Recently, I have received a book about photography from my awesome mother-in-law. It is Photo 1: An Introduction to the Art of Photography by Katie Stern. I scanned through the pages and found a lot of really great information for film and digital photography. I went through the summarized features of this book. Clearly, this is intended to teach the fundamental concepts of photography, whether film-based or digital, that will outlast the constant changes in digital software. It aims to address visual literacy from a photographic standpoint, giving equal time to the aesthetics and critiquing of photography as well as to practical and basic topics like shutter, aperture, exposure, ISO, lighting and composition. And so, I am sharing these with you!
Considering this day and age where everyone carries a camera and everyone calls themselves a photographer, learning the basic concept of photography will get you an edge over the others. Aside from keen eye and great skill, having the technicalities will get your far than you imagine.
A lot has been published about the basics of photography. You search and type aperture, shutter, ISO, lighting and composition and you will get floods of useful information about them. Now that you have your camera, I am pretty sure that you have already researched, read and understand about them.
Aside from the basic stuff that we need to learn, there are also other things that we need to do in order to learn more about Photography. They are very basic and they don’t need scientific explanations nor mathematical calculations so you can improve your photography. I have tried and tested them and it worked so well for me.
First, make photographs. Take photos of everything that captures your eyes – plants, places, people, ordinary or extraordinary events. The more you photograph, the more you’ll learn about what you want to achieve in a photographic standpoint. As they say, learning is by doing. Don’t limit yourself. Try to experiment.
Secondly, select a theme and follow it. For instance, you chose flowers. Snap photos of flowers of different kinds, in different colors, various angles, with shallow depths of fields, variations of time they are taken and where they are taken. If you remember my this series, evidently, the theme is Flower. All through out the week, I shoot different flowers in different aspects.
Third, Keep a track of what you do. As you continue to keep on shooting, select some your photographs that catches your attention. Oh, and even those that did not. Keep a record of how you took the shot. Write down the settings (i.e., aperture, shutter, ISO, exposure). Once you have it down, evaluate the outcome. Identify what else you could have done to make it better. In short, study your settings. Doing so will enable yourself to master the basics of photography.
Fourth, Read and reread your camera manual. This is hands-down very self-explanatory. When it comes to this field, the manual is your “bible”. Important information about your camera is written in it.
Lastly, seek examples of photographs from professional. This will give you the inspiration and motivation to do something similar . Study the photos. Make a comparison. Identify the similarities and differences of how each photos were taken. Pay attention to the lighting, composition and how the shots were executed. Identify the different exif data that were used and use those information to create something your own. As much as possible, create something original. Do no just recreate what these photographers did. Simply allow your creative mind to explore.
Learning photography is not just limited to the list above. There are many other ways to learn and improve your knowledge about being behind the camera. It is up to you to discover that! One important thing that I have learned from other resources is to PRACTICE. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect”.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Chime in if you think you have other ways of learning the art of Photography aside from those mentioned above. We, photographers, are all in one community. It will be nice if we get to share to others what we have learned.
Source: Photo 1: An Introduction to the Art of Photography by Katie Stern
by Noreen