LIGHTING

Lighting is everything! As a matter of fact, photography is "painting with light", so knowing how to use whatever light source you have is essential to produce a great image. It is all about manipulating and capturing the light in the situation you are in so you can produce beautiful images that look almost three dimensional with great shadows and contrast. So, learning about lighting is key!

COMPOSITION

All photographers think about composition. How do you "compose" a great image? Much like a composer who creates a beautiful music score, there are many facets to creating an image that is stunning. There are composition "rules"; fundamentals that will give you best practices on how to create an image that is pleasing and technically correct.

When you first start out, it is good to follow these rules. Once you have them mastered, go ahead and break them; be creative and see what you can create.

One of the main rules of composition is the rule of thirds. When looking through your camera's viewfinder, imagine a grid dividing the image into thirds. See the lines that divide your image both horizontally and vertically, then, place your subject onto one of those intersecting lines. This will create the most visually pleasing image!

EXPOSURE

Having your image properly exposed is extremely important. Subjects should have the correct amount of light on them, not darkened when you see them. If you are outside, your sky should not look white with no textures or any contrast. If you see that, it is over exposed.

Photographing with digital cameras does not allow details to be pulled out of an overexposed area during editing, so you will lose all those great textures and details if you overexpose. Whereas with film cameras, it is the opposite. Film does not allow the details to be pulled out of the shadows when editing so if you use a film camera, keep that in mind!