DSLR photography tips and tutorials for beginners

Social media forms an important part of every professional and amateur photographer's online success. In addition to a website, having good social media presence helps with getting clients and networking with like-minded passionate people. When it comes to digital photography, Facebook and Instagram lead the way due to the huge number of active users. Instagram is so easy to use and totally centered around the concept of sharing stunning mobile images. The huge success of this app has attracted even non-photo related businesses too. But what about the photo size and resolution requirements so that our huge sized DSLR photos don't lose quality? We will focus on Adobe Lightroom Classic CC image export settings for both Instagram and Facebook in this post. 

Little background: Uploading a full resolution DSLR camera image to Instagram or Facebook is an easy way to trigger the complex resize-compression algorithms and ruin image quality. Both Instagram and Facebook use compression …

As a total beginner, it can be confusing to understand the meaning of F/3.5, F/5.6, F/2.8, etc. written on DSLR camera lenses. Some lenses have two F numbers, while others have only one F-number. So what's the difference between these two lenses? How do they work when changing in-camera settings?
Lenses with single F-number value like F/1.8, F/2.8, F/4, F/5.6 are known as fixed aperture lenses. Fixed aperture lenses are not to be confused with fixed focal length lenses, fixed focal length ones are called prime lenses.  Prime means the lens will only have one focal length, and all the zooming in and out part is done by the user moving physically. On the other hand, lenses with multiple values such as F/3.5-F/5.6, F/3.5-F/4.5, etc. refer to variable aperture zoom lenses. In simple words, these lenses change their widest aperture values when zoomed in or out.



Example of fixed aperture prime lenses:
Canon EF-S 24 mm F/2.8
Nikon AF-S Nikorr 85 mm F/1.4G
Nikon AF-S DX 35 mm F/1.8G
Canon…

When I started my photography journey 6 years ago, a simple question came to my mind one day while fiddling with a manual focus lens. How does a camera autofocus work? Is it the lens doing all the work or the camera does something too? Being totally new to digital photography at that time, a simple question turned out to be a great learning experience for a few weeks. Using my T2i, I learned the basics of autofocusing and the difference between live view focus and viewfinder focus. The two very basic techniques of focusing in digital photography include:  -Manual -Autofocus
Manual, as the name suggests, is a technique where the user rotates the lens focus ring to achieve focus. In this mode, there is no help or assistance offered by the electronic circuit inside the camera to achieve focus. Night sky photography enthusiasts love the manual focus, as explained in my post about achieving infinity focus.  Coming to autofocus, half-pressing the shutter button activates the focus search m…

The ability to read histograms in digital photography is an excellent skill that every photographer should have. Getting a properly exposed shot is crucial when it comes to photography, and using the histogram is a solid way to achieve it. That 2 to 3 inch LCD screen located on digital cameras is only a quick way to look at the photo exposure and its details. In harsh lighting or vivid ambient lighting conditions, it can prove to be misleading to the human eye. Sometimes the LCD brightness level can also create issues with judging the exposure of a shot. So what does histogram explain about an image? How can histogram help you to take better images? In this beginner-friendly post, I will try to answer these questions. You can consider it as a tutorial or cheat sheet for digital photography histograms.
Photography histogram image examples: The histogram is basically a mathematical way of representing data, and it applies to digital image information too. In digital photography, histogr…

Similar to the evergreen battle of Nikon vs Canon, there are a few other hot as pepper discussions when it comes to modern digital photography. One such discussion is the DSLR vs mirrorless camera talks. Questions that can commonly be seen on forums no matter what day or time it is:  Is mirrorless better than a DSLR camera? Is DSLR better than a mirrorless camera?  Is mirrorless better for beginners or professionals?  Is DSLR better than mirrorless for beginners?
Technological discussions defining the "best" or "better" are always tricky to handle as camera manufacturing companies come up with new features every single year. What is best this year for a given feature might not be best by next year, technology evolves so fast. But who doesn't want the best bang for every dollar they spend? In this post, I will include both sides of the coin for each camera type. From a construction perspective, DSLR cameras have a mirror which reflects the light coming from the…

