Just in case I didn’t convince you to at least give manual shooting a shot with your DSLR two weeks ago, here’s one last attempt.

I shot this first photo in Auto mode on my camera (which, honestly, was probably the first time my camera has been switched to that setting). I did turn off the on-camera flash (so it wasn’t completely in Auto mode) because I am not a fan of on-camera flashes and prefer using natural light as long as it’s available – which it was.

F 3.3, 1/45, ISO 800

What a blurry mess!

This second photo was taken in Manual mode; the way I take all my photos. I manually adjusted the Shutter Speed, the Aperture, and the ISO to create the photo the way I wanted.

F 1.8, 1/90, ISO 640

Much better, huh?

Now on to the technical stuff. Notice the camera settings that were chosen by my camera while in Auto mode in the first photo, and compare them to the second. If you need a quick refresher on what all the numbers mean, this post may help you.

ISO: The camera choose a higher ISO than I did. Because it was the afternoon and my living room only has north and east facing windows, there wasn’t a ton of light to work with, but I knew I could still make it work without upping my ISO too much by fiddling with the aperture and shutter speed. The camera choose 800 for the ISO to make up for the lack of natural light, but I typically like to keep my ISO below 640 to avoid too much graininess in my photos.

Aperture: I shoot with small apertures for a large majority of my photos. I can’t tell you why the camera choose to raise the aperture so high (F 3.3), but in my opinion, it wasn’t necessary. I wanted a shallow depth of field and by lowering the aperture, I didn’t need to choose such a high ISO. Win, win.

Finally, Shutter Speed: Due to the high aperture setting the camera chose in Auto mode, it had to choose a slow shutter speed in order create a correctly exposed photo. As you can see, 1/45 of a second captured quite a bit of motion in the photo. Normally, I wouldn’t go longer than 1/125 of a second for my shutter speed when shooting my always-moving toddler, but I took a risk and dropped it to 1/90 of a second since he was actually sitting still for once.

I definitely wouldn’t have gone any longer than 1/90 of a second though, and if my photos were looking underexposed, I would have gone back and raised the ISO rather than lengthening the time my shutter was open any further. Sure, I still captured a little bit of motion in my nieces hand, but not nearly as much as when I put the camera in Auto mode.

Now, I’m definitely not saying that every time you take a picture in Auto Mode, it will be horrible. That’s simply not true. But there are numerous situations where you can be smarter than your camera, and choose the right settings for the photo you are hoping to capture. Sometimes, a blurred image is exactly what you want! But don’t you want to be the person deciding that rather than leaving it up to a piece of equipment? Just something to ponder.

Next week: My Favorite Focusing Technique

Thursday Photo Thoughts is a series focusing on bettering your photography. I’d be more than happy to answer any photography questions you have, just email me. View all my Thursday Photo Thoughts posts here.

Once upon a time, Beau came to my college dorm to teach me how to write html. I sometimes consider it our first date, but that night was more about learning for me than flirting with a boy. (I consider March 16, 2005 our first real date, which took place at the Olive Garden. Donya/Beau tidbit for you!) See, I’ve long been interested in the Internet, and when I first started playing around with customizing my first Blogger blog, I quickly realized that I was very limited without knowing any coding. These days, you can do a lot more on the Internet without knowing how to code, but having even a limited knowledge of code definitely doesn’t hurt.

Relating this back to photography, sure you can take a fine photo without knowing how to shoot manually, or choosing to stick with a point-n-shoot. And that’s completely fine. But you will be limited. And for a control freak like myself, I can’t stand being limited or having someone/something choose what settings are right for me.

Which brings me to the first settings I suggest dabbling into when learning to shoot manual: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. I’m not going to rehash what these mean because you can find a million websites and books that already do that, in addition to your cameras user manual. Instead, here are a few very good, easy to understand photography websites that will explain these settings on your camera. If you find you’re having a difficult time conceptualizing what these settings give you, check out a different website. Everyone learns differently, and everyone teaches differently.

