Introduction

Hey guys, I recently started really getting into photography and I decided to share the knowledge that I've learned over the past few months with everyone on here.

Disclaimer: Any photography posted as examples is not owned by me unless said so.

Firstly, while a better camera and lens can yield sharper images, that doesn't mean the image it takes is going to be a great image. The photographer behind the camera who composes the image and adjusts the settings makes the image great. People now a days worry about getting super HD sharp images and neglect to realize that any great photographer can take any camera and make something great from it and tell a story.

Also, this is something I've learned and seen soooo many times because its very important. The worst, most uninteresting camera angle is looking down on something. IE: When photographing a pet, don't shoot straight down at them, get eye level with him.

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Photography Types

There's many many different types and genres of photography but I'm going to cover the very basic. With this you can decide what type of photographer you would like to primarily be, or you could just be an all around everything photographer.

1. Landscape
Landscape photography is exactly what it sounds like. Photographing landscapes such as fields, oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains, hills, etc.


2. Wildlife/Animal photography. Animals, plants, flowers, etc.


3. Sports/Action Photography.


4. Portraits. Shooting with a model one on one, could include subgenres of headshots, fashion, weddings, family, etc.


5. Architectural.


6. Macro Photography.
Macro is where you take photos of tiny things in very good detail. In order to shoot this style you need a really good Macro lens.


There's maaaany other kinds of photography but I wont go to into detail other than the basics for right now.

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Terminology


DSLR:
Digital Single Lens Reflex camera.

Wikipedia wrote In the reflex design, light travels through the lens, then to a mirror that alternates to send the image to either the viewfinder or the image sensor. The alternative would be to have a viewfinder with its own lens, hence the term "single lens" for this design. By using only one lens, the viewfinder presents an image that will not perceptibly differ from what is captured by the camera's sensor.

Viewfinder:
The eye piece you look through to see what you're capturing. You can also use the Live View on the DSLR's screen.


Camera Body
The shell that holds everything together. Made for comfort and ease of finding things such as buttons.


Camera Lens
The eye. There's many different lenses and many different ways to use them.

SD Card
This is what holds the images. You should buy a few in case you run out of space while shooting. The great thing about SD cards and digital photography is when you upload them to the computer and delete them off the SD card to have more space.


Exposure:
The amount of light in an image. The whole point is to find a balance in what's called the exposure triangle between Aperture, ISO, and Shutter to have the perfect exposure.


Aperture or F stop:
The size of a the opening in the lens. A low f stop will let in more light and will create a smaller Depth Of Field, a high number f stop will let in less light and have more Depth Of Field.

Average f stops range from: f/2.0 all the way to f/22.

Example of Aperture Affecting Depth Of Field.


ISO:
The control of sensitivity to light a camera has.
ISO stops double or half. 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 but there's also cameras who have points inbetween those stops.

The higher the ISO, the more sensitive to light a camera is BUT the higher ISO, the more grainy-er a photo is.


Shutter Speed:
There's shutters or curtains in front the cameras sensor. The faster the shutter speed is, the faster the shutter opens and closes, letting in less light. The slower the shutter speed is, the slower the shutter stays open allowing more light to hit the sensor. This is also how to capture fast moving objects

Average Shutter speeds range from: 1/1000th of a second to slower speeds like 1/5th of a second and even to really slow speeds like 1 second, 5 seconds, 30 seconds.

A fast shutter speed will allow you to capture fast motion without motion blur.


BUT a slow shutter speed can have cool effects if you compensate the other settings for this.


Cameras don't work like our eyes, they have a sensor and the more/less light the sensor sees, the more/less dark or bright an image is. So if you take a photo in broad daylight with a high ISO, low shutter speed, and high aperture, the image is going to be bright with no detail, basically a white image. Vice-versa for night photography with a low ISO, high shutter speed, and low aperture, the image will be dark with no details. So adjust your settings accordingly. Take test shots, and adjust any settings if any lighting changes. IE: Sun goes behind clouds.

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What Camera/Lens To Buy

Ultimately buy what you can afford.

A great way to get a more expensive camera in a more affordable way is going to one of these product selling Television Network's websites and go to the electronics section.

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Those sites sell cameras and other electronics to where the buyer can pay it off monthly rather than paying one lump sum. You've probably seen these TV networks on TV before or like my mom, your mom might watch them sometimes lol.

