APS-C, or ‘crop-sensor’ cameras, are those that have sensors smaller than a frame of 35mm film. APS-C-size sensors are found in most DSLRs and measure approximately 24x16mm, producing images with a narrower angle of view because they capture a smaller section of the image than a full-frame camera with a 35mm-size sensor can capture.

These sensors are close in size to the APS-C film format, from which they get their name. In the beginnings of digital photography, most cameras had sensors around this size. But as technology has improved, full-frame sensors have become more ubiquitous – and, crucially, cheaper in price.

Which brings us to you. What do you need to know about full-frame vs APS-C cameras when making your decision to upgrade?

Viewfinder performance
If you switch to full-frame cameras you’ll find that the images appear brighter in your viewfinder. This is simply because your full-frame camera provides a larger mirror.

Wider views with wide-angle lenses
Full-frame lenses deliver their ‘true’ focal length on full-frame cameras. There’s no need to apply a focal factor.

Lenses
Your lenses never go obsolete – and at the prices you paid for them, you probably don’t want to have to re-buy them! What you need to know about using lenses on full-frame vs APS-C cameras is that you can use your crop-factor lenses on a full-frame camera, but the camera will restrict the sensor area to an APS-C size rectangle in the middle of the frame and you won’t get the benefit of your full-frame camera’s resolution.

Depth of field
When you make the switch to full-frame, the change in the appearance of depth of field, or out-of-focus areas, becomes obvious. Let’s put it this way. If you put a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera, in order to capture that same angle of view on an APS-C camera you’d need a 35mm lens.

And the 35mm lens will yield much more depth of field because of its shorter focal length. If you’re a landscape photographer, the shallow depth of field you’ll get shooting full-frame might cause trouble for you. If you’re a portrait or close-up photographer, however, this could make all the difference.

Image quality
Images taken with full-frame cameras (provided the photographer knows what he or she is doing!) will generally have more dynamic range and better fine detail than photos taken on APS-C cameras.

Low light
A full-frame camera will generally produce cleaner images in low light. Push your ISO up to the higher settings and you’ll be amazed at the results it can deliver. If you do a lot of shooting at night, this could be a reason to make the jump.

Body size
While you get more dynamic range, cleaner images at higher ISO settings and better resolution with full-frame, you’re also getting a bigger camera body. And, frankly, that’s a deal-breaker for some people.

If you’re a street photographer and speed and portability are your chief concerns, a smaller APS-C camera might be best for you. Even many compact system cameras now boast APS-C sensors and can deliver DSLR-quality images.

File size
Prepare to invest in bigger – and more expensive – memory cards if you switch to full-frame, as these cameras produce much bigger file sizes. This will also, of course, affect your computer and photo storage options.

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It’s easy to fall into a pattern when you take pictures, favouring some subjects and overlooking others, and sticking to the camera settings you know rather than experimenting with those you don’t.

But here are 10 shooting options you should explore in order to get the most from your camera…

1. Manual mode

Modern metering systems are so sophisticated you might imagine exposure is far too complicated to figure out manually. Not true!

In fact it’s remarkably easy to estimate the exposure for any conditions manually – and you get to see the result on the LCD straight away, so it only takes a moment to tweak the settings and try again.

Switching to Manual mode has two big advantages:
1.    You base your exposures on what you can see looks right, rather than what the camera’s exposure metering system imagines you want.
2.    You can use a constant exposure for a series of shots taken in the same light, without the camera making unnecessary adjustments.

2. Daylight white balance

The camera’s auto white balance system tries to correct for different-coloured lighting to produce neutral-looking colours. Isn’t that what you want?

Not always! Sometimes it’s the colour of the light that ‘makes’ the picture, especially with landscapes, and the last thing you want is for the camera to try to ‘fix’ it.

Instead, switch your camera to the Daylight preset. This fixes the colour correction values to match regular daylight, so that any changes in the light colour are recorded faithfully, such as the cool blue light of dawn or the warm golden tones of early evening.

3. Spot metering

Your camera’s Evaluative metering system does a good job of measuring the tones across the whole image and arriving at a good, compromise exposure.

Often, though, it’s just one area of the frame that’s important, and that’s where Spot metering mode comes into its own. It measures the light across a small area only and ignores the rest.

This is often the only way to get the correct exposure with tricky subjects like spotlit performers on a stage, but it can be equally effective with everyday shots where your subject is in a different light to its surroundings.

