what are the basics of photography?

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jessika_pardio

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I am really into photography. But I know almost nothing about the shutter speed and flash. I would just take pictures. I really just want to know if there are basics and what they are. Thanks!
 
shutter speed = controls blur
aperture = controls depth of focus
composition = rule of thirds is popuar

Its all about lighting!
 
If your talking about a old fashioned camera then you need to adjust the shutter speed and aperture (the aperture is the first lens (clossest to you) you see on the three lenses you can move) to read the light meter you see when you put your eye to the hole (it should be the red meter you see on the left or right hand side). This will make sure your pictures come out in the correct contrast (lighting). Also, depending on how much light you want in is how fast the shutter speed should be. Less light = Slower shutter speed (sunny day). More light = Faster shutter speed (night time). Normal Shutter speed is 1/250 (that should be on the right hand side of your camera). That shutter speed is for daytime use while your outside.
 
Okay, this is a complicated question to answer in a simple way. The main things that you need to know are shutter speed, f-stop, overexposing film, and underexposing film.
The shutter speed is just how long the film is exposed to light.
The flash is only used when there isn't enough light to take the picture.
The f-stop is how wide the hole to let in light is (also known as an aperture). A wide aperture opening means that, in normal daylight, you would need a faster shutter speed, so that the film isn't overexposed.
An overexposed photo is like waking up in bright daylight, everything is too bright and it doesn't look good.
An underexposed photo would mean that the picture is too dark and you wont be able to see anything.

You might also want to know that, when you develop your negatives, everything would be backwards. An overexposed photo would look dark in the negative and you won't be able to see anything because it will be too dark.
An underexposed photo would look bright in the negative, almost completely white, and you won't even be able to tell what it is you took a photo of.
 
Relationship of shutter speed and aperture and ISO in regards to proper exposure.

Metering and exposure compensation.

Depth of field control by use of aperture selection

Shutter speed in relation to intentional and nonintentional blur.

Low light techniques.

Flash exposures including dragging the shutter and fill light techniques.

Composition including rule of thirds. leadiing lines, and perspective.

Multiple exposure techniques and exposure compensation.

... and probably about a hundred other things that I am thinking of at the moment.

If you really want to improve your photography, take a class or a good online course.

steve
 
In my opinion, Idris had the best answer. Shadowsreached was too vague and her answer was convoluted.

You should look up what's called the "Sunny 16 Rule". It's a guideline for how to take pictures outside with manual exposure. The same principles apply whether you are using film or a digital camera.

There are 4 basic things you absolutely need to know and understand - ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and depth of field.

The first is what's called ISO. That means light sensitivity. A higher ISO rating means more light sensitivity, and a lower ISO means less light sensitivity. So 400 ISO is more sensitive to light than 200 ISO. If you are using film, the number you see labeled on the film is the ISO rating. Sometimes they call it the "film speed" but that isn't really an accurate term to use. It's better just to say ISO rating.

The next thing you need to understand is the aperture. The aperture is the opening on the lens which lets light in to the camera. It has settings called "F-stops." If you are using a manual camera, there will be a dial or knob on the lens to change the F-stop. Think of the aperture as like the iris in your eye. You can use different F-stops to let in more or less light. It's a little confusing at first, but a smaller F-stop number actually means a bigger aperture. That's because it's a ratio. So f/3.5 is bigger than f/8. The aperture will go down to F/16 and some cameras will go down to F/22 or even F/32.

The next thing you need to understand is the shutter speed. The shutter speed means how long the shutter will stay open when you press the button. It's usually measured in fractions of a second, like 1/200. A smaller number means a slower shutter speed. A slower shutter speed will mean a longer exposure. A faster shutter speed will mean a shorter exposure.

The shutter speed and aperture setting both determine the overall exposure of the picture...how "light" or "dark" it will be. Basically, you set the aperture and shutter speed to have a certain amount of light for a certain period of time.

The "Sunny 16 Rule" says that if you are taking pictures outside on a clear sunny day, you should set your shutter speed to the same as the ISO of your film, and set the aperture to f/16. You will adjust the aperture to the lighting conditions. So if it's a little hazy or partly cloudy, then you might want to open up the aperture to f/11. If you're in the shade, you will open the aperture to f/8 to let in more light. You can also leave the aperture at the same setting and change the shutter speed, but that can be a little tricky.

If you are using a digital camera, the same rule applies. Set the shutter speed to the same as the ISO. But of course, that only works if you are using a camera that has completely manual settings.

The other thing you need to understand is what's called the "Depth of Field." The depth of field means the distance in front and behind your subject that will be in focus. It's an optical effect. With a long depth of field, everything will be sharp. With a shallow depth of field, the subject will be in focus, but the background will be softened and blurry. When you change the F-stop, that changes the aperture and how much light comes in to the camera...but it also changes the depth of field. A bigger aperture (like f/8 or f/5.6) will have a more shallow depth of field. Sometimes that's useful for when you want to blur out the background and draw more attention to something in the foreground. A small aperture, like f/16 will make everything sharp. Usually, for landscape photos you want a long depth of field and you want everything to be in focus.

So that's basically what you need to know for now. Look up ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and depth of field.

What Idris said about negatives is true. You can tell whether film was correctly exposed by how the negatives look. But you can learn about that later on, if you decide to learn about film photography. (By the way you should, you can learn a LOT more about photography with a manual film camera).
 
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