Table of Contents
Disclaimer
Copyright 2017
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book can be transmitted or reproduced in any form including print, electronic, photocopying, scanning, mechanical or recording without prior written permission from the author.
While the author has taken the utmost effort to ensure the accuracy of the written content, all readers are advised to follow information mentioned herein at their own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for any personal or commercial damage caused by information. All readers are encouraged to seek professional advice when needed.
About The Author
John Slavio is a programmer who is passionate about the reach of the internet and the interaction of the internet with daily devices. He has automated several home devices to make them 'smart' and connect them to high speed internet. His passions involve computer security, iOT, hardware programming and blogging. Below is a list of his books:
John Slavio Special
Introduction
Photographs have been in fashion since they were known to the common man. People use photographs to capture and store their special moments. These photos help them in reliving those precious moments that they spent with their loved ones, friends, or family. But, it is not the 1940s or 1980s now. With time, people have developed various methods of processing images. Today, they capture images not only to remember their moments, but to share them with people on social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Facbook, Twitter, and many others.
In my opinion, this is the very first reason today that almost all the gadgets are equipped with an in-built camera, and big brands like Apple, Samsung, etc., are competing with each other in terms of the camera quality for capturing images and videos. Thanks to these companies, today, almost everyone has a camera of their own, which was not possible a decade ago. However, having a camera does not make you a photographer.
Shooting random images or taking selfies is very different from actual photography. You have to take care of various factors in photography which you dont even think about while taking a selfie. Photography is an art, a science and a process of creating amazing images using a digital device to record light.
The definition itself may sound confusing to some people who are new to photography. In this book, I am going to share various tips and tricks related to photography that you can use to capture various moments at different places with ease. All the tips that I will discuss in this book are based on my personal experience, and I believe that these will help you as much as they have helped me.
Capturing amazing images with the help of your camera is not enough. You need to produce some appealing images from those digital copies of yours as well. If you spend more than 30 seconds studying an image that you took, you will often notice that something is not presented the way you wanted it to be. You can always open such images in Photoshop to correct them and artificially improve them to make them better looking. Once you are done with the photography lessons in this book, you will continue learning about Photoshop and how you can use the same to make your images WOW!
Finally, I want to congratulate you for your purchase of this amazing book. If you follow this book properly, then you will certainly get a lot of value out of it as most of my other readers already have. So, let us start by learning about Photography.
The Basics of Photography for Beginners
Okay, as I have told you earlier in the introduction chapter, the definition that I provided for photography can be confusing for some people. Keeping this in mind, I am going to tell you about photography from scratch.
Photography has really evolved with time and so have the terms related to it. Now, you do not need to remember all the terms and learn them by heart to become a good photographer. There are only a few basic terms that you will need to remember and understand to proceed with photography and this book. So, let us learn these terms
Aperture
This might be the very first term that you will hear from a photographer, and this is why you should understand it at the beginning. In simple words, an aperture is known as the size of the opening of your camera lens. This is normally used to vary the amount of light in your image. If you think of the aperture as a window, then you can relate them easily. A big window will allow more sunlight to enter your room when compared to a smaller window in the same place. Aperture works in the same way by varying the size of your lens. An aperture which is opened widely will make your photos bright. Similarly, the smaller aperture will make your photos dark. Besides the amount of light, the aperture also influences the sharpness of your image. If the aperture of your camera is wide, then the background will be unfocused while a smaller aperture will give a comparatively sharper image.
Focus
This is another most common term among photographers. Focus is also another factor which affects the sharpness of your image. You can relate the focus of a camera with the focus of your eye. When your eye focuses on an object, then all the objects which are kept in that object tend to be blurry. You can check this by placing your palm in front of you and then focusing on it with your eyes. The focus of your camera works in the same way. All the objects which are in focus of your camera will be sharp, while the objects which fall outside the focus of your camera will be blurry. Today, all cameras are equipped with multi-focus, which allows you to focus on various images at the same time when capturing a photo.
Continuous Focus
You must be familiar with the autofocus function of your smartphone camera. It autofocuses on an object and continues to do so till you take the picture. However, there is a limitation to this function. If the object that you are currently focusing on, using the autofocus feature, starts to move; then the object will go out of focus. This is where the Continuous Focus option comes into play. With this option, your camera will continue to focus on the object, even if it is moving, until you click the image. Hence, helping you to get the sharp image that you desired.
Depth of Focus
Another important term related to focus. It is related to how much of the image is in focus, which is decided by the distance between the furthest and the closest object in the image. This distance is known as the depth of focus. For landscapes, the depth of focus distance is large. As a result of this, most of the images taken in landscape are in the focus of your camera. The portrait, on the other hand, has a shallow depth of focus, which makes the image looks soft rather than sharp.
Aspect Ratio
You must be familiar with this term as well; if not from your camera, then from the video player on your laptop or smartphone. Aspect ratio fits the video to the screen as per the ratio that you selected on your device. Aspect ratio is an important term related to photography and is often taken into account when printing the images that you captured. It is simply a ratio of height to width. Setting a proper aspect ratio for your image is really necessary to avoid the cropping of the image that occurs when you print it.
Burst Mode
This is one of the most amazing features and one of my favorite as well. If you want to take several images at once, then what you can do is keep clicking the images one by one with your camera until your collection is formed. Alternatively, you can use the burst mode of your camera. When you turn this mode ON, your camera will keep taking the images continuously while you are holding the image button down. How fast your camera takes these images depends on its speed. Some cameras are faster while others are slower. But still, it is the fastest method on your camera to take several pictures in a short time.
