start-up
photographer from zero to hero
LeVai SongSki
model: Nagee Young
learn quick tips to shoot like a pro
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CONTENTS 4 8 10 18 20 2|
WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY
CAMERA CHOICE CAMERA SETTINGS LENS CHOICE EDITING YOUR PHOTOS
photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world. -bruno barbey |3
WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY?
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ccording to dictionary.com, Photography is defined as the process of producing images of objects on sensitized surfaces by the chemical action of light or of other forms of radiant energy, as x-rays, gamma rays, or cosmic rays. With the evolutions in technology we are moving towards a digital world where film type camera’s are replaced by digital cameras. With digital camera’s readily available in everyone’s smart phones, we all have become self made photographers. However, as the quality of the smart phone’s camera evolves, it still don’t produce the style quality of photos found in film cameras. Enter the DSLR camera. DSLR stands for digital single-lines reflex. It combines the ability to use film type camera lens with a digital sensor which is then recorded to a memory device which can then be transferred digitally to a computer. This means you can achieve the film type photographs that can only be produced with different camera lens.
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“termanology is what makes you sound professional” “knowledge is what gets you the end result” The intention of this guide is not to bore you with techy termonoly but present to you quick start up simple instructions that will get you to shooting and turning out professional looking photos. In this day and age anyone can buy a new digital camera and with the sophistication of features that come with it you can start shooting right away. However, as a double edged sword, it contains merits of features that can make things seem harder than it is. After a whole years worth of shooting with my dslr, I’ve come to develope a shooting style that I will share with you to turn out better pictures in little time. Like how there are many ways to skin a cat, this is only one style which comes from my expereince. I believe the key to better pictures is having basic needed knowledge and understanding to start with. There are tons of information out there and not knowing which information is best suited you can get lost and feeling stressed. However, I will point out the proper steps to the information that you will need to get started with. Starting with which camera to choose, its proper settings, which lens to get, how to shoot, and how to edit your photos for sharing on social media or for print.
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Nikon D
18-55 6|
D3200
5mm lens |7
CAMERA CHOICE
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DSLR camera’s come in many brands with many features. However, I have not been able to test every brand due to financial reasons. With research I started out with a canon 7d and a few canon lens but soon changed to a nikon. There are many brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, etc. however, i believe this is more of a personal preference. Critcis will argue all day about which one is better, but like how there are many makes and models of cars, pick a brand that makes you feel good about and stick with it. It’s not the brand and tool that makes a photographer, but what they do with what they have. My reason for changing from canon to nikon was the need to sell off my canon camera due to financial reasons, and I was able to pick up a cheaper Nikon D3200. Regardless, with the right knowledge photos still turned out excellent. If you are new and don’t want to get into heavy debate about which camera to choose, I would suggest either nikon or canon for they seem to be the most widely talked about or should I say industry standard. From my viewpoint and experience, I have preferred my entry level Nikon D3200 over the more expensive Canon 7d.
NOT SO LONG AGO
BACK THEN TAKE PHOTOS
TAKE PHOTOS + PHOTOSHOP
E H T F O N O I T U L O V E THE R E H P A R G O PHOT NOW ONWARDS
TAKE PHOTOS + PHOTOSHOP + WEBSITE + BLOG + SOCIAL MEDIA
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CAMERA SETTINGS Regardless of the camera you choose, there will be a few main concepts you will need to understand about to get the quality of result you want.
WhiteBalance Stick to Daylight or direct sun setting when outdoors and tungsten or incandescant when shooting indoors when no natural light is present.
VS. There will be two main file types to shoot in. RAW and JPEG. Raw is the uncompressed file that stores all the information of each picture taken and will be a very big file to work with. The camera will compress the picture into a JPEG which is the file format easier to work with and recognized by all computers. This means you need a faster computer to be able to handle and edit RAW files and additional knowledge in how to process RAW files. However, RAW will yeild better quality pictures in the end. I shoot in RAW and edit in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom which can handle the RAW files.
AdobeRGB vs sRGB These are color settings. sRGB came before AdobeRGB and doesn’t capture as much the color quality. Stick with AdobeRGB.
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Nikon D3200
50mm f1.8 lens |11
Nikon D3200
Mother 12|
and Son 50mm f1.8 lens |13
HOLY TRINITY OF PHOTOGRAPHY light and speed is what makes up a photo.
APERTURE
ISO
SHUTTER SPEED
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Also represented by the F-stop number, aperture controls how much light comes into the camera through the lens. Also controls blurryness of background. Low F number means more blurred background. High F number means less blurred background.
ISO or International standards organization. ISO adjusts how much light enters the camera. The typical range is from 100-6400. Anything over this range and the picture quality is gone. ISO is controlled with the body of the camera and not the lens.
