Lessons

Lesson Info

Basics of Photography

All right what I'd like to do now is do a little bit of photography basics and so for anybody who's been in photography for a long time this is going to be old hat information you might already know but for people who are getting into photography understanding how photography work shutter speeds and apertures is very important so this camera is a digital single lens reflex camera single lens means we have a single lens on the camera that is focusing our light onto the sensor it's nice having this one lens because we get to view through it and shoot through it and there's a wide variety of different lenses that you can choose from inside each of the lenses is an aperture which helps us control the amount of light that is coming through the lens so we can open and close this to vary the amount of light we do this by adjusting the f stops or the apertures which are the numbers you see here around the edge and so each time we close our aperture down a stop we're letting in half assed much ...

light until we get down to the smallest open in the case of this land's twenty two now this aperture opening controls the amount of light because it's a different sized door obviously but it also controls the depth of field and so you'll see in this example over on the right hand side of the screen how much depth of field we get one point for two or two eight it's very shallow notice the red hash marks over on the right hand side they are growing as we're stopping our aperture down which is increasing our depth of field and so this is one of the things that's going on when we choose different settings on our cameras you will see here in a moment so that's what's happening in the lens now the mere part that's where the reflex comes in any product with a mere in it is considered a reflex type camera point slide up to the focusing screen and from there it bounces the light up through a prism system so that we can easily see what were pointing our camera so we get to use the benefit of our own eyes when framing our composition. Now when it comes time to take the photo, we press down on the shutter release 00:01:59.105 --> 00:02:01. and that mirror needs get up and out of the way so 00:02:01.78 --> 00:02:03. that light can make its way back to the image sensor 00:02:04.57 --> 00:02:06. before it gets to the image sensor it needs to get 00:02:06.94 --> 00:02:09. past the shutter unit and the shutter unit actually 00:02:09.9 --> 00:02:12. has two parts. A first curtain and a second curtain. 00:02:13.57 --> 00:02:16. What happens is the first curtain is blocking the 00:02:16.11 --> 00:02:19. sensor and it will open up. Let light into the sensor 00:02:19.3 --> 00:02:22. for that given shutter speed that fraction of a second 00:02:22.02 --> 00:02:24. in many cases and then the second shutter will come 00:02:24.36 --> 00:02:27. in and close and block the light off, at which point 00:02:27.41 --> 00:02:30. the mere returns. And we get to see what we're pointing 00:02:30.11 --> 00:02:32. our cameras at once again. And so, one of the key 00:02:32.15 --> 00:02:35. things about sl ours is that you do. Ms, that exact 00:02:35.73 --> 00:02:39. moment when you have fired the shutter. And one of 00:02:39.74 --> 00:02:41. the things I like to say is that if you saw it, you 00:02:41.78 --> 00:02:44. missed it. And so you have to be very careful about 00:02:45.13 --> 00:02:46. anticipating critical moments. 00:02:50.07 --> 00:02:52. All right, so that shutter speed is another way of 00:02:52.38 --> 00:02:54. controlling the amount of light coming in the camera 00:02:54.52 --> 00:02:57. we can choose very fast shutter speeds for stopping 00:02:57.52 --> 00:02:59. action but they'll also limit the amount of light 00:02:59.78 --> 00:03:02. coming in the camera five hundred is a good number 00:03:02.41 --> 00:03:04. to remember because that's good for stopping fast 00:03:04.5 --> 00:03:06. human action you're gonna want five hundredth of a 00:03:06.28 --> 00:03:08. second where maybe a little faster depending on how 00:03:08.82 --> 00:03:11. fast the action is one hundred twenty fifth of a second 00:03:11.91 --> 00:03:14. pretty normal shutter speed that you might encounter 00:03:14.45 --> 