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Click Here: It Is What You See and How You See It That Counts

Welcome to "Mastering your DSLR for Better Photographs"

This is your first lesson. In each lesson, read through the content and look at the images (you can click on them to see a larger version and extra information).

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Video Easy, Just Tell Me a Little About Yourself, Your Camera and Your Experience Assignment: Get Out and Shoot :) Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Composition Flow Chart Bonus: Cheat Sheet -10 Rules of Photography Bonus: Dictionary of Photography Bonus: Free Book: Composition, Colour and Creativity

History of Photography

A short tour through the story of photography and more importantly photographers.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Create a Picture in the Style of Your Favourite Photograph Bonus: Cheat Sheet - A short history of photography

Understanding Your Camera

This will be the most technical section as we give you a guide through all the parts of your camera.

A Quick Guide
Important controls
Special Functions
Where to find things
What some of the jargon means
What happens when you take a picture

Once you have completed this section you'll have the jargon under control, you'll understand your camera, you will have the solid grounding for the rest of the course and your photography.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Understand Your Own Camera Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Quick Guide to Your Camera Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Light Path Through a Camera Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Focal Length and Field of View

Exposure

The whole essence of photography is capturing the light we see before us and fixing it on film or digital sensor.

Our eyes are incredibly good at seeing in near darkness through to bright daylight. Cameras need a bit of help with this. The digital sensor (or film) can only accommodate a narrow band of brightness.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Understanding Exposure Controls Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Exposure Controls Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Shooting Modes

Focussing

Needless to say, getting a picture in focus is very important!

You are going to learn:

How easy focus is
How to make your camera do the work
How to take control when you need to

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Video Exercise Assignment: Focus and Composition Bonus: Cheat Sheet Focussing Tips Bonus: Photo Quote Posters Bundle 1

Aperture

You will know that the pupil of the human eye shrinks in bright daylight and expands in dark rooms. The pupil is opening or closing its "aperture" to let in more or less light.

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Video Exercise Assignment: A Depth of Field Library Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Depth of Field Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Depth of Field Sample Charts

Shutter Speed - Exposure and Motion

Your camera has a shutter in front of the digital sensor. When you take a picture this shutter opens briefly to allow the light to fall on the sensor. This can happen very quickly, within 1/400th of a second, or very slowly, whole seconds. When Louis Daguerre took his first picture his shutter speed was 8 hours!

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Video Exercise Assignment: Photograph Moving Objects Locked Bonus

Light - How to See It, How to Use It

Light and shade are the fundamentals of photography. In this section you will learn the details of how to understand light and its qualities.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Understanding Lighting Conditions Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Colour Temperature Bonus Cheat Sheet - Six Qualities of Light Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Colour Theory and Emotions

Photographic Lighting

In this section you will learn how to use artificial lighting:

Your Speedlite
Studio Flash
Continuous Lighting
How easy it is
Why you want to use artificial light

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Video Exercise Assignment: Artificial Lighting Bonus: Studio Portrait Lighting Bonus: Studio Lighting Equipment Explained

Filters

Filters fit over the front of your lens to provide control of colour or special effects.

They might do something simple like reduce light or glare. They can be used to add or remove colour. They can be used for weird effects like creating kaleidoscopic images.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Using Filters - Making Your Own Bonus: Tiffen Filters Guide Bonus: Hoya Filters Guide Bonus: Photo Quote Posters Bundle 2

Black and White Photography

Of course photography started out in black and white (well more brown and white). While we want colour images there always seems to be something special, artistic and timeless about a black and white image.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Seeing in Black and White Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Colour Toning

Portraits & People

A portrait shot may cover a range of styles: a business headshot; a candid holiday photo; a glamour or fashion photograph or group and family shots. There are some key lighting details you need to know and some crucial posing information.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Get Out and Shoot Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Portrait Lighting Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Cropping Portraits Bonus: Cheat Sheet - Focal Length Distortion Bonus: Cheat Sheet - 36 Tips for Better People Photographs Bonus: Posing Video

Weddings

You are going to be asked to shoot a wedding sooner or later. I'm here to tell you don't. To shoot a wedding well you have to be absolutely on top of your game. You need a real understanding and fluency in your technical skills. You also have to be really good with your people management skills. Shooting a wedding is hard work, fast moving and frankly a job best left to the professionals.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Wedding Photography Review Bonus: 11 Portrait Tips Bonus: 30 More Portrait Tips

Landscapes

Beauty is laid all around us whether at home or on holiday. In this section you will learn how to capture wonderful landscapes and record the world around you.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Get Out and Shoot! Bonus: How Photographs Are Assessed

Cityscapes and Buildings

In this section you are going to view a city from distant to real close-up. Every point has different features and needs. But a city offers an infinitude of photographic possibilities. Outside the city are there views that can be taken of the city on the horizon or looking down into the city? Inside the city what are the major landmarks worth shooting? Closer to buildings where are the interesting details? How do you shoot interiors of buildings that capture their magnificence?

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Video Exercise Assignment: Get Out and Shoot Bonus: Why f/11? Bonus: Photographic Internet Memes Bundle 1

Wildlife

Animals are all around us, big and small, pets and pests, furry and cute, scaly and scary.

In this lesson you will learn how to photograph animals both in the wild and in the zoo, creating wonderful images of fascinating creatures.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Get Out and Shoot! Bonus: 10 Tips for Shooting Wildlife

Close-Up and Macro

Macro photography is all about seeing the world of the small. It can reveal amazing things in everyday objects. Macro photography is also the realm of the natural history photographer, taking images of insects and butterflies and small flowers and plants.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Stay Indoors and Shoot :) Bonus: Cheat Sheet - 30 Tips for Better Macro Images

Night Photography

Our main topic for night photography is going to be about capturing night scenes, such as starry skies, lightning and fireworks.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Photographing Light Trails Bonus: Cheat Sheet - 30 Tips for Better Night Shoots

Mistakes, Pitfalls and Problem Solving

Mistakes will always happen. The crucial thing is recognising what has caused the problem and how to fix it quickly.

In this section you will learn the most common mistakes made and their quick fixes.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Finding and Fixing Your Own Mistakes Bonus: 10 Tips for Checking Your Photographs Bonus: Photographic Internet Memes Bundle 2

Showing Your Work

You now have a collection of really nice images. What do you do with them? How do you show them off? In film days your only route was the printed image. For some photographers this still remains the final goal for any image. For many now though the internet is the way to show their work. In this section we will cover both print and digital ways of letting others see you work.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Get Your Pictures Online Bonus: How NOT to choose pictures for competitions

Managing Files

People always choose their photographs as the one thing they would rescue if their house burnt down. But where are most people's photographs now? On their computer. Yet the odds of a failure of the computer (or its hard disc store) are much greater than that of their house burning down.

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Video Exercise Assignment: Organise Your Backup Solution! Bonus: 50+ Useful Photography Forums & Websites

Post-Processing Part 1: Software and Management

There are many software packages for managing and editing your photographs. The most famous is of course Photoshop from Adobe.

In this section you are going to learn about a few software options that are available to you, then you will be taken through example editing choices.