chosen point of view, and the visual arrangement of shapes, lines, textures, and use of perspective within the two dimensional picture space.
   

Now I conveniently tacked an F onto Freeman's CDE to remind myself that the choice of film is also an important choice, that affects the appearance of the pictures made in my camera. The only problem is that I normally choose my film (F) first, and CDE as I make each picture in my camera. So going forward I will discuss them in the order F-CDE. (so much for my nice alphabetical reminder :) )

Now enter digital capture and my F becomes a D for "Digital capture" instead giving me D-CDE:

Digital capture
1. White balance
2. Saturation & Hue
3. Contrast
4. Sharpening
5. ISO

Composition
6. Focal length
7. Camera position
8. Point of focus

Depth of field
9. Aperture

Exposure
10. Shutter speed

Wow now I'm up to ten items to think about. But remember that even the least expensive of digital cameras like the Nikon D3000 has dozens of feature settings. So if you can bring yourself back to these 10 choices, you'll be more focused on what you are choosing, either directly or indirectly through automated features. Secondly the first five that you choose for Digital capture often remain the same for many pictures in a given situation. This means that you often only need to consider the last five items as you make each picture, since you've pre-chosen the first five before you began making pictures (similar to how you chose your film before shooting). (Hence the beauty of Freeman's CDE reminder for beginners as they proceed in making pictures).

So there you have it. Only ten core decisions for a photographer when making pictures, and frequently you only need to focus on the last five in CDE. That said #7 is really the big one that differentiates your best pictures from your others. A good starting point is Freeman Patterson's book, "Photographing the World Around You - A Visual Design Workshop."

Simplicity by Ken Rockwell

There is much truth in Ken Rockwell's recent post on simplicity. In brief summary he is suggesting that bringing less gear will translate into making better pictures. This past September I went on a trip to Italy and brought a D70 camera body, a 50mm f1.8 lens, a polarizing filter, and .... nothing else. Here are some of the pictures that I brought back with only that single fixed focal length lens which costs only $124.95 at bhphoto.com.

http://www.thelensmount.com/2009/09/slide-show-from-italy.html

Recommended Nikon digital SLR

"What new Nikon digital SLR camera would you recommend for still photography?"

I've been asked this several times. Obviously there are many answers to this question depending on the photographer's needs and their budget. Let us assume their goal is to have excellent creative control over the images they make, while keeping their budget reasonable. In this case I would suggest the following:

Great Starting Kit

• Nikon D90
• AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II (for all-around shooting)
• AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D (for low light and very sharp images)

Today the above kit would cost you $ 1,029.85 US at http://bhphoto.com .

If you can afford quite a bit more I might suggest the following instead:

Amazing Starting Kit

• Nikon D90
• AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II (for all-around shooting)
• AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D (for low light and very sharp images)

Today this second kit would cost you $ 1,684.85 US at http://bhphoto.com.

"What?" you say, "I'm a student and can barely afford a cup of coffee let alone $1k on camera gear!"

Then here is what I suggest:

Least Expensive Starter Kit

• D3000 SLR Digital Camera with 18-55mm VR Lens (KIT)

Today this kit sells for $ 549.95 at http://bhphoto.com.

Photographer Light Bulb Joke

I heard this one from Darwin Wiggett while attending the Windsor International Photo Seminar and thought it was hilarious.

How many photographers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: 10,000. 1 to screw it in, and 9999 to say "I could have done that"

Nikon D90 Tip for Fine Tuning a Preset Manual White Balance

One of the most important settings for getting the look you want right out of the camera is white balance. Nikon cameras have had the ability to warm or cool a given white balance setting for some time. For example if you like warmer images you can set your white balance setting to auto with A6 (for amber 6) which will perform the usual auto white balancing then warm it up +6 in the amber direction so to speak. Of course you can accomplish the opposite if you prefer cooler images by dialing in B1 up to B6 for bluer, cooler images. All of this can be accomplished by pressing WB (white balance) button on the back of the D90 and using the command and sub-command dials to select Auto and A6.

