Learn Photography for Beginners | Full photography course
so i have a question for you and that is do you
want to start creating amazing photos that you'll be proud of and photos that will be appreciated by
family and friends if so it all starts right here right now with everything i wish i knew when
i started photography 30 years ago hello my name is chris parker and it is my desire to help
you elevate your photographic skills so you can fulfill your creative vision and if you're ready
to learn photography so you can start creating amazing photos let's do it now real quick let's
go over some of the things you're going to learn in this course as well as the structure of this
course so when it comes to mastering photography there are four key ingredients you must master
in order to create amazing photos so those ingredients are knowing your camera equipment
light composition and editing so everything you'll discover over the next few hours are things
i wish i knew when i started my photography career back in 1989 so the structure of this photography
course will follow those four key ingredients but what we're going to do is we're going to start out
with a quick start guide on photography to help you get started on the right track for creating
amazing photos so this is going to include my five pro tips for starting your photography
journey and what it means to paint with light so painting with light the video will be your
foundation for everything you learn in this free photography course so don't skip it alright
so the first ingredient for mastering photography is getting to know your camera gear your
equipment and how to use it to control the light and the paint with light so this is going to
include detailed information about how your camera works an overview of the type of lenses and much
more so it's vital to know how your camera works to get the most out of it to create the type
of images you want so make sure you watch all of that before you move on to ingredient two
which is exploring and harnessing the most important gradient of them all which is light so
you're going to discover the four characteristics of light and how they shape your subjects the
quality of light and more after that you'll be introduced to composition and how it can elevate
your photography skills and your images to a whole new level of appreciation and then finally i'll
provide some pro tips on editing your images like why you don't need expensive software for editing
where your editing should start and more pro tips to improve your photos now one more thing real
quick time stamps for this course are included in the description below plus since this photography
course is so long i recommend saving it so you can easily find it later on when you come back now
if you have any questions about anything covered in this free photography course please post your
comments below and i'll be happy to answer them so if you're ready to get started let's do it so when
it comes to cameras you can categorize them into four main categories this includes compact
cameras slr or dslr mirrorless and smartphones now for avid creative photographers an slr or
dslr camera is the most popular type of camera so slr stands for single lens reflex and the d
in dslr stands for digital so in other words this is a film camera or an slr and this is a digital
camera dslr so before the days of digital cameras one of my first cameras was this slr camera so the
sl single lens simply means that the camera can be affixed with a single lens but you can also remove
that lens and replace it with a different lens so that's sl now r or reflex is in reference to
inside the camera body and just in front of the film or the digital sensor you have this mirror
here and when you press the shutter release button to create a photo the mirror moves up and
out of the way so the film or sensor can record your photo so that's the reflex in slr okay all
right now when it comes to a mirrorless camera a mirrorless camera is similar to a dslr or even
an slr camera in that you can change the lens however it does not have a mirror inside the body
hence the name mirrorless now there are several advantages and disadvantages to a mirrorless
camera versus a dslr so a mirrorless camera in general usually are lighter more compact and
faster but it all depends on the make and model that you choose now another type of camera is the
compact camera so these types of cameras do not offer the option to change the lens the lens
is fixed and as you can see they are very small or compact plus they have a lot fewer features
and options versus a dslr or mirrorless camera they are mostly considered to be a point
and shoot camera since the camera is going to do everything for you in regards to figuring out the
aperture shutter speed and all of that other fun stuff and they're not designed for the creative
photographer so typically since you don't have any way to control the camera settings like with
a dslr you basically point and shoot your subject and that's why it's called a point and shoot
camera or a compact camera sometimes as well now the fourth type of camera is a smartphone and
i remember my first mobile phone in 1999 it had three main options i could get the sports news i
could get the weather and it had a digital rolodex and there was no camera to be found on it and
fast forward today and some smartphones actually probably all smartphones are more advanced
than my first point-and-shoot camera which was the kodak disc camera circulation
around 1987 or so so it's amazing to me how good these cameras are in our smartphones
and in fact a lot of times when i go on vacation or when i take a walk with echo i leave my dslr
cameras and all my gear at home and just use this instead it's so much easier and lighter than
all this other heavy gear and i'm more than happy with the memories i capture with it but anytime
i'm doing portraits weddings landscapes or any other type of paid work and for a lot of personal
work like some of these portraits of my kids here on the wall i prefer my dslr or my mirrorless
camera now there is a fifth category of camera you should be aware of since you'll probably come
across it in your favorite photography publication or on social media or maybe if you're like me
you probably used one back in the days of film and they are known as a medium and large format
cameras now these types of cameras are used more by professional photographers that require
the highest quality image possible so think of magazine covers commercial work and more most
of them use a medium format camera sometimes larger when needed so in essence the digital
sensor is much larger in a medium format than the sensor in a dslr camera and this provides a better
quality image overall in general it all depends on your final output for the image you're creating
and the size of sensor needed whether it's dslr mirrorless or medium or large format all
right let's take a look at how your camera works because it's not much different from your eyes
because when your eyes are closed you can't see what's in front of you it's not until you open
your eyes that the light filters through a lens behind the pupil and then it provides a
sharp clear vision of what's in front of you then when the vision reaches your brain it's
stored as a memory now your camera also has a lens and the light is going to pass through this lens
but before it's recorded by your camera like we talked about before if you have a dslr camera
it's going to hit that mirror and that light is reflected into the viewfinder so you can see that
image in the viewfinder before you take the photo so the mirror is like your eyelids when it's down
your camera sensor or film cannot see the image or record it but just behind that mirror is another
element of your camera that restricts light from reaching your sensor or film now this element is
known as a shutter which is also like your eyelids now when the shutter is closed again no light
can reach the sensor it's not until you press the shutter release button that the mirror
pops up and at the same time the shutter opens and then the light is recorded by your camera
now once the sensor gathers the data it then sends that information through a program in your
camera that will begin editing your photo based on the settings you've chosen and then it will
save that data to a media card now the media card is like your brain since you have memories of the
past and luckily media cards are better at storing and replaying data than our brains or at least
mine anyways all right let's start off with five quick tips for creating amazing photos to help you
get started sooner rather than later tip number five so you can start using your camera right
now by putting it in program mode or auto mode so this mode gives complete control over your
camera settings to well your camera so basically your camera is going to make all the decisions for
you now this is an okay starting point however i recommend shooting in aperture priority mode
instead now to get into that mode you're going to turn a dial on your camera here to either a or
av depending on if you're using a nikon or canon now if you're using a different brand check your
camera manual to figure out how to set it up in aperture priority mode since i'm not familiar
with any other brands now the reason why i recommend aperture priority mode is it gives
you some creative control over your camera now in these two images you can see that one
has a blurry background and the other is sharp so how did i do this well i want you to practice
in aperture priority mode so you can discover the answer for yourself and then later in this
course you'll take a deep dive into apertures so you know everything you need to know about
them okay so what i'd like you to do is take two photos of every subject you photograph so
the first image you're going to set the lenses aperture to the smallest number this could be 4
2.8 or smaller after you create the first photo change the aperture to the largest number of
your lens this could be 11 16 or higher then take another photo of the subject now what
i want you to do is compare those images in your favorite editing software side by side or
on the back of your camera so i want you to take a look at the background notice the background
when comparing the lowest aperture number with the highest number which one do you prefer
and why let me know in the comments below alright tip number four now my next
tip is to shoot in raw and not jpeg and the reason why is one will provide
more details of your scene versus the other as you learn to use your camera and master
light you will make mistakes even i still make mistakes after 30 years and that's sometimes due
to finding yourself in a situation where the light is changing fast and either your camera can't keep
up or maybe you just need to get the shot before the opportunity disappears and this results in an
image that is too dark or too bright like this one so for this image since my camera has a feature
to capture both raw and jpeg files i'm going to show you why raw is better so here are both file
formats with the final edit which one looks better well i think the one on the left here is better
it has more detail and the colors are more vibrant and overall the image is crisper on the other
one you can see a lot of detail was lost and the colors look unnatural so raw files are better than
jpeg and this is why i recommend shooting in raw alright so tip number three so sometimes you
might end up with a blurry image and there's a couple of things you can do to reduce this from
happening one is to use a very fast shutter speed and you'll discover more about them later on first
let's review how to properly hold your camera and some tips for stabilizing your camera to
reduce the chances of getting a blurry focus now for those of you that have just taken your
camera out of the box for the first time to focus on your subject you're going to press the shutter
release button down halfway and your camera and lens will then begin working together to focus
on that subject so once it's focused you're going to press that shutter release button all the way
down to create your photo now the key to reducing blurry photos is to stabilize your camera in
your hands so here's a photo i took with one hand which isn't recommended and as you can see
the photo is blurry now this happened because i wasn't able to hold that camera very steady
with one hand and the result is a blurry image now here's that same subject with the tips i'm
going to give you right now and as you can see it's no longer blurry so the easiest trick
is to use a tripod or you can be the tripod here's how so first you need to properly grip
your camera next you're going to take your other hand and place it under the body so this is
going to help support the camera and stabilize it but we're not done yet because this hand can
also be used to manually focus the lens and or adjust the zoom of the lens so you can zoom in
or out if you're using a zoom lens next what i recommend doing is bringing your elbows into
your body real tight this is going to add more stabilization but there's one problem you're
breathing and this is going to move your arms in and out and if you're out of shape like
i am then your arms are going to move about like a flying bird so to further stabilize your
camera focus on your subject and then as you're about to take that photo hold your breath and then
squeeze that shutter release button all right so that should help in some situations and when you
don't have a tripod but there is a camera setting that can ensure you never take a blurry photo
ever again and that is your shutter speed and like i mentioned you'll learn more about that
later on in this photography course all right tip number two so you use the previous tip to
avoid creating blurry photos but for some reason when you look through the viewfinder the images
are blurry even after you've tried to focus on the subject so this happens because on most digital
cameras there's what's called a diopter setting or diopter setting that works like well your glasses
so your glasses have a specific prescription to help you see things in focus but if you look on
the back of your camera here next your viewfinder on the side or right behind it here you will see
a dial that you can change the prescription of the viewfinder to again help your eyes see things and
focus now this doesn't affect how sharp your image is it's just for previewing your scene in focus
inside of the viewfinder before you create a photo so if you're having trouble seeing through
the viewfinder and things aren't in focus make sure to adjust that dial until everything
becomes much clearer right tip number one to accelerate your photography learning curve
so you can start creating amazing photos sooner rather than later i have one special tip
that can make all the difference and that is have your photos reviewed by other like-minded
photographers now i know that sounds scary but i guarantee you will learn from others faster
than trying to figure it all out on your own even i need a fresh set of eyes when i'm editing
a photo i've created because i might be boxed in and i can't see what's missing so to help
you along this photography journey i've created the friendliest private facebook group
this side of the milky way this group includes thousands of other photographers that i've trained
and you're more than welcome to join the group to get feedback on your photos now i'm in the
group almost daily and if i'm not there's always another friendly photographer willing to help
you out to join the group find the link in the description below all right so one of the most
asked questions i get from students is what camera should i buy and the answer is probably
not going to be what you expect so at this point i don't recommend buying any camera at this
point in your photography journey instead use whatever camera you currently own whether it's a
budget camera high-end camera or just a smartphone now if you have none of these that's okay just
borrow something and the reason why you don't need any expensive gear at this time is there are two
things you should master or at least understand before shelling out thousands in gear and those
are two of the four key ingredients to creating amazing images which are light and composition
both of them require no money so the sunlight it's free and it's perfect for understanding
how to use light to fulfill your creative vision and when it comes to light there are a few
important elements to know and master like the quality of light the four characteristics of light
how the size of your light source affects your image and more we're going to cover some of those
later on in this free photography course and the other thing is composition which also doesn't cost
anything so think of it this way if you golf or know someone that golfs do you think you or they
could beat tiger woods or maybe phil mickelson well what if you gave either one of them only
one club let's say a nine iron could they still beat you for the majority of us i'd say yes
and that's because it's not the equipment it's knowing your equipment and knowing how to
use it so the same can be said for photography light and composition are the tools of the trade
in photography so you need to understand them and how they can help you create amazing images
once you do it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have it doesn't mean that camera gear isn't
important because higher end cameras can provide higher quality images but if you don't understand
how to use light and composition then it doesn't matter if you have a twenty thousand dollar camera
or a hundred dollar camera so long story short use whatever camera you have right now and as you
elevate your photographic skills you'll then be able to decide whether or not a better camera
is justified alright so the second most asked question i get from photography beginners
is which lens should i buy and my answer is a 50 millimeter lens now that's probably not the
lens recommended by the sales clerk at your local camera store usually they'll recommend that you
get the lens kit since it includes a lens and it takes some stress off of you from having to
make a decision in that regard now that lens kit usually includes a zoom lens like an 18 to 55
or 35 to 70 or something like that now there's nothing wrong with that kit lens or is there
well back in 1989 i2 picked up that lens kit and here's that lens now if i can go back in time
with what i know now i'd say no thank you to the kit lens and i would use the money saved to get
the 50 millimeter lens instead why is that well this lens here it's pretty much garbage it's
slow and the photos i take with it are not as sharp as with a 50 millimeter lens okay but
your salesperson recommends getting the kit lens and buying one or more additional lenses
why is that well once upon a time i worked as a sales clerk at my local photography store now
as a sales clerk i was rewarded by the gross sales so that reward was higher commissions and
bonuses from third-party lens manufacturers like sigma tamron and others i made more money selling
a sigma lens versus a nikon or canon lens in fact nikon and canon gave out zero bonuses so
there was no incentive to push their lenses now when it comes to kits the price is usually
more than buying the camera body by itself sweet more commissions well maybe not sweet for
you okay so my point is if your sales clerk works on commission you'll need to think about
why they're pushing a specific lens or lenses or even camera kits now there are a few reasons
why i recommend this lens to photography beginners and that is for two main reasons one the images
will be sharper than a zoom lens whether it's a nikon manufactured canon sigma or the kit
zoom lens it's going to be much sharper and two the overall quality of your image will
be 10 times better with the 50 millimeter lens versus your kit lens and i'll prove it when we get
to that section about lenses let's find out what i mean by painting with light since i'm going to
use it throughout this photography course a lot so let's think about what you're doing as a
photographer you're creating a photo right but how well the number one ingredient for any
photo regardless of the type of camera is light without it you can't capture an image or at least
a good quality image if the light is low and i'm going to prove it right now can you see me maybe
but probably not as good as he did before am i right and yes i can make adjustments on my camera
so you can see me better and to save us time i captured this image of me with the new camera
settings and as you can see the quality isn't the same as it was with my main source of light
turned on so light is important very important all right so think of light as your paint
then your media card is your canvas then your camera equipment is your brush now when it comes
to your camera gear you have a lot of ways to paint with light control it and even alter it
this includes options with your camera body and one of those options will allow you to
alter the color of light and you'll discover all of those options in the next section now when
it comes to your lenses you have a lot of choices as well so all lenses give you control over
how much light to paint with or in other words to capture more or less light and you'll learn
about those options in this photography course too so if you're ready to harness the power of
painting with light to fulfill your creative vision let's do it in the next nine minutes i'm
going to share the secret tools i've used for the last 30 years for every photo i've ever created
and you'll also be using them for every photo you create in your lifetime so this is an introduction
to those tools and then later in the course you're going to take a deep dive into each one of them
so you can master them to create amazing images so this is the foundation for painting with light
so here we go so there are three main elements you must understand that are the building blocks
for everything else you will ever learn about photography and these three elements when properly
aligned will ensure a proper exposure but what is exposure well your photo's exposure relates to
how bright or dark your image is if it's too bright it's overexposed and if it's too dark it's
underexposed now here's the properly exposed image so the question is how do you capture an
image with the correct exposure based on your creative vision well you have to understand
and i mean fully understand the three elements of your camera that affect your exposure and
those are your iso aperture and shutter speed so those are the secret tools for every creative
photo i've ever taken and once you fully understand them you will then be able to paint
with light to create amazing images so one of the first camera settings i decide on is iso but
what is an iso and why do i choose the first well basically iso affects the brightness of the light
sent to your camera's sensor for recording now iso comes in some standard settings like 200 400 800
and 1600 just to name a few there are a lot more but in general the higher the iso number means
the light you paint with becomes brighter so how does iso make available light brighter well first
you have to understand an important concept about digital cameras versus film now unlike film your
digital camera sensor is not sensitive to light it's impossible for electronics to be sensitive in
that manner and i'll prove it so i have some film and i have some light and it's starting
to burn so it's sensitive that stinks all right now we have a camera light and well
it's not sensitive it's not burning anyways now i couldn't find a sensor that i wanted to
use for this demonstration but the point is your camera's sensor will not burn under ordinary
light like the sun or a lamp or a candle but because this film is unrolled it's exposed to
the light it has been exposed to the light and it doesn't matter how much light exposes it because
it is sensitive to that light it's ruined forever however with our digital cameras once we take a
photo that sensor is exposed to the light but you can continue taking another photo again and again
and again because it's not sensitive to light like film is alright so i still haven't answered the
question of how does iso increase the brightness of the available light so here we go look at it
like this you know when you're listening to the radio and one of your favorite songs comes on what
do you do yep you turn up the volume and it gets louder the larger the number on the dial means
your music can get even louder something similar happens when you dial the iso higher in your
digital cameras the higher you go the brighter your image becomes and this is the key your camera
sensor will make the light brighter by turning up the volume or in other words it amplifies the
light to be brighter and the higher the iso the more it's boosted which seems pretty awesome
at first on limited light pretty cool am i right until you realize your photos begin to
look grainy this grain is also known as digital noise see how i did that volume
noise they're kind of like distant cousins all right so this image was captured at iso 100
and i shot it again at iso 800 now notice how it's not as clean as the first one it has some
grain or noise or however you want to look at it all right i then retook that photo again at
iso 1600 and it's even noisier than before and then one more time at iso 6400 which is very
very loud like my teenage daughter when she thinks she's home alone all right so the more you dial up
the iso the louder or noisier it gets so how does a higher iso create a noisier photo well there
are two reasons why a photo becomes noisier and you'll discover the answer to that with the
iso deep dive coming up later in this course all right next up my favorite topic the aperture
so what is an aperture well it's nothing more than a hole in your lens that's it well other than
the fact you can control how big that hole is which can affect your exposure and it has
creative powers now the bigger the hole the more light that is sent to your camera and
the smaller the hole the less light that travels to your camera now inside your lens you can see
this hole and depending on the lens that you have when you rotate the lens barrel you can see the
size of the whole change now the size of the hole is represented by a number like 2.8 4 8 or 16 to
name a few however in photography these numbers are presented like this f 2.8 f 4 f 8 and f 16.
now this is where things get a little confusing because a larger number doesn't mean you
have a larger hole quite the opposite so f 2.8 is a larger hole compared to f 16.
