Learn Photography

Adriana Bella posts:


The recording of light rays in a way that captures it forever can be defined as photography and is heavily dependant on the lighting conditions used when shooting. Different lighting conditions are used to create all sorts of moods and pictures. Whatever lighting conditions are available you must know how to handle it in such a way it will be to your advantage. The lighting you need may not be available at a given time and you might have to wait for the ideal conditions before taking the photograph.

The light given out at different times of the day have varied effects on a photograph. Couple this with climatic conditions and you have a vast array of possibilities for shooting the best picture with the lighting conditions that you may need. A basic understanding of lighting is a must for any photographer. This can be learnt with experimentation as well as learnt from looking at other photographs. Artificial lighting and flashes are the other type of lighting that photographers work with most often. Here you have the advantage of adjusting the lighting to suit your needs unless the artificial lighting is something beyond your control such as street lighting.

Sunlight

Sunlight is often harsh and generates dark and large shadows. The shadows are positioned around a subject according to the way the light is cast. Diffused light is always better than harsh light as it casts fewer shadows although this can be used in certain photographs to achieve a definite effect. Lighting can be changed afterwards using filters and other techniques.

The best times of the day for photography is at sunrise and sunset. This allows less harsh lighting conditions to illuminate the photograph with no shadows to speak of. Diffusers and reflectors are often used to create the kind of lighting needed.

An overcast day can be a boon to a photographer as it is the same as using a giant diffuser. The same photograph can look extremely different with different lighting conditions and with time you will learn to assess the lighting conditions with accuracy. Noontime sun is good for taking landscape photographs such as the ones you will see in travel guides. And, if you want shadows in your photo this is the ideal time for it.

Other lighting conditions given to us by nature are the overcast sky, fog and mist and the sunset. All these are ideal for a variety of photographs as you can use these conditions to innovate the way they look. Some of the most beautiful photographs have been taken under these conditions.

Artificial light

An electronic flash can be used to augment the existing lighting conditions so as to give a better result. We can use multiple sources of light when photographing indoors with artificial light in order to create the exact conditions needed. Light can be manipulated in so many ways like adding color to it or subtracting one source of light while editing and the pictures that are thus created will give out totally different vibes in each case.

Andrew Goodall posts:


Learning photography is a two part process. You have to understand the mechanical skills relating to the camera, but you also need to master some artistic techniques as well. The artistic side is where you can set your photos apart from the crowd.

The difficulty is, while technical photography can be taught using concrete rules and numbers, composition is a little more ‘artsy.’ A lucky few are born with a natural sense of visual style and balance. For the rest of us, it takes plenty of time and experience to develop a talent for composition.

Luckily there are a few tips and guidelines that can make the whole thing easier. One of these, the Rule Of Thirds, I have already mentioned in a couple of previous articles. There is another principle of good composition that can add real impact to your photos; it just doesn’t have a name.

Today I want to write about using straight lines in a composition to lead the eye of the viewer. This is a simple technique that helps to control the way the viewer sees your photo. You can use lines to lead the eye of the viewer within your composition, and even add impact to a particular part of your photo.

Imagine a photo with a panoramic landscape. You could think like a tourist and just snap the landscape with no thought for creative composition. But as a creative photographer, you have a better idea. You find an outlook that offers the same scene, but with a fence in the foreground.

For your first shot, you photograph the fence running horizontally across the foreground. In this situation, the fence is like a barrier between the viewer and the subject. It does not help the composition; in fact it is probably an annoying distraction. People are likely to think “Nice photo – it’s a pity the fence got in the way.”

Next, imagine the same scene shot from a slightly different angle. Now the fence runs diagonally away from the camera towards the landscape in the distance. This alternate view (if done well) will create a completely different impact. The eye will be caught by the prominent subject in the foreground (the fence), and it will follow the line of the fenceposts into the picture.

In this way the two elements of your composition work together to make a stronger picture. The fence is no longer a distraction; in fact, it adds emphasis to the background subject by leading the viewer in that direction.

There are many situations that can use this simple technique. A bridge, a jetty, a line of telephone wires, even railway tracks…there are all kinds of opportunities to use the lines of everyday objects to enhance a composition.

There are three things to look for when using straight-line objects. The lines should be long (a line of two fenceposts won’t do much for your photo; twenty fenceposts will). They should be receding diagonally away from the camera (remember our example). And it helps if there is a repeated pattern in the lines which diminishes as the object recedes away from the camera. In our example, the fenceposts will appear to get smaller as they progress into the distance. This will create a sense of perspective that makes your two-dimensional photo seem quite three-dimensional.

