Digital Photography for Dummies

Photographers! Your guide is here!

The demand for high-quality photographs is higher than ever. Whether you’re building your influencer rating online, capturing the moments of a child’s life, or are looking for ways to improve your skills, photography know-how is a must-have skill. 

Digital Photography For Dummies helps you do more than pointing, shooting, and hoping for the best or slapping a filter on a camera phone shot. This book introduces you to the camera settings and techniques that separate okay pictures from frame-worthy portraits. It then explains how to apply those skills to capturing your own portraits, landscape shots, and high-action photos. 

• Develop a better eye for image composition
• Discover how to light photos better, including using natural light
• Learn to get quick results in auto settings or take full control in manual mode
• Discover the elements of exposure and how they influence the final product
• Find instructions on taking a formal or casual portrait
• Apply basic editing techniques to finalize your image

Go beyond photo apps and apply the techniques pros use for their images.

Julie Adair King is a bestselling author whose books combined have sold well over a million copies. Along with all previous editions of Digital Photography For Dummies, she has written For Dummies books covering Canon, Olympus, and Nikon dSLR cameras as well as books on photo retouching.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part 1: Fast Track to Super Snaps 2

Part 2: Taking Your Photography to the Next Level 3

Part 3: Pro Tips for Capturing Specific Subjects 3

Part 4: After the Shot 4

Part 5: The Part of Tens 4

Beyond the Book 4

Icons Used in This Book 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: Fast Track to Super Snaps 7

Chapter 1: Choosing the Right Camera 9

Choosing the Right Level of Camera 10

How much control do you want? 12

How important is picture quality? 15

Do you want to use multiple lenses? 20

Looking at Lenses 23

Camera compatibility 24

Lens focal length 24

Prime versus zoom lenses 27

Lens aperture range 27

Minimum focusing distance 29

Lens weight and size 29

Lens quality 30

Reviewing a Few Final Camera Features 31

Shooting modes 31

Image stabilization 32

Viewfinder: Optical or electronic? 33

Video-recording capabilities 34

Memory-card features 35

Convenience features 36

So Is It Time for a New Camera? 37

Chapter 2: Starting Out Right: Setup Do’s and Don’ts 39

Preparing the Camera 40

Buying and using memory cards 40

Preserving battery power 44

Working with interchangeable lenses 45

Choosing Initial Camera Settings 49

Selecting the exposure (shooting) mode 49

Setting the shutter-release mode 51

Setting photo resolution 55

Setting the file type (JPEG or Raw) 61

Looking at a Few More Setup Options 68

Chapter 3: Shooting Your First Photos (and Movies) 71

Looking at Automatic Shooting Modes 72

Shooting in Auto Mode 72

Stepping Up to Scene Modes 78

Portrait mode 79

Landscape mode 80

Close-up mode 81

Sports mode 81

Recording Movies in Auto Mode 82

Enabling movie mode 83

Reviewing recording settings 84

Recording a movie in Auto mode 87

Part 2: Taking Your Photography to The Next Level 89

Chapter 4: Starting to See Like a Photographer 91

Exploring Composition Basics 92

Dead center is deadly boring 92

Create movement through the frame 95

Eliminate clutter 97

Leave some “head room” 98

Using Depth of Field to Artistic Advantage 99

Capturing Motion: To Blur or Not to Blur? 102

Becoming a Student of Light 104

Exploring New Subjects and Angles 106

Find a new angle 106

Notice reflections, patterns, and textures 106

Look beyond the usual suspects 107

Chapter 5: Taking Control of Exposure 109

Understanding Exposure 110

Introducing the exposure trio: Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO 110

