My hobby photography school – Essentials
Today digital photography has blossomed and have become incredible popular. Not just in the business industry, but for common peoples as well. I guess most have shifted from normal older cameras by not, into the digital world, but lets start this lesson in going through some terms you need to know about.
My first part of my lesson in what I liked to call “my hobby photography school post”, will like I said focus on some really basic information, that still many struggle with everyday as a photographer. Here are some common terms used in the world of digital photography:
1. Pixel – Basically is the tiniest part in a photo. Every photograph consist of these microscopic pixels, and millions of them.
2. Resolution – Picture resolution is just how many of those pixels are in a picture, the quantity. The more pixels you have, the better the resolution is going to be, and your picture will always look sharper and nice. Needless to say you want a lot of pixels to achieve a better photo image quality.
3. Mega pixel – Reflects on an amount of pixels you’re camera is able to pull off. 1 Mega pixels is one thousand pixels, and if you’re camera can handle 5 mega pixels you will get a much better picture quality, since you then got 5 thousand pixels in your photos.
4. Dots Per Inch (DPI) – DPI is a term I know many struggle to keep apart from pixels. It is more commonly used when describing the quality of a monitor on a computer, or the quality on a printer. You would always want a monitor and a printer that can handle as much DPI as possible, same as with pixels. Laser printers usually have really high DPI, but other printers are also becoming real good these days. When you’re buying a printer check the DPI score up against other printers, and don’t buy the cheapest one you can find.
5. JPEG (joint photographic experts group) – Here we have something you should know what is by now, since you already own a computer, and that file is some often seen on a computer. If you guessed that JPEG is an image file, then you have just shown to yourself that you are a very smart person indeed. As a hobby photographer you should be pleased to know that digital cameras now often stores images on you camera directly as JPEG`s, which is great since it is a format that is good for many things, like posting pictures on the web.
6. Memory Card – A card where you’re pictures are stored. Buy a memory card with high capacity, and you would be able to store lots of images. Go for anything above 2GB these days.
7. LCD (liquid crystal display) – If you’re wondering if you’re beloved camera has this feature, then don’t worry my little friend, almost all digital cameras now a days has this specification. The reason why it’s a great and useful thing to have is that the LCD will let you (the photographer) be able to see you pictures before you click the shutter button. Then after you have taken your pictures, you can watch them on your little screen to check if they are worth loading into your computer.
Well then now my basic “hobby photography school lesson post” is over. I will then move on and pay more attention to the understanding on the correct handling of your greatest gadget of all time: the digital camera.
No artistic person that handles the tools wrong can create master pictures. Proper handling is vital in photography, the success of any digital photographer evolves around the output. The key to becoming a good photographer is to know how to use your digital camera.
Any beginner needs to really know the strategies on taking good pictures. The picture taking process will change depending on things like light, location, scenery and more. Here is the second part of “my hobby photography school post”:
1. Pay close attention and analyze you’re subject.
A good tip is to that is almost fundamental to digital photography is to compose you’re pictures in just the right way. If you’re about to take a portrait photo, then you should play with your camera, and try to visualize different shots. What ever you do, don’t always position the subject at dead center of the picture. That is not a creative and exiting look.
2. Take lots of close up photos.
A good way to experiment with you’re camera and make creative pictures is to use the zoom or macro mode on the camera. Take pictures of normal things, but do it in extreme close up. A whole new world of possibilities within photography will open up to you this way.
3. Buy yourself a tripod!
If you are able to hold you’re camera rock-steady, then you are fine, but otherwise get a tripod! It will prevent you’re pictures from becoming blurry. Blurriness is one of the most common things to completely ruin pictures, and it’s because you’re hands moving right at the moment when you’re pressing the shutter button.
4. Be active
Don’t be shy with your pictures. Remember that any good hobby photographer will experiment a lot, and will with experience from experiments take award winning pictures in no time. Take photos from up on a hill, out of a car, or down on the ground and up. Play with your camera and have fun really.
5. Join a photography class
It’s difficult to become a really good photographer, its no point in hiding that fact. Consider teaming up with someone else you know, that knows a lot about photography. Maybe you’re friend is a hobby photographer or something like that. It’s important to anyway considering getting some input from others, and you will learn so much faster about photography, than just learning everything from yourself. Learning from people that are experts in the field, will greatly improve your skills. If there are no photography classes in your community, then I advice you to take an online course. Maybe you plan on moving from having photography as just a hobby, to becoming more of a professional photographer, then you need to accept that it will take some time. You should not worry though, no matter what your goals are, if you work hard on learning new techniques, then rest a sure you will most likely succeed.
Becoming a professional digital photographer really takes time.
