The basics to photography: "Photo Basics"
This blog is going to be about my thoughts on the beginner’s guide to photography, Photo Basics. This book is written by Joel Sartore, a photographer and contributor to National Geographic, and is a tutorial on how to become a better photographer. I checked out this book over the summer because I was going on a road trip and wanted to take good photos. Although I had only been able to read the first 3 chapters before going, it still made my photos look much better.
The first chapter talked about the different components of a camera and equipment. It gave brief descriptions on the different types of cameras and talked about the anatomy of a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera (one of the common ones). Then it discussed about different tools for stabilization (tripods), lighting, lenses, and other gear that Sartore found helpful in his experiences. But the most important part about this chapter (at least to me), was the sections about the camera controls and the viewfinder. On a DSLR camera there are quite a lot of buttons and controls. Before I read this book, I had no idea how they worked and what they were used for, but Sartore taught me how to adjust the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and other settings (the book explains these later). The viewfinder is the part you investigate when taking a picture on a DSLR camera, and it has all these numbers and scales. They’ve always seemed pointless to me, but now that I know what they are used for, they can be helpful. Anyways chapter 1 was more insignificant compared to the other chapter.
Even though I read chapter 2, it wasn’t very helpful to me because it was about telling a story in the photo. Since I was just taking photos for memories, I didn’t have much thought on it and won’t write about it here. Instead, I’ll skip to chapter 3: exposure. This chapter talked about the settings talked in the first chapter and how adjusting them could make your photo better. The major part about this chapter was to use the settings together and not individually, to get the kind of photo you want. And this actually helped me with taking photos on my trip.
It took me quite a while to take the photo shown on the right (my parents were getting annoyed because we couldn’t leave). Since it was at sunset, my first few photos were very dark, and would not show the mountain goat. After changing some settings I got it to be brighter, but too bright. After numerous adjustments I finally got this photo, and I think it’s one of my favorites.
So to summarize, if you want to take good photos I recommend reading this book. If you want to be professional, read the whole thing, but otherwise I think the first 3 chapters are good enough. I hope this blog wasn’t too long and I hope you have a good day.
-Yuto.I
The first chapter talked about the different components of a camera and equipment. It gave brief descriptions on the different types of cameras and talked about the anatomy of a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera (one of the common ones). Then it discussed about different tools for stabilization (tripods), lighting, lenses, and other gear that Sartore found helpful in his experiences. But the most important part about this chapter (at least to me), was the sections about the camera controls and the viewfinder. On a DSLR camera there are quite a lot of buttons and controls. Before I read this book, I had no idea how they worked and what they were used for, but Sartore taught me how to adjust the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and other settings (the book explains these later). The viewfinder is the part you investigate when taking a picture on a DSLR camera, and it has all these numbers and scales. They’ve always seemed pointless to me, but now that I know what they are used for, they can be helpful. Anyways chapter 1 was more insignificant compared to the other chapter.
Even though I read chapter 2, it wasn’t very helpful to me because it was about telling a story in the photo. Since I was just taking photos for memories, I didn’t have much thought on it and won’t write about it here. Instead, I’ll skip to chapter 3: exposure. This chapter talked about the settings talked in the first chapter and how adjusting them could make your photo better. The major part about this chapter was to use the settings together and not individually, to get the kind of photo you want. And this actually helped me with taking photos on my trip.
So to summarize, if you want to take good photos I recommend reading this book. If you want to be professional, read the whole thing, but otherwise I think the first 3 chapters are good enough. I hope this blog wasn’t too long and I hope you have a good day.
-Yuto.I
Hey Yuto, I have always wanted to get into photography because my uncle is actually a professional photographer and all the pictures and videos he makes are pretty cool. Awesome work on your picture and blog!
ReplyDeleteHey Mateo. Thanks for the comment! It's so cool that your uncle's a professional! Is there a way for me to see his work!?
DeleteGreat blog, I think this book would be a good book for me to check out because I like casually taking photos but I never seem to get everything right while taking them and this book would probably help alot.
ReplyDeleteHi Yuto, as someone who also is very interested in photography, I related very much to your struggles with the DLSR buttons. When I first tried to use the camera, I could barely figure out how to adjust the zoom. I think your photo of the goat is very impressive!
ReplyDeleteHey Yuto. I believe this book would be a great read for me because I love the art of photography, especially with tinkering the settings of photos. On every trip out of town, especially one to a skyscraper-packed city or one to the wilderness, I always take photos of scenic places from various positions to make the most breathtaking photos. Impressive job on your photo!
ReplyDeleteHello Yuto. As someone who has been interested in photography I'm happy that you made a blog about this. You helped explain what chapters in the book are useful or not and how some of the settings work. When I have the time I'll check this book out for myself.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! This seems like a cool book as someone who takes really bad photos haha, I should probably look into reading it.
ReplyDelete