How is
that possible well there's some math involved and we'll take a deep dive into apertures and you'll
learn everything you need to know about them later in the course for now here's a hint look at
this number again and what does it look like if you set a fraction you are correct we have
f divided by 2.8 so what does the f stand for well again you'll find out later on in the
course as for its creative powers you probably already discovered what they are when you followed
my five pro tips that you watched previously you did watch it right if not check out this
time timestamps below to discover aperture's creative powers for yourself or you can wait
until we get to the aperture deep dive tutorial alright so the third and final element of
your exposure and creativity is shutter speed now like we talked about before there is a
shutter directly in front of your camera sensor or film if you're old school and that shutter
blocks the light from being recorded now when you create a photo the shutter opens and your
sensor can then record the light or the photo for you now how long the shutter stays open is
based on the speed you set for the shutter so if you decide to open the shutter for let's say five
seconds it will do so for that duration and then it will close and your sensor will stop
recording now your shutter speed is like apertures because they're listed as a fraction so
some common shutter speeds you'll use are 1 160th of a second 1 125th 1 250th and 1 500th to name a
few now whole numbers are also used to represent the speed of your shutter and they refer to
seconds instead of fractions of a second so like one second five seconds seven seconds etcetera
and of course the longer your shutter is open the more light you paint with and the shorter
the length the less light you'll record now your shutter like your aperture also has some
creative powers now those powers include either freezing the action or blurring the action you
can create a soft dreamy like water by using very slow shutter speeds and for this image i
used a one second shutter speed to create that milky effect on the water now if you're like
my wife and that's not something you're into you can actually freeze the action with a fast
shutter speed so here's the same subject but a shutter speed of 1 500th of a second that freezes
the water in place now how does this happen well you're going to find out in the next section so
if you're ready let's do it all right now that you have a good grasp on what an exposure is and the
three elements to achieve your desired exposure it's time to take a deep dive into iso apertures
and shutter speeds so we're going to start off with iso first since this is the camera setting
i recommend adjusting before the other two with dozens of iso setting options which one should
you use and when well in the next few minutes i'm going to share some pro tips on which iso settings
to choose under different lighting conditions but first let's discover how grain is increased with
each higher iso setting as i promised previously the first is based on the quality of your digital
camera and the size of your sensor in general the higher the quality camera will result in less
noise at higher isos we're going to take a look at a couple of images to compare older and newer
technology so back in 2001 i picked up my first digital camera which is this fuji s2 right here
now here's an image that i shot with it at iso 800 you can definitely see a lot of grain in the image
this next photo i took with my nikon d500 which i got around 2016 or so so that's about 15 years
after my fuji s2 now although there's a lot of grain there isn't as much as there was before why
is that well the camera's processor in the d500 is much better at reducing noise versus my fuji s2 so
the technology has vastly improved over the years this next image i shot with a larger sensor in
this case this image was captured with my nikon z6 which is a mirrorless camera and the sensor
is larger compared to the d500 and fuji s2 just like the other images this was captured at
iso 800 the amount of grain once again is better than the older and smaller sensors in general
higher end cameras or newer technology have better noise reduction capabilities versus lower
end or older digital cameras and bigger sensors also reduce the amount of digital noise the other
factor is today's digital cameras are well they're electronic and when light enters your camera
the sensor records the brightness of the light that reaches it this is different from the film
days when the film itself was sensitive to light like i demonstrated previously so your electronic
camera will amplify the light when you choose a higher iso setting this amplification
causes the grain to increase in size with each higher iso setting that you shoot with
all right so another thing you should know is unlike aperture and shutter speeds iso does not
have any creative options instead it's only used to increase the brightness of available light if
you can't physically add more light with let's say off camera flash or strobes or let's say you
have a creative vision for a photo that requires a specific aperture or shutter speed in that
case you will add more light by that's right amplifying it with a higher iso number and as you
now know the higher the iso will result in more noise so my number one recommendation is
to use the lowest iso setting possible at all times alright so here are some guidelines
to get you started since it's impossible to give exact settings for specific lighting
situations since the possibilities are unlimited all right when shooting outdoors on a bright sunny
day you'll want to use the lowest iso available on your camera like 100 or 200.
If it's partly cloudy
or completely cloudy you might have to use iso 400 to 800 and that's going to depend on how dark the
clouds are and how much sunlight it's restricting now if you're going to shoot indoors you might
have to use iso 800 to 1600 or higher again it all depends on how dark it is inside now when
you're ready to start taking photos you may have some doubt about which iso setting to use
in that case your camera might have an option to automatically set your iso for you and this camera
setting is often referred to as well auto iso so does your camera have this option well you're
gonna have to check your camera manual to find out if not just use one of the guidelines i just
mentioned to get you started now if you do have auto iso it's going to make it easier for you to
start taking photos now without worrying about which iso number to use since your camera is going
to auto magically choose the iso for you however i must warn you that it's not perfect and
sometimes you may end up with a bad exposure and later in this photography class you're
going to learn about exposure metering exposure compensation and more to get the right exposure
if your camera doesn't do so automatically now if you have auto iso refer to your camera manual
to learn how to set it up and here's how it works depending on your camera you should be able to set
the maximum iso setting which will minimize the amount of digital noise based on your choice also
depending on your camera you might also have the option to set the minimum shutter speed setting
the minimum shutter speed will ensure your camera doesn't choose a speed that will cause images that
are blurry more on that coming up soon now if you do not have auto iso refer to the guidelines
provided earlier when you continue with the following tutorials which is going to start with
the creative side of apertures coming up right now all right we're going to do a quick recap on
apertures and i'm going to do a demonstration that's going to show you when you use different
apertures it can alter how your image looks then we're going to take a deep dive into
apertures so you can master everything you need to know about apertures all right so something
interesting happens when you adjust the aperture from smaller to larger or vice versa now as you
can see with these images the background goes from in focus to out of focus more and more with each
change of the aperture i should also point out that there are other factors that determine how
much the background is blurred out like the length of your lens the distance between your subject and
the background and more you're going to learn all about those and more after this tutorial now
all the way in the beginning of this class i mentioned that i recommended starting to shoot in
aperture priority mode and if you didn't do that that's okay because we're going to go ahead and
do that right now so let's go ahead and grab our cameras and the first thing you want to do is you
want to set your camera in aperture priority mode to do that you're going to locate the dial on your
camera that has the setting for aperture priority mode and you can find it by locating either the
letter a or a v so in case you're wondering the a stands for aperture priority and now you have
full creative control over the aperture and your camera is going to automatically choose the
shutter speed for you to get the correct exposure now if you don't have auto iso you're going to
need to set your iso according to the guidelines i provided previously since your camera's not
going to do it for you when you're in aperture priority mode now to choose the aperture you want
to shoot with you're going to need to turn a dial on your camera to adjust it accordingly all
right let's grab any two items and set them about six to 12 inches apart now for the
first photo we're going to set the camera's aperture to the largest aperture for that lens
this could be something like f 2.8 or f 4. it's all going to depend on your specific lens now
for this lens it's a 50 millimeter lens and the largest aperture is 1.8 all right so what we're
going to do is we're going to focus on the front object so the zebra in my case and we're going to
create our first image all right so once you have that image done the next thing to do is to change
your aperture to the smallest hole for that lens and that could be something like f11 or f16 and
for this lens it's f16 so go ahead and set that let's refocus on the front object again and create
another photo all right now that we have both images done let's compare them side by side so the
image on the left is the one that i shot at f16 and the other is f 1.8 in both images you can
see that the zebra is in focus and the elephant is only in focus in the first photo and at f 1.8
it's not in focus at all so this demonstrates that the larger the aperture the more the background
will be blurred out and this is also known as well you're going to find out in the next tutorial
all right we're now going to take a deep dive into apertures so you fully understand how they
work and how they can alter your final image now previously i demonstrated that the larger
the aperture the more the background is blurred out when it comes to the area in focus
this is referred to as the depth of field so the depth of field is the zone within a photo
that appears sharp and in focus when focusing on your subject that is considered the point of
focus beyond that how much appears in focus corresponds to the depth of field so here are
two more images and the amount of the depth of field in one is greater than the other the first
image i captured at 1.8 and it is considered to have a small or shallow depth of field the second
image was captured at f 16 and this is considered to have a large depth of field in essence a small
depth of field has less in focus versus a large depth of field now to help you remember this a
small aperture number like 1.8 represents a small depth of field and a large number like 16 means
you will have a large depth of field now you may have realized a weird phenomenon and that is a
small aperture number like 1.8 has a very large hole compared to an aperture of 16.
Why is that
well as we discussed earlier an aperture number in photography is referred to as an f number and
as you now know the numbers are listed like this f 1.8 f 2 f 2.8 and so on also just so you know
in case you're wondering not all cameras will include a forward slash with the number when
you dial in an aperture either way you'll know exactly which aperture it is what size it is
and how it will affect your depth of field now there is a reason why a forward slash is included
and it will explain why f16 is smaller than 1.8 so if you're ready to demystify this phenomenon on
how 1.8 is larger than 16 let's first go over what the f and your f number represents so the letter
f stands for focal length each one of your lenses has a specific focal length that is represented
in millimeters so this lenses focal length is 50 millimeters and it has a range of f numbers
from 1.8 to 16.
So let's take the focal length of this lens 50 and we're going to replace the letter
f with it okay so now we have this math equation 50 forward slash 1.8 now no worries math is not
a requirement to create awesome photos just stick with me for another 15 seconds and this will all
make sense okay if we divide 50 by 1.8 that equals 22.77 then if we take 50 and divide it by 16
that's 3.125 so which one is the smaller one that's right 3.125 therefore in photography f16
is a smaller hole versus an aperture of f 1.8 so you might be wondering how can you use what
you've just learned to be more creative well let's look at some more images to reinforce
what you've learned and then i have a video that demonstrates that shows how different focal
lengths and distances can affect your depth of field as well which i'll share in just a minute
now for this particular image i wanted to tell the story of this couple's wedding day and the
location of that wedding day so i wanted to use a fairly small but large aperture i didn't want to
completely blur out the background so i used an aperture of f4 so not too big not too small and
that allowed me to keep some of the background and focus and if you recognize this letter d you
know that's from detroit and in particular the detroit tigers so their wedding day was in that
area and we were near the detroit tiger stadium if i had completely blurred out the background
that information would have been missing and you would have thought that this particular image
was shot at any major city across the world but by including the d and keeping it in focus we now
have a storyline that lets you know exactly where this particular wedding took place now for this
next image i also shot this at an aperture of f4 but the distance between our subject and the
background is much greater than it was in the previous image and that creates a much blurrier
background because of that distance now in this image i actually shot this at a small aperture of
f 11 and you would expect the background and even some of the foreground here to be more in focus
than it really is and that's due to the lens that i used which is a macro lens which is going
to change the amount of depth of field based on it being a macro lens versus a normal lens so
your lenses can also affect the depth of field not just a distance and not just apertures for
this next image i shot at an aperture of f8 so i have the foreground in focus the tree
lines here in the front are somewhat in focus and each tree behind one another is less and less
in focus so we have a somewhat shallow depth of field but not very shallow because again
i wanted to help tell the story of the day and show the types of trees behind them i could
have completely blurted out so you couldn't even recognize that those were tree trunks but that
would have eliminated that part of the story so make sure you're selecting your apertures
based on the story you want to tell for this next image i love this image it's a classic
shot of the guys the groom the groomsmen walking towards the camera and it's a very
popular type of photo that all my clients want but i chose the wrong aperture and i had to try and
fix it in photoshop my motto is to get it right in camera and i didn't on this image and you
can definitely see in the background all the details of the background and the cityscape we
can definitely read what's going on in the signs and you could say that's helping tell the story
but there's too much in focus and it's taking away from our main subjects which are the guys in
this case and it's kind of hard to separate the foreground in the background because all of it
is in focus so let's take a look at the image that i did in photoshop and now that the background is
blurred out you can definitely see that the guys stand out a lot more than they did previously so
here's the before and after on the left side we can read the signs on the right side we can't and
you can definitely see how the guys on this side on the left side are harder to visualize or see
because they're not standing out as much as the guys on the right now truth be told i probably
should have blurred this out a little bit more to tone it down even more but the more i blurted
out the more unnatural it began to look which is why i always recommend getting it right in camera
so you don't have to try and fix it afterwards all right so here's the video demonstration that i
mentioned previously all right so we're going to take several photos to demonstrate depth of
field and how you can control depth of field with different factors so the first two images
i'm going to shoot at 1.4 which is the largest aperture for this lens and then a second photo
at f16 which is the smallest aperture for this lens and then we'll compare those two images
to see how those aperture settings affect depth of field so i'm gonna go ahead and shoot at
f16 first and i'm going to have her hold out the flower so i can focus on the flower which is going
to demonstrate the depth of field when i focus on the flower versus her so i'm going to go ahead
and focus on the flower and take the first image now i'm going to change to 1.4 and take a second
image all right let's compare those images now and the first one is going to be the one shot at
f16 and we can see that there's a large depth of field and a lot of the elements in the scene are
in focus now let's compare that to 1.4 we can see that the flower the stem in our hand is in focus
but the rest of the scene is not so she's blurry in this image as well as the elements in the back
the fence and the houses in the back are blurrier than the subject and the further the elements from
her the more they become blurred out all right so remember what we talked about before when you have
a small aperture number that's going to result in a small depth of field or less of the image being
in focus when you have a large aperture number like f16 or f22 you're going to have a larger
depth of field and more of the image is going to be in focus now i want to demonstrate another way
you can control depth of field and what i'm going to do is i'm going to step back about 15 feet here
and take two more images at 1.4 and then another at f 16.
