Digital Photography for Beginners

By Samuel J.Swan

Complete Guide to Take Control of Your Camera and Improve Digital Photography Skills by Understanding Exposure, Aperture, Shutter Speed and IOS.

"Master the most important settings on your camera and learn how to look at your surroundings through new, more creative eyes, so that you can take amazing photographs of your friends, family, vacations, events and anything else that is beautiful and important to you"

What you will learn

• You will know how to edit your photos like a professional
• You will master all the most important camera settings
• You will know how to compose images beautifully with basic photography rules
• You will know how the camera truly works, so you can take better photos using manual settings
• You will know how to light your subjects with flash and natural lighting
• You will know how to make money with photography

Digital photography isn't mastered overnight. You'll never learn everything there is to know about photography, and that should never be the goal. Enjoy the journey, take plenty of photographs, and learn from your mistakes. Don't be afraid to take some bad shots - only the good ones count. 

And that's what makes photography fun and an art form. Nature provides only the raw materials. Your mind uses your camera and other tools to create the picture from those raw materials, just as a painter uses pigments and canvas, or a sculptor uses marble or wood or clay. 

This book covers

• Various Types of Digital Photography Cameras
• Elements of Exposures in Digital Photography
• The Use of Lens in Digital Photography
• Using Graphic Design Software to Edit Your Photos
• The business of Stock Photography
• Marketing Strategies for the Digital Photographer
• Advertising Your Digital Photography

• Language: English
• Publisher: Samuel J.Swan
• Release date: Feb 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393275251

Book preview

Digital Photography For Beginners

A Practical Guide on How to Get Visually Stunning Images and Take Full Control of Your Camera

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Setting up your camera

Firmware are updateD

Date and time

Formatting your memory card

Image quality

How to hold your camera

Digital Sensor......................................................................................................................1

Adjusting the Viewfinder Eyepiece......................................................................................1

Chapter 2: What Kind of Photographer Are You?...........................................................1

Nature photography............................................................................................................1

Aerial photography..............................................................................................................1

Sports photography.............................................................................................................1

Architectural photography..................................................................................................1

Portrait photography...........................................................................................................1

Macro photography.............................................................................................................1

Event photography..............................................................................................................1

Landscape photography......................................................................................................1

Black and white photography..............................................................................................1

Chapter 3: Preset modes

Capture the light

Chapter 4: Discovering Your Camera................................................................................2

Nikon Vs. Canon..................................................................................................................2

Pixel Count...........................................................................................................................2

Do your best to get it right – in the camera.........................................................................2

Making Sense of F-stops......................................................................................................2

Chapter 5: Having Fun with Landscapes..........................................................................2

Chapter 6: Which Lens Setting for Portraits?..................................................................2

Single portraits....................................................................................................................2

Portraits of more than one person.......................................................................................2

Large groups.......................................................................................................................2

Chapter 7: Extended Exposure for Fireworks

Take a dummy photo

How to focus in the dark.....................................................................................................3

Chapter 8: Steady Matters.................................................................................................3

Steady hand positions..........................................................................................................3

Breathing.............................................................................................................................3

Chapter 9: The Dial modes..................................................................................................3

Macro...................................................................................................................................3

Sport....................................................................................................................................3

Landscape............................................................................................................................3

Night....................................................................................................................................3

Automatic.............................................................................................................................3

Portrait................................................................................................................................3

Manual.................................................................................................................................3

Chapter 10: Lighting...........................................................................................................3

Light and Shadow................................................................................................................3

Quality of Light....................................................................................................................3

Hard and Soft Light.............................................................................................................3

The Sun or Natural Light

Fill Flash

Reflectors.............................................................................................................................4

Mixed Light AND the Sun....................................................................................................4

Artificial Lighting.................................................................................................................4

Continuous Lighting............................................................................................................4

Strobe Lighting....................................................................................................................4

Speedlights..........................................................................................................................4

High-Speed Sync.................................................................................................................4

Studio Strobes.....................................................................................................................4

Modify the Light..................................................................................................................4

Off-Camera Flash.................................................................................................................4

Key Light..............................................................................................................................4

Fill Light..............................................................................................................................4

Lighting Ratios....................................................................................................................4

Multiple Lights....................................................................................................................4

Chapter 11: Rules for Visually Stunning Images

The rule of thirds

The rule of space

The rule of odds...................................................................................................................5

Fill the frame.......................................................................................................................5

Change the aspect...............................................................................................................5

Look for lines.......................................................................................................................5

Obscure your problems.......................................................................................................5

Trust in a tripod...................................................................................................................5

Learn editing.......................................................................................................................5

Add temperature with white balance..................................................................................5

Shorter perspectives............................................................................................................5

The zoom and shoot.............................................................................................................5

Using Zoom for Candid shots..............................................................................................5

Chapter 12: Composition

Depth of field

Getting the light right

Use a Tripod

Color AND Brightness.........................................................................................................6

Artwork................................................................................................................................6

Chapter 13: DSLR Maintenance.........................................................................................6

Usage...................................................................................................................................6

Cleaning...............................................................................................................................6

Cleaning the Lens............................................................................................................6

Cleaning the Sensor.........................................................................................................6

Cleaning the Rest of the Camera.....................................................................................6

Cleaning the Bag..............................................................................................................6

Chapter 14: Image Noir.......................................................................................................6

Turning your image into an Image Noir..............................................................................6

Playing with the tones of your skin and image....................................................................6

Adding contrast...................................................................................................................6

Touching up.........................................................................................................................6

Chapter 15: Touching in Unwanted Lines

Healing the lines around the mouth

Match the texture................................................................................................................7

