Guide

Hiatt Zhao’s Photography Guide (pdf download)

I just want to write a simple photography guide for anyone out there wanting to learn photography. People, mostly family members, have asked me “how do I take better photographs?” Well, here’s my answer.

Photography, to me, is really divided into just two areas: the camera and the photograph. One needs to understand his/her camera in order to have the probability of getting good pictures. The second step is to understand what makes a good photograph so one can reach towards capturing that perfect, or near perfect, image.

THE CAMERA – the technical explained in ten steps

1. Primary Principle – The camera can be viewed as a box, a box that captures light. It does that through a lens. And there is a shutter acting as a “gate” between the lens and the box. It controls how much light that gets in the box. You want the correct amount of light to be let in the box in order to get the best image.
2. Focusing – The most important part of photography. If all of your images are out of focus then none of your photographs are worth anything. You focus an object in your camera by adjusting three things: shutter speed (S), aperture (A), and exposure (EV), in conjunction with the lens.
3. Shutter speed (S) is how fast the “gate” opens and closes. If the shutter speed is fast then you only capture a glimpse of the object. This is useful in sport photography or anything where the object is fast moving. You would want a slow shutter speed if you want to capture motion creatively, such as the silk-like nature of a waterfall or a stream of lights of cars in traffic. But more importantly the shutter opens longer so that the camera can collect more light so the shutter speed is slower when there’s low light.
4. Aperture (A) is how wide or narrow the “gate’s” opening is. If the gate is wide open then more light will come in. If it’s narrower then less light will come into the camera. So let’s connect aperture with shutter speed. In a boxing ring, provided a well lit one, your shutter speed would be fast to get the instant image of the boxers at their fighting best. The aperture opening would be at it’s widest because you want to collect the most light since the shutter is opening for so short amount of time. This is how aperture and shutter speed work in conjunction and you can set your camera in either aperture priority or shutter priority so you control one of them and the other is automatic. You can also go manual where you control both, but that takes time so mostly you’re composing a still object when you are in this mode.
5. Exposure (EV) is how much light gets in the camera. Well that’s controlled by both the shutter speed and aperture. Exposure is a setting where you control how much brighter or darker an image should be. The camera then adjusts the S and the A automatically corresponding to the EV you set. Bracketing is simply a way to take three pictures where one is darker, and one is brighter, than the one you set the EV to.
6. Depth of Field is something very important. It is how much focus you have on the object. If you want to focus just one thing and blur out the rest then you can get close to the object and your background will be blurred. If you want everything to be in focus then set the aperture to be small, such as f/22, where the bigger the f-stop number the smaller the opening, and the shutter speed to be longer. This way the camera gets enough light for the correct exposure.
7. White Balance is how the camera adjusts itself to see white. It needs to be adjusted because the camera is a machine and machines are not humans. Our human eyes can adjust to the lighting situation to see white but the camera can’t do that automatically. So you have to change the white balance on your camera if you just came from shooting outside and now you’re shooting in an incandescently lit room.
8. ISO is the sensitivity of of the film, traditionally speaking. But since we are talking about digital cameras there are no film. So ISO is the sensitivity if the pixels. Normally, on a bright day, your ISO should be low, like at 100. If it’s night time then you want to have a high ISO such as 800. Although with a higher ISO, the pixels are more sensitive to light but it might cause graininess in the photograph. It’s a give and take situation. Try to select the ISO that gives less grains and still gives the camera enough A and S to capture a sharp image.
9. Megapixels (MP) is the resolution of your digital camera. It’s the total number of pixels a camera has. You can find out how many total pixels your camera has if you take the highest image size you camera and multiply the numbers. For example, my camera is a Sony T90 and at the highest image size it has 3000×4000 pixels. That’s 12,000,000 pixels, or 12 MP.
10. Accessories can help your photography in the following ways. A flash adds more instantaneous light so your shot of the boxers is that much better. A tripod stabilizes the camera to avoid camera shake so you can get sharp pictures when you do your long exposure of the car lights at night. Lenses… well there are a lot of them and different kinds. I suggest a 18-200 mm zoom lens since it covers a wide range. But you would need a macro lens for shooting close ups of flowers and such, or a long range lens for things that are far away. As for lens filters, perhaps a UV lens filter for protecting the lens itself. Other than that you really don’t need those colored filters because you can change the tone of the image using Photoshop or other similar software.

THE PHOTOGRAPH – the creative explained in one-liners

• “Rule #1: Read the camera manual that came with your camera.” It is the single best book on photography. Know your camera like you know your hand. There maybe hidden functions on your camera that you might not know. For example, I did not know that I can touch the LCD screen of my Sony T90 to focus on a particular spot until I read the manual.
• “Know the 1/3 rule and know when to break it.” One third rule is when you divide the picture into nine rectangles using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. For portraiture, or other single subjects, place the subject on one of the intersections of the lines. This gives an off-centered feel, which can be dynamic. For landscape, divide the image into thirds horizontally so that the sky takes up the upper the upper third. Mountains, or whatever your scene is, takes up the middle third. Foreground takes up the lower third. Don’t follow the rule of thirds, use it as a guide. For example, try a 1/6 rule.
• “Keep the horizon straight and use diagonals.” Find a balance in the photograph by keeping the horizon straight or use a horizontal element that gives the feel. Add to the horizontal by adding diagonal elements or any contrasting elements to make the picture dynamic.
• “Use relationships as elements.” These include light and dark, blur and sharpen, big and small, concentrated and spread out, soft and hard, more and less, etc.
• “Use shapes as elements.” These include square, triangle, and circle. Each of them gives the viewer a different feel. Square is balance. Triangle is force. Circle is soft. Then thinking about changing shapes such as rectangles and ovals.
• “Use lines as elements.” These include the horizon, V’s, Z’s, S’s. They have similar feels as shapes but less intensity but effective.
• “Think about lighting.” Light can come from any direction but it’s hard to take a photograph when the sun is in your eyes. The best lighting is one coming behind you towards the subject. The worst lighting is a lack of light, then you may have to resort to flash. You can also think about layered lighting to provide an interesting composition.
• “Zoom in on your subject.” Try to eliminate useless and uninteresting space in your image thus bringing the focus onto the subject. Matting and framing will create space for your viewers.
• “Passion and Practice.” If you don’t want to photograph today then don’t force it. When you do have the motivation, take a lot of photographs aiming for the good ones. You can judge your ability as a good photographer by the amount of pictures you rate as best over the amount of pictures you’ve taken. The higher the ratio the better.
• “You can do adjustments using an image editor such as Photoshop.” These things include changing the color tone, contrast, satuation of the photograph. Make it black and white, or sepia, or even grainy via over sharpening. There are other effects you can try depending on the program you use.
• “Don’t forget to show your photographs.” Whether that be digitally, online, or in print. Don’t keep them hidden on your hard drive. Print the best of your photographs out and frame them. They are works of art.
• “Go to museums and galleries, and study other art related things.” This is to get inspiration and gives you more ideas on what to shoot or how to print, etc. The possibility is endless.