Beginners Photography Tips

Beginners photography tips might be useful even for the seasoned pro, going over the photography basics learned in the beginning is recommended to do one's in awhile. It's easy to lose sight of the fundamental skills amid all the options that become available as one progresses, but the basic skills still hold. They provide the basis from which everything else builds upon.

One thing to keep in mind is the shutter speed when taking pictures. The shutter of the camera is the part of the camera which opens and closes to expose the subject of the picture and the light to the film or sensor so it can be captured.
Not enough light and a dark picture is the result; too much and there is a bright overexposed photo. Keeping in mind that shutter speeds on a camera are set to be twice as fast as the setting before it and twice as slow as the one after it, typical shutter speeds are for example: 1/1000s, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125s/1/15s, and 1s.

Conversely, there is a shutter speed on some cameras set to allow the shutter to remain open as long as the release button is pushed. This is a good setting to use for night time shots when it is desirable to let a lot of light in for a good exposure.

Aperture

Another beginners photography tips is to understand how the aperture works. It is also called f-stop, it is a technical piece of the camera which measures the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the lens opening.
This opening is the aperture and is usually controlled either by turning an aperture ring on the camera lens or by a wheel on the camera (usually this is how to change it on most rescent cameras).

Fortunately, there's no need to understand the technical side of the camera to make use of the aperture. When it comes to the settings, the f numbers, it is enough to understand that the lower numbers denote a wider aperture (bigger opening) and the higher numbers a narrower aperture (smaller opening). In other words, like shutter speed, a setting allows half as much light as the setting before it and twice as much light as the setting after it. Using the aperture, a photographer can also affect the shutter speed required, since it allows one to control how much light comes through.

Beginners Photography Tips and Depth of field

Depth of field is controlled by adjusting the aperture. This simply means how much of the image will be in sharp focus as opposed to what part of image will be blurry.
At the point of focus, there is a zone where things will be sharp and crisp. Moving beyond that zone, parts of the picture becomes less sharp, less focused. Wide apertures give blurry foreground/background while smaller apertures give sharper foreground and background. This can be important in deciding how to direct a viewer's attention or how to isolate a target within the picture.

The focal length is an important to keep in mind when taking photos. It measures the the distance a lens should be held from a screen to project a focused image on that screen. Short focal length lenses are called wide angle lenses and have measurements of for example 20mm, 24mm, or 35mm.
Standard lenses measure around 50mm, while telephoto lenses range from 80mm to 300mm. Anything above that is considered super telephoto. Simply put, the longer the focal length of the lens, the narrower the angle of view and the more magnified the image will be. Now all technical aspects aside, the best way to master those are through experimentation and experience.

Another beginners photography tips is to understand how Film/Sensor sensitivity affects your pictures. Film/Sensor speed is measured as an ISO number and standard speeds are 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200. Standard film is usually ISO 200, meaning it needs half as much light then ISO 100, and ISO 400 needs half as much ISO 200. This makes 400 ISO and higher ideal for night photography. Remeber though that when you raise the ISO it will introduce more noise/grain in the picture.

Creative use of these settings together can produce outstanding pictures. Understanding the photography basics opens the door to a rewarding hobby, perhaps even to a new career. Check back for more beginners photography tips to come.