4. Monochrome Picture Style

Picture Styles control the look of the picture saved by the camera, and almost all digital SLRs offer an equivalent.

If you’re planning on making black and white photos, the Monochrome Picture Style is especially valuable because it enables you to see how your pictures are looking as you shoot them, and how to compose them more effectively when you’re working with shapes, light and shade rather than colour.

Shoot in your camera’s RAW+JPEG mode, and you’ll have one colour image (RAW) you can work on later, and a black and white shot (JPEG) that you can share straight away. On EOS digital SLRs, you can even apply ‘contrast’ filter effects using red, yellow or orange filters.

5. Use the self-timer for tripod shots

A tripod is great for keeping the camera still during long exposures, but that’s not much help if you jog it when you press the shutter button. The ideal solution is a remote release, but what if you don’t have one with you?

Simple – you just use the self-timer instead. 10 seconds, the usual self-timer delay, is rather a long time to wait, of course – but did you know you can change the delay to a shorter time, such as 2 seconds. That’s enough for any vibration to die down, but quick enough – hopefully – to catch your subject before it moves.

6. Program shift

In program AE mode, the camera selects the shutter speed and lens aperture combination automatically. If you want to choose either setting yourself, you’re usually advised to switch to the Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority modes instead.

But there’s a quicker way – your camera’s program shift function. If you don’t like the shutter/aperture combination, you use this to shift it in favour of smaller apertures or higher speeds. On Canon EOS cameras, you do this by turning the main control dial on program AE mode – simple!

7. Auto ISO

Auto ISO isn’t just for beginners. Normally you’d set the ISO manually to suit the conditions – low ISOs for best quality, for example, and high ISOs for hand-held shooting in poor light.

But this brings the risk of camera shake, if the ISO isn’t high enough, or excess noise if you’ve set it higher than it needs to be. This happens all too easily if you’re shooting in changing conditions and don’t have time to alter the settings.

This is where auto ISO comes into its own – the camera will use the lowest suitable ISO for the conditions and only increase it where necessary to avoid camera shake. You can usually set the maximum ISO you want the camera to use, if you’re concerned about quality.

8. AE lock button

On most cameras you can half-press the shutter button to lock the exposure, so that you can re-frame the shot and take the picture without the exposure changing. However, this also locks the focus, which isn’t always desirable.

So use the AE lock button on the back of the camera instead. This locks the exposure only. You can release the shutter button as you reframe the shot, then press it again when you’re ready to take the picture. The camera will re-focus on your subject, but keep the exposure you ‘locked’ – perfect for spot metering.

9. Focus in Live View

If you’re composing close-ups or still-life shots with the camera on a tripod, use Live View to focus – you can move the focus point anywhere in the frame and zoom in to check the fine detail, which makes it especially effective for manual focusing.

10. Long exposures

Photography isn’t just about freezing moments in time. Try using longer shutter speeds of a second or more to see how movement blur can enhance your pictures. Obvious subjects include waterfalls and seascapes, try recording fields of corn swaying in the breeze or pedestrians passing in busy streets.

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All images by Mark Hamblin

If you’ve heard a landscape picture described as ‘flat’, you may be wondering what that actually means. Well flat images are those that look rather lifeless and uninteresting, not because of the content, but because they lack contrast, depth, detail and colour. And this is often down to flat light.

Flat light is light that is diffused, such as on an overcast day, or is illuminating the scene from the same angle as the picture is being taken – when the sun is high behind the camera, for example – will produce landscapes that lack interest.

No one wants to take dull landscape pictures, so here’s how to ensure you achieve scenic success.

How to use flat light to your advantage

Avoid grey skies
For some subjects such as waterfalls, overcast light from a grey sky is exactly what you need, but for big landscape vistas it’s a curse. As a rule, if the sky looks insipid and lacks any interest then so will your landscape images, so shoot something else instead and return on another day.

Try side-lighting your landscapes
You need shadows to add character to your landscapes and to bring out shape and form. If the sun is behind you, shadows will be minimal and hidden. Instead, orientate the camera so the landscape is lit by sunlight coming in from either side of the frame.

Shoot when the sun is low
The periods early and late in the day are often referred to as the golden hours for landscape photography, and for good reason. Not only is the light much warmer at these times, but the sun is also at a low indirect angle, which creates long shadows and adds depth, vibrancy and interest.

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How to use your Depth of Field Preview button

01 Don’t trust the viewfinder
The viewfinder on a digital SLR is designed to be as bright as possible, and should give you an idea of what the shot would look like if you used the widest lens aperture available.

