FUNDAMENTALS OF PHOTOGRAPHY – CHAPTER 7

LANDSCAPE IMAGES CHEAT SHEET

In landscape photography, depth of field is key. You want all aspects of your image to come through sharp and clear, from your foreground to your background.

• Aperture – f/11 – f/16 to produce the depth of field needed.
• ISO – 100-200 ISO to produce a clean image without a lot of noise.
• Shutter Speed – Use shutter speed to balance your exposure: shorter in broad daylight, longer at dawn or dusk. If it’s windy, or there’s running water in your shot that you want to freeze, balance exposure with ISO instead.
• Mode – Aperture Priority or Manual.
• Auto Focus – Single Point.
• Tripod – Yes, to get a sharp, steady image.
• Remote – Yes. Pushing the shutter button with your finger moves the camera a little, resulting in a less clear shot.
• White Balance – Auto. On most modern cameras, auto white-balance works great Also try Sunny, Shade, or Cloudy, depending on the environment.
• Flash – Not normally. However, if the foreground is poorly lit, a little flash can help.

BIRDS IN FLIGHT CHEAT SHEET

Birds in flight are very fun to photograph. A good bird photo captures mood, grandeur, and fast-moving action. To get a bird photo right, we need to use a fast shutter speed. We also want a much shallower depth of field so the background doesn’t distract from the subject.

• Shutter Speed – 1/1600 to 1/3000, depending on the speed and size of the bird.
• Aperture – f/5.6 or f/4.0 depending on the bird’s size. Birds with a wingspan over 5 feet, such as my beloved bald eagles, need a little more depth of field. If you have extra light, bring your f/stop up to f/8.
• ISO – Balance your exposure with ISO. About 800 should compensate for the Aperture and Shutter Speed you need. Beware that some cameras start to get a little noisy around ISO 800, so to be on the safe side, lower your ISO if you have a little extra light.
• Mode – Shutter Priority or Manual Mode.
• Auto Focus – Many points with continuous tracking. The smaller the bird, the more points. You can use fewer points once you get better at capturing birds in the frame.
• Tripod – Optional. Not needed unless you’re using a long lens. Try a gimbal head tripod to balance the weight of those long and heavy lenses.
• Remote – No.
• White Balance – Auto. You can also try Sunny, Shade, or Cloudy depending on the environment.
• Flash – No. Some photographers like a little fill-flash on their wildlife, but I find it disturbs the bird and makes its eyes look unnatural.

SPORT IMAGE CHEAT SHEET

Photographing sporting events can be highly rewarding. Each event provides a new challenge, whether it’s little league baseball or professional football. Human athletes are also much more appreciative than birds, who never stick around to see how the shot turned out!

Because different sports are played in diverse environments, you’ll need to adapt these settings more than the others; however, this cheat sheet will provide you with a starting point.

Shutter Speed – 1/500 to 1/1000, depending on the sport and the speed of the action. Review each shot for motion blur, and adjust as needed.

Aperture – f/5.6 to f/11, depending on the number of subjects. Shoot one player with a shallow depth of field, and deepen your focus for multiple athletes.

ISO – Balance your exposure with ISO, starting around 400. Before the game, get to know your camera, and learn how high ISO can go before your photo gets noisy. Whenever you have a little extra light, lower your ISO.

Mode – Shutter Priority or Manual Mode. Consider Aperture Priority if the depth of the image is important (e.g. when many players are together).

Auto Focus – Many points if the subjects are moving. You can get away with single points during breaks in the action.

Tripod – Optional, unless you need help holding a longer lens. I recommend going without a tripod, which will let you move around to capture action from more angles.

Remote – No.

White Balance – Auto. Sunny, Shade, or Cloudy can also work.

Flash – Can be useful for indoor sports or night games. Make sure you ask permission first so as not to distract the athletes.

 

PORTRAIT IMAGE CHEAT SHEET

The key to portrait photography is nice lighting and a soft background. Use shallow apertures that turn the background neutral and unfocused, ensuring the viewer’s eyes go directly to the subject. I recommended steady lighting for indoor portraits. A flash can also be a good idea.

Shutter Speed – In portrait photography, your subject is sitting still, so you can use shutter speed to balance your exposure. If you’re using flash, try not to go above 1/250, or your camera will be out of sync with your flashes.

Aperture– f/2.8 – f/4.0. Portraits need clean backgrounds that do not cause distractions. Use a wide aperture to produce a shallow DOF, but be careful not to overshoot and lose focus on your subject.

ISO – 100-200 ISO. We don’t need a lot of extra light, so drop your ISO low for a noise-free image.

Mode – Aperture Priority or Manual Mode. Since I control the light for indoor portraits, I typically shoot Manual Mode, which lets me adjust light levels as needed.

Auto Focus – Single Point.

Tripod – Optional. Try going without one for at least part of each session, so you can engage with your subject and shoot from different angles.

Remote – Not necessary, but can be convenient if you need to actively adjust one of your lights between each shot.

White Balance – Flash White Balance if you are using flash. Otherwise, Auto.

Flash – Yes. Off-camera flash is best. The same effect can be achieved with natural (next to a window) or continuous lighting.

 

WATERFALL IMAGE CHEAT SHEET

What do you do when your subject is as tall as a sequoia, but moves as fast as a professional quarterback? Welcome to the sublime challenge of waterfall photography.

Shutter Speed – Time to experiment. 1 second produces silky water flows with a strong sense of motion. At 1/100, the water starts to freeze. Next time you are out at a waterfall, try shutter speeds from 4 seconds all the way down to 1/250 of a second. See which ones you like best. If your camera doesn’t go as slow as 4 seconds, try using a polarizer or neutral density filter.

Aperture – f/11 to f/16, similar to a landscape image. You want to capture both the foreground and background in sharp detail.

ISO – Using a low ISO will let you reduce light and use a longer shutter speed.

Mode – Shutter Priority or Manual Mode.

Auto Focus – Single Point

Tripod – Yes, if using shutter speeds slower than 1/200

Remote – Yes, if using a tripod. Remotes prevent the slight jolt to your picture from manually pushing the button.

White Balance – Auto. Sunny, Shade, or Cloudy can also work.

Flash – No. If you fire a flash towards a misty waterfall, the water will reflect it back at you. The resulting image might be good for pretending you’ve seen a ghost, but not much else.

 

Want More?

Once you have finished, you might be craving more chances to test your skills. During our photography workshops, we go in-depth and teach our guests advanced techniques in the world's most beautiful locations, like Alaska, Costa Rica, Iceland, Colorado and Ecuador.

Each workshop has different topics and skill sets that are dedicated to the subjects at each spectacular location.

Learn more about our Photo Workshops at: https://www.shetzers.com/photo-tours/