Okay so i'm going to go ahead and shoot
at f 16 first okay i'm going to switch to 1.4 now all right let's take a look at these images now
and the first one is at f16 and just like before we have a large depth of field but check out
what happens when you shoot at 1.4 and you're further from the subject so this time she's in
much sharper focus than before so she's not as blurry but the background even though it's more
in focus it's still blurry all right so distance is another way of controlling your depth of field
so the closer you are to the subject that you're focusing on the shallower or the smaller the depth
of field or the less of the image that will be in focus and the greater the distance between you
and your camera and the subject you're focusing on the greater the depth of field or the
larger the depth of field or the more of the image that will be in focus now another
thing that you can do is if you're photographing somebody and you have a busy background like this
and you want to blur out the background but you're not getting the amount of blur that you want what
you can do is you can move your subject away from the background and then that will blur out that
background even more so we're both going to move up here about 30 feet or so and we're going
to take another photo all right so we're now about 30 to 40 feet further from the position we
were before and i'm going to shoot at 1.4 again all right let's take a look at this image and
compare it to the last one so as you can see we have a fairly large depth of field but compared to
the last image the background is much more blurred out than it was before so again distance helps
affect or control the amount of the image that is in focus now another thing that you can
do to control the amount of depth of field if you can't move your subject away from the
background because maybe you're photographing a tiger at the zoo or you're on safari and for
obvious reasons you can't get closer to that tiger or you can ask that tiger to move away from
the background what you can do instead is change your lens from shorter to longer so i'm
going to change my focal length here from 50 to 200 and shoot another photo to compare that
to the image that we just took all right so i have my 70 to 200 lens and i'm going to shoot
at the longest length which is 200 now for this lens the largest aperture i have is 2.8 so i
can't shoot at 1.4 so technically it's a smaller aperture versus the one we shot previously with
the shorter focal length so i'm going to have her hold up that flower again i'm going to focus
on that flower and take another image let's go ahead and compare this image now to the one we did
previously so as you can see the flower the stem and her hand are in focus but she is no longer in
focus like it was with the last image at 1.4 and definitely the background is more out of focus
than it was previously as well so that's another option for controlling your depth of field by
using a longer lens all right now that you know the creative aspects of apertures how it affects
the depth of field and how distance affects the depth of field it's time to take your knowledge
and apply it since knowledge is not power action is and that's because the best way to learn
photography is to practice what you've learned now remember adjust your aperture based on the amount
of depth of field you prefer and don't forget to adjust the iso if you don't have auto iso set up
now real quick there's one more thing you should know and that is bokeh in photography we use
the term bokeh to describe the characteristics of how the background looks when blurred out
the bouquet appears as little circles in the out of focus areas and those circles can have
different shapes depending on the type of lens you use so let's take a look at a couple of images
to see what it looks like all right so for this image i captured this at a national park that we
live near and they were doing a demonstration on birds of prey and i wanted to use a shallow depth
of field to blur out the things that were going on in the background because there was people
walking by and i wasn't sure if i was going to get the shot i wanted at the time because the bird's
head was moving so fast or i should say the owl so i used an aperture of 2.8 and i used a long
focal length of 200 millimeters which helped create a shallower depth of field and that
helped create these circles in the background so that's the bouquet the circles that you see
in the background for this next image i used a 60 millimeter macro lens and i used an aperture
of f 2.8 and you can see the shape of the bokeh is different from the previous image it kind of
has a outline on the outer edge of the circle and it's not really a circle it's more oblong
versus circle now you can also get a hexagon shape depending on the lens and the aperture that
you use now for this next image i didn't create this image i actually found this on pixels.com
but i wanted to show you this image because the bokeh on it is very unique to this particular
lens and you can see that the bokeh is more of a bubble type shape and the outline on it
creates more of a bubble effect especially if you take a look down here in the bottom right of
the image you can definitely see that bubble type shape now this particular lens is called a
meyer gorelitz primitar or something like that it's actually a lens from the 50s and you
will find older lenses like this will create different types of bokeh so if you want
to create something different and unique take a look at different lenses from different
eras to see if you can find something unique all right now that you know everything you need
to know about apertures we're now going to take a deeper dive into shutter speeds alright now
that you know how to use apertures creatively it's time to take a closer look at shutter speed
since it also provides creative options to see how the shutter speeds can help you achieve your
creative vision grab your camera and switch it to shutter priority mode this setting can be set by
changing the dial on your camera to s you now have full creative control over the shutter speed and
your camera will decide on the aperture to achieve the proper exposure now remember you'll need
to set the iso setting manually unless you have auto iso activated so what creative options does
the shutter speed provide well i'm glad you asked the two options are to either freeze the action
or blur the action so for this image i froze the action of the newlyweds jumping by using a fast
shutter speed now for this waterfall image which i captured on a family vacation in letchworth
park new york i blurred the action by using a slower shutter speed so the creative options
are achieved by how long your shutter stays open although there are some other factors that can
affect how much motion blur is created for example the speed of your subject can affect the amount of
blur and so does the distance of your subject from your camera and you'll discover why that is in
just a moment first i'm going to demonstrate how to freeze and blur the action with my wife's handy
dandy fan so we're going to take two photos at two different speeds for the first image i'm going
to use a shutter speed of 1 8 of a second and for the second image i'll use 1 8 000 of a second
all right i'm gonna go ahead and turn the fan on to the slowest setting it has three different
speed options but we'll use the slowest one for now so i'm going to set my camera to 1 8 of a
second and i'm going to record the camera's view so you can see what i see prior to taking the
photo now we have one problem i'm hand holding and at this shutter speed it's not going to work
and you'll find out why in the next tutorial so i'm going to start over and put my camera on a
tripod alright so let's try this again now here's the image i just captured and the camera sees the
blades the same as you and i they're blurry right so what i'm going to do now is i'm going to change
my shutter speed to 1 8 000 of a second and retake the photo to see if we can stop the action i think
i need to increase my iso as well so let's see wow iso 40 000 maybe a little bit more i might
need to change my aperture as well i'm going to go down to f2 so i think i have a good exposure
nail so let's go ahead and try this again okay so this time the camera froze the action and we
can actually see the individual blades so anytime you want to freeze the action use a fast shutter
speed the only problem is how do you know which shutter speed to use and when that and more will
be answered real soon but first i'm going to take a third image with the fan at the highest setting
or the fastest setting so the blades move even faster and i'm going to use the same shutter
speed of 1 8 000 of a second and this is going to demonstrate the cause and effect of the speed
of your subject in relation to your shutter speed i'm gonna go ahead and turn this up oop wrong
way all right there we go it's much louder now let's go ahead and take that shot again all right
you now know how the shutter speed can either blur or freeze the action but the question is how does
this happen and how do you decide on which shutter speed to use and when well you are now going to
take a deep dive into shutter speeds that will answer those questions and more all right so the
amount of blur in an image is dependent on three things your shutter speed the speed of the subject
and the distance of the subject to your camera let's review a couple of images of the fan blades
we captured previously the first image here on the left is the photo captured at 1 8 of a second and
the one on the right is 1 8 000 of a second this is a classic example of freezing or blurring the
action now let's compare the faster shutter speed with the third image i captured that you haven't
seen yet now you may remember for this image i had the fan setting set to the slowest speed and
here's the third image with the faster fan speed and this time we have some motion blur this is
due to the blades turning faster this time so this demonstrates how the speed of your subject
can alter whether or not you're freezing or blurring that action with the same shutter speed
so this brings us to that question again about figuring out which shutter speed to use and
when and that answer is coming up soon i promise before i share that let's look at some more
images so i volunteered my daughter to assist us at a local park for this demonstration and we took
three photos two at a distance of 10 feet from the camera with the shutter speed of one second and
one one thousands of a second then the third image i captured her 500 feet from the camera at one
second so this image was at a distance of around 10 feet from the camera and a shutter speed of
1 1000th of a second which shows we froze the action this next image was captured at one second
and this time we have some motion blur all right now let's see how distance affects whether or
not the action is blurred or frozen also in case you're wondering i didn't shoot a fourth image
at the faster shutter speed with this distance since it would still freeze the action but check
out what happened with the slower shutter speed and a distance of around 500 feet now it's hard
to see how much of the action is frozen or blurred because she is much further from the camera than
before so let's go ahead and zoom in and although the action is not frozen the amount of blurring
that occurred is less than when she was only 10 feet from the camera so this demonstrates that
the distance can play a role in whether or not the action is frozen or blurred or by how much
so the further your subject is from the camera the less blurring will occur why is that well
let's jump into photoshop here and find out so we have both images here and they both have
guidelines applied to them which represents the opening and closing of the shutter the
right guideline represents the opening the left represents where the shutter closed so in
between those guidelines she traveled from one to the other as she was being recorded on the
sensor but as you can see the amount she traveled in our first image here was greater than the other
image which reduced the amount of motion blur so try and think of your subject traveling across
a sensor the closer they are to your camera the further they're going to travel along that sensor
and the longer the motion blur is going to be the further they are from your camera they're
going to travel a shorter distance on that sensor creating less motion blur so keep that
in mind the further they are the less motion blur you will have all right now for the moment
you've been waiting for i'm going to share some guidelines on deciding which shutter speed to
use and when when it comes to photographing your kids or people in general sports or even
wildlife and you wish to freeze the action a good starting point is 1 500th of a second if
the action is really fast and you're close to it then you may want to go up to 1 2 000 of a second
or faster like 1 4 000 of a second but sometimes adding motion blur can help create something
unique for example in this image i used a shutter speed of 1 30th of a second to add
some motion blur of my daughter riding her bike at that shutter speed it should have caused a
lot more motion blur on her than what actually occurred and that was achieved because i took
my camera and i panned and i followed her as she went by and doing this creates motion blur in
the background versus on my daughter so panning is a photography technique to create motion blur
more on the surroundings than the actual subject because you're focusing on that particular
subject when it comes to shooting landscapes there's generally little to no action in the scene
unless of course you're shooting a waterfall or a landscape on a windy day therefore you can use
any shutter speed you desired actually that's not correct because if you remember the first photo
i took in the previous tutorial i tried to hand hold the camera with a one second shutter speed
and that resulted in a blurry image due to camera shake by using a tripod i was able to eliminate
the blurriness caused by the camera shaking so one of the things you can do is use a faster
shutter speed but if you want to blur the action then you'll need a tripod to avoid camera shake
so it's safe to say that a faster shutter speed is required the faster the action is and or
the closer you are to the subject with your camera now the problem is all of those factors
can include an infinite amount of possibilities so what i recommend is testing and practicing
prior to the actual day of the shoot or when you first arrive at the scene take some test
shots to narrow down the shutter speed you want for your creative vision alright so here's
another pro tip for deciding on the minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake or
blurry photos when you don't have a tripod so based on the lens that you're using you're
going to take the focal length and double it if it's a zoom lens like this 28 to 70 you're
going to use the longest length so in this case that would be 140 and then we're going to convert
that to a shutter speed which would be 1 140th of a second now if your camera doesn't have that
shutter speed then round up so in this case 1 150th of a second is the minimum shutter speed i
should use for this lens now for my 70 to 200 the minimum shutter speed would be 1 400th of a second
now keep in mind that this is a rule that can be adjusted based on how well you're able to hold
the camera for example my daughter is a smaller in stature than i am she's like five foot three
and a hundred pounds so this lens and the weight of the camera is probably going to be harder for
her to hold still and avoid camera shake which means she might need a faster shutter speed than
1 400th of a second she might need something like 1 1000th of a second so you're going to need
to experiment with all your different lenses to find the ideal minimum shutter speed to avoid
camera shake another thing you can do when you forget your tripod at home like i do when i go on
vacation is to use your surroundings to stabilize your camera for this waterfall image i wanted to
blur the motion of the water to create a smooth silky type of effect but with no tripod in
sight i ended up with the dreaded camera shake blur luckily there was a small stone wall in front
of me that i placed my camera on and i was able to get the shot now if you don't have the same
type of luck you can try leaning against a wall or bring your elbows in tight and hold your breath
as you squeeze the shutter release button so the better you're able to hold the camera still the
better chance of getting the shot or better yet don't leave your tripod at home alright now it's
your turn to take this knowledge and practice by shooting in shutter priority mode and discover
for yourself the creative side to shutter speeds now coming up next is the answer to something you
might have already discovered and that is why does your camera sometimes get the exposure wrong
when shooting in aperture or shutter priority mode or even full auto let's find out so you
can continue elevating your photography skills what i'm about to share is going to elevate your
photography knowledge to a whole new level this information is vital for mastering your camera to
create amazing images with your desired exposure this knowledge will also make it easier for you
to fulfill your creative vision once you know your camera's limitations which by the way it does
have limitations because it's not perfect like you and me all right so far you've been shooting in
aperture and shutter priority modes but not all of your exposures have been perfect have they some
are overexposed some are underexposed and then some but not all are exactly what you were hoping
for why is that well in essence your camera is a computer and it gives you results based on how
it's programmed so let's review how your camera has been programmed and this will answer why it
sometimes gets your exposure wrong so the best way to demonstrate this is with some photos so
let me introduce you to one of our family members fuzzy bunny and i photographed him on a white
background to demonstrate how your camera is programmed to see light so this image was shot
in aperture priority mode and it's under exposed now here's the image with the correct exposure and
i'll explain how i achieved that with an auto mode in a moment first let's explore why the camera
gave me an underexposed image in aperture priority mode let me point out the obvious your camera has
a body but it doesn't have a brain like you and i instead it has a computer chip therefore your
camera determines the proper exposure based on yes like i mentioned how it's programmed so your
camera has no idea if you're photographing a bunny a tree or something else all it sees is light
and the color of that light and the computer chip in your camera transforms that information that
the sensor received into digital data to reveal your image so how is your camera programmed
to see the proper exposure in auto mode well i'm glad you asked so your camera is programmed to
assume the brightness level of light is a mid gray tone depending on your camera that's around 10
to 18 gray so think about that for a moment some scenes could be dark and moody and then another
could be bright and vibrant but your camera has been programmed to assume that the brightness
levels in both of those situations should be 18 gray so when you're shooting a very bright
scene or a subject like fuzzy bunny your camera is going to over compensate for this brightness
level and in this case we have a bright white bunny on a bright white background all right
try and say that 10 times real fast all right so the result is an under exposed image when
your camera compensates for this brightness level and converts it to a mid gray this happens any
time the light is very bright or when the elements in your scene are highly reflective like snow
and the opposite happens when you have a very dark location or dark subject like with myrtle the
turtle i photographed her with a black background and she too is dark and in auto mode my camera
overcompensates and over exposes the image now the question is how do you fix your camera to give
you the proper exposure when using an auto mode like aperture priority or shutter priority well
you have two options and they will be revealed next all right we are now going to literally jump
into a photo to dissect it to understand how your camera is giving you the exposure it does and
you'll learn the two solutions for getting better exposures when using an auto mode previously
you learned that your camera is programmed to set your exposure based on a mid gray of
around 10 to 18 percent but the question is how does your camera see the light or measure it
well since your camera doesn't have eyes like you and i your camera uses a light meter to see the
brightness levels of the available light then the light meter measures how bright it is based
on how it's programmed will determine the camera settings it chooses for you now when your camera
gets the exposure wrong you have two options that include either changing the default light
metering mode or adjusting the exposure value also known as exposure compensation so let's go
over the metering modes first there are three popular types of metering modes that include
matrix metering also known as evaluative mode if you're a canon user the other two are center
weighted metering and spot metering now depending on your camera you may have more options but
for now let's go over the basics of those three now in essence you can control how your
camera meters the available light based on one of those three metering modes so the matrix or
evaluative metering mode is designed to evaluate all the light you see in your viewfinder of the
metering modes you have this is the most complex and what it does is it evaluates the light in five
different zones it then calculates the different light levels in each section to give you an
exposure now i find this metering mode works for most instances it's when you start shooting
portraits for example with the light behind them that you'll find it doesn't give a good exposure
at least for the subject you're photographing next you have the center weighted mode which
evaluates the light more towards the center of the viewfinder and it ignores the light outside of it
the spot metering mode is even smaller at around three to five percent of the viewfinder area
and basically it only evaluates the light in that small spot in the center of your viewfinder
although some cameras will move the spot meter based on where your focus point is so if
you change the focus point from the center to the right or to the left the spot meter
will evaluate the light at that point in your viewfinder and we're going to cover focus points
in more detail later in this photography class now to see how these different meter modes
work let's watch this pre-recorded video alright so for this photo shoot i am shooting in
aperture priority mode again and i'm shooting at 2.8 and i have matrix metering set for the first
image and i'm going to compose her so she's on the left side so we get some of the light from the
background in the image as well so we can compare how the light is metered with the three different
metering modes so i'm gonna go ahead and take the first image here all right so for this first
image it is a bit under exposed but overall the exposure isn't too bad the skin tones look
pretty good the background looks pretty good but i think i would like it a little bit
brighter so what i'm going to do is i'm going to switch to center weighted mode
to see if that gives me a better exposure all right so this time the image is overexposed
in regards to the skin tones and that's because the metering is being applied more
towards the center and the light around the image is not being metered at
all so that background there in the back is much darker than the skin tones which
creates an overexposure of the skin tones so this time i'm going to switch to spot
metering mode and because i have the focus point on her face it's going to also meter the
light in that area so her skin tones her hair and maybe a little bit more around her as
well so let's see if we get a better exposure with spot metering all right so for this image
we did not get the exposure i wanted the overall image is now underexposed and the skin tones
are darker and that could be the way the light is being metered in that area where i focused so
overall i believe the matrix mode gave us the best exposure so we're gonna head back into the studio
and take a closer look at these images to compare them a little bit more so i can give you some more
guidelines on which metering mode to use and when so this was the first image we took and i used
the matrix metering mode for this particular image and as you can see it did a really really good
job in giving me a good exposure in camera however i do find that the image is around two-thirds
stops underexposed and i base that on the brightness levels of her skin and this area
right here which is really dark and we're losing some detail in the hair and that's because it's
under exposed so the one thing i can do is i can increase the exposure compensation to make it
brighter at time of capture which you'll learn how to do very soon or i can try and fix it in
post-production the problem with that is when you have an underexposed image like this you're
going to create new problems when you increase the exposure in your favorite editing software
for example when underexposed it can become muddy the skin can become muddy and you'll lose
some detail the skin color can shift and become unnatural looking you will also introduce digital
noise and artifacts all of which now require your attention and time to be fixed in post-production
so it's my recommendation to start your editing in camera by getting the exposure right at the time
of capture versus fixing it after the fact so when it comes to the matrix metering mode and this
type of lighting condition you'll often find that the exposure is close to perfect like for this
image however if the lighting of the scene is backlit and we don't have all these trays or these
buildings here and it's really bright in these two sections up here then the matrix metering mode
is going to over compensate for this large amount of brightness levels in those two sections and
will further underexpose your image so remember the matrix mode is evaluating the light in five
different sections and if one or more of those sections has a dominant brightness level that
is very intense it's going to over compensate for that and will give you an exposure that will
be more over or underexposed versus what i have for this image that being said the matrix mode
is great for lighting situations like this or even on cloudy days when the light is muted
so here's the second image we took and i used the center weighted metering mode and this time
the light meter was restricted to the center area and all the light outside of it has been
ignored and because we have a fairly dark area right here that is affecting the light meter and
what the camera ends up doing is over compensating for this dark area right here and gives us an
over exposed image based on how it's programmed so trying to fix the overexposed skin you can
see it's a lot brighter than it was before and trying to fix that in post-production is going to
create new problems that you'll have to try and fix and just like with an underexposed image
you can end up with color shifts muddy skin tones and if too overexposed you could lose
detail that will be nearly impossible to fix now in regards to using the center weighted
metering mode honestly i've never used it and don't have any recommendations for it
personally i stick with matrix or spot metering all right so here's the third image we
took and i used the spot metering mode for this and the exposure is nearly identical
to the matrix mode even though the metering was restricted to her face here as well as some
surrounding areas and that's because my camera allows the spot meter mode to move with
the focus point which of course was placed on her face overall though the main area being
analyzed is the skin since it makes up a larger portion of the section being metered and this
resulted in the camera compensating for those brightness levels and under exposing the skin
around two thirds stops so your spot metering mode and the other metering modes could give you
different results versus my camera based on how your camera has been programmed and you may not
have issues with over or under exposing the skin or you could end up with the opposite of my
results and have over exposed skin so you're going to need to test out your metering modes prior to
shooting in order to get the results you want so it's now time to discover what and how to use the
exposure compensation tool built into your camera which is coming up right now previously i promised
two options for helping your camera get the right exposure based on your creative vision you learn
about the first option which is to change the metering mode now let's explore the second option
which is manually adjusting the exposure when your camera doesn't give you the results you want or in
other words compensate for your camera's mistakes and this second option is known as exposure
compensation and although you have to adjust this setting manually when using any of the auto modes
it is easier than it sounds but before we get into manually adjusting your exposure you first have
to understand a vital component of exposure in photography and that is you need to know what a
stop is in photography and no i'm not referring to physically stopping or stop signs instead a
stop in photography is the terminology we use to describe what happens to the amount of
light reaching your camera for your exposure based on when you change a camera setting from one
to another in essence a stop refers to doubling the amount of light or cutting the amount of light
in half so when you switch from iso 100 to 200 that is considered one stop going from f4 to f 2.8
is one stop and so is going from one second to two seconds so let's say you have a one second shutter
speed and decide to use two seconds instead doubling the shutter speed from one to two seconds
means you're doubling the amount of light since your shutter is open twice as long or you could
say that you're increasing the light by one stop which is faster than saying all the things
i just said so if you hear someone say they increased their exposure by one stop that means
they've doubled the amount of light or if they say i've stopped down by one stop that means they cut
the amount of light in half all right so this is still confusing no worries because it will be at
this point in your photography journey i'm giving you information that is essential for mastering
exposures and in time and practice this will all make sense i promise now if you're wondering what
does this have to do with exposure compensation well everything so grab your camera and your
camera manual to determine how to compensate for the exposure given by your camera now most
cameras at least on the nikons i've owned have a button on the camera's body with a plus and minus
sign so you're going to press and hold that button and your digital screen will change and will look
something like this now when i rotate the dial to the left i get a negative number to the right
i get a positive number each turn increases or decreases the amount of light by roughly
one-third so i have plus .3 which is one-third turning again i get .7 or two thirds and again
it gives me one stop if i continue i get 1.3 1.7 and so on and a positive number would be
increasing the amount of light and a negative number would be decreasing the amount of light so
when you're using an auto mode and you discover that your image is still under or overexposed
you can change the metering mode like i showed you in the previous tutorial then if you find
the image is still under or overexposed adjust the exposure compensation accordingly for example
in the last images we took outside of my daughter they were about two-thirds stops underexposed
so manually adjusting the exposure by plus .7 brightens the image by two thirds stops but how do
you know when your image is over or underexposed in camera while you're out and about shooting and
why does it matter if it's off by a little bit great questions that when you know the answers
to will elevate your photographic skills and the answer is coming up next you are now going to take
your photographic knowledge to the next level and this and the next two tutorials that follow since
they are the foundation to transitioning from auto modes to manual mode i guarantee shooting
in manual mode will be easy if you watch this in the following tutorials it all starts
with understanding dynamic and tonal ranges in photography since they both relate to your
exposure and you'll soon find out your camera's limitations to the dynamic range and how to
overcome them to get the exposure that you want so dynamic range and tonal range what are they
let's find out by exploring dynamic range first in essence the dynamic range in photography refers
to the range in which your camera can successfully capture the brightest and darkest areas of a
scene without losing detail in nature you can say there's an infinite level of brightness
from blacks to whites and grays in between this brightness range can be measured in stops
now we did cover stops in photography previously so if you need a reminder go back and watch
the previous tutorial okay so both your camera and your eyes are not capable of seeing every
level of brightness depending on the intensity of the light in your scene when it comes to your
eyes you can see around 24 stops of brightness levels high-end cameras range from 10 to 14 stops
and then lower end or older cameras like my fuji s2 are closer to seven stops so this means your
camera is not capturing detail in the darkest areas of the shadows or the brightest areas in the
highlights now if you expose for the highlights you'll capture those details but you
will lose more details in the shadows this is known as exposing to the right
which is better than exposing to the left or for the shadows now the reason being is
it's easier in post-production to bring back some shadows versus highlights now let's
compare dynamic range to tonal range so the tonal range also refers to the brightness
levels of a scene but it is directly related to the tones captured by your camera so here's
another way to think of the dynamic versus tonal range imagine your ferrari has a range of zero to
255 miles per hour that's its dynamic range now imagine your spouse installs a speed inhibitor and
changes the range from 0 to 60.