Whenever I teach a photography class, there is a simple rule that I try to get across: “Anything that doesn’t make your composition better, makes it worse.”

A photographer in our hypothetical scenario should be applauded for choosing to use the fence to add interest to the landscape. Never forget that any good landscape subject has been photographed many times before; the real trick is to find an angle that makes your photo unique. But having decided to use it, it is essential that the fence works with the rest of the composition. Otherwise, your picture may be better off without it.

As a creative photographer, always remember that nothing should appear in your photo by accident. All the elements of your photo should not only add interest, but also work cohesively to add impact to the entire composition.

Abhishek Agarwal posts:


Photographs serve many different purposes: from serving as graphic memories in an easy store format to acting as a good method of breaking the monotony in reams of printed matter e.g. newspaper story, magazine article or even to educate the public or customer as in a doctor’s pamphlet or marketing material.

Where illustrations were used earlier, now vivid and beautiful pictures are being utilized to bring out the true meaning of the story alongside it, which is just as eye-catching and sometimes even more interesting to view as a glossy decoration – so the photograph has come a long way from being just a break in the newsprint to a wonderful identity by itself. On special occasions such as weddings, formal swearing in or award ceremonies, party or even important social events, the importance of having photographic proof and memory of the episode cannot be stressed enough for those involved in it. Besides the media, there are many different agencies and businesses that use the camera to record events and this includes individuals and agencies like family members keen to build a collection, newly-weds and new parents recording special moments, travel companies and product manufacturing companies keen on popularizing their products etc. In such circumstances, the main aim of taking the photograph is to create a favorable impression for the onlooker and get a positive reaction out of them.

As J.W. Click and even Russel N. Baird’s book, “Magazine Editing and Production,” believes, the main purpose behind people hanging paintings and snapshots on their walls is only because they want to beautify these.

Thus, there are many other people who take to photography as a hobby merely as a way of giving vent to their creative urges and therefore, for them, the skill of photography is purely aesthetic.

If we go by this concept, we can conclude that photography is nothing more than art that has been captured and restrained by way of using technical and mechanical support devices such as cameras, memory cards, zoom and other finer technicalities that allows one to present advanced graphics in a unique manner. Awesome is mostly the reaction of those looking on at exceptional photographs that are award winning in the way in which they may have captured the essence of a moment, stilled in time a particular expression on a famous person’s face, arrested an ordinary moment and made it look wondrous in the light it was photographed in or simply by focusing right on an unlikely subject aroused viewer interest.

Thus, a good photographer needs to keep in mind that all necessary materials (tripod, battery, background, film, lenses etc.) must be handy; ensure camera is steady, subject is ready and presented well by focusing right after determining the perfect angles one can capture the shot in.

Tom Jackson posts:


(c) 2008 Tom Jackson

I will be covering the basics of manipulating your work on the computer. Every photographer needs to be able to use some kind of photo editing software in order to make each image look their best. I use Adobe Photoshop for my work, and I will explain why in this article.

If you are not fully aware of the benefits of a DSLR let me do a quick summary. The first, and some believe the most important feature, is that you look through the viewfinder and you see exactly what the camera sees. In other words, the light from the subject enters the lens of the camera, and this is the image you see. The light from the lens is diverted onto the imaging sensor when you take the photo. In normal daylight, this happens so quickly, it is barely noticeable. In dim light conditions, you will not be able to see through the camera until the exposure is finished.

As a result of being able to see the subject through the lens, just as the camera does, you can take advantage of other features if the camera manufacturer has built it into the camera body. One such feature is Depth of Field preview. When you look through the camera at the subject, you can clearly see the subject because the camera uses the maximum aperture available to see the subject, and therefore, you can see if the subject is in focus or not. It is the function of the aperture in the lens to let the light in so you can see the subject clearly. However, if the camera has a Depth of Field preview, you can invoke this function and the lens will Stop Down to the aperture that the lens will be at when the photo is taken and recorded. This will allow you to see what parts of the image are in sharp focus, both in front and behind the subject. The image may be a little more difficult to see as there will now be less light coming through the lens, but it is a great way to see what will be in focus when you take the photo.

When taking portraits though, you will usually not want the foreground or the background to be in focus, as this can result in an image where the subject is not clearly delineated from the background. Using this method, you will get a great result. Use the maximum aperture and adjust the shutter speed to get the correct exposure. If you are going to use a flash to provide fill light for the subject, then of course, the maximum shutter speed will be limited to the maximum flash synch speed, and you will have to use the required aperture to achieve a good exposure. There are many choices that need to be made when you are taking photos.

