MomShots

So you got your fantastic new camera and you’ve been clicking away at everything under the sun. You may have gotten brave and moved it out of Auto and tried out some of the different modes. You may have even tried to shoot some shots in Manual mode. If you have, I am so proud of you!!! I think it’s kind of a big step to to try out the different modes and start to get familiar with how your camera works and how photography works. It’s pretty exciting!

When I first started with a DSLR, my camera didn’t have an Auto mode. The Nikon D100 only has Manual, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. So I was stuck hunting and pecking and trying to figure out what I was doing for a long while before I finally got the hang of it.

I really wanted to share with you my method for learning how to shoot in Manual mode. This worked for me and maybe it will help you as well. This is by no means the only way to learn to shoot in Manual, but it is the way I recommend.

Have fun!!!

Step 1: Turn the dial on the top of the camera to “M”. Ignore all other settings and modes. You can do it. Wipe the sweat off your brow and let yourself go. It’s not as hard as you might think and you will be so happy with your results.

Step 2: Open up your aperture. By that I mean, turn your aperture setting to the lowest number your lens will allow you to go. If you are wondering what aperture is, I think of it as how open my camera’s “eye” is. The lower the number, the wider the opening in your lens is and more light is allowed in. There are other factors that come into play with this, like depth of field, but I don’t want to worry about that right now. We can discuss at a later date. Check out this post if you want more details about what aperture is.

If you have a Nikon D70 through 700 you do this by turning the dial on the front right, below the shutter release button. And honestly, if you have a D700 and don’t know how to do this, I would be glad to trade you my brand new D90. I don’t want to talk down to you but seriously, that’s the current camera of my dreams…

Step 3: With your aperture wide open, you are now going to only play with your shutter speed. You just leave your lens alone and adjust how fast your camera “eye blinks” (that’s how I think of my shutter speed). If your camera “blinks” slowly then more light will get in and your image will be brighter. If your camera “blinks” quickly then less light will get in and image will be darker.

Just a side note to confuse you… There are other implications of using a fast shutter speed. You can freeze action when your camera “eye blinks” fast or you can blur motion if that “eye blinks” slowly.

Your camera has a cool tool called a light meter that can help you decide how fast your shutter speed should be. I didn’t discover this trick until I had been shooting in manual mode for a few months. I will share it with you and hopefully save you months of hunting and pecking. Obviously if I had read my manual from cover to cover I may have understood that but when I first started out I don’t think I understood enough about photography to even know why a light meter would be a good thing to use.

This is what your light meter generally looks like. If you look through your view finder you should see something similar on the bottom of your view.

How to read the light meter:
Point your camera at something you want to take a picture of. Your camera is going to gauge the light that is bouncing off of your subject. Your light meter has a plus symbol on the left and a negative or minus symbol on the right. In the center is a little “0″ and/or a larger vertical dash. The goal is to adjust your shutter speed to get your light meter to read “0″.

As you are pointing at your subject, press your shutter release button down half way and as you do, watch what happens. Do you see those vertical lines on the bottom? Move your shutter speed control (email me with your camera model if you aren’t sure which dial this is) and watch as the little lines move toward the left or the right.

Do you see that?

Now move the dial until the light meter is telling you it is at “0″.

Now push the shutter release button down the rest of the way.

You have just taken a photo that your camera believes is properly exposed. Nice job!

My suggestion is to now go play with your camera. Take lots of different pictures using different subjects and in different light. Get a feel for how this affects your photo. Watch what makes an over exposed (really bright with white spots) image and what makes an underexposed (very dark) image.

As you become more familiar with what proper exposure feels and looks like then I suggest start adjusting your aperture. You will then be able to see how shutter speed and aperture can work together to create some really cool images.

The key, for me anyway, is/was to start small with a bite sized concept like shutter speed. It really helped me to get familiar with my camera and comfortable so that now I can much more quickly adjust everything and take a properly exposed photo the first time. Usually.

Now go out there, open up your aperture and watch your light meter as you adjust your shutter speed!!!

An oldie but a goodie MomShot. Using a wide aperture you can get that nice blur in the foreground and background, keeping your subject in focus.

When I first started out in the World of Photography, nearly two and a half years ago, I was really confused on what some of the key terms meant. Words like Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO were all so confusing and didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I didn’t find definitions of those words in my camera’s manual yet the book kept using them over and over again. It took some time and patience on my part to seek out and and understand what those terms meant and what their practical applications were.

