Dream Photography

DIY Backdrops for Food Photography II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 07:49:00 -0800

DIY Backdrops for Food Photography

I'm in the man cave today and I'm going to be making some custom backdrops for when I take pictures you know to make it look a little bit more fancy a little a bit more snazzy I got the idea to got the inspiration from Jimmy at the bite shot and I'm gonna also put a little link on here to see how she does her the thing I'm just gonna take some ideas and make my own okay so the idea is a compound like these stuff that you put on your wall its matte put that all along with a piece of plywood and then apply some different paints and textures I'm doing smaller ones because I take my pictures are usually like after dinner and I put a light on it and I'll put it right on my dinner table so I usually kind of do the overhead shots or I might do a side shot but I don't need a big giant photography like a backdrop board.

So I'm making like mini versions of it today it's a two day process the first day you're gonna put down the compound and make your textures and let it sit and cure then you're gonna add your pain your textures you can use different brushes different styles and just be really creative with gonna do a dark board and a lighter board and I also have a little bit of like a robin's egg blue to play with and the reason I'm using blue because of blue contrasts with orange and brown food predominantly is orange or brown you're gonna get a lot of oranges and brown food so the contrast is like the light blue to make it pop you know I'm just gonna start sharing all this stuff with you I think I have so much fun on the backend of things I'm like learning how to you know make my pictures better or my video better and I totally believe in lifting each other up and we can all learn from each other so I'm going to share stuff that's working for me okay I got them all done couple tips on how to apply it so all the stuff cost me about 60 bucks for the paint and all the wood and the compound may be 70 ohs you're gonna use back through the knife I think this is what this is called and you don't drop a lot of it on think about it like icing a cake you don't want the wood showing you don't want the cake showing right so you just put that thin layer of icing make sure it covers every little piece of wood want it too thick or too textured because your plates might not sit flat once it's all on then gently very lightly hold the brush just kind of go across so you're creating some the texture I don't like hard lines I want it to be very random that's just my the style so I went kind of I went one way I went another way and then I kind of played with it a little bit I'm gonna spend too much more time with it because then I'll just I'll overdo it so I'm just gonna little and I'm gonna let it drop crap and clean up my pants too might want to wear an apron or a crappy pair of pants just in case okay so here we are day two they're all dry nice matte finish the only thing.

I can see is this one over here is a little thicker and it's got a little the tiny bit of a bow to it oh this one is flat so it has a thinner amount of the plaster so something that you can figure out you know this is a thin piece you can go a little bit thicker on the wood so that way it will not bow I'm gonna use these are my first go at it and I'm gonna start painting them yeah a little housekeeping reminder here make sure you're in a well-ventilated the area I'm gonna move out of here because I don't want to get paint on the boat also wear some clothes that you're okay with getting a little bit of paint on okay so plan here is to do one of them keep it really light the second one I'm gonna will have grayer gray white and this one I'm gonna do darker to have contrast and a difference so based on the type of food or the dish certain dishes and certain colors go better with light or dark you know like if you have cauliflower rice, for example, you're not going to want to put cauliflower rice on white background so you're not gonna see it especially like a white flakes white cauliflower rice kinda way you will have zero contrast and the another side of the coin if I had something really dark like mushrooms or the Portobello sandwich or something you know that really dark color brown dude color brown I would use a lighter color for that contrast okay so here I am out in the Sun it's gorgeous companies gloves and I'm going to use I have a couple of shop rights to help kind of with paint so far what do you think I like the black one black eye all of them are made to paint the dark gray on first and then I went over with a little bit of white here and there I used my gloves and every time it kind of got a little too blotchy on the spray paint look that really lights robin's egg blue and just kind of did the same thing with my gloves just kind of rubbed it in as soon as I put the paint on to diffuse it a little bit and then this one.

I'm really just gonna keep this white straight white with the texture itself okay now they're all done and the last thing is a finish an enamel finish so I'm gonna put this all over all of they and it is a matte finish and then we're done that's a wrap - this isn't the ideal situation I've got a total glare in my eyes but it is what it is this is how you learn so I hope you enjoyed this I will be doing more of these as things come along and you know here a fellow food blogger or you know you take photographs of you to know stuff in your kitchen maybe you can use this too I'll see you next time on Don loves food.

Photography Career | Jobs In Photography | Money In Photography | Learn Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 07:35:00 -0800

Photography Career | Jobs In Photography | Money In Photography | Learn Photography

I want to share with you guys some of my tips on how to make money using your photography as a photographer, you can have the best work possible but if you don't know how to market yourself and you don't know the business aspect to photography you're really not gonna get that far you're not gonna be able to get clients to get new clients and then keep booking jobs and then making money so I'm gonna share with you guys again all my tips and how I kind of started so first things first you do need to start shooting now a lot of you guys tell me that you know oh I'm from a city that doesn't have a modeling agency or there's not a lot of models here I don't know I don't have anybody to shoot so definitely this is a big the issue for a lot of us most of us don't live in cities that have major modeling agencies or professional models but that should not be an excuse to not go out and shoot so whether you're shooting you know your cat or maybe your brother your sister a close friend maybe is even shooting some buildings in your city I mean go out there and shoot and practice anytime that you can because you do need to build a portfolio if you don't have a the portfolio you don't have a good set of pictures to show somebody you're not really gonna have anything in your arsenal to get even more people to work with you so you just have to start out by shooting something find somebody that would look good for a portrait standing in and just take pictures of them they don't have to be a professional model and I've shown this in a lot of videos that you don't need professional models to get a good picture you can take a friend or even a stranger and transform them into a model so the way I wrote this down is shooting goes to the portfolio and that goes towards your marketing that goes towards your social media that goes towards your clients that goes towards bookings and then that goes towards making money so I think this all intertwines together.

I'm gonna be going over this so I wrote down that you know it's not enough to just be a good photographer, you do have to have a the business strategy you can't just take good pictures and then you just expect for people to email you and just start making money that's not how it works I wish I wish it were that would gave me a lot of extra free time you must market yourself well this is where social media comes into play this is where a good website is going to come into play you need these things there are some photographers I met who literally don't have a website and okay maybe that's gonna get you however far but you attended it you need a website because there will be one or two clients who will ask you do you have a website and when you say no it's just going to put that down in their mind why does this person not have a website and again there might be photographers who are like oh well you don't really need a the website I have Instagram I have this you know they've seen my work okay but some people want to see a website some people out there do equate a really well-made website to a good trustworthy photographer use social media to your benefit if you're a photographer who isn't crazy about Instagram okay you know what guess what I don't think any of us really are crazy about posting 15 times a day but we got to do it so if this is something that you can use to your advantage to book clients and make some money then why not use it and also I've had clients who have told me that they booked me off of one picture that they saw on my Instagram how many of you guys have been in a situation where you get told about a photographer or even a florist or makeup artist what's the first thing you ask that person oh what's their Instagram so definitely does play a huge role in how we mark it and how we make business today another the thing that I wrote down that I personally don't use but I've heard from other photographers that it does work using wedding vendor websites and maybe you can sign up and register to be a vendor so that if a bride is looking on a certain website and she's looking for recommended photographers you could be one of those people on the list that you know is searchable and the brides can look at your work through the vendor website so definitely that is just another option for you guys personally I've never done this I've never really felt the need to but I mean sometimes it does help another great way to expand your clientele is when you do work with a client yet you tag them in your social media and then if they end up posting your picture to their social media they end up tagging you are accrediting you so that just creates more buzz people will start asking like oh who took that picture and they'll see the credit or the tag one the thing I will caution you guys though and I've heard you know I've talked to so many people about this are when you know the photographer kind of almost harasses the client to post a picture or credit them or tag them I would advise against this person may disagree with me some people will be like no the client has to tag me the client has to add my credit in there but I think it's creating a really bad vibe or a bad atmosphere where you feel like you're forced to do something and a lot of people just don't like that so for me at least if I have a a client that I've worked with I've done their wedding I've done a portrait for them I give them the pictures and you do whatever you want to do I don't tell them to do anything I don't tell them oh you need to tag me or you need to credit me because honestly 99.9 percent of the the time they do it without me asking and I think that is actually more rewarding and you actually want someone who wants to tag and credit you because they're really happy with their pictures rather than ok well Jessica harassed me for five minutes and she's making me add this tag so you definitely don't want to you know to push them into a corner and say you need to tag me you didn't tag me in these pictures again it just varies from photographer to photographer I've heard of photographers that have it in their the contract that you have to credit them and you have to tag them I just leave it up to my clients and kind of let them do their own thing and the word of mouth gets around fast well if people have a good experience with you they definitely share that with their friends and other people so never underestimate word-of-mouth people will remember a good photo but they will remember a really good experience more or a really bad experience so word-of-mouth definitely counts when you are booking clients when you get an inquiry from somebody definitely has a professional PDF ready I'm gonna show you guys my PDF and how it is laid out I've never actually shown this before but I do want to help you guys and give you an idea of how I run my business and how I really show my clients my packages the PDF is horizontal and it's three pages long the first page is a full picture of one of my favorite weddings I usually, do this to kind of catch the clients eye so they can kind of visualize and think like okay how would I look if this were me like this could be me in a photoshoot so that's kind of the thought behind having the first page just be an eye-catching picture second page are my packages all spread out and I try to keep them super-organized I give each one a name I say what's in them and then at the very end is the price for each package I also have my logo as well the third page is just any extra information that I want to add so any extra charges things about the deposit and all of that stuff so definitely extremely helpful to have an organized PDF that looks professional has your logo on it that you can just send out anytime you can update it for any reason and then just send out a new updated version if you want to higher your prices or change anything and I think that is where my graphic design skills really came into play with that PDF I designed everything and I love typography so it was fun for me to make when you do meet with clients be prepared with full sets to show them some clients want to see the whole way some clients only want to see a couple sessions some people just want to see dress pictures so be ready and prepared to be able to show them pretty much anything they want to see and if they ask for a certain shot and you don't have it just be honest with them maybe you can kind of approach it like okay well I don't have this shot just yet but can I show you this instead of one the thing you absolutely do not want to do is to pressure your client into booking with you, you don't want to you know make up like oh I have another booking here maybe so I really need to know if you want to book me this day or yeah you know this is a limited time offer you know this discount is only good for a bubble blah the people just don't like that so don't pressure someone into booking a photoshoot if photoshoots are a lot of money so people just don't want to be spending it and not feeling 100% confident about it another big a thing which I think a lot of people are making a big mistake on is not taking a deposit so if you are booking with a client the day that you guys meet and sign a contract which by the way you also should have you should book a client without a contract in the the contract you should state that a deposit is due whether that deposit is $50 $100 or like me, I do half of the total package price you should have a deposit in your contract in which the client pays right then in there as they sign it if you are booking someone without a contract without a deposit then you're just going on trust and look okay if someone is really booking you 100 percent they don't mind putting a deposit or signing a contract a lot of the time it's almost expected as a professional for you to have those things so you know contracts are really important and they're gonna really outline guidelines and what you expect from the client and what the client is going to expect from you so 1,000 percent would recommend I would not even do business with somebody or even a job without having the contract in place because really that's the only thing you have in writing that guarantees anything and that includes money so if you want to start making money a hundred percent and not losing gigs and everything because you booked somebody that didn't show up have a contract and take a deposit for me I wrote my own contract and then I had a lawyer look it over to make sure it was legally sound .

