Shooting with a Dedicated Camera

You've made up your mind - Yes, I want to achieve artistic expression and work with a dedicated camera. 

This opens up a long list of questions.  How do I actually take a picture?  There are really only three things that you need to know. 

First, as with smartphone photography, you need to identify the subject and anything else you would like to include in the picture.   This is called composition.  You have to decide how close you stand to the subject and background and focal length of the lens.  Most smart phones have multiple lens built in from wide angle to short telephoto.  With a camera, you only have one lens at a time mounted, but you also have the option to have that lens be a zoom lens which allows you to instantly change the focal length.  In principle, choosing your subject(s) and background, together with whether you're using a wide angle or telephoto lens is no more difficult with a dedicated camera than it is with a smartphone.

Second, the subject(s) needs to be brought into focus.  With a smartphone, this is generally done without us even knowing!  One of the reasons we don't even know that it's happening on a smartphone is that it's almost not an issue unless we're shooting something really up close, and that's because of the small size of the sensors used on phones, making virtually everything in focus from 5 feet to infinity. On a smartphone, when you switch to "Portrait" mode, the phone camera digitally blurs what it identifies as not being the subject.  Pretty cool!

On a camera, where we have large sensors, and particularly when they are combined with a fast lens (one that allows for a wide aperture, say f/2.8 and below) then the lens must be specifically focused on the subject so that light rays coming from the subject precisely converge on the sensor. Of course, autofocusing is commonplace on dedicated cameras and has been so for nearly 40 years.  When looking through the electronic view finder, the camera will draw a box around possible subjects, highlighting the most likely while allowing you to select the subject you wish.  The subjects can be moving, they can be adults, kids, pets, etc.  The point is - you're in control.

Third, it's important to set the exposure.  Just as the iris in your eye opens and closes, the aperture on the camera adjusts. In addition, the time we allow the senor to gather light can be controlled - set to very short times when there is a lot of light or when the subject is in motion, or longer times when the setting is dark or at night.  Every dedicated camera provides auto-exposure control. Of course you can also adjust or go full manual if you wish.  In auto mode, a using a dedicated camera is as easy as using a smartphone.

Why do I still get better pictures with my smartphone ?!!

So you've started taking pictures - You get some really nice ones, but not all of them come out the way you imagine.

You may ask yourself, why do I seem to get more "keepers" with my smartphone that with my camera?  There are two reasons for this.

Reason 1.  The smartphone may be smarter than you and the automatic settings in your camera.  The good news is you can fix this - you and your camera can learn how to do just what you're smartphone is doing and more to make your shots great. 

Reason 2.  Taking the picture is only the first step.  The second step, photo-editing can be equally important in creating masterpieces.

A key purpose for this website is to give you the know-how you need to be smarter than your phone and then transform raw images in to pictures you will love.  You'll find answers to both these topics in the pages that follow.   

You'll want to first start by looking at the next page "Learning What Your Smartphone Knows?", the page "The Essence of Great Images" and pages on "Finding, Creating and Editing  Natural Radiance".