David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography - Third Edition

DAVID BUSCH’S

MASTERING

DIGITAL SLR

PHOTOGRAPHY

THIRD EDITION

David D. Busch

Course Technology PTR

A part of Cengage Learning

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© 2012 David D. Busch

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All images © David D. Busch unless otherwise noted.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933075

ISBN-13: 978-1-4354-5832-1

ISBN-10: 1-4354-5832-X

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David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR

Photography, Third Edition

David D. Busch

Publisher and General Manager, Course

Technology PTR:

Stacy L. Hiquet

Associate Director of Marketing:

Sarah Panella

Manager of Editorial Services:

Heather Talbot

Marketing Manager:

Jordan Castellani

Executive Editor:

Kevin Harreld

Project Editor:

Jenny Davidson

Technical Reviewer:

Michael D. Sullivan

Interior Layout Tech:

Bill Hartman

Cover Designer:

Mike Tanamachi

Indexer:

Katherine Stimson

Proofreader:

Sara Gullion

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 11 10

e-ISBN-10: 1-4354-5833-8

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. Busch is 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.

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

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

Contents vii

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

viii David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition

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

Contents ix

Chapter 9

Using Apps 197

The Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

What Can They Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

PART III: EXPAND YOUR SHOOTING WORLD

Chapter 10

Travel Photography 205

Foreign Photography Field Trips—Fun and Affordable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

What to Take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

My Overseas Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

The Backup Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Tips for Getting Great Travel Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Photographing People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Photographing Monuments and Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Getting Permission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Have Fun!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Chapter 11

People Photography 227

Home Studio—or Nature’s Studio?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Setting Up Your Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Your Portrait Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Visible Means of Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Make Light Work for You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Gadgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Portrait Lighting Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

The Nature of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Direct versus Soft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Balancing Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

x David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition

Using Multiple Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Main Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Fill Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Background Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Hair Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Lighting Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Short Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Broad Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Butterfly Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Rembrandt Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Side Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Outdoor Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

A Touch of Glamour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Chapter 12

Photographing Concerts and Performances 265

Brushes with Greatness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Arming for Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Getting into Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Interesting People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Chapter 13

Scenic, Wildlife, and Nature Photography 289

Scenic Photography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Scenic Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Eight Simple Rules for Composing Your Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Simplicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Front and Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Landscape “Portraits”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Rule of Thirds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Using Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Fusion/Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Color and Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Contents xi

Key Types of Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Sunsets/Sunrises/Dawn/Dusk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Sea and Water Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Changing Seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Infrared Landscape Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Taking IR Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Wildlife Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Stalking Your Prey Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Chapter 14

Capturing Action 323

Sports in a Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

The Importance of Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Key Sports: Play by Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Continuous Shooting Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Choosing Your Lenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Zoom or Prime Lens? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Focal Lengths Needed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Action Exposure Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Attaining Focus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Selecting an ISO Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Using a Tripod or Monopod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Basics of Freezing Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Motion and Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Action Stopping Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Stopping Action with Panning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Freezing Action Head On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Freezing Action with Your Shutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Freezing Action with Electronic Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Freezing Action at Its Peak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

When Blur Is Better. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Some Final Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

xii David Busch’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Third Edition

Chapter 15

Close-Up Photography 359

Macro Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Magnification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Depth-of-Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Getting Practical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Macro or General Purpose Lens? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Close-Up Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Some Shooting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Glossary 381

Index 393

Contents xiii

This book won’t cheat you. Unlike many of the “digital photography” books on the

shelves, this one doesn’t waste half its chapters telling you how to overcome your digi￾tal camera’s short-comings in Photoshop. There are lots of great Photoshop books that

can do that. No, the best part about the new breed of digital SLRs is that they have

exciting new capabilities that will let you take great pictures in the camera, if you know

how to use the tools at your fingertips. This book emphasizes digital photography. It

shows you how to take compelling pictures and make great images using imaging tech￾nology, while taking into account the special strengths of digital SLR cameras. Whether

you’re a snap-shooting tyro, or a more experienced photographer moving into the dig￾ital SLR realm, you’ll find the knowledge you need here. Every word in this book was

written from the viewpoint of the serious photographer.

Preface