That's its tonal range since it's been limited to a smaller range
all right now that you know your camera has the limitations here are some solutions to overcome
its inability to give you the exposure you desire one of the things you can do is control the light
by diffusing it or maybe you can add more light to the shadows now if you're a landscape photographer
it's going to be more difficult to control the light in this way so what you can do is use
a polarizing filter to darken up parts of the scene or the landscape or you can use a graduated
neutral density filter which is going to darken up the sky and the scene even more which is
going to reduce the number of stops in your scene now another thing you can do is what is known
as hdr photography which consists of taking three exposures one underexposed one overexposed
each buy one stop and then a third exposure in between then in post-production you can
merge the three exposures to get more detail in the shadows and highlights now if none of those
options are ideal for your situation then you have to decide what is more important in the scene or
easier to deal with in post-production then you'll have to expose to the left for the shadows if
they're the most important or exposed to the right which is what i recommend now the question is
how do you know what tonal range you're capturing now although your camera doesn't have a gradient
tool it does have another tool that can show you visually the tonal range you've captured and
whether or not you have the correct exposure for that scene more on that coming up next all
right it's now time to elevate your photography knowledge by once again jumping into a photo to
explore the tonal range captured in an image and to dissect the five zones of your histogram
so what is a histogram well stay tuned because you're about to learn everything you need
to know about histograms to ensure you never ever end up with an over or underexposed image
now previously we went over the dynamic and tonal range of exposures but how do you know whether or
not you have the exposure you desire well although you can view the image on the back of your camera
with the lcd screen there are numerous reasons why that's not the best way to determine if your image
is over or underexposed one the quality of your lcd screen may not be able to show all the detail
actually captured or if you're shooting outside on a bright day it's going to be difficult to see
your image so my recommendation is to learn how to read your histogram to ensure you capture
the right exposure for your creative vision otherwise you're going to spend more time fixing
your image in post-production since you didn't get the exposure right at the time of capture and we
can't forget about the lower quality of your image that you're going to create if the exposure is off
by a lot like two stops or more so trying to fix that is going to cause a lot of headaches and it
may not be worth keeping the image so we're going to fix that by elevating your histogram knowledge
so what exactly is a histogram well a histogram is nothing more than a graphical representation of
data using bars of different heights those bars represent the different tonal ranges or brightness
levels captured by your camera all right let's say you go on vacation and wish to record the number
of images you took each day on a graph on day one you took 50 photos the following day you took 150
then 100 and on day 4 you took 200.
Now imagine your vacation was 256 days long your graph would
look like this and now it's starting to look like a photo's histogram since in photography your
photo's histogram includes 256 bars of data but the real question is how do these bars of
information help you capture the proper exposure the answer will be apparent after you and i
take a deeper dive into the histogram itself so the histogram represents the pixel data of
your image depending on your camera and your editing software this data can be presented to
show information about the colors in your image and or the brightness levels or in other words the
tonal range in your image for now we're only going to cover the tonal range of a histogram in this
tutorial so the tonal range goes from zero percent or pure black all the way up to 100 percent
or pure white everything else in between is a shade of gray so these different shades
of gray are divided up into five zones within your histogram so each zone of your histogram of
course represents a different level of brightness in addition to those zones there's also a black
point and a white point all right we're now going to take a deep dive into the five zones the black
and white points and we're going to jump into one of my favorite images all right the very first bar
of your histogram is number zero and is pure black the last bar is number 255 and it's pure white
so the first and last bars are known as the black point and white point they are the darkest
or brightest parts of your image and contain no detail so in this image we have a lot of
blacks on the inside of this cave around here along this railing and pathway down here as
well as behind me now as far as the white points they're mostly contained within the water
here and this mini waterfall right there now next to the black point we have 25 more bars known
as the blacks in essence the blacks are a lighter shade of pure black and unlike the black point
contains detail in that tonal range so for this image there are lots of blacks from the inside
of the cave along the edges we can't really see them and kind of hard to see right now we would
have to zoom in to see them but we do have blacks along those areas as well as this area behind
me as well so the blacks are followed by what is known as the shadows and it includes 51 bars again
we have some lighter shades of black or shadows on the inside of the cave right here we also have
some on these steps here and then of course in different parts of the image here here and down
here those are all shadows next you have your mid tones which include a whopping 102 bars that
represent a large portion of mid gray tones and these can be found along the path here along the
steps the railing these rocks back here those are definitely mid-tones as well as some of the darker
greens up here in the leaves and the trees up here those are all mid-tones the next zone is known
as the highlights and it also has 51 bars and those are located along the path here where
it's much brighter those would be highlights we have some in the water some of the bricks
on the bridge here would be considered highlights as well as these brighter leaves right
here all of those would be considered highlights so the final zone is known as the whites and it
consists of 25 bars so the whites are basically a darker shade of pure white and those can be
found in the water here as well as some of these very bright bricks on the bridge all right now
that you know what the bars represent in regards to the tonal range the next question is why does
this matter well previously i mentioned that your histogram represents pixel data or the brightness
levels but it's more than that the pixel data itself is the detail or texture in your image
you have 256 possible bars of texture to capture along the dynamic range of the scene you're
photographing so imagine what would happen if your histogram only has 200 bars out of 256.
what would that mean well that means you did not capture detail or texture in this part of the
dynamic range so i'm about to share a technique that will help you see the exposure before
you actually create it to ensure you capture all the detail in your scene so if you're
ready to discover this technique let's do it let's say hello to myrtle the turtle again and in
case you're wondering about her name our daughter has wanted a turtle forever but we settled on
a cat instead alright so i photographed myrtle on a black background and as you can see she too
is dark but she does have some bright highlights around her fur and her eyes are brighter than
the fur based on the histogram we can see the tonal range captured which includes lots of blacks
shadows and some mid-tones and very little to no highlights or whites so this histogram is vital
to understanding them in regards to whether or not you have the proper exposure and whether or
not you've captured all the detail in a scene let's jump into another photo and explore how
to see your dynamic range before you capture an image so you can compare the histogram to what
you see so this next image here i captured on a family vacation in northern michigan of all places
so let's check out the histogram for this image so it looks like i captured detail in all 256
bars or the full dynamic range of the scene so would you agree that this image is properly
exposed great the only problem is that was a trick question since this is the histogram of the
final edit now here's the histogram of the image straight out of the camera and it looks like a
lot of the bars are missing in the blacks and some in the shadows so this is an indication that the
photo is over exposed and here's that same image straight out of the camera with no editing and
it does look overexposed wouldn't you agree so if i had reviewed the histogram before packing
up i could have retaken the photo to get the correct exposure this would have resulted
in a higher quality image and it would have saved me some time editing now it's time for
you to elevate your photographic skills with the following information are you ready good
because this is what's going to separate you from every other photographer on this planet so here
we go so only looking at the histogram by itself isn't enough it is only confirmation of what you
see prior to creating your photo so before you click that shutter release button you first have
to visualize your final image so what do i mean by that well you have to see the subject you
want to capture and you have to see the light in order to determine your exposure and that
simply means you have to see the dynamic range or the brightness levels of that light throughout
your scene for example in this image it's very bright along the horizon and it gets darker
on the way up and then the sand here is fairly bright as well but the tree itself is darker than
the sky and the sand so we have a shadow down here of the tree and darker areas within the tree as
well therefore we have some blacks and shadows in and around the tree and in the sand and the sky
we have some mid-tones up here then we have some highlights here inside the sand and then we have
our whites along the horizon and then some whites and highlights on this end of the image as well
so seeing all five zones before you take the photo tells you that if you want to capture detail in
the full dynamic range of your scene you will need a histogram that has bars in each tonal range
if not and it looks like this then you know your image is overexposed but if the histogram looks
like this then you know it's underexposed or is it remember myrtle the turtle she had a histogram
that looked like this one and here it is again but we know based on the dynamic range of that
scene there will be more bars on the left side of the histogram and little to none on the right side
that is why it's important to see the brightness levels of your scene so you know what to look
for in your histogram to ensure you're getting the exposure needed for your creative vision our
next image is another family member and his name is fuzzy bunny this time we have a mostly white
bunny on an all-white background and as you can see fuzzy has some light grey spots and his eyes
are almost pure black so picture in your mind what the histogram should look like is this what
you had imagined awesome because the bars of the histogram this time are heavier on the right
side where the highlights and whites are and we have some information or detail in the mid-tones
and very few to none in the shadows and blacks so remember the histogram will confirm what
you see before you take the photo and if the histogram matches those brightness levels
then you should have a properly exposed image all right so far we've explored the tonal ranges
within a histogram and you now know what to look for to confirm you have the right exposure but
the histogram can also warn you if you're not capturing all the detail in a scene let's look
at a couple more histograms that will warn you if you haven't captured all the detail and
or exceeded the dynamic range of your camera since it's only capable of 7 to 14 stops of light
so this image looks very dark and it could be underexposed according to the histogram there are
two warning signals that can indicate whether or not the image is underexposed the first is the
left side of the histogram where there's lots of bars all bunched together so this could be
an indication that the image is underexposed the other is the right side where there's
a gap in the highlights and the whites this is another warning that your image could
be underexposed or this image in particular and not all the details were captured so here's
the properly exposed image and its histogram and notice how the histogram no longer has a gap
and the left side isn't as heavy as it was before this is why it's important to visually
evaluate your scene's available dynamic range before taking the photo then match it to
your histogram to get the proper exposure and just as important capture all the detail alright
so here's one more image that is overexposed and its histogram is confirming that this time
we have a gap on the left side and the bars are bunched together on the right side and here's the
properly exposed image along with its histogram alright so the one thing we haven't covered yet
that you might be wondering about is the height of the bars in our vacation example the height of the
bars changed based on how many photos were taken each day so the bars in your photos histogram can
also change heights based on the number of pixels in a specific tonal range if there's a predominant
brightness level you'll see a spike for that specific tonal range in this image i photographed
a couple against a dark wall and the histogram shows a huge spike in the blacks and shadows
those black and shadow values are located within the dark green wall and this is why those
bars are very tall since the wall takes up the majority of the image and as you can see the
bars for the mid-tones highlights and whites also have data but the bars are much shorter since
there are fewer details in those tonal ranges and the small spike to the right represents
the details in his shirt and her dress alright so i have one more tool to share with
you to help you achieve your creative vision and you'll be one step closer to ditching auto
modes and shooting in full manual mode i'm about to share some vital information that will help
you take full creative control over your camera and help you finally understand the relationship
between iso apertures and shutter speeds then you'll be ready to ditch auto and shoot in
manual mode guaranteed so when it comes to capturing a photo you have two options you
can either choose one of the four auto modes and your camera will set the iso aperture and
or the shutter speed to get a proper exposure which you learned how to do in previous tutorials
or you can set your camera in manual mode and manually set each of the three camera settings
why would you want to do that well if you want full creative control over your camera and wish to
set the aperture size and the shutter speed then you'll use manual mode which you'll learn how
to do in the next tutorial first you need to understand the relationship between iso aperture
and shutter speed before attempting to shoot in manual mode once you understand this concept
shooting in manual mode will be easier guaranteed in photography there is something known as the
exposure triangle and it explains the relationship between your different camera settings with a
visual tool so here's a typical exposure triangle and on each side you have one camera setting with
information about how each affects your exposure and whether it freezes or blurs the action the
depth of field and possible digital noise so i've put together this pdf for you so make sure
to download it so you can use it to follow along and for future reference now the purpose of the
exposure triangle is to help you visually see what happens when you choose or decide to change a
camera setting and at the bottom we have apertures and the larger the aperture the more light you'll
have and as you move to the left you decrease the aperture size and end up with less light the
creative outcomes of your aperture is also listed so a smaller aperture results in a large depth
of field and the larger the aperture becomes the smaller your depth of field on the left side is
your iso again the amount of light and the effect of that light is listed so more or less light
and less or more digital noise shutter speed also shows more or less light depending on the shutter
speed chosen and the creative effect of the speed chosen so each of these camera settings has a
tight relationship with each other in essence if you change the camera setting of one you may have
to adjust one or both of the other two settings to get the exposure needed for example let's say
you're photographing a landscape and decide on iso 400 a shutter speed of 1 500 of a second and
since you want a large depth of field you choose f11 after taking the photo you realize that
there is too much digital noise so you change your iso to 100 this in effect reduces the
brightness of the available light in half twice or in other words two stops less light
and the exposure triangle shows you that 400 to 200 is one stop and 200 to 100 is another
stop so two stops less light in order to get the correct exposure you have to change the aperture
by two stops by adjusting it to f5.6 so f11 to f8 is one stop and f8 to f 5.6 is another stop
or you can adjust the shutter speed by two stops with a slower shutter speed of 1 125th of a second
so 1 500th to 1 to 50th is one stop and then 1 1 1 25th of a second is another stop or you can adjust
both the shutter and aperture by one stop each in that case you can go to f8 and 1 250th of a
second for two full stops and the choices you make to your aperture and shutter speed depend on your
creative vision for the shot and whether or not you can hold your camera still at a slower
shutter speed alright now that you understand the relationship between your camera settings and
how it affects your exposure you're ready to shoot in full manual mode but first i have to reveal a
secret tool that will make it super duper easy to do guaranteed so if you're ready to discover
that secret tool to finally ditch auto and elevate your photographic skills so you can shoot
in full menu mode let's do it now it's time to take full creative control over your camera by
learning how to shoot in manu mode it sounds like a daunting task doesn't it where do you start
which camera settings should you start with first iso aperture or shutter speed then once you figure
out one setting how do you decide on the other two to get the right exposure fear or not once you're
done with this tutorial you'll know exactly how to shoot in full manual mode to achieve your creative
vision and get the proper exposure because i'm going to give you step-by-step instructions let's
get started by grabbing your camera and let's put it in manual mode to do so change your diode to
the letter m and now you're in manual mode so here we go step one choose your iso based on
your available light remember try to use the lowest iso number possible based on the brightness
of the available light step two next you have to decide on your creative vision for the photo you
want to create do you want to freeze or blur the action do you want a small or large depth of
field which one of those is the most important step 3 if the depth of field is the most important
element set your aperture accordingly or if freezing or blurring the action is more important
then choose your shutter speed step 4 now it's time to set the third camera setting based on your
creative vision to get the proper exposure and the secret tool you'll use to help you do this
is well it's not really a secret so what is it well we talked about this tool in a previous
tutorial and it's called a light meter so look through your viewfinder to locate it which is
displayed with multiple dashed lines and it looks something like this right here so that's
the secret tool to help you determine if you have the correct exposure and depending on your
camera you might have a plus sign on the right or it might be on the left so here's how it works if
the marker is dead center then you can expect that your exposure will be good if the marker is on the
positive side then your image will be overexposed and it will be underexposed if the marker is on
the negative side so the goal of course is to have a good exposure and you need to adjust your
camera settings until the marker is in the center the challenge is to balance the camera settings
based on your creative vision so what i recommend doing is starting with the camera setting
that will not affect what you want to achieve creatively for example if a shallow depth of field
is the most important then adjust your shutter speed until the marker aligns to the center but if
you end up with a shutter speed that is too slow then you can increase the iso instead or a
combination of both the shutter speed and iso all right now that you know how to shoot in manu mode
your exposures will be perfect every single time nope not really because remember in previous
tutorials we covered how your camera sees things differently than you based on 18 gray and the
different metering modes that alter how the light is well metered that's why it's imperative
that you understand the dynamic range of a scene and use your histogram to confirm the
existing range of light to ensure you have a proper exposure based on what you're trying to
photograph so if you skipped any tutorials then i recommend going back and watching everything to
fully understand your camera and then and only then will you be able to master your camera and
exposures alright so we've covered all the tools necessary for achieving your desired exposure but
we are not done with mastering your camera gear and we'll continue with part two next and this
will include some additional modes your camera has to help you achieve your creative vision are
you ready to continue elevating your photography skills to master photography awesome the next
step to mastering photography is discovering more tools your camera has to help you achieve
your creative vision and in this section you'll discover additional camera modes we haven't
covered yet like focus quality shooting and drive modes and then we'll wrap up mastering your
camera with white balance in the next section you will continue elevating your knowledge of camera
gear with the deep dive into lenses filters and accessories if you're ready let's do it focusing
modes what are they and how do you use them great question let's find out all right real quick for
those of you that have just taken your camera out of the box for the first time to focus on your
subject you're going to hold down the shutter release button halfway your camera and your lens
