The complete guide for the first time photographer BDM’s

Digital
Photography
Beginners Guide

Everything
you need
to know
about digital
photography

LEARN
how to shoot like
DEVELOP
your photography skills
a professional at your own pace
100% INDEPENDENT
 BDM’s

Digital
Photography
Beginners Guide

T
o be honest, it doesn’t matter whether you’re new to photography or even a seasoned
professional. In the world of photography there is always something new to learn or some
existing technique than can be honed further still. Moreover, as technology advances,
the new types of camera and accessories available create a bewildering variety of choice that
can be off-putting, especially for those who are taking their first steps into the world of digital
photography. Whether you’re interested in taking your photography to a more serious level or
just someone who takes pictures of friends and family and the occasional holiday snap, this guide
is here to help. We start with the essentials, outlining different cameras, lenses and accessories.
Then we take you through the various aspects of camera craft that are the foundation to
creating great photographs. This includes information about shutter speed, camera shake,
focusing, metering, aperture and depth of field. Photography is a very accessible and fun skill to
develop. We hope that this collection of technical and creative information will help you take your
photography to levels you might never have thought possible before. n
 Contents
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINNERS’ GUIDE

Getting started
8 - 11 Know your camera
12 - 15 The right camera for you
16 - 19 What lenses do I need?
20 - 21 Why do I need a tripod?
22 - 23 Flashes and lighting
24 - 25 Types of light modifiers
26 - 27 Filters and filter systems
28 - 29 Photography software
30 - 31 Digital Storage

Using your camera

34 - 39 Basic composition
40 - 41 Focusing
42 - 45 Shutter speed and camera shake
46 - 49 Focal length and zoom
50 - 53 Aperture and depth of field
54 - 57 Exposure and metering
58 - 59 File types and image compression
60 - 61 Shooting modes
62 - 63 White balance
64 - 65 ISO and image noise
66 - 67 Understanding hyperfocal distance

4 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 CONTENTS

Creative projects
70 - 79 Assignment: North Devon autocross
80 - 89 Shooting into the light
90 - 101 Your first home studio
102 - 111 Automotive rig photography
112 - 119 Airshow photography
120 - 125 Pet photography
126 - 131 Still life photography
132 - 139 Landscape photography tips
140 - 143 How it’s done
144 - 145 Glossary

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BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 5

 GETTING
STARTED
Choose the right camera and accessories for you

8 - 11 Know your camera

12 - 15 The right camera for you
16 - 19 What lenses do I need?
20 - 21 Why do I need a tripod?
22 - 23 Flashes and lighting
24 - 25 Types of light modifiers
26 - 27 Filters and filter systems
28 - 29 Photography software
30 - 31 Digital Storage

D
o you want to get into photography in much more depth? Are you
thinking of upgrading your existing camera? Whether you’re a
complete beginner, a hobbyist photographer, or perhaps a more
experienced enthusiast, we have some useful information about the
various types of camera systems available, as well as guides to lenses,
tripods, flashes, filters and software that should help you on your way
as you delve deeper into the world of digital photography. The choice
of equipment can be somewhat bewildering and there is nothing worse
than spending your hard earned cash on something that you will quickly
outgrow as you develop your skills as a photographer; hopefully though,
over the next few pages, we can give you a much clearer idea of what is
out there. n

6 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 GETTING STARTED

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 7

 Know your camera
A quick guide to all the major dials and buttons

C
ameras come in many shapes, sizes and
prices. At their heart though, they all do
the same thing: capture light on a sensor
and turn it into a digital image. That’s a gross
oversimplification but you get the general idea.
Modern cameras also come with many features
and functions. Although it would be difficult to list
them all, here are the main dials and buttons that
you can expect to find on many cameras. Different
brands and models vary in their button and dial
layouts as well as certain naming conventions
but we’ve put together a little guide to the main
controls and displays. n

“Cameras come in many shapes,

sizes and prices. At their heart
though, they all do the same
thing: capture light on a sensor
and turn it into a digital image.”

8 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 KNOW YOUR CAMERA

THE FRONT OF THE CAMERA

7
6
8
4

5
3

2 1

10

12
11

1 AF-Assist illuminator
If your subject is poorly lit, the AF-Assist
illuminator lights up to help with focusing.
2 Power switch
A simple lever you can rotate to turn the
camera on and off.
3 Shutter release button
This is a typical two-stage button. Press
halfway to focus, then fully depress to take
a photo.
4 Aperture/Exposure Compensation
Pressing this button lets you alter either the
aperture or exposure compensation value.
5 Movie record button
This button is pressed to begin video recording and
pressed again to stop recording.
6 Live view switch
Click the live view switch in order to display the view
through the lens on the camera’s LCD screen.
7 Mode dial
Rotate this dial to choose which shooting mode to
use such as Aperture, Priority or Manual mode.
8 Pop-up flash
A small built in flash that can be used to help
illuminate poorly lit or backlit subjects.
9 Flash modes and flash compensation
This button allows the choice of different flash
modes such as Red-eye reduction and control of
output power.
10 Function button
You can assign a preferred function to this button
that activates when you hold it.
11 Lens release button
Push this button in order to release an attached
lens from the camera’s lens mount.
12 Infrared receiver (front)
You can activate your camera remotely by using a
controller pointed at this receiver.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 9

 1 THE REAR OF THE CAMERA
2

8
10

9 4

7 11
6

12

13

14

15

17

16

1 Stereo microphone 6 Menu button 12 Information button

Many cameras have a small stereo microphone Pressing the menu button will give you access to When you press this button you can change
built in to capture audio whilst shooting video. most of the shooting options on the camera. settings such as image quality and metering.

2 Accessory shoe 7 Infrared receiver (rear) 13 Multi selector

This mounting plate lets you attach optional You can activate your camera remotely by using a The multi selector acts like a cursor to let you
flashguns to use instead of the built in flash. controller pointed at this receiver. navigate menu screens.

3 Eye sensor 8
Speaker 14 OK button
When you place your eye to the viewfinder, the A small speaker unit to let you listen to any audio Used in conjunction with the multi selector, it lets
LCD display will automatically turn off. that you have captured. you select highlighted items.

4 Info button 9 Viewfinder eyepiece 15 Trash button

Press the info button to activate the LCD screen Through the viewfinder you will see the main If you want to delete a currently displayed image,
and view the current information display. framing grid and the camera settings displayed. press this button to remove it.

5 Command dial 10 Diopter adjustment 16 Vari-angle monitor

The command dial lets you alter the values of
the main camera settings by rotating it to the
left or right.
Here you can adjust the focus of the viewfinder to All information about camera settings and image
suit your eyesight. playback can be viewed on the screen.
11 Play button 17 Playback zoom
Pressing this button will display pictures on the With an image displayed on the screen, you can
LCD monitor. zoom in up to 33x magnification.

10 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 KNOW YOUR CAMERA

THE LEFT SIDE

1 Accessory terminal
Wireless controllers and GPS units
can be plugged in to this terminal.

2 Microphone socket
Optional external stereo
microphones can be connected to
this port.

3 USB and A/V connector

You can directly connect your
camera to a computer or printer
from this port.

THE RIGHT SIDE

1 HDMI connector
Allows the camera to be connected
to a high-definition HDMI device
like a TV.

2 Memory card slot

This is where you insert the digital
storage media such as an SD card.

3 Power connector
A terminal allowing a mains
electrical source to be plugged in.

4 Battery compartment cover

The battery is inserted here.
1

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 11

 The right
camera for you
We highlight the main types of digital camera

T
he number of camera models available
to the budding photographer is vast. All
the main manufacturers have a large
number of different models and types of camera
to suit every taste and also every pocket. A wide “A wide variety of choice is
variety of choice is fine but it can be somewhat
overwhelming when it comes to choosing a
fine but it can be somewhat
camera for yourself. It isn’t helped by the fact
that the distinctions between various types of
overwhelming when
camera system have become quite blurred as
the quality and the capabilities of these devices
it comes to choosing a
keep expanding. With that in mind, we have
put together a little guide to the main types of
camera for yourself.”
camera out there. Hopefully it will help point you
in the right direction so you get the right camera
for the job. n

12 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 THE RIGHT CAMERA FOR YOU

Compact Cameras
A large number of entry-level cameras fall into
this category. They tend to be fairly small and light,
measuring about 100 x 50 x 25mm and weighing
around 120-130g. Modern compacts are normally fully
automatic, although some may offer basic manual
exposure options. They usually have a zoom lens of up to
12x which folds flush with the camera body and an LCD
monitor of about 7cm diagonal size. Unlike larger camera
systems, they don’t have an optical viewfinder, relying
instead on the LCD screen to be used as a live view
monitor. Extra features may include HD video recording,
image stabilisation and Wi-Fi connectivity, and they
often come in a range of colours. As sensor technology
has improved, it has also given rise to a range of compact
cameras for the more advanced photographer. Sporting
larger sensors, these offer greater image quality as
well as superior versatility, manual controls and better
low light capability. As you would imagine, these more
advanced compact cameras can be significantly more
expensive but they will give you much greater creative
control than the standard models. These models
typically offer 16MP - 24MP sensor sizes.

Superzoom
Superzoom cameras are a fixed-lens design of
camera that are built to offer both wide angle capability
and very large levels of magnification without the
need to invest in additional lenses, as you would with
a DSLR. In this case, the amount of magnification can
be anywhere up to 60x or more. That is equivalent
to a 1400mm super telephoto lens. This immense
magnification means it can do the job of much more
expensive DSLR cameras, that would require the
purchase of telephoto lenses that could cost thousands,
all in a relatively compact body. The downside to
having a model of this kind is that although you can
cover a huge zoom range from medium wide angle to
super telephoto, that is all you can do. If you wanted
to shoot a very shallow depth of field macro shot, for
instance, you would not be able to do so; nor could you
use a fast prime lens for low light shooting. That said,
these superzooms offer image stabilisation, manual
control, electronic viewfinders and HD video recording
capability too. You can view these types of cameras as
a great stepping stone for people who want to move
up from compact cameras but don’t want the extra
expense of DSLRs and multiple lenses to worry about.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 13

 Mirrorless Cameras
This area of the camera system world has seen quite an increase
in popularity in recent times. Essentially a mirrorless camera,
as the name suggests, does not have the movable mirror seen in
larger DSLR formats. Although you get a viewfinder as well as a
rear mounted LCD screen, the image that you see is an electronic
representation provided by the image sensor. Like the larger DSLR
cameras, these devices have an interchangeable lens system, giving
you greater creative control over any shooting conditions you might
face. A mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) is smaller,
lighter and less complex to build than most DSLRs. MILC systems
usually offer around 20MP sensor sizes and although the quality of
the images may not be up to full-frame DSLR standards, it is shown to
be improving with each new camera that comes out. The price point
and compact nature of this MILC system makes it a popular choice
but be aware that lens choices are not as varied as those you would
get with a standard DSLR. However, they do have a growing range of
accessories such as flashguns. They have also become increasingly
popular with filmmakers who love them for their good autofocus
ability with HD and even Ultra HD video resolutions.
14 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
Adventure Cameras
This is another growth area in the camera market. Adventure
cameras are compact cameras that are tougher than the
average camera. If adventuring is your thing, then perhaps a
large, heavy, expensive and relatively brittle DSLR might not be
the most apt choice. Although DSLRs are touted as ‘weather
sealed’ that won’t protect them from a dunking in a muddy river
or being dropped on some granite outcropping. This is where
the adventure camera shines. A good adventure camera is fully
waterproof and capable of going on a scuba dive down to 50ft.
They are also shockproof, being able to shrug off a small drop
onto a hard surface. Their sensors usually offer about 16MP
resolution and plenty of shooting modes to make them useful as
day-to-day cameras too. An offshoot of this area of photography
has given rise to mini action cameras such as the GoPro range.
They are the darlings of surfers, snowboarders and the like who
want to be able to mount very small, very light cameras to their
boards, or to themselves. Their ability to shoot 4K video also
makes them very useful in the videography arena.
 THE RIGHT CAMERA FOR YOU

Camera Phones
There is no getting away from it, the smartphone
has turned the idea of a point-and-shoot camera on its
head. Smartphone imaging technology has come a
long way and your average smartphone is now capable
of shooting 16 megapixels with impressive low-light
capability for such a compact device. Moreover, many
smartphones now have the main camera backed up
with a front-facing, lower resolution, ‘selfie’ cam as
well. Typically, the camera built into a mobile phone is
around 16MP with a small f/2.0 main lens and an 8MP
front camera. They also have LEDs built in to act as a
small flash unit to light your subjects at night as well
as electronic image stabilisation. Camera phones are
much simpler in design and use than standard DSLRs.
Their smaller sensors and tiny lenses put an upper limit
on image quality, although a few current models now
allow the capture of images in Raw format as well as the
more usual Jpeg format. Some models do boast larger
1” sensors that can rival the quality of some compact
cameras. The main advantage of the camera phone is
that it is built into a mobile phone; wherever you go, the
camera goes too.

Digital SLRs
Digital SLRs, or DSLRs as they are commonly
referred to, are cameras that use a mirror mechanism
to reflect light from the lens up into a viewfinder.
The viewfinder is optical, meaning that you are
actually seeing what the lens sees, not an electronic
representation like the LCD screens on compact
cameras. When you take a photo, the mirror is flipped
up out of the way and the light entering through the lens
is allowed to fall onto the camera sensor and an image
is recorded. DSLR’s are generally heavier and more
complex than mirrorless and compact cameras. DSLRs
have interchangeable lenses and most can use the
same lenses as their older film-based predecessors,
giving you plenty of creative scope and lens choice.
With specialist lenses available for particular tasks,
DSLR systems are the choice of most serious amateur
and professional photographers, offering superb image
quality. Most DSLRs use a sensor size called APS-C but
a few top-end cameras use the larger full-frame sensors
that are the size of a 35mm film frame. The range of
available lenses is vast, particularly with the main
manufacturers. The downside is that DSLR bodies,
lenses and accessories can be quite expensive.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 15

 What lenses
do I need?
We take a look at the main lens types
available for your camera

I
t’s no surprise that if you purchase a new camera with an interchangeable
lens system, one of the first questions you might ask yourself is ‘which lens
should I buy for my camera?’. That is not quite as easy a question to answer as
you would hope. Manufacturers offer increasingly varied lenses to suit different
photographers’ requirements. To add to the confusion, there is also quite a “ If you are a diehard landscape
varied range in price and quality to take into consideration. On top of that there
is also the cropped sensor and full-frame issue to consider. Certain lenses will
photographer, then lenses with a
only work with certain camera bodies because of the mounting system used,
and so on and on it goes. Everyone shoots differently, with a different style
greater angle of view are what you
and preference and the type of shot you are trying to capture will also greatly
influence the kind of lens you need. If you are a diehard landscape photographer,
will want to capture the environment
then lenses with a greater angle of view are what you will want to capture the
environment in all its sweeping glory. If however, you are a portrait photographer,
in all its sweeping glory.”
then your lens requirements will be quite different. It’s a bit of a minefield but
we’ll try to break down the main types of lenses available as you look deeper into
your next choice of lens. n

16 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


Prime lens
A prime lens is a lens that is a fixed focal length. That means
that it cannot zoom in or out, so you have to buy a prime lens with
a focal length that suits your needs. Prime lenses are light and
usually of better optical quality; but you will have to carry more of
them to around cover a range of focal lengths. Although people
might prefer the convenience of a zoom lens that covers a wide
focal length range, the main factor in considering getting a couple
of prime lenses in your gear bag, is that they offer models that have
a very wide maximum aperture. Primes can be purchased with
apertures of f/2.8 to f/1.4. This allows greater flexibility in low light
conditions and also allows you to shoot images with very shallow
depth of field for those lovely out of focus backgrounds.
WHAT LENSES DO I NEED?
Zoom lens
Zoom lenses have the advantage that they are more versatile
than prime lenses. So much so that just a couple of lenses can cover
a very wide range of focal lengths. You could for instance have a
16-35mm wide angle lens, a 24-105mm lens and a 100-400mm
super telephoto and not need another lens for most of your shooting
requirements. From a framing and composition standpoint, you
do not have to physically move, you can simply zoom the lens to
achieve the framing you are after. There are even certain zoom
lenses that cover a focal length range of 18-300mm. For most
practical requirements, you could use that one lens for every
shoot you do. The main downside is that optical quality is often not
as good as a prime lens and you will need to be aware of camera
shake when using the longer focal lengths as any small amount of
unwanted camera movement will be be magnified and potentially
ruin your shots.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 17
 Pancake lens
Typical focal length:
Wide, Normal, Telephoto
Simply put, a pancake lens is a very flat prime lens. It is shorter
than it is wide and very small and light. Photographers use them
primarily when they are after a small, compact camera and lens
system and are used with DSLR and Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Relative to their diminutive size, they can produce very good images.
Despite being a prime lens, they generally have a maximum aperture
of no greater than f/2.8, although there are a couple of exceptions.
Ultra-wide zoom
Typical focal length:
16-35mm (full-frame equivalent)
Ultra-wide zoom lenses are primarily used for landscape
photography. They are more specialised than standard zooms,
and consequently are usually more expensive, although some
systems include both standard and premium types. A good quality
wide-angle zoom can have a maximum aperture of f/2.8 but will be
very expensive, whereas a lens with a similar focal length but with a
maximum aperture of f/4 will be much cheaper.
18 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
Standard zoom
Typical focal length:
28-80mm (full-frame equivalent)
This is the most common focal length, suitable for general
photography and useful for everything from landscapes to portraits.
Most systems will include a couple of lenses in this focal length
range: usually a cheaper, slower version often included as a kit lens
with a new camera, with a maximum aperture that is usually around
f/3.5-f/4; and a premium quality lens often costing a lot more that
may offer a maximum aperture of f/2.8-f3.5.
Macro lens
Typical focal length:
50-100mm (full-frame equivalent)
A true macro lens by definition should be able to record an image
at 1:1 scale on the sensor or medium it was shot on at its closest
focusing distance. This magnification factor means that a macro
lens is able to fill the frame and reveal amazing detail on very small
objects. Some of the more recent models have image stabilisation
built in, to assist with camera shake that can potentially ruin a shot.
 WHAT LENSES DO I NEED?

Medium telephoto zoom Super telephoto

Typical focal length: Typical focal length:
80-300mm (full-frame equivalent) 400-1200mm (full-frame equivalent)

The medium telephoto zoom is useful for amateur wildlife or
sports photography and portraits at the shorter end of its focal
length range. Telephoto zooms have a smaller effective aperture
than standard zooms, usually ranging from f/3.5 to f/5.6.
Specialist lenses are used mainly by professionals and advanced
enthusiasts. These include both zoom and prime ultra-fast
telephoto lenses used by sports and wildlife photographers. They
are very expensive but essential when it comes to capturing action
at some great distance.

Tilt-shift
Typical focal length:
17mm 24mm 35mm (full-frame equivalent)

A tilt-shift lens is quite a rare breed and not many of its type are
available. It is the modern equivalent of an old bellows film camera.
The lens can be rotated relative to the sensor to control the position
of the area of sharpest focus, as well as moved parallel to the sensor
to move the image area.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 19

 Why do I need a tripod?
An essential piece of equipment

C
amera ownership goes through a number of phases.
First is the decision about which camera to actually
buy, then comes the choice of lenses. Then come the
choices with accessories. It may sound like an exaggeration,
but one of the best accessories you can get to improve your
photography, is to invest in a good tripod. In fact, it might be
safer to upgrade it from the status of ’accessory’ to ‘essential
purchase’. You might wonder why a tripod would be considered
among one of the top key factors in taking better photographs.
Well, have you ever wanted to take photos in challenging low
light conditions and wondered why your images are coming out
blurry? Have you ever taken photos of some distant subject with
your superzoom camera at its maximum magnification and
wondered the same thing? This is because one of the primary
causes of unsatisfactory photos is camera shake. Camera shake
is the unwanted movement of camera and lens being caught
during the capture of the shot. This translates as blurry photos,
often blurry enough to ruin the shot completely. The tripod is
instrumental in eliminating camera shake. It provides a very stable
platform onto which you can mount your camera, preventing it
from moving and spoiling your shots.
Tripods come in various makes, models and materials. They are
either made from plastic in the cheaper models, to metal alloys
in the mid range versions, all the way up to light but rigid carbon
fibre in the professional models. As the name suggests, the tripod
consists of a three legged arrangement upon which your camera
sits in a tripod mount. The legs come in 2 or three sections and
can be telescoped out to different heights. The tripod mount can
be tilted, rotated and flipped so you can shoot at a wide variety of
angles as well as in landscape or portrait orientation. Key factors
when choosing a tripod are rigidity and carrying weight. The
tripod you choose has to be able to support the weight of your
camera and hold it perfectly still. Some cheaper tripods with
plastic heads and thin aluminium legs are too ‘bouncy’ to be used
with anything heavier than a compact or light superzoom. Set the
tripod up and press down on the top of it. If it flexes by more than
a few millimetres it’s not going to be stiff enough to support the
weight of a heavy camera. n

Pocket tripods “ Tripods come in

various makes,
These are miniature tripods designed for small
compact cameras and are ideal for table-top use, or
for positioning your camera for a self-timer group
shot. They’re small enough to slip into a jacket pocket models and materials.
or into your camera pouch. There are several different
types, including ones with telescopic legs, ball or
They are either made
pan-tilt heads, and even flexible legs. One unique and
extremely versatile design is the Gorillapod, which
from plastic in the
can grip onto almost any object or work as a tripod. If
you want something even small to support your light
cheaper models, to
compact camera, then the Xshot mini travel tripod is
the one for you.
metal alloys in the mid
range versions.”

20 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


Entry level tripods
There are many cheap tripods on
the market, made not only by brand
name manufacturers but many third
party manufacturers too. It’s fair to say
that the cheap tripods are cheap for a
reason. If you are serious about your
photography, particularly if you are
shooting outdoors with a heavier DSLR,
then you may find these a bit of a false
economy. If they are made primarily
from plastic, then they are not going to
be rigid enough for any kind of long
exposure photography, particularly
when telescoped out to their full
height. You would be better off
spending a little more on a
metal frame tripod.
Professional tripods
Top quality tripods are made from
high-tech materials like carbon or basalt
fibre, with magnesium alloy fittings and
superior workmanship. They offer the
best rigidity and support for even the
heaviest cameras and lenses. They are
going to be heavier than entry level
or mid range tripods but they offer
quick release plates, different types
of mounting platforms, variable
angle legs and even the centre
column can pivot in a wide
arc. Although they are very
expensive, you do get a lot
of tripod for your money.
WHY DO I NEED A TRIPOD?
Mid range tripods
Often referred to as travel tripods,
these are designed for general use
where low weight and portability
is an important factor. It is a good
compromise to use a mid range metal
tripod when you need to be mobile.
They are made of lightweight
materials, usually aluminium or
carbon fibre and are suitable
for most types of camera from
compacts up to mid-range
DSLRs, although not with
large telephoto lenses. If
you can, get one with a
quick release plate that
makes mounting and
demounting your camera
a much quicker process.
The ability to lock
the legs at different
angles and fold in
reverse for greater
compactness and
portability is important too.
Monopods
If you want support for your
camera but don’t want the weight
or bulk of a tripod, then a monopod
is a good alternative. As the name
implies, it is basically a one-legged
tripod. Although not as stable as its
three-legged cousin, the monopod
can dramatically reduce camera
shake. They can also be quite handy
when shooting from a cramped
space where the larger footprint of
a normal tripod might inhibit your
ability to shoot. Typically made
from aluminium or carbon fibre,
they provide helpful stability and
also a good measure of portability.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 21
 Flashes and lighting
Add light and boost your creativity

O
nce you get beyond the basics of photography
and you find yourself wanting to add a little
creativity and take more control of how the light
affects your shots, then that is when you need to take a
look at additional lighting in the form of flashes. Your first
experience of flash might be the tiny pop up flash you
find on the top of a lot of compact cameras and a number
of DSLR models. They are useful to light a subject when
all else fails but to be honest, if you want your shots to
look more than just selfies, then you need to look further
afield. We are referring to the dedicated flashguns that
can be mounted in your camera’s hot shoe, or for even
greater flexibility, used off-camera and fired remotely by a
wireless trigger.
They are known by different names such as flash, strobe,
speedlight (or speedlite) and monobloc. They are usually
battery powered, which makes them very portable. They
emit a powerful and brief flash of light that can illuminate
your scene. Monoblocs, or studio lights as they are know, are
larger, more powerful and less portable lights that are usually
powered by mains electricity. Some studio lights can be used
outdoors with the help of large lithium batteries. n

Pop up flash
Most compact cameras and entry level DSLRs will
have a small flash built in. Most are designed to pop up
when light levels are deemed too low to get a usable
exposure. Pop up flashes by their nature are very
small and produce a very harsh direct light that is not
flattering for your subjects. Because the little flash
tube is front-facing, you don’t have a lot of scope to
get creative. You can use it to fill in dark shadows but
beyond that you’re probably going to struggle. Some
people will put a small piece of white card bent at an
angle in front of the flash to direct the light upwards in
order to bounce the light off the ceiling but this can be
a bit hit and miss. Add to that the fact that they are not
particularly powerful, then you can see why you need
to step up your game a little to the next level.

22 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 FLASHES AND LIGHTING

Continuous light Third party flash

An alternative to the various forms of flash lighting Just like cameras, there is a bewildering choice. Not just
we’ve mentioned here is to used continuous lighting from the major brands like Canon and Nikon but from 3rd party
instead. Sometimes also referred to as hot lights or manufacturers like Nissin, Yongnuo and Gloxy. With big name
photofloods. Rather than emitting a powerful but brief brands costing hundreds for top of the range equipment, the
flash of light, continuous lights are always on. They are temptation may be to trawl the pages on eBay looking for a
not as powerful as flashes but you do have the benefit bargain flash unit. It is fair to point out that the phrase ‘you get
of always seeing how the light is falling on your subject what you pay for’ has never
without need to do a test shot as you would with flash. been more relevant. You
At their simplest, they are either an incandescent bulb may find yourself some
housed inside a large reflector, or powerful daylight unknown brand for a
balanced fluorescent lights that are more quarter of the price of one
energy efficient. For more powerful of the major brand names
options, you are going to be looking at that seems too good to
arc lights; these were developed be true, and it probably
for the film industry and are is. Take the advice of
insanely expensive. those who found out to
their cost, stick with a major brand or
well regarded 3rd party manufacturer.
Check out user reviews wherever you
can. Make the best informed choice you
are able within your budget.

