002 - Thoughts on First Shots

In part 001 I talked about getting comfortable with your camera and the controls so you can concentrate on making your shots.  I thought it might be useful to discuss this a bit further with a few hints and tips that I've picked up over the last few years.

First of all the camera needs to be held firmly so that it isn't moving randomly when the button is pressed.  In most circumstances you should use both hands even with a small camera the exception is mainly if you're using the other hand to hang onto something for safety. If you're standing keep your elbows tight into your body, stand with your feet about a foot (30cm) apart and have one foot slightly in front of the other.  If there is a solid object, such as a wall or a fence, you could try leaning against it to keep yourself steady.  If your taking a photo over a small wall or a fence you could be steadier by resting your elbows or lower arms against the wall of fence.  Sometimes you might find actually holding the camera on top of or against a wall, fence, vehicle etc. can give you a very steady platform for your camera.  Finally, just as you're about to push the button, hold your breath.

If you're wanting to shoot from lower down try going down on one knee and use knee pads for comfort if you're on hard ground. To get even lower you could lay on the ground and prop yourself up on you're elbows.  I always carry a rolled up black plastic dustbin liner with me to put over damp or dirty ground when I'm out taking landscape photos or close ups of plants and flowers.

Ideally to eliminate the problem of shakes the camera should be attached to a good quality tripod.  But as a beginner photographer a suitable tripod is a large and barely justifiable expense and a cheap tripod is generally a waste of money. I will include the use of tripods in a much later post because I think it might be something that you'd want to use as you gain experience.

To get used to where the controls are on your camera you need to practice, practice, practice. In the beginning while you're using automatic mode the only controls you need to know are the shutter button and zoom. Most shutter buttons are near your index finger on the right hand is normally placed when holding the camera properly. On a small camera the button is normally a single press which starts of the process for the camera to capture an image.  On bigger cameras and DSLRs there is usually a half-press where the camera gets itself ready and will display its settings on the display. If the settings are acceptable then completely pressing the button takes the shot.

On a small camera the zoom may be controlled by a rocker button or two individual buttons on the rear of the camera.  On a DSLR the zoom is normally controlled by a ring on the lens itself.  Assuming the lens does zoom then there will normally be two rings on the lens, one for zoom and the other for focus. It's quite useful to get to know which ring is which so you can easily adjust the zoom as you're taking photos.  If the camera is set to auto focus some lenses will not allow you to move the focus ring if the shutter button has been half-pressed.

Next time some more thoughts about what to photograph, what to include in the image and where to place elements within the frame.