This is great, and it can be done separately for each white balance setting (e.g. Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, etc...). At first glance however it does not appear possible with the Preset Manual white balance settings, since neither command or sub-command dials alter the blue or amber component of that WB setting when the WB button is pressed. Fortunately if you choose the Preset Manual white balance setting via the menus, rather than the WB button, you can then alter the amber or blue compensation as it were.

So if you are shooting under difficult lighting, like a combination of fluorescent and incandescent, where your best bet is a Preset Manual white balance, but you still want to warm or cool it a bit, now you know how.

Nikon D90 Tip for Active D-Lighting and Center Weighted Metering

I noticed that Nikon claims that Matrix metering is recommended when using Active D-Lighting. Of course they don't mention what happens if you don't use Matrix metering. So if you're someone who always uses Matrix metering then you can stop reading. However if you are someone like me who enjoys using center weighted metering then read on.

Now one benefit of buying a D90 is the feature called Active D-Lighting which essentially increases the dynamic (tonal) range of your images. This feature can be set to Auto, so that it will automatically determine when a scene is high in contrast and could benefit from an increase in dynamic range, and to what degree. This automatic setting unfortunately doesn't work as well if you are not using matrix metering. So if you are a photographer who often chooses to use center weighted metering you will find that the Active D-Lighting will work much better if you set it to one of its non-Auto settings, like Extra high, High, Normal, or Low. In fact, quick tests seem to indicate that when the non-Auto settings are used, there is no difference in dynamic range whether you use matrix or center weighted metering (assuming you've metered well and achieve the same exposure in both cases).

That's my tip for the day.

Some People Think Auto ISO is a Bad Choice

I'm old enough to know that no statement about the best way to make photographs is ever categorically correct. Some might say "always use a tripod" or "never use auto anything on your camera". In looking at the diverse features provided by today's modern cameras, I often wonder who uses some of them. But I'm certain that there is likely someone out there that uses each of them and has their own good reason for doing so.

Recently I witnessed a discussion amongst some very capable photographers indicating that they never use auto ISO set to ON. Personally I find auto ISO to be one of the most useful features on modern digital cameras, for increasing the speed at which I work, when I'm using my camera without a tripod. Perhaps some manufacturers have implemented this feature in a way that makes it awful, however I have not personally used any such cameras.

Method 1: Example of Me Working with Auto ISO OFF
1. I set my ISO to the lowest available ISO setting on my camera (e.g. 200)
2. I compose my image
3. Since I've chosen to work in aperture priority, I dial in f11 to get my desired depth of field, and the camera sets the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second to obtain the desired exposure.
4. I realize since I'm hand holding the camera, that I will need to make a change that allows me increase my shutter speed to at least 1/60th of a second. Here are my easiest options (yes there are others but I'll keep it simple):

• Open my aperture two stops to f5.6, allowing the camera to automatically set the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second. OR
• Increase my ISO setting two stops to allow for an exposure at 1/60th of a second using f11.

Since I chose f11 for creative reasons and the second option would only raise the ISO to 800, I'm willing to put up with some image noise to get the shot I want, so I raise the ISO to 800 (2 stops more sensitive) and
5. make the picture.

Method 2: Example of Me Working with Auto ISO ON
1. I set my camera to auto ISO ON with a Maximum sensitivity of 800 and minimum shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. This means that my camera will automatically increase my ISO if the automatically chosen shutter speed of my camera ever tries to fall below 1/60th of a second, but it won't increase it beyond ISO 800 which I've chosen as the highest acceptable ISO setting.
2. I compose my image
3. Since I've chosen to work in aperture priority, I dial in f11 to get my desired depth of field, and the camera tries to set the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second to obtain the desired exposure. Of course auto ISO doesn't allow this based on my settings and automatically chooses ISO 800 to obtain the desired exposure at 1/60th of a second at f11.
4. I then make the picture

Using auto ISO ON, when using my camera without a tripod, reduces my work flow in many situations by one step, and that speed increase is valuable to me. Have I lost control of what is going on? No I haven't. Automatic features need to be understood to use them effectively with confidence. Is method 2 better than method 1? You might think so if you also value the speed increase when using your camera without a tripod. However, if you mainly shoot using a tripod, or anything other than the lowest ISO is unacceptable to you, then method 1 may be for you. Regardless, you cannot categorically say that method 2 (using auto ISO ON) is a bad idea.