Mirrorless cameras are known for their lightweight which makes them a fantastic choice for easy packing travel and outdoor enthusiasts. By the time DSLR manufacturers like Canon and Nikon will reach the quarterfinals of mirrorless race, Sony and Fuji would have already made it to the finals. It may sound funny but it does hold a lot of meaning when it comes to mirrorless camera technology. Sony has an extensively attractive and versatile line-up of beginner-friendly mirrorless camera bodies, and Fuji is also catching up with time.  For total beginners who don't feel prepared to learn about metering or histogram yet, an electronic viewfinder is a good choice as it provides an exact view of what the photo will look like. One common complaint I hear about mirrorless cameras is the poor battery back up due to this electronic viewfinder functionality, but it has improved with the latest generation of mirrorless camera bodies. 


Sony Alpha cropped sensor:
A6000: No in-body stabilization,…

Neutral density filters or ND filters can be used to produce stunning landscape and portrait photos. The two common DSLR photography usage of ND filters include longer shutter time or a wider aperture. A 10 stop ND filter looks very similar to a black piece of glass, which is why it is also known as a black filter. Due to the extreme darkness, it becomes nonrealistic to use 10 stop filter for outdoor portraits. If you are wondering the meaning of 10 stop or how ND filters are named, check out my old post about the nomenclature of ND Filters.  For daylight landscapes, you need 6-10 stops to create those stunning long exposure shots. In fact, a few things you will easily find in a landscape photographer's arsenal includes:  Sturdy tripod Polarizing filter Neutral density filter

Hoya, Singh-Ray, B+W, Lee, Haida, Cokin, etc are few known brands in the neutral density filter market. The cost of a given neutral density filter is determined by the coating and optical quality of glass us…

Whether you are a beginner or a professional, flash units have proven to be helpful in low light situations for everyone. In addition to low light, flash units combined with a soft box can produce wonderful outdoor portraits. High speed sync, flash power, eTTL and iTTL are a few terms that can be easily heard during off camera flash discussions. In contrast to this, Flash zoom or flash focal length zoom is a term that does not often come into DSLR photography talks. Just like a variable focal length lens can zoom, a flash unit also has the capability to zoom in the light burst.

The zoom values given on flash unit are equivalent of 35 mm full frame camera focal length field of view. Some modern flash units adjust automatically according to the sensor format of camera (DX or FX) used, but not every flash has this add on. For better understanding, I will be using my Yongnuo 568 EX II flash unit as a test case. This unit has a built in zoom head reflector which controls the angle of ligh…

There are dozens of raw formats available in today's digital photography world. Almost every DSLR camera these days has the capability to shoot raw photos. As a beginner, you might have encountered these files or heard about them already. But the big question is why shoot raw photos?  Most common raw formats include ARW, CR2, CR3, NEF, ERF, and PEF. As the name itself suggests, a raw image contains minimally processed data from the image sensor located inside the digital camera. A raw photograph has a lot more digital information as compared to an equivalent jpeg image. Consider raw as an equivalent of negatives if you shoot film. I have been shooting raw since the beginning of my photography journey, and can't say enough good things about it. The only possible discomfort I see about the raw format is the file size, but storage these days is so cheap. A good analogy about shooting raw format is like having raw ingredients when cooking a dish. Out of camera jpeg is like food c…

Nailing the focus and exposure is one part of digital photography, other is how to compose your images creatively. Everyone has their own way of seeing things through a digital camera, but what makes a photo interesting? Either it is telling some sort of story or has a compelling composition. In simple words, the composition is how a photographer places the subject or visual elements before pressing the shutter.  In this post, we will see 5 composition guidelines that are easy to understand as a beginner. There are a lot of other techniques to compose a shot, but we can focus on the 5 described in this post for now. It is interesting to note that these are just guidelines, not hard rules. Word "rule" puts too much pressure and takes away the fun part of digital photography. Without much delay, let's discuss all 5 one by one with examples. 
1) Rule of thirds.
Also known as the simple version of the golden ratio, this guideline states to divide your scene into 3 equal col…