The correct resolution and file format is very important. You need to make these settings first, before you take the first photo. Most small compact cameras do not usually offer many adjustments, unless you consider the high end compacts. Most will allow you to take photos at low, medium or high resolution, but will not allow you to make little if any, other selections. On a DSLR camera, you will often have a large number of options available. I believe that you should take every photo at the maximum resolution available. This way, you will always have enough data in the file so you can crop or enlarge the image, and still have good quality photos.

Memory cards are very inexpensive these days, so it is not hard to purchase several cards, and store all the images you take. Even though the RAW format at high resolution creates the largest files, the low cost of memory cards allows you to carry several with you at all times. You will need to add some external hard drives to your computer so you can store all the pictures you take. External drives these days are getting very big, typically in the two to five hundred gigabyte sizes, for extremely low cost. Consider that today, you can buy one of these drives for less than $100. Back in 1990, I purchased a 300 Megabyte drive for $1200. If you do the comparison, a 500 Gigabyte drive today should cost around $2Million! Yikes. Thank goodness for technology.

In the next article, I will go into some more detail on why using the RAW format is so important. It really provides you with the most flexibility for manipulating the basic exposure information, once you start editing your photos. And after you take the photos and put them onto the hard drive, you will need to make some adjustments, sometimes just small ones, and for other images, you may need to make some fairly large adjustments. More in the next article.

Abhishek Agarwal posts:


If you are new to photography and are interested in taking it up, then you wil need to know a few things about photography and the qualities associated with it.

The camera

A camera is vital for photography but one should remember that irrespective of the kind of camera, the final image is not necessarily dependent on it. Irrespective of the brand of your camera, there are a few things that will not change. Here is a list.

- Quality of the final image

- The magnification of the image on viewing

- Whether the shot’s entire focus will be on the subject

- The amount of time it takes to take the shot

Different cameras work at different speeds and this is something that everyone associated with photography should know. This speed is crucial to the outcome of your photograph. If you want to take a picture of your kids playing, it would be better to use the automatic camera so that you can avoid the problems of making adjustments regarding focus, lighting, aperture etc. But in case you intend on taking a shot of a mountain view, it is better for you to use a manual camera.

Lighting conditions

When under the sun, taking portraits present a few problems. Due to the hardness of the sunlight, there is a possibility of dark shadows appearing in the shot. In order to solve the problem, moving the subject to a suitable shady position and using the skylight in place of the sunlight will be suitable. Another solution is taking the photograph in the last few minutes of sunset or sunrise as the sunlight will be more yellow at these times. In case you have equipment like diffusers and reflectors, your shot can be made to look more vibrant and clear. Using flash or artificial lights is also a terrific idea if you are well aware on how to use them. In case you are taking a picture during sunset or sunrise, try not to use the flash, as this will make the picture look rather cold or clammy.

Exposure

There is nothing like incorrect exposure. You can decide the kind of exposure you want on your picture depending on your artistic preferences. There are many tones in the environment that cannot be captured on film. Depending on the film or on the picture, there are certain details that might be lost during the process.

These are only a few things that should not be forgotten while taking a photograph. You skills will get better as you keep taking pictures and your creativity will know no limit.

Wayne Turner posts:


Starting out with any new venture, or for that fact resurrecting an old venture, there are always the questions where do I start or how do I start? Although the urge is there to try something big, starting at the beginning is essential. Learn to take baby steps first.

If you’ve watched the old time classic movie the Sound of Music, it’s “let’s start at the very beginning”. A very good place to start. So beginning your photography journey you need to look at three fundamentals in order to get going.

1. Get to know your camera

Getting to know your camera is essential for your beginning in photography. A workman who is not competent with the tools of the trade is not going to get very far. I am not talking here of every single little feature but rather all the major features, settings or controls. You need to be able to operate without thinking and often times while you aren’t looking at the controls. Know where they are by feel so that as you’re looking through the viewfinder you can change settings automatically. Do this little exercise and you’ll get to know them fast. Go through your manual and go through each setting on your camera. When you are finished go through it again; this time checking off all the settings you know. Then go through the manual again and learn those settings that you are not sure of. By logically working through your manual and getting to know the camera’s features will be invaluable as you learn photography.

