DSLR stands for digital single lens reflex.
Getting crisply focused, well-lit pictures with your digital SLR camera can be difficult if you aren't familiar with the effects of using its settings. SLR stands for single lens reflex, and digital SLR cameras can give the user the option to change lenses and control more complex settings such as aperture and shutter speed. Understanding the key film settings, light settings, color settings and flash settings is vital to getting more clearly defined and natural-looking pictures when you use your digital SLR camera.
Film Settings - ISO
Many digital SLR users aren't familiar with ISO, and the effects it can have on your low-light pictures. ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, and relates to the level of senstivity your film has to light (now it has the same function within digital cameras, with the image sensor as opposed to film). Increase the ISO value to reduce the amount of time the shutter is open and thereby reduce the level of blurriness in your pictures. Usually, on modern digital cameras you can set the ISO value up to 1600. Increasing the ISO is necessary for low-light pictures to avoid the smearing blur that often creeps into night-time images. This happens because the automatic setting on the camera keeps the lens open for longer (in order to gain maximum light exposure); this reveals all of the unintentional movement in your hand. Setting the ISO high can help you take clearer night pictures, unless you want that dreamy effect.
Light Settings - Aperture
Put your camera into "Av" or aperture priority mode. This mode allows you to manually edit the aperture depending on the lighting in which you will be taking your picture. Set the aperture to around 8 for a standard photo. Narrow the aperture by setting it to 22. Narrowing the aperture means that less light can get in and the camera will automatically slow down the shutter speed to compensate. Widen the aperture by setting it to 3.5. This will have the opposite effect, making the camera take more light in and therefore speeding up the shutter. Use the aperture setting to compensate for the light of your surroundings. Setting higher apertures is useful for very bright situations, and lowering the aperture value is a good idea in dim light.
Color Settings - White Balance
Even though it may not seem like it, the colors in your images record differently depending on the time of the day you take the picture. Taken In the morning, pictures can be tinted with blue, and taken at night they can take on an orange-red color. The white balance setting on SLR cameras is designed to counteract this. Automatic settings will generally do the job, but if your image looks a strange color after you've taken it, it might be a good idea to change the settings manually. Generally, white balance settings will include auto, natural, fluorescent, tungsten, shade, overcast and flash. Choose one of these depending on the situation. The fluorescent setting removes the green that fluorescent light can bring into pictures, and tungsten compensates for the orange produced by normal light bulbs.
Flash Settings - Flash in the Day
Using flash in the daytime seems like an unnecessary idea, but it can help to bring out the light in the foreground of your picture. Generally, automatic settings on your camera will try to bring out the larger section of the picture, and ignore small portions. This means that if you are taking a picture of someone against bright scenery, they can end up too dim because the camera focuses on the bright background. Setting your camera to "P" (which stands for "program") and manually activating the flash can compensate for this. The flash only has a short range, so it can illuminate your subject yet have no effect on the background.
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