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1- Turn up the quality and resolution to the highest settings native to the camera. You will get fewer pictures on a memory card, but cards are cheap to buy.
Your camera may have several different quality and resolution settings available. Resolution describes how big the picture will be (measured in pixels) and the Quality refers to how much the image data is compressed. The more it is compressed, the smaller the file size will be, but also the more detail you will lose. It’s possible to have the option for different compression settings (quality settings) for the same resolution settings. For example, your camera may offer a setting for 6-megapixel Normal, and a 6-megapixel Fine. The “Fine” setting would give you the same exact size image, but it will have less compression, and thus, a clearer picture. These days, memory cards and storage space on your computer are so cheap that there’s no good reason not to select the highest quality picture you can.
2- Turn off the digital zoom… never look back.
Digital zoom is a sham. It’s meaningless except for promotional purposes. The reach of your camera’s optics (its lens) is the only meaningful thing you need to know. A 10x lens is a good thing. The only thing the digital zoom function does is “zoom in” on the maximum optical reach of the camera – something you can easily do to any picture by simply cropping it on your computer. The use of digital zoom gives you nothing you cannot already do, but it does take away. It throws away valuable image data from the rest of the frame in order to crop in on one part. You will never get a clear image with the digital zoom selected, and you might regret it later. Turn it off.
3- Take lots of shots. Preview between shots and take more. Take several shots of the same subject while adjusting the composition of the picture and trying different settings on your camera
You should have more than one memory card for your camera. Generally, it’s better to have two smaller cards than one large one. Memory cards are volatile media. They have a limited life span. They will die one day. Best not to have 400 pictures all in one “egg basket” when that happens. This is also a good reason to clear your cards regularly. Your computer is the proper place to store your photos, not your camera. Download your pictures often. That said, having more memory lets you take more pictures. Probably the single biggest benefit of a digital camera over a film camera is the ability to take essentially endless shots. And they are free. Don’t treat your camera like it has film in it. You should never feel like you have to “conserve” your shots. If you feel that way, you probably need another memory card and a spare battery. Get in the habit of taking more than one shot of the same thing. People blink sometimes. And different angles and zooms on a single subject will improve your chances of getting a really great picture. You have the ability to preview your pictures on the fly, which should help you learn your camera’s settings better. Try several pictures with different settings and see what happens between shots. This is a great way to learn how to use your camera. What’s composition? It’s how you frame the shot. There’s another tutorial here about that. But the habit of taking multiple frames when you take a picture will encourage you to play around with the composition of the shot. Truly great pictures are made with skilled composition.
4- Master the “half push.” Holding down the shutter button half-way will lock the exposure and focus of your shot. This is the key to well composed photos.
Your camera has a feature that allows you to take some control over the shot before you release the shutter and actually take it. If you press the shutter button (the silvery-right-finger-push-to-take-the-picture button) half way down, you will “meter” and “focus” the shot. If you press the button all the way down, you will take the picture. The beauty of the half-push is this: you can push that button down half way and hold it there. Then, you can move the camera all around (re-compose the shot) and the settings for focus and metering will stick to the original composition. What does that mean? It mens you can frame my face in the middle of your screen and half-push. Hold that button half-down and recompose so I am (artistically) off center in the frame, and then take the shot. The picture will be focused on me even though I’m way off to the side in the frame. And it will be metered (my face won’t be too dark or too light, but just right) for me as well. And if that wasn’t enough, using this technique will make your camera respond quicker to the shutter release. Have you ever gotten the shot you wanted half a second too late? Pre-metering and pre-focusing the shot will dramatically speed up the shutter release and you will get your picture when you want it. Mastering the half-push is essential to good pictures. It introduces a human brain into the taking of a picture.
5- Learn how to get more control of your pictures by selecting Spot Metering and Spot Focus in the menu – YOU decide what the camera sets the exposure for… you decide what point in the picture is in sharpest focus.
To go a step further in taking some more control over your pictures, you can select the “spot” feature of your camera’s focus and metering modes. Typically, the default setting for these two important variables is some kind of compromise. You will find that your camera is set to some “grid” or “matrix” metering or focusing mode. It means that the camera averages what it sees and guesses the best focus and metering settings. Most of the time this works pretty well. But what’s the average when you have a dark face against a bright sky? Spot metering will let you pick the exact “spot” that you want properly exposed by putting it in the center of the frame and giving it the aforementioned half-push. Whether you re-compose the shot or not, at least that dark face will be properly exposed. The sky behind it will likely be washed out white, but that’s OK. If you want the dark silhouette of a person or a tree against the vibrant blue sky, use the same technique, but “spot meter” for the sky instead of the face. You are in control, and that’s the point. Get familiar with your camera’s options here, and get some practice by taking lots of shots. Try metering to subtle differences on a subject – different places on someone’s face or clothing for example. See what happens.
6- Use the Exposure Compensation setting for terribly backlit subjects. Dark faces, bright sky… not uncommon in Africa.
