It’s the height of vacation season, and DSLR owners are struggling to determine how many lenses they can take on trips without angering their spouses. The wide-angle lens is nice—especially for cities and vistas—but what if you want to zoom in close on an object? And how can you leave behind your current favorite lens, the 24-70mm f/2.8?! You know you’ll miss that speed.

When making such vital decisions, you need to think in advance about where you’ll be taking photos. If you’re going to New York City, by all means take the 12-24mm (even though it doesn’t come with a case—shame on you, @tokinalens). On the other hand, if you’re headed to Yellowstone to photograph wildlife, you’ll probably want to take your 400mm f/4. (Although if you own that lens, you may not have a spouse to anger, perhaps because of your purchase of that lens.) And if you’re going to be indoors in low-light situations, you should grab your Fast 50.

The situation isn’t always that clear, however. If you find yourself reaching for your “walking around lens” (not that there’s anything wrong with that), consider first the challenge of restricting yourself to one lens. With the limited range one of your better lenses offers, you may be forced to take photos that differ from those being taken by those around you. With a walking around lens, the tendency is to zoom in tight on a scene; this temptation is caused by the small size of the display on your camera. When you do that, though, you may be robbing the photo of perspective, which will appear more favorably when your photo is presented on a computer display or in print. Alternatively, zooming in on fine details in a scene where most others are shooting at 50mm may also result in a unique perspective.

Finally, if nothing else has helped you capture an out-of-the-ordinary photo, try going back at night (as in the photo above). You’ll need to use a tripod or an available stationary object, but the result could be a collection of photos that stand out from those of your fellow travelers.

You’ll do your loved ones and your photos a favor if you can avoid the use of flash on Christmas morning. Using flash will drown out your Christmas tree lights and flatten the faces of your subjects, so whether you’re using a point-and-shoot camera or an SLR, keep that strobe from firing.

If you’re using a point-and-shoot camera, look for the button with the little lightning bolt arrow and press it until a slash appears over the flash icon in your display. If you’re using an SLR, your camera probably won’t raise the flash on its own unless you have it set to full auto. You don’t have to set the camera to manual to avoid full auto; even setting it to P (program) mode will give you control over the flash.

What if, like in the room where I took the photos below, there isn’t enough light to hold the camera steady enough to get a clear photo? Steady the camera on a tripod, end table, or the arm of a sofa and you can shoot long exposures without camera shake. Those of you using “fast 50″ prime lenses probably won’t have that problem, though, and you’ll enjoy a shallow depth of focus in your pictures (where your subject is in focus but the background is blurred).

The photos below were shot at ISO 400 and f/2.8 aperture. In the first, the flash did not fire and the speed was 1/6 second. In the second, the flash did fire and the speed was 1/60 second. I performed no post-production on the images.

A reminder: When you’re taking pictures of your kids, remember to get the camera down to their eye level. That perspective makes for a more appealing photo.

Lastly, have a Merry Christmas!

In last week’s post on choosing an SLR, I recommended that you pair your new camera with a 50mm prime lens. A prime lens can be differentiated from a zoom lens in that its focal length is not variable. If you have a 90mm prime lens, all of your shots will be taken at 90mm; if you have an 18-200mm lens, you can shoot at 18mm (wide angle), 200mm (telephoto), and anywhere in between.

Why would you want a prime lens when it so severely limits your versatility? For one, good image quality is much more affordable in a prime lens. It’s difficult to make a lens that has good image quality (IQ) across a wide range of focal lengths, and that’s reflected in the price. Along with that, a prime lens is typically the easiest way to gain the ability to shoot fast. A Nikon D3S will allow you to shoot at ISO 102,400 (you read that right!), but it won’t throw the background behind your subject out of focus like a 50mm f/1.8 lens on a Rebel XSi.

How can you overcome the limitations introduced by a prime lens? Often, you can do it on foot. If you want to zoom in, take a few steps forward; to zoom out, step back (but watch where you’re going!). Your mileage may vary. If you’re in tight quarters, you won’t be able to photograph a group; conversely, if you’re trying to shoot a deer on a hill, you won’t get much detail.

Note that on most SLRs (with a 1.6x crop factor), the 50mm acts like an 80mm lens, which is more of a telephoto. For that reason, it’s especially good for taking pictures of children (active or not) without requiring a flash.

Shortly after I wrote Saturday’s post, Phototuts+ put up a great series of images taken with what they call “Nifty Fifty” lenses. I’ve included several in this post as well. Enjoy!

If you’ve decided that an SLR is the thing for you, you’re still in good shape. You really can’t go wrong getting an SLR right now; they’re all a good buy and packed with features. I generally recommend Nikons or Canons as they’re the most widely-used; that means there are more accessories and used lenses available. That said, you’ll find plenty of recommendations for Olympus, Sony, Sigma, Pentax, and the other brands.

