Manhattan Photo Walks on the East River | mobile phone photo: ©2012-2023 roberta fineberg
Remember for your phone hunts….
Batteries
SD cards
Get to know the focal lengths for each lens you own
Try wide angle to telephoto: 18mm – 35 mm = wide angle (for landscape); 50 mm lens = good for most subjects; 70mm good for people (portraits); telephoto for getting up close and personal
Set the ISO 100-above = 100 great for sunny outdoors, 200 in the shade, 400 low light (late afternoon). Experiment with iso: shoot from, say, 100 – 1600 and see how ISO affects both shutter speed and aperture
Set the F-stop or Aperture = 3.5-4.5 (most wide angle zooms), 5.6-6.3 (telephoto zooms). Fixed prime lenses are always best.
For shallow depth of field = try 2.8
For deep depth of field = try F11
Set aperture at 5.6 = versatile for street photography
Shutter speed: Stay at minimum 1/60 (slow shutter speed) with hand held camera; to freeze motion the starting point is 1/500 (fast shutter).
For night photography = use high iso, a tripod, or strobe (flash). Times Square at midnight? Mount the camera on a tripod for 4-30 second exposures, f-stop f16.
The beach (extreme light) = expose at 1/1000 or above.
Photography is all about light, measure it and use ISO, shutter speed, aperture to your advantage.
For greater creative control, have your camera set to Manual Mode. If the going gets tough try Aperture Priority (you select the f-stop and the camera selects the shutter speed). Likewise, you can choose Shutter Speed Priority (you select the shutter speed and the camera selects aperture). Finally, Program Mode will select all (aperture and shutter) in a pinch.
Enjoy experimentation and allow your left + right brain guide you to spark your creativity.