Photography Basics Tutorial

Photography Basics Tutorial


Welcome to photography! In this tutorial you will learn the basic operation of a manual SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. You may want to look at the parts of a manual SLR before continuing in order to familiarize yourself with them. Also, clicking on words appearing in italics will pop up a new window and show you their definitions in our photography glossary.Characteristics of SLRs
You're probably already familiar with point-and-shoot cameras. These cameras are generally small in size and convenient to carry around, but they do not offer the power of SLRs. The SLR is the main type of camera used by this school's Photo Club. SLRs provide much more control over the composition of pictures than do point-and-shoots. The main difference between an SLRand a point-and-shoot is the lens; an SLR, as the name implies, has only one lens. Point and shoots normally have two: the actual lens that focuses light onto the film and the viewfinder, which focuses light on the picture taker's eye. The advantage to having an SLR is that it is pretty much "what you see is what you get". As you add filters, turn the focus dial, zoom, and compose the picture, yousee exactly what will turn out on film because the same lens that you see through also exposes the film. Since point and shoots have the viewfinder separate from the camera's lens, an object (such as your finger) blocking the lens may not show up in the viewfinder, or a problem known as parallax error may occur. The main disadvantages to SLRs are the fact that they are noisier, weigh more, and arelarger and more cumbersome than point-and-shoots.

How the Single Lens Works
So, how can what you see in the viewfinder be the same image that is exposed on film? Take a look at this illustration:
[pic]
The camera lens bends light bouncing off the subject of the picture and sends it towards the back of the camera. A mirror reflects the light upwards into the prism. The prism then reflectsthe light multiple times until it goes straight out the viewfinder into your eye. This is how you see what the lens sees. Take a look at the next picture, which is what happens when you hit the shutter button:
[pic]
As soon as you hit the button, the mirror flips upwards on its hinge. This stops reflecting the light through the viewfinder and instead sends the light straight to the back of thecamera where the film is (The flipping mirror is the source of that loud clicking sound the camera makes, and is also the reason why the viewfinder goes black while a picture is being taken).

Composing a Picture
To compose a picture, simply point the camera at your subject and adjust the focus and zoom (if you have one) until everything looks good. Remember, on an SLR "what you see is what youget". If it looks good through the lens, it will look that way on film when the picture is taken... if the light is right (more on that later). Note that many camera models show slightly less of the image in the viewfinder than what actually gets exposed on film. This means that you might get a little bit more on film than you see in the viewfinder. This is good, as it is easy to crop the picturelater, whereas it is impossible to add more of the image if you don't get enough.

Taking the Picture
There are three main things to worry about when taking a picture on a manual SLR, besides actually composing the picture. These are your focus, aperture, and shutter speed. Focusing, of course, is simply adjusting the lens to make your subject appear crisp and clear in the viewfinder. Just turnthe focus ring on the lens until your subject is sharp. Some cameras have what is known as a split-image focusing system: These cameras have a small circle with a horizontal line through it visible in the center of the viewfinder. On these cameras, turn the focus ring until the two halves of the circle "line up". If the image appears to be split, the camera is out of focus. The aperture size is...