Brand name flashes Studio lights

All the manufacturers make a variety of flash models for their Studio lights can actually be broken down
cameras. They range from simple front facing small flashes, right into two categories. First is the flash head
up to their professional-level flashes with wireless control, powerful kit. Flash heads are just the light emitters. A
flash tubes with variable power control, tilt and swivel flash heads separate power pack supplies the required
and a host of customisable features and accessories to create your voltage and the controls are actually on the
own portable studio power unit itself. The other variety of studio
setup. These light is the monobloc, or monolight. These
models are are either mains powered or lithium
not cheap battery powered flash units but
but they are all the controls are built into
the choice of each unit. This limits their
professionals power but it does make
for a reason. them more portable
They also and more easily used
have the outdoors. Flash
added bonus of heads tend be more
letting you shoot powerful and you
high-speed photography have the advantage
because when used at of being able to
lower power settings, the control multiple flash
pulse of light from the flash head setups directly
is so brief, that you could from the power pack.
use it to illuminate a scene
for a fraction of a second and
catch a bullet in flight, freezing
the action dead in its tracks.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 23

 Types of light modifiers
Make light yours to command

W
hen you use flash lighting, especially if
using it to directly light your subject, you
will be aware of how harsh the shadows
it casts can be. You can’t always be near a large
picture window on an overcast day, where the
softness of the light coming through that window
makes it difficult to take a bad photo. You have
to work with what you have, so that means you
need to go back to your flash. However, there are
some techniques that allow you to modify and
shape light to suit your needs. This is where light
modifiers come in.
A lighting modifier is just what the name suggests.
It is an object, surface, or material that alters the way
the light travels from its source to the subject. If you
shoot with an unmodified flashgun, the light that is
emitted is traveling in a concentrated beam from a
very small light source. If this light passes through
a modifier, such as a softbox, the light is diffused,
scattered and less concentrated. A modifier can
also turn a small light source into a large one. A flash,
fired from several feet away onto a large translucent
material, for instance, creates an illuminated hot
spot that is much larger than its source. This is the
basis of light modification. Here are a few of the
types of light modifier you could be working with. n
“A lighting modifier is
just what the name
suggests. It is an object,
surface, or material
that alters the way the
light travels from its
source to the subject. ”

24 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 TYPES OF LIGHT MODIFIERS

Omni-Bounce Snoot
In effect, this is a tiny A snoot is a tube that concentrates the light output of your flash.
softbox that covers the It gives the resulting beam a searchlight quality that creates a tight
head of your flash. It pool of light, ideal for highlighting a small part of your scene. Moving
enables light not only to the flash further away will enable you to define a larger spotlight.
emit forwards but also Because the beam of light is so narrow, the rest of your scene would
around the sides. This gives be in relative darkness. Since the light is effectively reduced in size,
a closer approximation of the shadows it creates will be fairly sharp.
a bare bulb and allows for
wider lighting coverage at
the expense of reduced
flash power because not all
the light is thrown forward.
Even from a relatively short
distance, there would be a
visible difference in shadow
softness compared to a
bare flash.

Dome diffuser Shoot through

The dome diffuser takes the idea of the omni-bounce and umbrella
expands upon it. The larger physical size of the dome allows you to The shoot through
use it like a true, large, bare bulb. With it, you can illuminate larger umbrella or ‘brolly’ is
areas with a more even light source. Bear in mind that, like the omni- regarded as one of the
bounce, light is spread in all directions so your subject illumination best types of light modifier
will appear diminished. for those new to flash
photography. It is a white
translucent material
stretched over an umbrella
wire frame through which
the flash is fired. It is a great
way to spread out light from
a very small original source.
The downside is that shoot
through umbrellas can be
quite easily broken.

Reflector The softbox

umbrella A softbox is used to soften
A reflector umbrella and diffuse the output of your
works in the opposite flash into a visually pleasing
manner to a shoot through. even light with no harsh
The flash is fired into the shadows. The closer the
umbrella which uses its softbox is to the subject, or
inner silver lining to reflect indeed the larger the softbox,
the light back out onto the the softer the light appears.
subject. This method allows In fact, many use softboxes
you light large areas within to emulate window light when
a 180° radius. The wide, shooting portraits or even
even light pattern it creates product photography. If used
is ideal for lighting large as a key light in portraiture,
groups from a distance of the large rectangular
around 6m to 7m. surface creates some lovely
catchlights in the subject’s
eyes as if they were looking
out of a window.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 25

 Filters and
filter systems
Some must have filters for
creative photography

F
ilters have been an essential
part of photography since its
very beginnings. Used creatively
they can improve a hard-to-capture 1. UV filter
scene, add an extra artistic element This screw-on filter was used originally
to an image or just provide a bit of to block UV light from hitting the film
fun. Modern digital photo editing has in old cameras. Modern digital
provided an almost too easy method cameras have UV and Infra
to add filter effects to an image after it Red protection on their
has been taken; some effects are better sensors now, so a UV
when applied by actual physical filters filter is employed as a
fitted to the camera when the photo is method of protection
taken and this is particularly true with against scratches and 1
black and white photography. Let’s dust getting on the front
take a look at some of the different lens element. Optionally
types of filter and how they can help to you can just use a good
improve your photos. quality clear glass filter
instead. The higher the quality
of glass the better, so as to avoid
ghosting and flare in your shots.

26 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 FILTERS AND FILTER SYSTEMS

2. Circular polarizing filter

Circular polarizers are ideal for digital cameras. When 2
correctly aligned, the filter can render blue skies darker with
brighter, white clouds. They can also increase saturation and
reduce reflections on shiny surfaces and water as well as
reduce haze. Polarisers work best when the camera is about
90° either side of the sun. The polariser has to be rotated until
the maximum effect is achieved, blocking certain light waves.
These filters come in both screw-on and filter holder varieties.

3. Neutral density filter 3

ND filters limit the amount of light that is able to fall on the
sensor and therefore require much longer shutter duration.
They are made from darkened materials that are designed to
be optically neutral so as not create a colour cast. The darker
the filter the longer your exposures can be. ND filters can range
from a 2-stop filter to 10-stops of light reduction. They are
excellent for use in daytime to create motion blur in in moving
objects like water and clouds. 4

4. Graduated neutral density filter

ND grads work similar to standard ND filters but instead of
being one solid dark material, the filter fades from dark to clear.
They are useful in high contrast situations such as a bright sky
versus a dark foreground where you can use the filter to darken
the sky enough to balance the overall exposure in the scene.

Screw on filter Rectangular filter Filter types

1. Circular screw on filters are the most common type that fits directly
on your lens filter thread. They come in different thicknesses, the
thickest of which can potentially cause vignetting to your shots. Ultra thin
filters get around this but can be more expensive.

2. Square filters are popular with landscape photographers. A holder

designed to house the filters directly attaches to the lens filter thread and
can hold several filters. Generally they range in size from around 75mm
to 150mm

3. Rectangular filters are another popular choice among landscape

photographers. These are mounted in the same fashion as their square
counterparts, the main difference is because they are rectangular; they
have more scope to move up and down within the holder.

4. Filter holders are plastic and metal mounting devices that screw
onto the filter thread of your lens. They have several slots moulded into
Filter holder them to accommodate several filters at once. The most popular filter
system manufacturers are Cokin and Lee and Hitech. n

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 27

 Photography software
Bringing your photos to life
B
ack in the days of analog film cameras, the
process of taking photographs used to
be the key part of the creative workflow.
Producing prints or negatives in the darkroom
did not allow for much scope when it came to
maximising the quality of the images that had
been taken. These days, in the world of digital
photography, it can be argued that the capture
of the images is only half the workflow. Indeed,
some regard the post-process workflow as the
overriding factor in producing great images.
We have always extolled the virtues of shooting
your images in the uncompressed and unprocessed
Raw format. Raw files are so named because
they only contain the raw data straight from your
camera’s sensor. There has been no processing of
the image as you would get with a Jpeg file but it does
mean that you have to put in a little work to extract
the very best from the Raw format. This is where you
need some software that can process your photos.
Using Raw processing software is the first step in the
workflow. Here you can make all the necessary basic
edits to your images such as distortion correction,
saturation, tonal adjustments, sharpening, noise
“These days, in the
world of digital
photography, it can be
argued that the capture
of the images is only
half the workflow. ”
28 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
reduction and so on. Once you have made all the
main edits to your photo, you can save it out to your
preferred image format such as Jpeg or Tiff and call
it done. However, if you want to do some additional
photo manipulation, then you will also need to invest
in software that can let you apply extensive photo
retouching, layers, masks and effects.
When it comes to software, you have
a large number of options to choose
from. In fact, there is so much choice,
it can be nothing short of confusing.
If you are new to photography or
even an experienced photographer
looking for some new applications
to take your images to the next
level, we’ve produced a small
overview of some of the software
options currently available. Note,
from the list that Adobe products
feature quite prominently.
That is no accident as their
popularity cannot be denied,
but there are also more
options to discover. n
 PHOTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE

Adobe Photoshop CC Adobe Camera Raw

(Windows and Mac) (Windows and Mac)
Photoshop is probably one of the best known editing programs out Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) actually comes as part of Photoshop
there; so much so that the name of the software has actually become when you download it. It is a plug-in that is used to non-destructively
a verb, as in ‘that image has been photoshopped’. The great thing process Raw format photographs. It works in harmony with
about Photoshop is that it is relatively easy to use, if you only need to Photoshop and you can even pass the image back and forth
bring the simplest tools to bear on your images, but it is also hugely between the two applications as you work on your images. Although
sophisticated if you require the most advanced editing tools available. it is not as feature rich as its big brother Lightroom, it has become
It is the go-to application not only for photographers but digital a very powerful image editing tool in its own right. For
artists, designers and even videographers and 3D a lot of users, the features
artists. It is probably the available in ACR
most popular layer- are more than
based image editing enough to get the
and photo retouching very best out of
software currently their photos.
available. Photoshop is
now available as part of
Adobe’s Creative Cloud
subscription service.

Adobe Lightroom Adobe Elements

(Windows and Mac) (Windows and Mac)
Lightroom is an image processing and photo organiser that allows Elements a raster graphics editor and photo
the organising, non-destructive enhancement and retouching of manipulator much like its big brother Photoshop.
images in large numbers. It is a very powerful program that not only It employs many of the
sets the standard for image enhancement but also for its ability to features and tools seen
organise, catalog, add keywords and even geotag all the images in Photoshop but with
in your library. It also boasts the capability to create photobooks, less options and a simpler
print parameters such as layout and orientation and can approach. It also has many
produce web galleries for automated features suited
websites with to new users, such as red eye
a number removal and changing skin
of display tone in photos.
templates
provided for
easy styling.

DxO Optics Pro Corel Paint Shop Pro

(Windows and Mac) (Windows)
DxO Optics has made a name for itself in the world of Corel Paint Shop Pro pulls off a great trick
digital editing and photography with its noise reduction by being three programs in one
capabilities and its sophisticated handling of lens package. You are able to use its
corrections. It behaves much like file management capabilities
Lightroom and ACR but unlike to tag, rate and keyword your
Lightroom it does not have such images. Then, you can move
advanced file management to the edit suite and process
and cataloging functionality. It your images and make all the
is compatible with Lightroom main enhancements and image
though and images can be adjustments that your image
passed back and forth between needs; there are also a number
the two. of preset art filters, like you would
find on apps for your mobile
phone. Then you can move to the
edit suite and use layer-based
editing that makes it a worthy
alternative to Photoshop.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 29

 Digital storage
Your precious holiday photos in safe hands
A
s camera technology develops and the
megapixel count increases with every
new camera that is released, the file sizes
that these cameras create when shooting in Raw
format can be substantial. As an example, if you
were to shoot a highly detailed landscape image
with lots of tree, grass, clouds and mountains, an
uncompressed 12-bit Raw file from something
like a Nikon D810 could be as much as 55MB.
Now imagine shooting an action scene of ponies
running across the moorlands in burst mode and
capturing twenty shots in just one sequence,
you can imagine how quickly you would start
filling up any digital storage. There’s more to
30 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
it than just the amount of storage you have. A
memory card of 64GB will let you store a lot of
images, but if that card cannot write the data
from the camera fast enough, that burst mode
sequence of ponies that your camera should be
able to shoot at 8 frames per second is going
to hit a digital log jam after a couple of shots
because the buffer can’t get the image data
written to the card and it all grinds to a halt while
it finishes the task. Clearly, there is more to
memory cards than meets the eye.
Premium or Budget?
The popularity of SD cards has led to a large
number of budget brands springing up,
and many supermarkets and chain stores
sell their own-brand cards at often very low
prices. However the best advice is to stick
to the premium brands such as SanDisk,
Lexar, Pretec, PNY or Kingston, or to camera
brands such as Fujifilm or Panasonic.
Although they may be more expensive their
higher standards of quality control mean
that premium cards are usually much more
reliable. If you’ve got a high-performance
camera it’s also worth spending a bit extra for
faster data transfer rates to get the best out
of it. n
 DIGITAL STORAGE

SPEED RATINGS MEMORY CARD USAGE

Premium cards have higher data transfer speeds, Kingston SDHC 8 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro
which means they can store and retrieve data more Class 4 UHS-3 SDXC
quickly, an important factor when shooting video or a £5/$4/€6 64GB, 95MB/s
rapid sequence of still images. The speed of the memory Best for: compact camera Class 10
card can have an effect on the overall performance of the users and holiday shooters. £37/$35/€44
camera, especially on high-end models. Unfortunately Best for: pros shooting
many manufacturers have their own ways of describing Raw files and 4K movies.
the speed of their cards, which can be very confusing for
the consumer.
Some use the ‘x’ rating, comparing the read/write Lexar Multi-use 16GB SanDisk Extreme Pro
speed to that of a CD-ROM, approximately 150 kilobytes Class 4 Compact Flash
per second (150 KB/s), so a memory card rated at ‘40x’ £5/$9/€6 64GB, 160MB/s
speed has a transfer rate of 6 megabytes per second Best for: compact users and £75/$85/€90
(6MB/s). amateur DSLR users. Best for: high bit rate DSLR
The more widely accepted speed rating is the Class and HD video users.
system, usually denoted by a number inside a letter C.
Most budget cards are Class 2, with a minimum read/
write speed of 2MB/s. Most mid-range high-capacity
cards are Class 6, with a read/write speed of 6MB/s. Lexar Premium SDHC SanDisk Extreme Pro
The fastest class currently available are Class 32GB 200X 256GB, 160MB/s.
10 cards, which have a read/write speed of at least Class 10 £275/$300/€330
10MB/s. The newer ultra high speed UHS-I cards are £15/$12/€18 Best for: extreme image
rated at speeds of up to 45MB/s 90MB/s and the UDMA Best for: varied storage and video performance.
7 Compact Flash cards can reach 160MB/s. Some cards intensive DSLRs
offer storage capacity up to 256GB in size. All this from a and devices.
card that is not much bigger than a postage stamp.

Transcend SDXC Flash Lexar Professional

128 GB 512GB, 525MB/s.
Class 10 £1043/$1200/€1228
£35/$44/€42 Best for: the highest
Best for: serious DSLR and possible performance.
video enthusiasts.

“The speed of the memory card can have an effect

on the overall performance of the camera.”

SO HOW MANY PICTURES CAN I TAKE?

The total number of pictures that can be
stored on a memory card is a difficult thing
to quantify for a couple of reasons. Digital
cameras usually store images using the
JPEG file format, which compresses image
data to save storage space. Most cameras
have a menu setting for image quality which
varies the rate of compression, with high
quality images taking up more space. The
compressed size of the image can also vary
depending on the subject being shot, since
more detailed images contain more data.
For a typical modern 16-megapixel digital
camera the file size can vary between about
4.5MB for a good quality jpeg and 30MB for
an uncompressed Raw file, which means
an average 8GB card will be enough for
approximately 1400 jpegs or 260 Raw files.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 31

 USING YOUR
CAMERA
Learn how to get the most out of your camera
34 - 39 Basic composition
40 - 41 Focusing
42 - 45 Shutter speed and camera shake
46 - 49 Focal length and zoom
50 - 53 Aperture and depth of field
54 - 57 Exposure and metering
58 - 59 File types and image compression
60 - 61 Shooting modes
62 - 63 White balance
64 - 65 ISO and image noise
66 - 67 Understanding hyperfocal distance

O
ne of the keys to good photography is a solid grounding in the
main methods and techniques that ensure your photos come
out as you want them to. Nothing is more frustrating than taking
a photo and the result not be how you hoped; and not being sure how to
remedy it or ascertain why it went wrong in the first place. This section
should help you understand a little more about the main principles of
photography, such as composition, focusing, exposure and metering. A
solid understanding of the essential skills and techniques will ultimately
free you up and enable you to explore new and more creative projects.
A camera is just a tool that, if left to its own devices in fully automatic
mode, may not deliver the results you want. We hope to show you that
it’s not at all scary and to take full control of your camera’s settings.
There is no dark art to it, just good camera craft. n

32 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 USING YOUR CAMERA

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 33

 Basic composition
The simple rules that make a good picture great
The addition of elements in
a scene can make or break a
photograph. If you cover up
the tree on the left of the shot
with your thumb, does the shot
seem unbalanced or incomplete
without it?
T
he main difference between a well taken
snapshot and a truly artistic photograph
is simply a matter of composition. By
changing the focal length, the angle and the
position of the camera, the photographer
can change the relative positions and sizes of
objects in the frame to produce a more visually
pleasing effect. Learning to do this is mostly a
matter of practice and experimentation, but
there are a number of simple tips and
rules-of-thumb that can help you to take
better pictures.
The first and most important thing to
remember is to take your time. Look at the scene
in the viewfinder or on your monitor and try to see
it not as simply a view but instead to imagine it as a
finished print. Ask yourself if there’s any way that
it can be improved by maybe zooming in a little,
or by moving the camera. A tripod is a very useful
34 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
tool for this, since it lets you view a completely static
image without the need to hold the camera steady.
The Rule of Thirds
The most commonly used compositional
technique is called the Rule of Thirds, and it’s
really very simple. Let’s take a look at an example
landscape picture [1]. It’s a nice enough shot,
correctly exposed, in focus and nicely lit, but now
look at the next example [2]. Doesn’t that look
better? It’s obviously the same scene, and taken
from roughly the same position, but this composition
is much more appealing. The reason it works is
because the lighthouse is now positioned off-centre
in the frame, in fact it is one third of the distance
from the right to the left. This type of composition is
known as the Rule of Thirds.
The best way to apply the Rule of Thirds is to
imagine the frame divided up into thirds both
vertically and horizontally, rather like a Noughts
and Crosses (Tic Tac Toe for those in the USA)
grid [3]. If you position the main elements of the
image on these imaginary lines, or better yet on the
intersections where the lines meet, you’ll find that
your image will look a lot more pleasing to the eye.
The Rule of Thirds works just as well in
vertical-format shots, and is useful in landscape
photography, since features on the horizon makes
a natural dividing line [4].
Portraits can also benefit from Rule of Thirds
composition. By positioning a subject’s eye at a
point where the imaginary lines intersect [5], will
give your portrait balance and really help to draw the
viewer’s attention into the picture.
Most digital cameras feature an option to
superimpose the Rule of Thirds grid on the
monitor screen to make this type of composition
easier. Now you know why it is there. n
 BASIC COMPOSITION

4 5

“Look at the scene in

the viewfinder or on your
monitor and try to see it
not as simply a view but
instead to imagine it as a
finished print.”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 35

ZOOM
You can use your camera’s zoom lens to improve
composition. Below (left) is a photograph of a striking
evening scene, taken with a 16mm wide-angle lens.
Whilst it does capture a striking skyline with
interesting visual content, there’s too much going on in
the picture. The jetty in the foreground, the buildings
both sides of the river and the bridge are confusing, so it
“By moving a short distance and zooming in,
we can get a much tighter composition.”
FRAMING
A less popular technique, but one which can
produce good results under the right circumstances,
is framing. This is where you use objects in the
foreground to frame and thus emphasise the
main subject of the picture. It is difficult to do well,
because there is the risk that the foreground objects
will distract the viewer from the main subject.
However if the framing objects are sufficiently
nondescript and contrast from an eye-catching main
subject then this compositional technique can work
very well.
In the picture on the left the framing doesn’t work
36 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
becomes unclear what the subject of the shot is.
By moving a short distance and zooming in to
exclude the surrounding scenery, we can get a much
tighter composition (below right). Now there’s no
question about the subject of the photograph. The
shape of the building where it intersects the sky and
the river now conforms to the rule of thirds.
because too much of the foreground is visible and
in sharp focus; it distracts from the subject of the
picture. However, framing an image by zooming in so
that only a few leaves are visible and out of focus, the
effect in the right image is a lot more successful.
Thanks to the conventions reinforced by decades
of Hollywood films, framed shots where most of
the framing object is on the lower edge of the frame
tend to look sinister, like you were stalking the
subject, while a frame of overhanging foliage tends
to be associated with romance, and is often used by
wedding photographers.
Angle
By far the most common compositional mistake
is to take a photo from the wrong angle. If you see
something that you think might make a good photo,
don’t just point the camera and snap away. Pause for
a moment and think about what you actually want to
see in the picture, and what would be the best way to
capture it. Take this shot for example:
This display of fruit and veg outside a
greengrocers has some good elements. The light is
great, it has plenty of colour, and some interesting
shapes and textures. However shot from this
angle it is completely uninteresting, just a random
snapshot. However if we get down lower and in
closer, we find this view:
It would have been better still to have the
strawberries in the shot as well, but here the
contrast in shape and colour between the melons
and the pineapple stalks makes for a much more
striking image, and the slightly blurred price tag in
the background adds a nice finishing touch.
One of the best uses for this tip is when taking
photos of children or animals. If you kneel down
and shoot from their height you’ll get much better
results than if you stand up and just snap away,
because all you get then is photos of the tops of their
heads. The best wildlife photographers know that to
get a good picture of an animal you have to share its
environment, so make a bit of an effort and try to get
down closer to you subject’s head height. You may
risk getting your clothes dirty, but you’ll get a much
better shot.

“The best wildlife photographers know
that to get a good picture of an animal
you have to share its environment.”
BASIC COMPOSITION
When shooting children or animals,
capture the world from their perspective
by crouching down so that the camera is
level with their head height.
Perspective
Perspective is what gives us our perception of
three dimensions, and we can use this to achieve
a number of different effects. Most types of
perspective shots are achieved using wide-angle
lenses, since the exaggerated angle of view
emphasises the effect.
The most common type of perspective effect is
“one-point perspective”. By using a wide-angle lens,
groups of lines converging on a vanishing point
within the boundaries of the frame can add energy
to an otherwise fairly dull scene, giving a sense of
movement and drama. This effect works best for
photographs taken when within or surrounded by
buildings, but it can also work on roads, railway lines,
even rivers and beaches.
Photographs of buildings can be enlivened by using
“two point perspective”, photographing the building
from a low angle pointing upward so that the parallel
sides converge both upward and to the side, creating
two vanishing points which are usually outside of the
frame of the picture. This is also achieved by using
a wide-angle lens to emphasise the effect, however
the main danger is that many wide-angle lenses,
especially the zoom lenses on compact cameras,
produce what is known as barrel distortion, where
parallel lines appear to curve. Better quality lenses
minimise this distortion. n
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 37
FOREGROUND, SUBJECT AND BACKGROUND
Squinting at your subject through the viewfinder of
your camera, it’s all too easy to overlook what else is in
the frame. You’re concentrating so hard on getting your
subject not to blink when the flash goes off that you
completely miss that tree in the background that looks
like it’s growing out of her head, or the discarded crisp
packet lying distractingly in the corner of the frame.
Along with your main subject, a photograph will usually
have both a background and a foreground, and these are
just as much a part of the image. The trick is to compose
the photograph in such a way that you strike a balance
between these different elements. When done properly
this adds life and interest to the picture, as well as making
it seem more natural.
Take this photo of a famous and much-photographed
Dartmoor landmark, the ancient clapper bridge at
Postbridge in Devon. It’s very easy to simply take a
38 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
snapshot of the bridge, but that simply looks the same
as the photographs that hundreds of visitors take of it
every year. It’s very pretty, but it’s also a little dull. By
including some foreground detail, and positioning the
camera to capture the background of the moorland
and forest, the bridge is now one element of a much
more balanced shot, and one which shows the bridge in
its surroundings.
Similarly this photo of a familiar London landmark is
flat and boring, and doesn’t really show the building in
the context of the city around it.
By choosing a completely different location we can
add foreground detail the shot, and instantly it becomes
more balanced and dynamic. Of course the improved
weather helps too, but that’s another thing to which
you should pay attention when you are setting up and
composing a photograph.
Balance
When your photograph has more than one
subject you can achieve a better composition
if you give each subject equal weight in the
composition, so that the subjects form a
harmonious balance within the frame. As with
many artistic techniques it’s largely a matter of
practice, experience and individual taste.
Try to position your subjects so that they
are the same distance from the edges of the
frame, and also more-or-less symmetrically
balanced around either the centre of
the frame or some visible dividing line. A
diagonal composition works in most cases,
especially with portraits of couples. Perfectly
symmetrical arrangements where the subjects
are the same height within the frame tend to
look forced and unnatural.
In this first example, the two fish are
balanced by the stone jar in a diagonal
arrangement that makes for a pleasing and
harmonious composition. If you can’t see it, try
covering up the jar with your hand and see how
dull the fish look on their own.
In this second example, the photo was cropped
to balance the composition between the two
guys talking in the background and the horse in
the foreground. In this case the horse is closer
to the edge of the frame, but then it is much
bigger and closer to the camera, so it looks
more natural that way.

LEADING LINES
EXAMPLE A
EXAMPLE B EXAMPLE C
Closely related to perspective is the concept of
leading lines. When you look at a photograph for the
first time, your eye will naturally be drawn to certain
areas. It is possible to subtly lead the viewer’s eye
around the image to areas of interest using the visual
cues of line and perspective.
For some reason best known to anthropologists
our eyes find broad “S” shapes very appealing, so any
feature in a photograph that resembles this shape will
naturally tend to attract the viewer’s attention. The eye
naturally tends to follow the S-shape into the picture,
usually starting at the closest and/or lowest point and
moving upward. Many features can be used to create
leading lines, but favourites include rivers, streams,
footpaths, roads, hedgerows, or the line of surf on a
beach. In figure or portrait photography, the line of the
limbs, hands, hair or items of clothing can also be used to
create leading lines that draw the eye into the photo.
EXAMPLE D
In example A, the elevated angle allows the long
curving line of a harbour wall to form a leading line
drawing the viewer into the picture. Leading lines are
most often used in landscape photography, because
so many natural features make those appealing
S-shapes. In example B the line of the path leads the
eye up past the hikers to the mountains beyond.
Leading lines don’t have to be S-shaped curves,
straight lines can work as well. In example C, the
perspective of the walls, the ceiling decorations and
pillars draw you from the front of the shot down the
corridor to the exit. Use leading lines to emphasise
a particular point in a photograph, or to highlight a
particular subject in a busy environment.
In this studio portrait shot (example D), the
position of the model’s hand and the line of her hair
combine in a leading line directing the viewer’s
attention to her eyes.
BASIC COMPOSITION
Implied movement
A photograph freezes a moment in time,
which is great if your subject is a stationary
object or person, but what if your subject is
moving? How can you capture movement in a
still image?
There is a technique involving a slow shutter
speed and panning the camera to follow the
movement, but it’s difficult to master and only
works about one time in ten anyway. Far easier
is freezing the action with a nice fast shutter
speed, and using a subtle compositional trick to
simulate movement.
The trick is very simple. Just position the
moving subject within the frame so that it
appears that it is moving into the middle of the
picture. For example, if you are photographing
a boat moving from the left to the right, position
it on the left of the frame so that it is moving
inward towards the centre, leaving room in the
frame into which the boat could move. The best
way to illustrate this effect is with a couple of
examples. Take a look at this shot:
Here the boat is positioned incorrectly, and
appears to be about to exit out of the picture.
There is a lot of empty space on the left of the
picture, and it looks awkward and unbalanced.
In this shot, the boat is moving into the
picture, giving it better balance and a dynamic
feeling of speed and movement. If you look at
pictures by professional sports photographers,
you’ll see this technique applied to everything
from sailing boats to football players. n
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 39
 “Autofocus technology has improved immensely,
and these days even the most basic modern AF
systems are generally fast, accurate and reliable.”

