Improving Your Digital Photography

Copyright © 2016 by Mazen Kasamani. 713824

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015914341

ISBN:   Softcover             978-1-5035-0971-9

             Hardcover            978-1-5035-0968-9

             EBook                  978-1-5144-4275-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 2/16/2016

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

I dedicate this book to all photography lovers, amateurs, and enthusiasts, and may you always see the light and the opportunity which reflects the beauty of this world.

PREFACE

The objective of this book is to bring out the photographer in you, the amateur ‘snapshooter’, and to allow you to take memorable and professional-looking photographs through easy yet very effective steps, techniques, and guidelines.

Although part of this book covers the basic camera settings and modes, it delves into the essentials of the art of photography and aims at building or developing the photographic eye of the enthusiastic amateur, you!

Upon completion of the book, you will be able to compose and take appealing photographs with any camera and create that photograph that is worth a thousand words.

A Special Thank You

To my family for their support and patience and to friends who helped bring this book about in all the ways they could.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part 1: The Camera

Camera Types

Camera Lens

Focal Length

Aperture

The Sensor

Sensor Size

Crop Factor

The Shutter

Shutter Speed

Shutter Button

Camera Dial

Camera Modes

LCD Screen and Viewfinder

Flash

Memory Cards

Image Size and Quality

Part 2: Photography Essentials

Consider these before saying ‘One, two, three… smile!’

Exposure

Focusing

White Balance

Light Metering

ISO Speed

Controlling Exposure

Aperture

Shutter Speed

ISO Setting

Controlling DOF

Controlling Motion

Controlling Flash

Useful Tips

Part 3: Developing the Photographer’s Eye

Learning to ‘See’

Composition

Rule of Thirds

Balance

Elements of Design in Photography

Line

Shape

Form

Texture

Pattern

Colour

Light

Brightness

Direction

Colour

Extra Topics

Taking Portrait Photos

Taking Landscape Photos

Taking Black-and-White Photos

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Digital cameras today can do impressive work with just the auto setting itself. But even with smarter and more-capable cameras, we can’t seem to always get a great-looking photo. Advancement in technology helped us capture better photos, technically correct or acceptable ones, but they can never take creative and visually appealing photos for us.

There are two misconceptions when it comes to taking breathtaking photos. One is that it takes a good photographer to be able to get really impressive shots. Two is that you need a professional camera to do so. Well, as much as those two factors do help, nevertheless amateurs can still get considerably great photos with their ordinary point-and-shoot cameras.

You do not have to become a professional photographer in order to capture great moments in stunning photographs. Taking beautiful photos that freeze memorable moments in a scene is something that everybody is able to do. This is what I strive to teach you here, and I will give you effective tips about your camera and artistic guidelines on how to use it, where to point it, and when to take your shot so that at the end you have a lovely ‘Facebookable’ photo!

Cameras are available more than ever today, and with digital technology, you can immediately have a look at the photo you have taken, show it to your friends, download it to your PC, and upload it to the Internet. With a smart phone, you can quickly post it on the social network of your choice.

But how many times have you taken a photo where not the entire person’s head is in the photo or when the background was crisp clear but your subject, the single thing you were trying to capture in the photo, was blurred? How many times have you taken dim photos while someone was blowing the candles on their birthday or missed a goal or a try at a sports game? Have you seen photos where someone appears to have a pole or branch protruding from his/her head or something behind them that seems to be getting more attention?

There are many more examples where the photos we have taken simply did not convey the story we wanted to tell, and we wished we could have adjusted a minor detail to make it happen. I will work on bringing these details to your attention and identifying the strong elements in a scene, allowing you to take photos that make you proud and happy.

We shall start by familiarizing you with the general camera parts and features. Then I will explain to you the essentials of photography without diving into technical details, just touching upon the surface of technicality whilst taking from it what you need to know. Later in this book, I will introduce you to the art of photography and how to develop the photographer’s eye in you.

After reading and practising the exercises in this book, you will be able to take creative photographs worthy of your wall. And who knows? You may discover a passion for photography and make more than a hobby out of it.

Before we begin!

Since some common terms may be used differently in photography, it would be a good idea to explain now a few terms which will be used a lot throughout this book.

• subject: Mainly, the subject—the person, object, or general scene which you are trying to capture in your photo—is your most important element in the photo.

• focus: To focus is to establish a clear and reasonably sharp area of the scene.

• exposure: This refers to the amount of light in a scene and can also mean the picture or photo.

• compose/recompose: This is to have the elements or subject of the scene in the proper frame.

• colour temperature: Different light sources have different colours. For example, a fluorescent light has a bluish colour, an old tungsten light gives yellow, and a candle gives an orange-towards-red colour. This variation in colour is called colour temperature, which varies from red to blue and where colours closer to red are considered warm and colours closer to blue are considered cold.

PART 1

THE CAMERA

Objectives: to identify and understand the basic components of a camera and explain some of the features of these components with minimal complexity.

Know thy camera

With today’s cameras, you can do more for less money. But there is no single camera that gathers all the nice features. However, most cameras have at least the necessary parts or features in them. In this part of the book, I explain the essential camera parts and how they function. Understanding how the camera and its parts work gives you better control of the camera.

Let’s have a look at a camera’s basic components.

The basic parts of the digital camera are:

What technology brought into digital cameras:

♦ immediately preview the photo

♦ change ISO settings for each shot (in a film camera, you have to replace the film with one that has the appropriate ISO