02 Use the Preview button
Most digital SLRs come with a Depth of Field Preview button. When pressed, this helpful button closes the lens diaphragm to the aperture currently set, so you can check the amount of depth of field.

03 Instant darkness
The problem with the Depth of Field Preview, however, is that it makes the viewfinder image go much darker – making it harder to see the effect that this feature is actually trying to show!

04 Zoom in
A better solution than using the Depth of Field Preview button is to take a test picture, and then review it on the LCD screen. Use the zoom function key (signified by a magnifying glass and a plus sign).

05 Look at the detail
The zoomed-in preview of your test shot on the LCD will typically give you 10x magnification, enabling you to check exactly which parts of the picture are sharp – or how much they are blurred.

06 Check in every corner
Use the cursor keys to move around the magnified image, so that you can see the full extent of the depth of field, and whether you need to adjust the aperture to get a better result.

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Canon’s iFCL (intelligent Focus Colour Luminance) metering system is used on all its current DSLRs. This takes both colour and brightness information into account, as well as the focus setting.

When you’re using Evaluative Metering in One Shot autofocus mode, the exposure setting is heavily biased towards the active focus point.

So, for example, if you’re using multi-point AF and only one of the points locks onto a target within a scene, the light metering will be based on this point alone.

Evaluative metering therefore works in a different way to a conventional ‘multi’ metering mode that takes all parts of the scene into account.

It works well for subjects such as backlit portraits, where you’re using a single AF point on the face of the person you’re photographing, and you want to capture the correct exposure for the subject, regardless of how much the background is overexposed.

In other situations, however, the metering can be thrown if the AF point that achieves autofocus falls on a particularly light or dark part of your scene.

To take full control and get more consistent results in tricky lighting conditions, it often pays to switch to one of the other metering modes available on your Canon DSLR.

Centre-weighted average uses the central region of the scene as the main basis for light metering, but also takes the periphery into account to a lesser degree.

The Partial metering mode is a bit more picky, as it uses only the central region and completely disregards what’s happening around the edges of the scene. Spot metering is the most critical mode, as it uses only a very small point at the centre of the frame and everything else is disregarded – you therefore need to be very careful with your aim when you’re using this mode.

It’s also important to understand the difference that alternative autofocus modes can make to metering. In One Shot autofocus mode, metering will be locked at the moment that autofocus is achieved, for as long as you maintain a light press on the shutter button before finally fully pressing it to take your shot.

In AI Servo autofocus mode, which you’d use to track moving targets, the metering updates continuously as the focus setting adjusts itself. In AI Focus mode, metering remains fixed as long as the target remains stationery.

However, if the target moves and AI Focus switches to tracking mode, metering will be updated automatically.

You can lock the metering system to an initially captured exposure value, regardless of which autofocus mode you’re using, by pressing the AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) button on the back of the camera – it’s labelled with a star.

Overall, you can combine the various different autofocus and light metering modes to work in pretty much any way you want once you understand what each one does, making the most of the great versatility offered by current Canon DSLRs.

Step by step – Choose the right metering mode

1. Evaluative
This works well for general shooting, especially when you’re using multi-point autofocus, where a number of different autofocus points are likely to lock on to foreground areas with different brightness levels. Light and dark areas in the foreground will then be averaged out to produce a well-balanced exposure.

Improve autofocus
Many cameras allow you to make micro-adjustments to the autofocus of specific lenses, to improve AF accuracy.

You can 
also apply corrections to remove vignetting (darkening in the corners of the frame) 
and control lens distortion automatically, although these can only be used with in-camera JPEGs and TIFFs, not raw files.

Remove raw distortion
For more control, shoot in raw and correct problems in software, such as Adobe Camera Raw.

This shot has dark corners and seems to bow outwards, which is a typical effect of using wide-angles close up, called barrel distortion.

It’s also not straight. 
Each  of these problems can be dealt with automatically, or manually.

Apply Lens Correction
These problems can also be fixed using Photoshop’s Lens Correction filter. Again, you can use a database of lenses to apply automatic adjustments, and these are very effective at removing vignetting and reducing distortion.

However, in manual mode, you can also correct skewed images and remove colour fringing.

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What does HDR stand for?
HDR stands for high dynamic range; and the abbreviation is often used in a longer form, HDRI – high dynamic range imaging. HDR is a form of photography that enables you to create a picture with a greater dynamic range than is usually possible.