Focusing
Getting the best out of your autofocus system

W
ith only one or two exceptions,
all current digital cameras have
automatic focusing. The first
autofocus systems were developed by Leica in
the 1970s. The first autofocus compact camera,
the Konica C35 AF, was introduced in 1977, and
the first autofocus 35mm SLR, the Pentax ME-F,
was launched in 1981. Since that time autofocus
technology has improved immensely, and these
days even the most basic modern AF systems
are generally fast, accurate and reliable.
Although we now rely on autofocus for the
vast majority of photographs, anyone who has
tried taking a photo in low light, with fast-moving
subjects or using very long telephoto lenses will
have noticed that sometimes even the best AF
system can run into problems. We’ve all stood
there with the lens whirring in and out of focus,
trying to get a lock on our subject, and eventually
missed the shot. It’s very frustrating when this
happens, but with a few simple tips you can help
your camera to focus quickly and accurately even
in difficult situations.
There are two main types of autofocus system
in common use today. All compact cameras
and most CSCs use something called contrast-
detection AF, which samples the image from the
main picture taking sensor and detects sharp
high contrast edges in the details of the scene.
Meanwhile all digital SLRs and Sony’s new SLT
cameras use something called phase-detection
AF, which uses an array of separate dedicated
sensors usually mounted below and in front of the

40 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


main imaging sensor. Phase detection is a more
complex system, but it is usually much faster, more
accurate and works better in low light. However
both systems require some detail in the scene to
’lock on’ to. Try it for yourself: point your camera at
a plain wall or a sheet of white paper and see if it will
focus on it. Even if you own a top-of-the-range DSLR
it won’t be able to focus on a featureless surface.
There are a couple of ways to help your
camera to focus quickly on a scene. Most digital
cameras have the option to select either single or
continuous autofocus. Your camera will normally
start to focus on the scene as soon as you half-
press the shutter button. In continuous focus
mode it will continue to update the focus if you
Different lenses have different minimum
focusing distances, but many modern
zoom telephoto lenses also have macro-
focusing capabilities for close-ups.
By carefully focusing on just one part of the scene, and
using limited depth of field, you can draw attention to it.
FOCUSING
then move the camera, but in single AF mode it will
hold the same focus setting as long as you hold down
the button, until you actually take the shot. You can
use this to focus the camera on low detail targets
by finding an object in the scene that’s the same
distance away as your chosen subject, focusing on
that, and then holding the focus and reframing the
shot. Similarly you can use it in reverse to focus on
objects that aren’t in the centre of the frame.
Moving targets
Compact camera AF systems are usually
somewhat slower than those in DSLRs, which
means they can have a real problem focusing on
moving subjects. The way around this is either to use
continuous AF or, if your camera has this option, to
use manual focus. If you can tell where your subject
is going to be, such as a car going round a tight
corner on a race track or a child on a swing, you can
pre-focus the camera on this point and wait to take
the picture at the right moment. This method takes
some practice and good reflexes, but it can produce
excellent results.
Close-ups
All cameras and lenses have a minimum focusing
distance, a closest point beyond which they cannot
focus. For many compact cameras this distance can
be very small, in some cases as little as 2cm (1in),
but for standard DSLR lenses the distances tend to
be longer. Most compact cameras have a ’macro’
setting, usually denoted by the symbol of a flower. To
get closer focusing with a DSLR or CSC, special close-
focus macro lenses have to be used.
Depth of field is greatly reduced at very close
focusing distances, and you may find that your AF
system doesn’t focus on the right part of the subject,
for example if you are trying to photograph the centre
of a flower, but the AF focuses on the petals, because
they’re closer. The best option is to use a tripod, and
manually set the focus to the closest distance. Move
the tripod until the front of the subject comes into
focus, then carefully manually adjust the focus point
to get the right part of the flower to look sharp. n
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 41
 Shutter speed
and camera shake
The shutter of your camera is simply a mechanical barrier

“The wider the range of

available shutter speeds, the
greater the creative versatility
of the camera.”

42 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


T
he shutter of your camera is simply
a mechanical barrier that prevents
light from entering the camera until
it is needed, controlling when and for how
long light is allowed in to expose the sensor.
The latest digital cameras have high-speed
electro-mechanical shutters capable
of timing exposures with an accuracy
measured in fractions of a millisecond.
Along with the aperture setting and the
sensitivity control, shutter speed is one of
the three ways that photographic exposure
is adjusted. When a picture is taken, the
shutter is opened for a precisely measured
amount of time allowing light to pass through.
The duration of the exposure is set either
automatically by the camera’s light meter or
manually by the photographer. The wider the
range of available shutter speeds, the greater
the creative versatility of the camera.
Modern digital SLR cameras have a very
wide range of shutter speeds available,
usually ranging from 30 seconds to as high
as 1/8,000th of a second, and most also
have a ‘B’ setting, in which the shutter stays
open for as long as the shutter release is held
down. The ‘B’ is from bulb. Very old cameras
commonly used an air-bulb attachment as a
remote shutter release.
Shutter speed can be manually adjusted in
either full manual exposure mode or in shutter
priority mode, the latter usually denoted by an
‘S’ or ‘Tv’ on the exposure mode dial. Shutter
priority is a semi-automatic exposure mode
in which the photographer sets the desired
shutter speed, and the camera’s exposure
system adjusts the aperture accordingly to
produce the correct exposure.
In automatic and program exposure modes
the camera will set both the shutter speed and
aperture automatically. Under normal daylight
conditions, the shutter speed will usually be
set to between 1/125th and 1/1000th of a
second, since this is fast enough to freeze
most movement and to reduce the effects of
camera shake. However in low light conditions
the camera may set a slower shutter speed,
and with this comes an increased risk of
movement blur caused by camera shake. Most
cameras will display some sort of warning if
this occurs. n
SHUTTER SPEED AND CAMERA SHAKE
AVOIDING CAMERA SHAKE
When shooting hand-held and wishing to avoid camera shake, as a rule of thumb you can safely use a
shutter speed roughly equivalent to the reciprocal of the focal length you are using. For example if you’re
using a 100mm focal length then you can take a sharp hand-held shot at a
shutter speed of 1/100th of a second or faster. If you’re using a 35mm
focal length then 1/35th of a
second is safe, and so on.
Here’s an example shot taken hand-
held at a focal length of 100mm
and a shutter speed of 1/100th of
a second. As you can see it’s sharp
and shake free.
Here’s the same hand-held shot but
this time with a shutter speed of
1/10th of a second. At this speed and
focal length it’s much more difficult
to hold the camera steady. As you
can see, the result is quite blurred.
Many modern cameras include technology which can reduce the effects of camera shake at low shutter
speeds. Many compact cameras use electronic processing to counteract movement, which does work but
produces relatively poor image quality. Among digital SLR and CSC manufacturers there are two types
of image stabilisation in common use. Canon, Nikon and Panasonic favour optical stabilisation, where
elements within the camera lens are moved to counteract camera shake. Other brands including Pentax
and Sony employ a system which moves the camera’s sensor to achieve the same effect.
There is no clear advantage between moving-lens and moving-sensor systems. Modern image
stabilisation systems of both types can provide around three or four stops of additional stability, however
the sensor-shift method has an advantage for SLR users because the non-stabilised lenses are usually
considerably lighter and are often also cheaper to buy, since the complex anti-shake system is built into the
camera body. It also means that photographers using older predigital lenses can still have the advantage of
image stabilisation.
This example shot was
taken with a focal length of
100mm at 1/10th of a second
as before, but this time the
image stabilisation (in this
case a sensor-shift system) is
switched on. It has detected
the vibration and corrected
it by moving the sensor to
compensate, resulting in a
much sharper shot.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 43
MOTION BLUR
Any movement in the frame during the exposure
will be captured in the picture, resulting in motion
blur. Anti-shake systems can do nothing to correct
this; the only solution is to use a shutter speed fast
enough to effectively freeze the action and eliminate
any sense of motion. With a fast enough shutter speed
1/50th
“The solution for motion blur is to use a shutter
speed fast enough to freeze the action.”
1/200th
1/1000th
1/4000th
44 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
you can freeze even very fast-moving objects, as this
next sequence of photos will show. They were taken at
shutter speeds ranging from a fairly slow 1/50th of a
second up to 1/4000th of a second.
As you can see, at 1/4000th of a second the blades
of a desk fan can almost be frozen in place.
THE MISTY WATER EFFECT
One of the most effective uses of long shutter speed
is photographing flowing water. It’s a beautiful if slightly
over-used effect, but it is very easy to achieve. Any moving
body of water, flowing stream or waterfall will do, as long
as it has white splashing water. This scene is Pulpit Rock
in Weymouth.
If you just point the camera and shoot on automatic,
you’ll end up with something like this (below). It looks
nice enough, but it’s a bit dull. This example was shot
on at a shutter speed of 1/640th of a second and an
aperture of f8.
Fixing the camera on a tripod eliminates camera shake.
You now need to get the slowest shutter speed you can.
The image at the top of the page was taken from a similar
position as the previous shot, but with the addition of a
10stop ND filter to give a shutter speed of 30 secs and an
aperture of f9.
 SHUTTER SPEED AND CAMERA SHAKE

CAPTURING MOVEMENT

CAR LIGHTS AT NIGHT

Another interesting effect achieved using
long shutter speeds is streaking car lights at
night. The camera was set up on a tripod, using
manual focus and full manual exposure, with a
cable shutter release. Starting with an aperture
of about f/4, you will need to dial in your settings
to get a balanced exposure. If your exposure
Freezing the action with a fast shutter speed produces a nice sharp image, but sometimes you might want to allow duration is still too short, stop your aperture
a controlled amount of movement blur to show that the subject was in motion. There are a number of ways to down to f/5.6 or smaller until you get a longer
accomplish this. exposure duration that renders car lights as long
streaks. Generally, a shutter speed of around 4
In this first example, the seconds is a good starting point.
camera was fixed on a tripod, When shooting near heavy traffic at night
with a shutter speed of 1/250th it’s obviously important to stay safe. Wear
of a second, while the subjects something bright and reflective, and don’t get
cycled past in front of the lens. too close to the road. Also, never use a flash when
The tripod ensures that the taking photos of traffic. You could dazzle a driver
background is sharp and the and cause an accident.
fast shutter speed has frozen
the movement. The result
is sharp but looks slightly
unnatural, as though they were
somehow balancing there
without moving.

With the camera still

mounted on the tripod, the
shutter speed was set to 1/10th
of a second, and another
subject came past. This time
the background is still sharp,
but the slow shutter speed has
resulted in lots of movement
blur, making the subject almost
unrecognisable.

FIREWORKS
One way to take good fireworks photos is to set
In order to capture the feeling of movement (top image), the best technique is to use a slow shutter speed, but to pan the your camera on a tripod some distance from the
camera (move it side-to-side) to follow the moving subject as you press the shutter. It is a technique that requires practice, display, with the zoom set to a very wide angle. Set a
since you need to be able to keep the camera moving smoothly as the exposure is taken, and avoid up-and-down movement shutter speed of 2 seconds and as wide an aperture
as you press the shutter. It may take several tries to get it right, but when it works the results are very effective, with the as you can manage. Getting the framing exactly
subject stationary against a movement-blurred background. This shot was taken hand-held at a shutter speed of 1/10th right is simply a matter of luck, timing, and then
of a second. Some recent cameras have a setting on the image stabilisation system to correct vertical movement but not cropping the photo later.
horizontal, which helps with this kind of shot.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 45

 Focal length
and zoom
Understanding how focal length works
in composing shots

N
early all modern compact cameras
have zoom lenses, and most users
of digital SLRs or CSCs will also
have at least a couple of zooms in their kit.
Focal length is one of your primary tools
for adjusting composition. Selecting the
right focal length for the scene allows the
photographer to control perspective, angle
of view and magnification, and can radically
alter the mood and style of the photo. Some
focal lengths are more suited to particular
types of photo, and the properties of wide-
angle and telephoto lenses can be used to
produce particular effects. Understanding
how focal length works and how it affects
your photos is a vital photographic skill.

46 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


LENSES AND FOCAL LENGTH
“Selecting the right focal length for
the scene allows the photographer to
control perspective, angle of view
and magnification.”
There are basically two types of lens:
those with fixed focal lengths, also
known as prime lenses; and those with
variable focal length, or zoom lenses.
They both have their own advantages and
disadvantages. Prime lenses are usually
smaller and lighter than zooms, and also
generally have much faster maximum
apertures than a zoom lens at equivalent
focal length. The optical quality of prime
lenses is also usually a little higher than
the equivalent zoom lens. Zoom lenses
however are much more convenient,
allowing the photographer to cover a wide
range of focal lengths with just one or
two lenses, rather than carrying around a
bulky collection of prime lenses. There are
some fast zoom lenses, but they tend to
be extremely expensive.
The focal length of a lens is an
expression of its magnifying power, and is
usually stated in millimetres. If you look on
the front of your camera, usually inscribed
around the front of the lens you’ll find the
focal length, or a range of values for zoom
lenses. For a typical DSLR kit lens this will
usually be around 18-55mm.
For digital cameras it is fairly usual to
see two figures quoted, both the actual
focal length and the ‘equivalent’ length.
The reason for quoting both is simply that
most people are more familiar with the
sizes of 35mm lenses, so they know that
28mm is wide angle and suitable
for panoramic shots, or that 200mm
is a telephoto lens, suitable for
long-range subjects.
Real and equivalent focal lengths are
different because most digital camera
sensors are a lot smaller than a frame
of 35mm film, and are fitted much
closer to the lens than the film would be.
Most consumer DSLRs use the APS-C
sensor format. Exact sizes vary from
one manufacturer to the next, but are
FOCAL LENGTH AND ZOOM
300MM TELEPHOTO
typically around 22.5 x 15 mm. A frame
of 35mm film measures 36 x 24mm,
which means that the edges are 1.6x
longer, so the focal length of the lens
would need to be 1.6x greater to produce
the same image size and magnification.
This is usually referred to as the
‘conversion factor’ or ‘crop factor’. It
means that a typical 18-55mm DSLR
zoom lens is roughly equivalent to the
popular 28-80mm zoom lens often used 50-200MM ZOOM
on 35mm systems.
Compact camera sensors are even
smaller still. Because there are several
different sizes of sensor in common use
it is more usual for compact camera
zoom lenses to be rated in terms of their
magnification power, such as 3x, 4x,
10x etc. This relates to the difference
between the minimum and maximum
focal lengths. A lens with a range of focal
length from 5.8mm to 17.4mm is called a
3x zoom, because 17.4 = 3 x 5.8.
While in older prime lenses a 200mm
lens would literally be 20cm long,
modern optical systems use multiple
lens elements working in combination,
which means that the light path can be 18-55MM KIT LENS
shortened while still maintaining the same
effective magnification. As a result quite
powerful telephoto and zoom lenses can
be relatively compact.
Wide-angle and telephoto are relative
terms. On a 35mm film SLR a 50mm
lens produces approximately the same
perspective and magnification as the
human eye, and has traditionally been the
standard lens for this type of camera.
Anything longer than 50mm is
considered a telephoto, while anything
shorter is considered wide angle. Digital
SLRs tend to follow this rule too, although
considering the crop factor the mid-point
is approximately 35mm.
14MM WIDE-ANGLE
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 47
MAGNIFICATION
The most obvious effect of altering focal length
is the change in magnification. Anyone who has
ever used a zoom lens will be familiar with this
effect. If you want to take a photo of something
a long way away, you zoom in and the subject
appears closer.
This series of photos shows the effect of a wide-
angle zoom equivalent to 25mm, medium zoom of
80mm and a telephoto of 400mm, all taken from
the same position.
What is happening here is not the subject being
“A cropped-down section of the frame has far fewer
pixels than the full-frame zoomed-in image.”
25mm zoom
As you can see, cropping the wide-angle image produces
the same effect as zooming in, but greatly reduces quality.
48 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
brought closer, but the angle of view being reduced
so that a smaller proportion of the scene fills the
frame of the sensor. If we look at a cropped-down
section of the centre of the wide-angle 25mm 25mm
view we can see that it looks very similar to the
400mm view, although rather less sharp, because
this cropped-down section of the frame obviously
has far fewer pixels than the full-frame zoomed-in
image. This is the way that digital zoom works on a
compact camera, and is why digital zoom should
never be used as a substitute for optical zoom.
50mm
ANGLE OF VIEW
Changing the angle of view can be used to
produce some interesting effects. If we move
closer to the subject while shortening the focal
length we can see that although the subject fills
roughly the same area of the final image, in a
wide angle shot a lot more of the background is
included.
Take a look at this series of five pictures, each
one taken at approximately half the focal length
of the previous one. As the focal length is reduced
more of the background comes into view behind
the subject, while objects in the foreground
appear much closer to the camera, increasing the
appearance of extreme perspective.
80mm zoom
400mm zoom
100mm
200mm
25mm cropped
400mm
 FOCAL LENGTH AND ZOOM

DISTORTION

Telephoto lens Wide angle shot

DEPTH OF FIELD
The perspective-flattening of long lenses can also be used in other circumstances, such as drastically reducing depth
of field. You can use this to isolate a subject by blurring out the background, as in the shot above (left).
Compare this with the same shot on the right, but taken with a wide angle lens from a much closer range. The relative size
of Bailey the dog is the same in both shots, but due to the increased depth of field in the wide angle shot, the background,
although apparently more distant, looks sharper.
Wide angle shot

Changing the angle of view is important to remember

when shooting portraits. If you use a short focal length
to take a facial portrait at close range the parts that are
closest to the camera will appear disproportionately
larger, distorting the facial features. The result is a
‘ballooning’ of the face as it appears to bulge outwards,
like a reflection in the back of a spoon: not such a flattering
look, as illustrated above.
Most portrait photographers prefer to step back a little
and zoom in. The most popular choice is a focal length of
about 80-100mm, since this gives a flattering, natural-
looking perspective.

Telephoto lens Wide lens

TELEPHOTO LENS
Careful focusing with a long telephoto lens can pick out individual subjects despite busy surroundings, such as focusing
on Bailey the dog at the park with lots of visual distractions behind him. The same scene shot from the same position using a
wide angle lens presents the subject, and how they relate to their environment, in a completely different way.

The examples we’ve used here are extremes intended to emphasise the effects we’re demonstrating,
but in fact a lot of people only ever use their zoom lenses at either maximum or minimum settings. Don’t do
Telephoto lens this out of habit; instead use the full range of the lens to explore all the different possibilities it offers. Focal
length is one of your primary creative tools, so make good use of it.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 49

 Using a very wide aperture and
precise focusing, emphasis can be
given to one subject to effectively
isolate it from its surroundings.
Aperture and
depth of field
With aperture you can control how
much of your picture is in focus
O
f the three main controls common to
nearly all cameras, shutter speed, focus
and aperture, it is aperture adjustment
that is the least well understood. This is because
it not only helps to control exposure, but
also affects something called Depth of Field.
Understanding the effects of aperture size is a
vital skill for any keen photographer.
At least there’s nothing mysterious about the
name. The aperture is literally a hole through which
light passes after it enters the lens. The diameter of
this hole can be altered, allowing a greater or smaller
amount of light to pass through on its way to the
sensor. In the early days of photography, aperture
was adjusted by slotting cards with different sized
holes cut in them into the body of the camera behind
50 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
WIDE APERTURE
the lens. These cards were known as ‘stops’, and
this is still part of photographic terminology today.
On modern cameras the aperture is controlled by
an arrangement of curved shutters inside the body
of the lens, which move to produce a continuously
variable aperture, however the aperture settings are
usually still referred to as ‘F-stops’.
Aperture adjustment is used in combination with
the shutter speed and ISO sensitivity to control
photographic exposure. However it is also the
primary means of controlling something called
depth of field, a concept that may need a bit of
explanation.
If you take a photo of a subject at a distance of
about 3 metres with standard zoom lens, in good NARROW APERTURE
light with the focal length set to about 30mm, as
 APERTURE AND DEPTH OF FIELD

How aperture works

“Understanding Explaining exactly why altering the size of the lens and the lens and appears sharply focused on the sensor.

the effects of aperture alters the depth of field is a little complicated,

but a few simple diagrams should help to shed some light
Light from the red and blue spots also passes through
the aperture and lens, but light from the red spot focuses

aperture size on the matter. For a start, let’s clear up some popular
misconceptions about the difference between focus and
a short distance in front of the charged coupled device
(CCD), while light from the blue spot focuses a short

is a vital skill sharpness.

This is a highly simplified diagram of the arrangement
distance behind it. The light from these other spots still
hits the CCD, but due to light scattering it is unfocused
for any keen of lens, aperture and sensor inside a modern digital
camera. In this first diagram, three subjects at different
and spread over a wide area.
What this means is that the red and blue spots will appear
photographer.” distances from the camera lens are represented by
the red, green and blue dots. The lens is focused on the
as large blurred spots on the final image, while the green
spot will be sharp and in focus. The size of the blurred area of
green spot, so light from it passes through the aperture the red and blue spots is called the ‘circle of confusion.’

long as the lens is focused correctly the subject Film or CCD

should appear nice and sharp in the image.
However you’ll usually find that objects about
1.5m in front of the subject, and for about 4 Apparent
Aperture (wide) diameter of
or 5 metres behind the subject, also appear
sharp. This distance, from the closest point of blue ‘circle of
confusion’
acceptable sharpness to the most distant, is
known as the depth of field.
By altering the size of the aperture it is
possible to control the extent of this depth of
field, either reducing it so that only the main
subject is in sharp focus, or expanding it so that
an entire landscape can appear to be
just as sharp.
If you have an older camera to hand, take a look Apparent
at the lens. It will have a ring for controlling the diameter of
aperture setting, labelled with numbers usually red ‘circle of
from about F2 to about F22. The focus control confusion’
ring will have distances usually calibrated in feet
and metres, and alongside it you’ll usually find
Lens
lines marked with the same numbers as the
aperture ring, arranged in pairs either side of the
focal distance mark with the larger numbers
toward the outside. The purpose of this aperture
scale is to help estimate the depth of field at a The diagram below shows the same arrangement of paths, and as a result the ‘circles of confusion’ are much
particular distance for any given aperture setting; camera and subjects, and the coloured spots are the smaller. This makes the red and blue spots in the final
with the focus set to a particular distance, anything same distance from the lens, but this time the aperture image appear much sharper. They are still out of focus,
between the two lines for the selected aperture has been reduced to just a small hole. Again the lens is but the effect is not so noticeable. To make circles of
setting should be acceptably sharp. Some older focused on the green spot, and the red and blue spots confusion as large as in the first image, the red and blue
zoom lenses have a series of curved lines etched are out of focus. However the narrow aperture restricts spots would have to be much further away from the
into the lens barrel for the same purpose. For some the light scattering and the relative angles of the light green one.
reason this scale is missing from most modern
auto-focus, auto-aperture lenses, which is a shame Film or CCD
because it makes the whole concept of depth of
field much easier to understand.
Aperture (narrow) Apparent
diameter of
blue ‘circle of
confusion’

Apparent
diameter of
red ‘circle of
confusion’

APERTURE RING
Lens

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 51

FOCAL LENGTH AND DEPTH OF FIELD
The focal length of your lens, in other
words how much you zoom in on your
subject, also has a large effect on depth of
field. Short focal lengths have much greater
depth of field than longer focal lengths. This
is one reason why, when taking a portrait
shot, it’s a good idea to step back a bit and
zoom in rather than using a wide angle lens
up close.
In optics, particularly as it relates to film
and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the
distance between the nearest and farthest
objects in a scene that appear acceptably ACCEPTABLY SHARP
sharp in an image. Although a lens can
precisely focus at only one distance at a time, F4
the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each
side of the focused distance, so that within the
DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under
normal viewing conditions.
In some cases, it may be desirable to have
the entire image sharp, and a large DOF is
appropriate. In other cases, a small DOF may
be more effective, emphasizing the subject
while de-emphasizing the foreground and
background. In cinematography, a large DOF
is often called deep focus, and a small DOF is
often called shallow focus.
In the examples shown here, at f4, the front
wooden fence post nearest the camera on the ACCEPTABLY SHARP
left is the only object in sharpest focus and the
post next to it and beyond is totally blurred. F8
At f8 the area of acceptable focus has
increased so that the second fence post is
starting to come into focus.
Shooting at f16 brings the second and third
posts into greater focus.
Stopping the camera down to its narrowest
aperture of f22 has all four posts looking
reasonably sharp. If you were able to stop this
lens down to f/32, the foliage to the far right
would also become sharper too.

ACCEPTABLY SHARP

“In optics, particularly F16

as it relates to film and
photography, depth
of field (DOF) is the
distance between the
nearest and farthest
objects in a scene that
appear acceptably
sharp in an image.” ACCEPTABLY SHARP

F22

52 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 APERTURE AND DEPTH OF FIELD

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
Practical uses Another situation in which depth of field is an taken using an aperture of f/16, to ensure that both

for depth of field important issue is landscape photography. Here it is

often important to maximise depth of field, so it is usual
the foreground and distant background are in focus. It
also uses something called Hyperfocal Distance, which
There are several situations where to use the smallest possible aperture. This shot was involves a bit of maths to calculate.
controlling depth of field is important. The most
common is portrait photography. Subjects
shot on an automatic camera using a medium
aperture usually have a lot of sharp foreground
and background detail, which can distract
attention away from the main subject.

