Articles

Ok. We are now beginning the series. All lessons for absolute beginners will be posted within this page. As time goes by I will add posts and articles for you to read. The basic format will be for me to show you 2 pictures, ‘before and after’. The before pictures will snapshots that people will often take. Sometimes these pictures can turn out very well. However, there are tips and guides which can help improve the quality of the picture. The after picture will illustrations of this. Sometimes I will ask you to to try and replicate the picture befote I go into the lesson itself. In essence let you figure out for yourself even as far as letting you make the mistake. Only then will I go into how to change your snap-shooting to turn it into a different picture.

I have read countless books on photography and it seems to me that they all start the same way, which is to make you understand the basic of exposure i.e. ISO, shutter speed and aperture as well as go into metering. I remember when I first read it I became so confused that I stoped reading in frustration. I am not going to do that. I will not follow the conventional approach as written, What I will do is to show you stuff that can immediately improve your portraits. We will start easy and give you lots and lots of ‘quick wins’. The lessons will get progressively more complex but you will also get more profficient.

My underlying assumption will be that you don’t go beyond putting the camera in P(rogram) or A(uto) mode and you just bought the camera because its cool to have one. This might frustrate the more sophisticated among you but my intention at themoment will always be to help everyone improve their photography.

What you would need

This is my initial thoughts on what you would need to start of with:

– 1 camera (duh) – digital slr (with kit lens) or digital compact with all the accompanying stuff like memory cards, batteries etc etc.
– the camera’s manual
– a pc (or mac)
– soft imaging software like Photoshop
– a very accomondating model (wife, husband, children secretary – anybody who will not mind having their pictures taken)
– lots and lots of energy

This is what I think you will eventually need to progress further:

– 1 digital slr (if you don’t already have one)
– a 50mm f/1.8 lens
– an external flash
– lots and lots of engenuity for DIY stuff

Ok. Now that you have been prepped up, lets get ready for our journey of discovery into the world of portrait photography….

Go to Introduction – Hello Camera