Beginner’s Photography: Basic Camera Use and Theory

Beginner’s Photography: Basic Camera Use and Theory

““An image is worth more than a thousand words”. Photography is a powerful storytelling tool and tells us so much about who we are and the world around us. Pictures have the power to reach out to people immediately and are more visceral than the written word, at times. Documentary photography depicts life around us and often involves long term photography projects. Although it’s sometimes associated with social issues and hard-hitting topics, documentary photography can tell any story. Check out these tips to help you create your own photographic story. This is exactly what I want you to show me in your final project. I want you to tell me two stories: the story of your photograph and the story of the process it took you to achieve that composition. As you can see, I'm not only interested in the final result, but also in everything that goes behind it. Access is everything What does access mean? It’s not only your ability to grant you access to a specific location - which of course if fundamental -, but also getting to know the people you are going to photograph and so you can build rapport! If they feel uncomfortable around you, you’ll probably end up with very unnatural pictures. Be invisible Don’t take your camera out as soon as you enter a room, get time to know the people you are going to photograph, and, most importantly, let them get accustomed to your presence. Only once they are comfortable with your presence and stop noticing you, you can start shooting. Anticipate If you are waiting for the perfect moment to happen, it’s going to be too late. Focus Focus on an aspect, don’t pretend to tell the whole story. You are not writing an encyclopedia. Research You need to know everything about the person/issue you are going to photograph, but be open to change your mind along the way. Prejudice kills great journalism! Practice Practice and practice and then some more, just for good measure. You need to know what your camera is capable of and operate it with your eyes closed. Know its technical limitations, especially if it’s a smartphone! Now it's your turn to tell your photographic story! Don't feel the need to travel far, because often the most interesting stories are the ones that are close to us and what makes them special is that you are the only one who has access to them. When you feel you have your project ready, click on "Create your project" and upload it. I look forward to seeing it and giving you feedback. This field of photography gives rise to passionate conversations, so I invite you to participate in the forum and exchange ideas with your peers. Enjoy! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project We've reached the end of this course. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We talked about a lot of technical stuff, and I hope you don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that I have given you. Now it's your time to go out and experiment and put into practice everything you've learned. Try to be as creative as you can and follow your own vision, and if you have any question, please feel free to ask anything in the Forum. First of all we have talked about different types of cameras and what works best depending on the situation. Then we have talked about the res...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Beginner’s Photography: Basic Camera Use and Theory

• Level: Beginner
• 99% positive reviews (837)
• 46164 students
• 6 units
• 18 lessons (2h 28m)
• 14 downloads

• Category

  Photography & Video

• Software

  Adobe Lightroom

• Areas

  Digital Photography, Photographic Composition, Photography