Beginner Photography Lessons - Lesson 2

What is the right exposure? Not to make this complicated, confusing or hard, but exposure is a choice you have to make. Giving you all the control here...the exposure you choose determines how the image looks. Here are the basics:

Exposure consists of four factors:

1. How much light is in front of you – which can be changed by adding lights or flash
2. How sensitive the camera to the light – called ISO
   
3. The amount of light going through a lens – called the aperture (play with the aperture to let light rays in the photo)
   
4. How long the film is exposed – called the shutter speed.

 If you have no exposure settings here are a few things to think about when shooting this week:

Move in closer – Each time you spot a subject, take the shot and than move in closer for a better shot.  This will allow your subject to fill the frame and help your viewer understand and appreciate your photo.

Be quick - If it is at all possible that your subject may move, bolt, fly away, stop smiling, or just get tired of waiting for you to take the picture, shoot once right away. Do not worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you're absolutely certain all the knobs and buttons are in their correct position.

Compose with care - make every effort to keep it balanced and beautiful. On one level or another, everyone responds better to a picture that has all elements in balance.

Strive to lead the eye along an interesting path through the photo, with the use of strong lines or patterns.

• Keep the horizon level;
• Crop out extra elements that you are not interested in (more on this is the next tip);
• Consciously place your subject where you think it most belongs rather than just accepting it wherever it happens to land in the photo;
• Play with perspective so that all lines show a pattern or lead the eye to your main subject;
• Work with the Rule of Thirds

Be selective – Discern what you are really interested in and center your efforts on getting the best photo of this subject, whether it a still life, your funny cat, your dog, a friend, a family matter, a mood, a place of culture.

Keep anything that would distract out of the picture.

Focus on your subject – Practice shooting with different apertures and monitor the results.  After learn how depth-of-field affects your photo.  You will find that a smaller depth of field (smaller f-stop #) focuses all the attention on your subject, great for taking pictures of pets, and people (use this when you want a blurry background.

Experiment in time – You have the power to slow time down with photography…how cool is that!!!!!????  Use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to make a pretty picture of any creek or stream, or use a fast shutter speed to capture anything in motion.

Look at the light – think about how the light is affecting your subject, look at the shadows and think about how you want to use the light to get what you want out of your photo.

Watch the weather -  If it is overcast, best to keep the sky out of your picture, best to avoid muted tones and washed out skies in your background.

Keep it simple – just work on the basics right now, no need to get fancy with equipment and tools.

Be Bold – Don’t be worried about using the wrong settings, you might get a really cool picture with the wrong settings.  Experiment!