will then work together to focus on your subject once it's in focus press the shutter release
button all the way down to create the photo okay when it comes to focusing that was pretty
easy but focusing isn't always that easy and sometimes as you'll soon see it's
impossible to focus this is why most digital cameras give you different focus options
and different focusing modes which focusing options you'll use will depend on your subject
and your creative vision for the final image although focusing's main function is to give you
a sharp image it can also be used creatively in conjunction with your aperture for example
by selectively choosing a point to focus on you can direct your viewers attention
to that specific location by focusing just on that area or subject for this image i
chose to focus on the flower closest to the camera then with an aperture of f 1.8 i was able to
reduce the depth of field so that flower i focused on is the only one that is tack sharp so we're
going to cover the basics of five different types of auto focus modes and i'll share some tips for
focusing manually as well so the autofocus modes most digital cameras have are auto flexible center
and continuous or ai servo if you're a canon user and another one that is fast becoming my favorite
is eye tracking mode unfortunately not all digital cameras have this focusing mode so let's start out
by grabbing not your camera your camera manual so you can follow along and discover what focus
modes your camera has and how to set them up now before we look at each of these focus modes
there's something else vital to focusing and that is the focus points so what are focus points well
i'm glad you asked let's take a look all right now grab your camera turn it on and let's look
through the viewfinder now there's a lot of information being displayed in your viewfinder
am i right the one thing i want you to focus on no pun intended or was there and that is the
circles or bracket looking things covering your subject those are your focus points so depending
on your settings one or more of those points will be used for focusing also depending on your camera
you could have a few or dozens of focus points now growing up i only had one focusing point on
my nikon 8008 slr so we're kind of spoiled nowadays anyway there are several advantages to
having multiple focusing points one is the freedom to choose manually which focus point to use or
to let your camera's artificial intelligence auto track a fast moving subject more on that
coming up as i mentioned previously as you press your shutter release button down your camera and
lens work together to focus on the subject based on the focus point you choose once the subject
is in focus you'll see a focus indicator in the form of a circle now most digital cameras will
have a built-in safety that will stop you from taking the photo until the focus indicator
appears so the focus indicator in most cases appears as a circle so if you're not able to
take the photo then the camera is telling you that the subject is not in focus this could
be due to the subject moving too much or maybe your camera is having a hard time focusing
due to the lighting or based on the subject itself in that case if you can't get it in focus you'll
have to manually focus on the subject and you'll learn how to do that in just a minute
all right let's do a quick review of five common auto focus modes the first option is a full
auto focus mode where your camera will determine for you what part of the image to focus on so
let's say you have a dozen focus points turned on your camera will review your scene and will try
to locate the main subject and when it's found it will auto focus your camera on that subject
but like most auto features in your camera it's not always going to give you the results
you are hoping for one option to take control over your focus point of choice is to use the
flexible focus mode this mode is sometimes referred to as multi-point focus mode the
benefit of this focusing mode is it allows you to choose a specific focus point within your
viewfinder based on where your subject is located however this can be slow and tedious to manually
set your focus point and isn't recommended if your subject is moving another focusing mode you'll
probably have on your camera is sometimes referred to as a center focusing mode and this is the one
that i use 90 of the time so the focus point used in this mode is the one that is dead center in
your viewfinder now although your subject may not always be in the center once you're focused
on your subject make sure to keep your shutter release button pressed halfway and then you
can move your camera to recompose the frame based on what you want to capture as far as
the composition now if you find your subject is constantly moving or fast in general like
your kids or wildlife you'll want to consider continuous or ai servo this focusing mode has
artificial intelligence built in and will be able to find and track your subject which will
make it easier for you to create the image you desire when using this mode you'll need to
keep your shutter release button pressed halfway down for the focusing mode to continue
tracking and focusing on your subject once you capture the image this focusing mode will stop
tracking and you'll have to press it down halfway again to start the tracking function all right
now let's check out how the eye tracking focusing mode works also depending on your camera you may
have a different eye tracking mode for people versus pets so you're going to have to check out
your handy dandy manual to find out what modes are available in your camera alright so if you have
this mode the focus point will locate the eye closest to your camera and will focus on that eye
which is pretty awesome if you ask me since the eyes are the windows to the soul and the part
of your subject that should be tack sharp okay so the last focus mode i want to share with
you is manu mode now you might be wondering why would you want to manually focus your camera
that's a great question sometimes depending on the lighting and or the subject your camera may not
be able to focus on your subject automatically this can occur due to low contrast lighting
or when your camera can't determine an edge so let's say you're photographing a flat surface or
the lighting is flat either way your camera will have a hard time finding any texture to focus on
for example i captured this image during a foggy morning the light was flat and the camera couldn't
pick up any textures or an edge to focus on in this case i had to focus manually for
this image i also had to use manual mode and the reason why is the camera wouldn't focus
exactly where i wanted it which were the eyes it kept bouncing between the blades of grass and
other elements so i had to switch to manual focus which is pretty easy on your camera you'll see
something like this and af is for autofocus and m is for manual so switch to manual and then
depending on your lens you may need to switch that to manual as well now to focus in manual mode
you're going to turn the focus ring on your lens and this time you don't have to press the shutter
release button down halfway since you're focusing manually now as mentioned previously look for
that focus indicator so you know the subject is in focus and then take the photo next up you'll
discover some drive modes to help you achieve your creative vision all right so your camera has
several drive modes that powers your camera to take one photo at a time or multiple photos at a
time so we're now going to take a closer look at three main drive modes and two alternative ways
to capture a single image our first drive mode is known as single drive mode and it's pretty simple
in this mode you will be able to take one photo at a time when you press the shutter release
button if you want to take another photo you'll press that button again so this mode can be set
with your dial set to s depending on your camera it can be located in one of several different
places so probably a good time to check out that camera manual again okay so the continuous drive
mode on the other hand can be pretty amazing if you're shooting fast action like sports wildlife
or any other type of fast action where you don't want to miss the shot so the way it works is
when you press the shutter release button your camera will continue to take photos as long as the
button is pressed down since not all cameras are created the same some will be able to take more
photos than others it also depends on the speed of your media card so if you take a look at your
media card on the front here you're gonna see the speed of it and the higher the number the faster
your images can be written to the media card so if you plan on shooting in continuous mode
you may want to get the fastest card available for your budget and as far as the number of images
it could be a few per second or a dozen or more at a time again it all depends on your camera
another thing your camera might offer is the ability to choose how many photos in this mode
for example my nikon d500 has a continuous low and a continuous high mode which is labeled cl
and ch and in the low mode it will take fewer photos per second versus the high mode so just a
little bit more flexibility based on what you need now we also have a self timer mode which is
considered another drive mode and you'll use this when you want a selfie or when you want a
photo of yourself with someone else and there isn't anyone around to take the photo for
you to access the self timer you'll need to dig into your camera's menu to find it and set it
up for my camera i have different time intervals to choose from or i can set the exact time needed
plus i can choose to shoot more than one photo after the allotted time is up for example i could
do 10 photos every 10 seconds or every 5 seconds depending on how i want to set it up alright
another option for capturing an image is to use a remote release button so this remote release
trigger i picked up around 20 years ago or last century and it's basically hardwired directly to
my camera but in the 21st century some cameras use a wireless remote control either way in this
drive mode you can remotely trigger the camera to capture your image okay so our final drive mode
is known as mirror lockup and this drive mode is a little unknown mode since it's not always found
easily you may find it tucked away somewhere else within your menu system so check your manual
to see if you have it and where to set it up so this mode is essential for long exposure
photography or when you don't have a tripod and you're using a long exposure and in this mode
it will help alleviate camera shake it does this by waiting for the mirror to move up and lock
into position before it takes your photo and the reason why this helps eliminate some camera
shake is because the mirror when it moves up will tend to vibrate as it moves up and out of the way
of your shutter all right we've gone over all the different drive modes next up is another exposure
tool to help you get your desired exposure this is going to make it easier to get the exposure
that you want in case you're having a little bit of trouble with all the tools we've covered
so far so if you're ready for that let's do it all right so in this tutorial we're going to
explore an option to help you achieve your desired exposure in the previous section i gave
you a lot of tools to nail your exposure however it was a lot of information and maybe you haven't
really grasped everything presented so far this is why i want to share a tool your camera
might have known as auto exposure bracketing or aab for short so let's check it out so let's
say you're in a difficult lighting situation like the light changing quickly or maybe you're
not sure which camera settings to use well with aeb you can quickly take three or more photos
depending on your camera with multiple exposures so the first exposure could be underexposed the
second could be the ideal exposure based on your camera's light meter and then the third would be
overexposed so this is also a great way to capture detail from a scene with a large dynamic range
and maybe your camera is only capable of capturing 10 stops of light when you really need 14 or
more so what you can do then is you can then merge those three photos together to include all
the details and the shadows and highlights and this is also known as hdr or high dynamic range
photography now the question is how many stops does your camera offer well again you're gonna
have to check out your camera manual to learn how to set it up including the different variations
or amount of stops that you can use for example you might have the option to alter the exposure
brackets by one stop each or possibly two stops each so if you have two stops available that
would mean your first and third images would be two stops over and under exposed now if you're
shooting in continuous drive mode to take multiple photos at one time and you want to shoot with
the auto exposure bracketing mode you can do that with most cameras so as you press your shutter
release button all the way down and continue to hold it your camera will take three photos at
different exposures and will continue to create three more photos until your media card can't keep
up or if you've reached your camera's capabilities to shoot multiple photos at one time all right
next up is quality modes so if you're ready let's check out the options you have to help you achieve
your creative vision with quality modes alright so quality modes refer to the file format that you
choose for your photos and previously i mentioned how i recommend shooting in raw and that's what
i personally shoot in as well now depending on your camera you may have another option known
as tiff files personally i think tiff files are overrated and i've never used them myself so i'll
leave that up to you to decide if you want to use them or not so one of the drawbacks to using raw
files is they are much larger in size compared to jpeg files but i believe the price of media cards
and hard drives are at a point where prices are very reasonable compared to where they were two
decades ago so for me the price of storage isn't a problem and i have no issues with the larger
raw files and your situation might be different so what i'd like to do now is give you more
information on the differences between raw and jpeg files so you can decide for yourself which
file format is best for you so previously you learned how your camera works and you may remember
how i said your camera edits your files before it saves them to your media cards so let's check
out this graphic that shows you the steps of your photo being processed in camera and we're going
to go over jpeg files first so you set your camera to the jpeg quality mode and you took a photo
before it's saved to your media card your camera processes the information it received from your
sensor and other camera settings you chose like the white balance which you're going to learn
about soon you can also choose the color space the bit depth and more so your camera takes that
information along with the exposure data like the brightness levels of the light that was captured
and it sends it to your camera's processor so the processor reviews all that information
and in order to save it as a jpeg file it has to compress that data in other words
your camera's saying to you sorry the detail in the clouds you don't need those so i'm going to
discard that information or that detail because i can't fit it into the jpeg file or i can't fit
that detail in the shadows into your jpeg file so i can't save that information either so
let's say you end up with an image that is too bright with less detail than was visible to
your eye at the time of capture and since you already took the photo you can't recover any
of that missing detail when you edit that image since that detail was thrown out when you created
the photo and saved it as a jpeg file which means you have a lower quality image now let's compare
that to how your raw files are processed this time instead of throwing out that information all of
the data collected is bypassed by your processor since the raw file isn't being compressed in
other words all the data or the detail in your scene that was collected by your sensor is saved
in the raw file this means even if you open the raw file in your favorite editing software and
notice it's too bright chances are good you can recover some of that missing detail since it
was recorded and saved at the time of capture you just need to know the secrets of reading your
histogram to know that detail is actually there and if you completed the last section then
you should be practicing what you've learned in order to master reading your histogram or maybe
you already mastered your histogram hopefully all right so next up is an often forgotten camera
setting that can make drastic changes to your image based on how you set up this next camera
setting all right so in photography white balance is one of the most overlooked camera settings and
this is a mistake in my opinion because the white balance is another means of expressing yourself
creatively and for storytelling so at this time you're going to discover what the white balance is
and later in the course you'll take a deeper dive into the white balance since it relates to the
color of light so what is white balance well white balance in photography is about altering
the color of the light source to match the white color you see in person so it's rendered pure
white otherwise the whites or grays like the highlights and shadows will have a color cast
this color cast can be detrimental to your image or it can be pleasing to the eye and even artistic
for example if the whites in your scene appear yellow or blue they will be pure white after
choosing the correct white balance in camera now although you can do this in post-processing
change the white balance it doesn't always give you the results you want especially for those that
prefer shooting in jpeg so choosing your colors or picking the white balance is part of the equation
for creating exceptional photos the others include light and composition alright so there's a
few different ways to choose the white balance in your camera and we're going to go over the
easiest ways for now and later in the course i'll share some pro tips for dialing in the
exact white balance for your creative vision and depending on your camera you're going
to find a dial that lists some common white balance options and if it's not on a dial it
should then be available via a screen on top or within your system main menu either way you'll
notice several icons that represent the lighting situation you find yourself in all right so these
white balance options are known as pre-made white balance settings these settings were created
by your camera's manufacturer and they have determined the color of light based on those
situations some common white balance settings are sunlight cloudy flash fluorescent shade and more
so when you're outside shooting on a sunny day you'll switch the white balance to sunlight and
your image will be properly balanced based on the pre-made setting now if you're not happy with
the color balance you can choose to manually set the color with an option known as the kelvin
temperature or you can spend more time editing your photo by dealing with it in post production
if you want full creative control over your white balance make sure to check out the white balance
deep dive section all right so that's it for mastering your camera we're not done exploring
camera gear though since we need to explore lenses and we'll do that in the next section
alright it's time to explore another vital element of the first key in creating amazing images and
that is to discover all that lenses have to offer for capturing your creative vision because without
a lens you wouldn't be able to harness the light of your scene to capture your photo in essence
all lenses have one basic feature and that is to funnel light through the lens into your camera's
sensor there's a lot of options when it comes to choosing a lens and we can place them into
two main categories which are prime lenses and zoom lenses within those two categories
there's a variety of lenses that can be further refined into four different topics three of which
are defined based on their field of view and those are wide angle telephoto and standard lenses the
fourth topic is all other types of lenses that can be referred to as specialty lenses if you're ready
to elevate your knowledge of lenses let's do it all right prime lenses and zoom lenses what are
they well a prime lens consists of one fixed focal length and a zoom lens on the other hand
allows you to choose from multiple focal lengths so zoom lenses sound awesome since you have
multiple focal lengths and one lens and it makes you wonder why you'd want a prime lens am i right
well there are some advantages and disadvantages for both so let's review those so i have my
favorite prime lenses here which are the 50 and 85 millimeter and there's several reasons why i love
these prime lenses versus the same focal length in a zoom lens and we'll cover those in a second
but first what do you notice about this 2870 with this 50 millimeter lens that's available within
the zoom well the prime lens is smaller and it's lighter but you're saying i have more focal
lengths with this versus this and you're correct so with the zoom lens i have dozens of
lenses versus one with the 50 yet i prefer this versus this and here's why so prime
lenses are much more affordable than zooms so these prime lenses i think were
i paid around 200 for the 50 and i think 800 dollars for the 85 now for the zoom
lenses i paid around two thousand dollars each so four thousand dollars for these two
lenses versus one thousand for these two now as far as quality or the sharpness of your image
a prime lens will yield a sharper image overall prime lenses will give you a better quality
image compared to a zoom lens and one of the main benefits of a prime lens is that they typically
come with very large apertures which gives you a couple of advantages one a larger aperture will
allow you to collect more light and shoot in low light situations the other advantage of a larger
aperture is the ability to blur out your image and this will help your subject pop much more
versus a smaller aperture which you learned about earlier in this course now one of the
biggest disadvantages to a prime lens is if you want to change the perspective of an image
or maybe you want to crop in tighter or to get more or less of the scene you need to move closer
physically or farther away from your subject in order to change how much of the scene you capture
and when it comes to a zoom lens the biggest advantage is having those multiple lenses or focal
lengths built in which will allow you to zoom in versus moving closer to your subject or zooming
out now when it comes to the aperture for zoom lenses you'll find that some lenses will not
be able to use the largest aperture throughout the different focal lengths for example this kit lens
that i bought back in 1989 has a focal range of 35 to 70 and the maximum aperture is 3.3 to 4.5
so what that's telling us is i can only use f 3.3 at the shortest focal length of 35.
