Photography Tip Tuesday: The Best Cameras & Lenses for Style Blogging

Hey y’all!! So I have a treat for ya today from my sweet friend and amazing photographer, Deeana from Deeana Kourtney Photography! She has agreed to help us all learn a little something in our quest to be better bloggers…and we know that quality images are key!  So be sure to check back on Tuesdays as she provides us another installment to learn and grow!

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So, you’ve been blogging for awhile and you have a nice little point and shoot camera. You know the quality of your pictures can be a huge selling point, and you want that crisp, clear picture where the subject is in focus and the background is a nice a blur, right? That means you are ready to upgrade to a D-SLR camera!

When upgrading from a point and shoot camera to a D-SLR it can be a bit over whelming with all the different options. There are 2 major camera companies people gravitate towards – Canon and Nikon (these are not your only options, just the most popular). Lets look at Canon cameras first – The Canon Rebel T5 is a great option for someone who is looking to have full control of what they are shooting without breaking the bank. This is a great option for someone just starting out in photography or for a hobbyist. The Rebel T5 body comes in at roughly $369 (price varies). If you are wanting to get just a little fancier you can look at the Canon Rebel T5i which is essentially the same as the T5 but you have a few more feature on the body of the camera. You can tilt the LCD screen so you have more control of where you are taking your picture and the LCD screen is touch.  Now, if you are wanting to go with a Nikon body, a comparable body is the Nikon D3200 with similar features as the Canon T5 but has a slightly higher mega pixel and is a little pricier.

Now that you have selected your D-SLR body you need to select a lens – because really the lens is what makes the biggest difference! Both Canon and Nikon offer a 50mm f/1.8 lens (Canon’s costs about $125 and Nikon’s costs about $215). I’m sure you are wondering what exactly that means. Well, 50mm is a fixed lens, meaning it does not zoom basically your feet will be how you will zoom, and in short mm is your focal length which is measured in millimeters. When you see f/1.8 this is how low the aperture for the lens will go. Your aperture is the pretty bokeh (blur) that you see in high quality photos – the lower the number the more “blur” you can get in the background of your pictures. This lens is by far the best bang for your buck and a must have – it will take your pictures to the next level!

Learning how to use this new fancy camera is also pretty important in being able to produce quality photos. The exposure triangle is how we are going to associate the 3 variables that determine the exposure of your picture – aperture, iso, and shutter speed. All 3 of these variables effect one another to make a properly exposed photograph. We briefly touched on aperture, which is how we make that pretty blur – when you hear someone say the aperture is wide that means you are letting in more light through the lens (the wider the aperture, the small the f number will be). When an aperture is narrow you are letting in less light and your f number will be higher. Now we need to look at the shutter speed, this is how long the shutter remains open to allow more light in – the lower the number for your shutter speed the longer the shutter is open and the higher the number of the shutter speed the faster the shutter is opening and closing. When you have a really low shutter speed since the shutter is opening and closing slowly you have to be more still. Lastly is your ISO the control of the light sensitivity of the sensor – raising your iso will essentially allow you to work with less light – so when you are in a situation where it is darker, that is when you raise this number. Raising your iso will result in more noise (which is the graininess of a picture) and less detail.

Below is your exposure triangle to help you determine how you will set all your numbers to obtain a correctly exposed photo.

We will touch base further on each variable in another post! Now get out there and start playing with your fancy new camera!  Let us know if you have specific questions about this or other photography tips you want covered!!

xo,

Deeana & Bess

PS- I (Bess) use a Canon Rebel T5 with a 50mm lens and love it.  It has been a great camera to start out with and really helps achieve that blurry background and crisp images.