Getting more out of your DSLR or Bridge camera

whatwouldscoobydoo

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I had a search for this couldn't find anything similar if this is a re-post mods please delete it

As a keen amateur/semi-pro photographer it pains me to see a good camera not filling its potential just like seeing a nice full bore being only bench shot at 100yds when we all know you could have so much more fun. So here are a few tips and tricks to help you be extra proud of your snaps. make sure you get what you wanted out of your pics and get the most out of your camera.

General do's and don'ts that not everyone thinks of.
1. Do get all of the subject in the frame
2. Don't take pictures on an angle to try and look arty its like trying to accurately shoot with your cross hairs tilted.
3. Take a variety of pics if possible the beauty of digital is that its free to find out if it worked
4. Shoot a camera as if you were shooting a gun keep it steady keep it on target. if you can get closer, get closer. If you can get more stable get more stable.
5. Chat play learn talk to others try new things and learn from you mistakes. Be open to constructive criticism

Point and shoot camera tips.

Everyone has one fit in you pocket simple to use brilliant tools that are often under rated.

1. Don't keep it in full auto mode.
Most cameras have a variety of pre-set settings that are very useful, trying using ,
1. Portrait mode (generally a picture of a head) for your beast pics, its basically the same as taking a nice photo of some one.
2. Macro mode (flower picture) use it for close up detailed shots such as showing a bullet or the splitting of a case may be useful for small quarry pics such as rabbits or squirrels.
3. Landscape mode (mountain pic) perfect for the view over the valley as you are out stalking will get a lot more in focus and make the image much sharper than standard full auto.

DSLR/ Bridge tips (anything you can use manual mode on)

Now we are into big boy toys anything bought in the last 10 years will be good enough for wedding photography basically.

Firstly follow the tips above for point and shoot.

1. Try aperture dependent mode gives you control over one of the many variables. wider aperture e.g lower number means less focal depth so less in focus more blurred and will let in more light making an image brighter.
Low aperture f1.8-f4 for flowers, guns and bullet casings etc where there isn't much depth to the subject.
Mid - f4-f9 between 15-100cm nice and crisp good for portraits, deer, cars, team photos
High - f9 and above will have a large depth of field for Houses fields views over valleys

2. Shutter speed
This affects how much light is let into the camera and what to use depends on what aperture you are on. so dont play with this until you are happy with aperture.
1. Don't go less than 1/15 hand held it will get blurry
2. Want to freeze a water fall or get a racing car shot? go as high as you can with out the image becoming too dark.
3. want that river to look cool and flowing? go as low as possible with out becoming too dark.

3. White balance.
This affects how the colours look there will be several presets just choose the one that matches the setting you are in.

4. iso
film speed which is kind of lost in digital but still has its place,
Keep it as low as possibly but if you have to use a specific aperture and shutter speed a higher iso will make your image brighter but blurrier and vice versa.

5. Online tools.
There are several online tool which will give you the same image and show you how different settings will affect that picture. They are very useful to learn on and here is the first one i found that seemed half decent.
it won't let me post a link due to low post count but just google "photonheads simcam"


This is as much basic info as i feel i can convey via the internet any more particular questions please ask.

I hope this is some use to some one and results in the best pics we can get on our forum.

Safe shooting

Scooby
 
A persistent problem that I have is in attempting to photograph deer at dusk. I usually end up with a decent picture of anything up to 15-20 yards and nothing but darkness thereafter. Typically the deer will be at 80-200 yards, with sufficient light to be clearly visible in colour through my Steiner ranger pro 8 x 42 binoculars.
The camera is a Canon 100d with a 55mm-250mm IS lens.

atb Tim
 
A persistent problem that I have is in attempting to photograph deer at dusk. I usually end up with a decent picture of anything up to 15-20 yards and nothing but darkness thereafter. Typically the deer will be at 80-200 yards, with sufficient light to be clearly visible in colour through my Steiner ranger pro 8 x 42 binoculars.
The camera is a Canon 100d with a 55mm-250mm IS lens.

atb Tim
Thanks for posting Scooby, i recently got a Lumix G6, i must start having a play with what it can actually do as opposed to just using the Auto mode.

Tim, when i had some guys filming a stalk with me it was always frustrating as although it appeared to be still very light the film would start to pixalate, damned annoying when you just knew the deer would appear 5 minutes later, and they did!

Cheers

Richard
 
Thanks a lot - I'm going to print it off - easier than having to wade through the manual all the time !

Thorneyglatt
 
I was in the process of trying to understand what larger lens in need to take satisfying photographs for myself
This could not have come at a more opportune time

Regards TH
 
A persistent problem that I have is in attempting to photograph deer at dusk. I usually end up with a decent picture of anything up to 15-20 yards and nothing but darkness thereafter. Typically the deer will be at 80-200 yards, with sufficient light to be clearly visible in colour through my Steiner ranger pro 8 x 42 binoculars.
The camera is a Canon 100d with a 55mm-250mm IS lens.

atb Tim

Get surported, tripod, car window, shooting sticks anything this will allow you to have the shutter open longer with out being too shakey,

try something like f6-f11 iso 400 and then crank down the shutter speed until the light meter is in the middle to get more light in but if it has to be soo long the deer blur from moving then drop the f-stop down.

another though would be "lamping" the deer and then editing out harshness of light in post proccessing,

go out an experiment using a dog or well trained child maybe even large cardboard box find what works then you can go straight to those settings when required like working out a hold over.

post pics will advise from there.
Even post current attempts and can advise on editing though its my belief you should only edit the things you cant control e.g. ugly brides or the scratch on the baby's forehead from crawling into a table

Scooby
 
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Thanks Scooby, I will try that.

Most of these sort of pictures I take are on an opportunistic basis, e.g. last autumn somewhere around 10 miles north of Verwood in Dorset on the Shaftesbury Road I saw a largish concentration of deer in a field at dusk, perhaps 40 -60 animals. I wasn't quite sure whether they were Fallow or Sika, they were around 200 -300 yards away, but as I mentioned I got a photo of the hedge and verge in the foreground and nothing but darkness behind.

atb Tim
 
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