If i
want to use the longest focal length of 70 then the largest aperture size i can use is
4.5 so when you're looking at zoom lenses that's one thing you'll have to keep in
mind now if you don't want that limitation then the lens without that restriction will be
more expensive another thing about apertures for both primes and zooms is the larger the aperture
the more expensive the lens will be for example this 50 millimeter lens is a 1.8 lens and it
cost around 200 but a 50 millimeter 1.4 lens is 450 so more than double for a one stop larger
aperture all right let's take a deep dive into focal lengths next since they're an important part
of your lenses so the focal length of your lens is more than just the length basically the focal
length determines the angle of view the lens will capture and we have three main types of lenses
based on their field of view those are wide angle standard and telephoto lenses each will increase
or decrease the amount of the scene that will be viewed depending on the type so let's go over each
of those let's start off with a standard type of lens so a standard lens is considered to be normal
and normal refers to what your eyes see or at least the field of view that you see so a normal
or standard lens is around 50 millimeters but depending on your camera's sensor size the
actual focal length could be more or less than 50 millimeters and we'll talk more about
that later in the course now personally i think a 50 millimeter lens is the perfect lens
for all levels of photographers and i highly recommend having one now a lens with a larger
field of view is known as a wide-angle lens so the amount of the scene you can capture is
much greater than a standard lens so this type of lens is essential for landscape photographers and
even wedding photographers so lens is considered wide angled when the focal length is around
12 to 24 millimeters and possibly 28 as well now another type of wide-angle lenses is known
as super wide angle and these lenses have a focal length of around 8 to 12 millimeters now when
it comes to very long lenses like my 70 to 200 these are known as telephoto lenses they're kind
of like mini telescopes that allow you to capture subjects that are far away and the result
is a shallow field of view so focal lengths of around 100 to 300 millimeters are considered a
telephoto lens but if you have let's say a 500 or 1000 millimeter lens they're referred to
as super telephoto lenses and they're very very expensive now if you need one of these super
telephoto lenses and can't afford to shell out ten or twelve thousand dollars for one you
can convert a smaller telephoto lens into a super telephoto with the use of a teleconverter
so a teleconverter can double the focal length of your lens for a few hundred dollars
but there are some serious drawbacks to teleconverters and will cover teleconverters in
depth in the accessories section of this course all right we're now going to wrap up the last of
the four lens topics which are specialty lenses and you'll discover four popular types coming up
next all right so we're now going to cover the four most popular types of specialty lenses and
this means there's actually more than just these four and we may cover those in a future tutorial
so the first type of specialty lens is called a macro lens and it's used for well macro
photography so macro photography is the art of capturing a subject that is photographed
at a one to one magnification or in other words the subject is life-sized in the photo but most
people use the term macro photography to refer to any photo that is a close-up of teeny tiny
subjects or details of a subject for example this image of a millipede was captured with my
macro lens and i often used a macro to capture wedding rings when i was a wedding photographer
and i've even used it for other subjects as well so later in this course you'll discover more
about the art of macro photography but first let's go over some additional details about macro
lenses all right so in essence a macro lens allows you to get really really close to your subjects
which has the advantage of letting you photograph teeny tiny subjects like bugs the inside of
flowers and anything else that is micro in size and in case you're wondering this macro lens is
also considered a that's right a prime lens since the focal length is fixed at 60 millimeters but
it's more of a specialty lens due to its ability to allow you to get really really close to your
subjects and in a way it's like a magnifier and here's how that's possible alright so with a prime
or even a zoom lens the minimum focusing distance is much longer compared to a macro lens so my 50
millimeter lens has a minimum focusing distance of around 18 inches and my 85 millimeter is
around 30 inches and my 60 millimeter macro lens has a minimum focusing distance of 7 inches so
again being able to get really close to your subject allows you to capture smaller subjects so
macro lenses like prime lenses come in different focal lengths and you can get them from anywhere
around 15 millimeters to 200 millimeters now one thing to keep in mind when using a macro lens
versus a primed lens is the depth of field is much shallower in a macro compared to a prime lens
and for this image i used an aperture of f10 and you would expect everything to be in focus
and it would have been if i used a non-macro lens however i wouldn't have been able to get this
perspective since i would have been at least a foot further away from the subject another type of
specialty lens is a fish eye lens so this type of lens has a very wide angle of view and they come
in focal lengths of around eight millimeters to 17 millimeters one of the unique characteristics of
fish eye lenses is the front element or the glass on the lens and as you can see the glass is round
and it pops out kind of like an eye which is where the lens gets its name from another thing you're
going to notice with super wide fish eye lenses like an 8 millimeter lens is that the image you
take is encompassed in a circle like this photo here another characteristic you'll find when
taking photos with a fisheye lens is that they tend to distort vertical and horizontal lines and
the shorter the focal length the more distortion you're going to see in your photo for example
in these images you can see that the vertical and horizontal lines are distorted now the thing
that i love about fisheye lenses is they do cover a great angle of view and can provide another
creative option for your photos but then again you do get that distortion and that's
why this is a specialty lens because the use of it is limited based on what you're
trying to achieve or your creative vision so a tilt shift lens is another specialty lens but
this one has a more practical use versus the fisheye lens and it also has a creative aspect
to it so what is a tilt shift lens well i thought he would never ask alright so a tilt shift lens
allows you to change the plane of focus which is beneficial for architecture photography but you're
not interested in architecture photography you say no worries i'll show you how you can use this lens
creatively in just a moment first let me show you how it works all right so here's a tilt shift
lens and the bottom of it looks quite different compared to all the other lenses we've explored
so far the main physical characteristics that's separated from other lenses is the knobs the way
it's curved at the bottom there and those dashed lines so when you tilt the lens on its axis it
looks like it's broken doesn't it so it's kind of like a miter saw or a table saw where you're going
to change the angle of the blade if needed so you're basically doing the same thing except
instead of a blade you're changing the angle of the lens this causes the perspective of your
scene to change in relation to the focus plane of the lens based on the angle you choose let's look
at some images to see the benefits and creative ways you can use a tilt shift lens all right so we
have a photo here on the left that was taken with a non-tilt shift lens and the one on the right
you can see the same building that was shot with a tilt shift lens this time and take a closer look
at both images what do you see so the building captured with the tilt shift lens is no longer
leaning or tilting so the tilt shift lens is an awesome lens for architecture because it
does allow you to change the perspective very easily within the camera versus trying
to have to fix it in photoshop or lightroom so if you have a desire to become an architectural
photographer then a tilt shift lens would be the tool of choice for that field but let's say
you have no desire to take photos of buildings no worries check out some of these images that
were shot with a tilt shift lens and what do you notice well the depth of field seems to be very
shallow however the depth of field was controlled more from the tilt of the lens versus the aperture
by itself so one last thing you should know about tilt shift lenses is the focal lengths available
and most have a small or wide angle of view of around 24 to 45 millimeters and you can even
get a tilt shift macro lens with a focal length of around 50 millimeters and larger now keep
in mind though that a wider tilt shift lens is ideal for architecture especially when you're
shooting buildings that are close together since you'll be limited on how far back you
can go to get the entire building in your frame in those cases a wider lens works best our next
specialty lens has a funny name and it's called a lens baby and they came out around 15 years
ago and at that time i picked one up for myself so since then lens babies have multiplied and
there's a lot more options compared to the original and to discover the different lens baby
options go to lensbaby.com alright so the real question is what is a lensbaby and what can you do
with it well like i mentioned here's my original lensbaby and you can see that it looks nothing
like any lens we've covered so far so there's no focusing ring no way to control the aperture
since it doesn't have one consists of only two glass elements the front and back and the body is
not round like a normal lens and looks more like an accordion but don't let this funny looking lens
fool you it's actually quite addicting when you begin to see the creative results from using this
specialty lens if you navigate to their website you'll find a gallery of images taken with their
specialty lenses and this will give you a great idea of the creative options available to you
when using one of these lensbaby specialty lenses now the interesting thing about this lens is using
it it's completely different from what you're used to with your prime lenses or even zoom lenses
like i mentioned there's zero way to focus with this lens you basically point at your subject and
it's technically in focus automatically but don't expect your subject to be tack sharp at least with
the original lensbaby then to control the depth of field you have to press the outside of the lens
towards your camera in a way this is like the tilt shift lens since you're basically changing
the focal plane which creates a shallower depth of field but you have control over it by changing the
angle of the lens so if you want a shallower depth of field at the bottom of your image you're going
to press and hold the top of the lens like this all right now that we've covered the categories
and types of lenses let's dig a little deeper and look at the different parts that make up your lens
all right so one of the most important elements of a lens that can affect the quality of your final
image is the glass inside and outside of your lens so the glass has a coating that is applied to
the surface which is designed to reduce light reflections and increase light transmission and
they're also designed to reduce unwanted optical degradation like moire patterns so the quality
of your image is a direct result of the quality of your lens in my opinion investing in a higher
quality lens will give you better images versus buying another new camera for example have you
ever heard of a hasselblad camera if not it's a high-end film camera that was developed in
the mid-1800s now there were other film cameras with the same film format or film size over the
last 150 years but a hasselblad is the cream of the crop or the lamborghini or the ferrari of film
cameras not because of the camera body but because of the quality of the lens and the results were
stunning versus what i could afford at the time which was a mamiya rgb67 long story short invest
in your glass or lenses and you will thank me later on all right so inside your lens you have
more glass that directs the light through it plus as you learned about before there's a hole
inside of your lens that can control how much light passes through and it can also affect the
depth of field and this is known as the aperture all right since i'm not willing to take my lens
apart to show you what this aperture looks like let's check out this image here so this mechanism
is known as the diaphragm and it consists of multiple blades and when you adjust your aperture
the blades contract or expand to create the size of your hole all right now let's take a look at
some other parts of your lens here on the outside one is the focus ring and you'll turn this
manually to focus if you need to which we talked about previously then if you're using a zoom lens
you'll have this ring here that you can use to change the focal length of the lens and it
should include some numbers here that represent the focal length so it's not going to show every
single focal length since there are over 100 options for this lens alone and instead it's just
going to show several focal lengths as a guide now for your prime lenses this 85 millimeters
is an 85 and i know that because on the outside here it's showing the focal length right here and
as you can see it says 85 millimeters all right we're now going to cover name brand lenses versus
third-party lenses next all right so when it comes to buying lenses you have two main choices when it
comes to the manufacturer of a lens you can either purchase from brand names like nikon canon sony or
whatever the manufacturer of the camera that you have or from third-party manufacturers like tamron
sigma and tekina to name a few so the question is do you go with the name brand or off brand well
it all comes down to your quality expectations and your budget overall brand name lenses are
going to be of a higher quality more dependable and guaranteed compatibility lenses from sigma
tamron and others are going to be more affordable but the sharpness of the lens may not be as good
as the name brand equivalent as for compatibility third-party lens creators make lenses for the
most popular cameras like nikon canon and sony now another advantage with third-party lenses
is you may find focal lengths not available from brand names for instance sigma has an 18
to 35 zoom lens with a large aperture of 1.8 and the cool thing about this lens is regardless
of the zoom range you select for it you can use the 1.8 aperture throughout the different zoom
ranges and as of this recording that option or that lens choice is not available from some brand
names like nikon so when it comes to buying lenses you'll have to do a little more research to find
out which options are best for you covering all the different aspects of lens characteristics is
way beyond the scope of this photography class but when it comes to buying a lens though you have
another option used or new plus if you're going to be buying used do you get a modern or retro lens
let's explore your possibilities and then you can decide whether or not used is good enough for
you alright so the main benefit to buying used is the amount of money you'll save versus new
but there's more to consider when buying used versus new and that is the age of the used lens
so older or retro lenses like this lens that i picked up 30 years ago may not have features
available in the modern equivalent and this can cause issues with aperture selection and or auto
focusing so if we take a closer look at this lens you'll notice it has an extra number here with
some numbers on it so these are the aperture values for this lens unlike its modern equivalent
the averages are fixed to these numbers whereas the modern lens is capable of more aperture
values in between another difference between retro and new is the quality of the image in
general a newer used lens will provide better quality so if you can live with some of these
disadvantages or the compatibility with features of your camera an older used lens will typically
be less expensive versus a newer modern used lens so this 85 millimeter lens that i picked
up last century can be bought today for around 200 and it's used modern lens cousin can be found
for around 500 all right you are now ready to begin exploring and discovering how to harness
and master light which is the second key in creating amazing images if you're ready for
that let's do it what is the true meaning of photography well get ready to have your mind blown
with the following fact the word photography was created from greek roots so photos means light
and graphy means drawing together they mean drawing with light or as i like to say
painting with light how cool is the hat so photography is essentially an art form whereby
you use light to draw with or to paint with so without light you cannot capture the scene and
won't be able to create a photograph and it's easy to demonstrate so grab your camera and your
lens cap and put it on now try and take a photo well you didn't capture an image did you i know
obvious but this demonstrates that light is the number one ingredient for creating photos
now once you fully understand what light is its qualities and characteristics you can then use
that knowledge to shape your subjects based on your creative vision but i have some bad news
this is not something you are going to be able to master overnight or even weeks months and possibly
years it's going to take time and practice but when you get to the point where you're able to
control and see light like never before you will then elevate your level of photography skills well
beyond 95 percent of photographers in the world if nothing else this section should be the one
that you continue to study and come back to over and over again and do so as long as you need until
you're able to achieve the status of light master so my recommendation is to save this photography
class to watch again in the near future so every lesson in this section is essential to
understanding how to become a light master and each lesson is in a specific order to help
you understand light and build on the next lesson so make sure you don't skip anything now in the
premium class i've included free pdf files that include additional information about each section
to help you continue elevating your light mastery next up is discovering where light comes from so
if you're ready to get started on that let's do it all right we're now going to take a quick
look at some places where light comes from we're not going to go over every possibility
otherwise we would be here all day so let's take a quick look at some of the more common
sources of light and then we'll go from there so light can come from two basic places it
can either be natural light or it can be artificial light so some of the natural
light that we can use to paint with are the sun and even stars as for artificial sources
of light we have a lot more options so artificial light sources could include speed lights strobes
ambient light like lamps or fluorescent lights each of those different types of light provides
different characteristics as far as intensity quality and even the color of light all of which
should be observed prior to creating your image and then with the knowledge that you're
going to gain throughout this section you will be able to paint with that light based
on your creative vision all right now that we know where light comes from let's take a look
at what light actually is in the next lesson light what is it yes that's an obvious question
but what is it truly well i have to warn you we're going to get a wee bit technical but don't worry
i'll keep it short and rest assured this will help you better understand the characteristics of light
and then with this knowledge you're going to be able to control those characteristics and you'll
learn more about that in an upcoming tutorial so here we go light is part of the electromagnetic
spectrum which ranges from radio waves to gamma rays electromagnetic radiation waves as the
name suggests are fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields which can transport energy from
one location to another wow all right so that's some pretty deep stuff right there wouldn't you
agree so what does this exactly mean in terms of how you can use light for photography well light
is basically a range of those electromagnetic spectrums that are visible to the human eye
and as you learned about in previous tutorials your camera is very similar to your eyes therefore
those range of spectrums is also visible to your camera and this is going to make a lot more sense
as you go throughout the rest of this section now based on your eyes there are other ranges you
can't see those light spectrums would be x-rays ultraviolet rays radio waves and some others as
well all right now that you know the technical term of what light is let's take it a bit
further to better understand what light is really all about okay you now know that what you
can actually see is based on an electromagnetic spectrum range and within that range you can
only see a certain amount of that light so within that visible light spectrum there are different
wavelengths of light and based on those different wavelengths your eyes will transform them into
different colors then within those wavelengths you have different lengths of light the shortest
of which is violet and the longest is red then in between those two colors are the following colors
of light orange yellow green blue and indigo now when all of those colors are combined
we end up with white light like from our sun then when that white light goes through a prism
the different wavelengths bend in different amounts and different colors start to appear
you will then see the full spectrum of colors in order from longest to shortest and this range
of colors can be seen in nature when you take a look at a rainbow now before we take a deeper dive
into lightroom itself i have a question what if your eyes were a high-end camera sensor what would
your specs be let's find out in previous tutorials we covered how your eyes are similar to how your
camera sees the world i'd like to delve into this a little bit more to refresh your memory and as
a reminder to see the light before you capture it and compare it to what your histogram is
telling you about the light you captured so the basic fundamentals of how your eyes
and your camera sees light are very similar and there are some differences as well so let's
take a look at both all right so check this out both your camera and your eyes are basically
made up of the same parts to paint with light you need a lens to allow the light into your
camera with the lens on your camera the light is filtered through an aperture into the
sensor when the shutter opens of course which is then recorded to your media card
or film if you're shooting old school and then for your eyes they also have a lens and
the light is then filtered to the back of your eyes into the retina and then transmitted to your
brain where it's stored as a memory so those are the basic similarities and let's take a look at
the differences all right so in previous tutorials you discovered that your camera cannot record
exactly what you see and it basically comes down to the technical limitations of your camera's
technology versus your eyes and your eyes are much more complex and can decipher larger
ranges of highlights and shadow details versus your camera and there are even differences between
one camera manufacturer's sensor versus another or even within the same lineup based on the
specifications of that specific sensor in other words less expensive cameras will have
a much more difficult time capturing all the data within the scene versus a higher end
camera but even the most expensive cameras still cannot compete with your eyes so here's what
happens when you're viewing a scene with your eyes as you look throughout the scene your eyes can
adjust to different levels of brightness within that scene then depending on the brightness
the pupils in your eyes which are similar to apertures will begin to get larger or smaller
to let in different brightness levels of light then as that light travels from your eyes to your
brain it will then begin to decipher all the data that's being collected so the data is the details
and the highlights mid-tones and shadows now as we talked about before your eyes are capable of
20 stops of light or more depending on who you ask now if you compare that to what your camera
sees and what it records it's much different so when the light is recorded
by your camera's sensor it's not really deciphering the data or the details that's
only collecting that information so the problem is when you have a scene that has a large range of
brightness levels from dark to light your sensor is not going to be able to record all the
detail in those different brightness levels this is due to your camera only being capable
of seeing or recording 7 to 14 stops of light so in a way your eyes are the top of the
line sensors and your digital camera sensors are from the dark ages although there is some
hope with technology advancing at the rated is it's possible digital cameras may one day
exceed what your eyes are able to see so imagine the photographs you'll be able to capture
when that day arrives and hopefully it's not that far out into the future back in 2002 i
