silent seat ecourse & ebook

Heyyyy!!! Welcome to learn manual mode, a momtographer crash course. I am seriously so excited to help you take your camera out of auto and into manual and start getting those pictures of your kids you always dreamed of getting. The first lesson will seem like a whole lot all at once, but it will be the foundation of the rest of the lessons, and once you get the first lesson under your belt, the rest of the lessons will seem like bite sized chunks of the first lesson. You can totally do this! It's so important to remember that this is a self-paced, selfmotivated course/ ebook. You will get out of it, what you put into it. Practice makes perfect in almost every situation, and it's no different when learning to use your camera. Even after you go through all of the lessons, it will take time for most of this to become second nature to you. That's ok! Just keep chasing those kids around, and pointing your camera at them. Don't forget to go get your list of 30+ pictures to take of your kids every year! Also, as a special ultimate bundles deal, get momtographer's cheats for 75% off with coupon code *photobundle2018*

what's covered in this book

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before we begin Dust off your camera, format your memory cards, and charge your batteries. AND.. (Not everyone's favorite idea) Find your camera's manual, and keep it close! This course/ ebook is meant to help you learn how to use your camera in manual mode. While the concepts are the same regardless of your camera, knowing how to properly set up your camera will be up to you! If you can't find your manual, there are often guides online. *for your convenience, there may be affiliate links throughout this book, so you can easily find the things I am discussing. By using these links, your pricing stays the same, but I may earn a small commission.

let's get started Lesson one is all things exposure. I'm not going to lie, this will probably be the most confusing and difficult lesson. That's the bad news... The good news is, it's the foundation of the entire course, which means we are going to keep going over it throughout this ebook. Keep in mind, I'm cramming a TON of information into one book to teach you something that took me years to get a firm grasp on. Practice is key!! It will make a difference.

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breaking apart the triangle I am a visual learner, which means I need to be able to visualize things. That's probably why I struggled so much to grasp all of this when I started. Hopefully the following explanation will help you to visualize this all. First, I'm going to give you some more boring stuff to read, then I will pull it all together for you. So, let's take a little closer (we'll take an even closer look soon) at the parts of the photographic triangle.

breaking apart the triangle ISO - International Standards Organization: The ISO is how fast or slow a sensor can absorb light.. Basic ISO settings: 100, 200, 400, 800 The more light you have the lower your ISO setting needs to be. Conversely, the less light, the higher your ISO. BUT the higher the ISO, the more noise on your images (meaning it can appear grainy). Most good digital SLR cameras now can shoot pretty darn clear with very little noise up to 800, sometimes even higher depending on the camera. On a really overcast day, you might want to try shooting with an ISO of 400 and on a really sunny day you can easily shoot at 100. With each change of the ISO, you cut in half or double the amount of light the sensor can hold. How awesome is it that we don't need to buy a new roll of film for every light situation we are in??!!

breaking apart the triangle Aperture or f-stop: the amount or volume of light that reaches your film or digital medium. Basically the amount of light your lens lets into the camera. The size of the opening is called an f-stop. The smaller the f-stop (f/2.8) the larger the lens opening, the larger the f-stop (f/11) the less light let in. If you start at an aperture of f/4.0 and change to an aperture of f/5.6 that is called a stop down. Each stop down cuts the light in half and each stop up (f/4 to f/2.8) doubles the light.. Most cameras now also have 1/3 stops as well - as if it wasn t confusing enough huh? Basic camera stops: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22

breaking apart the triangle SS - shutter speed: The amount of time the light stays on the film or digital medium. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of time. Although the dial on your camera reads them as whole numbers (60, 125, 250) they are actually just fractions of a second (1/60, 1/125, 1/250). And there are shutter speeds that fall in between those as well

confused?! DON'T FREAK OUT YET! keep reading!!

