Photography 101: Digital Photography Basics

A simplified digital photography course aimed at new photographers out there who want to know where to start.

by Kelly Paal

If you really want to learn digital photography the first thing you need is a good and reliable camera. It must, and I repeat must, be able to shoot in fully manual and fully auto focus modes. To really learn digital photography you must understand the equipment. You’ll need to learn how manipulating the shutter speed, aperture, and focus will have a dramatic effect on your digital photos. Meters, if you have a camera that can work in a fully manual mode it should have an internal meter suitable for what you will be doing. Tripod, you’re going to need one whether it’s portrait work or landscapes you’ll need one eventually to improve your digital photography. Luckily you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight and durable. Flash, you can buy a separate camera mounted flash, which is great if you can afford it. Consider what kind of digital photography that you will be doing though. If you’re going to do mostly nature and landscape digital photography, you may only need the fill flash that comes with most cameras today. If you plan on doing portraiture only you will definitely need a camera mounted flash that has an adjustable angle.

Film Speed
ISO setting to be exact. Slower speeds (25 to 400) are intended for portraiture and landscape digital photography. Faster speeds (600 and above) are intended for actions shots and photojournalism. So first you need to know what you going out to digital photograph and make sure that you have the appropriate film for the job.

Shutter Speed
Now that you have the camera loaded with film consider the shutter speed. Do you want to blur motion, or freeze it? If there is no motion at all what shutter speed do you need to expose the scene with natural light. Shutter speed plays a very important role in digital photography. From 1/60th and down to the bulb setting will blur most motion. For example if you want to blur the water in a waterfall, a setting of 1/30th should work. (You’ll need a tripod though.) 1/125th is a normal setting for most shots. On many cameras the 125th setting is marked in a different color to make it obvious. If you want to freeze action you’ll need to start with 1/500th and work up from there. The faster the motion the faster the shutter speed needed to stop motion. Many digital photography cameras go up to 1/2000th of a second. If you’re trying to use natural light alone in a scene you will want to determine the aperture first and then see what shutter speed you need to properly expose the scene for available light. (Keep in mind sometimes there isn’t enough light.)

Aperture
These are the set of numbers on your lens closest to the body of the camera. They can go from 1.8 to 22, and they are also referred to as f-stops in digital photography. These numbers determine how much light reaches the film inside of your camera. Most internal meters will blink on the appropriate aperture for the shutter speed that you’ve set, or the speed you’ve set will blink if your f-stop is correct for the speed. Both the f-stop and shutter speed can be changed to expose the scene correctly in digital photography. Consider that the faster the shutter speed the more light will be needed to expose the scene correctly. This makes logical sense if you think about it. If the shutter isn’t open as long, fast shutter speed, then there is less light able to make it to the film and so the scene must be brighter to expose correctly. To learn, bracket your digital photography shots. Take the first shot at the aperture suggested by your meter, move one stop up, take a photo, one down, take another photo.

Flash
I personally like shooting with natural light whenever possible and at most I use a fill flash in digital photography. But if you’re going to do portrait work then most of the time you may be indoors and you will need a flash sometimes. For the amateur the fill flash units that are on the top of most of today’s cameras are wonderful for basic work. You will have to read your manual on your particular flash unit to learn what it can and can’t do. This is where the camera that is fully manual and fully auto is great for the amateur. You can usually set it so that the camera will meter and set the flash output accordingly and then you still can control the shutter speed and aperture.


About the Author: Kelly Paal is a freelance nature and landscape photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography. She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.