The Fastest Way to Improve Your Photography Skills
Receiving a new camera as a birthday or Christmas gift can be a thrilling moment. Suddenly thrust into a new world with strange words like "aperture," "ISO," and "shutter speed" can quickly deflate the joy found in the new camera. Understanding the vocabulary is just part of learning how to use a camera. Developing the eye of a true photographer takes time and training. You don't have to spend a fortune to get a feel for the art of photography if you take an online course, surf for that reputable school and settle for the best. These types of classes provide training, assignments, and feedback from professional photographers. Before you begin, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the three pillars of photography, and you'll feel much more prepared to jump in to taking classes and pictures.
Aperture
Aperture is the hole in the camera that allows light in. When you adjust the aperture, you are either making the hole larger to allow more light to enter the camera or making it smaller to reduce the amount of light allowed into the camera.
The aperture will affect the depth of field. If you have a large f-number, the foreground and background will both be in focus. If you have a small f-number, then the foreground will be in focus and the background will be a blur. As you learn to control your aperture, you'll want to take several shots of the same model with different aperture settings. This will help you learn when to increase and when to decrease your aperture and soon it will become second nature.
Shutter Speed
A camera shutter is a curtain over the lens that remains shut until the camera fires. When the camera fires, the curtain opens, exposing the sensor to light through the aperture. Once the light has entered the camera, the curtain closes once again. Shutter speed refers to the amount of time the curtain is open.
Shutter speed is important to understand because it gives the photographer the ability to show motion or a lack of motion. If the shutter opens and closes quickly, the image will appear sharp and still. If the shutter is slow, then objects will appear blurred. For example, when photographing moving water, you may chose a slower shutter speed which will allow the water to blur but the rocks and trees will remain in sharp focus.
ISO
ISO is the most expensive component of a camera. It is the camera's level of sensitivity to light. The higher the camera's sensitivity, the less likely it is to need a flash in low light environments. However, this sensitivity also comes at a price. It can create visual noise, much like seeing pixels on a digital photo. You may get complaints that your photos look grainy. Don't despair, learning how to control the ISO on a highly sensitive camera can produce much better pictures than a camera with a lower ISO.
When in a well-lit environment, you can use a lower ISO and still get a high-quality photo. Between 100 and 200 should do fine. When in a low-light environment and photographing a moving image, you will want to increase your ISO. For example, filming a bird in flight at dusk.
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