The Very Basics for Very Beginners

When I started photography (both film and digital) six years ago, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I had no clue what “aperture” meant. I had no clue what a shutter speed was. I had no clue what ISO meant. I had no clue about lenses, or editing, or anything like that. I was clueless. I grew up in a small town, and I didn't know many people at the time who were willing to give me advice. I was a poor teenager and struggling college student; I couldn't afford to drive to Huntsville, Nashville, or Birmingham for a photography workshop.

Once I began to take photography more seriously, I began to read. By nature, I'm a researcher. I'm trained as a historian; I fact-check and research every single decision I make ad nauseam. If I research something, (ie music, art, photography), then I have to know everything about the subject. Everything suddenly becomes fodder for me to learn. When I left the “history life” in 2014 to pursue photography and freelance writing, I began to devour every single source in the subject material. Jordan Roper from Writing Revolt is perhaps one of my favorite resources (she's a take-charge woman who has built a business for herself), but I quickly found there was more information on writing than there was photography. Granted, there are more books on digital photography, but I felt like I had to weed through a lot of junk to get to what I wanted. I felt like I was constantly trying to figure out what was useful.

The point of today's blog, essentially, is to give you the basic information; to answer some of the questions you may be having about photography. If you have any questions or you're curious about something, let me know. I may not have the exact answer you're looking for, but I can certainly help you find it.

Without delay, here is what I call the Absolute Basics for Beginners.

You've bought your camera. Maybe it's a kit, maybe it's just the camera body. Either way, you've got a camera, you have no idea how to use it. Let's start with the obvious: a breakdown of the camera anatomy:

(NOTE: The image below is not mine.)

Anatomy:

Here is in image of the breakdown of every piece of the camera. The first step is learning what is where on your particular DSLR, because if you don't know where something is located or what it does, then you'll probably have a difficult time on your photography journey. Take a few minutes to look over this diagram, and then look over your camera, and familiarize yourself with each part. You and your camera are soon to become quite familiar, so it's best to just go ahead and acquaint yourself with it now.

Aperture:

This lovely little function that is the opening in the lens. The aperture you set determines how much—or little—of the scene you will see in the hole. The size of the hole determines how much light will go in. The aperture “size” is measured in f-stops, such as f/1.8, f/12, f/16, and so on. A good rule of thumb: the larger the aperture is, the more shallow the depth of field will be. An example of this would be portrait photography. You want to get a portrait of the person with the background fuzzy and not in focus? Adjust your aperture to something small, like f/1.8, f/2.8, etc. Something large will ensure a better portrait. Something large, say, f/16, is better for landscapes.

Depth of Field (DOF):

(Both images above are mine, at different apertures.)

This refers to how much of your image will be in focus. Taking a picture with the aperture of f/16 or f/22, most of your image will be in focus. If you're wanting to take pictures of something like a landscape, you'll want to adjust your aperture to something like f/16. If you only want a particular object, such as a picture or a ring or a flower, you'll need a shallower depth of field, so you'll adjust your aperture to something small like f/1.8. The shallower the depth of field, the larger the aperture number will be. Make sense? It may take some time, just remember that little rule.

Shutter Speed:

My favorite thing on this planet to do is play with shutter speeds. I love to see how fast I can get the camera to click. A shutter speed is, essentially, a curtain. The “shutter speed” is the amount of time the curtain is open to allow light into the camera sensor. It's the camera's exposure time—how long the camera shutter is open. Depending on your photography needs, you can adjust your shutter speed to be fast or slow. For sports photography, wanting to catch someone mid-motion, you'd want a shutter speed that's relatively fast. A perfect example of this would be some photos I took in Montana this summer. I was photographing my young cousins on the trampoline in their backyard, but I wanted to catch them in the air. I adjusted my shutter speed to 1/250 of a second. That allowed me to catch both cousins up in the air, mid-jump on the trampoline. However, say you want to “drag the shutter”? This term refers to adjusting the shutter to something like 1/10 or 1/16 of a second. This will allow for a nice image, perfect for night car traffic or to photograph streams. I love to set up a tripod and adjust my shutter speed to something small, allowing a night image to be crisp and clear. What's extra fun to experiment with is using a shutter release remote and a tripod, to reduce any bounce from pressing the button. Play around with shutter speed!

ISO:

I've heard photographers refer to this term as “is the sun on?”. Essentially, ISO is the sensitivity of your camera to light. For instance, on a bright, sunny day, with a clear image, you might only need an ISO of 100. For an indoor shot with incandescent light, with no tripod, you might need something like 800. However, for a dimly lit area and something you're really trying to focus on, I'd recommend an ISO of 1600 or 3200. A high ISO will likely have a lot of noise/grain, so it's best to shoot using a tripod when you're shooting with a high ISO. Play around with the different numbers. Different scenarios will need different numbers, especially when dealing with landscapes and poor lighting. Make sure you remember this when taking pictures.

These tips are just the very beginning. As with anything, once you start to learn and use your camera more, you'll become more comfortable. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! I'll be posting more individual photography tutorials and tips. Keep taking pictures, and keep displaying them! Let me know your questions and comments, and if I get enough response, I'll do a Q&A later on. Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Amanda

#Nikon #nikonphotography #nikontips #cameratips #photographybasics #shutterspeed #aperture #ISO