I'd recommend sticking to either Canon or Nikon.

The Canon EOS Rebel T3i is a greeat camera to start.

Also READ the included. Sometimes its just a camera body and it doesn't have a lens. Either buy a camera with a kit lens or buy a body and an after market lens separate.

Do your research! Websites such as [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] allow you to search up images taken by a certain camera or lens to view the quality. Find a camera you like, if it comes with a lens or you find an after market lens, search for images taken by the camera and in those results find ones taken by the same lens.

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Camera Settings And Getting Out Of Auto And Into Manual

There's many different modes a camera can have but these are the basics to help you get out of using automatic mode.

Program Mode or P.
In this mode it sets your aperture and shutter speed automatically but you control the ISO.

Shutter Priority or Tv
In this mode the camera sets the ISO and Aperture for you and you set the shutter speed.

Aperture Priority or Av
This mode sets the ISO and Shutter for you and lets you adjust the Aperture.

Manual Mode or M
Self explanatory. Allows you free roam of all settings in the camera. The best way to learn is by mistake so play with manual to get a feel for when certain settings should be turned up or down. Eventually you'll be able to look at a scene and know about what settings it should be to get a good exposure.

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Composition and Techniques to a Better Image.
*FOR THIS SECTION I'M USING PHOTOS FROM AN ARTICLE TO EXPLAIN MY SELF BETTER BUT USING MY OWN WORDS*

Rule of thirds
Most Cameras have a grid option but if not you can get the feel of it. You can also use the focus points in the view finder.



You want to have your subject on a point where the lines are intersecting like below.




Perspective
Shooting your subject eye level can be effective but adding interest angles can impact an image greatly.


Using Lines to Draw Attention to the Subject.
In short terms, there's lines from other objects that lead the eyes to the subject as the focal point.

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Shooting in RAW Format Rather Than in JPEG.

To shoot in RAW you'll need software such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Photoshop.
I HIGHLY recommend getting Lightroom. I'll talk more about it in the next section.

RAW:
A file that's not an image yet but contains more photo information than JPEG so you can adjust settings more than you could with a JPEG in Lightroom. After adjusting your settings and editing the image in Lightroom you can export it as a JPEG image file.

JPEG: Is an image file that's compressed with less color bit range making it harder to recover if you make a mistake in your camera settings.

To shoot RAW, refer to your cameras manual.

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Focusing
On most lenses there's an option for AF or MF. Auto Focus or Manual Focus.

To use auto focus, make sure the lens is set on auto focus. Look through the view finder and press the shutter release button halfway. Focus points in the view finder should light up red and you'll hear a beep to indicate where the focus is. If the focus is not on the spot you want it, release the shutter release and press it halfway again until it focuses.
Once the focus is locked, fully press the shutter release button down to snap a picture.

To use manual focus, make sure the switch on the lens is set to MF. Look through the view finder and adjust the ring that's around the end of the lens until your subject is sharp. Snap a picture.

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Meta/Exif Data and Flikr

Exif/Meta Data: is the data from a camera about everything that picture has on it such as camera settings used for that shot, time it was taken, editing software used, and even GPS location where the shot was taken. Don't worry, most DSLR's don't have GPS or internet for that matter so you don't have to worry about that unless you want people to see the exact location where your photo was taken. If your camera does have GPS data, you can remove the geological locations via Lightroom and leave in all the camera setting data for others to see.


Flikr: is a great way to post and view photography because you can view the exif and meta data from a photo to see what camera they used, what lens, what aperture, what ISO, what shutter speed, what ever to help you understand how different settings can achieve different results.

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Post Production

So you've shot your image, now you need to edit it.

Adobe Lightroom 5.
This is the program every photographer should have. It's great to make your image POP.

From there you can import it into Photoshop and have a little bit more freedom.

Check out this article for the basics of editing photography in Photoshop.
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I will add more to this section later on as it is 5:30am and I've been typing for about 4 or 5 hours and I'm exhausted.

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I hope this helps you and motivates more people to get into photography and share their work in the Graphics/Photo Section.

If there's anything I didn't go over and you'd like to see, PM me or leave a post and I'll add it to the thread.

Thanks and Enjoy.