Viewfinder: The advantage of using digital SLRs is that you see clearly what the camera sees, just like point and shoot technology.

Lens: This section provides a brief overview of the different major types of lenses that you can play with (i.e.: wide angle, macro, fish-eye, tilt-shift).

Response: Describes how SLRs focus instantly while simultaneously allowing for continuous shooting. Also gives some pointers on how to hold your camera most effectively.



Part 2 - Ways To Shoot
This section offers a very comprehensive description of how to manipulate aperture, speed, and sensitivity to obtain the photographic effects you're looking for. Here's a breakdown:

Sharp or Not Sharp 1: Introduces the principles of focusing a lens to obtain a clear image.

Sharp or Not Sharp 2: Discusses some of the main reasons for blurred shots other than the camera lens being out of focus.

Sharp or Not Sharp 3: Explains how sharpness is affected by shooting in direct sunlight without a hood on the lens.

Bright and Dark Shots: Gives examples of over, under, and ideally exposed photos.

Three Gateways for Light: Explains how combinations of aperture size, shutter speed and sensor sensitivity regulate the amount of light recorded by the camera. This page is filled with diagrams and images, so if you need a refresher on how cameras work, this page might be a good place to begin.

Controlling the Depth of Field: Review the effects of f-stop on depth of field. Visual examples assist with the demonstration.

Changing the Depth of Field: This page compares a series of photos of the same image taken at varying f-stops to demonstrate the effects of their adjustment on depth of field.

Freezing or Blurring Motion: Explains how altering the shutter speed can freeze or blur motion. Images of waterfalls are used to illustrate the effect of this adjustment.

Freezing or Blurring Motion More or Less: Using a series of photos of a water fountain taken at different shutter speeds, this page gives a more precise description of how slower and faster speeds affect images.

Nice Shots of Bright or Dark Scenes: Describes the effects of lowering or increasing ISO (sensor sensitivity) on bright and dark scenes.

ISO Speed Effects: Shows how adjustments to ISO speed affect the sharpness of images. Explains the advantage of using digital SLRs for regulating ISO.

Changing the Angle of View: Defines the lens angle of view and shows its effects on the composition of images.

How the Lens Changes the Pictures: Provides a more detailed description of how changes to the lens angle affect the photograph.

Your Lens and Shooting Position: Describes how the position of the photographer and zooming affect the composition of the image.

Creating Breadth and Depth: Shows how lenses can be used to alter the breadth and depth of images for more artsy shots.

Setting the Image Quality: In addition to the above features that will be familiar to any friend of manual cameras, digital SLRs enable photographers to adjust the image quality. This is done by selecting two parameters - a large, medium, or small recording of the image in the camera, and a fine or normal quality. The larger the image, the greater its integrity during the enlargement. Similarly, close-ups or blow-ups of fine quality images will be less grainy than normal ones.

The Digital SLRs sensor: Explains how the pixel size and number in an SLR sensor affects image quality.


Part 3 - Quick-and-Easy Great Shots
This section applies the camera principles described in Part 2 to the use of SLR cameras.

Preparation: This page offers a few 'before you begin' reminders regarding the memory card capacity, batteries, and lenses.

Using Full Auto: If you're new to photography, this page may be a good place to start. The basics of setting your camera to full auto are described here.

Capturing the Moment: When you feel ready to play a bit, you can begin by altering a few settings while remaining in the automatic shooting mode. This page reviews the Program AE mode on the Canon camera, which allows you to adjust the exposure compensation, ISO speed, white balance, and flash on/off settings.

Setting the Shutter Speed: Shows how to set the shutter speed on the camera, and demonstrates some creative ways to manipulate this setting.

Controlling the Background Blur: Shows how the aperture settings can be adjusted on the camera to control the sharpness of the image and to shoot darker scenes.

Controlling the Exposure: Shows how to change the camera from automatic to manual exposure.

Changing the ISO Speed: On the manual setting, the ISO speed settings can be adjusted shot by shot to correspond to the brightness of the scene or the desired effects on the image.

Automatic Focusing by the Camera: Explains how to engage the autofocus on the camera prior to shooting an image.

Focusing At the Desired Point: Explains how autofocusing can be used to capture images with multiple potential focal points.

Focusing a Moving Subject: Demonstrates how the camera will autofocus continuously to capture movement using a running dog as an example.

Focusing Manually: Shows how to use the focusing ring on the lens.

Changing the Metering Mode: Describes the various light-metering modes on the Canon SLR and how they can be adjusted to achieve particular image results.

Composing Through Viewfinder: Suggests alternatives to central positioning of the subject and reminds photographers to check for distracting objects in the field of view before shooting.

Accessories to Prevent Camera Shake: Describes how tripods, remote switches and lenses with image stabilizers can be used to stabilize the camera, and instructs users on how to use a tripod correctly.


Part 4 - Using Camera Features
This section explores some of the creative adjustments that can be made to improve image quality and to personalize your photos. Some of the suggestions offered here troubleshoot difficulties commonly experienced when using SLRs.

Shooting White Subjects: Demonstrates how to adjust the exposure compensation setting to lighten the image.

Shooting Dark Subjects: Demonstrates how to adjust the exposure compensation setting to darken the image.

Shooting Bright Colors: Suggests how to change the exposure compensation to brighten the image.

Exposure Compensation for Various Colors: Shows how to adjust the exposure compensation for orange, pink, and purple subjects.

Preventing Exposure Errors: The Canon SLR features a histogram next to the image that can be used to assess whether an image is too dark or light. This page teaches how this histogram can be read.

Obtaining Natural Looking Colors: Suggests that the easiest way to maintain the integrity of colors is to set the camera to auto white balance. Gives some examples of images shot with this setting.

White Balance for Various Lighting: Shows how the white balance settings on the SLR camera affect how images are recorded, and shows several examples in different light conditions.

When to Use Flash for Dark Subjects: Describes the conditions that are best suited for using the flash and how the flash works.

Other Flash Techniques: This page demonstrates a few additional conditions appropriate for the use of a flash.

Change the Color and Look: Describes how the settings for image contrast, color saturation, sharpness, and color tone can be altered to suit the aesthetic preferences of the photographer.

Shoot in the RAW Mode: Using the Camera RAW mode allows you to process your images using your computer. This section highlights some of the advantages of using Camera RAW.


Part 5 - Printing Photos
This section provides a brief overview of the printing process using SLR cameras.

The Printing Process
Offers some tips and explains Canon's PictBridge system.




The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop and Digital Photography news and software updates, tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist, digital photographer and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Close up shot of some rusted metal panels.
© 2004 es + layers, morphs, tints, and text work by Jennifer Apple