Another way to get the exposure where you want it is to leave the metering in an “averaging” kind of setting like “matrix metering” or whatever your camera calls it, and then just adjust the exposure brighter or darker for the entire frame. Your can do this with a feature called “exposure compensation.” It looks like a symbol with a little plus and minus in your camera menu. It allows you to tell your camera… “OK, you can average the exposure for this shot, BUT I want you to then make it two steps brighter because we are inside of a church and all those bright windows around us are going to make you average to darkly.” Hey, there’s nothing wrong with talking to your camera as long as you don’t do it aloud. With both the exposure compensation settings and the spot metering, you have to take care to remember that you have them selected. You will need to un-select them as the shooting environment changes.
7- Take control of your Flash! Disable it or Force it… don’t let the camera decide. Whenever possible, lose the flash altogether. Try taking pictures with natural light, even if you have to get creative.
Yes, I want you to take even more control over your “automatic” camera. With your camera’s flash set on “auto” it will fire or not fire, you don’t really know. But you should know that a flash does things to pictures. Generally, it makes things look less real. For people, it flattens their faces and throws shadows around behind them. For other objects, it can wash out the colors. And I won’t even go into what happens when a person makes the ultimate rookie-photographer mistake… firing a flash into glass. You don’t always need a flash for pictures that your camera thinks you do. Remember, your camera’s little brain is, by default, trying to meter for the average light in the frame. Maybe there’s already enough light on your subject. Maybe you want to emphasize the rich contrast brought about by a beam of sunlight spilling into a dark room. If there’s remotely enough light, you will almost always get better pictures without the flash. However, when you need it, for very dark subjects or to “fill” in shadows, then force it. Your camera will let you select your flash for auto (lighting bolt with an “A”), off (Lightning bolt with a slash through it), or force (just a plain lightning bolt). Look for those symbols, and try your camera with the flash turned off for awhile.
8- Low light? If the camera selects a shutter speed below 1/60… hold on! Find a way to steady the shot or bring a little more light into the scene. Beware of high ISOs and the grainy pictures they will produce.
Somewhere on your little LCD screen on the back of the camera, you will see a variety of symbols telling you of different settings that are active. On many cameras, there’s also a readout of the “shutter speed” there. It usually looks like a fraction of some sort: 1/100, 1/500, 1/30. The number is telling you what fraction of a second the shutter will be open during the picture… how long the light in front of you will be burning into the camera’s chip (its digital “film). The longer the shutter is open, the more light spills in. Shorter means less light. There’s all kinds of things related to the shutter speed at which a picture is taken, but the one thing you should be aware of is that it can easily be too slow – especially of you have the flash turned off. As a general rule, if the speed displayed is lower than 1/60 (for example 1/30 or 1/15) then it is probably too slow to hold the camera in your hands. Also, anything in motion in the frame will begin to blur. A camera will automatically slow down it’s shutter speed when there isn’t enough light available for the picture. So some ways to compensate are these: get more light into the shot (or get the shot into more light). Another option is to steady your camera on a tripod or a table or something like that. And lastly, you can increase the “sensitivity” of your “film” by raising the ISO to a higher value. Your camera will automatically try these things first… it will try to fire the flash, then if it can’t it will raise the ISO up. What you should know about ISO is that as the numbers get higher, your pictures get grainy or “noisy”. They just don’t look good anymore. So beware of high ISO, grainy pictures. You may have a readout of the ISO there with your shutter speed. Numbers like 100, 200, 400 are low and good. Numbers like 800 and higher are bad enough that you might not want the picture at all. Better to use the flash than accept too high of an ISO. But better yet to get more natural light into your shot.
9- Experiment with the Program Modes on your camera. Portrait mode is a winner!
Your camera probably has a few (or a bunch) of program modes you can choose from. Modes for pictures of flowers or landscapes. Modes for fireworks, or even skiing. One that is worth using is the “portrait mode.” It adjusts the camera’s shutter speed and aperture in order to get a shallow depth of field in the picture. What that means is the ability to capture the subject’s face in sharp focus with the background out of focus. It’s an effect that makes for a great portrait. Try it. The “ski” mode might work well for the desert. It’s worth your time to experiment with these setting in your camera. Just remember if you have one selected before going off to take other pictures of other things.
10- Take care of your pictures. Back them up. Don’t produce too many “generations” of the same picture where the Jpeg will re-compress and degrade the quality of your photo.
Did I mention that your memory card is volatile? And that if you go off to have pictures printed from it at a local studio in Africa, you will likely get a virus on the card? And that while your inside getting your virus, your laptop will be stolen from you car? As a general rule, keep your pictures in two places, and your memory card should not be not one of them. You will likely keep pictures locally on your computer. But you need to have a backup of those. Either to disk or another hard drive. When you make copies of Jpegs (which is most likely the file type that your pictures are) don’t re-name them. Every time you rename a Jpeg outside of a photo editing program, the compression algorithm will run anew. Making many generations of the same photo by using the “save-as” command is like making photocopies of photocopies… you loose information and clarity with each generation. “Copy” and “Save” are OK. But beware of “Save As” when making backups of your pictures. And be sure to make those backups.
11- Delete more than you keep! Take lots and lots of shots… keep the best.
Once you’ve got your camera and computer and hard drives and dozen other accessories… your pictures are free. It doesn’t cost much of anything to be a prolific picture-taker. You’ll get better pictures simply by increasing the odds, and it will help you learn to be a better photographer too.
(This information was originally presented as a workshop at the Kenya missionary conference in 2007)
Africa Inland Mission and
On-Field Media and individual missionaries
