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Photography Basics in 3 Steps - Part 1 - Technical

Today it’s the technical stuff…’the right tools is half the job done’…but not quite…it’s more about knowing your tools and how to use them…we’ll stick to the basics I promise!

Know Your Camera

It wasn’t very fun driving your car when you were first learning, or floundering around learning a new computer program you needed to use…and likewise your photography will be a lot more fun when you know the ins and outs of your camera like second nature.

Spend some time with your camera manual - with camera in hand! And like your car and computer…you can’t learn the skill without the physical practice.  Most importantly for this exercise, get familiar with locating the exposure modes, aperture and shutter speed controls, and ISO.  If you don’t have a user guide or can’t find yours….google it…I guarantee you’ll find a downloadable manual for your camera online.

Know the Right Settings

Many photographers work on manual mode for total control, though many of us also favour the aperture priority and shutter priority modes which is where I recommend you start.  Generally I would suggest that you start on aperture priority, unless you are a solely into sports photography or photographing anything that moves fast where you would choose shutter speed priority.  The good thing about aperture and shutter speed priority modes is that they are still semi auto modes so you have full control with your camera backing you up just in case! Excellent!

The reason why I recommend aperture priority is you will have more control over your depth of field…you’ll be able to blur out the background for portrait shots, and maximise your depth of focus when it’s important.

When you have total control and you are choosing your settings rather than letting the camera set them, occasionally you will need the help of ISO control.  Your ISO controls the sensitivity of the sensor to light.

It’s starting to  sound to technical but hang in there!  The aperture and shutter speed both control how much light gets to the sensor to record the image correctly. Too much light causes over exposure and too little light will under expose the image.  Sometimes the scene will be so bright or so dark that the aperture and shutter speed combination we need is not possible…so then we can ‘tweak’ the camera by adjusting the ISO.

Just remember that the higher the ISO number, the poorer quality image you will create. Also keep an eye on the shutter speed - under 1/30th second gets a bit slow for hand held photography…you risk blurring the image.

Now you didn’t learn how to drive your car or use a computer after reading an article either…so on to the next step…

…and if you have any questions feel free to post them below or in our free Facebook Group  I am always happy to clarify anything and have a chat…and then head over to Part 2 to take all of this to the next level!