picked up my first digital camera which is this fuji s2 and it's only able to capture seven stops
of light fast forward 18 years and my nikon z6 is capable of 14 stops double in less than two
decades so hopefully i'll see or at least be able to capture more than 20 stops in my lifetime until
then make sure to see the different brightness levels of light within a scene and read your
histogram to ensure you're getting your desired exposure or the details you need to fulfill
your creative vision next up how to see color why do certain objects have a specific color well
when light hits an object that object will absorb some wavelengths and at the same time will reflect
other wavelengths so in order to actually see an object you can only see it when the light is
reflected from the object into your eyes and at the same time the colors you see on the object
are from the wavelengths that are being reflected back to your eyes for example here we have a
photo of an orange lizard and it's absorbing most wavelengths but what it's doing is it's
reflecting back the orange wavelength and that's the color that you see now take a closer look
at the lizard and you'll notice it's not pure orange pretty obvious but what is that telling
us well although the majority of the color being reflected back is orange there are some mixtures
of other wavelengths being reflected back as well just not as intensely as orange and this gives
us the different color variations that we see all right next up discovering the three behaviors
of light alright when it comes to light we can categorize it into three types of behaviors and
it also has four unique characteristics now we've already talked about some of these behaviors
previously but we didn't define them as we will now so let's first go over the behaviors and we'll
cover the characteristics in the next tutorial now you may be wondering why would you want to
know the behaviors of light and how does that actually help you with your photography well when
you learn how to predict light's behavior that is essentially the first step towards understanding
how to control it remember everything you've learned about light so far builds on the
next lesson and each in turn will help you better understand and master light so the three
types of behaviors are reflection absorption and transmission so a reflection occurs when the
light reflects off of a surface now as you learned previously as light hits the surface it basically
bounces off of it then the different colored wavelengths that are reflected give the object
its color so the reflection of light can actually happen in a couple of different ways depending on
the surface of that object as well as the texture of the surface so we can define these types of
reflections into two categories specular and diffused reflections so specular reflections occur
on very smooth surfaces like a mirror metal or even water especially when that water is calm when
light hits a mirror it bounces off 99.9 percent of the light and that's why you're able to see
yourself in a mirror other mirror-like surfaces like the room of a car or the side of it will
not reflect as much light like a mirror that is depending on the surface if it's shiny or dull
it's going to reflect the object more or less depending on the texture of that surface but on
some level all objects reflect light which is why we can that's right see them so let's take a
deep dive into specular reflection with a little bit of a scientific explanation when it comes
to reflections there's a term called the law of reflection which simply means you can predict what
angle the light will bounce back at so based on this law of reflection when light hits your mirror
or another smooth surface like metal or water it's not just reflecting the light it's actually
following a very simple law as follows the light will bounce off the surface at the same angle at
which it hit so what are diffused reflections well a diffused reflection occurs when light strikes
a surface that is irregular or something with a texture you end up with a diffused reflection when
light hits a textured surface the light will be scattered in all different directions instead of
at the same angle like with a specular reflection and in most cases objects that do not have
a specular reflection are then considered diffused reflections although most objects have a
combination of both a smooth and textured surface and we can definitely see that in this photo
of my daughter the majority of this image is diffused reflections but her jewelry would be
considered a that's right a specular reflection not only that but if you take a closer look at her
eyes they too are specular since her surroundings are being reflected in them so the type of surface
and the amount of texture will determine if it's actually specular or diffused reflections so
here's a quick pro tip for those of you that shoot portraits and pets one of the biggest mistakes
i see from portrait photographers are eyes that are very dark or almost pure black if you lay
your portraits properly the eye should have a reflection of the surroundings or at least a catch
light and you should be able to decipher between the pupil and the iris since one has color and the
other is black all right so the second behavior of light is being absorbed by the object or the
surface every object absorbs some wavelengths of light and reflects others anything being reflected
as you know is the color you see but when it comes to the light being absorbed it can alter
elements in regards to how bright or dark it is for this image the available light is evenly
spread throughout the scene yet there's a large tonal range of light values the water itself is
reflecting more light than the rock formations and the rocks are then absorbing more light and that
makes them darker alright so the third behavior of light is transmission so transmission is when
light hits an object's surface and then passes through it for example when light passes through a
window that is transmission in action there's also another type of transmission called diffused
transmission and this is similar to diffused reflections in that the light will be scattered
but the difference is the light doesn't scatter until it passes through a surface in this image
diffused transmission is occurring when the sunlight travels through the clouds another thing
that can happen with the transmission of light is when it passes through an object filled with a
color it will then pass on or transmit that color onto another object and in this image we have a
large canvas tent covering our main subjects but it's not blocking the light entirely some of that
light is transmitting through it and the color of the canvas which has a bit of a yellowish tone
to it is being cast onto the subjects alright so those are the three behaviors of light next
you'll discover the four characteristics of light alright so far we've covered a lot about the
technicalities of light and it's all led us to this point in elevating your mastery of light
what you're about to learn is going to change how you currently see light and it all has to do with
the four characteristics of light this includes the quality intensity color and direction of light
each of these is essential to understanding how to use light to achieve your creative vision so let's
start off with the quality of light in essence the quality of light is basically determining whether
or not the light is soft or hard but you're probably wondering how can light be soft or hard
well let's take a look at two images and this will better illustrate the difference between hard and
soft light so our first image here on the left is considered to be hard light and the image on the
right is considered to be lit with soft light and you'll notice that the highlights are very bright
and the shadows are very dark in the first image plus the edges of the shadows have a hard edge
to them if you compare that to the other image you can see that the highlights are not
as bright and the shadows are not as dark and the transition from highlight to shadows has a
much smoother transition versus the hard light now at first you may think that the quality of light
isn't that big of a deal that is until you have to decide the quality of light that you may want
to use in order to set the mood of an image or to fulfill your creative vision for example when
shooting portraits you should decide ahead of time whether you want hard or soft light and again
that depends on your goal for the final image for example let's say you're photographing a newborn
should you use soft light or hard light well think back to images you've seen of newborns what was
the quality of light i bet that the majority of them were lit with soft light why is that well
soft light tends to be more flattering for newborns and portraits in general but if the mood
you are trying to create represents a strength or maybe you want to create something mysterious then
a hard light would work better so the question is how you create soft or hard light well one way
is based on the size of your light source and in general the larger the light source the softer
the light will be and the distance of the light to your subject can also change it from hard to soft
alright so the second characteristic of light is intensity and light sources can have different
intensities this can include very bright to dim and everything in between one of the most intense
types of light sources is direct sunlight on a sunny day on the other end of the spectrum you
have stars that appear very dim light bulbs are somewhere in the middle depending on how powerful
they are but there's a catch the closer you are to a light source the more intense it's going to
be for example if you're reading a book next to a lamp the light will be fairly bright but if you
move 100 feet away from that lamp it's not going to be as bright or as intense so the intensity
of the light source depends on how close you are to it and we have a new handy dandy law that
helps us better understand how this works so let me introduce you to the inverse square law
this law states that the brightness of your light on your subject will be less intense the farther
you move away from the light source and in fact the light on your subject will appear twice as dim
as the distance moved away from the light source no worries you don't have to be a math wizard to
utilize this law of light instead all you need to remember is the distance and the brightness are
not linear in other words as you move away from a light source it will quickly become less bright
and the reason for this is the light becomes less intense because it's spreading out over a larger
area the further it goes away from your subject another way to change the intensity of light is
by diffusing the light and this can be achieved by placing something that is transparent or will
allow something to transmit light through it and thereby diffusing that light as it passes
through and remember when light transmits through something it becomes a scattered light
and the result is a softer light and a common type of diffuser for photographers and even
cinematographers is what is known as a softbox or umbrellas all right so the third characteristic
of light is the direction of the light and this is another important consideration when
creating the type of image that you want in essence the direction of light can
basically come from any direction but in photography you'll find four basic lighting
terms to describe the direction of lighting used this includes side lighting overhead back and
front lighting now these four basic directions of light can dramatically change the appearance
of the subject in your photograph and this is because the direction of the light will determine
where the highlights shadows and mid-tones will be in your image now in general when lighting
your subject or your scene you have at least one main source of light and it will generally
fall into one of those four categories however you are not limited to just one light all of the time
and this can be due to having lights reflecting off of different objects within the scene or
you can add additional lights to the scene and then add them so that they come in different
directions now this brings us to some other terms you're going to hear as a photographer when
we're discussing multiple sources of light for your particular scene or your subject and those
terms are key fill and ambient light so if you take an image outside from direct sunlight then
that light source will be coming from overhead the sunlight is then considered not only to be the
main light but it's also referred to as key light now this type of lighting is unflattering
because it can cause deep shadows in people's eyes now what you can do in that situation is use
another light source which will be known as the fill light and this type of light will come from a
direction either from the side or in front of the subject and by doing this you will add light into
those shadow areas created by the overhead light and it will create a more pleasing portrait
and it's even possible to have a third type of light that already exists in the scene like
a lamppost or if you're shooting inside then maybe there are lamps in the background and
this creates what is known as ambient light all right so the fourth characteristic of light
is color now as you may remember in a previous lesson we talked briefly about the technicals of
light and how different wavelengths create the colors of light and what we're going to do now is
we're going to go over how different sources of light will emit different colors of light what
it basically comes down to is different light sources will produce different colors of light
and the general range of colors goes from red to white to blue and in photography terms this
color of light is measured on a temperature scale and one of the terms you're going to hear in
photography when it comes to the temperature of light is the kelvin temperature so the
kelvin temperature is basically the scale on which different light sources are placed within
that scale based on the colors they emit so red is going to be very warm and on the opposite end
of the scale you will have blue which would be considered cool now a sunrise for example will
emit a very warm color of light and the yellow to orange to red colors tungsten lighting will also
emit a warm color in the yellow to orange range now you could even get a different color from the
sun as well when you have direct sunlight it's not as warm as sunrise or sunset and direct sunlight
in mid-afternoon is going to be closer to yellow to white in addition to that the light from the
sun will change again on an overcast day when that light transmits through the clouds it ends up
becoming not only softer but also cooler or bluer then you're also going to notice depending on
the scene you could have a range of cool to warm temperatures in that same scene for example you
could have direct sunlight emitting yellow light and also have blue light in your scene as well
and you're going to notice these blue cooler temperatures in the shadows so the next time you
go outside take a look at everything around you and try and view the different colors of light
within the area that you're viewing and the thing is you may not have noticed it before because
your eyes automatically adjust to these different colors and we just accept it as it is but if you
make an effort to view those different colors in the different areas of a particular scene and
you look for those colors then you will notice the variety of blues and yellows throughout a scene
and here's the thing knowing and seeing this light is important when it comes to your photography
and that's because the color of light can affect the mood of your photos and there's a specific
camera setting that allows you to adjust the color of light based on your creative vision that
camera setting is known as the white balance and you may remember we did cover the white
balance previously to learn more about the white balance and the kelvin temperature make
sure to check out the corresponding sections in the premium course to elevate your mastery of
light alright it's now time to take a look at the third key to creating exceptional images and that
is composition but what exactly is composition well composition is the placement or arrangement
of visual elements and a work of art as distinct from the subject it can also be thought of as the
organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art in its simplest terms
composition means putting it together so what exactly are we putting together well different
elements within a scene make up a particular image and these different elements could
include lines like the horizon of a sunset or steps leading somewhere shapes like statues
or works of art color throughout an image or a main color scheme compositional techniques
known as the rule of thirds or rule of space to name a couple of photography rules and there could
be other elements that make up your image as well this could include people or other subjects
that you may be photographing and even light can play as a compositional element so how you
put all of these elements together in your image will determine if you're able to hold the
viewer's interest in the photo so when someone looks at your photo does it grab their interest
and make them say wow that's an amazing photo and they continue looking at it study it
even and possibly share it via social media all of which is the goal of any image
you create isn't it to create something so amazing that people are in awe of your artwork
composition can help hold that viewer's attention by arranging the elements to create a mood or a
story now on the other hand if you get composition wrong then you lose your viewers interest and your
photo becomes just another average photo among the billions created every year so here's a poorly
composed photo i did for an engagement session and for this image i used a technique known as the
rule of thirds and i placed a couple in the right third of the frame and just so you know you'll
learn more about the rule of thirds later in this photography course now although i used a so-called
rule in photography that doesn't mean i've created a great composition and that's due to having
too many elements competing for your attention so our primary subjects the couple are in the
foreground but there's a lot of stuff in the background competing for your attention as well
so we have the detroit tigers logo the name of the ballpark a bat coming out of the future
groom's head and a lot more it's a total mess now based on what you've learned so far in this
photography course what could i have done better for this composition well the main thing would
have been to blur out the background more with a larger aperture to create more separation
between the foreground and the background and there's other things that could have done as
well but we'll get into that another day now when it comes to composition it's ideal to have
the main element as the focal point of your image then you can use other composition techniques
to direct your viewer around the image and then back to the main focal point when it comes to
composition techniques and rules there's over 30 of them each of them can help you create
amazing images so what i'd like to do now is share the more popular techniques and my favorite
so we're going to start off with a quick overview of each technique and then i'll share over 25
images and the composition techniques that i used for each image all right one of the most popular
compositional rules that photography beginners should know is the rule of thirds now keep in mind
when i say rule it isn't a hard rule it's more of a guideline or rule of thumb now the rule of
thirds suggests that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts those parts are
created from two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines then we
have four points where the lines intersect so this rule suggests that by placing your main element
along with one of these grid lines or better yet intersecting at one of the main four points you'll
create a stronger more meaningful composition that will grab your viewers attention by drawing
their eyes to the main element of your artwork now you could also use the grid lines to divide
your scene into thirds which simply means you can use one of these three horizontal rows to place
your main elements in and this works really well for landscape images or instead of using one of
the horizontal rows you can use one of the three vertical columns to place your main subject
in and this works well for numerous types of subjects and i tend to use this a lot for the
portrait photography work that i do okay i'm gonna share some more images that follow the rule of
thirds later on first let's take a look at another composition technique known as leading lines this
is another easy technique to use to direct your viewers attention to the main element and that is
because you'll find lines everywhere in your scene so lines come in all different types shapes
and sizes so let's go over some characteristics of these lines and we'll take a look at
multiple images later on so lines can come in three different types of angles horizontal
vertical or diagonal they can also be long short or anywhere in between and they don't have
to be straight either they can even have curves to them and they don't have to physically be there
either a line can actually be implied but all lines have something very similar and common and
that is lines will guide your viewers on where to look within your photo and that's because your
eyes will naturally follow lines based on their direction so you can use lines as a way of getting
your viewer to focus on the main subject and other elements in a scene as well the next
compositional technique is one of my favorites and it's known as framing in essence a frame is
something visual that surrounds your subjects like a picture frame a frame doesn't have to
be anything specific you can use any elements in your scene to frame your main subject all
right as you now know light is the second key to creating exceptional images but light can do
much more than just illuminate your scene it can also be a compositional element all by itself
so when it comes to your light source you have an infinite number of options from the stars
to the moon studio strobes a lamp in your home and much more and the source of your light
doesn't have to be part of the image itself to affect the composition and this is due to
something you learned previously and that is the characteristics of light which are intensity
quality direction and the color of light so the characteristics of light can shape your
main subject and will affect the composition but you can also include the source of light
or a secondary light as part of the composition and i'll share images of both coming up real soon
first let's review one more composition technique and this one is a little less known versus
the others however it can play a vital role in telling a story about your subjects and that is
using expressions as part of your composition now depending on your subject it can be easy or
difficult to get the expression you desire to tell the story or to capture the true essence
of that person all right let's jump into lightroom now and i'm going to share some photos showing
how i've used these compositional rules and techniques all right so this first image of our
daughter is not a strong image when it comes to some of the composition techniques we've talked
about but the expression is the main compositional technique used by capturing her mood at
this point in time during the photo shoot later on in the photo shoot about 20 minutes
later she was having enough and she was done so expressions are a great way to tell a story
based on the subjects that you're photographing this next image i captured with a mamiya rgb67
about 18 or 19 years ago and although i do have the rule of thirds being applied in here
with the couple in the center it's not a very strong composition based on the rule of thirds by
itself instead these leading lines on this wall bring us into the image and direct us directly
to the couple so i believe the leading lines in this image are the strongest composition technique
used in this particular image our next image again not a strong composition really not using the rule
of thirds instead we have another great expression telling us the story of this young man's day
and i've included enough elements in the image to help tell the story and if you know exactly
what he's doing at this time let me know in the comments below this next image is not a very good
image it's actually pretty poor it's out of focus and that's because i captured this image at night
as you can see at a very slow shutter speed of under one second so i was hand holding this and
it created camera shake but i include this image because i want to talk about the composition
of this image and how it relates to where you may be going on your vacations or images
that you capture in general so as you can see we have a railing in the front we have some leading
lines directing us throughout the image as well as these leading lines from inside the top and bottom
of the rails here they're kind of curving so if your eye comes down here maybe it picks up one
of these curves and it comes back in through the image at different points so it's allowing you to
travel across the image from one side to the other top and down behind it you can see there's a
lot of lights going on it's kind of hard to see what it is but this is niagara falls now in your
lifetime you've probably seen thousands of images from niagara falls and they all pretty much look
the same don't they but this image is different from anything else you've ever seen i decided
