Intro to Photography; Lesson 1: So You Want to Shoot in Manual...

...and you definitely should!

I've had a number of requests for some basic photography tutorials. I'm really nowhere near being an expert or a professional and I don't feel that I'm the best person to teach photography at this point. But I have learned some very valuable tips in the past year and I really wish that someone would have just laid them all out for me in the beginning. It would have really taken some time off my already long and awkward learning curve. So, what I thought I would do is just give you some good starting points from which to jump off of and experiment.

The pictures I'm featuring in this post are of my nephews birthday party which we attended last weekend. These pictures are very significant to me because there was a time when I first began shooting in manual mode that I thought for sure that if I were at a birthday party or some other moment to moment function that I would surely have to revert back to the automatic settings on my camera. I'm proud to say that I shot this whole birthday party near effortlessly in manual mode. I know it to be true that you will never get the specific image quality your looking for with the automatic settings. Once you can start really manipulating the settings to your specific likings, your world of photographic possibilities opens up dramatically!

So, let's get you shooting manually then, shall we? Go ahead...do it...switch that dial to M...you can do it...feel the power!

{a couple of notes: 1) I only focus manually if I'm shooting still lifes. When I speak of manual settings, I'm referring to exposure. 2) People do things different ways, and there are many ways that work. The idea is that you start getting comfortable changing your own settings and experimenting with what those changes do to your final images. You need to experiment...a lot! 3) You're going to need to break out your owners manual! 4) You may hear some people who use the metering method to determine exposure. I do not. But it's an option you may want to look into at some point as it does take some of the guess work out of finding the perfect exposure. I rely on the many images I can take with a digital camera and how the image looks to me on my LCD screen. As I mentioned, there are many ways about this. I am only offering some good places to start.}

1. Know how to adjust Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and White Balance on your specific camera. These settings I use and adjust all the time.
2. Adjust White Balance for proper settings. Read your manual to know how to adjust the white balance and which pictures correspond with which conditions. {ex. direct sun, cloudy day, tungsten lighting, etc...}
3. Use the lowest ISO possible. As the ISO goes up, image quality goes down. {remember, the higher the ISO, the more light that comes into the lens}
4. Your minimum SS should correspond with your lens focal length. For instance, if you are using a 50mm lens, your maximum SS should be 1/50. {remember, maximum SS means smaller numbers, means longer shutter speed, means more light!}
5. Along the same lines...Low Aperture value = shallow depth of field (subject in focus while background and foreground are blurred) = wide aperture = more light
6. Conversely...High Aperture Value = great detail in shots in both subject and background = narrow aperture =less light
7. I tend to value a shallow depth of field in my photographs. Because of this, I set my ISO to 200 {it's minimum value}, then set my aperture to its wide open position {usually 1.4 - 2.5}, and then adjust my shutter speed for proper exposure.
8. If I'm at the lowest shutter speed for my lens {see #4} and I'm still either not getting enough light into my photograph or am still having blur of my subject matter, then I increase the ISO.
9. If I'm at the highest shutter speed and lowest ISO and am still over exposed, then I increase the aperture.

Okay, these are just some basic tools to help you give you a base point from which to start. Set yourself up a still life and take a ton of shots while adjusting these settings and view the results. The more you play around and see what changing the settings does to your final image, the better able you'll be to achieve the exact image your looking for!

I do highly recommend {at some point} getting some sort of background knowledge on each of these terms. I do believe it contributes to the overall comprehension of your camera and it's functions. There are a variety of online sources offering tons of free information. Also, there are some wonderful books out there that go into great detail in describing how the camera works. I am a very hands on learner. So, for me, it was better to dive in, start shooting manually, and then go back and investigate why  A + B = C. It was important for me to know what A, B, and C were before I would be able to comprehend what they're function was.

So, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me!

Aaaaannnddd...the video blog has been shot and I am working on getting it uploaded so that I can share it here with you tomorrow!