00:03:19. pedestrian type activity as we get down below a sixtieth 00:03:19.11 --> 00:03:21. we're going to start getting to slower shutter speeds 00:03:21.09 --> 00:03:23. where we're going to notice more blur for subjects 00:03:23.88 --> 00:03:27. that are movie in this case the camera's on a tripod 00:03:27.07 --> 00:03:29. you can see the bridge the bottom of the screen is 00:03:29.6 --> 00:03:30. nice and sharp 00:03:31.57 --> 00:03:33. camera's not moving but how much movement do we get 00:03:33.6 --> 00:03:35. with people walking at an eighth of a second 00:03:37.07 --> 00:03:39. one second is a great shutter speed for anybody who 00:03:39.21 --> 00:03:41. wants to shoot waterfalls and river flowing to get 00:03:41.89 --> 00:03:44. that very nice steamy type effect 00:03:46.07 --> 00:03:48. thirty seconds is the longest shutter speed that you 00:03:48.28 --> 00:03:51. can do on this camera built in and you could do that 00:03:51.86 --> 00:03:54. with nighttime photography who have some light painting 00:03:54.57 --> 00:03:58. going on here is well so those are the shutter speeds. 00:04:00.54 --> 00:04:02. So one of the big differences and all the different 00:04:02.57 --> 00:04:05. cameras out of the market is thie size of the sensor 00:04:05.05 --> 00:04:08. that is in the camera and as we've made our way from 00:04:08.18 --> 00:04:11. film to digital we have incorporated lots of different 00:04:11.29 --> 00:04:13. size sensors into the different cameras for a variety 00:04:13.86 --> 00:04:16. of reasons sometimes it's cost sometimes it's size 00:04:16.88 --> 00:04:20. sometimes it's image quality reasons the canon rebel 00:04:20.64 --> 00:04:23. that we have here the t six siri's uses a fairly large 00:04:23.99 --> 00:04:26. sensor especially compared to phones and small point 00:04:26.69 --> 00:04:29. and shoot cameras the largest of the common sizes 00:04:29.34 --> 00:04:31. is based directly off of thirty five millimeter film 00:04:32.14 --> 00:04:34. and it's what is known as a full frame sensor and 00:04:34.77 --> 00:04:37. that's because it's the same size as a thirty five 00:04:37.34 --> 00:04:40. millimetre frame and those are really nice but the 00:04:40.19 --> 00:04:43. cameras tend to be bigger and heavier albeit a little 00:04:43.66 --> 00:04:47. bit higher in quality on the image quality so smaller 00:04:47.72 --> 00:04:50. sensors are going to make the cameras smaller lighter 00:04:50.2 --> 00:04:51. and a little bit more affordable there's a couple 00:04:51.97 --> 00:04:54. of different sizes out there this uses one that is 00:04:54.87 --> 00:04:59. considered a one point six crop factor and so nice 00:04:59.94 --> 00:05:02. good all around siza very economical size you might 00:05:02.82 --> 00:05:05. say it's a it's a very efficient size to have for 00:05:05.47 --> 00:05:07. a lot of people and so it's a good place to be but 00:05:07.73 --> 00:05:09. there is room to grow in the full frame if you're 00:05:09.92 --> 00:05:13. interested one of the little notes that I occasionally 00:05:13.54 --> 00:05:15. see people getting wrong is attaching their camera 00:05:16.0 --> 00:05:18. incorrectly and it's just there's this little strap 00:05:18.85 --> 00:05:22. as it goes to the strap a jester you want that talent 00:05:22.25 --> 00:05:25. on the underside it's can prevent thie strap from 00:05:25.81 --> 00:05:27. wiggling its way loose because you certainly don't 00:05:27.92 --> 00:05:30. want to drop a camera like this a lot of money and 00:05:30.37 --> 00:05:30. in the camera 00:05:32.54 --> 00:05:35. all right simple little test on how do you hold the 00:05:35.29 --> 00:05:38. camera and the basic thing of course you're going 00:05:38.25 --> 00:05:40. to grip the camera with your right hand cause there's 00:05:40.02 --> 00:05:42. a nice big grip on the camera but where is your left 00:05:42.5 --> 00:05:45. hand is the thumb on the upward side or the downward 00:05:45.2 --> 00:05:48. side of the lands and the correct position for this 00:05:48.03 --> 00:05:51. is the thumb on the upper position of the lands and 00:05:51.99 --> 00:05:54. let me go ahead and just show you myself on this camera 00:05:54.3 --> 00:05:56. here the reason is I'm going to leave well actually 