Ron Leach

(Editor’s Note: With this Field Review, the Sony A9 has received Shutterbug’s Top Clicks award for exhibiting exceptional quality. Read about our Top Clicks award at this URL: http://bit.ly/2tnl0ny.)

What the heck is a depth of field (DOF) preview button? It’s that little button adjacent to your camera’s lens mount that you’ve never used because you don’t know what it does. Believe it or not, the DOF preview button is there for a reason, so watch the video below and make it your friend.

If you’re reading this page we assume it’s no mystery that the term “shutter speed” describes the length of time your camera’s shutter remains open when you take a photograph. That’s half of the exposure equation, the other being lens aperture, that determines how much light hits the sensor (or film) in your camera.

It’s a good idea for everyone to occasionally review some basic concepts of photography that are easy to take for granted. To that end, consider this brief article a refresher course in the rules of composition. In fact, if you place two photographers in the same location, pointed at the same subject with identical gear, chances are the resulting images will be surprisingly different because of how each shooter composes the scene.