Mirrorless cameras: the quickstart guide
IF YOU’RE NEW TO MIRRORLESS SHOOTING OR JUST NEED A REFRESHER, THIS QUICK GUIDE WILL GET YOU SNAPPING LIKE A PRO IN NEXT TO NO TIME.
TO GET THE most out of your new mirrorless camera, there are a few key things you should do once you’ve recharged the battery.
READ YOUR MANUAL
is may sound silly, but it’s probably the most important and underrated thing to do a er you’ve just purchased a new camera and isn’t just for those that are new to photography. Unless you already own the exact same camera, chances are there are things about the camera that you won’t already know. ere’s nothing worse than when you’re using your camera and you’re trying to do a certain thing, but don’t know how to get to that function and end up losing the shot as a result. It happens to a lot of people. e camera is a tool for you to express your creativity. If you don’t know how to use it, then you won’t be able to get the most out of it.
So spend the time going through the manual with your camera by your side and learn what all the di erent features of the camera do. You’re unlikely to use them all, but at least you’ll know how to use those less popular ones when the moment presents itself.
e key shooting modes on all mirrorless cameras are: P (Program mode), S (Shutter priority), A (Aperture priority), and M (Manual mode). Program mode is almost automatic. It allows you to toggle with the ISO, whilst the aperture and shutter speeds are dictated by the camera’s light sensor. Shutter priority is semi-automatic. It allows you to set the camera’s shutter speed and ISO, whilst the camera’s light sensor will determine the aperture required for a well-lit frame. Aperture priority is also semi-automatic. It allows you to set the camera’s aperture (how much light is let into the camera) as well as ISO, whilst the camera’s light sensor determines the shutter speed. Manual mode gives you complete control over all the settings. is is usually the steepest part of the learning curve, once you understand how Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority work.
BUYING ADDITIONAL LENSES
If you’re relatively new to photography, then buying additional lenses shouldn’t be the rst thing that you jump into. You’ll want to familiarise yourself with the camera and the type of scenery, subjects and situations you like to shoot. Once you’re familiar with the camera, you’ll start to see where the limitations of the kit lens lies for the type of photography that you’re interested in.
As an example, if you nd yourself shooting a lot of landscapes, you’ll want to get yourself a wide angle lens. e speed of the lens isn’t as important for landscapes, as generally you’ll be shooting at a tighter aperture (higher f-stop number) so that you have a greater depth of eld. However, if photographing people is your thing, then you’ll want to consider a faster lens (lower f-stop) so that you can create a shallow depth of eld, otherwise known as bokeh, which allows you to separate your subject from the background.
SHOOTING RAW
Most cameras will allow you to shoot both RAW and JPG at the same time. As long as you have a big enough memory card, then it’s recommended that you shoot in both RAW and JPG. As you might know, JPGs are compressed, whilst RAW les are uncompressed data. RAW allows you to tweak your photos afterwards in a program like Adobe Lightroom (see ‘5 things to know’).
Lightroom will allow you to tweak your photos. Whilst you can still tweak JPGs, you won’t get the same results as adjusting the RAW les. If you want to give your photos a warmer feel than what was actually captured, you’re able to adjust the colour temperature without losing any details. RAW les also allow you to x up certain things about a photo, such as under/over exposure. A lot people use RAW les only as a method of xing up bad photos, which it can do, but it shouldn’t be the only reason you make adjustments to RAW les.
SHOOTING VIDEO
Video capabilities of still cameras have come a long way. Most mirrorless cameras will be able to shoot at a minimum of 1080p these days, with some able to shoot at 4K resolution. e key things to remember when shooting video are motion and sound. Your video should either be still or have very smooth movements owing throughout. Some cameras come with excellent image stabilisation that minimises camera shake. However, you can still achieve relatively good steady movement by holding the camera with two hands and moving with your feet slowly.
Simple editing can be done in Microso ’s Movie Maker for Window’s users or iMovie for Mac users. e most di cult thing for rst time movie creators will be editing the video a er you’ve recorded at that footage.