the very very best bit about being a photographer is still riding the
motorcycle and what a wonderful day for doing it too
these are my top five camera controls these are things which in my opinion you
really do need to be able to master because your camera isn't infallible
there are times it's gonna get it horribly wrong and you do need to be
able to step in and take control these are the things which I think you truly
need to be able to do that everything we're going to talk about in this video
is covered in depth in my five week online ultimate beginners course click
little thing popping out up here right now if you want to go and check it out
you can also go and click it at any time during this video but first I need to
show you my camera being a complete and utter cock right stop looking at that
and come and have a look at this because this is where your camera is going to
get it wrong that is just the sort of thing that the camera will actually get
perfect but when you go off piste a little bit like you're on a skiing
holiday or you're out on a frosty bright morning or photographing anything really
bright I bet you've had shots that come out looking gray and dull and really
rather lifeless and uninteresting imagine these bricks are your bright
shiny scene of snow-capped mountains if you take a picture of them and I'm going
to do this with video because I want you to be able to see what goes on here we
go they're looking pretty gray aren't they they don't look very white now if I
move down here and I go into a coal mine which is dark see how that just
brightened it up let's get back up to the snow and it darkened it down your
camera doesn't know how much light is falling on something it only knows how
much light is being reflected by it therefore it can't make choices about
what an exposure should be and getting the exposure right is really really
really crucial so therefore there are things you need to know how to control
this really isn't rocket science but it is very very important because if you
don't understand what your camera is doing when it cocks it up like it did
over there with the snowy mountain peaks how are you going to step in and put it
right big question mark look manual exposure all you've got
are three controls imagine light is water if you've got a great big tap with
a spigot like that tons of light is gonna come gushing out of it isn't it if
you've got a little tiny one like that Litttle eeny thing not so much is gonna come
out even though they're at the same pressure
that is your aperture how big or small your spigot is now shutter speed that's
how long you turn the tap on for so if you've got a big spigot and you turn it
on for a long time you've got a flood of light coming roaring out through your
camera and if you just do a little like that
you've only got a little bit you're just dancing between those two now the third
one that's your ISO think of ISO as being like skin - skin type
for example I'm insensitive I can go and stand in the Sun for ages and I don't
really get burned not for a very long time Jilly who's on camera at the moment
she's much fairer skinned if Jill goes and stands in the Sun for even a
fraction of that amount of time she will get burnt Jill is a high ISO she is very
very sensitive to light I'm a low ISO I'm not I can take an awful lot more
light before anything happens so a low ISO means it needs more
light before it records the image and a high ISO means it leaves less that
allows you to play around with the other two for creative reasons that I'm not
going into right this minute let's make a manual exposure I've got a shot set up
over here but I've got my t-bird against a nice sort of neutrally background so
all the shiny shiny stands out now let's set up a shot and take it and I'm going
to talk you through the exposure and the settings let me line up a shot hope we
don't get run over out here in the carpark because it's getting a bit busy
all right I think I want to be down here somewhere so look we have got here the
shutter speed here we have got the aperture which is currently on 7.1 and
here we've got the ISO for sensitivity of the skin on the left is the light
meter right now it is showing that this shot is about just under two stops
overexposed to get the correct exposure what I have to do is adjust spiggott the
length of time the taps open for and the sensitivity until that little dot there
is on the zero so simple isn't it look so I can either make the spigot smaller
we've got a smaller tap we've got a there we go look it's now on the zero
our exposure is perfect take the picture right next what else could we do well we
could it says it's too bright let's make this tap on for less time
let's speed up so look my shutter speed has now gone to one two five or two 50s
- dark one to five is so places to not be a problem and we just take the
picture that you can also of course control how bright or dark your image is
with your ISO but changing the skin sensitivity here I can make the picture
brighter or darker all you have to do is dance between those three but what if we
go into a situation where the camera might get it wrong well if we go back to
those snowy pristine white alpine peaks which you saw it make a mistake with
what if we make a manual exposure over there
same scenario different mountain range because there's a car parked in front of
the other one let's make a manual exposure look at the light meter on the
