My First Camera Lesson

An Introduction to the Sony NX5

The other day I had my first lesson in practical camera skills. I have never done anything like this before and therefore I was obviously quite apprehensive. We started off with the basics of this camera, as any beginner should.

The tripod is a simple gadget, and easy to stand up. The next, slightly more challenging part was attaching the camera to the tripod, which takes care. Then insert the battery, and wait for that satisfying click and you know you're set to turn the camera on.

There are four main essentials for a good quality picture, and here they are:

1) Zoom- this is used to control the mise en scene. It is controlled by the second wheel from the lens.

2) Focus- this is controlled by the first wheel from the lens. This is used to create a pristine picture. You use the zoom wheel to zoom in on one part of the picture fully, you then adjust the focus wheel to get a sharp image.

3) Exposure- this is used to control the amount of light that is taken in by the camera. It is controlled by the third wheel from the lens.

4) White Balance- this is controlled by a small button on the left side of the camera, and is pressed when you wish to balance the colour of the picture. To do this, you have to zoom in on something white so it fills the screen, you then press the button and it automatically balances the colour. Another feature is colour balance is the ND Filter, which is controlled by a switch and allows different amounts of colour and light to be taken in by the camera lens.

So there you go, the essentials of working a camera.