Photography 101: An Introduction
What is photography? How do we take better photos?
Photography is, to me, about capturing the beauty of a moment in time. It isn’t just about “taking a picture.” It’s preserving the aesthetics and memories of a place, person, or event. You’ll use different techniques and angles to try and present something in its best possible light. There’s a message or feeling behind every snapshot.
No one wants to reminisce over pictures they don’t like the appearance of. Take photos worth putting into scrapbooks, frames, and photo albums. It’s easier than most people believe.
A Brief History of Photography
Photography, as we know it, was a slow process which required multiple inventions and discoveries. Despite early attempts, it wasn’t serious until the 1800s. Oversimplification of early photos: people exposed light-sensitive materials to light, for hours or days. Photography is “painting with light.”
The earliest success was arguably the Daguerreotype (named after its inventor Louis Daguerre). It involved a combination of silver, iodine, mercury, and salt water. Black-and-white images were etched, with light, into metal or glass plates.
After that, various people worked on the next two big things: color photos, and photo film. Plates were bulky and lacked some detail.
Important names include:
George Eastman (founded Kodak in 1892) with his eventual near-monopoly on cameras, film, and camera supplies.
Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière, two of the earliest filmmakers, who came up with “the first commercially successful color process” in 1907. Their process (Autochrome) did however use plates instead of film.
Edwin Land (founder of Polaroid) is known as the father of instant photography. Instant color film came out in 1963.
After that, people began to wonder what film-less photography might look like.
Fujifilm ended up being first to the market, with their digital cameras released in 1988 and 1989.
A modern professional camera is a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex camera). They usually use mirrors to reflect images from the lens onto the sensor. Some cameras are mirrorless, which makes them smaller and lighter. Cell phone cameras for example (1999-present).
Zoomers may find it hard to believe that phone cameras didn’t exist when their parents were kids. Technological progress is fast and furious. We’ve had professional photography for barely two generations. Compare that to art forms such as drawing and painting, which are over 50,000 years old.
Cameras are surprisingly complex pieces of technology. There’s a lot which goes into accurately capturing form and color. We won’t cover everything though - just the essentials. You don’t need to define emulsion or interpolation to effectively use a camera. There are, however, several important terms to know.
Professional Camera Terminology
Amateurs set everything to “auto” and try to have the camera do everything. This doesn’t work for every camera though, and the results aren’t optimal. You’ll have to manually adjust things to get exactly what you want. Even cell phones now have some manual options.
Sometimes there’s a careful balance between everything. For example, maybe you want to combine f/2.8 with 640 ISO and 1/125 shutter speed. But what does this even mean? Will the result look good?
Important camera terms:
Aperture - Each camera lens has a hole to let in light. Adjusting the size of the hole (f-stop) changes the appearance of subjects and how much light is visible.
F-Stop/F-Ratio - The size of the aperture. The smaller the number, the wider the hole (and more light coming in) because it’s less division of the diameter. Each “stop” increment halves the amount of available light. f/2.8 lets in a lot of light.
Focal length - The distance between the image sensor and your lens, measured in millimeters. Longer length means wider focus. Shorter length is better for close-ups or otherwise focusing on small areas.
Shutter speed - Basically how fast the camera takes a photo. A slow/long shutter speed lets in more light (like in long-exposure photography). A fast/short shutter speed captures movement more efficiently. A very slow shutter speed can eliminate moving objects from a scene. 1/125 is on the slower end - not ideal for people with shaky hands; but it can work well in lower-light conditions, especially with a tripod.
Bokeh - A particular type of background blur for out-of-focus sections of a photograph. Different types of cameras show this in different ways. Photo nerds debate over which “type” of bokeh is “best.”
ISO - A camera sensor’s sensitivity rating. Low settings (100-400) can have more clarity (less noise) but they require more light. High ISO (1000+) is better for low-light conditions, but photos can appear grainy or washed out, unless you balance ISO with everything else.
___ Sensor - Different words refer to different sensor sizes. Generally, the larger the sensor, the better the camera, because it can capture more data. From large to small: Format, Full-Frame, APS-C, Compact, Micro.
Megapixels - Image resolution, where bigger is usually better. If you want to print your photos, you’ll want a higher-megapixel camera.
Play around with settings and you’ll learn how they work over time.
Types (Genres) of Photography
Photographers gravitate to certain genres based on personal preference. These include:
Landscape photography is all about the environment. Mountains, forests, fields, etc. National Geographic is the gold standard here.
Macro uses special lenses and/or techniques to capture tiny subjects. Insects, flowers, snowflakes, etc.
Wedding photography is one of the more commercially successful ventures. Beware of your clients though. They’ll want to burn you at the stake if you mess up their special day.
Portraits focus on a person’s face and personality. Or animals, in the case of pet photography.
Wildlife photography often requires high-end lenses and high shutter speeds.
Astrophotography is one of the more difficult genres. It’s 100% done at night so your settings have to be perfect. It can require external equipment if you want to capture distant planets or moons.
Underwater photography is also tough. Scuba gear, waterproofed equipment, special lights, etc.
Street photography is easier to pick up. Just go out and snap pictures of what’s happening. Don’t get me wrong though - there’s an art to it. Easy to learn, hard to master.
Commercial photography includes product photography, food photography, and shooting stock photos.
There are near-infinite combinations of genres and subgenres. See what you can come up with.
Framing a Photo
This applies to everyone. From cheap cell phone cameras to thousand-dollar setups, lighting and layout are make-or-break.
Consider unusual angles too - capturing a subject in a way that most people wouldn’t.
To prevent this article from getting too long, I’ll link to last week’s article, which happens to discuss this:
Editing / Post-processing
A photographer takes many photos and deletes/archives the ones they dislike. The more photos you have, with different angles and lighting conditions, the better chance you have for achieving a perfect result.
The secret to photography is taking 50 photos of one thing and picking 5 favorites.
However, some level of editing is almost always needed. Maybe your exposure was 10% off, or a particular color isn’t sufficiently saturated, or a model wants a scar covered up.
This is why it’s important to shoot in RAW formats like .dng. Processing is easier when you can natively adjust things. It’s not as important with modern technology, yet still helps.
For editing, the go-to is Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Other image editing programs can work too. The important part is to be proficient in your chosen program. Some edits take a massive amount of time. In many cases, editing photos can take longer than the photoshoot itself.
Keep in mind that you may want to remove EXIF data before sharing. Especially since some cameras capture GPS location.
Conclusion
The best way to learn is by doing. Thinking about the framing of your shots, adjusting settings, etc. If you get a camera which allows you to shoot with only manual settings, then you’ll learn quickly.
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