ISO 400, 12mm, f/4.0, 1/20 sec

Which model should you buy? I generally recommend the least expensive. Right now, that means the Canon Rebel XSi or the Nikon D3000. (The Canon link is for body only; the Nikon link includes a “kit lens” that I would recommend replacing.)

You can spend more money on a camera, but your lens investment is far more important. Cameras are replaced every few years, but people hold onto their lenses. And the quality of your images has more to do with the lens than with the camera. I recommend the 50mm f/1.8 for Canon users. For Nikon users, there’s a 35mm f/1.8 available (see the comments from Matt Speicher below for more information about Nikon lenses). Fast prime (fixed focal length) lenses like these are great for a few reasons.

- they’re inexpensive

- they’re very fast, allowing you to shoot indoors without a flash

- they’re small and light, making the camera more portable

- their image quality is superior to almost any other lens under $500 and many lenses under $1000

- the single focal length eliminates a decision from every shot you take (zooming is not an option)

Zoom lenses like the Canon 28-200 are nice in terms of their range, but there are trade-offs.

- they cost more

- they’re heavier

- image quality is not as good

- they are slower, which will require flash in more situations (image stabilization (aka vibration reduction) helps, but still doesn’t bridge the gap)

That said, at some point you’ll want to buy a zoom lens. That’s when friends with SLRs come in handy so you can borrow their lenses and try them out. I use pro lenses for portrait shoots, but my “walking around” lens is the Tamron 28-300. They make a Nikon version, too. The image quality is not as good as that offered by the 50mm f/1.8, but it’s very versatile (if a bit slow).

Eventually, you may want to pick up a macro lens for close-up photography, or a wide-angle lens (which was used in the photo above) for a different perspective. I’d avoid getting wrapped up in the hardware, though; there are a lot of good pictures waiting to be taken with your new SLR and 50mm lens. I just created two galleries in which all of the photos were taken with a 50mm lens. I enjoyed taking the photos and, though at first I thought not having my zoom lens along would be a problem, I was very happy with the results.

I’m often asked that question, and I have a short answer. The Canon G11. It gets good reviews (at a site where you can trust the reviewers), it has great optics, it takes video, it shoots RAW, and it allows the user creative control but can still function effectively on full auto. And you get all that in a portable unit that doesn’t require any accessories.

While I consider the G11 a sweet spot when it comes to price, performance, and portability, I understand that there are numerous other factors that go into choosing a camera. The G11 gives us a place to start, but it may not be the right choice. There are many great cameras available for less than $400, if price is an issue. There are also many point-and-shoot cameras that are smaller.

On the other hand, maybe the delay when you press the shutter release on your point-and-shoot has resulted in too many lost shots. Or perhaps you’re looking to take even more creative control of your photos. In that case, it may be time to consider a digital SLR.

A friend recently asked if I had any recommendations for readers who already have a grasp on concepts like shutter speed, ISO, and aperture from using a film camera but have yet to make the move to a digital SLR. The short answer: Of course I do.

My first digital SLR was a very different beast from the Fujica ST-605 I used for over two decades. The 605 was a much more basic camera, offering no automatic functions. Choosing the right shutter speed and f-stop were dependent on me, as was focusing. To Fujica’s credit, though, the 605 had two features missing from the digital SLRs I’ve used. The first was a fantastic focusing screen. Anytime I use manual focus on my digital SLRs—even with an upgraded focusing screen—I wish they were as capable as the circa 1977 ST-605.

The other feature I miss is the built-in light meter. Whenever I set exposure manually on my digital SLR, I wish I had the 605′s light meter and depth of field preview in the viewfinder. I also liked the mechanical timer on the Fujica. It was very quick to manipulate and could be set to any time interval ten seconds or less.

On the other hand, it’s great having autofocus, most of the time the camera assists me in setting exposure, and I have a variety of other features on my digital SLRs that relegate the Fujica to the prop shelf. My digital SLRs can do everything my film camera could, and a whole lot more.

What will strike you when switching from a film SLR to digital? A lot depends on what you were used to and which model you choose, but regardless you’re likely to end up with a camera that’s very easy to use simply but will involve a learning curve to use creatively. Many features are accessible only via menus, and you’ll need to read the manual (and I say that as someone who often avoids reading manuals).

One issue the camera can handle for you automatically that you’ll eventually want to tackle is white balance. In some environments, digital cameras have difficulty determining what white looks like

Some good news: Since you’re not using film, you can choose your ISO on the camera (or have it chosen for you automatically). Not using film also brings me to perhaps the best advantage of digital, which is the ability to freely experiment with your shots. You don’t have to worry about the cost of developing each frame.

I plan to write another column on how to decide which digital camera to buy, but I’ll offer one piece of advice here. If you already own lenses, buy a digital camera with the same mount. The quality of one brand of camera vs another is frequently debated, but I don’t think anything outweighs being able to draw on a selection of lenses that you already own.

