How To Use Your New Camera

You got a new camera…Now what?

Get­ting a new cam­era is excit­ing, but it can also be over­whelm­ing. There are so many but­tons, dials and menus that you’re sure to get frus­trat­ed at some point.

That’s okay! The best way to learn to use your new cam­era cor­rect­ly is by get­ting the cor­rect guid­ance and by doing it repeat­ed­ly until you get it right.

But where do you start? 

I’ve put togeth­er some tips to help you get start­ed with your new cam­era and to explain the basics of pho­tog­ra­phy and how they apply to tak­ing bet­ter pic­tures every time.

Using your new camera to get great photos

The basic principles of photography.

Using your new cam­era to take good pic­tures involves under­stand­ing the basic prin­ci­ples of photography:

• Aper­ture (the size of your lens opening)
• Shut­ter speed (how long your shut­ter remains open)
• ISO (the sen­si­tiv­i­ty of your cam­er­a’s sensor)

The most impor­tant thing to do after buy­ing a new cam­era is to prac­tice work­ing on and mas­ter­ing these prin­ci­ples. The faster you can learn and mas­ter these prin­ci­ples the faster you are on your way to using your new cam­era to get some amaz­ing images. I have some great Cheat Sheets here that will help you under­stand, Aper­ture, SS and ISO. 

Aperture

Aper­ture is one of the most impor­tant con­cepts you need to under­stand in pho­tog­ra­phy. Aper­ture is a set­ting on your cam­era that con­trols how much light enters the lens. 

If you’re new to pho­tog­ra­phy, it can be dif­fi­cult to under­stand what aper­ture is and why it is so impor­tant. It’s help­ful to think about aper­ture like your pupil. It deter­mines the amount of your image that appears sharp and in focus.

Aper­ture set­tings are usu­al­ly expressed as an f‑number (f/2, f/8, etc.), which refers to their size rel­a­tive to each oth­er; for example:

• An f‑stop with a small num­ber like 1 or 2 has a wide open­ing; this lets more light into the camera.
• An f‑stop with a large num­ber like 4 or 5 has a nar­row open­ing; this allows less light into the camera. 

Shutter Speed

The shut­ter speed is the amount of time your cam­er­a’s aper­ture is open to let light into the sensor. 

A fast shut­ter speed means that it stays open for a short amount of time, while a slow shut­ter speed means that it stays open for longer. The longer you leave your cam­er­a’s aper­ture open, the more motion blur can occur in your shot; this effect can be used to cre­ate artis­tic images or sim­ply enhance action shots.
Shut­ter speeds are mea­sured in frac­tions of sec­onds: 1/125th sec­ond is faster than 1/30th sec­ond but slow­er than 1/15th second–and so on!

ISO

ISO is your cam­er­a’s sen­si­tiv­i­ty to light and will make your pho­to brighter or darker.

Your cam­era has a “base” ISO. The base ISO is the low­est ISO your cam­era can go and is usu­al­ly ISO100 on most cam­eras. This base ISO is where you can get the high­est qual­i­ty image with the least amount of noise. If you increase your ISO, the sen­si­tiv­i­ty to light in your cam­era increas­es, result­ing in a brighter picture. 

With every bump up the ISO, you are dou­bling the bright­ness of your image.

Practice, practice and more practice

The most impor­tant thing to do after buy­ing a new cam­era is to under­stand these prin­ci­ples and practice. 

The best way to learn how your cam­era works, and what it’s capa­ble of, is by play­ing around with it. Take pic­tures of every­thing around you: friends and fam­i­ly; pets; nature; your own home; even the car or dog that sits in front of your house every day. 

Tak­ing these pho­tos and prac­tic­ing will help famil­iar­ize your­self with all aspects of pho­tog­ra­phy and give you expe­ri­ence with dif­fer­ent types of pho­tos before try­ing some­thing more chal­leng­ing like por­traits or landscapes.

It may take some time, but get­ting bet­ter at tak­ing pic­tures is all about learn­ing new tech­niques, exer­cis­ing patience and hav­ing fun!

Keep­ing your cam­era in your hands dai­ly will build the mus­cle mem­o­ry and instinct that will be key to your success.

If you’re ready to get start­ed and learn more about shut­ter speed, aper­ture and ISO I have a great class where I have bro­ken down all of these aspects into easy-to-under­stand terms. Check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Class.