As you can see in this example, which has

a large depth of field, the subject is in focus,
but so is the background, which draws the
viewer’s attention away from the subject.
By using a wider aperture, and moving
the subject further from the background,
only the subject is now in sharp focus.
A blurred background is much less
distracting, and concentrates your
attention on the subject, making the subject
really stand out from the background.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 53

 Exposure and metering
Accurate exposure is the key to good photography
U
nderstanding exposure and how it affects
your photographs is probably the single
most important technical skill you can
learn in photography. It’s certainly the one that
most people get wrong, and apart from camera
shake, bad exposure probably ruins more photos
than any other single cause. The main problem is
over reliance on automatic metering.
Most modern cameras, even relatively cheap
compacts, have sophisticated built-in TTL multi-
zone evaluative exposure meters that measure
light levels at dozens, in some cases hundreds, of
points within the frame, instantly comparing the
results with a built-in library of exposure situations
and automatically adjusting the shutter speed
and aperture to deal with problems such as back-
lighting, close-ups or moving subjects.
In most cases these automatic exposure
systems are very good, and can reliably cope with
54 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
most common circumstances. However even the
best automatic meter can be fooled, resulting in
poorly exposed photos. By overriding the camera’s
automatic settings and adjusting exposure
manually we can avoid these problems and take
much better photos.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples. In this
first scene we have a portrait of brightly lit fair
skinned model shot against a dark background.
This was taken using a typical DSLR camera set on
automatic exposure. As you can see the camera has
badly over-exposed our model’s face, losing details OVER-EXPOSED UNDER-EXPOSED
in the highlight areas.
In this second example the same camera has The same usually reliable exposure meter took
been used to photograph another model, but this both of these shots, so what went wrong? In order
time standing in front of a brightly lit background. In to understand what happened and accurately
this case the camera’s automatic exposure system correct it, it is necessary to know how light
has seriously under-exposed the shot, leaving the meters operate, and the rules by which exposure
model’s face in deep shadow with little detail visible. is calculated.
 EXPOSURE AND METERING

FIG 1. ORIGINAL SCENE FIG 2. THE LIGHT METER WILL AVERAGE THE SCENE FIG 3. THE AVERAGE RESULT WILL BE MID-TONE GREY

SMALL APERTURE LARGE APERTURE

“Apart from camera shake, bad exposure probably ruins

more photos than any other single cause. The main
problem is over reliance on automatic metering.”

Fade to grey
Take a look at the main picture above. What you
see there is a nice scene of a rural area in bright
sunlit conditions, with a good tonal range, plenty
of colour and some nice crisp sunlight. What your
camera’s light meter sees is very different as our
example above shows. Try it out for yourself. Find
any nice, average snapshot scene, properly lit
and with good contrast like our example FIG 1.
Start up your image editing software and open
your picture. Light meters only see in black and
white, so reduce the saturation of the shot to zero.
Your light meter doesn’t see detail, so set your
Gaussian blur filter FIG 2 to maximum diameter
and apply it a couple of times. Use the eyedropper
tool to measure the RGB colour value of the
resulting tone. You should find that it averages
out to a mid-tone grey FIG 3 with an RGB value of
around 127,127,127.
It’s an interesting and curious fact that any
average scene reflects 18% of the light falling on
it. Look out of your window, and unless you live in
Antarctica the scene you see is reflecting exactly
the same amount of light as the scene out of my
window. That 18% reflection is exactly the same as
a mid-tone grey, midway between black and white.
Light meters are calibrated with this fact in
mind. When your camera takes a light reading,
the meter averages the scene and adjusts the
exposure to produce that mid-tone grey (or
12% luminance, but that’s another discussion
altogether). If you point the camera at a black
stage curtain, it will try to make the black into a
mid-tone grey, so it will over-expose. If you point it
at snow it will try to make the white into grey, so it
will under-expose.
Adjusting exposure
Let’s take a moment to explain how exposure
is controlled, and what is meant by some of the
terminology. If you already know the basics, feel free
to skip to the next page.
On all cameras, exposure is adjusted by altering
two settings; aperture and shutter speed. Between
them they control the amount of light that hits the
sensor when the shot is taken.
Shutter speed is self-explanatory, it is simply
the amount of time that the sensor is exposed to
light. This is usually controlled by an electrically
operated mechanical shutter in front of the sensor
that opens and closes very quickly for a precisely
measured period of time, usually in the order of a
few hundredths of a second. Obviously a shutter
speed twice as long lets in twice as much light, one
half as long lets in half as much.
The aperture is literally just a hole through which
light passes on its way to the sensor. The diameter
of that hole can be adjusted to precisely calibrated
sizes. A smaller hole lets in less light, and a larger
hole lets in more.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 55

 These calibrated aperture sizes, for largely
historical reasons, are called stops, or f-stops. An
aperture setting one stop larger lets in twice as
much light. For reasons that are both historical
and mathematical, the standard full-stop
aperture settings that you are most likely to
encounter go f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8,
f/11, f/16 and f/22. The smaller numbers refer
to larger apertures, and the larger numbers to
smaller ones. Many cameras can set apertures in
increments of 1/3rd of a stop, but the whole-stop
numbers are the ones to remember.
Let’s consider an example. With your camera set
to automatic exposure point it at a scene and take
a light reading. For the sake of argument, say the
light meter sets an aperture of f/8 and 1/200th of
a second. You can produce the same exposure by
increasing the aperture by one stop to f/5.6 and
halving the shutter speed to 1/400th of a second,
because this lets the same amount of light through
to the sensor. Similarly, reducing the aperture to
f/11 and setting the shutter speed to 1/100th of a
second will also produce the same exposure.
However by altering one setting without altering
the other you will change the exposure. In our
example, changing the aperture to f/5.6 but leaving
the shutter speed at 1/200th of a second will
56 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
increase the exposure by one stop, or one exposure
value (EV), making the picture brighter. Decreasing
the aperture to f/11 will reduce the exposure by one
EV, making the picture darker.
Similarly, changing the shutter speed while
leaving the aperture alone will also change the
exposure. Double the shutter speed to 1/400th at
f/8 and you reduce the exposure by one stop, halve
the speed to 1/100th and you increase the exposure
by one stop.
The Zone System
In 1939-40 the pioneering photographers Ansel
Adams and Fred Archer developed an exposure
system based on this fact, a system that is still used
today. It is called the Zone System, and is quite
possibly the most useful piece of photographic
knowledge you’ll ever learn. There are several
“The difference between one zone and the next is equivalent
to the difference between one exposure setting and another
one exactly one stop higher or lower.”
variations on the original system, but I’ll go with
the one that is easiest to understand.
Starting with 18% grey as the mid-point, the
system divides all the tones between black and
white into 11 zones, numbered 0-10. Zone 0 is
featureless black with no details visible, which
in your image editor would have an RGB value
of 0,0,0. Zone 10 is pure white with no details
visible, and an RGB value of 255,255,255. The
mid-tone 18% grey is zone 5, and should have an
RGB value of about 127,127,127.
The zones represent exposure values, or EV.
The difference between one zone and the next
is equivalent to the difference between one
exposure setting and another one exactly one
stop higher or lower.
 EXPOSURE AND METERING

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

If we relate the tone scale of the Zone System Zone 0 Pure black, no details or texture visible.
scale to real world objects we can use it to help
Zone 1 Black tone but no texture. This is normally as black as you want to get in a picture.
produce accurately exposed photos. The zones are
roughly equivalent to the following scene elements Zone 2 First hint of texture and detail, very deep shadow.
(adapted from Adams’ descriptions).
Zone 3 Dark materials, details visible.

Zone 4 Dark foliage. Dark stone. Landscape shadow. Shadow on portraits in sunlight.

Zone 5 Clear north sky. Dark skin. Grey stone. Weathered wood. 18% mid grey.

Zone 6 Average Caucasian skin value. Light stone. Shadows in sunlit snow.

Zone 7 Very light skin. Light grey objects. Snow with side lighting.

Zone 8 White with texture. Snow in shade. Highlights on Caucasian skin.

Zone 9 Glaring white surfaces. Snow in flat sunlight. White without texture.

Zone 10 Light sources, reflections of sunlight on metal. Pure white.

Let’s go back to the two troublesome portraits
from the first page. If we use the spot meter to take
a reading from the subject’s face, we know that the
light meter will give a reading that would make the
face mid-tone grey, which is zone 5. However from
the zone chart we know that average Caucasian skin
should be zone 6, so we need to increase the spot
metered exposure by one stop, in this case from
1/30th at f/5.6 to 1/30th at f/4. In the resulting shot
the background details are all burned out, but the
subject is correctly exposed.
For the over-exposed portrait against the dark
background, we can use a similar approach. Spot
metering the background gives an exposure setting
of 1/3rd sec at f/5.6 to render it as zone 5 mid-grey.
By reducing that exposure by four stops to 1/3rd at
f/22 we can make the background come out as what
it should be, zone 2 deep shadow, leaving the model’s
face also correctly exposed.
The zone exposure system can help with difficult
exposures, but it is helpful in another way. Learning
to think of images in terms of tone and dynamic
range will encourage you to approach these
concepts in a creative way, and to use them to
produce better pictures. Controlling exposure
is the primary creative tool of the photographer,
and learning how to use it will make the difference
between mere snapshots and artistic photographs.
This system has been used by professional
photographers for over 70 years. Used properly, it
can help to improve your photography immensely,
probably more than any other single technique.

“The zone system can

help with difficult
exposures. Learning
to think of images
in terms of tone
and dynamic range
will encourage you
to approach these
concepts creatively.”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 57

 File types and
image compression
How is it possible to store so many images on such a tiny memory card?

I
f you’ve had a computer or a digital camera
for more than a couple of days, you’ll have
come across JPEG images, usually denoted
by the file extension ‘.jpg’, and you may be
wondering exactly what it means. The letters
themselves stand for the Joint Photographic
Expert Group, a body of scientists,
programmers and engineers from the imaging
industry who got together several years
ago to come up with a new standard for file
storage that would allow images from different
computer programs to be interchangeable,
so that a picture from one computer could be
viewed on another without having to use file
conversion programs.

The JPEG standard also happens to be an
ideal format for storing pictures on a digital
camera, because it uses something called
file compression. This is a technique that
allows a large number of images to be stored
in a relatively small amount of memory by
squashing the files so they take up less room.
For this reason JPEG has become the standard
image file format for all digital cameras.
A full technical explanation of file
compression would fill a decent-sized
textbook. It uses complex mathematical
techniques that you simply don’t need to know
unless you’re a software engineer working on a
new digital camera. As consumers, all we need
to know is that it reduces the size of the picture
file by reducing the amount of information
stored in it. JPEG compression reduces file size
by reducing picture quality, and for this reason
it is called ‘lossy’ storage. For most purposes
this quality reduction is imperceptible and fine
for day-to-day use, but for maximum image
quality there are other types of image file which
are uncompressed and lose no quality, the
most common one being TIFF, which stands for
‘Tagged Image File Format’.
Basically, the way JPEG compression works
File compression uses complex
is like this. An average digital photograph mathematical algorithms to
contains varying levels of detail. For example, squeeze big image files into small
take an average holiday snap of a family on a spaces, but quality can suffer.

58 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


“For maximum image quality there are other
types of image file which are uncompressed and
lose no quality, the most common being TIFF.”
Large areas of low detail, such as the sky, can be
easily compressed, while detailed areas such as the
trees and grass contain more information.
beach. While the main subject, the people in
the foreground, contains a lot of detail, there
will also be large areas such as the sky, the
sand and the sea, which contain relatively
little detail. In order to reduce the size of the
file, some data from the lower detail areas can
safely be lost without affecting the quality of
the picture too much. The way this is done
is usually by reducing the number of tonal
variations between areas of similar colour, so
you may notice artefacts that look like squares
or stripes in highly compressed images.
Whatever make or model of digital camera
you have, it will almost certainly have an
option in the menu that allows you to select
image quality. What this option is doing is
setting the level of file compression. If you
select the lowest quality, you will probably
find that you can fit about four times as many
images onto your memory card as you can at
the highest setting, because the higher JPEG
compression setting makes the files one
quarter as big, but reduces the quality of the
picture to compensate. Most people will use
the highest setting most of the time, but unless
you intend to print all your pictures at the
largest size possible, you really can get away
with using a lower quality setting and still have
pictures to be proud of, plus you’ll be able to
take twice as many. n
FILE TYPES AND IMAGE COMPRESSION
COMPRESSION
SETTINGS
Even shooting at your camera’s lowest quality
setting will still produce acceptable results under
most circumstances. These three photos were
taken using a Canon DSLR using the Maximum,
Medium and Minimum quality settings. As you
can see the differences are very hard to spot.
MAXIMUM
MEDIUM
MINIMUM
The next picture is the same Minimum
quality shot as above, but resaved as a JPEG
using Adobe Photoshop using the Medium
compression setting. While the quality is a little
lower, the image is far from useless.
JPEG MEDIUM QUALITY
For comparison, this next image takes the
Minimum quality original and is then resaved
in Photoshop using the Minimum quality
compression settings. Now more compression
artefacts are visible in the image.
JPEG MINIMUM QUALITY
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 59
 Shooting
modes
Choosing the best setting for the
correct shooting conditions

A
ll but the most basic budget compact
cameras have a selection of shooting
modes, usually chosen by a dial on the
top or back of the camera. Easy-to-use, mainly
automatic cameras in the range will only
have a few shooting modes, while the more
sophisticated cameras such as the DSLR may
have as many as a dozen, including manual
exposure options and user-programmable
special settings.
As newer models appear in the range or
older models are updated, the shooting modes
available will be revised and possibly expanded.
Shown on this spread are some of the most often
used modes selected from the mode dial on the
top of the camera and in some cases, from the
menu screen on the back of the camera. n

Auto Auto (flash off) Programmed AE

The camera will analyse the scene and As in full auto mode but the flash will not be Programmed auto is recommended for
choose all the best settings. activated when shooting. shots where there may not be time to adjust
camera settings.

Shutter Priority Aperture Priority Manual Exposure

Shutter speed is manually selected to blur Aperture is manually selected to blur or The user can manually choose shutter
or freeze motion. Aperture is set by camera. bring background into focus. Camera speed and aperture.
chooses shutter speed.

S A
60 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
 SHOOTING MODES

Bulb Mode Effects Scene - Portrait

Allows you to take photos for as long as the Can be used to add filter effects to your Background details will be blurred to add a
shutter button is held down for exposures images when they have been shot. sense of depth to the composition.
longer than 30 seconds.

EFFECTS

Scene - Landscape Scene - Child Scene - Sports

Landscapes taken during the day will have Skin kept soft and natural whilst clothes and For dynamic sports. Shutter speeds will be
front to back sharpness. Colours will be backgrounds are more saturated. Shutter high enough to freeze the action.
made more vivid. speeds will be faster to capture movement.

Scene - Close Up Scene - Night Portrait Scene - Night Landscape

For close up and macro shots of insects, Creates a natural balance between Will reduce noise and strong colours such as
flowers and other small objects. your foreground subject and low street lights and neon.
Backgrounds will be out of focus. light backgrounds.

Scene - Party/Indoor Scene - Beach/Snow Scene - Sunset

For indoor scenes and other social More accurately capture the brightness of Maintains the rich colours and hues of the
gatherings. Captures indoor areas like snow or sand in daylight. sunrise or sunset.
background lighting.

Scene - Dusk/Dawn Scene - Pet Portrait Scene - Candlelight

The cooler tones of dusk and dawn are Faster shutter speed is employed. No The deep orange and red tones of scenes
maintained. No flash is used. AF assist light is used so as not to scare lit by candlelight are enhanced. No flash
the animal. is used.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 61

 White
balance
White may not be as white
as you think INCANDESCENT, WITH DAYLIGHT WHITE BALANCE INCANDESCENT LIGHT, INCANDESCENT WHITE BALANCE

W
hen you look at, for example, a sheet
of white paper, your brain adjusts what DAYLIGHT, WITH DAYLIGHT WHITE BALANCE
you see so that it matches what you
are expecting to see. However your digital camera
doesn’t have any expectations, and the colour that
it “sees” is the actual colour present in the scene.
‘White’ light visible to humans can actually
vary in colour from reddish orange to greenish-
blue. This variation is usually described as a
temperature range, with warm being the red end
and cold at the blue end, and is usually measured in
degrees Kelvin using a colour meter. Confusingly,
the higher the colour temperature, the cooler the
tone and vice versa.
We perceive various shades of white light
illuminating a scene as neutral, a clever trick
performed by our brains to maintain a sense
of normality. Digital cameras can perform the
same trick using a feature called automatic white
balance. The camera evaluates the scene through
the lens, analysing areas it guesses should be white
(highlights) and black (shadows). More expensive
cameras have a more reliable ambient white
balance sensor that measures the temperature of
general, focused light. However these automatic
systems can be fooled, so most cameras give you
the option of setting the white balance manually,
either from pre-sets that cover most normal DAYLIGHT, INCANDESCENT WHITE BALANCE
lighting conditions or by making an accurate
measurement of the prevailing lighting conditions.
In the example pictures on this page you’ll see
an image with ordinary incandescent light bulbs,
also called tungsten lighting. As you can see,
when the camera is set to the warm artificial light
white balance setting that suits this lighting, the
light areas of the scene are neutral. The same
scene looks very different when the camera’s
white balance is set to normal daylight colour
temperature. Now there is a distinct reddish-
orange cast. Light bulbs can shine with various
colour temperatures. Cheap traditional, low
wattage light bulbs tend to be the warmest in
colour, while low voltage halogen bulbs are cooler
in tone.
Another example is a typical noon day outdoor
scene where the ambient white light temperature
is cool. When the camera’s white balance setting
matches the cool tone of the brightness of the
sun, everything looks quite normal. On the other
hand, if the camera has been set for tungsten
artificial light, the scene appears to have a very

62 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


blue cast. Sunlight, like artificial light, can vary
quite considerably in colour temperature. Early
morning and late afternoon daylight is warmer
as cooler components of the light are filtered out
because it has to shine through more atmosphere
and its pollutants as the sun is nearer the horizon.
Meanwhile, cloudy and overcast conditions deliver
a cooler light because warmer components are
filtered out by the cloud.
Our third example is lit with fluorescent
lighting, and presents an even harder challenge
for your digital camera. The visible spectrum of
fluorescent light is not a nice smooth line, it’s full
of peaks and troughs. Some fluorescent lights
have a green cast and others a pink cast. These
differences are visibly evident where strip lights
of different tone have been fitted side by side.
So-called daylight tone fluorescent lights are not
equivalent to real daylight. Better digital cameras
will have a number of presets for fluorescent
light to help you match the white balance in these
conditions more accurately. In our example here,
the fluorescent light is a greenish yellow in tone.
“We perceive various shades of white light
illuminating a scene as neutral, a trick performed
by our brains to maintain a sense of normality.”
WHITE BALANCE
Know your camera
Nearly all digital cameras offer white balance
TYPICAL WHITE
adjustments accessible either from a settings BALANCE VALUES
menu or, typically on higher spec cameras, via an
external button in conjunction with an LCD display.
TUNGSTEN/ARTIFICIAL
Manual white balance 2500-3000K
Some cameras can let you calibrate the white I ndoor lighting using traditional non-fluorescent
balance setting manually. You simply hold a white light bulbs.
card in front of the camera lens and press a white
balance calibration button. The camera adjusts its
white balance setting until the card is reproduced
neutrally. Beware of this setting remaining on as
when you return to normal shooting conditions it may
spoil your pictures!
Preset white balance
All digital cameras offer a choice of white balance
presets, and some cameras let you choose the
setting via colour temperature values. Some really
advanced cameras let you bracket white balance
settings, or take a series of shots with settings above
and below your standard setting. n FLUORESCENT
3500-5500K
I nclude strip lighting and modern compact
fluorescent lamps
NORMAL DAYLIGHT
5500-6000K
Typical mid-morning to mid-afternoon conditions at
sea level.
CLOUDY/OVERCAST
6000-8000K
Hazy or overcast conditions.
FLUORESCENT LIGHT, FLUORESCENT WHITE BALANCE
CLEAR BLUE SKY
10,000-15,000K
Exceptionally clear mid-summer or high altitude
conditions, especially snow scenes.
FLUORESCENT LIGHT, DAYLIGHT WHITE BALANCE
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 63
 ISO and image noise
Increasing the ISO setting will give you faster shutter speeds, but there’s a price to pay
A
nyone who has owned a digital camera
for a while will be familiar with the
concept of image noise. It’s that grainy
distortion that spoils pictures shot in low light
conditions with high ISO settings. But what is
image noise? Where does it come from, and
what can be done to prevent it?
All electronic devices generate noise. The
background hiss of a radio, the sound of an over-
amplified electric guitar, or the interference on
a badly-tuned television, all of these things are
electronic noise, and so is the noise in seen in a
digital photograph.
This noise comes from a variety of sources.
Some of it is generated by imperfections in the
This is the main circuit board from a Canon EOS 5D
MkIV digital SLR, showing the powerful DIGIC6 and
DIGIC 6+ image processing chips.
64 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
electronic components, or as a by-product of
their normal operation. For instance, capacitors
generate a small amount of noise as they
charge and discharge. Electronic components
can also be affected by environmental noise,
such as the electrical fields that constantly
surround us.
Circuit noise can be minimised by superior
manufacturing and rigorous quality control.
Unfortunately some cheaper camera brands,
or even budget models from better-known
brands, may use components of lower quality,
which is why these types of camera generally
produce noisier images than the more
expensive models.
Sensor noise
The other main source of image noise is
the sensor itself, and in most cases this is
unavoidable. The individual photocells on a
digital camera sensor are incredibly small,
especially with high-resolution compact
camera sensors.
Most compact camera sensors have over
10 million individual photocells crammed into
an area of less than 30 square millimetres.
These photocells are so small that in low light
conditions they may only be collecting a few
Approx 1/10th of a millmetre
Actual microscope photograph of the
surface of a Nikon CCD, showing the Bayer
mask filter and microlenses
thousand photons (individual light ‘particles’)
during an exposure, so the level of the electrical
signal produced by the cell can be affected
by random statistical fluctuations in photon
density. This is the main reason that physically
larger sensors are much better than smaller
ones. The individual photocells are larger and
collect proportionately more light during the
exposure producing an inherently higher signal
to noise ratio.
The level of noise produced by the sensor
and other components in the camera is usually
constant and at a fairly low level. When taking
photographs in good light the level of the signal
vastly outweighs the level of noise, in other
words the signal to noise ratio is very high,
and consequently noise isn’t a problem. The
 ISO AND IMAGE NOISE

Noise reduction
SIGNAL-NOISE Cameras reduce image noise by using
BRIGHT DAYLIGHT smoothing filters during image processing. The
KEY: most commonly used is called a Median filter.
This works by comparing each pixel to the ones
IMAGE SIGNAL surrounding it, and if is has a brightness that is
different from its neighbours then it is replaced by
CONSTANT NOISE LEVEL a new pixel with the average value of the nearby
AVERAGE INDOOR LIGHT
pixels. This eliminates noise effects, but also
reduces detail and contrast. Compare these next
two images. The first is unfiltered, the second has
SIGNAL STRENGTH

had a median filter applied. The second image

is “cleaner”, but as you can see the level of detail
DIM INDOOR OR has been greatly reduced.
NIGHT-TIME
Another type of noise reduction is called

BEFORE MEDIAN

LIGHT LEVEL

AFTER MEDIAN
50 ISO 6400 ISO

just produces more noise without improving the

“A higher sensitivity
increases the amount by
which the signals
from the sensor
are amplified…
unfortunately the noise
gets amplified as well.”
problems start when shooting in low light, as the
level of the signal drops nearer to the constant
noise level, producing a lower signal to noise ratio.
At extremely low light levels the signal may be
entirely drowned out by the noise.
This problem is made worse when shooting
at higher ISO settings. When we set a higher
sensitivity we are increasing the amount by which
the signals from the sensor are amplified, and
unfortunately the noise gets amplified as well. If the
signal to noise ratio was already very low then this
image. This is why high ISO images are always more
noisy than ones taken at lower settings.
Another type of sensor noise can also be a
problem when using exposures longer than a
couple of seconds. Sometimes the photocells that
make up the sensor may not all respond to light to
an equal degree, causing single pixels to appear
very bright or very dark. The charge build-up
over a longer exposure makes this problem more
noticeable. Since the pattern of these “dead” or
“hot” pixels is usually consistent from one frame to
the next this type of noise is remedied by applying
a filter during image processing. Most modern
cameras do this automatically, but it can be a
problem on older models. The shot below was
taken on a camera from 2005, and shows a large
number of “hot” pixels. The exposure time was
1/30 second at ISO 1000.
“pixel binning”, although this is less widely used
in recent digital cameras. In this process, the
signals from groups of four, nine or even 16
adjacent photocells are grouped together into a
“super pixel”. This has the effect of increasing the
signal to noise ratio, but of course it also reduces
the effective resolution of the image. It increases
the signal to noise ratio, but it also reduces the
quality of the image.
The only effective remedy to image noise is
to use larger, more sensitive photocells. Digital
SLRs have a major advantage in this area, since
they have physically larger sensors. Compact
camera sensor technology continues to improve,
both in image processing and sensor design.
We will undoubtedly see further advances in the
future, but for now image noise is something we
just have to accept. n

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 65

 Understanding
hyperfocal distance
How to calculate the best depth of field
A
very important part of photography in
general and landscape photography
in particular is to ensure that your
prime point of interest, your main elements
are in sharp focus. Nothing ruins a shot more
than the image being fuzzy and blurry when
you need it to be tack sharp. The problem
however, is that in many cases in landscape
photography you have a foreground element
as well as a distant object that you want to be
in as sharp focus as possible at the same time.
Shooting with a wide angle lens and setting
a very narrow aperture of f/22 or even f/32
will yield greater depth of field but you will
also run into the optical phenomenon know as
diffraction, which is a softening of the image
due to the bending of light rays as is passes
through the narrow aperture of your lens. This
means you will normally be operating around
the f8 - f/16 mark when setting aperture.
You may find that the depth of field provided
at these apertures is not enough to render
everything you need in sharp focus.
This is where the hyperfocal distance comes
into play. When you focus on an object, technically
speaking, only that point of focus is sharp. Beyond
that focus point, extending both in front of and
behind, is a plane of focus running parallel to the
66 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
camera sensor. This area is known as the depth
of field and it is this region that is deemed to
contain an area of acceptable sharpness. They
key to hyperfocal distance is knowing the closest
distance at which a lens can be focused while
keeping objects at infinity as acceptably sharp
as possible. Everything from half the hyperfocal
distance out to infinity will be in focus.
A very basic rule of thumb is to compose your
scene and then focus roughly one third of the
distance into the scene. This can be quick and
reasonably helpful, particularly where your scene
has excluded the horizon or near foreground,
but rarely is it optimal to get the best out of the H = Hyperfocal distance
depth of field. You could use your camera’s live f2 = focal length x focal length
view function to visually set focus on the most N = Aperture number (f-stop)
distant object in your scene and then slowly adjust c = Circle of confusion
the focus closer whilst keeping an acceptably
sharp background. Finally of course, there is the The result, in millimetres, will be the distance at
mathematical way to calculate the exact point. which you need to focus to attain greatest depth
There is a bit of assumed knowledge when using of field. Thankfully there are plenty of on-line
the mathematical formula. You will need to provide calculators and apps for your phone that can do
the focal length of the lens you are using, the Circle all the heavy lifting for you. Just so we can say we
of Confusion value for a given sensor size, which understand the theory, lets try out a couple of
is the largest blurred spot that the human eye can examples as shown here. We’re using a full frame
detect (usually a value of around 0.03 - 0.02) and camera with a Circle of Confusion value of .029 as
the f-stop you are using. If you have a calculator an average on a 16mm lens and a 50mm lens. Both
you can do the following: are set at an aperture of f/16. n
 UNDERSTANDING HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE

Example 1 - 16mm lens @ f/16 The near limit of acceptable

sharpness is half of the
hyperfocal value, stretching
out to infinity.

