Manipulating Your Environment
Lesson 10 from: Photography Essentials: Getting Your Best ShotsSean Dalton
Manipulating Your Environment
Lesson 10 from: Photography Essentials: Getting Your Best ShotsSean Dalton
Lessons
Chapter 1: Introduction
1Class Project
01:57Chapter 2: Understanding Exposure
2Camera Settings
15:04 3Balancing Exposure
07:24 4Chapter 2: Quiz
Chapter 3: Understanding your Camera
5Is Manual Mode Necessary?
05:39Achieving Perfect Focus
06:46 7Chapter 3: Quiz
Chapter 4: Essential Photography Concepts
8Composition
11:50 9Lighting
07:01 10Manipulating Your Environment
02:58 11Social Media Tips for Photographers
08:54 12Chapter 4: Quiz
Chapter 5: Personalizing Your Photos
13Finding Your Photographic Style
04:22 14Photo Editing Tips & Tricks
11:51 15Chapter 5: Quiz
Chapter 6: Conclusion
16Summing Things Up
02:10Final Quiz
17Final Quiz
Lesson Info
Manipulating Your Environment
So this is a topic that I really haven't seen discussed in many beginner photography courses, maybe, except for food styling courses. And what I'm talking about is manipulating your environment to get a better composition or a better image in general, and what I mean by this is basically physically changing your environment around you um to get a photo that looks better for your camera. So if you're shooting a model, then that would be positioning your model to look better in the image, maybe you're, you know, posing them differently. You're having them stand up, you're having them sit down. I think that's the easiest example to understand. Um and then if you're shooting food, then that means you might be moving things around on the table, you know, taking out a glass if it's distracting or, you know, adding silverware to kind of balance the composition or something like that. Sometimes adjusting your physical environment isn't possible. So with things like street photography where you...
really wanna be hands off, you just kind of want to let things develop naturally and then you're not gonna be able to physically adjust your environment, but you can in other settings. And I think this is one of the things that a lot of beginning photographers, um they don't do, they kind of see a scene and then they think that it's just up to them to shoot that scene, but in reality, you know, you're the photographer, you're the artist, you can adjust that scene um to make it look however you want it to look. So if you're going to a restaurant and they set a plate down in front of you, you want to take that photo, um you're not confined to take that photo in that place, move it to the other side of the table, ask if you can shoot it in a different part of the restaurant. You know, you have full creative control as a photographer, so don't be afraid to, you know, take control and you know, adjust your physical environment, adjust things with your hands, move things around um and try to come up with a better composition that way, you know, everything that is in your frame is working together to tell some type of story. And I really want you to think about all of the different things in your frame and that's why I made this video. Is is not to kind of teach you a concrete lesson, but rather to get you thinking about how all of the things in your frame or telling some type of story and how you can change things in that frame to better tell that story or maybe tell a slightly different story. So think about that next time you're shooting something. So whether you're shooting a person or some food or even a landscape, you know, putting something in the foreground of your landscape can tell a completely different story. For example, if you put a piece of trash, um an empty water bottle in your foreground of your composition, well that could be commentary on environmental change. Whereas if there's no bottle, it's just a beautiful image of a landscape. So physically adjusting the environment of your photo can really have a profound impact. So I just want you to think about that going forward.
Ratings and Reviews
Matt House
Good basics class, however one of the questions in the chapter 3 quiz is incorrect: When shooting in aperture mode, what settings does the camera adjust? Quiz answer (aperture) is incorrect. The photographer selects the aperture, however the camera adjusts the shutter speed (and ISO if in auto) in order to make a proper exposure.
Neil Brumberger
This is an excellent, fast paced review of processes and techniques for someone who is not a raw newbie, but still in the beginner stage. The title is accurate. It covers the essentials, not deeply, but broadly. Being somewhat older I find the fast pace of the narrative a bit too much, but I am a dinosaur
Student Work
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