From this page, you will find a range of articles about photography that we have put together based on our experience. Hopefully you will find some of them useful.
The emphasis of these articles is on areas such as appropriate use of camera settings and their impact on the final image, and aspects of photographic technique such as composition and lighting, whilst others delve into some of the technical idiosyncrasies of the equipment that we use. Examples will be added over time to illustrate the points being made, so if the text says 'here are some examples' and there aren't any, they will follow in due course.
This
set of articles is designed to help users of 'ordinary' digital cameras
to get the best out of their equipment. As Ken Rockwell has said on his
website, your camera does not matter when it comes to taking great
photographs - what matters is the person taking the pictures.
Unlike some books and articles on the subject, we will not go into
detailed discussion of the kind of camera equipment you might want to
buy since it is assumed that you want to make the best of what you
have! However, where appropriate, equipment will be discussed in the
context of taking particular kinds of pictures and which cameras are
better suited to different situations. Furthermore, we will not go into
great detail on using photo editing software. It is assumed that most
readers will print their pictures as they came out of the camera.
Having said that, simple digital editing techniques such as sharpening,
exposure adjustment and saturation will be mentioned as appropriate.
The emphasis, therefore, will be on two main aspects of taking better
pictures: firstly using the controls on your camera to help you to take
better photographs and secondly to introduce you to the main aspects of
photographic composition that will help you to take pictures with that
added 'wow' factor. The topics covered in these articles have all been
written (or will be written) by members of the society and they
include:
Understanding the effect of different shutter speeds, apertures, ISO setting and lens focal length on your photographs
Using 'white balance' settings to get natural looking photos
The importance of lighting
Making the most of colour and colour combinations
An explanation of the compositional building blocks of form, pattern, shape, tone and texture
Placing subjects in the frame and using lines for maximum impact
Choosing accessories to enhance your photos and help make better pictures
At
present, only the first article (bullet 1 above) is ready. However,
others will be added as they are written.