Learn photography!

[dolphin115]

Hello. I've been into photography recently and took an intro class and color theory class, plus read a bunch of books on photography. Since I see others are interested in learning photography, I thought I'd post up stuff I've learned. If you have any specific question on how to take certain types of pictures, I'll try my best to answer it (and find it if I can). Any questions you have, I will post the answers back on this 1st post so it will be easier to find all the info.

If you have tips and info to share, feel free to post them and I'll add them to this post with you credited.

If you find this info helpful, please add to my reputatioin!

PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE AND TIPS:
Note: I will refer to Canon functions, so it might be named different on different brands. Also, all pictures used were taken by me. You can look at the pictures bigger if you click on them.

GOOD COMPOSITION
Usually you can tell when someone have not learned about photography because subjects, the person or thing you are focusing on (the main reason for the picture), are in dead center. It is usually more pleasing to the eyes and leads the eyes through the picture if you use the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is an imaginary "tic-tac-toe" grid that divides the picture/frame, and you position your subject(s) so that it/they land on any of the intersecting point(s) on the grid. So there should be 4 points in which your subjects can go (i.e. a, b, c, d). Horizontal lines such as the horizon should either run along the top line or the bottom line, instead of dead center.


Pictures sometimes look flat if you have everything focused sharply, from foreground to background. Try to use shallow depth of field on your subject so that your subject is sharp while the background is gradually out-of-focused. Depth of field is the sharpness and blurred effect, showing the depth of things in the image. To get a lot of depth of field (having far things and the foreground sharp), use the Av aperture function and set to higher number (usually f8.0 - f32.0 depending how good your camera is) or your camera might have a dial that has a picture of mountains and the aperture is automatically set for you. To get shallow depth of field (having a certain thing or part of a thing in sharp focus while other things around it is gradually blurry), use the Av aperture function and set to lower number (usually f1.6-f2.7). It is more effective when you zoom your lens. The longer the lens, the bigger the sharp vs. blurred effect. If it is a bit dark (cloudy day or indoors), you may need to use a tripod because the more your lens are zoomed, the more sensitive it is to camera shake (usually from your hands, breathing, or wind).

Shallow depth-of-field by zooming: _______Wide depth-of-field:
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ANIMALS AND CHILDREN
If you are taking pictures of small things such as flowers, children, animals, or other things near the ground, do not shoot down (pointing your camera in downward angle) on them. Instead, squat or kneel or even ly down because everyone standing up at this height knows what it looks like when looking down at them, so that you are at least eye-level with them (camera is at the same level as the subject's eyes). Try lying down to shoot or put camera to floor and use LED screen while tilting camera up at the subject. It will definitely be an angle people normally do not see things from.

When taking pictures of these smaller subjects, try to move in closer or zoom your lens in so that the subject fills the picture up, leaving very little foreground or background. Remember that when you zoom, be very still and make sure you do not shake the camera (or use a tripod if it's too blurry when holding it).

zoomed in and around eye level:


...to be continued...Please check back for more info to be added...

RUNNING WATER/WATERFALLS

FIREWORKS


NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

LIGHT PAINTING
My own notes:
f-stop - the name used for aperture (i.e. f8.0)
aperture - the amount of light entering the camera lens (i.e. f2.7...f5.6...f8.0)
shutter speed - the amount of time the lens stays open during one shot (i.e. 1/3200 sec....0.5 sec....15 sec)
ISO - the speed of the film (ISO 50 is the slowest, ISO 200+ is the fastest)

[Kwan-Yi]

hmm i like to learn how to take photos.. normally i just take it however i think looks good.. but i'll read this through thoroughly

[MalisPong]

Pretty helpful ... I'll try it out when I get a cam