Learning

Learning sections will look like this. You just have to read these sections, you may need to refer back to them to complete the challenges.

Learning

There are lots of things that make a photo good or bad and ultimately it comes down to if you like the photo or not. So it can be a very personal choice.

However as a photographer you will want to create a great photo, for others to look at that tells a story. How well you do this will come down to lots of different things.

Some things you can control in your camera such as exposure (we will come to this later) and some things you can control outside your camera, such as where you stand to take the photo. Here are a list of some things that you need to be aware of when taking a photo.

You should think about these things and make a choice about them each time you take a photo.

• Subject
• Focus
• Exposure
• Leading Lines
• Colour
• Crop
• Composition
• Does it tell a story? Is it interesting

Subject

All images start with a subject, usually a person or an object that you are photographing. Maybe even a nice view if it is a landscape. A good image will have a subject that is clear to see and all the other things below will help to make the subject more clear.

Focus

Make sure your subject is in focus. This may be a fairly obvious one. If a photo is out of focus or blurry it’s usually not a good thing. However most photos have some things in focus and some things out of focus this is something you can control.

Exposure

This is how light or how dark a photo appears. A photo that is too light is called Over Exposed a photo that is too dark is called Under Exposed. Getting this right is one of the most important parts of controlling your camera and being able to take a photo. Most cameras do this for you automatically but if you can control this manually then you can start to create much better photos.

Leading Lines

These are lines created by things in the image that lead to the subject if the photographer has positioned themselves and the subject in a clever way. If you do not consider the lines created by things in the background then they can be very distracting and the photo may not be as good.

Colour 

Colour is a really complicated part of photography, for now all you need to do is ask these questions. Are there too many different colours in the photo? Can I move things around to reduce this? Is there something like a bright yellow skip in the background that is distracting from the subject? Do the colours in the photo help the story in anyway?

Crop

Make sure your subject isn’t falling outside the frame of your photo. If it is make sure you are OK with that and you have chosen to do it on purpose.

Composition

Firstly you need to know there is a general rule with photography that things look better when you put your subject in the left or right third of an image. This means if you divided your photo into three sections (left, middle, right) you would always put your subject in the left or right section. You can also put them in the middle but make sure things are fairly symmetrical or it will start to look wrong again. Also how does your subject relate to other items in the photo. For example is a racing driver standing next to his car which is in the background?

Does it tell a story? Is it interesting?

This is the most important thing with any photo I look at and if you do nothing else follow this rule…Interesting photos are made when you photograph interesting things. If you get this bit right the rest will be easy. No one wants to see a boring photo so if the subject and the story are interesting then you have nailed it. Think about this before you pick up your camera.

Information
In part 1 you learned all the things that make a good or bad photo. Now you need to know how to control these things when you take a photo as some of these things can only be controlled with your camera

• Focus
• Exposure
• Crop
• Composition

Focus
To control focus on a smartphone you usually just have to tap on the part you want to be in focus. It is that simple. If you are using a manual camera app you may be able to control the focus manually using a slider in the app. DSLR cameras will require you to hold down the shutter half way. When you do this the camera will focus it its set to auto focus (this button is usually on the lens).

Exposure
You control this using the shutter speed, ISO & aperture (smartphone users don’t need to worry about aperture). This is called the exposure triangle.

Shutter speed is how long the shutter is open on your camera. If it is open for a long time more light will get in and if it is open for a short time less light will get in.

SHUTTER SPEED GUIDE
1/60 for a normal handheld photo
1/400 or faster for high speed
5 sec or slower for long exposure

Once you have set your shutter speed for the type of photo you need you can adjust your ISO and aperture to get a correct exposure that isn’t too light or too dark.

ISO these start around 100 and may go up to something like 3200 on your camera.  You want it to be as low as it can be. ISO 100 is perfect. However if you are inside or it is dark you will need to increase your ISO.

Appeture for those cameras that have this option this controls how big or small the hole is in the lens. A bigger hole lets more light in than a small hole. Apperture settings look like this. f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/14, f/22.

f/4 is a big hole and this is where your appeture options may start. f/22 is a small hole and this is where your appeture options may end. All you need to remember is the smaller the number the more light it will let in and the bigger the number the less light you will let in.

Start by choosing your shutter speed, then adjust your ISO and apperture until you get a correct exposure. A good starting point is
Shutter speed: 1/60 second
ISO: ISO200
Apperture: F/5.6

If you can control exposure you have done the hard part. Everything else is easy.

Crop
This is where you take the time to make sure everything looks right before you take the photo. Is your subject clearly visible in your photos. Are you happy with all the other things you can see.

Composition – Rule of Thirds
Draw imaginary lines on your image to divide it into three sections. Is your subject in the middle, left or right. If they are then your photo is looking good. You can see on the photo below that the characters head is in the right hand third.

After you take a photo you can use editing software on your phone or laptop to improve the image.

Most phones and laptops will allow some degree of editing in the built in software for viewing photos. This is often more than enough to make most basic corrections. Some of the main tools you should be using when editing are as follows

Crop

This allows you to cut your image down smaller and into any shape rectangle you want. This is useful for cutting out areas around your subject you do not want.

Straighten or rotate

This allows you to straighten out those wonky camera angles by turning your photo

Brightness

Was your photo a bit dark or light. Simply adjust it with the brightness tool

Colour

Make your colours look correct by using this tool to make them warmer or cooler. If you don’t get what this means just play with the tool and it will make sense.

Copy a photo from the gallery areas of the group website. Make at least two edits to it to improve the image. Send both the before and after image in to complete the challenge.

There are many accessories which can help your photography from tripods which keep your camera steady on uneven ground to flashguns which can light your subject in various ways.

One of the easiest accessories to make yourself and one of the most useful accessories to have is a reflector. Purpose built reflectors for photography are collapsible disks of white or silver fabric that reflect light onto a subject. If you do not have one of these you can easily use a piece of card, paper or anything with a light reflective surface.