So, you bought the best digital camera you could afford,
with every intention of finally learning to take better
photos. All those features sounded great while you were in
the camera shop. Then you took one look at that inch-thick
manual, full of technical terms and complex detail, and
thought 'Maybe I will stick with auto after all'. After
all, if you make a mistake, you can just delete it, right?
Does this sound like you? Don't worry, you are not alone.
Camera manuals reflect the technical power of modern
cameras, but they are intimidating to any beginner who just
wants to take a decent photo.
Digital cameras are like most computer programs; you may
only need to learn about 10% of the functions on offer. So
don't get tied up in knots trying to understand everything.
Just learn what you need to know, and learn it well, and
you will be well on the way to being a better photographer.
Here are a few tips that may just take the complexity out
of photography for you.
Tip #1. Stick with the basics. In the days of film, good
photographers used SLR cameras with two main settings;
aperture and shutter speed. These were the ingredients of
all great photography. Today, cameras come with hundreds of
features, but guess which ones you really need to
understand? That's right, aperture and shutter speed.
If you can understand these two settings, you are halfway
to becoming a better photographer. Your manual (I never
said you could throw it away) will tell you which buttons
to press on your camera. However, to really understand what
these settings are all about, don't rely on the manual.
There is plenty of information out there; workshops,
websites, books and ebooks can help.
Practice has never been easier than it is today. Most
cameras have semi-automatic settings, called 'aperture
priority' and 'shutter priority,' that allow you to operate
one setting while the camera takes care of the other. This
is a great way to practice a skill without fear of getting
too many failed exposures.
Tip #2. Learn from your mistakes. If you just delete every
photo you are not happy with, you are missing a golden
opportunity to learn from your own experience. Your
'failures' contain so much information, you could be
learning from each exposure - even the bad ones!
Let's say you are experimenting with aperture. Try
photographing a scene three times, with three different
aperture settings, for three slightly different results.
Instead of keeping your favourite and deleting the others
immediately, you could transfer them to your computer and
take the time to examine them properly. You can see how
each setting changed the look of the picture, and which
setting worked best for that subject. Now you can learn
from your own results, not from some theory in a book.
Did you know that if you right-click your mouse over a
photograph on your computer and select 'properties' you
will find a lot of information embedded in the file? You
don't have to keep a note of the aperture/shutter speed
information; your photo does it for you!
Of course in the long term you don't want to keep every
single photo you take, but you might want to keep a folder
of 'learning photos' to refer to later, with maybe two
versions of each subject you experiment with. To make it
even easier, rename the pictures with relevant titles, for
example: Red Rose/Small Aperture, Red Rose/Large Aperture;
Waterfall/Fast Shutter, Waterfall/Slow Shutter.
Tip #3. Learn The Art As Well As The Technique. Every
problem in photography cannot be solved by the camera.
Professional photographers rely on light and composition as
much as they rely on technology. In fact, most photos fail
not because of bad technique, but because they were taken
at the wrong time of day, or the photographer did not put
enough thought into the composition. Yet daily I meet
people who think that all their problems would be solved by
a better camera, or some mysterious technique they are yet
to learn.
Remember what I said in Tip #1; aperture and shutter speed
are the fundamental skills, and with a little practice,
they are not hard to learn. Master them and you are halfway
there. The key to becoming a really good photographer is a
balance of technical knowledge and artistic skill. Practice
both, and soon your friends will be coming to you for
photography tips!
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If you found these tips helpful, Andrew Goodall has
released two top-selling ebooks that have already helped
thousands of new photographers learn the art and skills of
nature photography. See Andrew's images and ebooks at
http://www.naturesimage.com.au
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