When starting your photography career, even if it is just a hobby, it is helpful to know the basics and learn tips in the beginning.
It may feel overwhelming at first, but once you get more comfortable with a camera, it comes naturally.
Learn the Basics
- What is Photography?
- “Photography is the art of capturing light with a camera, usually via a digital sensor or film, to create an image. With the right camera equipment, you can even photograph wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye, including UV, infrared, and radio.” (Spencer Cox)
- Shutter Speed
- “Shutter speed is the length of time the camera shutter is open, exposing light onto the camera sensor. Essentially, it’s how long your camera spends taking a photo. This has a few important effects on how your images will appear.” (Nasim Mansurov)
- Aperture
- “Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera. It is an easy concept to understand if you just think about how your eyes work. As you move between bright and dark environments, the iris in your eyes either expands or shrinks, controlling the size of your pupil.” (Nasim Mansurov)
- ISO
- “In very basic terms, ISO is simply a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo. As you increase your ISO number, your photos will grow progressively brighter. For that reason, ISO can help you capture images in darker environments, or be more flexible about your aperture and shutter speed settings.” (Nasim Mansurov)
- Composition
- “Composition is the structure of a photograph. It’s how you arrange the elements in your image to create the look you want, and it can make or break an image. If you stumble upon an interesting subject — no matter how good the light is, or how unusual the conditions are — you still need to compose the photo well if you want a successful result.” (Spencer Cox)
- Metering
- “Metering is how your camera evaluates the light of a scene to determine the correct shutter speed, aperture, or ISO. Back in the old days of photography, cameras were not equipped with a light “meter”, which is a sensor that measures the amount and intensity of light.” (Nasim Mansuro)
- Focusing
- “In every photo you take, there will be a plane of focus. This is the region in space with the potential to be as sharp as possible in a photo. With modern equipment, focusing typically takes place within your lens, which has glass elements inside that can move forward and backward to change the optical path of light. Along the same lines, if you physically move your lens farther from the camera, you’ll change where the plane of focus is positioned.” (Spencer Cox)
Photographer Focus 