To understand what it is and to appreciate its use, you first need to have a grasp of what dynamic range is all about.

So explain dynamic range to me
Dynamic range is a measure of the range of different light levels – from the darkest black to the brightest white –  that can be recorded or displayed by a device. It defines the amount of contrast you can capture or show without losing detail at the extremes.

The dynamic range that can be captured with your SLR is greater than can be displayed on your monitor.

Why is this important?
Some scenes contain too much contrast for us to capture successfully with our cameras. We avoid taking pictures in the midday sunshine as our cameras can’t cope with the full range of light levels. Low-light scenes are another common problem area – we can expose successfully for the shadows, but not for the brightly-lit areas or vice versa.

Exposure for midtones

Are there ways around this?
Digital imaging has made it easier to resolve because we can see the result immediately and take remedial action. We can also use flash to help reduce contrast on a sunny day and use a graduated ND filter to balance the brightness difference between the sky and landscape.

What’s more, there are processing tricks we can use in Photoshop, particularly if we shoot in raw, that enable us to get information from the darkest and lightest parts of our pictures.

So where does HDR come in?
HDR enables us to shoehorn a greater range of brightness into an image in a way that a straightforward picture can’t achieve. A true HDR image is created from several shots of the same scene taken with slightly different exposures.

Each exposure captures part of the full tonal range. They are then combined into a single image with software. The trouble is that these true HDR images are hard to see…

What do you mean?
A true HDR image contains a far greater range of tones – too many, in fact, to be displayed on a normal computer monitor, or printed out on paper.

They are typically stored as 32-bit files – allowing 4.3 billion shades in each colour channel. By comparison, a standard JPEG image allows 256 (8-bit) shades per channel, and a raw file 4,000 (12-bit) to 16,000 (16-bit) shades per channel.

So what do you do with these very large files?
The next stage in most HDR images is tone mapping. Here the program uses the 32-bit HDR image to create an image with a contrast range that can be shown in print or on a monitor.

Each tonal value is remapped onto a scale that creates an image in which you can see detail in the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows, and without any clipping in these extreme areas of brightness. It’s this tonal mapping that creates the controversy with HDR.

Why the controversy?
Tonal mapping brightens shadows and darkens highlights, which slightly flattens the contrast of an image and increases edge definition.

But many HDR enthusiasts use the software to go further, creating an image in which all the detail can be seen clearly, but which no longer looks realistic. The effect is similar to that used in ‘hyper-real’ styles of painting. Some people like it, some don’t.

Exposure for shadows

What sort of software do I need?
There are lots of HDR programs available – including some free ones. The best known is Photomatix Pro, but the latest version of Photoshop (CS5) has a built-in HDR facility.

HDR programs usually have a range of sliders to help you control the tone-mapping effect to your own taste.

How do I take pictures in preparation for HDR effects?
Essentially, the process is the same as that used for bracketing. The number of shots you need is largely dependent on the actual tonal range of the scene you’re shooting. The more contrast, the more shots you need.

Three is the usual starting point, but you may need to take as many as nine, each with a one-to-two stop difference. Some SLRs have an AEB (automatic exposure bracketing) function, which will enable you to do this without too much fuss.

Exposure for highlights

What other settings should I use?
Your sequence of exposures should be as similar in content to each other as possible (although obviously, the brightness will vary). Any changes caused by movement can create a ghosting effect that the software will struggle with.

Set the focus manually, use a tripod, and set the exposure to aperture priority (so the depth of field remains constant). Set the camera to the fastest continuous drive setting available.

Is there an easier way?
Creating HDR images involves some effort at the time of shooting and processing but it’s relatively straightforward. However, there are easier ways.

A number of programs offer false HDR effects that can create realistic-looking HDR images from just a single picture. Similarly, a number of DSLRs and compacts now have built-in automatic HDR facilities that will take the sequence of pictures for you and compile them into your tone-mapped image in the camera itself.

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All images by Mark Hamblin

Alongside the latest camera gear, the most talked about topic for photographers seems to be the weather. But let’s face it, we wouldn’t be happy with clear blue skies day after day – where’s the drama in that?

No, what we want are skies full of cumulus clouds, shafts of sunlight, rainbows and the constant threat of a downpour. These conditions create the kind of skies that make landscape images exciting – they stimulate the senses and are one big consolation of the British climate, where the Digital Camera World team is based.

