The Ultimate Photography Course For Beginners

Please download the attached PDF to work alongside the course.

Knowing where to find everything, and what it does, will help you work your camera like a pro. It's worth having your camera user manual to hand here. As every system puts buttons and menu items in different places.

Shutter speed is exactly what it sounds like: It's the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure — the amount of light the camera takes in — and a slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure.

Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera. It is expressed in f-numbers like f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8 and so on to express the size of the lens opening, which can be controlled through the lens or the camera.

What does ISO on a camera stand for? ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization — an organization that sets international standards for all different kinds of measurements. But, when in reference to your camera, the ISO is your camera's sensitivity to light.

ISO increases or decreases the brightness of a photograph, but also affects both grain / noise levels and dynamic range.

Shooting modes fall into three categories: auto, scene, and P, S, A, and M modes. In auto and scene modes the camera controls shutter speed and aperture. P, S, A, and M modes are known as exposure modes and give photographers a choice as to which elements of exposure—aperture or shutter speed—they wish to control.

The main metering modes are Matrix/Multi/Evaluative to analyse the general light of the scene, centre-weighted to calculate using the central area of the frame, and spot to use a small area of the scene.

Here is a run-down on how to hold your camera. Sounds weird, but having a good grasp of your system, will give you better results.

Digital camera scene modes are a simple way for you to “tell” the camera what type of picture you are taking. The camera will then optimise the settings for that particular shot. Some modes change how colours are recorded, others change whether or not the flash fires.

An image should be sharp and crisp - Here is how to make sure you nail that shot every time.

Lens focal length tells us the angle of view—how much of the scene will be captured—and the magnification—how large individual elements will be. The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view and the higher the magnification.

What is Composition? Put simply, composition is how the elements of a photo are arranged. A composition can me made up of many different elements, or only a few. It's how the artist puts those things within a frame that help a photograph become more or less interesting to the viewer.

What is Composition? Put simply, composition is how the elements of a photo are arranged. A composition can me made up of many different elements, or only a few. It's how the artist puts those things within a frame that help a photograph become more or less interesting to the viewer.

Natural light refers to the ambient light supplied by the sun or moon from a window for indoors—not a camera flash or any other artificial light. It differs from artificial light in that the latter uses an artificial light source, such as studio strobes, to light the photos.

Natural light refers to the ambient light supplied by the sun or moon—not a camera flash or any other artificial light. It differs from artificial light in that the latter uses an artificial light source, such as studio strobes, to light the photos.

Taking images of your family? This will help you organise a photo shoot.

A big thanks for joining me on the Level 1 course.

Please download the attached PDF to work alongside the course.

In photography, the exposure triangle explains the relationship between shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Whether you're shooting old school film or with a mirrorless, these three factors are at the centre of every exposure.

Manual mode gives you complete control over shutter speed, aperture, and potentially ISO, which in turn determines exposure, and ultimately helps you to calculate depth of field, sensor noise, camera shake, and/or subject motion blur.

A histogram is a graph that measures the brightness of an image by representing the frequency of each tone as a value on a bar chart. The horizontal axis moves from pure black on the left side of the histogram, through shadows, mid-tones, and highlights all the way to the brightest white on the right side.

The best settings for Landscape Exposure

Backlighting means that you compose your pictures so that the primary light source is behind your subject. This can add a unique atmosphere to your photos while emphasising the subject. Backlight works as a dramatic effect that adds contrast and separates the subject from the background.

Low light in photography refers to any scenario in which there is the amount of ambient light is low. In other words, low light is when there isn't much natural light available. This can be indoors, a poorly lit street at night, or even out in the middle of an overcast day.

By blurry background, we mean an area in your photograph that appears out of focus. The “amount of blurriness” is something closely related to the concept of Depth of Field (DOF) in photography.

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the closest and the farthest objects in your image that are acceptably sharp.

Camera Autofocus Mode allows you to use internal lens motors and advanced camera technology to focus on a given subject. Selecting the best autofocus mode depends on your subject, available light, the limits of your camera technology.

Drive Modes are the shooting modes in your camera, such as single shooting (where one image is taken at a time), continuous shooting, self-timer mode and more.

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light.

When an image is captured in a digital camera, it is recorded as raw data. If the camera format is set to JPEG, this raw data is processed and compressed before it is saved in the JPEG format. If the camera format is set to raw, no processing is applied, and therefore the file stores more tonal and colour data.

This is a very short section - but will help you understand the dynamics of a group photo shoot.

Photographing Women: Posing, Lighting, and Shooting Techniques for Portrait and Fashion Photography.

Photographing Men: Posing, Lighting, and Shooting Techniques for Portrait and Fashion Photography

I've put together this easy guide for understanding some of the best places to crop a subject in a portrait

A quick run-down of the best settings for bird photography

Macro photography is all about showcasing a subject larger than it is in real life — an extreme close-up of something small. A full-frame insect in a five-by-seven-inch photo and a four-inch product shot of a cornflake go well above life-size: both are examples of macro photography.

Let me give you some essential tips for shooting landscapes

Moving water is a very tricky thing to shoot - Let me show you how to be creative.

A definitive Landscape photography shot. The Sunset. Let me show you how.

Check off everything you need for Landscape Photography

Night photography (also called nighttime photography) refers to the activity of capturing images outdoors at night, between dusk and dawn. It can be tricky, but I can show you some very good tips to get the best out of your camera.

At the time of recording these videos, this social media image size guide will help you understand what you need for your online posts.

If it's all you have, the on-camera flash can be very useful.

A big thank you for completing the beginner photography level 2 course.