TECHNICAL OVERVIEW A-Z 
My thanks for this go to Arwa Wallan, a lovely Saudi student who worked with me as a private student for several months in 2009. We talked about so many aspects of photography that I made a list of them for her, and share it with you here.
AF-L AND AE-L SETTINGS
AF/L (auto focus lock) at default is by pushing the shutter button halfway down. Focus on your subject (in the middle), then hold the AF/L to recompose the composition with the same focus.
AE/L at default should be separate from AF/L and is usually done by holding down the button or the +/- button. You will use AF/L much more often than AE/L.
APERTURE
Fast lenses @ wide aperture (f.1.4, f.2.0, f2.8) let you shoot images hand-held, in less light.
A very fast lens (ex. 50mm f1.2 or 1.4) @ widest aperture, gives real BOKEH(soft background).
Small apertures (f16 or f22) give you more depth of field (focus) than large apertures.
For best depth of field, use hyper-focal focussing (focus 1/3 into the distance of the scene
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Pointing the camera straight ahead (vert. or horiz.) avoids converging vertical lines of buildings.
Use a wide-angle lens to bring whole buildings into viewfinder.
When parallel lines converge, think about lining one up with the edge of the frame.
Design aspects of composition. Don’t stick to straight-line conventions.
BRACKETING
Remember to use AWB (Canon) or BRACKET SET (Nikon) when in a hurry for best exposure.
Bracketing with the multi-shoot setting gives 3 bracketed shots (instead of continuous burst).
Most modern cameras can bracket ambient exposure, flash exposure and also white balance!
COMPOSITION
Preview your choice of composition in your mind before putting the camera to your eye.
Be aware of light, position of sun, clouds, etc.
Design elements of composition instinctively; be aware of what looks good in the viewfinder.
Always check the image on your review screen, make different shots, and compare results.
DEPTH OF FIELD
A smaller aperture (f16, f22) gives more depth of field (focus) than a larger aperture (f3.5, f2.8)
At any given aperture, depth of field is created 1/3 in front of and 2/3 behind the focus subject:
Use your camera’s depth of field preview button (where the image goes dark and sharper) to see how much depth of field is produced at small apertures.
Hyper-focal (maximum) depth of field is created by focussing 1/3 into the scene.
ESSENTIAL EXTRAS
tripod tabletop tripod ND filters ND graduated filters
filter holder UV filters for lenses step-up rings hand held exposure meter
50mm f1.4 lens fast telephoto lens spare battery speed-light flash / diffuser
cable release lens shades grey card spare memory card(s)
card reader blower brush camera bag sensor cleaning brush
lens-cleaning cloth
EXPOSURE: Ambient (existing light)
Metering, ambient, incident metering, reflective metering, matrix or centre weighted
Ambient exposure compensation (+/-) gives an exposure more or less light.
See bracketing
Do a Grey / Black / White card test to show how the camera meter averages the reading.
HDR: High dynamic range (see tone mapping)
Reciprocity Failure (film & digital reacts more slowly with very long shutter speeds)
EXPOSURE: Flash / (additive light)
Flash metering (incident not reflective), works more with aperture than shutter speed
Max. flash synch speed: is usually 1/250s unless the lens has a copal shutter in the lens
Expose for flash only (fast shutter speed) or mix flash & ambient light (slow shutter speed)
Flash exposure compensation ( +/-) gives more or less power for the flash output.
Studio and professional rechargeable flash is measured in Joules or Watt/Seconds
Speed-light flash output is measured in Guide Numbers (GN), to the following equation:
GUIDE NUMBER CALCULATIONS (flash)
f-stop x distance
(this is usually done in feet at 100 ISO).
Example:
A flash giving a reading of f16 at six feet (at 100 ISO) therefore has a Guide Number of (GN) 96.
EXPOSURE INTERPRETATION
You can over or under-expose both ambient and flash settings for dramatic results.
Try ambient at -1 and flash at 0 or -1 for lowering ambient for holding sky details.
It’s worth experimenting with exposure since the ‘right’ exposure is open to wide interpretation.
Explore the different results you get from low-key (dark) and high-key lighting situations.
Remember that the meter assumes your composition is average.
EXPOSURE METERING
Experiment with different settings when shooting at a radiant light source.
Metering ambient light with a diffuser cone on a hand held meter is most accurate way to meter:
Hold meter at subject pointed straight back at camera. You can also use this for flash readings.
The camera ONLY gives a REFLECTED meter reading for an AVERAGE scene (with +/- at 0).
For non-average scenes, use your ambient +/- and +/- to adjust settings for best result.
Always set exposure for best overall rendering of tones and colour at time of exposure!
A reflective reading of the subject off a grey card gives the same exposure as an ambient reading with a hand-held light meter.
EXPOSURE ‘NUMBERS’
Learn which side of display shows shutter speed and aperture settings.
Look at these BEFORE you take a photo. Remember 1/60 as lowest hand held shutter speed.
Remember that ‘stops’ are interchangeable with each other & have same exposure value.