00:05:56.72 --> 00:06:00. aiken take this off of my new fancy tripod cycle take 00:06:00.86 --> 00:06:03. it off your sofa I'm hand holding the camera it does 00:06:03.83 --> 00:06:06. feel a little bit more natural to grab the lens like 00:06:06.3 --> 00:06:08. this for people who are new to photography but the 00:06:08.57 --> 00:06:10. problem is is that leaves your left elbow kind of 00:06:10.87 --> 00:06:13. out here in the wind if you hold it like this it brings 00:06:13.39 --> 00:06:15. your elbow into your torso and you're able to hold 00:06:15.8 --> 00:06:17. the camera much steadier because you have another 00:06:17.99 --> 00:06:21. firm point of contact right here and so this is a 00:06:21.67 --> 00:06:24. better position to get a little bit more comfortable 00:06:24.3 --> 00:06:26. is you get one in two years you get into the longer 00:06:26.7 --> 00:06:30. lenses you can also, leave your cameras base right 00:06:30.41 --> 00:06:33. in the palm so that you can adjust, focus or zooming 00:06:33.4 --> 00:06:35. without trying to support the weight and do that's. 00:06:35.77 --> 00:06:39. Fine tuned movement at the same time. And so I recommend 00:06:39.9 --> 00:06:43. the thumb up position when it comes to your left hand 00:06:43.01 --> 00:06:43. on the lance. 00:06:46.06 --> 00:06:48. All right now as we go through this camera there's 00:06:48.73 --> 00:06:51. going to be a lot of options for choosing a feature 00:06:51.84 --> 00:06:55. to be either automatic or manual and there are literally 00:06:55.83 --> 00:06:59. dozens of options of choosing will do I want this 00:06:59.18 --> 00:07:02. automatic or do I want this manual and this is going 00:07:02.42 --> 00:07:05. to come down to a couple different factors time effort 00:07:05.65 --> 00:07:08. and knowledge do you have the time to figure things 00:07:08.23 --> 00:07:10. out and do it yourself well hopefully this class that 00:07:10.85 --> 00:07:14. will give you the knowledge on how to do it and it 00:07:14.08 --> 00:07:16. really comes down to is a matter of either convenience 00:07:16.87 --> 00:07:19. or control because sometimes you're in a hurry and 00:07:19.74 --> 00:07:22. you just need to get the shot and I gotta admit every 00:07:22.79 --> 00:07:25. once in a while I throw my camera into one of those 00:07:25.08 --> 00:07:27. really automatic modes and I just get the shot because 00:07:27.78 --> 00:07:31. it's just more important to get a shot than to try 00:07:31.49 --> 00:07:34. to find two and get it absolutely perfect but there 00:07:34.11 --> 00:07:36. are times where I do have more time where I'm trying 00:07:36.53 --> 00:07:39. to do a little bit more serious professional style 00:07:39.19 --> 00:07:41. photography and that's what I'm going to flip it over 00:07:41.44 --> 00:07:44. into manual because I want consistent results from 00:07:44.21 --> 00:07:47. shot to shot and so if you've bought a camera like 00:07:47.4 --> 00:07:50. this you've probably done it for a number of reasons 00:07:50.43 --> 00:07:52. partly because you wanted better quality pictures 00:07:53.23 --> 00:07:55. but I'm guessing that for a lot of you you also want 00:07:55.7 --> 00:07:57. to learn photography. A little bit more. And so I 00:07:57.9 --> 00:08:00. would encourage you to try to do as many things as manual is possible, so that you can understand what's going on and justice a complete side. Note that it's not complete side. Now, it's. Just a partial sight. Now, there is nothing that the camera does in some of these automated moments that you can't do on your own. So if you're willing to learn it, you're actually able to doom or and better than the camera can do on its own. All right, so if you are interested in more the elements of photography, the fundamentals of photography, I do have a class here at creative live called the fundamentals of photography. It's along its a very in depth classes, about twenty four hours of information in there. But if you really want to go through cameras and lenses and composition and lighting, and so much more, and we want to go into all that right now, we do have a great class called fundamentals of photography that we have here, that I think you would enjoy it very much if you've enjoyed this class.