Not sharp Depth of field where image is acceptably sharp

Near limit Far limit

0.275m 0.551m

Full frame Hyperfocal point

16mm lens
f/16

Not sharp Depth of field where image is acceptably sharp

Near limit Far limit

0.275m 0.551m

Full frame
Note: images are not to scale Hyperfocal point

16mm lens
f/16

Not sharp Depth of field where image is acceptably sharp

Near limit Far limit

2.693m 5.387m

Example 2 - 50mm lens @ f/16 Hyperfocal point The near limit of acceptable
Full frame
Note: images are not to scale
sharpness is half of the
hyperfocal value, stretching
50mm lens
out to infinity.
f/16

Not sharp Depth of field where image is acceptably sharp

Near limit Far limit

2.693m 5.387m

Hyperfocal point
Full frame
Note: images are not to scale

50mm lens
f/16

Note: images are not to scale

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 67

 CREATIVE
PROJECTS
Unleash your creative side and learn
techniques used by the pros

70 - 79 Assignment: North Devon autocross

80 - 89 Shooting into the light

90 - 101 Your first home studio
102 - 111 Automotive rig photography

112 - 119 Airshow photography

120 - 125 Pet photography

126 - 131 Still life photography

132 - 139 Landscape photography tips

140 - 143 How it’s done

N
ow you’re familiar with how your camera works and how to use
its many features, you’re ready to start learning the creative
techniques that professional photographers use to achieve
great results time after time. By learning and trying out new ideas
and techniques, you can turn your photographs from snapshots into
works of art that you can be proud of. Once you are comfortable with
the technical skills and principles of photography that we covered in
the previous section, these methods produce well-balanced, attractive
photographs that will really stand out. What really differentiates a
talented photographer from one who’s merely a skilled technician
comes down to an eye for the creative and a desire to learn and do more.
Let us show you some interesting projects that we hope will inspire you
to learn more and become passionate about your photography. n

68 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 CREATIVE PROJECTS

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 69

 Assignment: North
Devon autocross
Catching the action on the track and behind the scenes
T
here’s nothing quite like being a
photographer at a large outdoor event
where you may need to shoot using a
number of techniques to get the various shots
required. If you’ve never tried it, it is worth
the experience to pick an event, perhaps
something that is close to your heart and
go along and cover it as if you were there in
an official capacity. If you are feeling brave,
you could choose something further outside
your comfort zone. Something that you
have never photographed before, that will
stretch your skills a little more than if you
70 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
were photographing something you’ve shot a
dozen times before. Photography is a learning
experience and although you can read up on
the theory, and that is no bad thing, it’s no
replacement for going out and getting in the
thick of it, trying things, getting it wrong, trying
new things and achieving success. There is no
doubt that as a budding photographer, friends
and family or people who know people, may ask
you if you would like to attend an event and take
some photos whilst you’re there. It’s going to be
good experience for you, so say “yes”. What is
there to lose?

Something new
We decided that we wanted to try shooting an
event that we’d never done before. Something
that would require some good camera skills and
a few different techniques to cover a particular
event. As it happens, when we reached out to
friends and colleagues, we were put in touch with
a young lady called Grace Holton. Grace works as
a quantity surveyor for a large building firm but
in her spare time has taken up motorsport with
her dad, Stuart. Never having photographed a
motorsport event, we contacted Grace who kindly
ASSIGNMENT: NORTH DEVON AUTOCROSS
arranged to let us come along and cover the event
in an unofficial capacity. We were going to cover
an autocross event in North Devon. Autocross is
a form of motor racing where competitors drive
their cars over a course that can be on either
sealed or unsealed surfaces and rough terrain.
The cars don’t race each other directly, rather
they all vie for the best lap times over a number
of race sessions. There are different car classes,
so you are always matched with equivalent motor
vehicles. The person with the best lap times in
each class is deemed the winner.
“We decided that we wanted to
try shooting an event that we’d
never done before. Something
that would require some
good camera skills and a few
different techniques...”
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 71
The techniques
Knowing we were covering a motorsport
event, we decided there were four aspects
of the day that we wanted to capture. Firstly,
since there was a paddock where all the cars
are parked and race prepared, we thought
some candid and behind-the-scenes shots
would be a good starting point. We also wanted
to get some more formal posed portrait shots
of drivers with their cars and to get the typical
‘driver by their car holding their crash helmet’
pose using flash lighting as well as ambient
daylight. We also knew we were going to get
some shots from inside Grace and Stuart’s car,
which meant using an action camera. Finally,
we had permission to go out on the track with
the race marshals to get some close-up
shots of the cars in full flight at speeds of
up to 80mph. We were going to break these
shots down into two types: one set of shots
were going to be using extremely fast shutter
speeds up around the 1/4000 of a second
mark to freeze the action. The second set
would be technically more challenging, as
there were going to be longer shutter speeds
of around 1/80th of a second. As you can
imagine, cars screaming by at 80mph are
not going to be frozen in place with a slower
shutter speed like that. That’s where the
panning technique comes into play. We’ll
break each technique down for you over the
following pages.
Race day
The event we attended was held at the
Sugworthy circuit just outside Winkleigh in North
Devon. The Sugworthy circuit is essentially a
field with track markers outlining the course.
After the first practice session, the cars will have
scratched away the grass surface, revealing the
mud beneath. This mud surface is what the fastest
racing takes place on. As luck would have it, the
conditions were perfect, and we were hoping for
some fast laps. We arrived at 8.30 am and the
first port of call was with the race organisers to
get signed in and get suited up with high visibility
jackets. At events such as this, you must adhere
to the safety instructions and not just decide to
wander around without permission.

Candid shots The Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8 zoom

lens is one of Canon’s most popular
It was going to be a while before racing lenses. Although this model is a little
commenced. Cars were being race prepared long in the tooth and doesn’t have
and each one had to go via the scrutineers image stabilisation, it is a great piece of
glass with amazing image quality.
to be checked, approved and ready to be
able to race. This was a good chance to get
some candid shots of preparations. The main
thing that identifies candid shots, is that the
subjects aren’t really aware that they are being
photographed. If they are unaware, then they
are behaving naturally. It’s not to say that you
don’t let them know you’re taking photos. You
could spend some time initially walking around
and introducing yourself to the competitors,
At 21MP, the Canon EOS 5DMK2 is a
just so they know who you are and that you’re relatively old camera but it is still a
there to record the day. Our experience was popular model for enthusiasts and pros
that everyone was happy to have their photos alike. It was also particularly sought
taken and in some cases, would call us over for after for its video capture capabilities
as well as its stills quality.
more shots. Once they were engrossed in their
preparations or just chatting with each other,
that’s when we started to capture some images.

Long lens
Part of the skill of being a candid
photographer, is making sure you are not
being intrusive. That is best achieved from the
business end of a long lens. A telephoto lens will
keep you at a discreet distance and less likely
to catch the eye of your intended subject. We
were using a Canon 5DMK2 with an old, but very
good, EF70-200mm f/2.8 L zoom lens. The wide
maximum aperture gave us two benefits. Since
it was a non image stabilised lens, open it up to
f/2.8 and you not only get fast shutter speeds
to minimise camera shake when shooting at
the 200mm focal length, but also very shallow
depth of field. Shallow depth of field in these
instances is a very useful tool to help keep
background clutter and other visual distractions
to a minimum. We had a sunny day, so shutter
speeds outside were very fast, ranging from
1/500 to 1/2000, even at ISO 100. This meant
that we didn’t have to use flash. Nothing
announces your presence more than a ‘pop’ and
flash of light.

72 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


Keep your eyes open
We spent some time wandering around
the paddock, looking out for moments to
capture. You never know where and when
something might happen so the golden rule
is to keep your eyes open and your camera
ready. Put your camera in burst mode so you
can capture a sequence of shots if there is
some action going on. You can always delete
the shots in the sequence that aren’t any
good. There was a drivers’ briefing in the main
building. This gathering of people was also a
good opportunity to take some shots as people
chatted and shared some friendly ribbing
about the relative speeds and horsepower
of each others’ cars. We kept an eye out also
for aspects that might not be race related but
were there none the less. Some competitors
brought their dogs, which made for a couple of
nice shots of the animals, completely oblivious
ASSIGNMENT: NORTH DEVON AUTOCROSS
to the preparations going on around them,
or snoozing next to a diesel generator. If
you see any interesting items, or close-up
opportunities of inanimate objects and
equipment, capture those too. Experiment
with angles and composition and if light levels
change and you see your shutter speeds
dropping, don’t be afraid to increase your
ISO sensitivity. Better a grainy image, than a
completely blurry one.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 73
Time for action
One of our goals was to get a camera in the cockpit
with Grace and her dad as they drove the circuit.
Obviously getting a full size DSLR mounted in a car
that was tearing around a rutted track was going
to present some problems. Luckily the answer, not
surprisingly, came in the form of a GoPro action
camera. We had a new GoPro HERO 5 Black that
could shoot great quality Raw images, so that was
going to be our ‘driver cam’. Attaching any equipment
other than the approved in-car equipment meant
it had to be approved by the scrutineers. We had
brought various GoPro mounting accessories to
Once correctly mounted in
try but it was going to need something strong and the car, the GoPro provided
robust to hold the camera rock steady. Since Grace some great shots. It’s wide
and Stuart’s modified Peugeot race car had a roll field of view setting allowed
cage fitted, it meant we had plenty of places to most of the cabin to be seen
in the shot.
attach the camera. The HERO 5 was mounted to a
set of heavy duty spring loaded jaws which could
be clamped to the bars of the roll cage. The camera
had a length of thin steel cable looped around it and alter the mode settings. We put it in time-lapse Review the shots
that was secured to the metal tubing of the roll cage, mode with a shot being taken every 10 seconds Once Grace had done her practice laps, we
just in case it came loose during the race. That way it in Raw format. The HERO 5 Black is the first could review the images captured by he GoPro
wouldn’t fly around the cockpit and potentially hurt GoPro that can shoot in Raw format, which is and amend settings as necessary. Luckily, the
the driver. This was approved by the scrutineers and great news for photographers needing to put shots looked good and we knew we had additional
it was ready to go. action cameras where DSLRs would fear to post-processing Raw leeway any way. On Stuart’s
tread. Grace was suited up and prepared in the practice, we were able to try the camera in a
Settings car. Once she was ready to go out on the track different mounting position near the top left
The GoPro was put on its widest field of view in and practice, we just set the GoPro going. The corner of the windscreen to get an alternative
order to be able to see as wide a view of the cockpit camera shutter speed was around 1/500 of a angle in the cockpit. The camera, in the two
as possible. The camera was first mounted to the second, which was enough to keep the images different mounting positions went out with Stuart
top rear corner of the roll cage opposite the driver sharp, even though the car was bouncing and Grace during the actual race session to
and then monitor what the GoPro was seeing by around on the track and a lot of vibration was capture some great in-car perspectives to add to
connecting it to the Capture app on our phone and being transmitted through the chassis. the record of the day we were creating.
using the live view to make sure the framing and
exposure was ok. We used the Capture app to reduce
the exposure compensation
by -1 stop to better
balance the bright
light outside
the car versus
the darker
cockpit. It’s
also possible to
use the app to

The small, compact, GoPro HERO 5

Black is an ideal action camera for
capturing the action inside the cars.
The HERO 5 is also the first GoPro to be
able to shoot in Raw format. The quality
is very good for such a small device.

74 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 ASSIGNMENT: NORTH DEVON AUTOCROSS

Watch the birdie settings, particularly your flash power, may

Next on our list, we wanted a few posed
portrait shots using flash photography
combined with the ambient daylight. The drivers
were very proud of their racing machines and
getting them to pose, crash helmet tucked
under their arm next to their pride and joy, was
no problem. All the competitors were very easy
going and approachable. Since it was sunny,
we opted to do some portraits with the sun over
their shoulder, partially backlighting them. We
had a flash mounted to the hot shoe of a Canon
5DMK3 with an EF24-105mm f/4 lens. If you
were to meter your subject and take a shot with
no flash, your subject would likely be reasonably
well exposed but your background sky is equally
likely to be blown out with potential loss of detail.
Alternatively, meter for the sky and your subject
is now probably going to be quite underexposed.
What you can do, is meter for the sky and then
dial in -1 stop of exposure compensation to make
it slightly underexposed. On a sunny day like we
were experiencing, this meant that our desired
settings of an aperture of f/4, ISO 100 and that -1
tweak in exposure compensation were giving us
a shutter speed of around 1/2000th of a second.
suddenly be way too powerful, so watch out
for changing light. We encountered this as we
roamed the paddock. We asked a few drivers for
some portrait shots and they happily obliged.
We also opted to get a few shots of the drivers
seated in their cars, just for a little variety. Just
like the altering light levels, be aware that if you
suddenly shoot at very close quarters, you’ll
need to adjust your flash power again to stop
the driver’s faces being blown out with too much
light. Dial the flash power down so you are just
filling in shadows, rather than being a dominant
light source. We did shots with the drivers either
wearing the crash helmets in ‘race mode’ or just
seated, smiling at the camera.

Much too much

Given that most camera’s maximum shutter
speed when using flash is 1/160th of a second
due to the mechanical limitations of uncovering
and recovering the sensor during an exposure,
we were hopelessly adrift of the right shutter
speed. This is when you can use high speed sync ETTL +2 FEC
(HSS) on your flash. Rather than firing a single
light pulse in a normal flash photo, with HSS the
flash will now begin to fire a rapid series of pulses
instead. This works with any shutter speed up to
the maximum your camera can support. In our
case the flash pulses began to fire just before,
during and after the 1/2000th of a second
exposure ensuring even illumination of the
subject. The downside is that you have limited
power and range but since we were shooting
portraits at close range, it wasn’t an issue. We
just had to do some test shots to figure out the
right amount of flash exposure compensation
Although it might seem
(FEC) needed to light our subjects correctly. As counterintuitive, using flash
it was, it required +2 stops of FEC on the flash for on sunny days can actually
greater light output. benefit your shots by filling
in dark shadows. You will
More portraits probably need to use high
speed sync in order to shoot
Be aware that as the weather and the light with the higher shutter speeds
changes, you will have to alter your camera bright sunlight causes.
settings to accommodate the changing levels. If
it was cloudy and then the sun comes out, your

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 75

 In today’s ever changing
camera market, the
Canon 1DSMK3 looks like
a bit of a dinosaur but not
so long ago it was Canon’s
flagship model. We bought
this one second hand and
it still produces perfect
images and has a great
autofocus system.

Although we had taken the 100-400mm lens

(shown above) we were close enough to the track
to be able to switch back to the 70-200mm lens
(shown right). This lens’ maximum aperture of
f/2.8 meant we could both reduce background
distractions and use very high shutter speeds.

Full speed
After one practice session and one race
session, lunch was called. The drivers told us
that the afternoon session would produce the
fastest laps, so we spoke with the organisers who
were willing to let us out with the marshals, thus
enabling us to get some trackside shots of the
cars in full race mode with their supervision. We
had originally intended to use a Canon 1DSMK3
with a second hand, but excellent, EF100-400mm
f/4-f/5.6 IS L lens assuming we would be far from
the cars on track. As it happened, the marshal
points placed us close to the action, so we chose
to use the EF70-200mm f/2.8 lens again. It wasn’t
image stabilised but the sun was still shining and
that f/2.8 aperture ensured that we could get
some fast shutter speeds if necessary. Plus, the
200mm end of the zoom range meant we could
entirely fill the frame with the cars if required.
So we were set. The first set of cars came out for
the beginning of the afternoon session and as
predicted, were much faster this time than during
morning sessions.
The first technique
This aspect of the event was of great interest to
us because it meant we were able to explore two
aspects of capturing high speed action. The first
photographic technique of freezing fast action is
arguably the easiest. The combination of a sunny
day and opening the lens up to f/2.8 meant we
could achieve very fast shutter speeds at ISO
200. The shallow depth of field also meant that
background distractions could be minimised
when shooting at the longer focal lengths. The
camera was set to aperture priority mode and
f/2.8 was chosen. The ISO could be around
100-200 and the shutter speeds for the current
conditions meant we were shooting in a range
between 1/2000th to 1/6400th of a second.
These shutter speeds easily stopped the cars in
their tracks and froze the moment. Then it was
a case of choosing the focussing method. The
camera focus mode was switched to AI Servo.
This is Canon’s version of predictive autofocus.
You press the shutter halfway and whatever
object is beneath one of your chosen autofocus
points, as seen through the viewfinder, that is

76 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


what the camera will attempt to track and keep
in focus. Then you press the shutter button
fully to take the shot. The camera’s drive mode
set to high speed continuous means it will keep
taking shots until you take your finger off the
shutter button.
Capturing the action
Ideally, as a car approaches, you track its
movement through the viewfinder, finger
depressing the shutter button halfway,
smoothly matching its motion and keeping
your AI Servo focus point on the car. When
you have the car where you want it, you can
press the button fully and fire off a sequence
of photos whilst continuing to track the car to
ASSIGNMENT: NORTH DEVON AUTOCROSS
keep it within the frame of your shot. After
a few goes, you should begin to get a feel
for the motion of the cars and your tracking
will improve. You could start with the cars
moving in a straight line from left to right,
which is easiest for your autofocus to predict.
Then, when you feel ready, you can change
position to a high speed corner where the
cars movement and orientation relative to
you is less certain. The faster cars are often
going sideways as they exit the corners. Then
they straighten up and plant their foot on
the accelerator to power out of the corner,
creating impressive plumes of dust and mud,
so keep your AI focus point on a part of the car
closest to you as you track it.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 77
Track car Track car and start shooting

1 2

Track car and stop shooting

3
Stop tracking

Camera is rotated to keep AF point

in the same place on the car

The panning technique
Your camera is set with a low shutter speed and
you have the framing as you want it. As the car
enters from the left, you can start to track the car
through the viewfinder [1], getting a sense of its
motion. Keep your AF point on one spot on the car
and rotate your body at the waist to keep that AF
point in the same place on the car as it continues
to travel left to right. When you are ready, begin
to shoot a burst of images [2]; as you do so, keep
monitoring the position of the AF point. Keep the
camera’s rotation steady so the AF point doesn’t
wander too far off the target point on the car
throughout the shot sequence [3]. Even after you
have stopped shooting, continue to track the
car for a moment [4]. This is just to help keep a
fluid tracking motion; otherwise you might loose
the key shot because your tracking started to
waver at the end, knowing you were going to take
your finger off the shutter button and end the
sequence of shots.

Fast shutter speed Slow shutter speed

The second technique
Once we had some action-stopping shots
in the bag, it was time to take it up a notch. The
frozen shots were great but upon review, some
actually looked a little unnaturally still. They
looked as if they weren’t moving at all. Shots that
contained billowing dust and clumps of mud
being thrown out from behind the car worked
well but other shots looked like they had simply
parked on the start/finish line. This is where
you can take your tracking technique from the
previous attempt and add a great sense of power
and motion to the shots.
Slow it down
The camera settings need to be altered for
the next technique, with the aperture stopped
down from f/2.8 to f/7.1 and the ISO dropped
to 50. This results in shutter speeds between
1/50th and 1/125th of a second. Even with a
normal lens you are risking camera shake at
the slower shutter speeds. How does this mean
you can get acceptable photos of high speed
vehicles? This is a panning technique you should
practice, as the results can be amazing. It is just
like the previous attempts but without the safety
net of fast shutter speeds to freeze everything.
You track the car as before and have it framed
in your composition as you want it. As the car
moves, you smoothly rotate your body at the
waist to keep your AI focus point on the same
spot on the car at all times. As you do, you fire
off a sequence of shots whilst still smoothly
panning the camera. What you are effectively
trying to do, is continuously keep the car in the
same position within the viewfinder and cancel
out any relative motion between you and it.
This means the slower shutter speeds can still
capture what appears to be a stationary, or
at least very slow moving, object with enough
sharpness to be usable. As a result though, the
background has continued to move through
the frame as you panned, the wheels have been
spinning and dirt and dust clouds have been

78 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 ASSIGNMENT: NORTH DEVON AUTOCROSS

“Suddenly, rather than a completely still

shot, you have the car nice and sharp but
the background is just a blur of motion,
as are the wheels and the dust. ”

flying around. Suddenly, rather than a

completely still shot, you have the car nice
and sharp but the background is just a blur
of motion, as are the wheels and the dust.
Now the sense of motion is much more
powerful and apparent. Many motorsport
photographers use this particular
technique and it’s not hard to see why. Yes,
it can take a little practice, and not every
shot you take may be sharp enough, but
once you get a feel for it you’ll be capturing
amazing action shots with ‘wow’ factor.

A good day’s photography

We came away from the race day with
memory cards brimming with photos.
More than that, we had captured a great
variety of images that really summed up
the flavour of the day, and we’d explored a
variety of different techniques and ideas.
We would like to thank all the participants
at the Sugworthy Autocross event who
gave us permission to use all the shots in
this article. n

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 79

 Shooting into
the light
An introduction to the contre-jour technique
I
f you’ve ever been given any photography
advice and had some pearls of wisdom
passed down to you, chances are that
one of the main ones would have been that
you should not shoot into your scene’s main
light source or the sun. This advice goes on
to say that you should always have the sun at
your back or at least over one shoulder. While
this is one aspect of working with light that
works well enough for a variety of situations,
it doesn’t always have to be the case. Yes, you
should never ‘look’ directly into the sun or
very bright sources of illumination of course,
80 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
but why should you not let your camera do
it for you? Conventional wisdom states that
you should not shoot into the sun as you are
only going to end up with badly overexposed
photos or conversely, subjects in such dark
shadow as to make them unidentifiable.
Then there is the issue of lens flare. Lens
flare occurs when a very bright light source,
much brighter than the rest of your scene,
hits the front element of your camera’s
lens. The light causes internal reflections
amongst all the lens elements, producing
ghosting, haze, lack of contrast and orbs.
 SHOOTING INTO THE LIGHT

Think again
Although many would consider lens flare and
ghosting unacceptable in their photos, there may
be times when it becomes a useful and creative
addition to your shots. The trick comes down to
when you should allow lens flare to be present in
your shot and when to eliminate it completely.
We’re going to explore a couple of ideas and
hopefully give you some pointers to become more
confident about shooting into the light and when
lens flare is your friend, and your enemy.

“Yes, you should never ‘look’ directly

into the sun or very bright sources of
illumination of course, but why should
you not let your camera do it for you? ”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 81

 Whilst the sun is below the horizon,
the light is softer, with less contrast.
If you need to, you can always use an
ND grad to balance out the difference
in brightness between the foreground
and the sky.

The sun is still below the horizon

Even when the sun appears there

should be no real issues; you can keep
shooting into the light for a while.
However, as the sun climbs, it will
increase in intensity and then you will
start to encounter flare and ghosting.

The sun is a few degrees above the horizon

Landscapes and light
The greatest argument for eliminating lens
flare from your shots becomes apparent when
shooting landscape images. Landscapes are all
about detail and composition. Nasty ghosting
and flare is not considered a good addition to
your shot. Straight away, you are going to hit
something of a roadblock because adhering to
the old rule and having the sun behind you can
be great for a lot of shots, but to really bring out
texture and character, you’ve got to try your hand
at contre-jour photography. Contre-jour basically
means ‘against the daylight’. This means putting
the sun, or the main source of light in the scene,
prominently within your shot. Now you need to
be aware of the sun, general light levels, lens flare
etc. and how to control its impact on your shot
as well as all the other factors such as metering,
focus and composition. Capturing a landscape at
dawn is a good example of how the character of
the light changes as the sun finally appears above
the horizon, and the problems it starts to cause in
your shots when it is glaring right down the barrel
of your lens.
Pre-dawn and sunrise
While the sun is below the horizon, everything
is rosy. Be aware that this is still contre-jour
photography since you are still shooting towards
your main source of light. The lighting is more
even and lower in contrast, and although the
sky is generally going to be brighter than your
foreground, a graduated neutral density filter
can even out the exposure difference between
ground and sky. You can happily snap away
and capture great contre-jour images. When
the sun’s disc does finally appear, you still have
no real issues. On a typical sunny morning,
while the sun is on the horizon, there is an awful
lot of earth’s atmosphere between you and
it. Any moisture and dust in the air will soften
and diffuse the sun’s light. Often, it will appear
as a red disk and have very little impact on the
landscape or your camera and lens. The reprieve
lasts only until the sun clears the horizon, then

82 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


The use of short focal lengths found in
wide-angle or fisheye lenses places the
sun very small in the frame. With a clean
lens ghosting will be at a minimum and
exposure will be easier to control than if it
were dominating the shot.
it will gradually increase in intensity and make
its presence felt on the land. Now you will start
to encounter ghosting issues as the sun’s
brightness increases.
Control ghosting
The best you can hope for is that the impact
of the ghosting is minimal and it would be
something you could remove with a small
amount of cloning in Photoshop. If the ghosting
is much more pronounced then you need to
take control of it by trying a few techniques.
The first one is probably the simplest. Alter the
sun’s position in the composition by moving
your camera a little to the left or right, or up
and down, keep your eye to the viewfinder and
rotate the camera slowly. You may be pleasantly
surprised to see the ghosting reduce to the point
its impact is negligible on your shot as the path
taken by the light bouncing around in your lens
elements alters because of the change in angle.
Focal length
Another method to help subdue ghosting
comes down to the choice of focal length you are
using. This is a key factor because the longer the
focal length you use, the greater the impact the
sun will have in the shot. The more you zoom in,
increasing the focal length, the larger and more
impactful the sun becomes relative to the rest
SHOOTING INTO THE LIGHT
of the composition. Conversely, if you use a
short focal length to get a much wider angle of
view, the sun will now occupy a much smaller
area in the overall composition and its impact is
reduced considerably.
Another alternative is to place the sun at the
very edge of your composition or actually just
out of frame. This is a great way to create warm,
dreamy lighting. Although the sun is not directly
in the shot, its brightness creates intense halos
that light up that area of the composition. It’s
a very popular technique used for portraits
and wedding photography. Since the sun is not
dominating the shot, exposures are easier to
control using this method.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 83
 When it comes to shooting portraits, a lens like
the EF70-200mm f/2.8 is perfect. There is no
barrel distortion like you would find in wider
angle lenses; and the maximum aperture of
f/2.8 means you can drop the background out of
focus to remove any distractions.

