The only way to get better at taking photos is to practice. Now that Gayle Vehar has taught you how to use the manual function on your camera, you have no excuses for staying in auto mode 😉 Professionals, show us your best photo….we want to be inspired (because we are pretty sure you aren’t shooting in auto). Here is an example of photo I took using some of Gayle’s tips to get a nice exposure. I’m shooting wide open so that my background is super blurry.

Photographers of ALL backgrounds are welcome to enter! Whether you just picked up the hobby yesterday or you have been in the business for a while, we want to see how you shoot in manual. To be fair, we will be splitting the entries into two categories: amateur and professional. We will upload your photos to the Lil Blue Boo Facebook page and then the voting will begin! The top 10 photos from each category plus 5 photos from each category that Lil Blue Boo feels should go onto the final round will be judged by Gayle Vehar. She will have the difficult job of selecting a winner from each category!

To enter:
1. Email your favorite photo taken in manual mode to lisa @ lilblueboo dot com. Please let us know how you would like to be recognized, if you prefer to be anonymous that is fine. Watermarks are welcome on your photos.
2. Please designate “amateur” or “professional” category.

The deadline for photo submission is Friday October 29th. International entries are welcome.

We are honored to have the amazing Gayle of Gayle Vehar Photography and Mom & Camera as a guest blogger today! I stumbled upon Mom & Camera back when I was on my quest to understand the manual function on my camera. I have been hooked to her blog ever since. Her images are beautiful and her ability to teach is just as wonderful. She is going to get your camera out of Auto mode and you are actually going to understand what this camera terminology means! Please welcome Gayle Vehar to the blog!

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How to Take Your Camera Off Auto Mode and Start Getting the Photos You Want!

By Gayle Vehar

www.momandcamera.com

www.gayleveharphotography.com

When Lisa asked me to write about taking a digital SLR from auto mode to manual mode, I was thrilled. I love manual mode and I love teaching others about how to get their own great photos by shooting in manual mode. I have written about this topic on my blog in a series I titled The Big Three. I am going to do my best to condense it a little for you here but there is still LOTS of information. If you’d like to read my posts in full one at a time, you can check out the series on my Mom and Camera blog. Grab a drink and a snack and let’s dig in!!

You need light in order to make a photo. If there is no light, there can be no photograph. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are the “Big 3” things that control how much light is recorded by your camera. EVERY camera has each of these things–however, with most point-and-shoot type cameras (or any digital SLR operated in AUTO mode), you don’t have full control over how they operate. Why do you want full control? The short answer–because your in-camera light meter is easily tricked!

First, let’s talk about aperture. It is a circular opening that allows light into the camera. The aperture is located in your lens. Aperture lets light into your camera much like the pupil of your eye allows light into your eye. It can be opened up or closed down depending on how much light you want to enter your camera. When you are trying to take pictures in a low light situation, you want to open the aperture up as much as possible to let in lots of light in much the same way that your pupil opens up and becomes larger when you are in a dark room. The more open your aperture is the more light that can enter the camera. In bright situations, you might want the aperture closed down or made smaller to let in less light in much the same way your pupil becomes smaller when you are outside on a sunny day.

F-stops are the number that your camera uses to tell how open or closed the aperture should be. The most confusing thing about f-stops and how they relate to aperture is this: the smaller the number the larger the opening in the lens (or aperture) and the larger the number the smaller the opening in the lens.

Aperture is also used to control the depth of field or how much of your photo is in focus. If you want everything between your camera and the subject and beyond in focus, then you need a closed down aperture (small aperture opening/large f-stop number.) If you want only your subject in focus and everything else to have that nice blurry look then you need an opened up aperture (large aperture opening/small f-stop number.) Since I LOVE blurry backgrounds, I tend to use a very open aperture A LOT!!

Shutter speed is the second of The Big 3. Shutter speed is pretty easy to understand. Each time the shutter “clicks”, a little set of curtains open and close to allow light to enter the camera. The speed that it opens and closes is what determine how much light the camera records. That little curtain isn’t moving slowly. Cameras record shutter speeds in seconds or, more accurately, fractions of a second.

Shutter speed is used to control the amount of motion in a photograph. A slow shutter speed is often selected to suggest movement since a slow shutter speed will allow some blur. Fast shutter speeds are used to “freeze” motion.

ISO is the third of The Big 3. I was first introduced to ISO in the days when I used film. I would go to the store to buy my film and the ISO 100 and 200 film had pictures of sun and ISO 800 film showed clouds. The real story is that ISO measures the sensitivity of the camera sensor (or film) to light. Digital camera sensors are made up of pixels. The lower the ISO number the smaller and less noticeable those pixels are. This is ideal. Increasing your ISO will allow your camera to be more sensitive to light and these numbers would be used in low light situations. However, increasing your ISO will also allow the pixels to become more noticeable.

As a general rule, you want to keep your ISO as low as possible. Increasing your ISO should only be done after you have exhausted all other options for letting light into the camera. Does that mean that I always keep my ISO at 200? Absolutely not! When photographing indoors, I really dislike on-camera flash and sometimes choose to have more noticeable pixels over using pop-up flash.

