Photo Tip – Camera Settings
Written by Mike on February 27, 2009 – 9:43 pm -BASIC CAMERA SETTINGS
All Digital SLR Cameras have a number of settings that are designed to make it easy for someone to “point and shoot”. For a large number of situations that may be acceptable but for our purpose it is not. That being said, it is important that each setting is explained to give you an idea as to what it does. Most cameras have either letters or icon images explaining what each settings represents. The following is an explanation of the setting and how it operates.
1. Shutter Priority
This option is usually represented by the letter S on your dial or menu. Shutter speed is set by the user and that speed is maintained. The camera meters the light and will make adaptive changes to your aperture setting (f/stop). These changes are made by the camera and the user has no control over them. While Shutter priority may sound useful, it really isn’t great for sports. The reason is that in sports we want to keep the aperture wide open (as low a number as possible – usually f/2.8). The reasoning will be covered later in this chapter.
2. Aperture priority
This setting does the opposite of shutter priority. It holds the aperture at a set number while adapting the speed of the shutter. Again, this may sound useful but it really can alter the success you have in stopping motion. If the light becomes less intense, it can drop your shutter speed to a level too slow for the sport you are covering.
3. Programmed/Auto
This setting does everything for the user. It makes changes to both the shutter speed and the aperture. The changes that are made by this setting are way too drastic to ever be considered for our purposes. The end result of your photos will be wholly inconsistent.
4. Other settings
Some cameras have settings that are factory presets for shooting portrait, landscape, dark lighting, sports/action and more. These settings are not suitable for what we are trying to accomplish and shouldn’t be relied on to be anything more than a crutch that many people use when they are unsure of how to set their camera. YOU, are going to be a Sports Shooting Commando and don’t need these foolish things!
5. Manual Mode
At last! Here it is, the only setting you will ever need. While not entirely true, that statement is more than accurate for most photographers, most of the time. Call me a control freak but I want to make changes the way I am trained to do and the way you will be trained to do. The manual mode is just what it says…Manual. The user sets the camera and it stays like that until you change it again. This goes for the aperture, shutter and the ISO settings (which we will get to next). You need to be able to assess through reading a light meter, using your camera’s exposure meter (most have it) or by becoming used to making visual assessments, taking a couple test shots and adjusting as needed until you have the “sweet setting”. Preplanning your shoot by testing your camera is a critical part of sports photography and will make you a very intuitive photographer as well.
6. ISO Settings
The ISO settings on DSLR cameras range from 50 ISO to over 25,000 ISO on some top end professional models. It is not likely you will ever have the need to use an ISO setting higher than 1600 so we will work within that range for now. The ISO setting makes your sensor more sensitive to light and therefore allows for quicker exposure in lower light situations. Indoor shooting such as ice hockey or basketball will require an ISO setting of usually 800 or more. This will ensure you have the shutter speed to stop action without blur. In all but the best professional cameras, higher ISO means more “noise” or grainy quality. This can usually be dealt with by some post shoot processing using a noise reduction filter (that’s for another day).
Posted in Mike's Posts | No Comments »
