Tips for better digital photography, no. I - turn off review
mode
Turn off the review mode so that you don't get
the shot you've just taken displayed immediately
afterwards.
Yes, I know it sounds odd but think of it this way - taking pictures is all about composition; it's all about making sure that you get the best possible framing of a scene. Things like exposure are secondary, firstly because we can manipulate them after-the-fact, and, secondly, because bracketing gives us the ability to make several "guesses".
When I got my DSLR (a Pentax *ist D, if you're interested to know) the first thing I did was turn off the review mode because my experiences had taught me that I took better pictures when I concentrated on composition, on focusing (in both senses of the word) on the scene in front of me rather than checking the histogram after every shot. The most frustrating experiences I had as a photographer were, shortly after switching to digital, carefully checking the review only to find that the great picture I thought I'd taken wasn't there. In fact it was, a lot of the time, but the general poor quality of the screen, combined with poor visibility (trying to view a camera back LCD in bright daylight is no fun) meant that I thought I'd missed the shot I was after. What actually happened was that I had the shot in the bag (which I would later find out) and all of my messing around with the review meant that I'd missed "the" shot that inevitably appeared seconds later.
So, in short, turn off review mode and stick to taking pictures using the viewfinder as your guide. If you need to check exposure, do it after you've captured the moment.
Yes, I know it sounds odd but think of it this way - taking pictures is all about composition; it's all about making sure that you get the best possible framing of a scene. Things like exposure are secondary, firstly because we can manipulate them after-the-fact, and, secondly, because bracketing gives us the ability to make several "guesses".
When I got my DSLR (a Pentax *ist D, if you're interested to know) the first thing I did was turn off the review mode because my experiences had taught me that I took better pictures when I concentrated on composition, on focusing (in both senses of the word) on the scene in front of me rather than checking the histogram after every shot. The most frustrating experiences I had as a photographer were, shortly after switching to digital, carefully checking the review only to find that the great picture I thought I'd taken wasn't there. In fact it was, a lot of the time, but the general poor quality of the screen, combined with poor visibility (trying to view a camera back LCD in bright daylight is no fun) meant that I thought I'd missed the shot I was after. What actually happened was that I had the shot in the bag (which I would later find out) and all of my messing around with the review meant that I'd missed "the" shot that inevitably appeared seconds later.
So, in short, turn off review mode and stick to taking pictures using the viewfinder as your guide. If you need to check exposure, do it after you've captured the moment.
Posted: Tue - September 20, 2005 at 11:56 PM
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Published On: Sep 21, 2005 09:55 AM
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Published On: Sep 21, 2005 09:55 AM