So how does this all work together? Let’s talk about exposure. At the beginning of this post I talked about how you need light to create a photograph. Really, you need the RIGHT AMOUNT of light to create a photograph. If you allow too much light in the camera, your photograph will be overexposed and your subject will be too light or white. If you allow too little light in the camera, your photograph will be underexposed and things will be dark or black. You control exposure with the Big 3–aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

For any given scene, there are many different exposures that could be correct. Your subject and the final photo you see in your mind will dictate the settings you choose to get the right exposure. Think of these many different options as EQUIVALENT exposures. Your in-camera light meter looks like this: +…..0…..-. It can be seen when looking through your viewfinder and will help you set your exposure. Here is an example:

Let’s say that I am outside taking photos of my kids. I want the background blurry (shallow depth of field) so I open my aperture to f/3.5. The last time I was taking pictures I had my shutter speed set to 1/60 of a second. As I look at the light meter in the viewfinder, it looks like this: +|||||0…..-. Those lines toward the plus sign tell me that I have TOO much light coming into the camera. In order to get the light meter in balance, I need to make the shutter open and close faster so less light will hit the sensor. I turn the dial until the lines toward the plus sign disappear. Now my shutter speed is at 1/500 of a second and my light meter is in balance and looks like this: +…..0…..-.

I could have also taken this photo at f/10 and 1/60 since that would also have been an equivalent exposure. However, the photo I ended up with would have been much different. In that photo the background would have remained in focus with much more detail than I wanted.

You may be wondering how ISO plays into the balance of exposure. Let’s say that I now want to move inside and take some pictures of my kids jumping on the bed. There is a lot less light in my house, so I open the window blinds to let in as much light as possible. I know that in order to freeze the action, I am going to need a fast shutter speed. However, even with the blinds open and my aperture opened up, I still can’t get my shutter speed fast enough to freeze the jumping (the shutter speed would have to be above 1/250 to freeze motion.) Since I have exhausted all my other options to increase the amount of light coming into the camera, I need to make my camera sensor more sensitive to the light. By increasing my ISO to 800, I am able to increase my shutter speed to 1/400 of a second and thus freeze my kids mid-jump!

Congratulations!!! You made it to the end! But really this is just the beginning! Now that you know the basics, start practicing in manual mode. It will take some time and patience, but you can take control of that powerful camera and begin getting the pictures you have always dreamed of!

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Now that you understand what Aperture, Shutterspeed and Iso are, you are well on your way to taking better photos! Be sure to refer to your camera manual if you don’t know how to adjust these settings. Post your questions if you have any, and we will do our best to answer 🙂

Be sure to visit Mom & Camera for more great information. You will be hooked like me!

Gayle will be back tomorrow with some Tips & Tricks so stay tuned!

If you are just starting out in photography and want to take better pictures, you are probably wondering what equipment you will need. First, let me start off by telling you what you probably already have realized, photography is a VERY expensive hobby! Good news though, you don’t have to have the latest and greatest in order to take better pictures.

Ashley and I often get asked what type of camera we use. We both use Digital SLR cameras. Here is our equipment:

A DSLR camera basically gives you full control over your photography when utilizing the manual settings. They produce better image quality, allow for faster continuous shooting (great for action shots) better depth of field (blurry background), and you can switch up the lenses for different situations and effects. Also, when you look through your viewfinder, what you see is what you get. Even when you leave your camera in the “auto” setting, you will still notice a difference in the quality of your images as compared to a standard point and shoot camera.

If you are purchasing your first DSLR camera, either one of the camera bodies mentioned above are great for entry level. There isn’t too much difference in the image quality of the T1i vs the xsi. If you are willing to forgo the HD video option then you can save a little money by going with the xsi.

Ashley and I both use different lenses. She prefers a zoom lens while I prefer a prime lens.

A prime lens does not zoom in and out. The focal point is fixed. So, if you want to get in closer on your subject, then you physically have to move closer. It definitely takes some getting used to in the beginning, but it allows for a lot of creativity when shooting and a prime lens will give you that super blurry effect in the background, aka bokeh, when you shoot wide open (will get to the technical stuff in a later post). You can get a 50 mm 1.8 lens for about $100 and for the price it’s a great score!

A zoom lens has a range of focal points which provides the photographer with a lot more versatility. They are pricier then most prime lenses, but if you prefer to not have to change lenses for different focal points then this might be the lens for you. To save money on a zoom lens you might try a brand like Tamron, rather then going with the camera model brand lens.

So, prime or zoom lens? It really all depends on the situation. Ashley shoots all of her tutorials and products for the store with a zoom lens. I could never shoot these instances with my 50 mm prime lens, trust me I have tried. I would have to stand really far back, and then my shot may be out of focus.

For a great article on choosing the right lens for your camera I encourage you to read this article HERE from PictureCorrect.

If you are not ready to purchase a DSLR, but are looking for a good recommendation for a point and shoot camera. Take a look at the Canon Powershot SD870.

You can still take amazing pictures with a point and shoot. It’s not all about the equipment, but more about the person behind the lens. Don’t worry, we will have a post dedicated to those without a DSLR in this series. So stay tuned!

:: Pass on the camera kit, get the camera body only and then the lens you want. The 18-55 mm lens that came with my camera is still sitting in the box.

:: Try a rental first! Borrow Lenses is a great resource! Rent your camera and lens before committing to a purchase. Try out a zoom and a prime lens to see which one you prefer.

:: DSLR cameras hold their value pretty well. If you decide later on that you want to upgrade to a Canon 5D Mark II (my personal dream camera) then you can always sell your current camera body on eBay and put it towards your new one.

Contributed by Lisa