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putting it together That's a bunch of confusing photographer lingo. Here's what helped me to "get it". The whole point of all of this is to let the appropriate amount of light into your camera's sensor to nail exposure. There are endless possibilities for correct exposure for any one picture. When you're using manual mode YOU choose the correct combination based on the creative output you are trying to get. For now, we are only going to focus on getting correct exposure. Later, we will worry about the rest. in order to get correct exposure follow this equation: shutter speed + aperture + ISO = exposure 1+2+3= 6 2+1+3= 6 3+2+1= 6 3+1+2=6 See how that worked? Regardless of which numbers were in each position, the output needs to remain the same. Same principle here...

putting it all together One more description to help you visualize... pretend the light is water (work with me, it's tangible). Now, let's pretend achieving proper exposure means filling up a giant water bin to a set line in one try. We'll use a faucet and buckets to fill the bin. Here's what it would look like... The faucet opening is the aperture. The wider the opening, the more water (light) comes out at once. The shutter speed would be how long we actually had the water on. The longer the water is on, the more water (light) we let in. Lastly, the buckets would be the ISO. The more buckets we have working to grab the water, the faster we can get enough water (light) to fill our bin.

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photography terms White balance is the balance of color temperature in your pictures. Pictures that are on the cool side have more blue color to them. Images that are warmer, have more orange in them. SOOC acronym for straight out of camera, meaning the image is exactly as it was taken with no post processing or editing done to the image. exposure how light or dark your image is. The exposure triangle consists of 3 settings: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. shutter speed the length of time the camera s shutter stays open. The longer it s open, the more light is let in. depth of field the distance between subjects in images that are in focus, and those that aren t.

photography terms aperture/ f-stop the size of the opening in the camera s lens which lets light in. The larger the opening, the more light is let in. The most confusing part of this definition is remembering that the smaller the f-stop the larger the opening. bokeh the way the light makes the blur in your photographs look. ambient lighting available light in a particular light. Light that sets the mood or feel of an image and the environment. This would not be lighting brought by the photographer- like a flash. blown image a blown image has overexposed highlights that are completely white. catchlights when a light source gives your subject s eyes to have beautiful highlights. You can read more about catchlights here.

photography terms grain grainy texture like tiny dots, also referred to as noise in photographs. The higher your ISO the more noise/ grain there typically is in the image. ISO measures the sensitivity to light in your camera s image sensor. The lower the number, the less sensitive the light. metering measuring the brightness of your subject using your camera s internal metering sensor. optical zoom a true zoom lens in which the lens physically zooms, as compared to a digital zoom in which the camera crops the images to make it appear closer. vignette used to draw interest to the center of an image by darkening the outer edges.

photography terms prime lens a lens with a fixed focal length. Zooming requires moving closer or further to your subject. zoom lens a lens that allows you to get closer or further from your subject without moving. lifestyle photography that focuses on real-life situations, and candid shots. rule of thirds a composition technique in which you divide your image into 9 equal sections, and align your subject with one of the lines used to divide the images. negative space empty space in the image used to make the image more interesting. leading lines used to draw the viewer s attention to the subject by using lines in the environment. Read more about leading lines here

photography terms fill the frame a composition technique in which the frame is filled with the subject. You can see more about filling the frame here. RAW unprocessed raw images recorded on the camera. post processing processing digital images after they are taken using a program such as Adobe Lightroom, or Photoshop. More often than not, I do all of my processing in Lightroom. You can get monthly subscriptions to Adobe Creative Cloud which gives you access to Photoshop, Lightroom, and other Adobe programs at a much more manageable rate than they were previously offered (As low as $10 a month). you can check out some of the cool things you can do with Lightroom here.

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metering Remember back at the beginning when I showed you how to read your settings?? If not, read this first, then jump back!! Metering is going to show you how your exposure is looking before you take the picture. You can look in the view finder and see the metering line(you'll know what i'm talking about when you check out page 5. You're going to want to get close to that center 0. ) Turn on your "blinkies". This will help you to recognize when you overexpose something. Check out this short post by Scott Kelby on how to turn on your blinkies.