So I definitely would recommend that having a lawyer look over this contract will not only protect you but will protect your business so you definitely want someone with a legal background to be checking this contract and making sure there are no cracks or there are any you know things that won't hold up in court god forbid if you end up there because of something like this which if might happen so you just want to avoid all that you know keep things really simple when it comes to your photography packages and what you offer to your clients people get overwhelmed very easily they're not familiar with photo sizes and different magazine cover prints and books and video stuff give them the ability to add things on I think they will appreciate the fact that they can customize their package so I really hope my tips were helpful for you guys I've been doing photography for quite a while almost eight years now I've shot everything from baby pictures of senior pictures family pictures engagements weddings it kind of shocks people when I tell them that I've been paid on time for every single event that I've done every single event I've taken a deposit and I've had them sign a the contract so I think just the biggest thing is making sure that you are paid a contract a sign and that you are paid on time why did patches rhyme being paid is important but being paid on time is even more important so again you just want to start off professionally.

I think you will appreciate it your clients will appreciate it'll be an easy process for both parties so I wish you guys the best of luck and I hope that you apply one or two things I hope something was you know I'm helpful for you guys in this video so leave all your comments and thoughts below and thank you guys so much for watching.

Equipment You Need to Start a Photography Business..........

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 07:19:00 -0800

Equipment You Need to Start a Photography Business...

A Good Camera. The first piece of equipment you need to start a photography business is a good camera.

Tripod. ...

Camera Bag. ...

Lighting. ...

Lenses. ...

Backdrops. ...

Props. ...

Studio Space.

There are five simple steps to ensure that you can get up and running with your business ASAP I think one of the biggest problems that I face with photographers when they join the likes of my experienced business group or another kind of business groups, I've been involved with over the years is procrastination in fact, so these five steps that we're looking at now are kind of things that you can do quickly it's almost kind of marketing on a kind of small piece pay a paper or B M at marketing I call it so things that you can get up and running straight away so let's look at them in turn and just a quick kind of guy what you can do to get your business up and running very very fast step one decide what types of photography service you'll offer for me the most important piece of advice for you if you're looking to actually change your hobby into a profession is to make sure you follow your passion to begin with so if your passion is a dance photography perhaps look at that and how you can create a business model based around that, if you're passionate about child photography then obviously kind of build your business around that why it's probably because you've spent your most time doing it you've got your biggest portfolio doing it so it'll be the the simplest and easiest thing to actually kind of launch plus of course when you have a passion you're inherently addicted to something and you're interested in it rather than actually just doing it for the money yes of course turn in a hobby into a business is is a completely different kind of the task however if you can just follow your the passion you'll find that the business can kick-start itself much much quicker for obvious reasons don't be afraid to move in away from your passion but stick into the core is absolutely key if we're going to develop the business within a the short period of time once we start to bring in specialist subjects away from what we know or more niche subjects the the biggest problem is that there's going to be a bigger steeper learning as you go through the business during the course of the first-year number to create the business plan when you say the words create a business plan most photographers go cold cringe curl into a ball and actually kind of hide around the corner they don't want to become business people but unfortunately for you if you're gonna create a business that means you have to have some form of business plan to make sure that you've got some kind of mission and you can kind of gauge its success the first the thing you need to do is identify your x times y equals e plan so in other words the amount of sessions is x times the amount of money you hope to earn from each one will actually end up with Z which is the obviously total turnover which will contain the right amount of profit, of course, first things first be realistic so one person photography business realistically can shoot only one to two sessions per day without any other assistance from other people yes there are exceptions to the rule but it usually takes a little bit more a fine-tuning of the engine to make sure that you've got a structure and kind of an ability to not only shoot the session but edit it sell it and obviously finish it sends it off the lab and actually gets it collected by the client so a business plan a simple business plan is essential to understanding physically what you can do to avoid a kind of a mental breakdown or a business breakdown in the figures number three a name and establish your the business.

I know this might sound stupid but I get so many photographers are saying what should I call my business I want to sell it in five years time we in ten years time the reality is it's going to be very hard to sell a photographic business unless you've built it into a large franchise or you've found such a closed niche market which I've never heard of before that you're really not going to be able to sell your product so don't be afraid of using your own name within your business even if it's attached to a a different name so the word like Kodak for me, my age is synonymous with the world of photography however New Age photographers coming in now the word Kodak is not synonymous with photography as we know it more perhaps as synonymous still with cinematic so don't be afraid of a name that doesn't mean anything but on the other hand, don't be afraid of using your own name your own brand within the likes of the logo and actually the business marketing brand is absolutely essential and building a business around your own brand you the the person is something that you should be afraid of I've always traded in the market I want photography I've got no problems with that at all so as far as the simplicity of the brand name the business name is concerned then you've got a look at the simplicity of the logo's always worth investing into a logo of some kind I think the likes of a fiver calm is an auction site where they can actually bid to create a logo for you but you can get some ideas from all over the globe using the likes of Pinterest and Google search now to get some ideas but remember create your own logo don't plagiarize somebody else's and things and then as far as your own website is concerned to get it up and running as soon as you can along with with your social channels a web site in itself should be clear and simple doesn't always have to have hundreds and hundreds of images on view but make sure anytime that somebody is viewing an image there's an option there to actually find more information about you and your brand or even actually the information about booking number for equipment and supplies so probably when you're starting off your business you've already got a reasonable amount of equipment anyway don't get into buying everything that you see demoed because that will be the worst thing you'll just end up with a load of kit not knowing how to use it it'll be stored in a cover just gathering dust and really not actually being used within the business most of my photography is based on one big light whether I'm working outside or inside but of course for a more technical and more commercial style of the lighting we're using multiple lights with studio environment to create separation three-dimension to the subject and background the simpler you keep your photography probably the brand will develop quicker than actually getting me a mediocre style of photography just following.

What everybody else is doing and doing it badly so make sure any equipment that you're buying will actually, at least have a three to five year lifespan unless you're absolutely on a tight budget, you've got to get the business going with a cheaper kind of the product range now but don't be afraid to actually replace it as soon as you can once you start to earn some profit as far as what you're selling is concerned is probably the most important thing to look at because what the client sees is what the client buys so whether you're designing your business around digital sales or product sales for the wall that's really down to you but whatever you do make sure you're using a professional company to ensure that the product is delivered on time there's a perfect in its production which is going to minimize any firefighting with you and their client if there's anything wrong with the product and things I use the likes of Loxley color you know pretty much it's an online ordering systems for me I know once I order the the product depends on what it is but it's usually being delivered within three to five days so it's a quick turnaround they're kind of really designed for the high street today as well but whoever you use make sure again it's a price that you can afford there are no good buy inexpensive products trying to sell expensive products if the the client you're attracting in can not afford what you're trying to sell so make sure in that kind of suppliers is concerned that you understand the product and you understand their pricing the structure so you can earn the profit number five market in your business well today social media is still the instant up and running press of a button kind of quick marketing tool and again this and very specialist skills to do with that but you can get up and run in straightaway but you can also waste quite a lot of money straight away if you do it wrong one of the things that we cover quite a lot within the experience the group is basically how to maximize your marketing budget and time when you're marketing the business in the longer the term though you want to actually spread your wings away from just social spread otherwise,

You're going to really mail you're competing on a world stage with world budgets and you want to make sure that you get in front of the client in a different way to think about local businesses think about friends and family people that you know in business as well but try and build up a community of different ways to actually generate more business coming into your business remember that's the one kind of party so there you go that's five quick ways to make sure that you can set up a business today get up and running stop your progress donating and actually start to earn some money from your passion for photography very quickly.