In Part I of my series on manually controlling your camera’s settings in order to control exposure, we discussed ISO. In Part II, we discussed shutter speed. To complete the series, I’ll now discuss f-stop, otherwise known as aperture and often designated f/4, f/5.6, f/11, etc.

Manual exposure, high dynamic range, and wide angle at St. Pat's

Aperture (not to be confused with Apple’s photo editing program of the same name) is an indicator of how much light a lens allows into your camera to hit its sensor (where the image is recorded). To make things confusing, the lower the aperture number, the more light is being allowed in. Lenses that are able to shoot at lower apertures (4.0 or less at most focal lengths) are considered fast lenses. Fast lenses are preferable both because they allow you to shoot in lower light and because they allow you to isolate a subject in a photo with a short depth of field. A lens’ fastest aperture is often noted on its front or side (e.g., 50mm 1:1.8 indicates this 50mm lens can shoot as fast as f/1.8).

After ISO, the setting most pros choose to exercise control over is aperture (usually by setting their camera’s mode to Av, choosing an aperture, and allowing the camera to select the appropriate shutter speed). That is because aperture allows you to control your depth of field, which is the space around your subject that is in focus. If you’re photographing something large, like a building or a group of people or the Grand Canyon, you want a large depth of field because you want everything in your shot to be in focus. On the other hand, if you’re shooting a child playing (or a senior sitting on a swing), you only want your subject to be in focus and you want everything else to be blurry.

By design, Kelsi is in focus, but the background is not

I was recently in Times Square at twilight. This offered the opportunity to capture some shots of the buildings, lights, and people who filled the streets that evening. It also required me to shoot in manual mode in order to capture the pictures I wanted.

I was using my 12-24mm wide angle lens, which has a maximum aperture of f/4. I typically choose ISO first in a shooting situation, but since it was so dark I knew I’d be pushing the limits of my lens speed. So I set the aperture to 4.0 and the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second. With most lenses this speed would be too slow and I’d wind up with blurry photos, but since I was shooting wide and my guideline for minimum speed is that it should approximate focal length, it was okay for me to shoot at 1/20 since my focal length was typically around 20mm. I also set my camera down on something stable and used its 2-second timer whenever possible, eliminating lens shake as a factor.

With aperture and shutter speed chosen, I tried taking a shot at ISO 200; unfortunately, everything was too dark. I jumped to ISO 320 and tried again; this picked up the Times Square lights fine, but it did not show the people and buildings as well as I wanted. Luckily, ISO 400 gave me the exposure I wanted without introducing too much grain to my shots.

What would have happened if I’d moved my selector to full auto? First of all, my camera probably would have chosen to try and utilize its flash. An on-camera flash is ineffective when shooting buildings, flattens the features of everybody in its range, uses up battery power, and annoys anyone unfortunate enough to be facing it when it fires. The next thing my camera probably would have done was raise its ISO, thereby introducing grain to my shots. Finally, shutter speed and aperture would have been determined by what I focused on. If that had been something bright, everything else in the shot would have been too dark. If it had been something dark, the shutter probably would have stayed open longer than I’d have been able to hold it still, plus all the lights would have been blown out and lost detail.

Most of the time your camera will be smart enough to choose the right settings for you (provided you don’t allow it to use its flash indoors), but you may soon find yourself in a Times Square situation where you need to take control of exposure from your camera to capture the shot you want. I hope this series on light factors has provided some assistance in that pursuit.

Feel free to share your comments and questions below, and thank you for reading.

ISO 400, 12mm, f/4.0, 1/20 sec

ISO 400, 12mm, f/4.0, 1/20 sec

ISO 400, 12mm, f/4.0, 1/20 sec

Low light meant high ISO and the slowest shutter speed I could get away with

In Part I of this series on creatively manipulating exposure in your photography (aka using your camera in manual mode), we explored the effects caused by changing ISO. A high ISO allows you to shoot in lower light, but may introduce grain to your photograph.

Shutter speed also has its trade-offs. The slower you shoot, the lower the light you can shoot in. Unfortunately, slower shutter speed also makes it harder to nail your focus, and can introduce an unacceptable amount of blur to your shot.

Shutter speed is often designated by an integer (e.g., 60, 125, 250), but that integer typically represents a fraction. If your shutter is set to 60, that means the shutter is open for 1/60th of a second. That means light is being recorded on your camera’s sensor for that amount of time. If there’s a lot of light to record, the shutter does not need to be open for long. Shooting in bright sunlight will sometimes allow you to fire your shutter at 1/1000th of a second. If you’re indoors, you’ll never shoot at that speed unless you’re using studio strobes, taking pictures of a light, or something very bad is going on.

