Intro to Photography

I just want to preface, that I am no photographer, nor do I consider myself one.  I’m going to be sharing the little things I’ve learned here and there and some good websites or Youtubers to follow (mentioned below) if you’re looking to really learn more about photography.  In my opinion, in order to be a good photographer, it doesn’t take just knowing your camera.  I feel like you have to be really good at capturing the moment.  A photo is worth a thousand words, and some photographers out there really take this to another level, while others play it safe.  Now, don’t worry if a photo comes out not as planned, for example there’s something in the background, or it’s a little too overexposed, that’s the beauty of editing.  However, unfortunately, if it’s super overexposed, or something is out of focus, that’s a different story, and more times than not, you’re just out of luck and have to retake.  My dad works in graphic design, so he was able to give me a few tips on the oh so scary Photoshop.  I will upload an editing post later on so don’t worry about that.  So, if y’all have any questions on Photoshop, leave them in the comments below and I’ll ask my dad to make sure we get the correct answer.  Also, make sure you switch your camera to Manual setting and not Automatic.  Now, just as a side note, I do have a photography account on Instagram, if you’d like to follow along while I learn more and more about photography.  It’s monicareleasetheshutter.

Alright, let’s jump into it!

Now, the best website I used when I was first starting was Expert Photography and my favorite Youtube account to follow.  These two taught me A LOT about Photography 101.  I wanted to split this post up into a few different topics on what was most important when I first started.

Camera

Ok, so I know that a lot of professional photographers have amazing cameras, but when I was first starting out, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it, which led me to buy the best (in my opinion) beginner’s camera, the Cannon T3 Rebel.  Now, since then, Cannon has come out with newer versions, but the Rebel really helped me get comfortable with using a camera.  One day, I went to Sam’s Club with my dad, and there she was, in all of her glory.  The camera, two kit lenses, and the bag were included.  I shot in automatic for a very long time.  I also never got any other lenses!  Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the financial situation to be able to purchase anything else for my camera.  Below is a photo from my Cannon Rebel camera.  I had a small kit lens, and a zoom kit lens.  Both of which, just aren’t up to par if you are looking to get into serious photography, but they make due while you learn.

Fast forward to a few years later.  I decided that it was time to either upgrade my camera, or upgrade to legitimate lenses.  I started looking around and asked a few of my photographer friends what cameras/lenses they preferred and quite a number of them said that they decided to test out the Sony mirrorless cameras and loved them.  A few of them swore by that camera.  I started doing some research and saw that Best Buy had a really good deal on a Sony A6000.  The deal was for two kit lenses (one zoom, and one regular) along with the bag.  They also did financing, so I figured, why not?  I immediately saw a huge difference in quality, even from the smaller kit lens!  About a year later, I was starting to look at lenses, but just wasn’t financially ready to purchase anything for my camera.  For Christmas, I got my first prime lens and have been using it ever since.  I call it my starter prime lens because it isn’t the super professional one, but it’s a good start.  Below is a picture that I took with my Sony camera for comparison to the Cannon.

60 Plus Experience

Lens

I’m going to be completely honest with y’all, I don’t know much about lenses (I’m still working on educating myself about these) so I highly recommend checking out this Youtube.  All I know is that kit lenses are not meant for professional photography.

Aperture/F Stop

There are 3 ways of light going through your lens, one of which is aperture/F stop as some might call it.  If you look at your lens right now, the hole (can be big or small) is the size of the amount of light that passes through.  The wider the aperture, the more light will pass through.  The brighter you want your picture to be, the lower F stop you will use.  You know that term people use where they talk about the bokeh effect or the not so fancy blurry background?  That’s the F stop.

Shutter Speed

So after the light passes through the lens it reaches the shutter speed.  Shutter speeds are very important when you’re photographing action shots.  So when your son/daughter is in a soccer game, or recital (etc.) you want to make sure your shutter speed is really fast.  When taking photos at night, you’d want the shutter speed to be lower.

