In the first section of this series I want to talk about settings. It's something that is easily overlooked. I have seen a lot of people assume that a better camera means better photo's. I have then seen these same people go and buy an expensive camera and still get the same poor quality photos they were getting before. Well there is a reason for that. A camera is simply a tool. It's not going to do all the work for you. A better camera will help you get better results as long as you understand how it works and when to use the appropriate settings and features.
The automatic mode in most cameras has a lot of flaws. They are designed to assume many things about the scene that it needs to photograph and change settings accordingly. However it can only glean so much from reading the light on its sensor. It wont know what the subject is, if its moving, what you want to focus on, do you want a flash used and so on. It can certainly make assumptions but only you, as the photographer, really know what is needed.
Most cameras will come full of settings. Many of these are actually various ways of processing the picture once it is taken. These are certainly worth looking at but can all be altered yourself later in the final photo. The most important settings are those that are key to the actual process of taking a photo. These are the Flash, Focus point, Shutter speed, Aperture and the ISO. Almost all cameras will allow you to change the flash and focus point settings. Smaller cameras often wont give you access to the shutter speed, aperture and ISO but it is important to know what they are so that you can understand what your camera is doing and what you might be able to change to get a better result.
The Flash
It is rare you will actually want to use the built in flash on any camera. They are there so that in a dark room you can get a picture of your friends. Its going to wash out your skin, give flat lighting and can cause red eye but if all you care about is that your subjects appear in a photo together, it will do. For almost anything else it is more of a hindrance and you are better to turn it off until you actually need to use it. Without the flash in a low light setting, your options will depend on the type of camera you own. With a phone camera or compact, these will be limited and your best bet is to wait for better lighting. With a DSLR you will have more options for low light but it is always better to wait for or create better lighting if possible.
You might also want to use the flash in the daytime. It can be used for a technique called 'fill flash'. An example of when you might want to use this is if you are taking a picture of someone and the ambient light is coming from behind the subject or directly above. When the light is behind this will darken your subject in comparison to the rest of the scene and when the light is directly above it will give you subject strong eye shadows (known as panda eyes). Using a flash in this situation can add light to your subject to even it out with the rest of the scene helping to limit the above problems.
You may also want to look into an external flash if you camera has the compatibility. A decent external flash will allow you to change what direction it fires letting you bounce the light off walls and create your own high quality light.
The Focus Point
If left in automatic mode a camera will often decide that the closest object is what needs to be focused on. As with the flash, only you know if this is what is actually needed. Maybe you want something further back in the frame to be the point of focus, or even something in the background.
When it comes to focusing you will want to set the focus point manually. A common trick here is to set the focus point to the centre of the shot, place your subject over this point, do a half press (often accompanied by a beep to indicate focus has been achieved) and then re-frame and complete the press to take the picture. This allows you to quickly focus on your subject and then get the picture framed as desired and take a picture without having to mess around with choosing focus points.
Some phone cameras may work differently to this. For example the Moto G I use allows you to simply move the focus point with your finger to exactly where you want it. Its simple but effective.
The other options available will vary by device but you should take note of what is there and see if there is anything you can take advantage of. Even some of the scene settings might help you get a better result as it limits down the cameras guess work.
Shutter Speed
The shutter speed is how quickly the cameras shutter opens, lets light hit the sensor to create the photo and then close again.
The shutter speed is important because if you are shooting a moving subject you need to make sure that the shutter speed is fast to eliminate motion blur. Even on still subjects you need a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate any hand shake that might occur. How fast this needs to be will depend on the focal length you are using and your own ability to keep a steady hand. If you want to eliminate this factor so you can use really slow shutter speeds then you will need to use a tripod.
Aperture
Aperture is essentially the iris of the camera lens. It is the size of the hole that lets light through to the lens. A smaller hole will let less light through while a bigger whole will let more light through.
The aperture has an impact because not only does it effect the amount of light let through to the cameras sensor, it also effects the the depth of field. This is the amount of area that is kept in focus. A large aperture will have a smaller depth of field while a smaller aperture will have a larger depth of field. This can get confusing at first because of a few factors. For starters, the numbers used to set the depth of field work the opposite way to what you might assume. A large aperture is represented by a low number (such as f1.8) while a small aperture is represented by a high number (such as f16). The other thing to get your head round is that as the aperture gets larger, the depth of fields gets smaller. So if you want to take a picture with only your subject in focus (such as a person) then you will want to use a large aperture. If you want to take a picture with everything in focus (such as a landscape shot) then you will want to use a small aperture.
ISO
The ISO is the setting that changes how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light. A low ISO number (such as 100) means you will need more light as it is a low sensitivity. A high ISO number (such as 1600) increases its sensitivity meaning you need less light.
The ISO is best treated as a last resort to get the aperture and shutter speed needed for the shot. Being able to increase its sensitivity to need less light sounds great on paper but it has one rather large drawback. The higher the ISO goes, more grain / noise is introduced. This is a straight up drop in image quality. How high you can go with an acceptable amount of quality loss will vary from camera to camera as well as personal opinion. Some people hate any noise at all while others will find some perfectly acceptable.
The Big Three
While the flash and focus point are important to understand, the shutter speed, aperture and ISO are the three core parts to taking a photo. Each one effects the other two in a relationship that is vital to understand if you truly want control over you photography. If you need a faster shutter speed to capture a moving target then you need to increase the light intake using the aperture and/or ISO. Make the aperture smaller and you have to keep in mind if your entire subject will remain in focus with a reduced depth of field. Increase the ISO and you have to be aware of the quality loss to the final image.
Settings Summery
So to summarise the 5 key settings to be aware of.
Focus - Choose a focus point and don't let the camera decide for you.
Flash - Set it to manual and decide yourself when it's needed.
Shutter speed - Is your subject still? is it moving?
Aperture - How much of the shot do you want in focus?
ISO - Do you need more light and can accept the loss in image quality?
Once you truly understand these 5 things and how they can all effect a photograph you will be well on the way to taking better picture.