FILTERS AND FILTER FACTORS
Polarizing filters: have a filter factor of x2 (they lose two stops of light)
remove highlight ‘pings’ from faces (any skin tone) in any light
reduce reflections in water and glass if light is 90 degrees from camera
saturate colours (so they are good filters to use for landscapes and skies
ND (Neutral Density) filters:
reduce the light enough to be able to use very slow shutter speeds in daylight
ND grads (Neutral Density graduated) filters: darkens sky in landscape photography
Heliopan Neutral Density Filters: Filter factors and exposure correction –
DENSITY LIGHT LOSS FILTER FACTOR EXPOSURE CORRECTION
ND 0.3 50.00% 2 X – 1
ND 0.6 25.00% 4 X – 2
ND 0.9 12.50% 8 X – 3
ND 1.2 6.25% 16 X – 4
ND 2.0 1.00% 100 X – 6.66
ND 3.0 0.10% 1000 X – 10
ND 4.0 0.012% 10 000 X – 13
FLASH (SPEEDLIGHTS)
Only true single flash output may be in Manual setting (no pre-flash test)
First or second curtain flash output determines blur at start or end of long exposure (test)
Front facing naked flash is a hard light with prominent shadows. Use diffuser for front light flash.
Diffused front facing flash (esp. @ -1 to the ambient exposure) is subtle & balanced
Bounced flash makes shadows under eyes in recessed part of face.
Flash from camera will only light the foreground. Background must be lit by slow shutter speed.
Use most powerful batteries available (ex Duracell Ultra). Be careful if flash gets hot: turn it off!
FILE FORMATS: JPEGs, TIFFs and RAW files
Jpegs (.jpg) are processed images compressed to different sizes. Always use the largest size.
Tiffs (.tif) are processed, uncompressed images, captured at the mega-pixel rate of your camera.
Raw files (ex. .CR2 and .NEF) are unprocessed, slightly compressed files, in 16 bit colour, allowing greater adjustment post processing, because you can change the whole exposure and WB.
Professional photographers often always shoot in RAW format, or RAW and JPG large, but shooting in raw commits you to processing each image individually, either in your camera’s software (Nikon view, Canon view) or Photoshop CS4. Early versions of Photoshop may not recognise the ‘tag’ ending of your camera model’s raw format.
Earlier digital cameras had settings for tif, but modern cameras only have jpeg format.
Pros often save images for printing in tif (for Mac or PC) since tifs are more stable than jpegs.
FOCUSSING
Importance with using single centre AF point, point centre of lens at subject
You need to use MF (manual focus) with any subject of single tone in all kinds of light, since there’s no contrast range for the auto focus to work.
Understand the difference between AF-L (auto focus lock) and AE-L (auto exposure lock).
Compare: One Shot Focus, AI Focus, AI Servo Focus settings.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)
Use HDR to extend the limited tonal range of the digital medium (relative to film). Using a tripod, shoot 5 to 7 exp. in Manual mode (with manual focus): exposures at +/-0, then +/- 2 to 3 stops in whole stops (change shutter speed, to maintain D-O-F). For best results use ‘tone mapping’ software, but for basic results: blend all exposures in Photoshop (file-auto-merge in HDR).
INTERIOR FLASH PORTRAITS
Use shutter priority not program (inside) with slow shutter speed to capture available light
Best WB inside with flash is usually sunshine (!), not AWB or WB. TEST these results.
ISO SPEEDS
The best quality is from using lower ISO settings. Above 400 tends to give excess noise. Test!
High ISO sacrifices the ability to enlarge image without noticeable noise increase, and gives less contrast, less saturation, less sharpness, increased grain (noise).
Use LOWEST ISO you can, that will give you a 1/60 shutter-speed (lowest hand held speed).
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
Wide-angle lenses are best to show large area of view.
Avoid large views without areas of focal interest: these tend to be more boring.
Try using cloud WB even on a sunny day to give more vibrant and interesting colours.
LENSES / FOCAL LENGTHS
The standard lens for 35mm (film) is 50mm, because it gives same perspective as human eye.
All lenses (inc. those for smaller camera sensors) are measured compared to 35mm (full frame)
Ex: 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (24-70mm in 35mm format), because of longevity of 35mm format.
Pro. lenses are more corrected (wide-angle: barrel, telephoto: pincushion) than consumer ones.
Wide-angle lenses: distort / exaggerate perspective, have more inherent d-o-f @ same f-stop.
Telephoto lenses: flatten / compress perspective, and have less inherent d-o-f @ same f-stop.
PRIME (single focal length) lenses are sharper, usually faster (wider aperture, e.g. F1.4), and have less distortion inherent in them (barrel distortion for wide-angle, pincushion distortion on telephoto settings).
There is less depth of field the closer you get to a subject (esp. macro, 1:1 ratio. Life-size)
For maximum d-o-f, focus 1/3 into the scene @ smallest aperture possible (hyper-focal d-o-f)
Explore difference of perspective and relative subject size with different focal lengths & distances, e.g. using a wide-angle lens for portraits has less distortion the further away the subject is from the camera.
MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY and DEPTH OF FIELD (D-O-F)
D-O-F becomes more shallow, (less depth of focus), the closer you focus on a subject.
Use a tripod and small aperture (f22) for best D-O-F, or use shallow focus to good effect.
Life size magnification (ratio 1:1) is only possible with a real macro lens. This is a telephoto.
MOVEMENT
Slow shutter speed using only ambient light gives abstract, fluid effect of movement
Portrait with tripod & slow speed (@ good d-o-f) gives person movement plus sharp background
‘Open Flash’ (slow shutter speed + frozen movement from flash): use second curtain flash synch (synchronisation)
‘Camera toss’ (jiggling camera during slow exposure)
Zoom blur (hand-held or on tripod)
Radial blur (rotating camera in circular movement during slow exposure)
Explore combinations: open flash / camera toss / zoom and radial blur.
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Night photography is very exciting and has many different applications.
Try using a tripod with fairly slow ISO (400) to hold small pixels and tonal range.
For extended tonal range at night, use a tripod and shoot 7, 9 or 11 stops exposure (see HDR).
Night panning is better than day because of the dark backgrounds.
Also blurring water (fountains) is easier at night since you don’t have to use ND filters.
PANNING SLOW MOVEMENT
Explore slow shutter speeds for holding movement sharper relative to blurred background.
Traffic and people can both be panned: move camera exactly at same speed and in viewfinder.
You don’t have to look through the camera when panning; try looking at subject over camera.
PORTRAITS: working with people
Good portraits are a combination of timing, good light, an animated (live) expression and a good relationship between photographer and subject. Do have all your equipment and lighting how you want them before shooting, and only show the good photos to the model when you’re happy with what you’re getting. Try to get the model interested enough in the process to do some experiments with lighting, composition, location, poses, costumes etc.
QUALITIES OF LIGHT
Explore the qualities of SUNLIGHT: from times of day, direction, angle, and strength of light.
Sunshine in the middle of the day is much less interesting than early or late in the day.
Sunshine always gives harder, sharper shadows and more contrast than a cloudy day.
The ‘magic hour’ is one to two hours before dusk on a sunny day.
Overcast light gives very flat colours and no shadows, with even and diffused tonal range.
SHUTTER SPEEDS
The slowest hand held S/S is 1/60s (do test). Shorter speeds (1/250s) for long zoom lenses.
Fast shutter speeds (1/125s, 1/250s and faster) freeze movement.
TEST results from lower shutter speeds @ both ends of every zoom lens for best results.
STOPS AND EXPOSURE CALCULATIONS:
Learn whole ‘stop’ numbers:
S/S: 2s 1s 1/2s 1/4s 1/8s 1/15s 1/30s 1/60s 1/125s 1/250s 1/500s 1/1000s etc
Aperture: f1 f1.4 f2 f2.8 f 4 f5.6 f 8 f11 f16 f22 f32 etc
ISO 50 100 200 800 1600 3200
TIMING
Explore the ‘decisive moment’ with relevant subjects. OBSERVE changes before they happen.
Shooting in continuous mode solves the problem of people blinking, but the noise is distracting.
Choice of images is better than one bad one that could have been improved at time of shooting.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD PHOTO
ANALYSE the images you’ve already done. List similarities of what make them good images.
EXPLORE aspects of design in photso: composition, angles, lines, colour, light, contrast, patterns (rule of thirds etc), other considerations like timing and emotional / human resonance.
COMPARE and study the work of other painters / photographers.
DEVELOP your understanding by working on projects: photograph the same thing many times.
Show your best photos to people who know you, and ask them to comment on your work.
Make a BEST PHOTO file in your computer, and be harsh in selecting your best images.
These will change over time, as you get better and set a higher standard for your work.
UPLOAD your work on web forums like FLICKR; get feedback, and go public with your images.
WHITE BALANCE
Default WB setting is AWB, OK to use in RAW since you can change this post-production.
Use custom settings to bracket white balance, especially in subtle changes from warm to cold.
Set CUSTOM or PRESET WB by doing a test shot of a white card and see if it gives a good result. You may have to overexpose at least +2 stops (ambient +/-) to render the white tone.
This is especially useful when in a mixed lighting situation if you’re not shooting in RAW format.
NB: THE GOLDEN RULE
If you want to be able to create consistently good photos, you have to take lots of bad ones first!
Don’t be embarrassed by this truism.
Four main things you need to be genuinely curious to learn about, to progress and enjoy:
1. Learn your camera(s) very well, use them as paintbrushes to light. Explore, investigate, test!
2. Find out how photography works! Buy books on technique, go on photography workshops!
3. Explore composition, design, aspects of what gives images the most impact. Be thorough!
4. Question your motivations and interests in photography, and work on ways to develop them.
©James Bartholomew
Email: james@jamesbartholomew.com
Photography Made Simple 
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