2. Shoot regularly and on every occasion

One of the major benefits digital photography has given us is the ability to take photos without the cost restrictions of film. The problem is that people use this to the detriment of calculated and thoughtful composition of their photos. But if used correctly, digital gives the ability to keep shooting without any constraints. The reason I see that shooting regularly is key to learning is because practise does make perfect. Through trial and error we learn about most things in life. Sometimes you do get a lucky shot amongst the rapidfire shooting sprees but this is the exception. The famous golfer Gary Player always said, “the harder I practise, the luckier I get.” Use every ocasion to practise and then compare images you have taken previously. Evaluation helps to examine your photos and find out where you can improve. But don’t just stop there. Go out and improve the areas you need to and practise more in the areas where you have deficiencies.

3. Focus on the fundamentals of photography

Learning the basics properly is key to anything you do. If you give yourself a good foundation and learn the fundamentals you are going to get off on the right foot and not make the basic errors which need correcting. Find a really good book or e-course take each element of photography and apply it. Don’t try learning a bunch of keys and attempt put them all into one photo at once. Learn good composition before trying to shoot action photos. Rome wasn’t built in a day but our instant society has taught us that we can everything and have it now. It doesn’t work like that with photography. It has step be a logical progression as you learn one step then apply it and move on to the next step. Don’t forget to keep on revising what you have learnt as you need to build on to the foundation of the previous step and so on.

These three steps are just some basics to get you going. There are many others that you gradually need to incorporate into your photograhic learning journey. It’s not all going to happen at once so you need to grasp just a few of the basics to start growing.

Melvin H.Gill posts:


Photography is defined as “The art or process of producing images by the action of light on surfaces sensitized by chemical processes.”

Of course, this is landscape photography on a big scale. Not many people are lucky enough to start off traveling the world.

The earlier model did not contain the film; instead, it had a small light-shield box with lens and translucent screen on either side. The image that traveled through the lens was stored on the screen. Known as ‘camera obscura,’ it was no more than a sketching device for artists.

There are different ways of finding photography jobs, depending on the type of job you are looking for and your experience. You can begin by creating a resume and portfolio of your work.

Learning Photography

Are you interested in taking up photography? If you are relatively new to photography, then here are some tips that will help you learn about photography and its many different qualities.

The camera

When choosing a camera, you should keep in mind that whatever kind of camera you buy, it won’t necessairily affect the final image. There are certain factors that will affect your final product regardless of camera brand. They are:

- the quality of the expected final image.

- will the image be magnified before being viewed?

- will the subject carry the whole focus of the shot?

- the time alloted to take the picture

It is also important to keep in mind that cameras work at varying speeds. This will prove to be crucial depending on the subject that you will be shooting. When taking a picture of your son or daughter while they are playing, you may opt to use an automatic camera to avoid all the fuss of making adjustments with regards to aperture, focus, lighting, etc. But if you are going to take a picture of a mountain view, then you have all the time to use a manual camera.

Lighting conditions

There are so many ways that photography crosses our lives each day. There are a lot of opportunities for someone looking for photography jobs.

Whatever your reasons, a photography contest can be a fun and rewarding experience for you. To find out all you need to know about entering a photography contest, read on.

There are some excellent photography contests out there, some even offer large cash prizes, scholarships to photography schools and really nice cameras and camera supplies.

Modern photography has given a totally new meaning to the entire perception of life and privacy. Photography has made it possible to capture and preserve special moments, in private and in public life.

Taking portraits under the sun may present some problems. Because of the sunlight’s hardness, dark shadows will may appear in the shot. To solve this problem, you can move the subject to a position under the shade to be able to use skylight instead of sunlight. Skylight is less concentrated than sunlight. Another thing that can be done is for you to take the picture during the last few minutes during sunrise or sunset. Sunlight is mouch more mellow during these times. If you have the equipment such as diffusers as well as reflectors, they will do a good job to make the shot more vibrant. The use of artificial lighting or a flash is also ideal if you know the proper way and time to use them. Avoid using the flash during sunrise and sunset since the resulting picture will look rather clammy or cold.

Exposure

There are no such things as correct exposure. It is really up to you and your artistic preferences how your picture will turn out. The environment contains many tones which can’t be fully represented using film. Some of the details might get lost depending on the picture as well as the film used.

These are some of the things that you should remember while taking pictures. As you take more and more pictures, your skills will become sharper and you will be able to use more of your creativity.

If you love taking pictures and the idea of a career in photography sounds good to you, just how do you begin finding photography jobs?

