Work, life, and culture in Japan and Asia

• Nothing but some time to think about it

• To give you an idea of some of my thinking when I photograph things in particular situations.

If you're new to photography then this should help you a bit. My aim is to give you an idea of the camera settings I've used in particular situations. There aren't hard and fast rules, but trial and error will get you through, and in time, you'll get to know your camera better and feel more confident.

How:

• Focal Length: This will vary depending on your subject and the look you're trying to create.
• ISO: Best to use iso100 to have as little noise as possible, but with a zoom lens (like in the Sumo examples), you'll need a faster shutter speed, and slightly higher ISO will help.
• Aperture: Also see the Aperture article in the "How to use your SLR" section.
• Shutter speed: Also see the Shutter Speed article in How to use your SLR. Basically, for handheld with a lens less than 100mm, a speed of 1/100 is minimum (I prefer 1/125), more than a 100mm lens, then you'll need to increase your speed to avoid blur.
• Other things: Use your Tripod as much as possible with a zoom, or compensate with higher shutter speeds, but you'll have a higher ISO, which results in more 'noise'; so
• White Balance: This isn't shown in the graphs, but be sure your white balance is set appropriately.
• Lenses: I prefer to use a variety of lenses: Konica-Minolta 18-70mm, 75-300mm, 100mm f2.8 Macro and others. These statistics don't show which lenses were used, but what lengths were used.
• Advice: It's best to experiment. To that end, I've taken many shots of the same subject, but with variations, and from this experience I've got to know what settings, what lenses, and such works best in what situations. So far, I've taken hundreds of photos of Kinkaku-ji (below), as a way of eventually getting a photo that's beyond excellent.
• So, if you have photographed similar subjects in similar light conditions to me, you can compare your statistics to mine, and picture quality to mine, just for your own interest sake.

Click on these to view them at a larger size

	< F13, 1/20, iso100; 18-70mm lens at 35mm, with Cokin P160 linear polariser and Cokin P152 ND, tripod, and remote shutter release. It was a brilliant sunny morning here at Kinkaku-ji temple (Golden Pavilion, with real gold leaf external walls).
	< F14, 11sec, iso100; 75-300mm lens at 140mm. Not cleaned up, but notice the smoke