Defining a Style for Photo Maker II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 07:04:00 -0800

Defining a Style for Photo Maker II

one of the questions I get asked the most often on social media is how do I define a style for my photography and I don't think I have a neat sixth synced and surf or you but I'd definitely be doing a lot of thinking about this I and I'm happy to Share with you what I've been thinking I mean in all the different sorts of photography I do whether it's street or portraiture or any other sort of photography I don't feel like I've yet locked down a style I'm happy to call my own it's all very much still in process and in flux and maybe it always is maybe that's the journey of a photographer I don't know I'm only where I'm at for the sake of example, I'm just gonna talk about street photography work that.

I do and the stuff that I post on Instagram just to keep it sort of a narrower gambit and I've had a very difficult journey with street photography it kind of moves along and stumbling increments as I try work out you know what I want to do and what I definitely don't want to do and that's still happening as much as it ever did so it hasn't settled at all and I only work this stuff out as I go out and I shoot a lot as I try different things and realize what works and what doesn't work for me I'll give you an example so over the last two weeks, I've shot with two photographers on the streets just gone out because it's more social sometimes to shoot with friends and you know both these photographers. one is Joshua Jackson, he will have seen in the recent street photography video and the other is on the river hick who I did the video with and he went around doing documentary photography in Ukraine they're both good Street photographers and I met up with Joshua because I've been walking around the West End taking shots and me kind of came around at the st. James Park and there were a load of police vans parked along the side and me wonder what was going on I couldn't work out why there was this massive police presence and then around the corner into Westminster in front of the houses of parliament there was a huge demonstration going on with Pro supporters for Brexit and I thought wow you know this isn't something I normally shoot I don't shoot protests or crowds but let me get stuck in and let me try and I bumped into Joshua there and a few other photographers and watching Joshua work he really gets stuck in a walk up and moves around and and and and puts himself in the middle of that crowd and in people's faces and gets really compelling interesting shots and I really struggled I came away from shooting in that space with absolutely nothing to show for it a few days later I was out shooting with Andre and we went to Portobello Market and then we came back into the West End to shoot around there and we walked around the corner to Trafalgar Square and the place was just packed with people they were all wearing Sunderland football jerseys and then obviously just won their game and were out celebrating a huge crowd there and they were all pretty inebriated they had soccer balls and they were sorts of kicking them high into the air above the crowd and they come down and land on somebody all the kids were running around and you know pushing each other into the fountains it was a the really festive the atmosphere and in that kind of situations not one to kind of run into the middle of that crowd and start shooting I struggle with that kind of thing so I kind of skirt the edges admittedly scuffing down a salted caramel doughnut at the time which is very yummy but Andre dive right in the middle and he was taking shots at people and getting shots of kids playing with each other and he put himself so much in the way that he even got smacked in the face with a football at close range at one stage but you know a guy who goes into war zones that's not really a massive deal and he got some really cool shots because of it, it's not my comfort zone though and again I walked away probably because of my own cowardice and not wanting to get stuck in the middle of that crowd not knowing how to wrangle lots of subjects into a frame and compose that very well I hung out the edge and didn't get very much I think it's really important to pay attention to moments like that you know think about style as working out like what are the moments where we take photographs and the work and they sing but on the other side of it, we also need to listen to those times where it doesn't work for us I was out the week before as well at the people's vote March which had a million people right through the middle of London just because I feel like these protests these things that are happening no matter which side of the argument you fall on are history happening right in front of we and I want to be there to witness it but I have to be honest and say that I really struggle to photograph it I don't I'm not very good at it and that's not to say that we shouldn't push ourselves beyond our comfort zone but listening to those moments where we say wow this isn't clicking for me, there's something about this that doesn't work for me might be our style whispering that our the direction is perhaps down another path you've heard me say in other videos that I've had a very difficult journey with street photography and I'm not still even convinced that what I post on Instagram and put out in the books every year can be classified as street photography.

I know some street photographers who would it's definitely not street photography for the street photography documenting a time in a place it needs to be featuring individuals it needs to be showing you movement within a space and my stuff is a lot more abstract often and single subjects in shadow not being able to identify who it is and the places a little bit of relevant it's almost documenting light and shadow that I find interesting more and to be honest I'm not that insecure about that I don't mind what label you put on it but the more that I shoot in this vein the more I shoot things that I'm attracted to like focusing a lens something is coming into focus, there is something that's becoming clearer for me as I keep moving forward by just shooting a lot and working out what I enjoy shooting or what clicks and what I don't enjoy shooting and what doesn't if you want to see what I'm talking about that if you shoot a lot over time a star will start to coalesce on its own almost go take a look at my Instagram I deliberately don't delete photographs from my Instagram so the very first photos I was posting on there years ago.

I still there all the stuff I was shooting on a phone that I was over editing and shooting loads of different subjects there's some horrendous looking stuff on there but the more you scroll through and I do this for myself regularly if I'm ever feeling like I'm not really sure where I'm going if I scroll right back from the beginning of my Instagram all the way through I could see that style emerging almost on its own steam without me conceptualizing it's coming out on its own the more that I shoot and especially the last three years for me there's something emerging and I can see the direction it's going even though I can't neatly define it yet there is a movement so if you want to take a look at my horrendous Instagram from the start and see how my style is a move the more I've shot and then go back and look at your own work years ago and look at it and how it developed and look at it now and if you're just starting out don't be hard on yourself you're going to have to go through those years of shooting a lot of working out what your style is over time it will start to emerge and it's okay to do your own the thing I think me feeling conflicted about street photography is because I've always got a stereotype of what street photography should be I think of Joel Meyerowitz who shoots tableaus on the corners of sunlit Fifth Avenue and how he uses a lot of people intersecting with each other in light and shadow and it's beautiful beautiful work I love or brusque Eldon walking up and shooting Street portraits of people confrontationally on the streets and capturing single individuals as they go about their day unaware until the moment they're blinded by his flash or Fred Hertzog who shot his City of Vancouver in the 50s and 60s documenting a small the area where he lived to let it almost be a time capsule through a time of what was happening in that time of space my work doesn't fit into any of those categories of street photography but it is what it is on its own terms and some of you have really helped with that I made a video about 18 months ago where I shared that a lot of you be putting fan hos name in relation to some of my images in my comment sections and I didn't know who he was at the time and I went and looked him up and I loved his work in the 50s and 60s in Hong Kong and people criticize him for not being a genuine street photographer because he set up a lot of his shots or he faked a lot of his shadows in the darkroom but looking at his work, there's a direction in it the anesthetic in it that feels like the loose direction that I'm walking in and gave me permission to go in that direction and I found that incredibly helpful and there's another name that a lot of you been dropping in my comments sections on Instagram again an artist that I wasn't aware of and didn't know but after looking him up it's given me another step forward another way to look at the work that I'm doing and it's given me a loose direction to walk in for a while and that artist is Edward Hopper and a lot of you have mentioned specifically under some of my images probably his most famous painting Nighthawks and I have to say that as I've started to do a bit of research on this artist who I wasn't familiar with looking at his work looking at what he was doing with light and shadow and looking at how he was featuring individuals in spaces, I feel like this is probably a key which is gonna unlock the next stage of growth so that my own style can start to emerge this is our test Thakura describes his work and specifically Nighthawks for an image so associated with loneliness Edward Hopper's Nighthawks is strangely seductive solitary hunched figures perched on stools along the slender the countertop of an all-night diner bright overhead lighting casts a theatrical play of shadows on the deserted sidewalk outside with the sleek the curving form of the diner's long window intersecting with the grid of storefronts behind the famous painting offers a crucible of narrative potential capturing the melancholic the romance of the city live its endless possibilities and the inevitable failures for connection Nighthawks is in many ways emblematic of hoppers and wires cinematic style characterized by its voyeuristic perspectives dramatic interaction of light and shadow and emotionally isolated figures that inhabit anonymously urban spaces roadside diners gas stations and hotels philosopher Alain de Bont ah once wrote hopper is the father of a whole school of art that takes as its subject matter threshold spaces buildings that lie outside homes and offices places of transit where we're aware of a particular kind of alienated poetry and this is the reason I share my wine with you so often on this channel because I find it so inspiring to hear other artists why they produce the work of Arts, they did in the way that they did and it's not so that I can copy what they're doing it's so that I can listen to their why and then listen to my own way and if there's something in their work that resonates with me understand that there might be something in their work and in their reasoning that can be a loose way forward for me as I work out my own unique style I'm not for one minute suggesting that I'm gonna be the new Edward Hopper of photography that's not the point is as I look at his work there are specific things that resonate with me I love his use of hard light and hard shadow I love the way that he isolates his subjects and puts them in spaces on their own that there's a pensive thoughtfulness to a lot of what he does and that there's space and there's minimalism and there's a lack of clutter because that's already how I was shooting before I came across him and between fan hos work and his work and a lot of other artists I'm sure I'll come across it gives me permission to keep moving to keep working to keep defining what I'm doing overtime in that particular direction all this thinking about how our style develops got me thinking about where our style actually comes from and why it doesn't work just to copy somebody else's style why it has come out of us and I think it's because a genuine style in any art form comes out of our personality comes out of who we are I gave you a couple of examples at the beginning of this video where I went out and tried to shoot in crowds which I've done many times before and I just never seem to get anything I'm happy with and always feel uncomfortable and I think that comes out of who I am and my personality you've heard me saying videos before that that I'm an introvert so cities in general and crowded spaces aren't very comfortable spaces for me if I'm honest I prefer to live somewhere quiet out in the country it really just makes sense for me now that I would live in a city because it makes work easier and I'll be honest with you, I've struggled with London specifically since coming back from Africa to the UK I've learned that London if you want to socialize with people the way to do that is to go out to the pub and to drink a lot and I'm not a big drinker and I don't like loud crowded spaces I'm not comfortable in that place and I'm not a football fan you know I don't want to go to stadiums full of people who yell and sing songs with each other and get into fights it's not my personality so there's been a big part of me while living in cities that has felt very separate from everything because I don't fit in with the way that people want to hang out with each other I prefer a quiet corner table in a cafe where I can just sit and read a book or if I'm with somebody to have a chat where we can actually hear each other properly and dig deep on a conversation I prefer walking down a quiet street then a busy one, I like sitting in an open church or taking a walk around a graveyard I would prefer sitting on a park bench on a hill overlooking the city than actually being in the thick and the the throng of it that's just who I am and harm Wyatt and I'm not telling you that to feel sorry for me I don't feel sorry for myself, I like Who I am but I've realized something about myself and then about the art that I'm shooting in the style that's emerging because I'm being honest with who I am and that is that I shoot isolated subjects and maybe the reason that I shoot isolated subjects are because I see myself in them perhaps it's more than that perhaps it's shooting my own sense of feeling isolated within a city about feeling separate about always being on the periphery somehow about being the watch and the observer about always feeling like I'm moving in the liminal spaces between light and shadow or as my favorite author Richard Rohr says on the edge of the inside so I suppose in some the way I'm actually shooting myself and me gave me a hard time about that for a minute because I thought well if I'm doing that's just self-indulgent and that work is only relevant to me but I don't really believe that I believe if you express something honestly or truthfully that you the experience that it will be relevant to a lot of people and when I thought about that specific issue of isolation, it made sense because of so many of us even though our world is so interconnected more so than ever we feel more separate from each other especially here in the West then perhaps we ever have and I like the fact that all this has kind of snuck up on me that I was just shooting intuitively feeling a particular way in a city not being able to necessarily even articulate it that well but it started to come out in my work even before I defined it and the more I think about it it is relevant and I think that's the best way for a style to come out to emerge is to do it organically as we shoot a lot and we think a lot about ourselves and what we think about life and what we understand about who we are and how we see the world and us just slowly start to present it and it will be a process like.

