Whether you're just starting out or
experienced but stuck in a rut, it can pay to go back to basics.
While it can take years to master the
skills you need to take amazing images, whatever your skill level and whatever
you choose to shoot, it often pays to keep things simple. Here we’ve put
together 10 skills every photographer should master. From focusing and
composition to white balance and lighting, this straightforward guide should
cement your basic shooting skills, rid you of bad habits, and leave you to
concentrate on simply getting better images.
Essential
camera skills crash course
When trying out these techniques it’s often
recognising what could go wrong that will help you avoid making the same
mistakes over and over again. So with that in mind, we’ve also included handy
examples of common problems and mistakes that can happen to anyone, whatever
their experience, and how best to correct them. But don’t be afraid of making'
mistakes; it’s how everyone learns a new skill.
Skill 1: Take control of focus
How to use individual AF points to
focus on off-centre subjects
Leave your camera to its own devices and it
will focus using the central focus point. While this will produce sharp images
in many situations, for more creative photography it’s better to take some
control over the focus point. Your chosen subject won’t always be in the centre
of the frame, after all.
So the first skill you need to master is how
to get your camera to focus on exactly the point that you want to be sharp.
Your camera has a number of focus points spread across the frame - you can see
them through the viewfinder - and these offer an excellent solution for
focusing on off-centre subjects. You’ll need to set your camera to its
single-point autofocus mode, rather than the multiple or automatic selection.
Here
we selected the focus point on the lower left to focus on the most dominant
leaf.
Select individually
The exact procedure for selecting
individual focus points (and the number available) varies according to your
camera, but generally on Canon models you have to press the AF point selection
button, then rotate the input dial or use the selector on the rear of the
camera. Look through the viewfinder as you do so, and you'll see the active AF
point (in red) move around the frame.
On most Nikon SLRs, once you’ve selected
single point autofocus you simply use the four-way controller on the back of
the camera to highlight a different AF point.
The main downside to using the outer focus
points on many cameras is that they aren’t as sensitive as those in the centre
of the frame. This means that they can struggle to focus in low light, if the
subject is low contrast or you are using a lens with a maximum aperture of
f/5.6 or narrower. You may also find that there isn’t a focus point exactly
where you want to camera to focus.
In both cases you can manually focus the
lens, or use a technique known as focus lock, where you highlight the subject
with the active AF point and then half-press the shutter release to lock the
focus distance before reframing the shot.
Skill 2: Focus on moving subjects
Learn which focus mode you need to
use some subjects won’t keep with while you set up your shot!
Focusing on a static subject is all well
and good, but not everything will wait patiently for you while you compose and
capture your shot. For this reason, you need to master the art of focusing on
moving subjects.
Use
Continuous autofocus to track moving subjects.
To do this, change the autofocus mode from
Single Shot (Nikon) or One Shot (Canon, to Continuous or AI Servo mode. Now,
once you’ve locked focus on your subject by half-pressing the shutter-release
button, the camera will continue to refocus as the subject moves, until you
fully press the button to capture your shot. You can choose from all of the
focus points for off-centre subjects, but when shooting in low light, shooting
low contrast subjects or if using lenses with a maximum aperture narrower then
f/5.6, you will find these outer points will struggle to focus.
Why is my shot blurred?
When it comes to mastering focus, you also
need to know why your shots aren’t sharp. This can be down to focusing, but it
may also be due to camera shake or the subject moving. You’ll need to spot the
cause, fix the problem, then try again.
Incorrect focusing: If the softness is due to incorrect focusing, you may find that
areas in front or behind the subject are sharp. If you can’t see any sharp
areas, incorrect focusing will give a uniform blur all around each area of the
image.
Movement:
You can easily spot blur caused by camera shake by the characteristic
‘streaking’ of highlight areas. These indicate that the camera (or possibly the
subject) has moved at some point during the exposure.
Skill 3: Get white balance right
Ensure you get accurate colours by
mastering white balance settings
You might forget all about setting the
right white balance especially if you shoot in raw, as then you can change it
when you process your images later. However, you’ll need to get the right white
balance in-camera to be able to assess the exposure and colours of your shots
and achieve the best results.
Strong colours
Your camera’s Automatic White Balance
setting generally does a pretty good job of capturing colours correctly in most
lighting conditions, but it’s not infallible.
The main situation in which you’ll get
better results by using one of the manual preset values is when your subject is
dominated by a single colour or tone, such as a blue sky, orange sunset or even
a large expanse of green grass.
In these situations Automatic White Balance
can set a value to counteract this strong colour, so you will get better
results by selecting a white balance setting that suits the lighting
conditions, such as Sunlight or Shade.
The actual white balance of the light at
sunrise or sunset is close to the Tungsten or Artificial Light setting
(3,200K). But if you set this preset you will lose much of the warmth that you
want to capture in your shot. Instead, try setting the white balance to
Daylight, or even Cloudy, to capture the orange glow in all its beauty.
Selecting
the Daylight white balance preset gives a good balance of warm foliage and cool
blue skies here.
The
Automatic setting removes some of the warmth, while the Cloudy preset
over-emphasises it
Super tip:
Set a custom white balance
Take a shot of a white or grey subject that
fills the entire frame (a piece of card is ideal) and is in the same position
as the subject you want to shoot. Now select your camera's Custom or Preset
Manual white balance setting.
