DSLR Camera Basics

Image courtesy of Wix.

Photography is a great way to capture moments, document lasting memories, and create art. Maybe you spend a lot of time shooting photos from your phone, and now you’re ready to upgrade to a DSLR camera. These cameras provide the means to create high-quality, beautiful photographs. With great battery life and low-light capture capabilities, DSLR cameras are perfect for both beginners and pros alike. In the following 4-minute article, I discuss basic camera features including focus, zoom, manual mode, and viewfinder. I also answer the question: what is a DSLR camera? Read on to learn more about the features of a DSLR camera!

What Is A DSLR Camera?

A digital single-lens reflex camera works with a variety of interchangeable lenses. It uses a mirror mechanism to reflect light from the camera lens to the viewfinder (the little window on the back of the camera) or by moving the mirror out of the way, it lets light fully pass onto the image sensor (the part that captures the image). DSLR cameras are some of the most popular cameras among professional photographers, as they are very versatile and easy to use.

DSLR Camera Basics

Before you start shooting, it is important to know how to operate a DSLR camera. You must understand the mechanics – adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, flash, and light balance all important parts of working a camera. Or, if you’re not quite ready to get that fancy, you need to know how you can switch between camera modes like manual, auto, macro, landscape, etc. Photography is all about the capture of light, so it is necessary to understand the tools you have at your disposal to perfectly balance and capture the light that creates your picturesque subject.

Parts of a DSLR Camera

Be sure to skim through your camera’s manual in order to understand where all the features of your camera are located – it will be very helpful!

Viewfinder (or grid mode)

The viewfinder helps you plan and compose your shot. It is the little window that is located on the top of the camera that you can look through. Alternatively, you can set up and compose your shots through the big screen on your camera and use the “grid” mode to enhance your composition. For composition tips, check out this article.

Image courtesy of Wix.

Focus

The focus allows you to keep your image as focused or unfocused as you want. Most cameras come with auto-focus, but it is often useful to learn the manual focus, particularly if you want your subject to be out of focus for your image. The manual focus is at the end of the lens, and you can rotate it with your hand as you are framing your shot and preparing to capture your subject.

Zoom

Normally you shouldn’t use zoom while using a phone camera as this reduces the quality of the photo. However, when shooting on a DSLR camera, zooming in or out on your subject can drastically change the look of the photo. If you're not using a a fixed or prime lens, zooming is done by twisting the body of the lens (it should easily rotate).

Manual and other modes

The rest of the features in this section are going to be important to understand if you choose to use manual mode. Manual mode allows you full control of the camera and the most freedom in composing your shot. However, if you are trying to just capture something quickly or just want to get comfortable holding a camera and shooting, auto mode is recommended. There are other automatic modes that can be used for shooting specific subjects, like landscape and portrait mode. If you want to capture something without the camera deciding to use flash automatically, there is also an automatic mode with no flash. Modes are generally indicated on the dial of your camera that can be found in the top left or top right.

Aperture

The aperture is the opening in a lens where light passes through to enter the camera. You can make the aperture bigger or smaller to allow more or less light to reach the camera sensor. It allows you to manipulate the depth of field. A shallow depth of field (which creates a smaller aperture opening) allows you to have a blurred background with a beautiful focus on the subject in the foreground. This is a technique often used by portrait photographers. A wide depth of field allows for the foreground and as far of the distant horizon to be sharp. This would mean that the aperture is open wide. This is one of the most important aspects of photography, and when adjusting aperture on your camera, you will be changing what is referred to as the f-stop. The f-stop (or sometimes f-number) is the ratio of the lens focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil. In other words, it’s the number the camera shows you when you change the aperture size. A small f-stop will give you a shallow depth of field (such as f/2.8) and a high f-stop will give you a wide depth of field (like f/16).

A landscape image with a large aperture opening resulting in a wide depth of field - you can see the details of the whole image from the grass and hut all the way to the mountains. Image courtesy of Wix.

A portrait image with a small aperture opening resulting in a shallow depth of field - you can see defined details of the subject, a senior woman, but the background is very blurred and indistinguishable. Image courtesy of Wix.

Shutter speed

The shutter speed controls the speed with which the camera shutter closes and captures the image. The longer the shutter speed, the more the camera allows light to come in. If your shutter speed is too long, it may let in too much light and case your image to be over exposed. If the shutter speed is too quick, it may not let in enough light and your image will be very dark.

ISO

ISO determines your camera’s sensitivity to light, which also influences how grainy your photos will look. Generally, when it is really bright outside, you want to keep a low ISO setting such as 100 because there is plenty of light and the camera doesn’t need too much of it. However, in late evening or night time, there is less light and so you will want your camera to be more sensitive to light in order to properly capture an image with minimal grain. You could set it to an ISO like 3200 or even 6400.

Light balance/exposure

Also known as the light meter, this shows you how much light will be let into your camera based on your settings. If you have your ISO, shutter speed, and aperture settings balanced, the meter will be centered. If your settings will let in too much light, the meter tick will be on the right side of the line, and if you aren’t letting in enough light, the meter tick will be offset towards the left. Sometimes you may want your tick to be slightly to the left or right depending on if you’d like a darker or lighter photo.

Flash

When it’s dark the flash can be helpful, and you will want to understand how it works. Normally, however, photographers depend on external light sources.

White balance

Adjusting the white balance allows you to adjust the color settings so that your image can look more natural (or you can make it look unnatural if that is what you’re going for). This tends to involve manipulating warm and cool tones. Oftentimes you can have the white balance settings automatically adjust.

Histogram

Histograms are graphs that represent your tonal values in an image. Black tones are indicated to the left (brightness at 0%) and white to the right (brightness at 100%). Everything in the middle is considered the mid tones. The y-axis shows the number of tones at a particular brightness. The readings are largely dependent on the exposure level but can also be influenced by the tone curve and other setting when editing in post-production software such as Adobe Lightroom. If you notice any tones touching the edges of the histogram, that means there is a loss of detail in the image, or “clipping.”

Image from article "Cheat sheet: How to read a histogram" by Matt Golowczynski on Digital Camera World

RAW vs JPEG

If you want to make the most out of your photographs, I recommend shooting in RAW. RAW files are much larger than JPEGs, so they will take up more memory space (therefore you should be sure to have extra memory cards or cards with large space). However, it is best to shoot in RAW because RAW files contain all the raw image information captured by your camera’s sensors and are therefore completely uncompressed. RAW files capture all the original detail, and you will have complete control over your photo in the editing process. You can change your settings in your camera to ensure that you are shooting RAW files and not JPEG.

DSLR Camera Basics: Summary

The most prominent features of a DSLR camera include the viewfinder, focus, zoom, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash, white balance, and RAW vs JPEG. Knowing the features of your DSLR camera and how they function is the first step in advancing your photographic journey.

Since photography is all about light, it is important to know what tools you have at your disposal in order to manipulate light and create the perfect image you’re envisioning.

Be sure you do a quick read of your camera’s manual to find out where these features are located. Don’t have a camera yet? Check out this article for the best DSLR cameras available.