How to use a SLR camera

By Andrew Christou©

Camera operation fundamentals and explanation of

terms

There are three fundamental things that need to be set in order to achieve a
good photograph

1. Film Speed

2. Aperture

3. Shutter Speed

They are to be set up in the following order

When you set out to take some photos you must consider the environment that
you will be in (see below)

Film Speed
1. Film Speed is known as ISO or ASA depending on the camera and is
basically the sensitivity of the film to light.

Some film speeds are:

• 100 for full sun and/or little movement

• 200 for slightly shady and/or movement i.e. a bicycle riding past

• 400 for times when there is very little light (just after sunset) and no
flash or very fast movement i.e. a car driving past

• 800 for very dark without a flash or i.e. a racing car driving past at
full speed

These numbers will be on the film package when you get it from the shops and
the settings on the camera must match what is written on the film box (This is
not a golden rule as you can use 400 or 800 film with a 100 setting to achieve a
grainier photo but that getting pretty advanced and not necessary at this level
because it requires allot of experimentation to get the correct shutter speeds)
To set the film speed on the camera, look for a round knob on top of it (there
should be two). You just turn it to the appropriate number. It will generally start
at 100 and go up by these increments 200,400,800,1600,3200. Don’t worry if it
doesn’t go up that high, you will probably never need anything above 800

Aperture
2. After you make the above settings you must now consider the Aperture
(known as F stop) on the camera. This is the size of the hole that allows
light to enter the camera.

• This setting is used to define the “depth of field ” of the photo

• For example, if you are down the beach and you want to take a
picture of your daughter who is sitting on the sand and there is a
boat quite a distance out on the water you would set the focus on
your daughter and use a lower F-stop if you wanted the boat and
the ocean in the background to be blurry and a higher F-stop if you
wanted the boat to be in focus as well as your daughter.

• The F-stop is adjusted on the lens of the camera.

• There should be three rings that you can adjust on the lens. Focus,
telescopic adjustment and F-stop.

• For the average photo F8 is the standard setting on most automatic

cameras. You Can’t go wrong with F8

• To adjust the F-Stop, identify the correct adjustable ring on the lens
and turn it to your desired setting. It will start at around F2 and go
up to around F12. It may start below F2 and may go higher than
F12 depending on the camera.

This is an example of F11.

Can you see how there is
quite a lot of depth to the
picture
 This is an example of F2.8. Notice that
the picture plane is quite flat

Shutter Speed
Once these settings are set you must now set the shutter speed

• The shutter speed is required to take a photo that is correctly exposed or

it has the correct brightness and contrast.. If the shutter speed is set too
fast you will end up with a blank black photo, if it is set too slow you will
end up with a blank white photo

• The shutter speed is chosen by checking the light meter on your camera.
This is located inside the view finder on your camera. It can be a series of
numbers or it could be a set of lines like this

This will move up and down

Depending on the exposure

But you want it set in the middle -

If it is a series of numbers you must find the values. You can do this by looking
through the viewfinder at a bright light and seeing what the number is then
looking at something really dark and seeing what the number is.

• In order to get the correct exposure you want to set it in the middle. I.e. if
the highest number is 100 and the lowest is 0 the you want the exposure
set at 50

• To set the correct exposure set the centre of the view finder ( this is where
your camera will measure the light) on the subject of your photo i.e. your
daughter and then adjust the second knob on the top of your camera until
the light meter is centred.
• The knob can be identified by the numbers on it. If you remember from
earlier the film speed knob will have 100, 200, 400, 800, etc The Shutter
Speed is measured in seconds. T The knob will have numbers like
this..4sec, 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5 and 1sec. After this it is measured in fractions of a
second i.e. ¼of a sec, 1/8 1/16, 1/20, 1/25, 1/30, 1/40, 1/50, these are the
slower shutter speeds and you will need to use a tripod. Anything above
and you will not need a tripod. Higher speeds are, 1/50, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100,
1/125, 1/160, 1/200, 1/250, 1/320, 1/400, 1/500, 1/640, 1/800, 1/1000,
1/1200, 1/1600, 1/2000, 1/2500, 1/3000, 1/4000 of a second

• Your camera may not have this entire range

• You don’t need to remember these speeds you just need to turn the knob
until the light meter is centred.

• All you need to remember is speeds 1/50 and slower need a tripod. YOU
WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD THE CAMERA STEADY ENOUGH TO GET A
CLEAR SHOT!!!
This is an over exposed high
contrast photo. Notice that
there is very little variation of
colours, but the colours that
you can see are highly
saturated. This effect is
obtained by having the

This is a correctly exposed

photo. The colours are not as
saturated as the above photo
but if you look at the
driveway you will notice the
greater variety of greys
whilst the colours are not as
washed out as the photo
below

This is an example of an
under exposed photo. The
colours are washed out (de-
saturated) and grey. This is
because the shutter speed
was too fast
Some ancillary notes
• Photography and imagery in general works around the notion of thirds.
Foreground, middle and background and a simple formula is to imagine a
graph in the viewfinder like this

The best photos are taken with the subject placed at any point where the lines
intersect

• When you set the light meter/shutter speed remember that the camera
takes its reading from the centre of the viewfinder. So when you take the
measurement make sure the subject is in the centre . Once you are set up
you can re-align your subject so that it is situated within the intersecting
points. IF YOU DON’T DO THIS THE EXPOSURE SETTING WILL BE FOR
WHATEVER IS IN THE CENTER OF THE SHOT NOT YOUR INTENDED
SUBJECT!!!

I really enjoyed writing this pearl for you and hope that you find this helpful and
understandable because it took me bloody ages to write. Print it out and next
time we hang out bring your camera and this stuff and I can show you in person.

You will find that with this knowledge you will create some amazing photos that
an automatic camera will never be able to achieve..

Hmmm... Maybe I should get a job writing text books.lol..