left there it's saying - two stops underexposed what do we got to do we've
got to do let's just turn the tap on for longer and move the little pointer up to
the zero here it comes here we go we're on the zero camera says that's the
correct exposure take it doesn't look very white to me I
don't know about you - to make that white what do we got to do? We got to make it
brighter but the has said that is the correct manual
exposure the camera's an idiot we're going to have to go brighter let's go to
full stops brighter the light meter screaming you have overexposed this but
it isn't that's correct that's white and if you're doing the same thing with
black it's just in the other direction what you've got to understand is that
when you're shooting a manual exposure is not just putting that single little
pointer on to the zero you've got to use this thing and understand how the whole
that whole concept works otherwise if you just follow what the light meter
says it's the same as shooting on auto only you are twiddling the knobs and
dials instead of the camera twiddling them for you but it's the same thing
you've got to understand how manual exposures work and how the light meter
works - and my next top five is really going to help you do that
A histogram isn't really a camera control it's a feature but it's probably the most
useful feature they ever put on a camera ever because by using your histogram
you need never ever have a bad exposure again look what we've got here we've got
quite dark shadows on myself and the t-bird but look at the sky really really
bright what you're looking at right now is kind of a balance between the two but
if you're shooting stills particularly if you're shooting raw your histogram
will tell you how much data you need in your picture you need never ever have a
bad exposure again so let's take this shot and I'm going to set a manual
exposure but I'm going to do precisely what the camera tells me I should do so
here we go let's line up the shot what is my camera telling me I need to do? It's
telling me that I need - there we go it's about there - it's telling me I want about
a four thousandth of a second at f5 on the 200 iso if i look at that histogram
it's kind of bunched over to the left a bit isn't it it's a little bit dark we
have got a bright sky so what do we need to do we need to brighten it up a bit
histogram will tell you how far to go if I line up the shot again and then start
to brighten the exposure I'm going to take the shutter speed down a bit we're
down to about a two thousandth, we've now got more information in our highlight in our
shadows and we've still got pretty good highlight let those guys go and there we go
You see your histogram is just one of the most useful things in the world
learn to use your histogram all you've got to do is keep it within either end
it really doesn't matter if things spike off the top. Histogram one of my absolute top fives.
Now you know why it's so important for you to be able to make a
manual exposure and you understand that awesome feature which will tell you when
your exposures correct you never need get a bad one it's completely safe for
you to start using semi auto modes shutter priority aperture priority and
indeed P mode I use them tons you don't have to shoot in manual all the time you
just need to know manual so that you can step in when those modes get things
wrong like they did with the black and the white there is a tool to help you
with those too and I'm going to come to that in a moment because that's my next
of my top 5 but shutter priority you set a shutter speed the camera goes away
finds an aperture to work with their aperture priority you say an aperture
the camera goes and finds a shutter speed to work with it and P mode it kind
of takes care of both but my next top tool still gives you control over that
as well so if you're in a semi auto mode the
light is pretty even like it is here it's not at all like it was over there
with the bike all you need to do and I'm in aperture priority is concentrate on
the cool gray sexy stuff like light and Composition and where to stand and when
to click the decisive moment that's real photography there you go
semi auto modes they're one of my absolute top five because they take a
pile of work away from you
so now you understand why you've got to be able to make a fully manual exposure
and it's not that difficult you've also got tools to help you ensure that
exposure is always perfect because you can do that and you know about manual
you can use semi or auto modes now let's start looking at an amazing little thing
called exposure compensation that allows you to use semi auto modes and still be
able to control the exposure this isn't great when you have creative critical
settings you want to work with such as a specific shutter speed for movement
control or a specific aperture for depth of field control but where most times
it's not really that important you can just use your exposure compensation most
cameras it's a little button with a plus and a minus on it that looks like this
on this one on my x-series Fuji it's a little dial which I can just roll with
my thumb when it's up to my eye I know that all I have to do is roll to the
right makes it bright roll to the left makes it dark how simple is that?
if I set up a shot here we've got very very contrasty just like we had with the
bike earlier now what's going to happen if the camera is left to its own devices?