I said I'm not done with it now I know the temptation will be just a copy and paste my rationale or another artists rationale for your own work please don't do that I'm not saying that because I'm worried that you'll copy me particularly because of I personally believe that people can tell the difference in the art that is genuinely born of a struggle and a journey and honesty with yourself rises above the rest and people can smell the difference between that and imitation the reason I'm telling you to resist the temptation is because I don't want you to rob yourself of the journey it's worth taking I know it's difficult I know it takes a long time and it's a struggle and often you want to give up I get that but taking a shortcut is going to rob you one of developing yourself as a human being and to of having the chance to produce work which genuinely speaks that comes out of who you really are that's born of the pain of a journey where you had to struggle through to produce something that was worthwhile making your own journey means shooting thousands upon thousands of photographs paying attention to while you're shooting when does it just feel like things are clicking and they're effortless and when does it feel like you're just struggling or banging your head against a brick wall and taking a look at your work and how it's developing over time and seeing what emerges it's taking responsibility for looking at artists across all stripes from poets to writers to filmmakers to photographers to painters to musicians to see what are their why's why do they do what they do and what do you resonate with and what does it says about the direction you might need to go and it's paying attention to your personality to how you see the world to how you respond to the things around you and to show us your view of the way that things are because of I really believe it's only in the hours of shooting of looking back over your work overtime of bouncing your work of other people of immersing yourself in as many artists of as many different genres as you possibly can and doing deep honest self-work about who you are and how you see your world that your style will emerge.

Following are the different types of photography ******

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 10:15:00 -0800

Following are the different types of photography which you can categorize captured images in II

Landscape Photography. ...
Wildlife Photography. ...
Aerial photography. ...
Sports / Action Photography. ...
Portrait Photography. ..
Architectural Photography. ...
Wedding Photography
/Event Photography. ...
Fashion Photography.

So in this lecture, we're going to look at lighting now I know that sounds like a fairly broad topic but at least being able to understand the different types of lighting and the different directions of lighting and how that affects your photos and flash and things like that that'll put you a lot further forward in what you can get out of your photos and just a reminder that the in the course notes booklet as well there's the same lighting section that matches up and with the little summary clip cards as a section there that tells you about you know the directions of lighting which the way that puts your shadows and so on so that's pretty handy but in many ways lighting is probably the most important part of photography really you know you can do as much as you want with your aperture and shutter speed and blah blah blah but if the lighting is terrible there's almost nothing you can do to get a good photo let's just look at the various types of lighting you get in your the average day starting with lovely golden morning lighting now as you know morning lighting is beautiful for photography.

You know there's some is low in the sky so it's nice and soft you don't have that contrast problem the shadows are not too dark and it has that nice warm glow to it as well it's a really beautiful time for taking photos while you can certainly take beautiful photos before the sun comes up as well you've got about an hour afterward that's what they call the golden hour when the lighting is just perfect after that pretty rapidly the Sun starts to climb higher and get stronger and you end up with harsh lighting when the Sun gets too strong then you end up with contrast problems so the bit in the Sun is a million times brighter than the bit in the shade next to it so the shadow just becomes jet-black or you end up blowing out your highlights they become too bright it's just not a good time for taking photos also the middle of the day the Sun is quite high so you end up with top lighting which means to get shadows in the eye sockets of people and you know photographs of animals and things they kind of become very bright on the top and very dark underneath it's not a very nice direction of light either not a good time for taking photos if you have to take photos in the middle of the day in the Sun you're better off going and finding some shade literally going in standing behind a building or something where it's just total shade lighting because the light that gets into the shade is actually really beautiful you don't have any contrast problems because you're already in the shade so there's not going to be any shaded side of your subject it's just nice and even it's the same with cloud lightning you know if you wake up and it's just a blanket cloud cover day you might think what a boring day for taking photos sure your landscape photos might look a little drab if there are too many clouds but photographs of things like people and animals fantastic cloud lighting are beautiful it's just such a soft light and the light has bounced off from everywhere so it's coming from every direction at once.

So it fills every little nook and cranny evenly it's a very flattering kind of light for portraits wrinkles and things don't really show up it's a great time for taking photos and it means you can shoot all day long because there's never any harsh the sunlight here's a good little tip if you're photographing an animal that's sitting in the Sun like a little crab or a lizard or something yeah if you could actually shade it with your body sort of move yourself between the Sun and your subject cast your shadow over it then you've got it in a nice soft shade lighting and it'll look beautiful all the colors will look nicer and it won't be so contrasting anymore moving on then you get to evening lighting much like morning lighting I guess the Sun is low in the sky and you get that nice warm orange glow again and the contrast problems not there anymore you can see in this photo you can see the shadows but they're not too dark at all they just provide a bit of interest it makes it look a little bit more 3d you can still see into the deep crevices in the rock and obviously, this photo is taken with a large f-number you can tell from the large depth of field so everything is in focus but also the Sun has done that starburst which remembers in the aperture the lecture you get that with the large f-number and finally moving on to low lighting now low lighting is tricky to deal with just because there's not much the light around and it's going to take the camera quite a long time to collect enough of it to give you an image.

