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DAVID BUSCH’S MASTERING DIGITAL SLR PHOTOGRAPHY THIRD EDITION David D. Busch Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR © 2012 David D. Busch Photography, Third Edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright David D. Busch herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to Publisher and General Manager, Course photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, Technology PTR: information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, Stacy L. Hiquet except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Manager of Editorial Services: Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. Heather Talbot For permission to use material from this text or product, Marketing Manager: submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions. Jordan Castellani Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to Executive Editor: [email protected]. Kevin Harreld Project Editor: All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Jenny Davidson All images © David D. Busch unless otherwise noted. Technical Reviewer: Michael D. Sullivan Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933075 Interior Layout Tech: Bill Hartman ISBN-13: 978-1-4354-5832-1 Cover Designer: ISBN-10: 1-4354-5832-X Mike Tanamachi e-ISBN-10: 1-4354-5833-8 Indexer: Katherine Stimson Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning 20 Channel Center Street Proofreader: Boston, MA 02210 Sara Gullion USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region. Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your lifelong learning solutions, visit courseptr.com. Visit our corporate Web site at cengage.com. Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 11 10 For Cathy Acknowledgments Once again thanks to the folks at Course Technology PTR, who have pioneered pub- lishing digital imaging books in full color at a price anyone can afford. Special thanks to executive editor Kevin Harreld, who always gives me the freedom to let my imagi- nation run free with a topic, as well as my veteran production team including project editor Jenny Davidson and technical editor Mike Sullivan. Also thanks to Bill Hartman, layout; Katherine Stimson, indexing; Sara Gullion, proofreading; Mike Tanamachi, cover design; and my agent, Carole Jelen, who has the amazing ability to keep both pub- lishers and authors happy. I’d also like to thank the Continent of Europe, without which this book would have a lot of blank spaces where illustrations are supposed to go. About the Author With more than a million books in print, David D. Buschis the #1 selling author of camera-specific photography books, and the originator of popular series like David Busch’s Pro Secrets and David Busch’s Quick Snap Guides. He has written more than 30 hugely successful guidebooks for Canon, Nikon, Sony, and other digital SLR models, including the all-time bestsellers for many models, as well as many popular books devoted to dSLRs, including Digital SLR Pro Secrets. As a roving photojournalist for more than 20 years, he illustrated his books, magazine articles, and newspaper reports with award-winning images. He’s operated his own commercial studio, suffocated in formal dress while shooting weddings-for-hire, and shot sports for a daily newspaper and upstate New York college. His photos and articles have been published in Popular Photography & Imaging, The Rangefinder, The Professional Photographer, and hundreds of other publications. He’s also reviewed dozens of digital cameras for CNet and Computer Shopper. When About.com named its top five books on Beginning Digital Photography, debut- ing at the #1 and #2 slots were Busch’s Digital Photography All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies and Mastering Digital Photography.During the past year, he’s had as many as five of his books listed in the Top 20 of Amazon.com’s Digital Photography Bestseller list—simultaneously! Busch’s 130-plus other books published since 1983 include best- sellers like David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Using Digital SLR Lenses. His advice has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Tech Considered. Busch is a member of the Cleveland Photographic Society (www.clevelandphoto.org), which has operated continuously since 1887. Visit his website at http://www.dslrguides.com/blog. There you’ll find news, tips, and an errata page with typo alerts from sharp-eyed readers. Contributor Bio Technical Editor Michael D. Sullivan added a great deal to this book in addition to checking all the text for technical accuracy. A veteran photographer (in the military sense of the word!), he contributed some of the best images in this book, and volun- teered his expertise in Mac OS X for important behind-the-scenes testing of software and hardware. Mike began his photo career in high school where he first learned the craft and amazed his classmates by having Monday morning coverage of Saturday’s big game pictured on the school bulletin board. Sullivan pursued his interest in photography into the U.S. Navy, graduating in the top ten of his photo school class. Following Navy photo assign- ments in Bermuda and Arizona, he earned a B.A. degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College. He became publicity coordinator for Eastman Kodak Company’s largest division where he directed the press introduction of the company’s major consumer products and guided their continuing promotion. Following a 25-year stint with Kodak, Sullivan pur- sued a second career with a PR agency as a writer-photographer covering technical imag- ing subjects and producing articles that appeared in leading trade publications. In recent years, Sullivan has used his imaging expertise as a technical editor specializing in digi- tal imaging and photographic subjects for top-selling books. Contents Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv PART I: BASIC DIGITAL SLR TECHNOLOGY Chapter 1 The Incredible Transformation of the Digital SLR 3 Amazing New Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sensor Sensations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Other Camera Hardware Improvements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Software Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Inside Your Digital SLR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Key Components of Your dSLR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Sensors Up Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Capturing Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Noise and Sensitivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Dynamic Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Controlling Exposure Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 How We Get Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Infrared Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Using Interchangeable Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Lens Interchangeability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Viewfinders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Choosing the dSLR That’s Right for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Questions to Ask Yourself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Contents vii Chapter 2 Mastering Your Exposure Controls 41 Exposure Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Tonal Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Histogram Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Understanding Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 What Affects Exposure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Choosing an Exposure Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Programmed and Full Auto Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Adjusting Exposure with ISO Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Semi-Automatic and Manual Exposure Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Aperture-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Shutter-Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Manual Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Exposure Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Bracketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Bracketing and Merge to HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 3 Mastering the Mysteries of Focus 69 Manual Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Autofocus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Autofocus Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Autofocus Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 How Focus Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Phase Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Contrast Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Other AF Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Fine-Tuning the Focus of Your Lenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Chapter 4 dSLR Quirks and Strengths 83 It’s Done with Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Mirror Bounce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Mirror Size and Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Focus Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Pentaprism/Pentamirrors and So Forth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Eyepiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 viii David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition Protecting the Sensor from Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Whither Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Dust vs. Dead Pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Protecting Sensors from Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Fixing Dusty Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Cleaning the Sensor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Secrets of dSLR Image Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 One Slot or Two? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Key Considerations for Choosing a Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Working with RAW and Other File Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Format Proliferation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 JPEG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 TIFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 RAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Image Size, File Size, Image Quality, and File Compression. . . . . . . . 116 Use JPEG, RAW, or TIFF?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Advantages of Shooting RAW+JPEG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Advantages of Shooting RAW Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Advantages of Shooting JPEG Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chapter 5 Working with Lenses 123 Lenses and dSLRs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Digital Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Lens Designs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 If It Ain’t Bokeh, Don’t Fix It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Understanding Lens Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Typical Upgrade Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Image Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 The Bane of Image Blur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Causes of Camera Shake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Diagnosing Camera Shake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Preventing Camera Shake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Using Image Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Contents ix Chapter 6 Working with Light 157 Two Types of Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Continuous Lighting Essentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Electronic Flash Essentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Understanding Flash Sync. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Lighting Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Working with Existing Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Working with Electronic Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Painting with Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 PART II: EXPLORING NEW TOOLS Chapter 7 Live View and Movies 177 Working with Live View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Live View Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Shooting Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Capturing Video/Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Tips for Shooting Better Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Shooting Script/Storyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Storytelling in Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Composition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Lighting for Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Recording Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Tips for Better Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Chapter 8 Exploring GPS and WiFi 189 What’s Geotagging? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Nikon Leads the Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Eye-Fi Upload. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

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