84 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 SHOOTING INTO THE LIGHT

Portraits in the sun

These shots of Ursula were taken on a lovely sunny evening about 2
hours before sunset whilst the sun was still a way off the horizon. We
used a Canon 5DMK3 and the excellent EF70-200mm f/2.8 lens to
capture some simple backlit portraits. Because Ursula has blonde
hair, we were able to arrange the composition so that the light was
illuminating her hair to make it glow and add to the dreamy quality
of the photos. Although the sun’s disk is not present in the shots,
its presence is felt due to the strong rim light and the soft halo
effect it creates by just being out of shot. A bonus of not having the
sun in the shot is that you won’t have to dial in so much exposure
compensation to get a balanced exposure. The most we had to
use was +1 stop whilst shooting in a heavily shaded area where
the sun was filtering through the leaves. However, most of the
shots were taken with no compensation. You will most likely find
that shooting into the sun in this manner results in some
images that are a bit lower in contrast but you have the
option at the processing stage to add some contrast
if you feel the images needed it.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 85

Cover it up
A simple technique that can reduce the sun’s
impact and the resulting ghosting is to frame your
shots in such a way as to put an object in its way.
This can be as simple as moving your camera,
altering the composition, and putting the branch
of a tree in the path of the sun for example. You
could also partially obscure it with a building, rock,
or even a person. If you use a small aperture such
as f/16, you can turn the point light of the sun into
a starburst. Using wider apertures will soften the
startburst, making it look more like a very bright
glowing spot instead.

Notice the difference in the sun between the shot above

and the one below. The first one was taken with an
aperture of f/4 and the sun just looks like an intense soft
glow. The shot below was taken with an aperture of f/22.
Now the sun looks like a starburst and adds a little more
To keep the glare of the sun under
interest to the sky.
control, there is a technique often used
to place the sun’s disc behind an object
in the shot; this reduces its impact from
an exposure point of view, whilst still
making a very dramatic image.

86 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


When all else fails
If the previous tips haven’t been successful,
and you have nothing in the composition to
obscure the sun, then there is a neat little trick
you can try that can work well. It takes the idea of
obscuring the sun with an object one step further
and puts it in your own hands - literally. Set up
your shot, frame it and set your focus to manual
and lock it to a point about a third of the way into
your scene to quickly maximise the amount of
depth of field in your shot. Use manual settings
and get the exposure dialled in to suit your taste.
Then you need to place a small object in front
of your camera’s lens that blocks the sun. You
could actually just use your fingertip and move
it into the frame and place it over the sun’s disk.
SHOOTING INTO THE LIGHT
Helping hands
Rather than using your finger, you can make it
a bit more user friendly by purchasing a helping
hand or magic arm. It is essentially a hinged
metal arm with a hot shoe attachment at one
end and a clamp at the other. You can attach it to
the camera’s hot shoe mount and place your sun
blocker in the jaws of the clamp. The sun blocker
itself can be nothing more complicated than a
small cardboard disk glued to a length of wire.
You can use the arm and blocker and angle it so
the blocker covers the sun, take the shot and then
just swivel it out of the way. This arrangement is
great when doing HDR sequences of 3 or more
shots. You can put your blocker in place, shoot
one sequence, then move the blocker out of the
way and shoot the second sequence.
You can process the two HDR
images as you normally
would, then combine
them in Photoshop as
mentioned previously.
You’ll need to be looking through your viewfinder
so you can accurately place your finger. Bring it
in from the top of frame and position it over the
sun, you should see any flare and ghosting in the
image vanish. Take a couple of reference shots
then remove your finger and take another shot
without it. You now have your main image with the
sun intact but with ghosting, and you also have
your ‘blocked’ image with no ghosting that you
can use to remove any unwanted glare from the
first one using the two images layered together in
Photoshop and a little bit of masking. This method
saves on having to try and clone out unwanted
ghosting artefacts from a single image in an image
editing program and is a much more efficient way
of doing things.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 87
 1 2

Here are a few examples of how alterations to your exposure impact upon scenes with
the sun present in the shot. Image 1 used exposure lock to get a balanced reading of the
brightest area of the shot. The sun and leaves around it are reasonably well exposed but
the foreground is quite underexposed, almost to the point of being a silhouette. Image 2
probably represents the best average exposure but some might feel the foreground is
still too dark. Image 3 uses a slower shutter to begin to overexpose the brightest areas,
but now the foreground tree and foliage look correct. Some might take things further in
image 4, blowing out detail in the highlights to make the sun feel even more intense than
it actually was.

3 4

88 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 SHOOTING INTO THE LIGHT

Metering your scene

Metering can be a tricky business when
shooting into the light. In a leafy wood, for
instance, you might be better off metering the
scene with the sun out of the frame. You can
simply angle the camera off to one side until the
sun is not seen and use manual settings to arrive
at a balanced exposure, then recompose with the
sun back in the composition and shoot. If the sun
is at least partially blocked, you can usually get
an average meter reading of the scene without
having to recompose the shot and dial in exposure
compensation if needed or fine tune your
aperture or shutter speed settings. If you want
the foreground to be a darker silhouette, then you
would need to meter the light source itself or use
much faster shutter speeds. To turn the sun into
a sharp starburst effect, remember to use very
narrow apertures of f/16 or more. Just be aware
that the narrower the aperture, the more likely you
are to encounter diffraction, which is a softening of
the image due to the phenomenon of light passing
through a very narrow opening. You’ll no doubt
find that metering will require a little trial and error,
but remember above all else, do not look directly
into the sun.

See the light

Contre-Jour is a great technique to use for
creating drama and breathing new life into your
landscapes. It doesn’t require any specialist
cameras or lenses, although we would always
recommend a good tripod as an essential
accessory to use when shooting landscapes. All
you need is to practice your metering skills and
because you are shooting into bright lights and
sun, develop an eye for flair, and of course, flare. n
and of course, flare.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 89

 Your first
home studio
Setting up a little studio is not as tricky as you might think

W
e’re sure every aspiring
photographer would love to have a
studio. A space of their own where
they could experiment with new techniques,
shoot portraits and objects and tinker with
lighting and different setups to get the most
out of the equipment to hand. Those new to
the subject who have never experienced a
studio shoot are missing out on an important
aspect of photography. Many are often put
off by the perceived complexity of setting
up and shooting in an environment where
they have to be in complete control of the
lighting, the studio backgrounds, cameras,
lenses and if shooting portraits, the models
themselves. Don’t be put off by images you
may see of large warehouse spaces filled with
exotic camera equipment, even more exotic
models and a gaggle of flunkeys who pander
to the professional fashion photographers’
every whim. That is a world apart from the
enthusiast photographer who would just like
to dabble in a small studio space. Your first
studio doesn’t have be in a warehouse full
of exotica, you don’t need wallet-emptying
professional equipment. You just need to
design your studio around the space you have
available. For most of us, that is going to be
a room in your own home. Although it may
all sound a bit amateurish, believe us when
we say, you can get amazing results from the
most basic setups.

“Your first studio doesn’t have be

in a warehouse full of exotica,
you don’t need wallet-emptying
professional equipment. ”

90 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO

Your first studio may not be the most glamorous,

and you will probably have to pack it away after the
shoot so your family can eat at the dining room table;
but you will be surprised what you can achieve with a
setup such as this. A backdrop, a couple of lights and
you are on your way.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 91

Keep it simple
As mentioned, the path of least resistance,
when it comes to setting up a small home studio,
is to shoot in a room in your own house. This will
usually be the dining room or a spare room where
you can move furniture out of the way to create
the space you need. If you have a room with
neutral coloured walls, you already have a usable
backdrop for some simple head and shoulders
portrait work. Even if the walls are coloured, you
can alter it and make it neutral or just change it to
a new colour in Photoshop. One thing we would
say straight away is not to use a bed sheet as
92 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
a backdrop. Nothing screams ‘amateur’ more
than to see a crumpled piece of sheeting behind
your model. It doesn’t matter how well lit or how
beautiful your model is, that nasty sheet is going to
ruin the shot. To begin with you could always just
wait until it gets dark, draw the curtains, and shoot
some moody rim-lit portraits that have completely
black backgrounds and therefore no distractions.
You just need to be aware of any light spill from
your flash lighting up parts of the room you don’t
want to be seen. Not all of us have the benefit of
having a spare room that is never going to be used
for anything other than being a home studio. It
Your home studio can start with something as simple as
a flat wall, that becomes a blank canvas upon which you
can create textures, colours and even new backgrounds.
The original portrait of Bailey the dog was shot against
a dining room wall that was painted mauve. Because
the dog’s outline is strong against the featureless
background, it was quite easy to select the colour of the
wall and turn into a neutral grey. This meant there were
now possibilities in adding totally new backgrounds to
the shot during the post process stage.
is more likely that you will need to set up your
equipment for the shoot in your chosen room
and then have to break it down again so the room
can be used for its original function once more.
In a darkened room with a single light source, you can
create some very striking portraits. This is probably one
of the easiest types of shot to achieve at home if you are
struggling to find a suitable background. The shot on
the far left was done in someone’s lounge with a single
flashgun, whilst the other was done in a studio setup
with a studio light. The horse above was photographed
in a stable. As long as spill light is eliminated so it isn’t
illuminating and revealing unwanted areas of your set,
you would never know the difference.
 YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO

1
2

Making a stand
The main basic items recommended for a
home studio are going to mean the difference
between an amateurish photo and a professional
looking one. The backdrop and its stand are
the first port of call. You can purchase a simple
2m x 3m adjustable backdrop stand [1] for
£20. The backdrop itself will come down to
personal preference and your shooting style
but you can get fabric, thin vinyl or paper rolls
of seamless backdrop material in different
widths and lengths for very little outlay [2].
You can purchase either flat colours or printed 4
texture backdrops. Just make sure they have
a matt finish or you might suffer unwanted
reflections and highlights appearing in your
background. You can either purchase a length
of backdrop that you can hang down to the floor
and photograph your model from the waist up,
or you can use longer lengths to create a very
simple infinity curve. An infinity curve is basically
a length of backdrop that is long enough to roll
out from the top of the stand and onto the floor
[3]. A small amount of curvature in the material
where it touches the floor and rolls out means
you have no hard creases or corners to worry
about. On these, you can shoot full body images
of your subject.

Studio lighting
Your studio shots will stand or fall based on the
quality of your lighting, so it is recommended you
get a decent quality flash kit. For a modest outlay
of around £180 you can purchase a basic 3-light
studio kit that comprises 3x 250w flash units,
soft boxes, a shoot-through umbrella and barn
door lighting modifiers [4]. It also comes with
some coloured gels, a wireless trigger and a large

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 93

 If you are shooting in confined places, try to
avoid using a wide angle lens at close range
to your subject and a very short focal length
such as 14-24mm. This will result in extreme
distortion of your subject’s features and they
will look like a reflection in a fun-house mirror.

Wherever possible, use a medium zoom lens,

where you can get a focal length of at least
35-50mm or greater, to avoid the distortion.
Obviously your available space will dictate how
far back you can get from your model. If you are
very short of space, stick to headshots.

kit bag. If you already have flashguns rather than
studio lights, there’s no reason not to use those
instead of the bigger studio lights. You can even
set up an effective wireless 3-light kit at very little
cost. An all-in-one kit makes sense because you
also get the lighting modifiers such as soft boxes
and shoot through umbrellas to help you shape,
soften and control the light. Bare bulb flashes
would produce very hard shadows on their own, so
light modifiers are essential to take your photos to
the next level.
Cameras and lenses
Whilst there are many compact and digital
SLR’s that have both the image quality and the
resolution to do your portraits justice, it’s actually
the lens choice that can have the greatest impact
on your photo. The focal length you shoot at is
the first thing to be aware of. Focal lengths in the
14mm to 24mm range will show a pronounced
barrel distortion of facial features where the nose
will be very large in the frame and the ears very
small. This is not flattering to your subject to
say the least. You need to keep your focal length
up around the 50mm to 135mm mark for more
natural looking facial features. Most DSLRs come
with a kit lens that covers the 24mm to 105mm
focal range and is perfect for these situations.
If you’re looking to have your background
completely out of focus with as much shallow
depth of field as possible, then a prime lens is an
invaluable asset when it comes to good portrait
photography. Primes offer larger maximum
apertures than their zoom lens siblings. A good
portrait lens can have a maximum aperture
anywhere from f/2.8 to f/1.2. Whilst many
professional prime lenses are expensive, you can
still pick up a basic f/1.8 50mm prime for £90.
Small studio shoot
To show what is possible, we decided that we
would do a portrait shoot in our dining room. The
dining room table was moved into the kitchen
to give us space so we could set up. We were
going to try and emulate the work of the famous
portrait photographer Joel Grimes. With a
technique known as grey screen compositing,
he shoots subjects in a studio against a plain
middle grey background, and then composites
them into a photo taken at a location outdoors
using Photoshop, often converting them to
monochrome or making them supersaturated
for a more surreal image. The challenge was
going to be to get some soft lighting and shoot
a full body portrait which we could blend into a
photo taken at a local beach on a moody day.
Joel Grimes has the benefit of a large studio
space and lots of equipment. We were working in

94 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


2 4
Studio lights come in many shapes, sizes and
prices. We use AlienBee studio lights powered by
mains electricity or lithium power packs for when
you need to shoot with the power of a studio light, on
the move when working outdoors.
a dining room with very little room for the model,
the backdrop and the lights. The backdrop was
not very wide, so the subject would not be able to
make any expansive gestures or her arms or legs
might appear outside the backdrop area.
Setting up
Firstly we set up the backdrop on its stand.
The backdrop comprised of two lengths of
mid-grey vinyl sheet that were taped together
to give us a basic infinity curve on which our
model could stand [1]. We were going to use two
studio lights and one flash unit in a three light
arrangement. The two studio lights [2] had 36”
soft boxes [3] on them and the flashgun was
going to shoot through a white umbrella [4].
Although the flashgun was going to be controlled
by a wireless trigger attached to the camera, the
two studio lights were not. The two studio lights
YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO
3
3
A Canon 5DMK3 and
have optical sensors that can fire the lights when an EF24-105mm
a bright pulse of light is detected. Whenever the f/4 lens is one of our
flashgun goes off, the other two lights will fire favourite camera/
as well. Given that it all happens at the speed lens combos for
a wide range of 6
of light, they synchronise without issue. The shooting scenarios.
only thing to be aware of was that the flashgun
needed to be in manual mode, otherwise it would
fire a preflash designed to reduce red-eye that
would set the others off too soon.
Camera, lens and settings
For this shoot we decided to use a Canon
5DMK3 [5] with an EF24-105mm f/4.0 lens [6].
5
This is a favourite combination and great for
what we were doing here. With the 24-105mm
focal length range, we could shoot tight head and
shoulders portraits and also full body shots in
the confines of our mini studio. The two studio
lights were placed directly either side of our
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 95
 Here is the lighting diagram for the
mini studio setup. The AlienBee
studio lights [1] and [2] were both
set at 1/16 power directly either
side of the model, firing through
softboxes. The flashgun [3] was
set at 1/4 power and was shooting
through a white umbrella.

1 2

model, Sarah-Jane, and both were set to 1/16
power. It needn’t be any higher power than
this since the lights were so close to Sarah-
Jane: literally a couple of feet. The flashgun
and shoot through umbrella were placed to
camera right as near the ceiling as it would go,
and angled back down so it was aimed at the
subject. This flash was set to about 1/4 power
to provide general overall lighting on the subject
as well as the grey backdrop on which she was
standing. The two studio lights with their soft
boxes, would create some subtle highlights
either side of the model with some spill light
that would help light the backdrop too. This
meant that there were no harsh shadows. This
was deliberate as we wanted to match the
soft lighting of the scene the subject would
ultimately be composited into. The camera
was set to an aperture of f/8, a shutter speed of
1/125 and ISO 50. A few test shots confirmed all
was well and we could shoot.
Getting the shots
Sarah-Jane did a number of standing and
seated poses, all careful not to stray outside
the limits of the grey backdrop (although a
few did sneak past us). Although parts of the
dining room and equipment could be seen
in the some of the wider shots, including the
grey duct tape that was used to bond the
two lengths of backdrop together, we knew
that we could Photoshop it out by cloning
the existing grey backdrop and extending it
out to fill the frame or simply cropping things
out if required. Between the close-up shots
and the full body shots, we were shooting in a
focal length range between about 85mm and
35mm. Shooting any wider would result in
some serious barrel distortion.

96 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO

Once the shots were in the bag,

it was a case of picking out the
preferred shots. Then, starting
the procedure of blending the
studio shots of Sarah-Jane into
the existing landscape photos
that had already been shot.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 97

 1 2

The chosen shot might need to have its grey background extended to match the proportions You can use Photoshop’s Magic Wand to select all of the grey areas in the shot and use that
of the image it will be combined with. The grey background will provide a crisp edge that will selection to create a mask that is a silhouette of your subject.
make the masking that much easier.

3 4

In the same document, you have your ready prepared image that will become the background Use the black silhouette of your subject to create a layer mask on your prepared scene. This
for the subject you’ve shot against a grey background. will effectively punch a hole in that image.

5 6

Your subject, on its grey background, needs to be on the layer below. The mask on the You can add various adjustments such as Hue and Saturation, Sharpening and even convert it
prepared scene above it in the stack allows just the model herself to show through. Blend to black and white or sepia. You can experiment to your heart’s content.
Modes also help seamlessly combine subject and scene.

98 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO

Post process
Once the shots were in the bag, we could pick
out the favourites and add a little of that Joel
Grimes magic. One particular favourite was
composited into the beach image already
shot. The grey background now came
into effect as it meant that Sarah-
Jane could be masked out because
her outline was uninterrupted by
any background clutter. This
clean mask would be used
to blend the beach image
into the image of Sarah-
Jane creating a seamless
merging of the two. Then,
after some touching up
and colour processing
the image was
complete. Although
you could happily
use the image of the
model on her grey
background on its own,
this technique gives
you great scope to add
additional background detail
without the need to try and
shoot on location.

Home studio magic

We were very happy with the end
results and did a couple more images in
the same style as the first. We did them in
both colour and monochrome. There you have
it. If you don’t mind having to clear away the dining
room table or shift the lounge sofas out of the way
so you can set up your backdrop and lights, you
can achieve great images that no-one would know
were shot in a temporary home studio. n

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 99

Fill light Key light

Lighting up time
If you’re new to portrait lighting then we have a
Lower power
little cheat sheet you can reference which shows a
series of lighting setups and how the illumination
will fall upon your subject as the angles change.
High power You can use these as the starting point for creating
your own lighting recipes. It shows the way light
strikes a human head from various points around
an imaginary clock face. The light is above head
height and is pointing down at roughly a 30°
angle. There are also some that show how two or
three lights will interact with each other too. The
diagrams also indicate which light is the key light
, and which is the fill light. A key light is essentially
the brightest source of light in the shot. A fill light
is often used at lower power than the key light in
order to lighten dark areas of shadow to make
sure they don’t go totally black. Further on in this
issue, we also have a few more of the most popular
lighting setups listed in more detail for your
reference. Good luck and enjoy. n

100 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 YOUR FIRST HOME STUDIO

Key light Fill light

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 101

 Automotive rig
photography
Photograph your car like the pros
H
ave you ever seen all those glossy
brochures and magazine adverts produced
by car manufacturers? There’s always
a very cool shot of their car taken from a low
angle, appearing to be traveling at a 100 miles an
hour. The car’s wheels are a blur of motion and
everything around it is streaking by, portraying an
amazing sense of speed. You might look at those
images and wonder just how it was done. Was it
just some incredible panning shot as the car sped
by? Was it taken from another chase vehicle, with
the photographer in the back snapping away as
both cars speed along a deserted road? Did the
photographer have to use settings that catch
the car in sharp enough detail, but with shutter
102 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
speeds slow enough to render the moving road
and background a complete blur? Although those
techniques are used to varying degrees, there
is one particular kind of shot that really looks
incredible. The high end automotive industry
has many trade secrets when it comes to the
photography of their products and there are
companies that charge huge amounts of money to
capture the latest models of cars in exciting ways;
but this is one kind of image you can produce
yourself and get professional looking results. It
is called car rig photography and we’ll outline the
process for you. It requires a couple of key pieces
of equipment but luckily it won’t put a huge dent in
your wallet.
 AUTOMOTIVE RIG PHOTOGRAPHY

“...this is one kind of image you

can produce yourself and get
professional looking results.
It is called car rig photography
and we’ll outline the process
for you. ”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 103

 2
The view from the camera will look something like the
illustration above. The boom arm will be in the shot of
course but a little help from Photoshop will remove
it in no time.
104 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
1 exposure and the car only has
3
The rig concept
Let’s reveal the magic of the car rig straight
away. The concept is fairly simple. You have a
section of pipe, or a photographic boom arm [1],
that will act as the main support. You will also need
a couple of suction cups [2] that are mounted to
the surface of the car and provides the boom arm
with a stable base to which it can be clamped.
Your camera is then suspended from a magic arm
[3] beneath the end of the boom that is furthest
from the car, and positioned to get the framing
you require. The position of the boom, the magic
arm and the camera is quite important but we will
cover that in more detail shortly. When suction
cupped to the car, the boom’s function is to hold
your camera a short distance away from the
vehicle to allow you to photograph it while it’s on
the move. Before you ask, there is no high speed
The automotive rig is a deceptively
simple idea. At its heart, it is just
a camera on a pole placed far
enough away from the car to get
all, or part of it, in the frame. The
camera is set for a 1-2 second
to move a very short distance at
walking pace to produce an effect
that makes it look like it is moving
at high speed.
risk to your camera involved in this technique
whatsoever. In fact you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
More on that later.
The parts list
The rig we have created uses some simple but
effective equipment. The suction cups we used
are quad suction pads that are capable of lifting
120kg in weight. The pad is placed on a smooth flat
surface and each cup has a lever that when clicked
into place, draws up the cup, pulling a vacuum that
holds it to the surface it is on. When each lever is
clicked in place, it can easily hold the weight of a
large person. The suction cups and the surface to
which it is attached need to be scrupulously clean
to make sure of a good seal. The quad suction
pad is a good idea, as in effect it gives you some

redundancy if any cup loses suction. These pads
are only about £10 each, so a very cost-effective
mounting system. The boom arm can be a length
of galvanised metal pipe from your local hardware
store about 25mm - 38mm in diameter and up to
2m long. Alternatively, you can get a telescoping
photo studio boom arm that is designed to hold
a studio light. They range in size and price but
you can get a 1.5m boom arm starting at around
£18. Some enterprising types have even used the
larger ends of carbon fibre fishing rods, albeit to
which much smaller cameras are attached. Next
you’ll need a magic arm. A magic arm is a metal
articulating arm that can be locked in position, one
end has a heavy duty clamp for gripping another
object or surface and the other has a hot shoe
adapter and a tripod mount screw attachment
9
to which your camera can be mounted. A
professional magic arm can be purchased for
about £14 and is very useful even when not being
used in a car rig. A couple of extra strong clamps
for extra security make up the parts needed to
assemble your basic rig.
AUTOMOTIVE RIG PHOTOGRAPHY
The suction pads required to secure the rig to the car
come in various configurations. You can get single pads,
or for more security; you can also get four [4] or two [5]
pad models. The magic arm [6] is the articulating metal
arm that allows your camera to suspend from beneath
the metal tubing [7] or boom arm [8]. Although the metal
tubing is likely to be heavier, it will also be more rigid.
You can secure the tubing to the suction pad handles
using a couple of two-way heavy duty clamps [9]. All
these items are surprisingly cheap to buy, but strong
enough to do the job.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 105
Camera equipment
For shots of this nature where the camera is
suspended from a boom, the smaller and lighter
your camera the better. To be able to confidently
support a large, heavy DSLR and lens, the boom
arm would need to be very sturdy indeed, and
sturdy equals heavy. Smaller mirrorless cameras
like an Olympus OM-D E-M10 would work well. Small
DSLRs such as a Canon 550D or Nikon D5500
would also do the job. Better still, if you are the
owner of an advanced compact camera like the EOS
M series or an action camera, like the new GoPro
Hero 5 Black, then you have a very small, very light,
camera that can also shoot in 12MP Raw format
and with a very wide angle of view, that means you
don’t have to site your camera too far away from the
vehicle in order to get it all in the frame.
Lenses
The lens you use with your camera will
depend on how long a boom arm you are
using. The longer the boom arm, the further
away the camera can be, and therefore will
not require such a short focal length lens to
get it all in the frame. To shoot a medium size
four door saloon in a 3/4 view with a lens of
about 24mm (full-frame) or 15mm (APS-C),
you would need the camera to be about 1.5m
- 1.8m from the car. Use a 16mm (full-frame)
or 10mm (APS-C) lens and you can move the
camera to just over 1m. Action cameras like
the GoPro, when used on their widest angle of
view, are equivalent to a 14mm full-frame lens.
The wide angle lenses will produce distortion,
but that is something you can control when
you process the shots in your favourite Raw
editing program. For our shots, we decided
to try an old Canon 5D with a 15mm fisheye
lens and a GoPro Hero 5 Black on its Wide FOV
setting. You can have the camera much closer
if you want depending on how much car you
want in the shot. If you only have longer focal
length lenses, you can still get some great
shots. You will just need to be a little more
creative with your compositions.
Camera control
The next part is how to control the camera.
A lot of modern mirrorless cameras, DSLRs
and action cameras have the ability to
automatically shoot a predetermined number
of frames in sequence using whatever

The smaller and lighter the camera, the better it will be

for the rig. Compact system cameras like the Olympus
OM-D range [1] are small but have great image quality.
Since they don’t have a mirror box like a normal DSLR,
they are lighter too. The DSLR cameras will be heavier
by comparison but if you have a smaller APS-C cropped
sensor camera such as the Nikon D5500 [2], these are
generally made from lighter less robust materials with
more body components moulded in plastic. There is
also the range of small advanced compact cameras 5
to consider such as the EOS M range [3]. They have
comparable image quality to DSLRs but in much smaller
bodies. An action camera is also a great option, being
the lightest and smallest of the lot. The new range of
2 GoPro cameras [4] can also shoot in Raw format which is
a great bonus for image quality. 6

Interchangeable lens camera systems often have the

option of using pancake lenses [5]. These are very
compact and very lightweight lenses. They come in
wide, medium and telephoto focal lengths and have
good quality optics despite their diminutive size. DSLR
systems offer much more choice when it comes to
lenses but they do come at a price. A good ultra wide
angle lens [6] or fisheye [7] is certainly not cheap, but
they have great quality optics and deliver crisp images.

