The Complete Portrait Manual

MEET YOUR DSLR

There are tons of camera types on the market today—from cheap point-and-shoots to mirrorless interchangeable-lens (ILC) models, from tiny action cams to the camera on your smartphone. But for many dedicated shooters, the obvious first choice in equipment is still a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. Why? First, DSLRs allow a shooter to frame pictures with precision fairly easily. Second, the sheer number of lens types available lets one camera perform many functions. Like any new piece of equipment, function and controls can take some getting used to. Here’s an overview of the main controls, as well as a quick peak at what’s going on inside the camera itself.

MANUAL FOCUS RING Don’t want your camera to decide where to focus? Turn this ring. Want to make fine manual focus adjustments while using autofocus? Again, turn this ring.

ZOOM RING When your DSLR is fitted with a zoom lens, use this ring to adjust for desired focal length—and determine how close or far away a subject in your shot appears.

IMAGE STABILIZATION SWITCH Located on your lens or the body of your camera, this switch kicks image stabilization on and off. This function allows you to get sharper images of static objects without a tripod or in lower light than might be possible without it.

HOTSHOE While it sounds like a dated dance move, it’s actually where you attach a flash or other accessory to your camera. A lot of times, DSLRs come with covers to shield the hotshoe when it’s not in use.

MODE DIAL Use this dial to pick a shooting mode. Cede control of exposure settings to the camera in fully automatic mode, be a control freak in fully manual, or try one of the many preset program modes.

ISO BUTTON This button controls the light sensitivity of your camera’s image sensor. If you’re shooting in ultrabright light, use a low ISO (50–200), and increase ISO in lower light. FYI, the higher the ISO in use, the more noise—visual distortion, often in the form of grainy or blotchy appearance—your image may have.

AUTOFOCUS BUTTON Press this button to tell your DSLR to pick which elements in your shot should appear the sharpest.

VIEWFINDER Peek through the viewfinder to make choices about how to compose and frame your shot. Through it, you’ll see a corrected (read: right side up) version of the image that reflects off your camera’s reflex mirror.

SHUTTER Essentially a mechanical curtain, the shutter serves as a movable barrier between a camera’s image sensor and its lens. Open the shutter, and your camera’s reflex mirror pivots up, allowing an image to hit the image sensor.

PENTAPRISM Not unlike the brain’s visual cortex—the part of your brain that converts images your eyes see as upside down—this pentagon-shape prism flips an image out of reverse before sending it the viewfinder’s way.

IMAGE SENSOR A device covered with pixels (light-sensitive cells), an image sensor measures the intensity and color of an image that has passed through the shutter. Last, the image sensor converts these measurements into digital form—ultimately capturing your shot.

REFLEX MIRROR When an image enters a lens, it’s upside down. The reflex mirror reflects that image through a focusing screen, in the direction of the pentaprism.

LENS Detachable lenses change your camera’s capabilities by narrowing or widening a circular opening—the size of which is called the aperture—to control the amount of light that enters. Light passes through the lens on its way to the reflex mirror.