ISO

If you play around on your camera you might see that for ISO there may be an automatic mode or you can adjust it to your liking.  The ISO turns up the exposure in your photo.  The only issue with turning up your ISO is that you also turn up the grain.  So the brighter you go, the less quality in detail you will have.

White Balance

This is honestly, something that I struggled with a lot when I first starting going into manual mode.  I didn’t even know that this existed.  Basically this changes the type of light that you are photographing.  You’ll see options like daylight, shade, etc.  I usually play around with this until I see the correct one, because sometimes I’m looking for a different mood in my pictures.

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There are a lot more features to learn, however, this is what I needed to know to start learning manual mode, before I dove into other things like composition, focal length, etc.  If you would like more information, then you can check out this site which gives a much more detailed version of Photography 101.  Some of the things mentioned in that post, I’m currently still working on as well.

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Capturing Moments

Now, it’s super easy to learn all of the different features of a camera, or how to shoot in manual mode.  However, learning how to create a photo that is worth 1,000 words is where your real skill comes out.  We all love to take photos nowadays with the amount of time we spend on social media, but we want to capture moments.  We don’t want to just capture a stock image (unless this is what your photography is based on), we want to capture the beauty in life, and moments.  That’s why when I look at some wedding photos that people post, some of the photographers just did a really terrible job with candids, whereas other photographers are the epitome of what a candid should be.  If you look at the below picture, I took that when my future sister in law got married.  It was a small courthouse wedding, but I wanted to make sure that even though it wasn’t a huge extravagant ordeal, that the pictures still captured the same emotions and feelings that you have when you are getting married in a different venue/church.  The one photo I was able to get her husband’s grandmother’s face in the photo, and you can just see the raw emotion of happiness.  Below that wedding photo are two photos from my friend’s bachelorette party from last year.  I was just taking as many pictures as I could, and I love the one of everyone just looking at the bride to be, while someone takes a photo for her, along with when one of our friends fell over trying to take a picture with her phone haha.  This is what capturing moments is all about.

Being a “Hype Man” for your subjects

In the era that we live in today, believe it or not, some people still aren’t comfortable being in front of a camera.  You have to keep the energy up and make your subjects feel comfortable.  For example, in the photo below, I met up with my blogger friend from Shelbee on the Edge, and after coffee we did a quick photo shoot.  I could tell that she felt a little uncomfortable because we were in a really busy area on a Saturday afternoon.  So, I did what I do best, and I started acting so extra haha.  Screaming things like YAAAASSSSS GIRL, WORK IT!  You have to make it fun and enjoyable.  If it’s not, you can see that in the photos.

Overcast

A photographer’s dream weather is overcast!  This is the absolute perfect lighting for photos taken outside.  When there’s sun there can be shadows, and a lot of funky stuff happening with the exposure.  Most of my best photos are taken during overcast.  If you look at all of my above photos, a few were taken with indoor lighting, but the ones outside are on days where there was overcast.

Golden Hour

You will hear this term A LOT.  The photos that come from Golden Hour are just absolutely beautiful.  Golden Hour is the period of day time that is shortly before sunset or a little bit after sun rise.  There are a lot of reddish/gold tones in photos taken at this time of day that just look so gorgeous, even before editing your photos.

Blue Hour

This is another hour of pure beautiful photos.  This is the period of twilight in the morning or evening, and this time of day produces blue shades in your photos.  I have seen more photos during the golden hour than blue hour, but I must say, I prefer Blue Hour photos.

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I hope y’all enjoyed this post!  I’m in no way, shape, or form a photographer, these are just the basics that I learned over the past few years of blogging.  I enjoy taking photos as a hobby and just cannot get enough of it!  To see more of the photos that I take while learning more about photography, make sure to follow my photography Instagram monicareleasetheshutter .  Make sure to stay tuned for my Intro to Photo Editing as well.

xoxo Monica

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