Everytime you hit the click button to take a photo, there is a shutter that comes down to “close the blinds� and engrain the picture into memory. it is depicted by a fraction of 1/(value). the higher the value the faster the speed. lower value means slower speed. increase shutter speed for fast moving subjects. decrease to slow shutter speed to create blurred pictures.
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Nikon D3200 Shot in A mode iso 800 f2.8 White balance tungsten
50mm f1.8 lens |17
Lens Choice There are two main types, prime and FX - full frame sensor zoom lens. Prime means the length is set and zoom means you can change the DX - crop sensor length. As a beginner, stick with the usual zoom lens that come with the camera. If VR =- vibration reduction you have the cash, look into a Prime. The main reason is that Primes can’t zoom but make up for it by having lower Apertures. Meaning that lower F-stop numbers will produce much more blurred background pictures. The proper term for blurred backgrounds is bokeh. example: an 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens comes with my nikon d3200 body. the f represents how low the lens aperture can go. Thus, a 50mm f1.8 prime lens will produce better blurred bokehs as it can go down to f1.8 over the 18-55mm f3.5 zoom lens.
AF-S - autofocus silent ED - extra low dispersion glass
G - lens with no aperture control ring and designed to be used with cameras that allow setting aperture from the camera body.
NIKON 18-55MM 3.6-5.6
if you are shooting with nikon or canon than definitely look at the 50mm f1.8 prime lens. Anything higher than 50mm at the moment will be more a hinderance to you because you will always be so close to subjects. As you grow and understand what you are trying to achieve you can look more into different types of lens. I shoot mainly everyday things where ever I go so I have found that from 18-55mm you are able to capture most of your needs. and with the 50mm prime it does gorgeous portraits with beautiful bokehs. NIKON 50MM F1.8G
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NIKON 18-55MM LENS SHOT @ AT 18MM F3.5 ISO 100
NIKON 18-55MM LENS SHOT @ AT 18MM F3.5 ISO 100
NIKON 50MM F1.8G LENS SHOT @ AT F1.8 ISO 400
NIKON 85MM F1.8G LENS SHOT @ AT F1.8 ISO 400
NIKON 50MM F1.8G LENS SHOT @ AT F1.8 ISO 800
NIKON 50MM F1.8G LENS SHOT @ AT F1.8 ISO 400
NIKON 50MM F1.8G LENS SHOT @ AT F1.8 ISO 800
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Editing photos with Adobe photoshop lightroom A free trial version of adobe photoshop lightroom can be found on adobe’s website or online with a quick search. It has become a goto program for most photographers for it contains all the tools needed to quickly upload photos, edit, and share on social media such as facebook. Once downloaded, adobe provides quick tutorials on how to utilize the programs features so I won’t go in depth about the program itself. However, I’ll share some photos and the settings I use to achieve the look and the export settings I use to upload to social media or the web.
My personal shooting style Each new dslr camera comes packed with automatic settings from night shots to fast moving object shots etc. So an in depth process of what you are trying to shoot isn’t nessecary due to the auto features that the camera provides. However, as I have progressed and found a shooting style in which I can best bring a picture to life I will share how I shoot.
Camera settings I shoot in Raw mode becuase you can still fix over or underexposed photos without loosing quality of the final picture. I stick to shooting in A mode or aperture mode which is indicated by the letter A on the dial nobe. Aperture mode lets you change the F value and the camera will do the rest in setting the other values to allow the picture to be at its best exposure. This will help in quickly getting a more blurred background or clearer background. Most individuals think having blurred backgrounds makes your picture look professional. No doubt it does look more gorgeous and dreamy, but its mainly ideal for portraits where the focus is to blurr out the rest of the picture and focus on the subject only. I try not to go over iso 3200 otherwise the picture quality becomes grainy and loses its quality. I shoot in neutral picture style mode so all colors are very flat. This allows me to pull out the colors I want easier in editing them later. I tend to stay away from flash photography at the moment for it is another art in itself.
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Nikon
18-55mm
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n D3200
m lens
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Nikon
50mm f1.8
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D3200
8G lens
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Nikon
18-55mm
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n D3200
m lens
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Exporting to Web Settings
These settings will create a small enough file to upload to the web such as facebook or any social media and still maintain full quality. However if you are going to print your file go with the default save as full jpeg option.
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LIFE IS LIKE A CAMERA
FOCUS ON WHATS IMPORTANT
CAPTURE THE GOOD TIMES
DEVELOP FROM THE NEGATIVES IF THINGS DON’T WORK OUT
TAKE ANOTHER SHOT |29
start-up
photographer LeVai SongSki
THANKS FOR READING
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levai.songski@gmail.com
facebook.com/leivaspage
July 2015