Why is there blurring when your shutter is open too long? Your body is always moving. Even if you tuck your elbows into your sides when you shoot and squeeze the shutter release button instead of pushing it (both recommended practices), if you try to shoot with a 300mm lens at 1/30th of a second, you’ll end up with a lousy picture.

A good rule of thumb for finding the slowest speed at which you can shoot in a given situation is to reference the focal length at which you’re shooting. If you’re using a 100mm lens (or your zoom lens is set at 100mm), you shouldn’t shoot slower than 1/100th of a second. Shooting with a wide-angle lens at 20mm allows for a slower shutter. If your lens has image stabilization (aka IS, referred to as vibration reduction by Nikon and other terms by other lens makers), you may be able to double the amount of time your shutter is open (thus, 30 instead of 60).

But wait! The above only applies if you’re holding your camera to shoot. If you have a tripod handy, you can shoot much more slowly. You can even allow your shutter to stay open for multiple seconds without having much of a negative effect on your picture (unless your subject is moving). The same is true if you set your camera on a still platform, like a chair or the ground. Try this: With your camera secured in a dark setting, set your shutter speed to 15 seconds, release the shutter, and take a picture of yourself walking slowly across the scene.

A camera on a tripod (or even a one-leg monopod) allows a lot more flexibility when it comes to low light. Unfortunately, even pressing the shutter release button can introduce movement, so for better stability use your camera’s timer, a shutter release cable, or a remote. Beyond this point, you only need to worry about the actual movement of the shutter and the earth, and those will only be factors in specific situations (like taking pictures of stars).

The easiest way to experiment with the effects of shutter speed is to set the dial on top of your camera to Tv (location may vary by camera; SLRs typically have that dial on top of the body). That way, you can set the ISO and shutter speed manually, and the camera will dial in the appropriate aperture (f-stop). Set your shutter to 1/15 and take a picture of running water to get a glassy effect. Slow it down slightly while watching outdoor sports and see if you can capture a nice amount of motion without losing too much clarity. Set it to open for a few seconds by an intersection at night and capture the lights from passing vehicles.

In no time, you’ll be capturing photographs you never could using automatic settings.

When you’re ready, check out Part III of the series.

ISO 200, 200mm, f/6.3, 1/200

This is part one of my series on using your camera in manual mode.

There was a time when your camera’s ISO (light sensitivity) was determined by the film you loaded. Once you had your roll in place, you were stuck with that ISO for 12 or 24 or 36 exposures (or you had to waste exposures when you loaded a new roll). A digital camera—which captures the image on its sensor rather than a frame of film—allows you to change ISO as often as you like.

What’s important about ISO? A high ISO (400, 800, 1600) is considered fast, and it allows you to shoot in darker conditions. The trade-off is that your exposures are more likely to be grainy, at least on close inspection. That is becoming less of an issue as many of the latest cameras (e.g., the Canon 5D Mk II or Nikon D700) can shoot at those ISOs (and even higher) without much loss of quality.

The same may not be true of your camera, and by going manual you’ll learn more about its capabilities. If you’re shooting in full auto mode, your camera will choose the ISO. Don’t let it. Try setting the ISO yourself and see how that affects the speed and f-stop at which your pictures are taken. In general, you’ll want to use ISO 200 when shooting outdoors, ISO 400 when shooting in a reasonably-lit room, and ISO 800 or 1600 when there’s not much available light.

To experiment, try setting your ISO to 100 when shooting indoors. Your camera will have to compensate by using its widest f-stop (to let in as much light as possible) and a slow shutter speed in order to capture the picture. That slow speed will probably result in some blurring. Try also shooting at your camera’s highest ISO in that same environment. When you look at the picture later, zoom in and check its quality.

Shooting frames at different ISO settings isn’t much fun, but it’s an essential piece of the light factor puzzle. The next two posts, which will cover shutter speed and f-stop (aperture), will complete the picture and illustrate how manual control of your camera’s settings can give you more creative control of your pictures.

If you’ve purchased a camera in the past few years, be it an SLR or a point-and-shoot, it’s probably pretty smart. In most situations, it’s going to make good decisions about where to focus, how much light to allow onto the sensor, how long to open the shutter, and whether to fire the flash (recall that flash isn’t always a good thing). At other times, however, you may need to exert some control over your camera in order to capture what you want in a given scene.

The good news is, many of those aforementioned cameras sold in the past few years also include a few buttons and switches that allow the kind of control you need to take more creative (or just better) photos. I’m not talking about general settings with names like “landscape”, “portrait”, and “sports”; rather, I’m referring to the same settings you would have found on your grandfather’s camera 40 years ago.

In my next few photography tips posts, I’ll be discussing some of those settings. And since light is the most important element of photography, I’ll begin with the settings most closely related to light: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I hope you find them worthwhile.

Sometimes you're a better judge than your camera