3 4

106 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


settings you dial in. If your camera doesn’t
have that function you can always use an
intervalometer [8] which is basically a
programmable cable release that plugs into
the cable remote port of your camera. It
will mean that you’ll need to secure it to the
camera or the magic arm that it is suspended
from, but they are very light and easy to
secure. Beyond that, you can always use a
wireless remote control that you can either
program, or use the wireless manual shutter
release button at any time you choose.
Setting up
We decided to do a couple of test runs to
make sure everything was going to work as
expected. The first order of business was
8 9
11
to find a spot to shoot that was quiet and free
of traffic. We went to an old industrial estate
at sunrise on a Sunday morning, knowing the
place would be deserted and it had plenty of
level roads and parking areas off the public
highway. First, we took the camera, and using
the live view function, walked around the car to
figure out the best angle to shoot and therefore
where the suction pads could be deployed.
Once we knew the camera angle, we cleaned
both the suctions cups and the car where the
pads would go [9]. Many recommend wetting
the pads before you attach them as it helps
create enough suction to firmly hold them in
place [10]. Then the boom arm was clamped
to the suction pads and extended out to about
1.5m from the car [11]. The magic arm was
12
AUTOMOTIVE RIG PHOTOGRAPHY
secured to the camera hot shoe mount [12]
and the super clamp on the other end was
placed on the end of the boom arm and firmly
tightened [13] . The camera was adjusted to
get the framing right for the car and the magic
arm was locked in place. You will probably
notice some flex and some ‘bounce’ in the rig.
Make sure your camera isn’t so close to the
ground that any flexing will cause it to collide
with the road surface. Because the camera
is lower than the boom arm, you can usually
position it so that part of the car’s bodywork
obscures the suction pads and creates a clean
edge [14] that you can use when it comes to
the post process side of things; this will involve
a little Photoshop to remove the boom arm
from the shot.
10
13
14
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 107
How it works
The first order of business is to input settings
on your camera that will deliver a shutter duration
of about 1 - 2 seconds. This will mean setting
your camera’s ISO as low as it will go and using
very narrow apertures to reduce the amount of
light falling on the sensor. If you are struggling to
get to 1 - 2 seconds, then you can either wait and
shoot at dusk, when the light levels are low enough
for you to achieve the desired duration, or you
can use a screw-on ND filter. The neutral optical
density of the filter, reduces the amount of light
hitting the sensor and as a result, requires you to
increase the exposure times to compensate. You
can even get small ND filters to attach to the front
of the GoPro cameras in order to get those longer
exposure times. As an example, if all you could
get was a balanced exposure 1/4 of a second,
adding a 3-stop ND filter would require you to use
a 2 second shutter duration to achieve the same
balanced exposure. Make sure you are shooting in Unless you are shooting at night or at least
dusk, you will need a neutral density (ND)
Raw format if your camera allows it, to maximise
filter on your lens to reduce the amount
image quality. Then set your camera to manual of light hitting your sensor: enough to
focus and make sure your desired point of focus is produce an exposure duration of around
sharp. Then you can either program your camera 1-2 seconds. You can get ND filters that
to automatically take a number of shots with range from 1-stop of light reduction, all the
way up to 10-12 stops. For daytime work,
these settings or, as in our example, plug in the you will probably be looking at a 4-8 stop
intervalometer that was set to keep taking shots filter. You can even get ND filters for action
with the camera’s settings until we turned it off. cameras like the GoPro as well.

The need for no speed

Now the car needs to be moving while your 1 2
camera is taking those 1 - 2 second exposures. This
is best done with two people. One person can sit in
the car and control it, the other can monitor the rig
and set it going when necessary. The engine can
actually be switched off during the shoot. The driver
simply needs to release the parking brake and then
you simply push the car to get it rolling in a straight
line at a brisk walking pace of about 5mph. With the
camera shooting 2 second exposures, the car will
travel roughly 2m or more during each exposure.
This very sedate pace means the camera and the
rig shouldn’t bounce around too much as the car is
rolling. To be safe, you can actually shoot a number To get an idea of how slowly the car has to move, compare these 4 shots. Shot 1 is a stationary reference image. You can
see how blurred the driver is as they walk to the car. Shot 2 is the car starting to roll forward. Shots 2, 3 and 4 are actually in
of reference shots while the car is stationary just
sequence. If you look at the background, you can see how little distance the car has covered.
in case there is some camera shake present in the
moving shots. The combination of long shutter
duration and the car’s movement will produce 3 4
motion-blurred backgrounds that will suddenly
make your car look like it is going ten times faster
than it is. The background and the wheels will be a
blur and the illusion of speed is achieved by going
no faster than walking pace. Having lots of nearby
scenery to be blurred by the long exposure is a
good thing. No background scenery will mean no
blur and your shot will not have such a great sense
of speed. That’s why if you look at the shots the
professionals take, there are always city streets,
tree-lined avenues, or mountain roads used as the
backdrop.

108 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 AUTOMOTIVE RIG PHOTOGRAPHY

Bright sunlit conditions on the morning of

the first test meant that we couldn’t quite
get to 1-2 second exposures. This shot was
taken with a shutter speed of 0.3 of a second
and it actually worked out quite well.

The second test was shot with an ND filter screwed on to get the 2
second shutter speed. We moved to another part of the industrial
estate but encountered roads that were far too bumpy. This is
something to be aware of when setting up your shoot. Bumpy
roads are not your friend during long exposures.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 109

Smoothly does it
We switched to another car and tried a different
location, off the public roads. This was a bit more
successful as the road was a little bit smoother
and we got some fairly good shots of the truck as
it rolled down a small incline. Most of the shots
were still suffering from camera shake but we
could use our stationary reference shot to sort
out the worst of the blur.

The action camera’s turn

We then decided to switch to the GoPro HERO 5 Black and
return very early the next morning whilst it was still fairly dark.
It was mounted in the same fashion as the Canon DSLR and
then it was set to take a 2 second exposure every 10 seconds.
To our surprise, these came out just about perfectly. The very
light GoPro and the rigid steel tube of the rig gave us almost rock
steady shots that looked very cool indeed.

110 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 AUTOMOTIVE RIG PHOTOGRAPHY

Post processing
Then it is a case of choosing your
favourite shots and taking a little time
to clone out the boom arm from the
shot. Once done, you will have the kind
of shots that can look amazing and have
people asking how you actually did it. n

Disclaimer: We do not accept any liability for any loss or

damage which you may suffer as a result of your use of the
information or advice which is provided in this article. Great
care should be taken to perform these car rig shots in safe,
controlled environments away from public highways where
there is no risk to other road users. For further information,
contact your local authority regarding permits where
applicable before proceeding.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 111

 Airshow
photography
Capturing the action in the skies above

A
irshows offer the budding photographer a great photographic experience
quite unlike any other. These flying technological marvels are certainly
something. Imagine the sight of a modern front line fighter jet screaming
past you at 600 knots, turning and firing its afterburners to kick it high into
the blue yonder. The sky is filled with the rumble of jet engines, the whine of
propellers or the wonderful ‘whup, whup whup’ of a Chinook helicopter’s twin
rotors. All these things make for an exciting show but capturing the action can
be equally rewarding and exciting when you nail some perfect shots of the aerial
action above you. The question is: how can you make sure you get some great
images? Well, we have a few pointers and observations that will hopefully get you
on track.

112 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 AIRSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 113

Gear choices
Photography, like many hobbies, can generally
be an expensive one. It can certainly dispose of all
your available income in one fell swoop with eye-
watering precision if you let it. This leads us to the
main issue when photographing an airshow. How
do you capture those craft when they are long
distances away from you even at their closest
approach? In the UK certainly, rules have been
put in place that govern how and where aircraft
can display in front of crowds. Safety issues
dictate that they keep their distance in case of
collision or mechanical failure. This means that
your wide angle lens is not going to cut it when
it comes to catching the airborne action. Long
lenses are the order of the day. If you’ve ever
been to a football match or other sporting event,
you’ll no doubt have seen the rows of sports
photographers all using enormous lenses that
look like they could replace the Hubble Space
1 hand lenses. Although there is no shortage of
114 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
Telescope. They probably could. They certainly
cost about the same! A typical 600mm super
telephoto lens can cost thousands, which puts
gear like that beyond most of us. What options
do you have to get some usable long-range
photographs?
Telephoto tips
You are planning a trip to a local airshow but
what should your gear choices be? This will
depend on your shooting style but in the same
way a landscape photographer will always have
a wide-angle lens in their bag, an action or sports
photographer will have a zoom lens. It doesn’t
mean you have to go out and spend thousands
on a dedicated super-telephoto lens such as the
Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 at nearly £10,000 [1].
You can actually buy a Korean super-telephoto
650-1300mm f/8-f/16 lens for £150 [2]. You
would have to be aware though, that at this price-
point, it is not going to be exactly world-class
quality. Happily, there are other options. The
current crop of super-zoom digital cameras are
very affordable and offer optical zoom in the order
of 30x to 80x magnification. The Nikon COOLPIX
P900 [3] has a 16MP sensor and a massive 83x
magnification, which is comparable to a full frame
camera with a 24-2000mm lens. If you don’t have
a super-telephoto, you can always choose to crop
your shots in your image editing software. The
higher the resolution of your sensor, the more
cropping power you’ll have.
Seeing double
If you already have a DSLR with a medium
telephoto in the 70-300mm length range, you
could by a focal length extender [4] and double
the lens to 140-600mm. The big names like
Canon and Nikon offer these extenders for
around £350 but you could always opt for third
party brands like Yongnuo at half the price.
Nearly new
Another option to consider is to buy second
them on auction sites, you may be better off
purchasing from respected vendors who will be
able to tell you the history of the lens. The two
biggest lenses we use: an EF70-200mm f/2.8 and
an EF100-400mm f/4 IS zoom lens, were both
second hand buys and they have been brilliant.
 AIRSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY

The crop factor

Another option is to use a camera
with a cropped sensor and use a
lens designed for full frame cameras
instead. As an example, for some of
the shots used in this article, a Canon
EOS 550D was used with a Canon EF
100-400mm f/4 zoom lens. The lens
is designed to project an image onto a
sensor 1.6x larger than the one used
in the 550D. The actual focal length of
the lens does not change but the 100-
400mm focal length range on the lens
now appears as if it were 160-640mm.

Shooting tips
Since you are shooting at long focal
lengths, there are a few things you will
need to bear in mind. It is a popular rule of
thumb to say that if you are using a 100-
400mm lens at the long end of 400mm
for example, it is advisable to make sure
your camera’s shutter speed is at least
1/400th of a second. This is referred to
as ‘shutter speed as the inverse of focal
length’ rule. To be honest, it is probably
better to double that figure and shoot at
1/800th of a second to make sure your
pictures are as sharp as they can be. If you
are using a tripod or perhaps a monopod
to support your camera and lens, then Fast shutter speed
slower shutter speeds might yield good
results. If you are shooting hand held,
then faster is better for the majority of the
action shots you’ll be taking. With aircraft
however, there is one thing to note. When
shooting jet aircraft, you can shoot with
as fast a shutter speed as you want, when
it comes to propellor driven aircraft, it’s
a slightly different story. Helicopters
are a very good example. If you shoot a
helicopter in flight at very high shutter
speeds, you are likely to freeze the motion
of the rotors and make it look unnaturally
still. Try shooting a sequence with lower
shutter speeds to at least capture some
movement in the rotor tips and make it
look more dynamic and energetic. Yes,
you run the risk of camera shake but the
more you shoot, the more chances you Slower shutter speed
have of nailing a couple of sharp images.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 115

 1
Track your subject
One of the best ways to capture constantly
moving subjects such as aircraft is to use your
camera’s continuous autofocus. Continuous
autofocus modes, as the name suggests, means
that once you get a lock on your intended subject,
keeping the shutter button depressed half way will
make the camera continuously attempt to focus
on what ever the AF point is placed over. Nikon
call this Autofocus Continuous-servo (AF-C) and
Canon refer to it as Artificial Intelligence (AI Servo)
[1]. Typically, this is used to track and maintain
focus on moving subjects. You place your AF
point over the subject to be tracked and press the
shutter button halfway to initiate the continuous
focus tracking. Focusing is continuous, so there
is no helpful beep from your camera this time. As 2
long as you keep the AF point over your intended
subject, the camera will keep attempting to lock
focus on that point. If you also use a high speed
continuous shooting mode [2], when you press
the shutter button, it will shoot at its maximum The three images below show how you
frames per second rate until you release the can change the AF point you use to track
button. This means you can shoot a sequence as your subject to achieve different framing
depending on your preference. Typically,
you track the aircraft as it flies by.
the centre AF point is the most accurate.

Left AF point Centre AF point Right AF point

Front and centre

It may be worth the effort to turn up early to the
event and check out the location. You can select
some spots that afford the best view and then set
yourself up ready for the show. It’s always helpful
to be as close to the front as possible to avoid any
people blocking your view. In the majority of cases,
the best spot for an airshow is referred to as ‘crowd
centre’ or ‘show centre’. Airshow displays are geared
to look their best from the crowd’s point of view in
this position. The downside is that it will also be the
most crowded area too. An alternative is to take up
position at either end of the location where it’s at its
least crowded. Although you’re not at crowd centre,
you can sometimes get great shots of the aircraft
turning and manoeuvring themselves for another
pass. We were lucky recently as there was a two
day airshow which meant we had two bites of the
cherry in terms of choosing places to shoot from.
On day one, we took a few shots some distance from
the show. We were on top of a hill but nabbed a few
good closeups as the aircraft came in low on their
approach to the display area.

116 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


“Other craft may just use
white smoke, but against a
clear blue sky, this can look
just as dramatic. ”
AIRSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY
Visual interest
Although the idea of
photographing an airshow on a
clear blue sky day might sound
appealing, it doesn’t make for the
most interesting shots. Believe it or
not, clouds are the key to making the
background to your shots look more
visually dynamic and interesting.
Obviously a completely overcast day
will either mean a canceled show or
a dull backdrop to your shots. If you
are stuck with either a blue sky or a
grey one, our fearless aviators can
help us a little with smoke. A display
team like the Red Arrows will use a
lot of coloured smoke in their shows.
So if you need a little colour boost,
capture images where they are using
smoke. Usually, the show organisers
will have a radio link to the pilots
and you can hear their commands
which will give you a clue when they
are ‘smoke on’ or ‘smoke off’. Other
craft may just use white smoke but
against a clear blue sky, this can look
just as dramatic.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 117
118 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

It’s on the cards
Given that you may want to shoot
sequences of images in rapid succession,
we recommend getting hold of a couple of
fast memory cards. There’s nothing worse
than having some wonderful spectacle in
front of you, but you can’t shoot because
the camera is trying to buffer images to a
slow memory card. If you use either SD or
Compact Flash cards, go for the one with
rapid write speeds up around the 60 - 160
MB/s mark. They are worth their weight in
gold, so always have a spare or two at the
ready. You never know.
AIRSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY
Final thoughts
We advocate it time and again, and
this time is no exception. If your camera
supports it, shoot in Raw format at the largest
resolution your camera has. You will no doubt
need to crop some shots to get your subjects
a little larger in the frame and shooting in
Raw will at least mean you have the most
image data to play with before saving your
final processed images. Since memory cards
are the cheapest they’ve ever been, don’t
worry about shooting too many images. If
you’ve never shot an airshow before, it might
be a bit of a learning process. The more you
shoot, the more chances you have of hitting
that perfect moment; also, the more you
shoot, the more you learn. Take time to review
your shots and asses what works and what
doesn’t. Then go shoot again. Most of all, go
and have some fun. n
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 119
 Pet
photography
Time to get our furry friends ready for their close up
W
e love our pets. In fact for most people
they are more than mere pets and
become more like family members,
the recipients of love, affection and lavish
attention. It is likely then that their owners, at
some point, are going to want photographs of
their furry friends (or scaly, feathery or
otherwise). I have a dog, and the number of
photos that include him specifically outnumber
those of all my other family members put
together. However, pet photography presents
its own special problems. Animals, as we all
know, can be unpredictable, lazy, aggressive,
hyperactive and downright cute. If you’re
thinking of trying pet photography, here are a
few pointers to get you started.
Pet personality profile
You don’t need to sit the pet in question on a
psychiatrist’s couch and ask it to tell you about
its mother, but before you start snapping away,
find out about your subject’s personality and
habits. Where does it snooze if the sun is out?
What is its favourite toy? Is it lazy, sleepy, or
does it like to perch on a garden fence or hide
120 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
in the grass? Take time to chat with the owner
and observe your subject to gain some insight.
It’s also worth spending a little time getting to
know the animal yourself. Cats, dogs, horses,
they all have personality, and you need to ensure
they are comfortable being around you, and you
around them. Scaring a pet right at the outset
is not going to make for a particularly happy or
productive photo shoot.
Close quarters
Think about getting in close to your subject.
If the pet is comfortable with you, and if it isn’t
too skittish, fill the frame with the pet’s face. Get
the eyes nice and sharp. Just like humans, this
is a natural point of focus, although focusing on
the snout of a dog or cat can also make for an
interesting image in its own right. A good portrait
focuses on the subject and not the background.
Yes, there are times when shooting wide can
create a great environmental portrait, but make
sure you get a good selection of close-ups. A
macro lens is perfect for capturing details of the
pet, and shooting with a wide aperture keeps any
background distractions out of focus.
 PET PHOTOGRAPHY

“Get the eyes nice and sharp.

Just like humans, this is a
natural point of focus.”

This image of Phoebe was shot as if it were a

human portrait with some dramatic lighting and
then being processed to black and white. As with
a human portrait, getting the eyes in focus is a key
component to draw in the viewer.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 121

 Luna is unaware of the camera and happy
to do her own thing. Moments like these are
worth capturing. Taken with a 70-200mm
f/2.8 lens, the foreground gate creates a
nice frame for the shot.

122 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 PET PHOTOGRAPHY

Having someone just out of shot with a

dog treat is a simple way of getting a dog’s
attention. In this shot, Archie is fixed on his
owner to camera left and made this portrait
easy to capture.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 123

 Bailey was shot with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens.
The aperture was set at f/2.8 and at the full focal length
of 200mm. This produces some lovely selective focus
and gives the benefit of a fast shutter speed.

124 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


Capture funny ‘moments’.
Try to keep background distractions to
a minimum.
Obviously if the animal is not content to keep
still for more than a second, this can be a
challenge. Keep snapping away; try using your
camera’s continuous autofocus to track the
animal as it moves. If it’s proving too difficult,
let the animal play a while, and try again. Pets
have very short attention spans, so keep it
fun, break it up a bit if you have to and always
reward and fuss them when they do well.
On the level
Your average dog is a couple of feet tall,
cats even smaller. The average adult human is
about 5’ 7”. If you photograph a pet while you’re
standing up, all you’re going to see is the top of
their head and their backs, not what you want
for a portrait. Get down to their eye level, and
Keep the eyes nice and sharp.
Keep an eye out for interactions or displays of behaviour.
see the world from their perspective. If you
are able, get lower still. Try pre-focusing your
camera and just holding it at ground level so
you can look up at the pet. It’s worth a try just
for a new angle on things.
Lighting
When meeting a new animal, bring a flash
and, with the owner’s permission, while
greeting or playing with the pet, fire a couple
of test flashes away from them to see their
reaction. In daylight particularly, they never
seem to mind the flash at all. If they do mind,
then stick with natural light and use a white or
silver reflector if you need to fill in any shadow
areas. Indoors, a bright continuous light may be
preferable. I have a photoflood light that, rather
PET PHOTOGRAPHY
Get in close.
than using old tungsten bulbs, uses three
daylight-balanced energy saving bulbs. They
are housed in a 22” reflector that I can cover
with a diffuser to soften the light if need be.
You can also try placing your subject near a
window to use the natural light. If I am using
flash with a willing subject then I invariably
use cross-lighting, avoiding shooting a flash
directly at them.
Be patient and carry on!
As they say, “memory is cheap, but
memories are priceless”. Pets are challenging
subjects so you’re just going to have to stay
sharp and keep shooting. The more you
shoot, the greater your chances of hitting that
perfect shot! n
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 125
 Still life
photography
Sounds simple, but still life is a
demanding art form

S
till life photography is defined as the
depiction of an inanimate subject. You are
probably familiar with classic paintings of
still life subjects which often tend to be bowls of
fruit, bottles, and flowers. Although some might
frown upon photographing a still life that mimics
an old painting, it actually takes a deft touch
with lighting and a skill in knowing how to set up
and arrange your particular subjects. In fact, it
is said that a still life photographer is ’making’ a
picture, rather than ‘taking’ it. Of course still life
is not limited to bowls of fruit and such, but on a
rainy day, when you’re stuck indoors looking for a
photography project, a good still life can teach you a
lot about light, texture, contrast and composition.

126 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


The two images above represent the key
difference between ‘found’ still life images
and ‘created’ still life images. The image of
rusty old tools in a tool chest on the left could
easily have been found by the photographer
who decided to record it as it was discovered.
The image on the right is obviously a
deliberate creation, and has the hallmarks
of being lit in a studio environment.
Still life does fall into two categories. The first is
‘created’ still life which, as the title may suggest,
is where the final scene has been crafted and
constructed with a deliberate final result in mind.
It may also have been lit by artificial means.
Daylight or any ambient light was not present
STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
in the final shot. The second type is ‘found’ still
life. This is a subject that has been found and its
arrangement has occurred by natural means or at
the very least had no input from the photographer
in creating the scene that they shot. It is as they
found it.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 127
 A simple grey faux leather
fabric creates a great backdrop
for your still life composition.

Creating a still life

For our example, we are going to assume it’s
a bad weather day, and we’ll set something up
indoors and create a still life. Where do you start?
Well, the best idea is to start with something
simple, on a simple background, with simple
lighting. Sounds simple, right? It is good practice
to begin with an object that is non-reflective, if
you’re new to still life photography, you don’t want
the additional headache of dealing with unwanted
reflections if you’re not able to black the room out.
Once you’ve made your executive decision about
the subject you are going to capture, you’ll need
to build a set for it to inhabit. You’ll need a surface
or backdrop to create your environment for the
subject. It can be as simple as the surface of a
wooden table or a piece of fabric, cloth or canvas.

Set the scene

Light backgrounds have a light and pleasant
mood, whereas dark backgrounds are more
dramatic. It is generally held that the background
colour should be of similar tones and colours
as your subject, perhaps just a shade lighter
or darker than the main elements. Although
that is the rule, you can experiment with colour
combinations that suit your taste.

Your subject
With a background set up, it’s time to introduce
your subjects. The beauty of still life work is that
you can shoot literally anything you want. You
can amalgamate several disparate elements or
harmonise the subjects to your heart’s content.
There is a quoted maxim that arranging objects
in odd numbered groups (1, 3 or 5 etc.) is more
harmonious than even numbered groups.
Although our final set up uses
However you do it is up to you. flash lighting, you can use desk
lamps, torches and household
Lighting up time lighting such as this bedside
When you have your background and subjects lamp shown on the left and still
get a great result as seen in the
ready, it’s time to introduce light. This can be
main picture above.
as simple as arranging your scene next to a
window on an overcast day and using the soft
natural light. If that is not an option, then there is
no reason you couldn’t employ a couple of desk
lamps as your primary light sources. Bounce
the light of a nearby wall or piece of white card
to create a much larger softbox effect to reduce
the appearance of harsh shadows due to small
light sources, or place the lamp a distance behind
a white sheet and turn the sheet into your light
source. Some white card can also be used as
reflectors to bounce a little light back into the
scene to reduce the depth of the shadows.

128 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide


Getting in the mood
In our example, we were going for a moodier
look. Something that looks more like an old 17th
century oil painting. In fact, a Google search for
17th century still life paintings will provide you
with many inspirational references where you
can study how they chose to capture the light in
their scene. Our example was set up on the dining
room table with curtains drawn to subdue the
ambient light, it was the closest we could get to
having the room blacked out. A local fabrics shop
had a couple of interesting leather-effect sheets
you could buy off the roll. We had a meter each of
a grey and a brown textured material, ideal for our
backdrops.
Lights and camera
We were working with two wirelessly controlled
flashes as our primary sources of light. The
camera was set up on tripod to avoid camera
shake, and a favourite 24-105mm f/4 lens gave
us ample compositional and framing scope of
On the left of the set up is the flash used at the 4 o’ clock position with an
orange gel. The flash on the right had a large white sheet hung over it to
increase the apparent size of the light source to create softer shadows.
our first subject on the grey material which was
a house-warming gift, plus a candle and a piece
of jewellery. The subjects were arranged and the
lights were set. The process began to dial in both
camera settings and the power required of the
flashes to light the scene.
Settings
We ended up with one flash at 1/2 power
shooting through a large white sheet to mimic
a window and the second at 1/64 power with
an orange gel placed over the flash to cast a
warm glow across the back of the scene. The
camera was set at a shutter speed of 1/100th
of a second, an aperture of f/8.0 and ISO 100.
We would have chosen a shutter speed at the
camera’s x-sync speed of 1/160th of second,
but the camera was an older Canon 5DMK2 and
the wireless controller was designed for newer
Canon cameras such as the 5DMK3 and the
7DMK2. As such, the controller limits how close
you can get to the top x-sync speed and will not let
you use high-speed sync at all, which is a shame.
STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
However, the settings we had were fine for our set
up so we could get shooting.
Shooting the first scene
We shot a few frames, tweaked the position
of both lights. If you imagine the camera is at
the 6 o’clock position, the main flash with the
white sheet over it was at the 4 o’clock position
and the flash with the orange gel was at the 10
o’clock position, aimed at the grey leather-effect
background. This created some nice shadows
across the scene and in the petals of the flowers.
Try to avoid front-on lighting as it has a tendency
to flatten objects out. Shadows help create a
sense of depth and give a more 3D quality to your
image. The final thing to do was light the candle.
Our camera’s shutter speed settings were such
that enough of the ambient light in the scene
could still show up in the shot, so the brightness
of the candle flame was not lost each time the
flashes fired. A small amount of smoke from the
lit candle also showed up very well in the shot,
adding to the scene.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 129
 “The colours of the bottle and the
brown leather complimented
each other well, and the orange
gel from the second flash added
greater warmth to the scene.”

130 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

Once the lights and camera settings

were dialled in from the previous set
up, shooting the second scene was
just a case of making sure the lights
were in the right place so as to avoid
showing up on the glass of the bottle
and the tumbler. For any remaining
unwanted reflections, the image was
processed, opened in Photoshop, and
any remaining issues were cloned out
of the image.

