A Practical Guide to Photography: Basic Techniques for Beginners and Beyond

Want to know how to take better photos? Well, first you need to master the basic techniques. Whether you are a complete beginner or an intermediate looking to improve your photography, this book is packed with photography techniques, tips and advice for beginners and intermediates.

A complete course laid out in a simple, visual and easy to read format that is devoid of technical jargon, this book helps you understand all the essentials such as:

• Light
• Lenses
• Exposure
• Shutter speed
• Aperture
• ISO
• White balance
• Focusing
• Histograms
• Exposure compensation
• RAW vs Jpeg

Rather than simply using long-winded descriptions, each function, technique, and setting comes with an illustration or example photograph, so you can more easily see how all these work and the effects they create.

While these days most people have moved on to using digital cameras, which have become more complex and in some ways easier to use, the basic principles of photography are just as important today as they ever were. In fact, maybe even more. While it’s easy to switch to auto and think that the camera can do everything, if you want to truly take better photos then you need to take control and learn the basics.

It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you own. The lessons learned in this book can be applied to a film or DSLR camera, a mirrorless, phone or compact camera, because the basic principles of photography apply to all types. But you need to first understand how a camera works.

Using the knowledge and skills learned in this book, you can:

• Learn how to use shutter speed to avoid motion blur due to camera or subject movement. Or to intentionally blur moving subjects for creative effect.
• Learn about depth of field and how to use the aperture to make a subject stand out more in the photo or get more of the background in or out of focus.
• Learn what ISO is and how it affects your photos.
• Ever wondered why your photos are too red, or too blue? It’s probably because of white balance being set incorrectly. Learn how to set it correctly, and even use it for creative effect.
• Discover how direction of light affects how your photos look.
• Understand the exposure triangle and how each setting affects another.
• Measure the light to get the right exposure.
• See why your photos are too bright (overexposed) or too dark (underexposed)
• Learn how colours can fool the camera into underexposing or overexposing.
• Discover how using the exposure compensation button can be used to correct this.
• Understand the difference between file formats such as RAW, TIFF and JPEG.
• See how camera lenses work and understand the effects of wide angle and telephoto.
• Learn the art of focus and its effect on your photo.
• Understand the histogram and ensure the perfect exposure each time.
• Master the three camera modes and know when to use aperture priority (Av, A), shutter priority (Tv, S), or when to go to full manual mode (it’s not as often as some may have you believe).

So whether you are looking to learn landscape photography, portrait, wildlife, sports or just want to photograph your friends or travels, this essential photography book will help get you started.