I reckon something like that loads the sky cuz I kind of like that and let's
look at the histogram yeah as always the camera wants to put it in the middle
because that's what cameras want to do we know that this scene is brighter
therefore we got a brilliant brain what we have to do is to brighten the picture
up now instead of having to think about shutters and apertures and things what we've got
to do is add some exposure so I'm just gonna add what just over plus one stop
because I'm guessing and also I've been doing this for a long time so with my guesses
I'm usually fairly accurate that will be just right let's have a look at the
histogram and get in that's not happens we've been doing it for a long time so
exposure compensation combined with a histogram combined with a semi auto mode
is a fantastic thing and it can save you hours of pondering when you're shooting
in a fast-moving situation
if you're leaving your camera on full auto focus by which I mean it knows a
little sparkly flashes every time you touch the shutter button it means you're
not in control of where your camera is focusing your camera is choosing where
to focus for example if I was to take your picture as represented right this
minute by Jilly with the video camera if I took your picture now I can choose
whether to have you in focus like that or whether to let the background be in
focus your camera hasn't got a brain it doesn't know and there's times when
it'll get it wrong I bet you've tried to photograph things and then gone why is
it that's all blurry and out of focus that's what I want in focus your camera
doesn't know that you have to tell it and there is a plethora of auto focus
modes built into your camera my little Fuji's they don't have many - but it's
fine and I'm not going in depth with all of them now anyway they're all in my
course they're all available online do a search you can wade through it on your
own or I can show you it's up to you but look if I have my camera on single point
focus and I come back here again and I want to take a picture of you guys as
represented by Jilly with the video camera if I come forward and I don't
change that focus what's going to happen she is gonna be or rather you are gonna
be blurry yeah but let's say you put it onto a continuous focus mode because
you're photographing your friend who's running a marathon they're running down
the street towards you, you think what do I want my composition to be? I want
audience or whatever they're called standing there on the side of the road
watching and I want my friend running up the left-hand side what we've got to do
is choose say a continuous mode and choose your single point autofocus where you
want to focus within the composition which I've just done I'm just going to
pop my camera onto video mode I'm just going to show you what happens
as I change the distance if I put that dot on Gilly's face and
start rolling some video as I walk towards you the camera will keep you
nice and sharp the background will start to go blurry you should see it starting
to happen now it is there and as I come in here the background is really blurry
you're really sharp imagine how useful that would be if you are photographing
your friend running a marathon go and learn how to use your auto focus modes
they will make sure all your pictures are sharp well you've got to do is set
them up and use them appropriately
So those are my top 5 camera controls you
really need to know how to use them but I have a bonus for you focal length this
bad boy focal length is just the most amazing thing it dances and is
completely in love with composition let me show you I am going to roll some
video I'm going to take a picture of you again as represented by Gilly and the
video camera there you are watch what happens as I change the zoom as I change
the focal length and move back as I change my distance look what's going on
look at the background I know it's a bit wobbly but look at that black house look
what it's doing it's going to disappear in a minute look at those beach huts
behind Jilly they're sneaking out behind her look at that look that is a very
very different thing to what we had earlier let's come back in the other way
if I just sneak that in look the house come back the black house
I know it's wobbling I can't help it tough live with it deal with it look you
see how that is completely changed I'll do a quick still just to prove it here
we go here's our shot quick still of Gilly on camera
big long lens take the same shot hope there's no one behind me if there is
they will be trodden on... So look what an immense difference it made between
those two focal length it's just an amazing thing it doesn't just make
far-off thing come closer it's a really really useful
creative tool the thing is the most important thing in all of photography is
you and you are often overlooked in favor of some gadget upgrade new lens
some other doodad or gizmo the great photographers of the past had three
controls on their cameras they had a shutter they had a focus ring and they
had an aperture that's all they had and their pictures were blowing us away and
they still are today so with your whiz-bang DSLR why can't you do it you
need to take control of your camera then you can concentrate on real photography
the decisive moment when to click when the light comes out from behind the
cloud and lights up little cottage in the valley where to stand
how to align the elements of a composition so they're harmonious and
they look great this is the real photography you have to
be able to control that thing with the top five that I've just given you in
order to do that you can't concentrate on everything at once so I hope you
found that a value everything we've talked about is in my ultimate beginners
course if you haven't clicked the little thing above well you can go and have a
look now try a free sample if you like you can of course find all this out for
free online what you're paying for when you buy a course is for me to be your
guide to coach you to feed you the information in the correct order so you
don't miss a bit out and then find it doesn't work later on so I hope you've
enjoyed this and found it of value please if you liked it like share it
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interesting to know so leave it in a comment below if you'd like to see more
of my work more of my images there's a load of links again below this video in
the description section go and check them out this and cool stuff there for
you meanwhile take care I'll see you next time I'm off to go and play on my
thunderbird