So you're going to have to expect to have quite long slow shutter speeds so you're gonna have to hold the camera really steady or put it on a tripod or turn your ISO up or a few other things there's a little trickier to deal with but it's worth persevering because you can get really beautiful results don't always let your flash pop up you know it's worth knowing that in all the camera modes we've been using on this course so the program mode and everything better than that the flash will never pop up on its own if you actually want to use the flash you have to press the little flash release the button next to the flash and then it'll pop up but if you leave it down then you're forcing the camera to use that natural ambient light and you can get such beautiful results all of these sort of photos would have just been ruined in auto mode, the flash would have popped up BAM and you'd lose all that delicate lighting of the fire or the head torch whatever it is so persevere so the other important factor of the lighting is not only the quality of the light but the direction that it's coming from because that affects the shadows as you'll see so let's start with platting that's where your subject is lit from the same direction that you're looking at it so there's some pretty telltale signs of front lighting your subject ends up being completely illuminated so you don't have any shadows on it of course because if you're shining the light on the front of it all the shadows around the back so it's great if you want to be able to see every detail like for a product photo for a catalog or something there's a lot of drawbacks to front lighting if your subject is at all reflective or glossy the light just sort of shines straight back into the camera and you get that nasty glare same on the skin of people or if they're wearing glasses or if you're trying to shoot through the glass it just bounces back at you so it's not that nice and the worst thing about front lighting is it tends to make.

Your photos quite flat and 2-dimensional you can't really see the shape of things you need some shadows for that and that's where side lighting comes in so side lighting reveals shape and texture through the shadows so side lighting is good for portraits or anything where you just want to make it look a little bit more 3d now backlighting when you're starting out in photography people often try and avoid it because you end up with dark silhouettes and things like you saw in the exposure lecture when you accidentally have the girl in front of the window or if you get the Sun in the background of your shot and your subject just comes out as this really dark figure but in that exposure the lecture we learn how to fix those kinds of problems using exposure compensation so you could just go plus to brighten the photo back up and then great so after you've learned how to deal with the problems of backlighting it can give you some really beautiful results it can give you a nice glow or halo around the edges of things, rim lighting can give you really nice silhouettes and for people it gives you nice highlights in the hair so backlighting can be a really beautiful light to use.

You might just find you need to overexpose the shot sometimes and you've also got to look out for lens flare you've probably seen these little splashes of light that come across your photo from time to time that's caused by direct sunlight coming into the front of your lens and reflecting off every bit of glass inside your lens now getting direct sunlight in your lens is a problem for several reasons not only do you get lens flares but you also lose some of the saturation of your colors now if you have little bits of dust or something on the lens they tend to show up more autofocus can struggle you know getting sunlight in your lens is not a good thing now if the Sun is actually in your the photo then you're gonna get sunlight on the front of your lens clearly there's not much you can do about that so you probably have lens flares and all the other problems but often the Sun is not in your shot maybe it's up here somewhere you wouldn't have even really thought about it maybe you wouldn't think it's backlit at all but in fact, the Sun can still see directly into the lens so we're getting direct sunlight spilling across the front of the lens and we're still getting all those problems.

So that's what these things are for lens hood the whole point in life is just to shade the front of the lens so you don't have lens flares so you get to keep your nice rich colors and so on now most lenses come with lens hoods and oftentimes people just tend to forget about them or they just you know leave them on backward all the time which is a bit silly that makes it smaller so you can put it into your camera bag but every time you're photographing you really should get in the habit of getting it out and putting it on it's almost never a problem you know people think oh it's cutting out light and you might need that in low-light or something it's not true it's only ever cutting out light that you don't need to photograph it's just cutting out stray light coming in from the edge the only times you might ever want to take it off is if you're doing really close-up flash work and you popped your little flash up and it couldn't quite see past the lens hood so you end up with what's called a hood shadow on the bottom of your photo or if you're trying to get that much closer to a window or something then sure then you can take it off but in every other situation it's never doing you harm and you should get in the habit of using it so it's worth taking just a couple of seconds to think about lighting before you start taking photos you know if someone asks you to take their photo in the Sun realize that they're gonna be really harsh shadows go and find somewhere in the shade well maybe if there's no shade lookup in the sky and you might find that the only reason it's harsh sunlight just now is that there's a hole in the clouds but it looks like if you wait about two minutes there's gonna be a big bank of clouds roll in front of the Sun and then you'll be with nice cloud lighting totally worth waiting for two minutes for some nice cloud lighting before you photograph someone or at least think about the direction of the light as well rather than having the Sun over there and getting lens flares and things maybe bring it around here and shoot from that way then you get some side lighting it looks more 3d it doesn't take long to think about these things but it can make a really big difference in how your photos look at this example of a little beetle on a leaf you can see that's just fairly boring top lighting but instead, if you turn the leaf up to the light and have the light coming through it then you get beautiful colors coming through the leaf and there's a real silhouette of the beetle and it looks fantastic okay let's take a look at flash definitely not just for nighttime use, in fact,

I use my flash a lot more during the day than I ever do at night because if you use it during the day you can fill in those harsh shadows are caused by strong sunlight this example is crying out for some fill flash look at those harsh shadows under the Hat and it just also contrasts II but if we just pop the flash uptake the same photo again that looks much better and the great thing is it doesn't even look flash does it looks quite natural if you take a flash photo at night normally it looks pretty flashed but during the day you can just slip some light into the shadows there when you're doing that it's a technique called fill flash and all of your cameras can do this even your compact cameras even your smartphone cameras you can normally force your flash on now you could just try and lift up the overall exposure until your subject was nice and bright but by then the background would be completely blown out so you're better off just popping your flash up throwing some light in there and filling in those shadows to being the same brightness as the background and then it all looks great you can also use your flash to add a little glint or a sparkle into the eyes of people or animals it's called a catch light makes a big difference just brings them to life a bit more it doesn't have to be a flash you just need to be able to see the reflection of something quite bright in their eyes it could just be a window or something like that but a flash is an easy way to try it so maybe in the last of a batch of photos you've taken pop your flash up just see the effect you get okay we'd better have a look as to why don't know if you'd buy.

one of these giant external flashes if you already have a little inbuilt or pop-up flash in your camera most people just assume it's because these are obviously bigger more powerful you can penetrate the dark further that's true but that's actually not the main reason you'd buy one of these it's because of the amazing creative lighting options this kind of things open up to you because with a pop-up flash or an inbuilt flash all you've ever been able to do is just harsh front lighting and we saw before there's nothing nice about harsh front lighting you know you get reflections and glare and it makes your photos look very flat and 2-dimensional that's all you've ever been now to do before but if you put one of these on instead then instead of harsh front lighting you can turn to the side and get bounce flash you bounce it off a wall and it drifts back and then you've got soft side lighting, of course, you do need a wall or something to be able to reflect the flashlight off no much good being outside and turning the flash to the side and hope you need to get some light back in those situations you just take the flash off the camera you know you connected via a hot shoe extension cable or a lot of flashes and Wireless now and that just lets you get the flash to the side a little bit to give you some side lighting so your photos look more three-dimensional of course it would be fairly harsh because you've got a flashgun pointing straight at your subject but what you can do in those situations than just pull out a little flash diffuser or in fact a lot of flashes, you can buy big external plastic diffusers and they just make the light comes from a softer more gradual kind of area and you just end up with more three-dimensional photos using flashes these days is just so easy it used to be quite complicated you have to learn about things like inverse square laws and guide ratios and that kind of stuff but these days it just does it all for you modern ETTL flashes in fact when you take a picture the flash actually sets off a little pre-flash first and the camera looks at how bright that's made your subject and then adjust the power of the flash for the real photo so you end up with exactly whatever brightness you've asked for on your flash exposure compensation it's just so easy to bounce flash you know you just turn the camera to the side and take the photo again and you'll still end up with the correct amount of light look at this example so this is classically front flashed looks like it's done rabbit and looks a bit two-dimensional but now just turn the flash to the side bounce it off the wall and you get nice soft side lighting it just looks so much nicer and more 3d let's look at white balance white balance is about making your colors come out correctly making things that are supposed to be wife making them come out looking white not a slightly blue or slightly orange it's quite a tricky thing that your camera has got to do for you actually, because you're never photographing under pure white light with the entire spectrum in there you know most indoor lighting is a little bit orange shade lighting is a little bit blue and if you use the wrong white balance setting your colors just come out a little bit off now thankfully all of our cameras have auto white balance AWB and honestly, that's the one you want to leave it set on almost all the time not only does it do a really good job at working out what kind of frequencies are lighter out there and adjusting it properly but the main thing is it will remember to check it every single time you know you see people running around trying to set their own white balance and most of the time they just forget and you end up with photos with weird colors but the reason you need to know about white balance is because eventually, your photos might start looking like one of these if you ever find yourself thinking do something weird in the color Department color is a white balance problem so go and check your white balance setting you probably find you've just accidentally slipped off auto white balance and you're on shade or tungsten or something like that put it back on auto it'll probably fix it right back up if it doesn't if you literally on auto white balance and the colors are still weird it's a pretty unusual situation maybe the camera got tricked because there are two types of life around or something then and only then would you bother going into your white balance setting and actually choosing one of those values tungsten daylight fluorescent flash cloudy shade and if none of them are right there's even a custom white balance in a lot of cameras where you can just photograph something white and tell the camera to make that come out white and then it'll correct it for that but I've never even really had to use that you can tweak your color later on in post-production as well and if you're shooting a raw file it really doesn't matter white balance is entirely an afterthought you can choose it from the drop-down list later on so don't worry about it just leave it in auto white balance most of the time and that'll keep you out of trouble ok let's take a look at filters now starting with polarizing filters like this one now polarizing filters just like polarizing Sony's they help to cut out glare and reflections and things like that can make this guy look a darker richer blue clouds look better leaves and things leaves are quite waxy and if you can get rid of the glare you end up with deeper rich and green leaves in your landscapes really cool bit of kit to have particularly for your wide-angle lens you've got to realize how they work a lot of people buy them and just screw them onto the end of the lens and then forget about them there are so many things wrong with leaving a polarizer on the end of your lens it's not even funny firstly you got to screw it on but you'll find the actual polarizing filter then keep spinning and you've got to set that every time you're taking the picture because as you twist that you'll find all the reflections disappear and then they come back again and you've got to choose it because the lighting is different in every situation and the other reason why you shouldn't leave it on is because it does make the world quite dark out there and your cameras forever going Jeeves quite darker after the shutter will have to stay open longer to collect more light so you end up with longer shutter speeds more camera shake or you have to turn your ISO up more and also every bit of glass you put in front of your lens you're potentially reducing the quality of your lens so you get what you pay for particularly with polar the filters if you buy a really cheap one take a photo zoom right in you might find your lenses it's not sharp anymore so only put it on.

