Digital Photography

For beginners

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 Welcome to Digital Photography for beginners.
Your Tutor is: Den Pemberton
Contact Details: TutorDen@gmail.com
Website: www.tutorden.co.uk

Paperwork:
Enrolment form
Progression Sheet

To take part in this 10 Week Course you will need the following:
A Digital Camera
A USB Flash Dive 4Gb minimum.
Note Pad
Pen/Pencil
A4 folder for Hand-Outs

Overview of Course:

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Week 1

Digital Camera Basics

! What is a Digital Camera

! Holding the camera correctly, taking the correct stance for steady images
! Using the ShuSer Release
! ComposiUon & the Rules of thirds

Assignment 1

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What is a Digital Camera?

1. Viewing screen
2. Sensor
3. CPU
4. BaSery
5. Pop up Flash
6. Mirror
7. Lens

Digital cameras look very much like ordinary lm cameras but they work in a completely
dierent way. When you press the buSon to take a photograph with a digital camera, an
aperture opens at the front of the camera and light streams in through the lens. So far,
it's just the same as a lm camera. From this point on, however, everything is dierent.
There is no lm in a digital camera. Instead, there is a piece of electronic equipment that
captures the incoming light rays and turns them into electrical signals. This light detector
is one of two types, either a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a CMOS image sensor.

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If you've ever looked at a television screen close up, you will have noUced that the
picture is made up of millions of Uny coloured dots or squares called pixels. Laptop LCD
computer screens also make up their images using pixels, although they are ogen much
too small to see. In a television or computer screen, electronic equipment switches all
these coloured pixels on and o very quickly. Light from the screen travels out to your
eyes and your brain is fooled into see a large, moving picture.

In a digital camera, exactly the opposite happens. Light from the thing you are
photographing zooms into the camera lens. This incoming "picture" hits the image
sensor chip, which breaks it up into millions of pixels. The sensor measures the colour
and brightness of each pixel and stores it as a number. Your digital photograph is
eecUvely an enormously long string of numbers Binary describing the exact details of
each pixel it contains.

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Holding your Camera correctly
This sounds a bit silly, doesn't it? How to hold your D-SLR camera? It's preSy obvious: You
pick it up with the lens poinUng away from you, put your eye to the viewnder and press
the shuSer buSon. Couldn't be simpler, right? Well, yes and no. Doing the above will
certainly get a picture, but the way you hold your camera can help ensure you get a good
picture.

What one thing ruins more pictures than anything else? The blur that results from an out-
of-focus image caused by Camera Shake. Holding the camera correctly can help
prevent that blur.

Blur is caused by the movement of either the subject or the camera. Subject movement is
something we really can't control, although adjusUng the shuSer speed can give us some
control over how subject movement is captured. Camera movement, however, is
something we can control. Short of using a tripod or a VR, image-stabilised lens, holding
the camera properly is the best way to avoid a blurry picture.

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Holding your Camera correctly
You need to hold the camera as steady as possible. Hold the camera's handgrip in your
right hand and cradle the camera body or lens with your leg. Keep your elbows propped
lightly against your torso for support and place one foot half a pace ahead of the other to
keep your upper body stable. This is a steadier posiUon than holding the camera away
from your face.

If it's windy or your shuSer speed's genng slow (1/100 or lower) try to nd something to
lean your body against, like a tree or a pole. You can also place your elbows on a low wall
or table. You may not always have a tripod with you, but you have a bipodyourself. Do
everything you can to be as solid a plaporm as possible for your camera, and it will
reward you with sharper pictures.
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The ShuSer Release
In photography, the shuSer-release buSon (someUmes just shuSer release or shuSer
buSon) is a push-buSon found on many cameras, used to take a picture. When pressed,
the shuSer of the camera is "released", so that it opens to capture a picture, and then
closes, allowing an exposure Ume as determined by the shuSer speed senng (which
may be automaUc). Some cameras also uUlise an electronic shuSer, as opposed to a
mechanical shuSer.

The shuSer-release buSon is one of the most basic features of a handheld camera.
Camera phones that lack a physical buSon for this purpose use a virtual buSon on the
virtual keyboard.

To take your shot, gently press the buSon unUl you hear a beep, this indicates that the
camera has focused and is now ready to take the shot, conUnue to press the buSon
unUl you hear the shuSer noise, you have now taken a shake free picture.

ShuSer Release

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ComposiUon & the Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds states than an image is most pleasing when its subjects or regions are
composed along imaginary lines which divide the image into thirds both verUcally and
horizontally:
Of course, rules should never be applied blindly, parUcularly in art, so you should think
of it more as a handy "rule of thumb" or guide rather than one that's set in stone.
However, it will produce a pleasing photo more ogen than not, and is an excellent
starUng point for any composiUon.

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ComposiUon & the Rule of Thirds

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Assignment 1
Landscapes

Landscape photography commonly involves daylight photography of natural features of

land, sky and waters, at a distancethough some landscapes may involve subjects in a
scenic senng nearby, even close-up, and someUmes at night.

Photography of arUcial scenery, such as farm elds, orchards, gardens and

architecture, may be considered "landscape" photography as well. Even the presence
of man-made structures (buildings, roads and bridges, etc.) or art (such as sculpture)
may be considered "landscape" if presented in arUsUc senngs or appearing (or
photographed) in arUsUc style.

Further, landscape photography is typically of relaUvely staUonary subjectsarguably a

form of "sUll life." This tends to simplify the task, as opposed to photography of kineUc
or live subjects. However, landscape photography ogen overlaps the acUvity of wildlife
photography and the two terms are used somewhat interchangeably; both wildlife and
landscapes may be elements of the same picture or body of work

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Landscapes

Cityscape

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