How to: Teach Yourself Photography

Right, after handing out a load of advice on what camera to get (Canon; you owe me at least two) I thought I would elaborate on the next step. How to use the blasted thing. Now, as ever, there is one key thing to remember and a few obstacles or urban myths to quell. Firstly:

Photography is about light, not composition

That’s right, sorry Jan Arthus-Bertrand, it’s all about the light; natural, flash, fill, studio whatever. Light is king. Now the biggest obstacle to avoid when learning is that instinctive reaction to acquire knowledge by the world most logical method: the written word. The problem we have here is that

Most magazines are out there to sell cameras

Yep, they have a million adverts and reviews on new equipment but are scantily-clad when it comes to genuine advice. This is not particularly true for books (after all their revenue is generated from a single sale, and you already have the book in your hand) but books tend to be more functional that I, personally, dislike.

So, what to do… hmmm…

The funniest thing is, if you sit down for a second and think about it, you already have everything you need to learn about photography and they are:

• Your camera 
• Your eyes 
• Your brain 

and perhaps the understanding that, when it comes to photography (and as we have covered photography is about light, again sorry Jan) you control three things: the sensitivity (film or digital sensor), the aperture and the shutter. Now, just to make it really clear here:

Your camera knows how to take great photos, learn from it.

Loe and behold, all you need to do is point the camera, shoot and check. There’s a four step process you can use to introduce those three elements.

Step 1: Auto

In A (auto mode) point and shoot. If it takes a picture you like then look back at the settings it chose (menu screen EXIF data). This will tell you everything about it. No fuss.

Step 2: Program

In program you can change a couple of features of the camera, concentrate on the ISO (sensitivity) and let the camera do the rest. In P (program mode) point and shoot. Again check the good shots. No mess.

Step 3: A/S

Now we introduce the other two elements. In S (shutter priority mode) you change the shutter and it’ll use the aperture to sort the exposure, visa versa for A (aperture priority mode). Use S to try some cool long exposure effects (dark rooms, lights etc) and A for some cooler depth of field effects. Point, set, shoot, check.

…and we’re done! Now you should be about 6 months into trying all of the above and getting a bit bored. Boredom is good, it means you’re validated in trying something more. Whack it into M (manual mode) and point, set, shoot, check.

Note: If you’re not getting the time you want to take photos, or you’ve not got the conditions that you will be shooting in or you would like to see what others have done then. Well. You know about Flickr right? Yeah? Bottom right corner there’s a little hyperlink that says ‘more details’. There’s your EXIF for you.