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Get to know your camera
Techniques
22 October 2007 14:50
To take great landscapes it's important to know how your camera works. Natural light and weather conditions can change rapidly, so to make the most of these opportunities you need to be able to use your camera quickly and with confidence.
To start with, learn how to achieve maximum image quality. If you are shooting JPEGs, choose the highest quality (biggest file) setting available.
• ISO: use the lowest ISO setting available on your camera. This may mean that you’ll have to use slower shutter speeds, so you may have to use a tripod.
• White balance: to prevent the camera automatically correcting the colours of the landscape, use the preset white balance settings. For sunrise and sunset, select the Cloudy icon to enhance the warmth of the colours; on a sunny day use the Daylight setting. If you're shooting RAW files, you can always change this before you convert your images.
• Exposure mode: for most landscapes, use aperture-priority mode, so you have control over the depth-of-field in your shots and can leave the shutter speed to set itself. Always work with a tripod.
• Metering: the multi-segment metering mode on all modern DSLRs is reliable and gives the best results for most landscapes. But no metering system can give the right reading every time. Recognise those situations when the camera may overcompensate for say, white snow or sunlit water, and set the exposure manually. On a DSLR the best way is to practice shooting a range of subjects, with different amounts of sky in frame. Then look at the histogram to assess whether you need more or less exposure.
• Self-timer: to prevent knocking the camera when it’s on a tripod and you don’t have a remote release, use the self-timer to fire the shutter. Use a short delay such as two or five seconds, so you don’t have to wait too long for the shutter to trigger. It’s also worth covering the viewfinder window with its slip-in cover (often supplied) or your hand (taking care not to knock the camera) to prevent stray light affecting the exposure.
• Histogram: this display (resembling a dark-shaded mountain range) is perfect for quickly assessing and adjusting the exposure of your images. It’s usually more important to ensure your shots aren’t overexposed, as lost highlight detail is impossible to recover. (Conversely, shadow detail can often be recovered in underexposed shots, although you will get lower quality than if the exposure was correct to begin with.)
Underexposed – All of the histogram peaks are grouped toward the left of the graph and fall off the scale at the end. This means you'll need to use exposure compensation – increasing exposure by using the (+) settings
Overexposed – here the histogram peaks are grouped to the right and fall off the scale at the end. Again you'll need to set exposure compensation – but this time the minus (-) settings
Perfectly exposed – All of the histogram peaks are grouped within the limits of the graph.