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more on blinkies " b l i n k i e s " o r r a t h e r " h i g h l i g h t a l e r t s " a r e a b l a c k b l i n k i n g " s p o t " t h a t s h o w s u p o n y o u r i m a g e s w h e n y o u h a v e o v e r e x p o s e d a n a r e a o f y o u r i m a g e. T h e i d e a i s t o m a k e s u r e t h e s e " b l i n k i e s " a r e n o t o n a n y i m p o r t a n t d e t a i l s o f y o u r i m a g e. F o r e x a m p l e, b l i n k i e s w o u l d s h o w u p o n b o t h o f t h e i m a g e s above. t o p i m a g e - l i g h t c o m i n g i n t h r o u g h t h e w i n d o w. b o t t o m - l i g h t c o m i n g i n f r o m t h e s u n.

more on blinkies In both o f t h o s e i m a g e s, i f t h e b l i n k i e s h a d l a n d e d o n m y s u b j e c t s, I w o u l d h a v e h a d t o a d j u s t m y s e t t i n g s in order to expose correctly. Th e p o i n t o f t u r n i n g y o u r b l i n k i e s o n i s t o a i d y o u i n l e a r n i n g y o u r s e t t i n g s. Note: if y o u h a v e h a d y o u r c a m e r a s e t o n a u t o, a n d y o u a r e t r y i n g t o s e t y o u r c a m e r a t o s h o w y o u r b l i n k i e s, y o u m a y n o t b e a b l e t o s e e t h e m u n t i l y o u t a k e a p i c t u r e t h a t h a s s o m e a r e a s o f o v e r e x p o s u r e.

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what's covered in this book

notes

embracetheperfectmess.com

getting focus right There is nothing wrong with using automatic focus. I n fact, I never focus manually. It would be hard for me to manually focus on children who are moving constantly!! There are different settings for focus and understanding them will make a big difference in how sharp your pictures are. There are two different modes for autofocus. Option 1: OneShot AF (Canon)/SingleServo AF (Nikon) Option 2: AI Servo AF (Canon)/Continuous-Servo AF (Nikon).

getting focus right Option 1: seems to be the best choice for stationary subjects, and not so much for people or children. You push the shutter button halfway down, hear the beep that focus has been achieved, it locks focus, and you take the picture. This is actually the method I use. (more on this in a sec). Option 2: focuses the lens continuously, making it a good choice for tracking a moving subject, but it's not what I use. By default, the camera will let you take a picture at any time, even if the subject YOU chose isn t in focus. When you choose option 2, the camera is lens is continuously moving, I personally find it hard to lock focus on what I am hoping to capture. When I choose option 1, I pick the area I want to be in focus, and lock focus on that.

getting focus right Once you get that all situated, you need to set up your focus points (those little red boxes that light up in your camera! Most dslrs have 9-11). It depends on what you re shooting. If you activate all the AF points, then the camera will automatically select which one(s) it will use to focus once you activate the AF system. For most situations, autofocus is best if you set the AF Area mode to Single AF Point. You can set the single AF point to the center one, and then you would put the point on the area of your picture that you want in focus, press halfway down on the shutter button, lock it, and recompose if you need to. This way you are choosing what you're focusing on, instead of allowing your camera to "guess".

momtographer homework 1. Figure out how to turn off the flash on your camera, and LEAVE IT OFF! If you are a professional photographer, and you know how to use artificial light, you can ignore this. Otherwise, trust me on this one... 2. Figure out how to set the focus on your camerause your camera's manual. 3. Turn the blinkies on, and check them once you have taken a picture. I promise it will help you to see where you are having issues with your exposure. 4. Practice adjusting the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO on your camera. 5. Spend some time looking over your camera's manual for any additional information.

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let's dig REAL deep into these parts now! Now that you have a nice base understanding of the photographic triangle, and your camera, we are going to get to know these parts MUCH better. This is where we learn WHY we are focusing on any given element of the triangle. This is where we get to be creative, and a little artsy! Practice is key! Always!

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what is a kit lens? The kit lens is the lens comes with your camera when you purchase it. While not all cameras come as a kit, many do. Typically, the lens that comes with your camera when you purchase it, will not have the capabilities of lowering your aperture below 3.5 (and you would ONLY be able to lower your aperture to 3.5 when you were completely zoomed out. Why am I telling you this? This limits your options when it comes to adjusting your settings, and still obtaining correct exposure in certain situations.

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the amount of time the shutter remains open allowing light to enter the camera,

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