Doing the exposure balancing act 118

Adjusting f-stop, Shutter Speed, and ISO 119

Taking advantage of exposure guides 120

Changing the Metering mode 124

Using “priority” exposure modes 125

Adjusting Autoexposure Results 127

Applying exposure compensation 127

AE Lock (autoexposure lock) 129

Expanding Tonal Range 129

Bracketing Exposures 133

Chapter 6: Adding Flash and Other Lights 135

Enabling and Disabling Built-In Flash 136

Comparing Built-In and External Flashes 138

Pros and cons of built-in flashes 138

Pros and cons of external flash heads 140

Adjusting Flash Power 143

Exploring Special Flash Modes 145

Flash with red-eye reduction 145

Slow-sync flash 146

Rear-curtain sync 147

Improving Outdoor Photos with Flash 150

Considering Continuous Lighting 152

Setting Up a Small Lighting Studio 153

Looking at Simpler (and Cheaper) Lighting Setups 158

Chapter 7: Manipulating Focus and Color 161

Understanding Autofocus Options 161

Enabling autofocus 162

Locating your camera’s focus points 163

Selecting a focus point or zone 164

Choosing focus lock or continuous AF 167

Using the right autofocus technique 169

Focusing Manually 171

Diagnosing Focus Problems 172

My entire picture is blurry 172

The wrong thing is in focus 175

Moving subjects are blurry 177

The camera won’t focus at all 178

Playing with Depth of Field 179

Controlling Color 184

RGB: A new way of thinking about color 184

Choosing between sRGB and Adobe RGB 185

Using white balance to adjust color 187

Looking at Picture Presets 191

Shooting Raw for More Color Control 193

Part 3: Pro Tips For Capturing Specific Subjects 195

Chapter 8: Shooting Frame-Worthy Portraits 197

Starting with a Classic Portrait Recipe 198

Creating Good Portrait Lighting 204

Shoot indoor portraits by window light 205

Catch light with a reflector 205

Lessen the chances of red-eye in flash portraits 207

Try slow-sync flash for softer flash lighting 210

Shoot a subject in silhouette 212

Use flash to fill in shadows outdoors 213

Building a Better Backdrop 215

Capturing More Memorable Portraits 217

Chapter 9: Photographing Action 221

Choosing an Action Plan 222

Freezing Action 223

Following the classic action recipe 223

Shooting subjects “moving in place” 233

Improving your odds of freezing action 235

Blurring Motion 240

Panning for Cool Background Effects 243

Chapter 10: Taking in the Scenery 245

Reviewing a Few Basics 246

Composition is critical 246

Lens focal length matters (a lot) 249

Remember the impact of depth of field 251

Pick the right exposure mode 252

Pack a lens filter (or two or three) 254

Taking a Panoramic View 260

Photographing Tall Structures 264

Catching the Night Lights 266

Capturing Small Wonders 270

Part 4: After The Shot 275

Chapter 11: Discovering Cool Playback Features 277

Switching to Playback Mode 277

Adjusting the Playback Display 278

Getting a Close-Up Look at a Photo 280

Displaying Thumbnails and Calendars 281

Viewing Shooting Settings (Metadata) 281

Reading histograms 282

Displaying highlight alerts (“blinkies”) 283

Rating, Protecting, and Deleting Files 284

Rating files 284

Protecting photos 285

Deleting files 286

Checking Out In-Camera Editing Tools 287

Viewing Photos on a TV 288

Chapter 12: Downloading, Editing, and Sharing Photos 291

Sorting through Photo Software 292

Basic (and free) programs 292

Advanced (and not free) options 294

Downloading Your Images 296

Looking at connection options 296

Completing the download process 298

Preserving Your Files 301

Converting Raw Files 302

Looking at Your Printing Options 305

Avoiding Printing Pitfalls 306

Checking resolution: Do you have enough pixels? 306

Getting print and monitor colors in sync 308

Preparing Pictures for Online Sharing 311

Sizing photos for screen display 311

Saving files in the JPEG format 312

Part 5: The Part of Tens 313

Chapter 13: Ten Fixes for Common Photo Flaws 315

Discover a Few Easy Exposure Fixes 315

Take Steps to Avoid Blurry Pictures 318

Scan the Frame Before You Shoot 319

Blur a Busy Background 320

Level the Horizon 321

Crop Away Excess Background 323

Solve Color Miscues 325

Turn Down the Noise 326

Deal with Dust Spots and Lens Flare 326

Watch Out for Weird Halos 327

Chapter 14: Ten Accessories to Enhance Your Photography 329

Invest in a Good Camera Bag 330

Pick a Sturdy Tripod 331

Consider Smaller Stability Solutions 332

Find a More Comfortable Camera Strap 333

Get a Better View of Your Monitor 334

Download Some Cool Apps 335

Calibrate Your Monitor with Precision 337

Dive In with a Waterproof Housing 338

Treat Your Wrist to a Graphics Tablet 339

Pick Up a Portable Printer 339

Index 341

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