As digital camera technology continues to improve and expand, increasingly more people are locating a passion for photography.
Many photographers learn the craft by buying a camera — used or new — and experimenting with various settings and features. Others prefer to learn the basics in photography classes , in-person or online.
Where should a beginner learn photography?
Beginner photographers can learn at home, using books and online resources full of photography tips. Or, you can invest in a beginner photography class or workshop to get started.
In the meantime, we’ll introduce some of the basics of photography now to help take you from just playing around to the Ansel Adams zone.
What are the Basics of Photography?
- ISO
- Shutter Speed
- Aperture
ISO
ISO refers to the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor to light. If you’ve ever tried film photography, you may remember ISO. That’s because it was also called film speed.
One important consideration when selecting an ISO is noise or grain. In film photography, high ISO films result in grainy images. In digital photography, higher ISOs also produce grain. To avoid grain and noise in images, it helps to use the lowest ISO possible by adjusting other settings to compensate.
Shutter Speed
It’s the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure — the amount of light the camera takes in — and a slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure.
Shutter speed often represents fractions of seconds, so some cameras show your shutter speed as a fraction. When you look in the viewfinder or on your digital camera’s LCD screen, you may see the shutter speed listed as something like 1/100 or 1/500. The smaller the fraction, the faster the shutter speed.
Aperture
Aperture refers to the opening of a lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. It is calibrated in f/stops and is generally written as numbers such as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16.
Aperture is a very important concept to understand, because it affects two different variables in your resulting photographs. We already know that aperture determines how much light can pass through to the sensor. A wider aperture means more light gets through. A narrower aperture means less light gets through.
Exposure
Exposure is the amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor, creating visual data over a period of time. That time period could be fractions of a second or entire hours. The right exposure is a balancing act. Overexposure leads to overexposed highlights and faded-looking images.
For example, if you wanted to have a very fast shutter speed (which would limit how much light the sensor receives), you could make your aperture wider to compensate and add more light. If you didn’t want to widen the aperture because of the loss of depth of field, you could increase your ISO to make the sensor more sensitive to light.
How to Choose Your First Camera
Studies the camera models on your price range variety, and evaluate merchandise to look which features you adore. preferably, your first camera must give you some room to grow as a photographer, so make certain it gives manual modes and plenty of like minded lenses and accessories for the destiny. when you have other photography hobbyists in your lifestyles, ask them what they love or hate approximately their cameras.