When you actually want to use it but you can get really beautiful results have a look at this one so here's a photo taken with and without the polarizer when I say without it is on there I've just twisted it so there's not much effect happening so you can still see all the reflection of the sky onto the water so it's hard to see into the water there's a bit of that white haze in the sky but if we turn the polarizer so the effect is more visible now have a look all the reflection disappears on the water so you can see straight in there and you're left with a darker richer blue sky which looks great really cool bit of kit to have but as I said only put it on when you actually want to use it as opposed to these filters they're clear UV filters these ones should be on your camera all the time now a UV filter not surprisingly filters out UV light but actually, all of your digital cameras have a UV filter built into the sensor these days so the fact that this is filtering out UV light - gives a completely useless bonus but the real reason why should still, all have one of these on is just cuz they protect the front of your lens you know the front of your lens is actually really delicate it's got very fine anti-reflective coatings on them that are very easily scratched and if you put your fingerprint on there it's quite hard to clean the front surface of the lens but if you put one of these things on there not only they're very easy to clean but they're pretty well bulletproof it's actually quite hard to damage a UV filter and if you do check it out buy another one they're replaceable they're much cheaper than the front of your lens but again you get what you pay for with these things so if you've spent a lot of money for a really nice sharp lens spend a bit of extra money and get a good quality UV filter otherwise you're just gonna lose all that clarity again so that's it for lighting next the lecture is all about lenses good idea to have a bit of a handle on how you classify these things you know what that what you're paying for what the different features are what they do and so on so thanks very much for watching I hope you enjoy the next one as well.

Better Photographer full details information II This blog.....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 07:34:00 -0800

Hi thanks for signing up for this free course on how to become a better photographer Inc I am founder and director of so this film photography Private Limited basically an engineer by background electronics and communications engineering who worked in the software industry for close to 18 years the first nine years, I can say more of a purely technical software programmer working at the device driver kernel programming that kind of work and the remaining part more into the corporate section of management level I would say of handling the software the division itself so I come with a pretty strong technical background and on top of that 25 years of photography so I've been doing photography and most importantly I've been teaching photography for close to 15 years and in the photography field itself if I had to say some of my achievements so I have been a Canon brand ambassador for close to eight years on top of that the sanctuary Asia wildlife photographer of the year and then even with respect to National Geographic I have one or rather my cover shot of this beautiful image has won the National Geographic yellow border award so this cover short featured in the National Geography traveler India and then the internal. competition within Nigeria across the 14 countries and this one the first press for India beyond that when it comes to the recent Asian photography I was touring for 2017 I have been recognized and awarded as the third most influential person in the photographic industry in India so the first has been the Canon MD and CEO the second has been the Nikon MD and CEO and I have been at number three so when it comes to a photographer probably the most influential photographer for in India itself for 2017 and then again for 2016. I was placed at number two and then the year before that I was placed at number five so the last three years. consecutively I have been rated as one of the most influential people in the photography industry itself and then in the recent survey concluded in the top100 photographers on the web the most talented famous photographers on. I've been placed at number 12 across the globe so number one in India I would say and then when it comes to wildlife. Photography across the globe in the top hundred list I've been placed at number one so the awards and recognition it goes on and on and on so that basically gives me the confidence to teach the kind of credibility. I have and that is where the big brands like Canon Nikon.Samsung Adobe a lot of these big brands they work with me because of the trust they have in me with my capabilities with my technical knowledge of photography and everything related to photography so I've been conducting

photography twos workshops all these four years together and in the last three years. Alone I have thought for more than a thousand five hundred students so I come with this very strong background when it comes to photography teaching that's about me now let's come to the course itself. what is this course about now in the next 40 minutes? I am going to teach you everything you need to know on the basic fundamental aspects of photography fair enough you have bought your new camera and you look at all the various settings in the camera don't matter beat a cannon or a Nikon or Sony or a Pentax or a reco the brand it just does not matter it's the concept which is more important so what the camera you look at the camera the settings it's very complicated there are way too many buttons in fact if you see the current is digital cameras they're

very complex the photographic manual itself if you see like I mean 200 pages 300 pages I don't expect you to go through those 300 pages to start operating this camera or how to become a better photographer so in this course. what I'm going to do is like I am going to help you understand if you look at the very basic things what gets displayed at the back of the camera, I am going to help you understand what each of those things is how they impact photography how you can start using that so I am going to teach you all those even though in the course I'll be using a Canon camera to explain the concept holds good for any brand of the camera so what I want you to do is charge your camera completely and then hold the camera in your hand go through the course, one step at a time and start experiment along with me and now comes another important point go at the end of the course I mean once you finish the entire course I want you to stick with me for the full course that is very important once you finish the entire course at the end of this course.I am going to give you some very useful information and tips so don't cut it across stay till the end go through it and hear what I have to say at the end of the course which is where it is going to be very very important for you. when it comes to your photography learning and now comes another very very important point now as a part of this course this is what around 40 minutes, of course, that's all it's not a very very big course now if you look around you have a lot of distractions your cell phone your email is coming up you have your Facebook or Instagram account you keep looking at all those things so if you want to learn if you want to be a better photographer before you start this course what I want you to do is switch off all those things no distractions nothing you give me your undivided attention for the next 40 minutes and I'll guarantee. you are going to become a better photographer your understanding about photography will change like anything so switch off all those things pay complete attention to what I have to say it's a part of this course experiment along with me and most importantly as I said at the end of this course I have some very very important information to share with you go through that as well and then you can feel the difference in your images and then you will be very happy looking at the images the wow factor in the image all those will start coming in so let's get started with the course hi in this tutorial, I am going to take you through the core concepts the fundamental concepts of photography and give you my recommendations so that you can start making some awesome images another good part about this tutorial is like I'll be conveying some of the settings and in your camera, you should be able to try it out and do the things do things practically along with me. so in the next 30 minutes stay tight to follow the concepts experiment along with me and you will see the difference in your image just where you will understand what it takes to make those awesome images so let's get started. I have currently connected my car 1,200 D an entry-level camera to the TV so that you will see the various displays the settings what the camera does and you should be able to follow me now as a beginner in photography you don't have to go through very in-depth or any advanced settings or any of those things forget about all the various advanced features whatever the camera supports let's get some of the very basics right so for example aperture so since I am shooting in aperture priority mode the very basic exposure triangle parameters bit your shutter speed your aperture your ISO what are they what impact it has on your image we will see that next comes to your exposure compensation about when to underexpose. when to overexposed make the image brighter or darker what to do your picture style what kind of pictures tell you should be using we will look at what you're white balance so what is white balance what kind of white balance you should be using I am going to help you understand those concepts next comes the other set of parameters is it concerning your shooting mode. So whether you want to shoot it in one-shot mode servo depending on what is happening in yours in your scenery the

focusing options will see than even the metering so what kind of metering you have to use be it spot metering evaluative so what are those various metering options and then of course what kind of image quality you should be using I'll be guiding you with that and

of course, the last point is obviously concerning your focusing points. when to use what fine what kind of focusing points so here this is the very basic thing but what you see in your Canon cameras now the same concept applies to your Nikon cameras as well. where if you look at the info the display what your Nikon camera gives even that will have your exposure triangle parameters about aperture ISO shutter speed the same things than you even have your compensation exposure compensation your white balance parameters and in case of your focusing mode whether it is like autofocus single autofocus continuous so what kind of focusing you more do you want to use then comes even the metering the concept is the same and even your image quality the raw or the JPEG. What kind of quality you should be using and then the focusing points so if here if you see beat Canon Nikon or any brand

it doesn't matter so let us go through each of these basic concepts and see what they are what impact they have on the image and what is the setting which you should be using to get some good images as a first step let us understand about the image quality so here as you can see from the display in the info, you can quickly you can press on the Q axis the Q button at the back and access this or

you can go into the menu option in that you have the image quality. If you go into the image quality, you have various options right from the large to the medium to the small and then you have a combination of replacing largely and then just the rock so here you are welcome to use any of this combination and each of them as you can see here, the resolution will ready so if I keep moving so as you can see the resolution will keep changing which is the print dimension if you are trying to print the images. So it's more to do with your megapixel the resolution so here one of the main things is as a beginner I understand that raw probably may not be the right option because you may not be comfortable on how to process the raw images so chances are you end up using just the JPEG so but my recommendation would be to use a combination of raw plus large depending on the size of the memory card so yes please go ahead buy a larger sized memory card so that it can store more images now one of the keys advantages of the raw file is even if. You make minor mistakes in the field are it concerning the various settings concerning your white balance exposure so even concerning the picture style any of those various the combination you make a mistake still there are ways in which you can very easily fix if it is Rob raw is very very powerful.

