Photography Tips From Professional - Lesson #1

With Christmas approaching I thought a blog on photography would be appreciated by the masses. There is nothing I like more than a photograph or well written song that stirs the soul. I have always enjoyed not only shooting but teaching others photography my entire life. Watching someone grow in their ability always brings a smile to my face.

I have read many articles and books on photography plus seen many tips for the amateur shooter and the one thing I found most frustrating was the inability to teach in an easy to understand method. Through a series of three simple blogs I hope to have everyone understand the basics of a camera, what the different settings mean, and simple techniques to significantly improve on your abilities. What I present here will be simple to remember so note taking is not required.



Today I will talk about the basics of a camera. Regardless of film or digital they all work the same. A camera has a hole on the front that allows light to pass through and impact film or a computer chip called a CCD or CMOS. In all cases the amount of light determines the exposure. If there is too much light the picture is white, if little to no light the picture is dark. To control the amount of light allowed onto the film or sensor a camera uses two mechanical techniques. These are the shutter speed and f-stop (also called aperture).

Before you begin to panic understanding these two are extremely simple. The f-stop is essentially the size of a hole in the opening. The smaller the f-stop number the larger the hole diameter thereby allowing more light. The number and size have an inverse relationship. Imagine your window blinds partially open allowing some light into your living room. If you open them further you get more light.

The shutter speed is how long the camera absorbs light. One example might be 1/60^th of a second. As the speed increases the amount of light hitting the film or sensor decreases.

At this point I could speak about ISO rating, flash, and other aspects but everything revolves around controlling the amount of light hitting the film or sensor. All the settings on a camera control these two aspects. Below I put together a list of typical settings showing what each controls.

• Manual (M) – user sets the f-stop AND shutter speed.
• Aperture (A) – user sets the f-stop ONLY. The shutter speed is controlled by the camera.
• Shutter Speed (S) – user set the shutter seed ONLY. The f-stop is controlled by the camera.
• Auto, Program, Portrait, Action, Landscape, Night, etc. – user sets nothing as the computer guesses and the correct f-stop and shutter speed combination.

With the advent of the CCD and CMOS users now get direct feedback on their pictures. This is a HUGE advantage because you can retake the shot quickly by adjusting the amount of light entering the camera if your first shot was either too dark or too light. With this in mind there is NO reason not to constantly shoot and do so frequently. Who cares if you get ten shots of the same thing? They can be easily deleted and by adjusting the settings you get different results. So your homework for now is to go play with your camera and try different settings. I promise it won’t break!

The next lesson will teach you about ISO and what combinations of settings you should generally use for most daily shots. The third lesson will teach you a few simple tricks professionals use when taking shots.