Learning Exposure // Digital Photography School

The Exposure Triangle // Digital LSR Guru

The End of Auto-Mode // J Fletcher Photo

Exposure Cheat Sheet (the PDF) // Glark

These are wonderful links. But the first step for some may even be just to move that camera from Auto to Manual and start playing around. Even once you read and learn all about ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, you’ll need practice. And what better way to practice than playing around? Take pictures inside, take pictures outside, take pictures of everything from the carpet to your children to the trees, and then everything in between. Learning takes practice.

Thursday Photo Thoughts is a series focusing on bettering your photography. I’d be more than happy to answer any photography questions you have, just email me. View all my Thursday Photo Thoughts posts here.

Tuesday was Beau’s birthday, and even though I had remembered on Monday that it was coming up, I completely forgot about it by 4:30am on Tuesday when my alarm went off. That is, until I checked Facebook on my phone and saw some of our friends had written birthday wishes on Beau’s wall overnight.

Yes, my normal morning routine is to turn off my alarm, groggily walk to the bathroom, check Facebook on my phone while I rub my eyes, and then take a shower. What can I say, I’m a product of being born in the 80′s and I’m officially a 25 year old who checks social media before even showering.

But the best part was that even he had forgotten and admitted to me that he’d only remembered when he checked Facebook from his phone while still in bed and saw the same posts I did. We are officially nerds. Tell me we aren’t the only ones.

Aaaaanyways, back on track. I’m often am asked for suggestions on DSLR cameras, so I figured it was a perfect topic to kick off Thursday Photo Thoughts. The first secret? – It’s not really about the camera. A good photo has great composition, content, and emotion. But, a camera can enhance a photo artistically by using the settings on your camera or using a different lenses to create a specific outcome or look. The reason professional photographers use DSLR cameras is because they will use different settings on the camera to purposely change the look of the photo. And you can too! Sounds super fun, right?

Before I give you my thoughts, I’ll share that for a large percentage of my photographs, I shoot with a Nikon d90 + 50mm f1.4 lens. And I never take my camera out of manual mode. Unless you are interested in learning how to shoot in manual mode, meaning adjusting the camera settings yourself, I don’t actually recommend spending the dough on a DSLR camera. With today’s camera technology, auto settings on a good point-and-shoot camera will give you similar photos to an entry level DSLR on auto mode, but for a lot more money. So unless you take advantage of the settings manually, you will be mostly paying for the potential your camera has and not so much for the quality of the photos you take. It’s not a bad thing. Learning to shoot manually can take a lot of practice, so don’t feel guilty if you’d rather stick with your point-and-shoot. It also means you won’t be lugging around a large DSLR camera everywhere you go. I personally don’t have a point-and-shoot camera, but I will admit that I tend to use my iPhone’s camera quite often for the times I don’t want to bring my DSLR. But, I also know there are times I want to shoot in lower light without using a flash, have a larger depth of field in my photo, and use my manual settings to create a better photo. Those are the times that a DSLR comes in handy.

My second suggestion, if buying a DSLR, is to skip the kit lens. The kit lenses are typically sold in combination with the camera body, but lack the ability to give you depth of field (which I’ll explain in more detail next week) or capture a photo in lower lighting situations. And really, the kit lens on a DSLR won’t give you much more than a good point-and-shoot photo. Instead, save your money and buy the camera body in conjunction with a 35mm or 50mm lens. These are fixed lenses, meaning you cannot zoom within them. Again, I’ll explain more about why low light capabilities and depth of field can be achieved with these fixed lenses next week.

Also, don’t believe anyone when it comes to the Nikon vs Canon debate. I personally like to stick to a well-known name brand, but my suggestion when deciding between a Canon and Nikon is to hold each and determine how they feel in your hands. Which feels more right to you. Make your decision from there. Nikon’s controls made sense to me, so that’s what I choose.

So there you have it; my thoughts on cameras. Keep in mind, this is primarily directed towards portrait photography, rather than landscape or macro or any other type of photography. And stay tuned for next week, when I explain a few starter tips for how to shoot manually with a DSLR.

Thursday Photo Thoughts is a series focusing on bettering your photography. I’d be more than happy to answer any photography questions you have, just email me. View all my Thursday Photo Thoughts posts here.

Interested in hiring Donya as your photographer? Visit her photography website!