Photography class? Quick questions?

[Nargbert]

Hello all you overly creative people! It is I, Nargert! He who is only mildly creative but a grade a slacker!

 

Anyways, I like to take pictures of things and I like to act like I might know a thing or two on how to take a picture.  So. Before we look at actually trying a class... is their interest? What questions might you have about photography? What would you be interested in learning? Theory of focusing a tilt shift lens? Zone system for exposure? ..... how to take a decent picture with your phone? 

 

Let me know, maybe we just do a standard question/answer type thread. If there is more interest in the details we can do a class.

 

Nargy

[Lavandula]

Me me me!!!!!!

I wanna know about

- camera functions

- motion and depth like how to best take pic of something moving, bluring background etc

- angle, distance and composition

- focus

-lighting, flash or no flash

 

[Nargbert]

Well, lets do this in random order!

 

-Flash.... don't use your on camera flash for anything that you want to look good.  It only reaches 5-10 feet and will cause really harsh light.  If you just want a good walk around flash you want something a little bigger that is adjustable.  The best way to take basic flash photos is to aim the flash to a ceiling or wall and bounce the light off of that.  Will give you nice, soft lighting.  Something like this..

 

If you want to talk more in depth lighting for photo shoots... not really my area of expertise.  I can talk a little about it but have only played with that kind of lighting.  That is a whole other master class!

 

-camera functions... well, you first have to know where to find your manual.  Here is what you want to know:

1.  How to change your ISO

2.  Aperture priority shooting mode

3.  Shutter priority shooting mode

4.  How to adjust the aperture or shutter speed when in those modes. 

5.  How the focusing system works.  What kind of focus types the camera has and how to potentially move the focus point.

 

Figure out where those are and how to manipulate them quickly and you are good to go on camera fun!  Even your cell phone (if it is newer) should have these settings in it!

 

- Composition... because those other two fall under composition.  That is more... complicated.  Landscapes will have different composition rules than portraits, sports, or wildlife.  The main thing to remember is... RULE OF THIRDS!  Divide your frame in thirds both vertically and horizontally.  Will give you something that looks close to tic tac toe.  Some cameras will even display these grid lines for you.  Then try placing interesting things on the intersections of those lines.  Or at least keep things on those thirds lines.  If you are shooting landscapes, where the sky meets the ground should NOT be in the middle... somewhere on the thirds lines.  Lots of little things to it, ways to break the rules and other fun composition stuff... but if you remember one thing... rule of thirds. 

 

-motion  This will be shutter speed stuff.  Again, lots of artistic things you can do here, but if you want to have things that are moving not be blurry in your picture you need a faster shutter speed.  If you want things to be blurry (think moving water) then you want a slower shutter speed.  This is where you use your shutter priority program on your camera.  Again, lots of interesting things can be done here if you want to go more in depth.

 

-depth  This probably falls under what you mean by blurring a background.  This is called bokeh.  Want that nice blur in the background, well then you need to have a small aperture number (bigger lens opening).  An aperture of F2.8 will have a blurred out background, but you lose how much stuff you can really keep in focus.  F16 will be a sharp image mostly everywhere.  No blurry background and it will make your shutter speed slower though.  Again, long talk on aperture openings and what they do artistically.  To change this setting, put your camera in Aperture priority.  Most photographers will leave their camera in this setting as depth of field is usually what they are exposing for. 

 

-ISO  Well, how to change it is going to be listed in your camera manual.  I can only tell you how to change it on my camera and that is about it.  Knowing when to change your ISO and what it does to your pictures.... well... that is a long talk.  If we all want to hear about that... I can lengthen this out more into a real class!

 

He who calls himself.... Nargbert

 

 

[Liitha]

i like to mostly take pictures of an object/animal/person/flower so portrait, but also sometimes take landscape ones.

 

I would like to be able to take better pictures on less shots because especially with wild animals you may not have so many chances, which means knowing my cam setings better and have some of them preadjusted

 

as is today my happy medium solution is just use the auto function on camera and let it choose everything, but the camera do not know what you are thinking so that doest always work out. or i check if Narg is on and ask him what buttons do i press, and then i forget after ? so a class where i actually have to focus and plan a bit and use stuff not in the situation on the run so to say..because my harddrive doesnt save when i am on the run

 

and i hate reading manuals ? so mine is probably lost in the past somewhere between moves and all

 

i do have two types of lenses though

3.5-5.6/18-55

4.5-6.3/55-210

Edited November 16, 2020 by Liitha

[Nargbert]

Class it is. I need to put some ideas together and will see what I can do. 

[Lavandula]