The world of photography is an amazing one. It’s been with us for quite a while now but it is constantly changing. Cameras are changing and improving. Methods of developing are changing and improving as well.

You may be amateur but if you are entering a photography contest, you are competing with the best of the best. You are going to need your photos to be excellent if you expect to win. More at http://www.snowcomet.com

This does not mean go out and shotgun blast everything you see. You still want to keep in mind the need to have a reason (theme) for taking a photography – think about how to focus attention on it, removing what distracts from your theme, and adding whatever attracts or highlights your theme, to make it a great photograph.

Abhishek Agarwal posts:


The most interesting aspect about taking up photography and the best reason to do so for most people is because it is fun and gives great results with a little bit of effort in the beginner stages even; one can start off with second-hand equipment and still get great results.

This is what makes photography so much fun and an enjoyable way to pass time while also learning finer nuances of the hobby. Many amateur and hobby photographers have honed their skills of focusing, understanding the play of shadow and light and finding the perfect subjects for testing their photography interest to come up with near brilliant and professional results, so much so that their snapshots may have even won them awards and been worthy contest entries as many competitions are being organized both online and in print for hobby photographers, which is a good incentive to take to photography for many people. But, to be a better than average photographer, there are some tips and guidelines a hobby photographer could do to keep in mind for achieving sensational results; some of these points are covered by us below.

Many people mistakenly assume that good photography is all about great lighting and getting the right muse or subject; but it is actually much less than all such fancy thinking as even ordinary subjects, under the right circumstances can yield a great shot and make for a thought-provoking picture. It all depends on the way in which a person utilizes his or her creativity to focus and sometimes, even frame a particular snapshot to appear in its best light or simply highlight a certain feature about the subject. Beyond this, photographers also need to learn about all the elements of using a camera, whether old or new, in order to capture better than average pictures, especially learning to focus right and determine the kind of light they will need in outdoor shoots or indoor ones. If using a video camera, of course, the limitations are very little as even those without any professional expertise or training can learn to operate these easy-use handy-cams with audio recording and even playback features that can be effectively used to record many precious moments.

Once a person learns to use a video camera, it is just a matter of practicing the focusing skills (sometimes, people place it in a strategic place for easy video capturing of a full family event – vantage point like atop a wardrobe or tall-boy cabinet/corner shelf etc.) to get the best results up to 3 -6 hours of non-stop video capturing that can be shared with friends and other relatives, too – making sharing memories possible in such a fun manner.

Only basic skills and techniques of photography are needed in order to operate the newer models of digital cameras (which save a person the money otherwise spent on film that didn’t give good enough shots as can discard less than average photographs and only print good shots at any local studio and store many hundreds on the memory card with it) and advanced video cameras. The other alternative is to go in for training in technical skills of photography as an art form and learn to use different materials e.g. tripod, mood and focus lighting, creating backgrounds etc. to get professional results each time.

Abhishek Agarwal posts:


There are a lot of people who seriously consider photography as a career. There are many who feel that engaging their life in taking pictures is a fulfilling experience. But this venture requires a sound education in photography.

Just like any school, it is essential to select a photography school that will meet all the needs and requirements of the students for a good quality education. Here are some tips that will help you select a photography school that suits your needs:

• Look beyond

While choosing your school, you should be able to see the bigger picture. You need to consider your general goals pertaining to your career before selecting a photography school. There are a number of tracks that chosen in the photography field. If you want to involve yourself artistically through photography, there are a number of subjects you could choose that will facilitate this. In case you are more commercially inclined, there are a number of schools you could choose from that offer business courses along with the photography lessons.

• There is more to photography

If you are taking photography because you want to run away from the tough subjects such as math, then bad luck, because photography involves all these subjects in order to equip you to survive in the race. As most photographers go ahead to start up their own studio, it is best that students take up courses in accounting, business management, marketing and other related subjects.

• Find out your class strength

If there are too many students in your class, you might not be able to get the best of your course. The instructor may not be able to pay individual attention to you and will be prohibited form giving you hands on supervision that can hinder your learning process.

• Look for Computer Courses

Any reputed photography school will have courses that are related to computers. Photography is a very competitive field, and it will give you the edge if you have enough knowledge in computers. With digital photography, using computers and having computer expertise has become a compulsory option.

• Scholarships

Look for a photography school that offers some sort of financial aid to their students. Photography is not a cheap business and buying equipment can prove to be very costly.

These are just a few tips on how to go about looking for a good photography school. Selecting the right school for you is very important. This can help you decide where you want to go and determine how to get there.