Playing with Opacity............................................................................................................7

Light and dark tones in the hair..........................................................................................7

Chapter 16: Making Your Hair Look Great......................................................................7

Adding extra shine to your hair...........................................................................................7

Adding streaks.....................................................................................................................7

Chapter 17: Sepia Toned Star Images...............................................................................7

Chapter 18: Dealing with Camera Shake..........................................................................7

Shutter Release Fixes

Timed Shutter Release

Bulb

Mirror Lockup

Set up your camera, lenses..................................................................................................8

Chapter 19: Artistic Style....................................................................................................8

Techniques to Achieve Your Style.......................................................................................8

Don’t Look Sneaky...........................................................................................................8

Look Like a Noob.............................................................................................................8

Shooting from the Hip.....................................................................................................8

Diffuse Suspicion.............................................................................................................8

Be Quick...........................................................................................................................8

Smile or Compliment.......................................................................................................8

Being Ambiguous.............................................................................................................8

Chapter 20: Getting to Know your Photoshop Software.................................................8

Removing blemishes............................................................................................................8

Moving an unwanted item from a photograph....................................................................8

Chapter 21: Tips to Help Improve Your Photographs

Portraits

Too much sunlight

Getting up close and personal

Taking vertical shots

Try to stop being boring

Waterfalls

Panning................................................................................................................................9

Patience and Planning.........................................................................................................9

Conclusion.............................................................................................................................9

Introduction

Learning the tricks professionals use to craft a great image design and discovering how they incorporate these into compositions will lay the foundation for you to create amazing photographs. In fact, once you master the art of composition, you’ll know exactly what elements it takes to compose a great shot before you even touch the shutter button! As a result, it will free you up to concentrate on the other ingredients that go into making a beautiful photograph.

With the advent of the information age, people have become more and more expressive of their thoughts and emotions. This is why blogging and social networking sites have become so popular.

Along with this trend is the sudden popularity of photography. With more and more professional-level cameras being made available to the public, more and more people have begun to pick up on this strangely satisfying hobby.

But just having a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera doesn’t make someone a photographer. Anyone with a camera can take a picture but it takes a real photographer to take a good shot. This is what this manual was made for. With a little help with your DSLR photography you can turn your mediocre skill into a real skill that people will admire.

It’s worth noting that there is much money to be made with photography these days since all websites have a need for pictures and picture suppliers simply can’t get enough. Thus, if you can show consistently good results, you can join the professionals in the trade and use your photographs to earn money.

There is so much to learn about taking the shots, framing them, getting the camera set up and snapping that perfect image. Plus, you need to learn all about the software that can also help you with the presentation of your photographs and the correction of those which are not as good as you wished them to be. It’s never too late.

If you are purchasing this book for someone who has an interest in photography, then you have also come to the right place. As a companion for that DSLR camera, this book will make the gift complete and will be able to guide them without all the technicalities that actually put the layman off learning the principles of photography.

Chapter 1: Setting up Your Camera

Now that you have learned some of the basics, you are ready to set up your camera. Make sure before you do the initial setup of your camera, that you have charged the battery fully. The first charge of your battery will determine how the battery performs for years to come so DO NOT skip the first charge.

Firmware are updated

The camera will come set with the factory settings. This includes both the firmware (like the operating system for a computer) that keeps the camera running and the general settings for your pictures. The first thing you should do is check for firmware updates. Your manual may provide a URL with a link to firmware updates or you can use a search engine and type in the brand name and model of your camera as well as the words firmware update. Only download firmware updates from sites that are directly hosted by the company that makes your camera, like www.support.nikonusa.com or . If there are any updates available for your camera model, download them and follow your instruction manual or the instructions provided through your camera manufacturer's website on how to properly install the firmware update.

Date and time

Having the date and time correct can help you later when you are trying to find a specific photo from a certain date. If this is the first time you are turning your camera on, it may automatically prompt you to set the date and time.

Formatting your memory card

Before you can take any pictures, you need to have a memory card in your camera. The memory card is what stores all your images for you. Unfortunately, memory cards can get corrupted which can result in you losing some or all of the images stored on that card. To decrease your chances of this happening and to keep your card running at peak performance you should format your memory cards. Formatting your memory card is different from just deleting/trashing all the images from the card. When you format the memory card, it is wiped completely clean and the camera adds a few files to optimize the card for recording images using that specific camera. So, even if you have a brand-new card with no images on it, you should still format it in the camera you intend to use with it.

Prior to formatting your memory card, ALWAYS make sure you have all the images from the card that you want to keep for future use backed up on your computer, an external drive, DVD, or online storage system. This is VERY important because after you format the memory card, all old images on the card will be removed, including any that you had selected as protected in the camera. No images at all will still be on the card. This is important enough that I will say it again, NO IMAGES WILL BE LEFT ON YOUR CARD! Consult your camera manual for the steps to format the memory card in your camera.

Image quality

It is a good idea to use the highest resolution image settings your camera offers. There are multiple ways to change these settings on your camera. Some cameras let you change them very easily with a quick press of a button (Q button for some Canons, i button for Nikons), but for all DSLRs this setting can be changed by going into the menu. Usually it is under a tab that is red with a little camera icon on it. For Canon cameras it is called Image Quality and you should select the L with a curve 00018.jpeg . For Nikon cameras you need to change two settings. First adjust the Image Quality setting to FINE. Then go to the Image Size setting and select LARGE. There are additional settings called RAW (NEF/CR2).

How to hold your camera

Holding your camera the right way is the best way to start getting better photos. Unfortunately, holding your camera the right way isn't intuitive for most of us since most