So go ahead use the option of raw plus large and then keep that as your standard-setting if you look at your Nikon setting even Nikon has something very similar where you can have a combination of any F so that is the RAW format for NIC on any f+ the different options of JPEG so go ahead choose any of these things but as I said as a beginner, please go ahead with the combination of raw is large because in the future.

Once you learn our crop processing you can come back to these images and process the raw files so go-ahead to start with put the setting as raw Plus large or any F plus any of the JPEG oxygen option and keep that as your standard-setting let us now understand the next important the parameter which is your white balance so, in case of cannon, I can access the white balance using the quick access button at the back by pressing Q and going into this or I have a direct access button check your camera and you'll have a direct access white balance I click on that and you have this various parameter various white balance setting rather what is white balance in simple terms white balance is one of the keys a parameter which decides what kind of colors you want in your image white balance is nothing but telling the camera to get a white color as a proper white depending on the lighting the situation now the white balance is expressed in Kelvin so here if you see with respect to the white balance for my Canon 1280 I have all these various white balance setting I have the auto white a balance where the camera decides what kind of colors to put what kind of Kelvin value to put depending on the lighting then I have the daylight so daylight has an approximate value of five thousand to two hundred Kelvin then. I have the shade is approximately again seven thousand Kelvin I go further. I have the cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin then the tungsten light which is more of 3200, Kelvin, then again the white fluorescent lights flash four out those flashes in the range of five thousand four hundred Kelvin and then the custom white balance so depending in on depending on your camera model you may have the advanced setting of the manual a white balance where the K will be displayed and these values you can manually put it let's go each of this let's look at each one of them now when it comes to outdoors if you use a white balance the setting of anything about five thousand or below five thousand Kelvin say for example daylight then tungsten or even fluorescent any of these parameters where the values less than five thousand Kelvin you will get more of the bluish cast in your image so whereas same outdoor conditions if you go into the option of saying shade with this seven thousand Kelvin cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin anything above 6,000 Kelvin, you'll get more l-Lois colors in.

Your image now let us look at this particular an image so this image has been shot outdoors so what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you like how by putting different white balance values the colors of the image basically changes so I'm going to just put it in auto mode. So Auto the camera decides I have no control then if.

I'm going to put it in daylight at 5200 Kelvin this is what I get then. I move it from five thousand two hundred to five thousand four hundred Kelvin which is more of your Flash outdoor five flashes five thousand four hundred this is the kind of color she'd get then I moved to cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin and then even with respect to shade it is more of seven thousand Kelvin it goes up on the other side if I come where I put it for tungsten which is 3200 Kelvin as you can see it is more bluish in color compared to the cloudy and shade which are more alloys more warmer colors even white fluorescent light also gives you more bluish color so as you can see white balance varies the colors in your image my recommendation does not go with auto white balance because in the case of auto white balance the camera decides what colors to put as a photographer you need to be in control you decide what kind of the white balance you want to use based on the actual lighting situation this is for Canon and if you look at Nikon option it is more or less the same where the terminologies may vary a little bit but the overall concept of using the white balance is the same so as I said as a beginner my recommendation when it comes to using the values for white balance doesn't go with auto based on the lighting situation you use whether you want to go with daylight or flash or it is cloudy or concerning shade those things for indoors probably it may be more of incandescent or fluorescent those options come into a picture so go ahead understand about white balance take the camera got in the field the same image what you have the go-ahead and shoot that at various white balance and new personnel see what the difference is and you decide based on the lighting what kind of white balance makes sense so that's about white balance now comes the most important part of photography which is your exposure triangle parameters of shutter speed aperture and ISO let us study what these parameters are what impact they have on the image and what kind of settings you should be using I am currently in the shutter priority mode of my camera which is the TV mode for Canon and yes mode for Nikon so here what happens as a photographer, I set the shutter speed so let us look at what is shutter speed now shutter speed is the duration of time your shutter is open for the light to enter and hit your sensor so if you look at the shutter speed so the value of low shutter speed basically causes motion blur if you are shooting handled the shake which comes into the image that is because of slow shutter speed whereas if. I take it up so all the way I keep going a higher shutter speed freezes action so what the shutter speed do low shutter speed is responsible for motion blur or camera shake which comes because of handle shooting high shutter speed freezes the action so if you look at this particular image so this I have shot it at a high shutter speed where you can see that the waterfalls the overall action has been frozen whereas the same image when I shot it at a very slow shutter speed of say 2 2 SEC 2

seconds 4 seconds at that slow shutter speed as you can see it's more of a silky flow of water so shutter speed is the duration of time the shutter is open and then you can basically decide how you want to take that image my recommendation when it comes to shutter speed if something is totally static if it's a person standing not moving it could be a landscape scene so anything which is totally static you don't have to worry too much about the shutter speed and of course for any beginners as I recommend always use a tripod to get the proper setting now that is about shutter speed now the other parameter the next parameter which was to understand is more to do with your aperture for that let me go into the aperture priority which is the AV mode for Kanon and then the mode for Nikon aperture is basically one of the parameters now okay first what is aperture is the opening of your a lens so if you look at this particular a lens so this is basically the 1635 lens aperture is this opening so how large the opening is so even if you look at this a particular image so aperture basically has blades inside so a smaller aperture say if I go all the way down to f/4 an aperture a smaller f-number basically means a very the large opening of your lens whereas I move up all the way I go to f-16 F 20 f-22 that is a very small opening means less amount of light coming into a camera so here if you can see a smaller.

