Using Your Digital SLR Camera

By Louis Benjamin
March 2012
Pearson Education
ISBN: 9780273761105
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
199 pages, Illustrated
$37.50 Paper Original


Top Ten Tips

1. Finding your way around the camera controls

· Read the manual - strategically

· Navigate menus

· Exposure mode controls

· Scene mode controls

· Metering modes

· What's in your viewfinder?

· Using autofocus (AF) and focus lock

· Using autofocus with Live View

· Single shot and burst modes

· Self-timer and intervalometer

· Review images

2. Setting up your camera for shooting

· Set image naming

· Format your media card

· Select image quality - raw versus JPEG

· Choose a colour space

· Select ISO sensitivity

· Select a white balance setting

3. Taking control of exposure

· The water model of exposure

· Start thinking in stops

· Using the auto-exposure modes

· Take advantage of the aperture setting

· Take advantage of shutter speed

· High-key, mid-key, and low-key

· Use exposure compensation

· Bracket exposures

· Reading the Histogram

· Using manual exposure

4. Working with light

· Types of light: colour temperature and white balance

· Types of daylight

· Types of indoor light

· Work with bright light

· The direction of light and backlighting

· Lens flare and halation

· Soft light and window light

· Work with dim light

5. Selecting and Using Lenses

· Focal length and the crop effect

· Depth of field and pre-focusing

· "Normal" lenses

· "Fast" lenses

· Telephoto lenses

· Wide-angle lenses

· Prime versus zoom lenses

· Variable aperture zooms

· Lensbaby – selective focus with a tilt

· Macro lenses

· Change lenses

6. Composing better portraits

· Framing

· Orientation: portrait or landscape

· Simplify

· Get closer

· Watch the fingers!

· Keep an eye on the background

· Making your portraits environmental

· Isolate with depth of field

· Keep the horizon horizontal

· Change up your angles: use extreme perspective

· Give your subjects leading space

7. Composing better images

· The principle of thirds

· Using negative space and tension

· Using symmetry

· Crop for composition

· Frame in frame

· Points of interest and shapes

· Use lines

· Patterns, textures, and repetition

· Compose with colour

· Compose with motion and time

8. Managing images in Lightroom

· Workflow and backup

· Using the integrated environment

· Import

· Add keywords

· Find by keyword

· Use ratings

· Set up Lightroom-to-Photoshop transfer

· Edit images from Lightroom in Photoshop

9. Editing and printing in Lightroom

· Use the Develop module

· Use Develop Presets

· Adjust white balance

· Use the Histogram

· sp; Crop

· Straighten

· Remove noise

· Remove red-eye

· Heal and clone

· Export images

· Set up a slide show

· Export a slide show

· Print

10. Basic video editing

· A look at Adobe Premiere Elements

· Start a new project

· Get media

· Arrange media on the Sceneline

· Arrange media on the Timeline

· Edit start and end points in the Sceneline

· Edit start and end points in the Timeline

· Add transitions

· Apply effects

· Add narration and sound

· Add titles

· Share your video

Top 10 dSLR Problems Solved

· My photos are noisy

· My night and indoor photos are blurry

· I want to avoid silhouettes

· How do I deal with lens flare?

· How do I avoid red-eye?

· Can I make flash shots look less "flashy"?

· My prints look dark

· My prints are coming out with a magenta cast

· I'm having issues with file numbering on my photos

· I'm getting a message about an embedded profile mismatch in Photoshop

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