Next up
Having captured the scene, it was time to
set up the next one. This was a subject close
to the heart, and liver, of the photographer. We
set the brown leather sheet up as we did with
the grey one and placed a bottle of single malt
scotch that had an interesting bottle design,
a glass tumbler, and the cork from the bottle
in position. Happy with our lights from the
first scene, we could use the same settings as
before and just frame the shot as desired. A few
test shots and some light position tweaks, we
could finish preparing the scene. Some cool
spherical ice cubes were placed in the glass,
and scotch was poured into the glass from a
beaker. The colours of the bottle and the brown
leather complimented each other well, and the
orange gel from the second flash added greater
warmth to the scene. The scene was set and we
could shoot. As we mentioned earlier, watch
out if using shiny surfaces in your shoot. Be
aware of what reflections are appearing in your
objects. We used a little positional sleight of
hand to make sure most unwanted reflections
of the camera and tripod were hidden by the
bottle label.
Post processing
All that remained was to download
the shots and pick out the favourite one
from the shoot. The processing was fairly
straightforward. We added sharpening,
some saturation, and also a dark vignette
to make the edges of the shot darker to add
the mood we were seeking to create and
we were done. Why not try your hand at
still life photography? Whether ‘found’ or
‘created’, still life is a very good exercise in
arrangement, composition, and lighting skills,
and well worth a go. n

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 131

 Landscape
photography tips
A guide to getting the most from your landscape photography
F
or many people new to the world of
photography, one of the easiest and
most accessible areas first explored
is the great outdoors and why not? You
don’t need a studio or masses of expensive
equipment. There is plenty of available light,
unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to
try night photography and beautiful seaside
or countryside scenes are usually not too far
away by car or a brisk walk.
Landscape photography is an amazing and
rewarding experience for both novice and
seasoned professional. Whether it’s just a record
of a day trip you’ve made to a new location
with the family or a more serious professional
132 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
endeavour, landscapes when taken well, are
able to instil all sorts of emotions in the viewer of
the final shot. Even if it is that most mundane of
emotions summed up in the simplest way: ‘wish
you were here’.
Before you venture out there, why not take
a quick look at our 30 essential landscape
photography tips. Over the following pages we
have assembled a useful quick reference guide
to landscape photography that can take your
photographs to the next level. Go from ‘snap’ to
‘masterpiece’. There is so much that could be
covered but we will show some of the main tips
and tricks to get you on your way to being the next
Ansel Adams. n
 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

“Landscape photography is an amazing

and rewarding experience for both
novice and seasoned professional.”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 133

 Landscape photography tips
1
Research your location
Take time to research your possible
shooting destination if you have not been
there before. Just Googling the location
you want to shoot will call up all sorts of
information. Most of it may be useless
to you but you can guarantee that there
will be examples of other photographs
taken there. The experiences of other
photographers in this location will give
you the heads-up as to whether it is an
easy or difficult place to reach. There may
be tips concerning local by-laws and the
best nearby parking spots etc.

2
There’s an app for that
There are apps available that can tell
you where the sun will be at any point on
any given day. These apps can overlay
information on a map of your given
destination, showing where the sun
will rise and fall and where it will track
through the sky on whichever day you
choose. This is great for working out
what time is best for you to shoot in the
location you are researching. Sunseeker
for iOS and Sun Surveyor for Android are
two great examples of these types of app.

3
Be prepared
Make sure you dress for the conditions
you are shooting in. If you are going to be
on rough terrain, then sturdy shoes are
essential. A sprained ankle miles from
anywhere, could be very unpleasant.
Travel light if possible and the purchase of
a good quality rucksack or rough terrain
camera bag will stand you in good stead
for your journey. Make sure someone
knows you are out there and that you
have your phone with you at all times. You
never know.

134 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

4
A golden rule
It can’t be stressed enough, if you
want the best from your shots, you
need to switch to Raw shooting mode.
Most modern cameras now allow you
to capture your images in Raw format.
Raw as the name suggests is the
uncompressed and unprocessed image
data straight from the camera’s sensor.
The files are much bigger than their jpeg
counterpart but they give much greater
latitude when it comes to processing your
final image.

5
Filter systems
Think about investing in some filters.
A circular polariser is very useful. It
can boost the contrast in blue skies
and is very useful for reducing or even
eliminating reflections in water; just be
aware that polarisers work best when the
sun is at 90° to you. If you are shooting a
scene where there is a large difference in
the tonal values between your land and a
bright sky, an ND grad will help stop those
skies from burning out.

6
Lock it up
For extra tripod stability, a lot of
photographers hang their camera bags
underneath the head of the tripod to act
as a counterweight, helping to immobilise
the tripod. In addition, even the movement
of your camera’s mirror flipping up and
down with each shot can create vibrations
that affect a shot’s sharpness. If you set
your camera for mirror lock-up, it will flip
the mirror out of the way long before the
shutter opens to take the shot, giving time
for any vibrations to cease.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 135

 Landscape photography tips
7
Light fantastic
In photography you may hear
reference to ‘the golden hour’. For
gorgeous landscapes you cannot do
better than to shoot at sunrise and for an
hour or so after that; or at sunset and the
hour or so before it sets. The light has a
luminous warm glow, shadows are long
and show off the contours of the land. The
sky ignites in pink, orange and red hues
and if you catch a sunrise or sunset with
an interesting set of cloud formations,
then all the better.

8
Blue hour
There is also what is referred to as
‘the blue hour’. This is the twilight period
you experience at either end of the day
when the sun is a fair distance below the
horizon but its influence can be seen in
the sky. It is ideal for cityscapes where
you can capture the city lights against
a deep, inky blue sky. The window of
opportunity is relatively small before
either the sun rises and lights the sky or it
sinks and renders the sky black. It usually
lasts about 45 minutes after the sun has
set or before it rises.

9
Stable conditions
A tripod is a must for landscape
work. You may be working in low light
conditions and handheld shots are not
going to yield sharp images. You might
also want longer exposure times to
render water soft and misty or show
clouds moving in the shot over a number
of seconds for added drama. There are
plenty of strong, lightweight tripods to
choose from that won’t be a chore to
carry with you on your shoot; couple a
cable release with it and you are set.

136 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

10
Take control
If you are relatively new to DSLR
photography, you may still be using your
camera’s auto or semi-auto functions
where it will decide on the best settings to
use in either Shutter Priority or Aperture
Priority. As long as it is in auto, it will
keep making decisions for you and you
will end up with shots that don’t match
your expectations. In manual mode you
can decide on how the scene is exposed.
Make the creative decisions; don’t leave it
to your camera.

11
Depth cueing
A photograph only has two dimensions
and any indication of depth in a
photograph is purely optical. One of the
simplest ways to add depth is to use
leading lines like the curve of sand on a
beach image or railway lines converging
towards the horizon. Another method
is atmospheric perspective where mist
and fog shroud distant objects making
them lighter and with less tonal contrast
compared to darker foreground objects.

12
Don’t fear the histogram
A histogram is a graphic representation
of the tonal values in your shot and how
they are distributed. If the graph is
bunched at the far left, then your shot is
very underexposed and you risk the loss
of a lot of detail to shadow areas. If it is
sliding off the right hand side, then it will
be overexposed and detail will be lost in
the highlight areas. A good exposure will
have all the major tones in the middle of
the histogram.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 137

 Landscape photography tips
13
Framing & composition
Composition is a very subjective thing.
What looks good to your eye may look
odd to someone else. If nothing else,
keep the ‘rule of thirds’ as your main
compositional tool. Imagine that your
frame is split by lines into thirds, both
vertically and horizontally. Placing an
object of interest at one of the points
where these lines would intersect means
you are adhering to the rule and this will
help bring balance to your shot. Rules can
be broken though, so it’s up to you.

14
Stay sharp
Photographers will want their scene
to be as sharp as possible from front to
back. This is where depth of field comes
into play. At large apertures such as
f/2.8, the area of sharp focus in front
and behind the point of focus will be
relatively small. Using a much smaller
aperture such as f/11 that ‘zone’ of
sharp focus is much greater. As a rough
guide, focus on a point about one third
of the distance into your scene to give
yourself the best chance of maximising
the depth of field available.

15
Maximum exposure
Consider using longer exposures in
your landscape shots. Photographers
often employ exposures that last
seconds or even tens of seconds, to show
clouds streaking across the sky rather
than looking static and puffy. Scenes shot
with a much longer exposure will turn the
water to a misty, milky fog. It is safe to say
that your tripod is the key to the success
of these shots.

138 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

16
Out of the shadows
While a bright summer day may seem
like the perfect time to take photos, at
midday every scene will appear flat and
featureless with shadows sitting directly
beneath every object. The perfect
weather for outdoor photography is a
bright day with a few white clouds to help
diffuse the light and take the edge off
the shadows. The perfect time is around
sunrise and sunset with long shadows
defining the contours of the land.

17
Wet weather
If you’re taking your camera out in
wet weather make sure it’s properly
protected. Keep your camera in a rain
proof bag or case until you need to use
it. If rain gets on the lens, wipe it off with
a soft lens cloth. If your camera does
get wet, take the battery out, dry it
thoroughly using paper towels for the
body and soft cloth for the lens; then
leave it somewhere warm and dry for 24
hours before trying it again.

18
Persistence pays off
The great outdoors is unpredictable
to say the least. The weather has a habit
of doing exactly the opposite of what
you want, when you least want it to.
This can be a big turn off for many new
to photography. Don’t let below par
weather put you off. Sometimes you
have to be brave and get out there and
be prepared to sit and wait. You could
be rewarded by a break in the weather
that reveals some sublime lighting that
makes it all worthwhile.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 139

 How it’s done
You don’t need to travel the world to find wildlife pictures

W
hile the top wildlife
photographers jet off to exotic
locations to capture their
photos, for those of us of more modest
means, zoos and wildlife parks can
provide many opportunities to
photograph animals in more controlled
and easily accessible locations. Most
wildlife parks try to ensure that their
animals are kept in surroundings that
closely match their natural environment.
Zoos and parks will usually actively
encourage photography, and often build
their enclosures to provide an
unobstructed view of the animals, so by
careful use of a telephoto lens it should
be possible to exclude anything from the
shot that might give away the fact that it
was not shot in the wild.
Since like most zoo animals the big
cats are accustomed to visitors, they are
quite happy to pose for their photo, giving
the photographer time to compose the
shot. A wide aperture has reduced the
depth of field so that the background is
out of focus, using a higher ISO setting
also helps to provide a nice fast shutter
speed to freeze any unexpected
movements or chance of camera shake.
A long telephoto zoom lens magnifies
the view, allowing the photographer to
crop out the surroundings and
concentrate on the animals. n

The shot of this animal

was taken with a Canon EF
100-400mm f/4 L image
stabilised lens like the
one shown here.

140 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide

 HOW IT’S DONE

“A wide aperture has reduced the depth

of field so that the background is out of
focus, providing a fast shutter speed to
freeze any unexpected movements.”

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 141

 How it’s done
This is how you see the bigger picture
D
igital SLR systems offer the
greatest versatility of any
photographic system, and
represent the best compromise
between quality and portability. The
best CSC systems are still some way
behind, but are catching up fast.
There are lenses and other
accessories available to suit every type
of photography, both amateur and
professional. It’s important to choose
the right lens for the job, but be aware
that top quality DSLR lenses can be
extremely expensive.
This photographer is using a very
specialist lens to get this distorted
effect of the Padirac Caves in France.
142 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
The very wide field of view means more
of the stone structure can be seen.
The kind of lens that can do this is
called a fisheye. Whereas most lenses
are trying hard to eliminate distortion,
the fisheye uses it to its advantage to
give you an unparalleled angle of view
that can encompass 180°.
In the case of the example lenses
shown here, the Nikkor 10.5mm DX
fisheye can create a 180° image, whilst
the Canon 8-15mm fisheye can actually
create a fully circular 360° image at the
8mm end of the zoom range up to a 180°
corner to corner image when zoomed to
15mm. Just be prepared to shell out well
over £800 for the privilege. n
 HOW IT’S DONE

Although a very specialist lens, the fisheye

can create some memorable images.
Landscapes, particularly from an elevated
or lowered position, can produce some
extreme and dramatic results.

BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 143

 Glossary
A list of some general photographic terms
Aperture
Behind the lens of your camera is a movable circular iris
which opens and closes to control the amount of light
falling on the sensor. This is usually controlled by the
camera’s light meter, although some cameras have a
manual aperture control. Altering the aperture also
changes the depth of field.
Aperture priority
This is one of the semi-manual exposure options found on
some cameras. The user sets the aperture according to
the depth of field they require, and the metering system
sets the shutter speed to obtain the correct exposure.
Artefacts
When an image is stored in your camera’s memory it has to
be compressed to fit, usually into a JPEG file, and in the
process some information is inevitably lost. When the
image is uncompressed for viewing, noise creeps in and
appears as angular blocks in the image, which are known
as artefacts.
Autofocus
Almost all digital cameras have automatic focusing. There
are essentially two types; contrast detection, used in
compact cameras and most CSCs, uses the camera’s main
sensor and works by detecting the borders between
high-contrast areas and trying to make them as sharp as
possible. Phase detection AF is used in digital SLRs and
some CSCs, and uses a separate sensor. It is usually faster
and works better in low light.
AE lock
Stands for Auto-Exposure Lock, a function found on most
advanced digital cameras. This enables you to take a light
meter reading from a particular part of the image and then
hold that setting while you compose the image.
Back lighting
Backlighting occurs when your subject is brightly lit from
behind, such as somebody standing in front of a sunlit
window. Unless you adjust the exposure to compensate for
this, your subject will appear as a dark silhouette against
the bright background.
Barrel distortion
Barrel distortion occurs when a lens, usually wide-angle,
distorts an image so that it appears slightly spherical. If you
take a seascape with a wide-angle setting and notice that
the horizon seems to curve, this is barrel distortion. It’s
most noticeable when there are straight lines near the edge
of the frame. In digital images barrel distortion can be
corrected in image-editing software.
Bokeh
The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a
photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular
lens.
Bracketing
Bracketing shots is where a photographer takes the same
shot three times or more, each at different exposures. This
increases the chance of getting an ideally exposed image.
Also, it’s possible to combine the shots in software to
increase the light and shade within the image, which is how
HDR works.
Burst mode
Many cameras offer a burst mode, which means they can
take several images in rapid succession, just as you’d get
with a motor-wind on a traditional film camera. The number
of shots that can be taken is limited by the speed of the
camera’s image capture and processing systems, as well
144 BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide
as the size of the internal memory buffer. You’ll typically get
about three frames per second from a standard digital
camera in burst mode.
Centre-weighted metering
This is when the camera takes an average light reading
from the whole frame, but pays more attention to the
centre of the image where the subject normally is. This has
been largely superseded by multi-pattern metering, which
is better able to cope with unusual situations.
CCD
Stands for Charge Coupled Device. This is the light sensor
behind the lens of your camera that records the image
when you take a photograph. It consists of a grid of millions
of tiny light sensors, one for each pixel of the image. The
size of a CCD is measured in megapixels, and the higher the
megapixel rating, the better the
image quality.
Chromatic aberration
Coloured fringes that appear around objects, often toward
the edges of the frame. Caused by light rays of different
wavelengths coming to focus at different distances from
the lens.
Circular Polariser
A filter that is placed in front of the camera lens in order to
darken blue skies, manage reflections, or suppress glare.
CMOS
Stands for Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. A
chip-manufacturing technology used to produce the
sensors in an increasingly large proportion of digital
cameras. Cheaper but with better tolerance than other
methods.
Depth of field
When you focus your camera on a subject, some detail
behind and in front of the chosen subject will also be in
focus. The distance between the nearest and furthest
in-focus objects is known as the depth of field. It is changed
by altering the size of the aperture; the smaller the
aperture, the larger the depth of field.
Digital zoom
Some cameras give you the option of zooming in on the
centre part of an image by expanding it in the camera.
Although the zoomed area looks bigger, it still contains the
same number of pixels as it did originally, so it will appear
blocky and will lack resolution. Not to be confused with
optical zoom, which is far superior.
Dynamic range
The difference between the lightest and darkest areas of an
image. If a camera can simultaneously capture shadow
and highlight detail then it has good dynamic range. Few
cameras can do both.
DPI
Stands for Dots Per Inch. The sharpness of an image
produced by a printer is defined by how many dots of ink
per inch of printed paper its print head can produce. A
figure of 1,200dpi or higher is usually required for
photographic-quality results, although most modern
printers are capable of this.
Effective pixels
Although your digital camera may claim to have 13.6 million
pixels on its CCD, some of that number will not be used for
taking the picture. Usually, some pixels around the edge of
the sensor are painted black to provide a colour balance,
while others fall outside the range of the lens.
Electronic viewfinder
Some cameras have a viewfinder containing a miniature
LCD monitor showing you what the camera sees. This
usually uses less battery power than the LCD screen on the
back of the camera, but can be a strain on the eye and
difficult to focus.
Exposure
When you take a picture, the light meter in the camera
determines how long the shutter should be open for and
how wide the aperture should be, thus obtaining the
correct exposure. If a picture is too dark, it is
underexposed, whereas if it goes the other way and is too
light, it is overexposed.
External flash
This means that the camera has a connection, usually a hot
shoe, that enables you to use a flashgun other than the one
built into the camera. This allows a lot more creative
freedom and control over lighting, because the flash can be
positioned further away from the camera. This feature is
only usually available on more expensive or professional-
quality cameras.
EXIF
The Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) format is used by
nearly all digital cameras that output pictures as JPEGs. It
enables information, such as the GPS co-ordinates, date
and time the shot was taken, plus exposure and other
camera information, to be stored in the image file alongside
the normal picture information.
Fixed focus
Cheaper cameras have fixed-focus lenses, which means
they cannot be adjusted. Instead they rely on a very narrow
aperture to make everything appear in focus, from a few
feet in front of the camera out to infinity. They are fine for
snapshots at average distance in good light, but are not so
good for creative photographs where focus can be used to
produce unusual effects.
Focal length
In brief, this term describes the magnifying power of the
camera’s lens. The longer the focal length, the greater the
magnification. Conversely, the smaller the focal length, the
more wide-angle the lens. Most digital camera zoom lenses
can vary between short and long focal lengths.
f-number
This is the number which describes the ratio of the
aperture of a camera’s lens to its focal length. Generally, a
higher quality lens will have a smaller f-number, which
bizarrely means a wider maximum aperture, and thus
more light entering the lens. See also ‘Depth of field’ for
more information about focusing.
Forced perspective
This is a technique which employs optical illusion to make
an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller
than it actually is.
HDR
A rather over-used technique whereby several shots at
different exposures are combined to produce one image
capturing a very wide range of contrast, or dynamic range.
Useful for high-contrast lighting and night-time shots, but
can be over-used by art students who’ve just discovered it.
Histogram
A histogram is a graph of brightness.
It ranges from black through grey to white along the
horizontal axis, while values in the vertical axis represent
the number of pixels at the appropriate brightness. It

provides a means of checking the exposure of an image. If
too many pixels are present at the left-hand side of the
histogram, the image is underexposed, while if it’s
weighted to the right, then it’s likely to be overexposed.
Hyperfocal Distance
This is the distance between a camera lens and the closest
object which is in focus when the lens is focused at infinity.
Infrared
Infrared (IR) light is the part of the EM spectrum that
people encounter most in everyday life. It is invisible to
human eyes, but people can feel it as heat.
Interpolation
Some cameras and image-editing software can increase
the size of a digital image by adding extra pixels in between
the original ones. They take an average of the pixels around
the new one and attempt to match the colour and
brightness to create a seamless image. Some systems give
better results than others.
ISO
Stands for International Standards Organisation. In
conventional photography, the ISO number is a measure of
the light sensitivity of photographic film, and this has been
carried over into digital photography as a way of expressing
the light sensitivity of the CCD.
JPEG
This file type stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group,
and is the most commonly used system of image
compression. Using a sliding scale between file size and
picture quality, it enables digital cameras and computers
to squash a large picture into a small amount of memory.
Be careful when compressing files, though, because too
much compression will reduce the quality
of your image.
Landscape mode
A program exposure option found on many mid-priced
cameras, this function automatically selects the best
exposure settings for taking landscape photographs,
usually a longer shutter speed and the narrowest possible
aperture to maximise depth of field. It can also refer to
holding the camera horizontally, which is usually preferred
for landscape shots.
LCD
Stands for Liquid Crystal Diode, a display technology first
developed in the 1970s, and in widespread use today. Most
cameras have an LCD monitor screen mounted on the
back for viewing photographs. Some also have an LCD
electronic viewfinder, and some DSLRs also have a
separate LCD data display panel.
L-ion
Stands for Lithium Ion. This is the latest kind of
rechargeable battery, superior even to Ni-MH. It can hold
more power, and does not suffer from ‘memory effect’,
where a partially charged battery, when recharged, will
only register the additional charge rather than its full
capacity. However, L-Ion batteries are quite expensive.
Macro mode
Refers to a lens that can focus closer than its designated
focal length, but these days it is used to describe any
facility for taking extreme close-ups.
Manual mode
Found on higher-end cameras, this is for experienced
photographers only. It gives you full control over both
aperture and shutter speed, enabling you to experiment
with exposure and depth of field. Essential for creative
photography.
Megapixel
Megapixels are a measure of the size and resolution of the
pictures that a digital camera can produce. Mega means
one million, and in this case a million pixels, or more
accurately a million individual light sensors on the camera’s
CCD. The more megapixels, the better.
Memory card
Most digital cameras store your pictures on removable
cards full of computer memory. They come in a variety of
sizes and there are several different types, including
CompactFlash, SD and MicroSD cards as well as Sony’s
own MemoryStick format.
Metering system
This is how the camera measures the amount of light being
reflected by whatever you are trying to photograph, to
determine the correct exposure for that particular scene.
There are many different types, including spot metering,
multi-pattern metering and centre-weighted metering.
Monobloc
A monobloc is a self-contained flash unit usually found in a
photographic studio.
Multi-pattern metering
This is a sophisticated means of determining the correct
exposure of a photograph. The camera takes light readings
from several different areas of the frame and compares
them to its pre-programmed data.
Night-time mode
A program exposure mode that compensates for low light
by setting the aperture to maximum. This lets the most
available light into the camera and gives the fastest
possible shutter speed under the circumstances.
Optical zoom
With recent advances in lens manufacturing technology,
many digital cameras now have small but powerful optical
zoom lenses. This means they can be adjusted to magnify
the image (zoom in) or to capture a wide-angle shot (zoom
out). Because the image uses the full capabilities of the
CCD this is preferable to digital zoom.
Pixel
Short for Picture Element. If you enlarge a picture on your
computer, you will see that it is made up of tiny squares of a
particular colour and brightness called pixels. A pixel is the
basic building block of a digital photograph, and there can
be several million of them in an image. The higher the pixel
count, the better the quality of the photograph.
Portrait mode
This is a program exposure mode that optimises the
camera for taking classical portrait shots, widening the
aperture to minimise the depth of field. This ensures that
only the subject is in focus, while the shutter speed is
increased to minimise camera shake.
Processor
All digital cameras have an image processor, which takes
the data from the sensor and turns it into the finished JPEG
image that you see on the screen. A faster processor
means larger resolution images can be processed more
quickly, improving the camera’s performance.
Program exposure
Found on most digital cameras, program exposure is an
automatic setting where the camera’s metering system
GLOSSARY
selects an appropriate aperture setting and shutter speed
in an attempt to get the best exposure and performance
out of the lens.
Raw
Raw mode is found on most high-end digital cameras. It is
an option which stores the uncompressed raw data from
the sensor, which can then be processed on a computer
using software such as Adobe Camera Raw, Bibble etc.
Raw files contain more information than JPEGs, and take
up more memory. Raw is actually not an acronym and so
shouldn’t be all capitals; it should really be written simply
as “raw”.
Resolution
The more pixels there are in an image, the larger that image
will be. This is the resolution of the picture, and is usually
expressed as two numbers representing the height and
width of the image in pixels, such as 3,872 x 2,592.
Multiplying these two figures gives you the effective
megapixels, in this case 10.03MP.
Shutter
The shutter is a device behind the lens of the camera which
is normally closed, but opens for an instant when a picture
is taken to allow light into the camera and onto the CCD.
The length of time the shutter is open for is determined by
the metering system, and is known as the shutter speed.
Shutter priority
This is a semi-manual mode that enables the photographer
to specify a shutter speed while the camera’s metering
system sets the aperture for the correct exposure.
SLR
Stands for Single-Lens Reflex. A mirror or prism reflects
the light coming in through the lens to the viewfinder, so
when you look through it you see exactly what the camera
can see.
Spot metering
Found on the more expensive cameras, this metering
mode enables the photographer to take a light reading
from a small area in the middle of the frame, usually
marked in the viewfinder. This is the best way of dealing
with difficult lighting conditions such as backlighting, and
is normally used in conjunction with auto-exposure lock.
Time lapse
We’ve all seen films of flowers opening at incredible speed,
or the sun and clouds racing across the sky. This super-fast
motion technique is called time-lapse photography,
whereby a stationary camera takes several successive
shots at time intervals of a few seconds, minutes or even
hours. The images are then played back rapidly, giving the
impression of continuous motion.
VGA
Stands for Video Graphics Array, and refers to an image
size of 640 x 480 pixels. This was once the standard size of
a computer monitor output, but these days even mobile
phones have larger displays. VGA is still sometimes found
as an image size mode, particularly in the video recording
modes of some cheaper cameras.
White balance
Most modern digital cameras automatically adjust the
colour balance of the picture to compensate for any tints in
the ambient light, such as sunlight, fluorescent strip lights
or normal light bulbs. This is called a white balance, and
means you can take a picture indoors without that orange
tint you get with a film camera.
BDM’s Digital Photography Beginners’ Guide 145
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 BDM’s
BDM’s Complete Guide to Digital Photography
If you enjoy photography and want to improve
your technique but aren’t sure where to start,
Digital
Photography
then this guide is just what you need. Within
these pages you will find many useful tips and
advice on how to improve your photography,
Beginners’ Guide get the most out of your equipment and
produce photos that can rival the pros.

Getting started Tips and advice New creative ideas

New to photography or looking
to upgrade to a new camera?
Searching for a new one can
present you with a bewildering
amount of choices. Then
there are lenses and accessories
to consider as well. We can help
you make some better informed
decisions by outlining some of the
main types of camera, lenses and
accessories available.
The technical aspects of photography
can appear quite bewildering to
those who are new to the medium
but that need not be the case.
This guide is designed to help you
understand the main technical aspects
of photography that ultimately will
let you flourish and become more
confident and creative. All the main
areas are covered including exposure,
shutter speed, aperture and ISO.
When you’re ready, we have a
collection of projects that we hope
will fire up your creativity and get
you excited about trying new things
and exploring new photographic
techniques. From capturing trackside
motorsport action to shooting
landscape images and setting up a
simple home studio, we cover it all .
Look no further for some fresh new
ideas on how to shoot like a pro.