The f number is a large opening a larger F the number is a very small opening now this again controls the amount of light entering your camera so the one of the key things about aperture is that controls the depth of field now the depth of the field is that area of your photograph which is in sharp focus so this the particular image here if you see the depth of field what we call is very shallow I have used a very low F-number and that is whereas you can see the depth of field is very shallow now the same image if I move my aperture the F number if I make it very large and f-22 or like that then as you can see that same it means the depth of field is very large that means a large area of your the photograph is in sharp focus now as a photographer, you have to decide where to do you want to use a shallow depth of field where you want to use a larger depth of the field now let me give you a quick tip over here if more or less if it is just one single subject what you are trying to shoot in more situations a lowest Fnumber supported by your lens will do whereas if there are more subjects one behind the other and you want all of them to be in sharp focus then your F the number you have to increase now similar to the speed aperture is one of the parameters responsible for your depth of field your the focal length of the lens then camera to subject distance also comes into the picture but go ahead use the aperture based on the scene and as a photographer you decide whether you want a lower F-number or a larger F-number to get an the appropriate depth of field and then the a third parameter which is more of your ISO ISO is nothing but the sensitivity of your sensor so during our olden days when we used film so they were basically chemicals in the film and then that is what we called as the sensitivity of the a film so the ISO or the si what we used to call was more of how fast those chemicals can react to light so in our digital cameras, it is more to do with your sensor so how fast the sensor can react to light that is what is so is all about now if you look at the IES so whatever is so you have in your camera so if you're going to the quick view option and go into the ISO here as you can see I have auto ISO then hundred two hundred have different is shows based on your camera model again here I would recommend your not to use auto ISO because when you put it in auto ISO the camera decides what value to use based on the other parameters not recommended so you go ahead play around with the ISO so remember if you increase the ISO so chances are you will get more noise what is noise in the image so this particular image if you see I have shot it at a little bit lower ISO and wherever there is a dark shadow area as you can see the quality of the details is very good whereas the same scene if I increase the ISO so at this high ISO as you can see I zoom in that area if you see you see those small grains that are noise so depending on your camera a low ISO is always preferable but again depending on mid-range or high-end cameras I also value you can actually take it up so these are the three very basic exposure triangle parameters now how do they work together so let me give you an example now you have various modes in your camera so let me go with the very basic one which is the complete auto mode so when you put your camera in complete auto mode the camera decides all the three parameters the camera decides the camera doesn't know what's in your shooting the camera we'll take into account the amount of lighting and then it will put its own value of shutter speed aperture and ISO to give you a decent image probably that way that may not be what you want next comes and of course if the light is less the camera will pull out the flash as well the next is the P mode which is the program mode in the program mode so when I half-press my shutter release as you can see for a given ISO the camera decides both the shutter speed and aperture again you do not have control, of course, you can increase your ISO you can also put it in auto mode so if you increase your ISO I click on ISO . I increase the value and then again half press my shutter release button so as you can see again the value should vary so you have no control over what happens the camera decides the parameters now another mode is basically the TV mode which is the setter priority mode or for Nikon guy, it is the yes mode so when you put it in TV mode as a photographer you decide what kind of shutter speed you want for a given ISO and when you half-press the shutter release button camera will give a particular aperture not remember if the aperture is blinking which is happening in this case if the aperture is blinking that means that is not enough for this very high shutter speed in this low-light situation. So I'm in my studio the lighting is very low so this high shutter speed for this ISO is not enough aperture is not enough it blinks if I shoot I will get a dark an image so that is where I keep decreasing the ISO and then it is still not enough data see it's very dark in the room here. I go all the way down and there he goes at one point it stops blinking and this is a good value, of course, remember if the movement is happening in the subject you will get shake blur okay if you're especially doing handle so you have to watch out for shutter speed so keep it in mind, if any movement is happening in the scene then make sure to watch out for the shutter speed and try to keep a high shutter speed if you want to freeze the action and then if you want to purposely induce a motion blur go with a slow shutter the speed that is about TV mode or the yes mode and then the other mode is AV mode which is the aperture priority mode and for Nikon guys, it is the mode in case of aperture priority as a photographer you decide to let me take it all the way down you decide what aperture you want for a given ISO and when you have a press the shutter release button camera will give you a corresponding shutter speed now you vary your aperture than the shutter speed will vary so in case of aperture priority as it says the priority is more on the aperture you decide what aperture you want for a given ISO the camera decides the shutter speed so this is more recommended when there is not much movement happening in their scene if you are doing landscape photography or any of those areas of photography where your depth of field is more important than the shutter in that case go with your aperture priority than the another mode is basically the complete manual mode this is a little bit advanced mode for beginners I would not recommend that because you have to decide all the three parameters based on the metering and other complex things not recommended going with any of the other mode of aperture priority shutter priority or even for that more the programmer also will work and then the another set of mode in your camera you have all this various portrait mode so portrait mode here if you see the ISO will be auto and then the default setting so more or less if you see a portrait that camera gives more emphasis to the depth of field and then you have the landscape so even in case of landscape ok it is more of again the default settings are the single-shot not the burst mode and then again the priority is given more for larger depth of a field in case of a portrait mode the camera tries to give you a shallow depth of a field in case of the landscape, it tries to give you a larger depth of field to give everything in focus then you have the close of for the portrait mode again in that situation it is more of trying to give you a shallow depth-of-field then comes your sports action photography action photography as you can visualize or you can think is more to do with action happening you want to phrase it so in this mode camera is going to give you a faster shutter speed than the other one is stars night photography so in this night situation is going to give you a long exposure now depending on what kind of the camera model, you'll have these are some of the very basic kind of shooting modes what you have so once you understand overall so let me go back to the B mode so once you understand the combination of your shutter speed aperture and ISO then play around with the settings and as a photographer you decide what kind of setting you want so my recommendation again let me repeat so any of those genres where the action is happening movement is happening you want to freeze it or you want to create a motion blur go with the shutter priority and decide what kind of shutter speed you want and then depending on whether you're shooting a macro close-up portrait landscape anything static still were the shutter is not of much concern it is more of the depth of the field what you won't to go with your aperture priority and decide what kind of perfection you want in all these cases please keep a tab on what is are using because a very high ISO will eat noise image okay so these are the very basic settings what you have to keep in mind on the exposure triangle parameters and then as a photographer, you decide what you want and go ahead with those settings now comes the next interesting part which is your focusing board and the focusing points now again if I go back to the display here in your display currently, I am in one short mode so even in case of Nikon so you have the different kind of focusing modes so let. I go into this so I'm going to press the quick access button the Q and going to that of course so depending on your camera mode in fact even for me I have the direct access button which is AF button at the back I press that I go into the different autofocus modes now let us look at each of this autofocus modes the first one is one shot in terms of Canon and for Nikon guys, it is AFS autofocus single typically one short a mode is used for totally static subjects so what happens in case of one short a mode is when you half-press the shutter release button you hear the beep, of course, you need to have the beep enabled in your menu options once you hear the beep that means the camera has locked focus onto that subject so even in this a case so if you look at my camera here if. I just loosen the camera here at the head so I am at a particular place i half-press it I'm in one-shot mode say ok and then depending on where I am shooting you have to be in the auto focus on mode okay so once I press I half press it I hear the beep keeping it half pressed even though I move the camera left and right the focusing will be locked at that particular point so this option is quite useful when it comes to locking the focus and then recomposing depending on you want to move the subject within your frame one shot is obviously a good mode so that is one shot in Canon and autofocus single in case of Nicole next comes the let's look at the air servo so if I come to the last option that is a servo for Canon and in case of Nikon it is AFC which is autofocus continuous now as the name says autofocus continuous here what happens you can keep the focusing point on the subject and keep moving the camera along with the subject so typically AI servo or autofocus continuous is used in cases where the subject moving so any kind of moving action photography any kind of situation where the subject is continuously moving in that situation keep the camera in air servo or autofocus continuous mode in this case what happens when you have pressure shutter release button the camera will be continuously focusing it will not stop so there is no concept of locking focus at that place . it locks to focus but when you move the camera along the subject it continuously focus so as you can see it is suitable for anything which is moving next comes the other middle one which is here I focus or for Nikon guys it is a FA autofocus auto here what happens so in this particular model if the subject is stationary internally the camera will move to one shot try in case of air focus if the subject is stationary internally it will move to one shot and you'll hear that beep sound in case of air servo you will not hear that beeps on because it is continuously focusing air focus in turn it moves to one shot or autofocus single you will hear the beep but then if the subject starts to move of course in this situation you can again do the recomposition keeping it half press move the camera and then click in case of air focus if the car is the subject is still and then it starts to move and you move the camera along with the subject internally it will move over from one shot to a servo so that continuous focusing will start happening now of course if you look at the situation you feel that this is probably the best option and we should use it as a beginner but my recommendation is don't go with this option because there are certain situations where it takes time for the camera to detect that yes the movement has happened subject has started to move and this switch over from one shot to server or from autofocus single to auto focus continuous there may be a lag there may be a delay and you may miss those important shots so my recommendation is go with either one shot for totally static subjects macro photography landscape portrait you are doing close-up so any of those product photography fashion photography portraits monuments ok so any of these things go with one shot and a servo or autofocus continuous go in those situations where there is continuous movement happening somebody running cadres happening in case of wildlife photography action any of those things go with a servo so this is more about the focusing mode of the camera next comes the focusing points so if I come out of the screen so if I press of course in Canon the rightmost button at the top and even in case of Nikon you have the button in the friend depending on your camera model where you can choose what kind of focusing points you want so it may come in 1200 e if I press on the focusing points you will see all these various focusing points now this is where you will have to decide and my recommendation again here is do not enable all the focusing points because what happens is these focusing points are responsible for getting the subject in focus now if you enable all the focusing points what happens is the camera decides where and how to focus or on what subject within your frame it has to focus based on how much light is falling on the subject based on the contrast of the subject the camera decides so that is obviously not a good option because if there are two people standing one behind the other you want to focus at the front person chances are if it's not properly lit that camera will focus at the back person we just model it and that is not what you want so avoid going enabling all the focusing points and you decide so move your options around and based on how you want to compose you go ahead move the focusing left right wherever you want to focus and honestly speaking the center focusing point is basically the most powerful one where which is the fastest which is which basically focuses on the subject very fast so go with the center focusing point for faster focusing even in low-light situation concept is the same even in case of Nicole now even depending on your camera model the number of focusing points also will vary so depending on the number of focusing points you can decide as to like form a composition where you want to move how we want to move the focusing points okay so again as you said a word enabling all the focusing points go with one focusing and manually move it around depending on how we want to compost so that is more about the focusing mode of the camera and then using different focusing points on how to compose the image so remember you go ahead you decide what kind of composition what kind of focusing mode you want put those parameters in the camera and then take it forward now comes the most complex part of photography which is metering a metering is quite interesting and that is actually the heart of photography based on which the exposure triangle parameters are decided now beat Canon Nikon or any camera model the concept is again the same here what I'm going to do again I use the quick access button on my common camera and then come down and go into the metering so there you go now metering there are different kind of material options this is the entry-level Canon 1200 D so where the spot metering is missing but here we have evaluative metering or in case of Nikon it is called as the matrix metering or we also call it as the multi segment metering then partial metering same in the con as well the Center weighted average metering and then this option if you see this is basically spot metering now let us understand what each of this metering option does now one step back what is metering the whole concept is now if I am in aperture priority mode okay so I am basically at an aperture of let's go down to say f/4 so for an ISO of thousand 600 at f/4 in aperture priority mode when a half press the shutter release button I get a particular shutter speed so that value of shutter speed is decided by what kind of metering mode I am in now in simple terms for you all to understand metering is nothing but it's more to do with the amount of light which is reflected from the subject so the camera calculates how much light is reflected from the subject and to give you a very basic exposure to give you a exposure where it's not very dark where it is not.

Dream Photography

DIY Backdrops for Food Photography II

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Photography Career | Jobs In Photography | Money In Photography | Learn Photography

Photography Career | Jobs In Photography | Money In Photography | Learn Photography

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