If you are in the same boat and are seeking to figure out what those terms mean, you can find some answers on Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman’s photography site. She has reposted a four part series explaining, in great detail with examples of what Aperture and Shutter Speed mean.

You can find Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four at each of these links.

I’m kind of taking the lazy mom’s way out here by pointing you to someone else’s hard work instead of taking the time to explain in my own words. However, if you still have questions or want my take on it, leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll be glad to talk about it. You can always email me at MomShots@yahoo.com.

As a side note, I’m really excited by all the responses I’ve gotten about this new 52 week project. Let’s work together to keep each other motivated! I’ll be posting my weeks here to help remind and motivate you.

Obligatory MomShot… This photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I just think it’s kind of cute because Ulysses is being such a tough guy and is all decked out in Nerf gear. I can’t very well have a MomShots post without including a MomShot, can I?

So I’m pretty excited! I just got back from a class that was offered by my local camera store. It was called SLR Essentials and turned out to be pretty cool. I wasn’t the most clueless person in the place and I learned some things that I didn’t know. I am still trying to grasp some of the concepts and make sure I understand them.

Some things I learned:
SLR = Single Lens Reflex. Basically, because of mirrors, you are seeing through your view finder, exactly what the lens is seeing. On your old school point and shoots your view finder is above your lens and so what you see is not exactly what the lens sees. Now a days with these new-fangled digital point and shoot cameras that really isn’t an issue because you can use your LCD screen to see what the lens sees and rarely use the view finder. Hmmm…. I didn’t know that!

Aperture (also called F/Stops) is the size of the hole in your lens that you or your camera can choose. The larger the number, the smaller the hole. Small f/stop number needs a fast shutter speed. So in other words, if the number is small then the hole is large. You would want your shutter to move quickly so that your photo doesn’t get totally saturated with light and ends up blown out or over exposed.

Shutter Speed are fractions of a second that the aperture is left open. So if you are trying to capture an action shot of say… your daughter chasing after the greased pig at the local 4th of July celebration (seriously I saw this event last year at my aunt’s town Independence Day celebration!!! I thought it was some old tyme story and no one really did that anymore. They do. It was awesome!). You are going to want to use a wide opening in your lens, a.k.a a small f/stop number and a fast shutter speed. This will capture your sweet girly in all her greasy glory with out any blurry movement images.

Yay!!! I get it!!! Now to translate that to my camera… That is going to take some practice.

I also learned something else. I haven’t told you about my cameras yet. I have two; a Nikon Coolpix 3500 and also a Nikon D100. One is a point and shoot (this one is pretty hammered. It’s been dropped a lot and my 4 year old takes pictures with it all the time), and the other is a digital SLR. Apparently we’re a Nikon family. I don’t know why. However, I will still love you if you are a Sony, Olympus, Canon, Fujitsu or any-other-camera-brand-I-can’t-think-of family. It’s just the way we roll over here at our abode.

Here’s the thing… the D100 is about 5 years old. It’s big. It’s actually my husband’s. He bought it for work a million years ago and when that job ended he got to keep the camera. I have always called it Ben’s (that’s my hubby’s name) Camera. It was his. Until now. I’ve stolen it from him. I am claiming it and have begun to learn how to use it. I was a little afraid that it was too old and that technology was so much more advanced that the camera would be obsolete. Tonight I learned that it is not. It still rocks. It is still an awesome camera and I am super stoked to learn how to use it.

I may have had the oldest camera in the class but it is still an awesome camera. It may not be able to shoot 12 megapixels but 6 megapixels is still capturing some pretty incredible images and clarity. It can do SO MANY THINGS!!! I am so excited to learn that camera inside and out.

I made a goal tonight on my way home from this class: I will learn the Nikon D100 inside and out. I will learn how to use all the features on it and I will become a good photographer!

So really, I guess that is two goals. But they are good goals. I will stop coveting the D40X and be very happy with my D100. By time I have mastered this camera, I will perhaps have enough pennies saved up to buy the newest hotness on the market. And then my pennies won’t be spent in vain. I won’t be one of those women in my class who had the coolest newest camera on the market and didn’t now anything about it. Anything!!! I will earn that camera.

So what’s the moral of my story today? I guess the moral is: Take a class at your local camera store. You might be surprised by what you learn. My class was only $20 and I feel that I got a really good value. I feel like I know my camera a little better and am excited to take a bunch of shots tomorrow at the zoo.