1-1: Introduction to Digital Camera Photography

Mar01
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction

These tutorials are aimed at the people who are new to photography – or maybe have a new camera. I hope to share my knowledge in an clear and concise manner to help you get the most out of your camera, and more importantly – to capture the moments of your life that will never happen again.

The content on this site is designed to be a course that gives a good solid foundation. From there, you can continue the learning process. I’ve been learning for over 35 years, and don’t plan to stop. So jump in and check it out.        READ MORE »

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1-2: It’s All About The Light

Mar01
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction

What do I mean when I say that it’s “All about the light”? Simple – without light, you don’t have a photograph. But it also means that the the light is the most important part of creating an image. Light can vary from moment to moment. Think of a sunset and how it changes as the sun sets. This change will affect how you shoot it. It will force you to change your camera settings and will likely make you change your composition. Look at the light that comes in your window: this changes dramatically as the day grows longer. READ MORE »

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1-3: Basics of Aperture and Shutter Speed

Mar01
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction

In the last tutorial, I said that “It was all about the light”. And while this is true, there are 2 other things that make a photo. One is the opening in the lens (aperture) and the other is the amount of time that the sensor or film is exposed to the light (shutter speed). These settings are sometimes made by the camera (Automatic shooting mode) and sometimes made by you. The goal here is to understand these settings so that you can control one or both of these settings when shooting. READ MORE »

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1-4: Aperture and Depth of Field

Mar01
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction

The first few tutorials talked in general terms about what is needed to create a photograph. Remember that you have 5 basic components. This tutorial will just focus (pun intended) on aperture and depth of field. I can’t discuss one without mentioning the other – they are like Siamese twins.

Personally I feel that controlling the depth of field via the aperture is the most creative aspect of the five components. When I am shooting something that doesn’t involve movement, I will be using the the Aperture Priority setting on my camera. This allows me to concentrate on what the range of focus will be in the image. I will keep an eye on the other settings, but my attention will be on the aperture. READ MORE »

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1-5: Shutter Speed and Motion

Mar01
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction

The previous tutorial explained what happens when you control the aperture. This tutorial explains what happens when you control the shutter speed. Of course there are times when you can control both, but we’ll save that for later.

Explaining shutter speed is easy. When you press ‘the button’ on your camera to take a photo, the shutter opens and lets the light in, then it closes. the amount of time that this takes is the “shutter speed”.

Just as controlling the F-stop is part of the creative process, so is controlling the shutter speed. Using the shutter speed in today’s cameras allows you a full range of effects from freezing a hummingbird in flight to blurring a flag in the wind and everything in between. READ MORE »

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1-6: Project 1 – Still Life

Mar03
2011 Written by Art Whitton

Introduction:

Ok, you read a little bit about the basics of how light and exposure combine to create an image – now it’s time to pick the camera up and put the theory into practice. This tutorial will ask you to create a photo of a ‘still life’ subject. The Still Life has been a subject for artists over the past few centuries. The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking about using your aperture and shutter speed to work with the light and create the best possible image. READ MORE »

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2-1: It’s All About The Light (Part 2)

Mar04
2011 Written by Art Whitton

2-1 It's all about the lightIntroduction

You might be noticing a common theme if you’ve read through my other tutorials. But it really is ‘all about the light’.  This section will guide you to understanding and looking for and working with various light sources.

If you want the details of light theory and physics, you won’t find it here- I will try to give you the basics of light and how it pertains to photography.

The Light Spectrum

One frustrating thing about digital photography is that the current sensors do not capture every shade and hue of color that is possible. Most cameras do a great job, but sometimes you just can’t get the color ‘perfect’. READ MORE »

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2-2: Color and White Balance

Mar16
2011 Written by Art Whitton

color and white balanceIntroduction

As mentioned earlier, I could buy film that was ‘balanced’ for Daylight (shooting outdoors) or balanced for Tungsten Light (shooting indoors). This was a choice made to photographers so that they could get more accurate color depending upon where they were shooting. Another option was to screw a filter into the end of the lens that would change the light hit the film. So I would use a ‘light magenta’ (FL-D) filter to compensate for the green light of the fluorescent tubes when I was using daylight film.

Thankfully, those days are over. I now have a camera that can shoot in all kinds of light, and I only have to change one setting. This is awesome to anyone who used to shoot film! The setting that I make is called “White Balance” – and it does what the name implies. It will balance the color to provide white when it should be white (and not green, or blue or pink).

This tutorial will explain how to work with White Balance. READ MORE »

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