All the gear and no idea! Photography courses by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw

All the gear and no idea!

This made me laugh out loud when Julie and Gill announced it as they turned up for their photography lesson! They are not alone in having made the step up from compact camera to SLR and only feeling confident enough to use it on the AUTO modes. Camera manuals don’t help as they are full of jargon and are unnecessarily complicated.

Your new SLR camera will take reasonable photos on the automatic settings and you’ll still be pleased that you upgraded, no doubt glad that there’s no delay when you press the shutter and it feels like a “proper camera”. However, a SLR is capable of so much more if you take charge rather than letting it be in control.

During yesterday’s two-hour lesson with Julie and Gill I walked them through some key information, settings and techniques that will make a significant difference to their photography and how they feel about their SLR cameras.

Lenses – they had both realized that although the kit lens that came with their camera gives them nice clear pictures it doesn’t zoom very far and they needed to buy a telephoto lens. After a quick explanation of the numbers on their lens (18-55mm) and talking about some of the lenses available, they both felt confident enough to start shopping around for a telephoto lens. They also wanted to know if they needed a macro lens to photograph things close up. I think they were pleasantly surprised to discover how close they could get with their existing kit lens.

A kit lens can get this close

Auto vs P – Gill was using her camera on the green AUTO mode, whereas Julie was using the P (program) mode and I explained why P is a better automatic alternative. I’m a firm believer that there’s no shame in using the automatic modes as long you know what to do if they don't give you the picture you wanted. It should be a choice to use them rather than the only option.

Soft focus backgrounds – wanting to know how to get that lovely blurred effect behind your subject is one of the main reasons people book photography lessons with me. They have often been baffled by talk of depth of field, apertures and f numbers. By the end of the two hour lesson Julie and Gill knew how to use their cameras on the Av setting to blur the background, whilst keeping an eye on the shutter speed and how the ISO setting can help when the light isn’t very good. Our mosaic frog was an obliging model!

Soft focus background using the Av setting

Composition – it’s amazing what a big difference a few simple composition tips can make to your photographs and I shared these with Gill and Julie. They were quick to pick up the technique of Focus Lock that allows you to put the subject of your photo anywhere in the frame and not always in the centre.

Using focus lock to put your subject off centre

With all that covered in just two hours there wasn't time to cover editing photographs – that’s a separate session – but I did point them in the direction of Picasa, a free programme from Google that allows you to perform basic edits and create some really good stuff.

From their enthusiastic comments I think Gill and Julie left brimming with confidence and keen to try out all the tips and methods we’d covered. I’m looking forward to seeing their photographs on a Facebook Group that all my “students” are invited to join. I hope they’ve ditched the phrase “All the gear and no idea” now!

If you feel that you have all the gear and no idea, take a look at the course programme for 2013/14 and if you can’t make any of the dates then why not book a bespoke session – share the cost between up to four people if you prefer. 

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Are you making this basic mistake when taking photographs?

When I run courses and one to one sessions on Digital Photography I find that most people are making the same fundamental mistake. And don't get me wrong, I don't think they're idiots - in fact they are intelligent individuals who are keen to improve their photography skills. The blame lies with the people who write camera manuals that are laborious to read and full of jargon. I always advise people to put the manual away and  a) come on one of my workshops (of course!) and b) read some of the photography books I recommend. Once you've got some basics on board, then the manual starts to make a bit more sense, but is best used as a reference tool - look things up as you need to but don't try to read it from cover to cover.

If camera manuals were well written they would start with a few simple bits of information that would get you started on the right path, but this stuff is usually hidden deep in the manual and called something technical!

So, here's the "biggie" mistake you may be making with your point and shoot compact camera. When you just point your camera at your subject and press the shutter, the camera always focuses in the middle of the frame and that's what will be in focus. 8 times out of 10 that may well be absolutely fine. But what if you are photographing two people and there's a gap between them? Your camera will focus in between the people, making the background in focus and the people blurred. Go on, be honest, you've done this before haven't you!

Did you know that you can focus on one of the people, press the shutter halfway down until the green light comes on and the camera beeps, telling you that it has focused, then keeping the shutter button pressed halfway, move the camera to frame both people and then fully press the shutter down to take the picture. If you practise this a few times, it's really easy and then eventually becomes second nature.

And once you've got the hang of it, you can start to put people, objects etc to one side of your picture and not in the middle. Radical! An example of this might be if you're photographing someone with a lovely landscape behind them. Try putting the person to one side. This may also have the lovely effect of keeping the person in focus whilst the landscape is softly out of focus. In the example below it is our lovely Daisy sulking as she watches people playing on the beach below (no dogs allowed), with St Michael's Mount in the background.

This technique is called FOCUS LOCK - sounds scary doesn't it? But it's so simple and so important!Look it up in your manual now that you know what it is.You can then start to get creative and take pictures of all sorts of things with the point of focus wherever you want it to be. And practise it - after all you can just delete any that don't work.

And if you're taking close up pictures of people's faces ALWAYS makes sure you focus on the eyes. If the eyes aren't in focus your picture just won't work.


By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!