For many landscape views it’s the sky that makes the picture. Without some interest in the sky, the top part of the frame adds very little to the image, and there’s not much point in including a great deal of it.

But the opposite is true for big, cloud-filled pictures of the sky when the sky itself can become the main focal point of the picture. In these instances the land below will play more of a supporting role to your sky photography.

When faced with dramatic skies, try to make the most of them by increasing the ratio of sky to land, filling half or more of the frame for added impact.

Don’t forget the land altogether though. This is still important and requires something strong within it to anchor your pictures of the sky successfully.

The sky can be overpowering, so the foreground or base to the picture needs to contain something visually arresting to bring the viewer’s eye back down to earth.

This could be a single feature such as a tree, mountain peak or river, but it needs to be something that makes an immediate connection and acts as an effective focal point in the lower part of the frame.

Lens choice when shooting sky photography is a matter of preference or circumstances, but a wide-angle zoom is a good starting point.

Obviously a wider lens allows you to include more of the sky, which is usually a good thing and can really help to exaggerate the effect of big brooding sky photography.

It also provides a great sense of clouds rushing towards the camera and a dramatic perspective.

Sometimes the interest may be in a small part of the sky close to the horizon, in which case fit a short telephoto zoom such as a 70-200mm and hone in on a prominent feature in the landscape to set against the sky.

PAGE 1: Why big sky photography carries impact
PAGE 2: Filter the sky
PAGE 3: How to frame big sky photography
PAGE 4: How to cope with dreary skies
PAGE 5: Final tips to help you shoot better pictures of the sky

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Meet our professional photographer

Heather Angel has been one of the UK’s leading wildlife photographers for four decades, tackling subjects from blue whales to water fleas. Her two passions are China, which she’s visited 32 times, and macro photography. She’s just finished her 59th book, Digital Outdoor Photography: 101 Top Tips.

Meet our apprentice

Julie Richardson discovered photography four years ago, when she met her partner Dave. He was using an Olympus E-420, but since then they’ve both converted to Nikon DSLRs. Julie’s been bitten by the photo bug and has completed a darkroom course and BTEC in photography. She loves close-up photography.

Technique assessment

Was Julie’s camera set up properly for close-up photography of flighty subjects? Close-up photography and macro shots require a slightly different approach to everyday photographs.

To get your subjects sharp you need to eliminate any blur from camera or subject movement, and be super accurate with your focusing – your normal focus mode might not be the best choice.

Raise the ISO
Julie had her camera set to ISO100, for best quality. However, because we were shooting in overcast daylight that was weakened even further as it came through the butterfly house’s roof, Heather suggested ISO800.

The quality she’d get from her Nikon D5100 at this ISO would still be good, and the faster shutter speeds of about 1/250 sec cut the risk of camera-shake or blur from the subject moving. These are both big causes of out-of-focus areas in macro shots.

Set the right focus points
Julie had her camera set to Auto-area AF mode, in which the camera chooses a part of the scene to focus on (usually what’s nearest to the camera).

Heather advised her to switch to Single-point AF mode, because then she could control exactly what the camera focused on. If necessary she could select a different AF point with the navigational controller if the subject wasn’t central. With close-up photography you need fine focus control.

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Close-up photography tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

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The ability to compose images on a camera’s screen using live view technology is still regarded with scepticism by some photographers. Many of these naysayers associate it with using compact cameras with small sensors and no viewfinder, and they see no benefit of it to the DSLR user.

However, although it’s not suitable for use in all situations, using live view can be an incredibly useful feature and offers a level of control that advanced users often say they crave.

Using Live View: what you see…

One of the most useful aspects of live view is that the image on the screen comes from the imaging sensor and this means that it resembles the photograph that you capture much more closely than the image in an optical viewfinder.

Any changes that you make to the exposure, white balance and colour processing, for example, can’t be shown in an optical viewfinder, but they are shown on-screen in live view mode.

As a result you can be much more confident about making settings changes and you often know that you have the image ‘in-the-bag’ before you even press the shutter release.

The live view image is shown with the aperture wide open, but it’s often possible to close down the aperture using the depth of field preview control.

However, the shallow depth of field visible at maximum aperture makes it very clear where the point of focus is, so you can be sure that it is on the correct part of the scene.

PAGE 1: What you see using Live View
PAGE 2: When to use Live View and when not to use Live View
PAGE 3: Using Live View – what you need to know
PAGE 4: Go remote with Live View

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