to shoot through the railing and use the railing as a frame and to use the leading lines to direct
us throughout the image and i wanted to include the niagara falls as a secondary element to what's
going on in the foreground but we still know it's the niagara falls at least now that i've told you
or if you've been here before you know this is niagara falls now this is on the canadian side
not the american side so my point is you've seen millions of photos of this location and probably
other locations too like a lot of locations at yosemite park the grand canyon the eiffel
tower etc so all of these locations that are hot spots for tourists are receiving millions of
photos taken every year at these locations and they all look the same so my point is try and find
something different to stand out from the crowd think of a new different type of composition
technique that you can apply to your images to capture that location but to show it in a
different light try a different angle different perspective that way your images don't look
like everybody else's all right next image here we have the couple on the right side of the
rural thirds and we have some leading lines on this bridge that take us throughout the image
and back again towards the couple this next image i'm using rule of thirds again her feet are
in this quadrant right down here on this point and there's another compositional technique being
used as well which is contrast so her dress here and the sand are contrasting from the skin
of her feet and the color of her toenails so our eyes tend to come towards her feet because
they're different from the large areas of contrast from the dress and the sand now the whiteness of
the dress itself is grabbing our eyes attention as well so we come up here and we look around up here
but because of the contrast we come back down to this area over here rule of thirds again we have
the couple in the left quadrant and the corvette is taking up two thirds of that quadrant now this
image could be better the background should have been blurred out even more it looks like i shot
at f4 at 28 millimeters so i should have used a larger f-stop like 2.8 or even 1.4 with a 50
millimeter lens i just didn't have an option to shoot at this angle with a larger focal
length because i couldn't back up anymore so other than that i like the composition and of
course i could have blurred out this background in photoshop but i haven't done that yet but
i do like how the couple is on the left side and then the corvette has some leading lines
here bringing us back towards the couple same couple same car rule of thirds again they're
up at the top and we have a leading line from here back up towards the couple and then for this next
image we have the rule of thirds again but we also have some leading lines in a few different places
so the main one would be this set of bricks here that's creating this column so we have a leading
line bringing us back down towards the couple we also have some shadows here so if our eyes
navigate away we can see that these shadows have a diagonal line bringing us back to the column
here and then this one brings us back here you can also say that i'm framing the couple between two
windows so there's a few different compositional techniques being used as well as this leading
line down here as well this next one we have what is known as a juxtaposition that's a composition
technique as well that we haven't talked about so basically if you grew up in the 70s and you
watched sesame street then you may remember one of the lyrics was one of these things belong
one of these things don't so that's juxtaposition so we have this large building this architecture
here along with a couple so that's the juxtaposition so we have a lot of different
things going on in here as far as composition we have our rule of thirds we also have leading
lines coming back towards the couple on this railing here there's some patterns in here that
have some leading lines coming back to them as well but they're being blocked by these columns
but these large tall columns here coming back down to the railing so in essence we can say that
if you come over here and look over here maybe your eye gravitates back down towards this railing
and then back towards the couple and then we have implied leading lines with the direction that our
couple is looking so naturally you're going to be thinking to yourself subconsciously what are
they looking at well let me see well there's really nothing going on over here it's a lot of
open space you see the architecture and those leading lines bring you back this next image of
the groom getting ready for the wedding ceremony was captured inside of this door frame so i'm
using framing to frame the groom we have some leading lines inside of here as well that lead us
back to the groom as well and some on the outside but the main composition technique is the framing
of the groom in this doorway i'm using framing again for this bride getting ready this
is a back of a chair it had a hole in it and i decided to use that to frame the bride so
again wedding photographers there's a ton of them thousands in my area so i have to do
something different to stand out so my images don't look like everybody else's so try
and find different angles perspectives again and use different composition techniques to make
your work stand out rule of thirds for this bride here and i'm using the leading lines here of
the bricks to direct us back towards the bride again the background i didn't do a very good job
blurring that out i should have again i'm at f4 at 40 millimeters i should have done 200 millimeters
at 2.8 and that would have helped to blur out the background sometimes you just got to get the shot
because you don't have a lot of time especially when you're shooting weddings rule of thirds again
for this image we have a lot of leading lines in these buildings here bringing us back towards
the couple leading lines again same couple so the buildings top to bottom are the leading lines
bringing us back down we have a leading line here and i'm also using light as a compositional
technique as well to help balance this image as well as create these rays of light coming from
the sun diagonally to the right which is another leading line right here now in this next image
i'm using light as part of the composition as well and you could say that i'm using color as part of
the composition as well but it's being done poorly in this particular image because we have this red
door in the background and it's competing for our attention with this couple right here which is
the main subject so this is not a good use of color in the composition so i could tone this
down or desaturate this door in photoshop to lessen that color from competing for our attention
and there's a lot of leading lines here in the bricks to bring us back to the main couple it's
just that color of door is kind of distracting my daughter again we're using rule of thirds and
we have leading lines over here on the right side directing us back towards her again
for this image i'm using the light as the main compositional element but there's
some other things going on in here as well we have a door frame so i am using framing as part
of the composition technique but because of this light source right here it's so bright
that's the first area that our eyes navigate to because of the brightness then
you begin to navigate around that light to see what's going on and then you notice that this
bride's mate here and this one holding the light are both looking down so it's kind of telling a
story of what's going on in this moment what are they looking for well if you want to know let me
know in the comments below now behind them there's two more stories we have the bride and another
bridesmaid or her mother right here and then behind them we have two more bridesmaids doing
something else now i think these four people in this image detract from the main story which
is right here so again a large aperture of 1.4 probably would have been better to blur out these
people here so that they weren't part of the story but again you have to get the shot with what you
have available i would probably blur everybody out in the background in photoshop to make
this a stronger composition for this image i'm using action as part of the composition as well
as texture most brides dresses do not have this amount of texture so i cropped in real tight
to focus on the dress itself and not the bride with the dress we can see there's a lot of texture
she's doing something leaning lines of her arms bring us into that action for this image again i'm
using a couple of different composition techniques i'm using framing from this piece of furniture
here to frame the dress and then i'm using this artwork here to balance out the image because
it's kind of heavy on the right side and i'm kind of using the rule of thirds as well so this frame
here is balancing the side without it it would be too heavy and unbalanced i'm also using light
as part of the composition which we can see in the reflection right here which helps tell the
story of the day based on that light source and the color of light we also have some light coming
over here which is a different color than this light source here so this would be window light
which is bluer versus the yellow coming on this side of the dress for this next image i'm using
leading lines and implied leading lines so we can see the groom is gazing off into this direction
what is he looking at not quite sure so the bench brings us back to the main subject and again i'm
using rule of thirds next image rule of thirds again and i'm also utilizing the leading lines of
the hills and the trees here to bring us back to the couple this one leading lines and framing as
well as rule of thirds so i'm using this bush here in the foreground with the back one here to frame
them in this area right here one of my favorite images of this wedding reception included images
of the bride and groom as well as family members along this clothesline and i position myself in
a way to create a leading line from the couple into the rest of the image but i wanted to blur
out these images so that the main focus was on the couple here the use of color is bringing
us into this image and then we can see the implied leading line of the groom looking off
but the color grabs our attention and then the lines of that artwork bring us back to the groom
this image again i'm trying to create something different during the ceremony i'm framing the
guess within this piece of work here artwork i'm not quite sure what it was but i had an opening or
a little window right here that i peeked through to capture the guests during the ceremony to
help tell the story and to frame them as the main subjects once again i'm using framing of
this doorway here to frame the wedding dress and the inside of the bride's room here where
she was getting ready the one thing i do not like is this window right here it's very bright and
it's competing with the dress and it's kind of a distraction so you're looking back and forth
between the two not quite sure what to look at so if i were to do this over again i would close
these drapes and try and darken up this window here so the focus would be more on the dress and
the rest of the things going on on the inside alright so again i'm using leading lines of
the guitar here to get to the main action up here at the top the one thing i do not like
is the back of these chairs here this was at the ceremony so what i could have done is i
could have captured this at a different angle or different perspective to crop out the back of
these chairs i could use the crop tool to crop in tighter but i don't necessarily get everything in
there that i wanted when i captured it originally so be aware of your surroundings the foreground
and the background and try and crop out anything in camera before you take the photo that way
you don't have to worry about fixing it later on now in this next image i like this image but i
don't like this image what i don't like about it is this large post right here it's kind of
dominating the image so i had to do something in photoshop to help bring out this couple a
little bit more so i used color to try and focus more on the couple versus the surroundings so if
i were to reshoot this i would try and shoot it at an angle where this post was not in the image but
i do have the framing of the couple going on here as part of the composition along with the leaning
lines and the colors of their jeans quick shot of a bug in our garden we have leading lines for
this image and the rule of thirds is heads right in the middle there not a strong composition
other than the leading lines again i'm using expressions to create something new and different
for this engagement session and their expressions kind of give you an idea of their personalities
so when photographing people try and capture their true essence by capturing expressions that tell us
who they are or what their personalities are like and then this next image of the same couples
a little bit more somber traditional classic however you want to say it so what i did is i
used the surroundings to frame them on the left side which is the rule of thirds and i framed
them between this railing down here and this railing up here and then if your eyes gravitate
away from them this leading line of the railing will bring you back to the couple if you gravitate
to this side the top of the railing or down here will bring you back based on this leading line
back towards the couple for this image we have juxtaposition going on again we have a large
building taking up the majority of the image and then the leading lines bring us back towards the
couple over here and i'm utilizing rule of thirds for this next image i'm using two main composition
techniques any idea which ones i'm using well if you said framing you would be
correct and i'm also using color as part of the composition now for this next image it's
really really busy there's a lot going on here but i do like this image because it's different
again you've seen photos of couples millions of times but how many photos have you seen where
the couple are posed in this way probably not very many if at all so what could i have done
better well the background here is really busy we have a lot going on the lights are dominating
the top portion we have a number down here so i could have blurred out the background and used
a shallow depth of field of 2.8 or 1.4 but again i wasn't in a position or i couldn't use a
larger focal length or a shallower depth of field based on what i was trying to capture at the
time which was the two numbers here plus the lights in the background so as you can see i shot
this at 14 millimeters at f5 so it's a very large depth of field so i would have to fix this in
photoshop other than that i like how the couple are framed between these two lights here and then
we have the 50 yard line here as a leading line bringing us into the main subjects here which are
the couple again i'm using framing to frame the couple in the doorway and then during the editing
process i applied color as part of the composition and then in this next image i'm using framing
and leading lines and for this one i'm using framing plus color so there's two different colors
being utilized to grab our attention the first is the same color tone that i applied here which
is a beige rustic retro type of feel or tone to it and then we have the color of his tie which is
contrasting with everything else in the image and that's grabbing the viewer's attention because of
that contrast and it's fine that we're focusing on that tie because it brings us towards the
main subject which is the couple and the framing inside of this doorway helps as well this
next image is the same building that i shot here i just cropped in tighter this time and again
i placed each into the columns here to frame them inside of there and then i had them look in
opposite directions to create implied lines and those implied lines intersect with each other
and keep us focused on the couple leading lines and framing again as well as that color tone that
i applied previously for this next image i'm using color and texture as part of the composition
techniques but color trumps the texture because it's so much brighter and different and contrasts
with the textures in the image that our eyes naturally navigate to this area first because
of that color now this next image is one of my favorite images i captured on a family vacation in
new york we were walking through this tunnel here i stopped to capture this image so i could use the
edging of the tunnel here to frame this side of the park and there were people on the stairs and
the bridge and i think my kids were on the railing so i had to remove all of them to get this final
image this image i'm using a macro lens so a lot of it is out of focus but i'm using color as
the main composition technique to bring us into this image for this image i'm utilizing leading
lines as well as the rule of thirds they're both right here on this point for this image i'm
using framing again to frame the couple within the image again i'm using three different types
of techniques we have framing leading lines and color so there's a lot going on but because of
each of the different composition techniques our eyes always gravitate back towards the
couple in this image for this one i'm using the leading lines of the background here
as well as framing the girl's legs between her fiance's legs right here this next image
again probably different from what you're used to seeing of couples on their wedding
day we were shooting downtown detroit and there was a lot of construction going on so
i decided to frame them inside of the top of this cone right here now in the background
we have this big bright red and yellow sign it tells a little bit of a story about the
location but i think it's kind of detracting from the overall image our eyes tend to look right
here first but then this sign is pulling us into this side of the image so i'm not really
liking the sign in this image same couple again and i'm utilizing color and framing better in this
image than i did in the previous image and again same location and i'm utilizing this construction
here to frame them inside of these different poles right here as well as framing them between
these two colors right here so we have a frame within a frame as well as leading lines bringing
us back towards the couple nice leading line leading into the couple as well as rule of thirds
using expressions again to tell the personality of this couple no she is not a bridezilla they're
just a fun loving couple that wanted to do something a little bit different and fun kind of
a boring photo i'm utilizing the rule of thirds though and i blurt out the background to help this
part or this subject to stand out from the rest another one of my favorite images i'm utilizing
leading lines and the rule of thirds to place the tree on the right side and the leading lines
of these hills and the foreground here and the background lead us back to the tree you could also
say that the color of the sky is contrasting with the tree and that's helping with the composition
of the image as well again rule of thirds this time i'm placing the gecko in the middle another
rule of thirds image the head of the millipede is directly on this point right here landscape photo
with the rule of thirds i placed the shoreline here directly in the center and then for this last
image again a lot going on not a whole lot you can do when you're about five rows back 10 rows back
whatever it was at the time and you can't really get a great shot a perfect shot so what do you
do well you do what you can with what you have and there's some luck involved as well so we
have two different stories going on here we have the main lead singer right here and we have our
guitarist over here so the lead singer is in focus but we also have another story going on over
here with the guitarist he's not as sharp as the lead singer and the guitarist is framed between
these hands all these lights up here have lots of color and they're all directing our attention
back down towards the band itself which helps with the composition of this particular image so
overall this was a pretty lucky shot i would say to get these people in front of me to lift
their hands at the right moment to frame the musician right here so utilize composition to tell
a story to direct your viewers to the main subject and to create a stronger better image based on
placing the elements of the scene in a specific order based on what you want them to see all
right so editing is the fourth key to creating amazing images and editing is an art form all by
itself we could easily spend hours days weeks even months talking about editing and you still might
not have mastered it based on your creative vision not to mention all the different editing software
options and there are numerous editing tools that will take months to master so i'm going to give
you some tips on what software to use and why and then you'll have to explore my premium photography
master class to learn more about editing as well as researching other artists to find out
how to edit your images with your software of choice but first before we do a quick review
on some software let me show you how editing can transform ordinary images into extraordinary
for this image it's a pretty boring location and subject but by replacing the sky and changing
the colors to match a sunset we have a much more interesting image that being said is this image
still a photograph in a way it is but it's more of a composite than an original photograph
since i've used another image to transform it now for this image there's been no editing done
to it yet so this is straight out of the camera now here's a classic traditional type of editing
style but i wanted to mute the colors and create a more retro feel which is my preferred editing
style to me this is still a photograph even though the editing style does not include the natural
colors when i captured this image and i understand that not everyone is going to like my editing
style which i'm okay with since i'm happy with it that being said not everyone is going to like your
editing style either so how you edit your image is going to be based on your creative preference
the problem is at this point you may not know what your preferred style is or if you do you may not
know how to create it or even which software to use to create it so the first step is deciding on
what software to use which can be difficult in and of itself since you have a lot of choices then you
have to spend some time learning the software now regardless of your choice i'd recommend trying
out two or three applications for a week or two to get a feel for how the software operates the
tools available and which one you're comfortable with and whether or not you want to shell out any
money for your editing software is something else to consider so let's check out a couple of options
to get you started now when it comes to software you have a lot of choices a lot more than i
had 30 years ago or even 15 to 20 years ago and at that time photoshop was the dominant
software and i'd say it still is today now getting photoshop at a decent price is much
more affordable now than it was back in the 90s back then i had a shell out around 800 or
so for a single license and that didn't include updates which were a couple hundred dollars more
for each update now compare that today when you can get photoshop for one starbucks coffee or
ten dollars per month plus the photography plan includes both photoshop and lightroom for that
same ten dollars so basically five dollars each now the main advantage to adobe software is
they're updated three to four times per year and they have many more time saving features
versus software that you can get for free plus much more now another cool feature about photoshop
and lightroom is you can use them on your ipad and iphone for free which is a great way to try them
out before you pay for the monthly subscription when it comes to using either one on your laptop
or a desktop you can download a free 7-day trial now when it comes to which one you should try
first i'd recommend lightroom over photoshop so photoshop even though it has a lot more tools
and features it's going to take much longer to master than lightroom so editing your raw files
and lightroom is fairly simple once you get the hang of using it but there are two different
versions of lightroom there's the desktop or the classic version and then there's the mobile
version which you can also use on a laptop or desktop which one you use is dependent on the
features you need to learn more about photoshop and lightroom check out their playlist in the
description below now if you're more interested in freeware you can actually get a clone of photoshop
for free and there's also a free alternative for lightroom both of which i've included a link
to in the description below now one of the most popular free alternatives to photoshop
is known as [ __ ] which stands for gnu image manipulation program and [ __ ] includes a lot of
the same tools and features as photoshop although you won't find all of the time saving artificial
intelligent tools to make your job easier like the subject select tool which will instantly make a
selection of your subject for you auto magically now if you're interested in learning more about
[ __ ] i have a [ __ ] for beginners playlist in the description below to get you started
to continue elevating your photography skills make sure to get my photography masterclass
that includes over 30 hours of content plus check out some of my free photography
and editing tutorials here on my channel via the links in the description below
thanks for watching and have an awesome day
