1 of 15

Contents Sections Who is this ebook for? 3 Why Digital Photography? 3 Shooting Modes 4 Exposure Triangle 6 Aperture 6 Shutter Speed 7 ISO 7 Focus 8 Composition 9 Rule-of-Thirds 9 Angles and Elevation 9 Depth of Field 9 Macro Photography 10 Zoom Photography 10 High-Speed Photography 11 Motion Photography 11 Lighting 12 On-Camera Flash 13 Speed Lights 13 Closing 15 About Nicholas 15 2 of 15

Who is this ebook for? When I first had the idea to put together this quick-start guide, I wanted it to be simple in order for it to be understood by the newest of all photographers. My hope is that anyone could pick up a consumer DSLR from Amazon, read this ebook and then immediately implement what I ve laid out in the following pages. If you are new to digital photography, this ebook is for you. You need to know how a digital camera works and how to use its settings to produce beautiful images. If you have any amount of years under your belt and you already know the workings of digital photography, this ebook probably won t give you any additional information. Regardless, I invite you to read it anyways. Simply put, it s for the newest photographers. :) Why Digital Photography? Contrary to popular belief, film is definitely still in use, but more-so with really high-end wedding and portraiture photographers. While I could do a whole ebook on just film photography, we are going to stick with digital as it is much less expensive to get into and work. Note: I shoot with Nikon cameras, so all of the references and training in this ebook are going off of that knowledge. If you shoot with something other than Nikon, the information will vary slightly, at times. :) 3 of 15

Shooting Modes If you look on any newer DSLR and even most point and shoot cameras, you ll notice several shooting modes. They are: M: Manual Mode A: Aperture Mode S: Shutter Mode P: Program Mode U1/U2: User Mode Flash Scene Auto Manual Mode: From this mode, you will have the most control over your camera. This is the apex; the area you want to work toward. When I first started photography, Manual Mode scared the fire out of me. Now, I feel like I wouldn t be able to exist without it. From here you will manually set and control your ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture (More on those later). Aperture Mode: In Aperture Mode you set your aperture to the desired f- stop (i.e. f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8, etc) as well as the ISO. Once you do that, the camera software steps in and fills in the remaining value, the Shutter Speed. This can be helpful if you are shooting in a brightly lit area, however, if shooting in lowlight, the camera is going to give you a slower shutter speed in order to create a well exposed image. This could cause a blurry, distorted image especially if you are not using a tripod. Shutter Mode: In Shutter Mode you set your Shutter to the desired speed (i.e. 1/60, 1/200, 1/4000, etc) as well as the ISO. Once you do that, the camera software steps in and fills in the remaining value, the Aperture Setting. This can be helpful if you are shooting in a brightly or dimly lit area, as well as if you are trying to show a movement, or motion in your photo. However, if shooting in very lowlight, the camera is going to adjust for a 4 of 15

high aperture setting in order to create a well exposed image. This could cause a very grainy, noisy image. Program Mode: In Program Mode you set your ISO to the desired ISO setting (i.e. ISO 100, 640, 2500 etc). Once you do that, the camera software steps in and fills in the two remaining values, the Shutter Speed and the Aperture Setting. Personally speaking, I ve never found a good use for this setting. You really lose a ton of control and don t know if your image is going to turn out blurry, or crisp with a shallow or deep depth-of-field. User Mode: These are 2 programmable user setting modes that simply make it easy to bounce back and forth. Example: If you were shooting an event and you had to shoot outdoors and indoors, you could set up the user settings and then each time you went indoors or outdoors just turn your settings dial to U1 or U2. While this can be helpful for beginners, once you really get a solid understanding of your camera, working and balancing in Manual Mode will be no problem at all. :) Scene Mode: Very simply what it states. You might use it for scenes. But honestly, you shouldn t. You lose too much control. Flash Mode: Don t use your on-camera flash. Like ever. The flashes that cameras come with now days just destroy photos and make the photos look like you were using a cheap point-and-shoot. Why would you buy a $1000-$3000 DSLR only to have your photos look like they came from a $120 point-and-shoot? You wouldn t. If you find yourself in a very lowlight situation where you are forced to shoot with a high ISO, wide-open aperture and slow shutter speed, simply set your camera down on a level flat surface and use the 2-, 5-, or 10-second timer. Auto Mode: Refer to Flash Mode paragraph. 5 of 15

The Exposure Triangle The exposure triangle is made up of the three adjustable variables on your camera. They are the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. Aperture - Aperture is simply how wide your lens opens when you take a photo. The wider it opens, the more light comes in. Also, the wider it opens, the shallower your depth-of-field. On the other hand, the more narrow your aperture, the less light that comes in, and you guessed it, the deeper your depth-of-field. Now, your aperture is a strange beast and there are a few things we have to cover in the way of depth-of-field (DOF). They are: Shallow DOF: When your subject is very precise and clear, but the background and foreground are out of focus. Some great aperture settings for this: f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8. These are particularly good for wedding and portrait photography as if gives that very coveted professional look. Deep DOF: When your subject is very precise and clear, but the background and foreground are also precise and clear. Some great aperture settings for this: f/8, f/ 16, f/22. This setting is great for landscapes, real estate photography and other photos where all of the details matter. Note: The lower the aperture number (i.e. 1.4, 1.8, etc) the faster the lens. 6 of 15

Note: When purchasing lenses, faster lenses will be significantly more expensive. Note: When talking about aperture, the f-stop number and the opening size are opposite. i.e. f/22 (large number) is a very tiny opening (almost a pinhole) creating a very deep DOF. On the other hand, f/1.4 (small number) is a huge opening, creating a very shallow DOF. Shutter Speed - The Shutter Speed is simply how fast your shutter opens and shuts. 1/4000 sec. is a very fast shutter speed that is excellent for capturing frozen motion (i.e. water droplets in midair from a fountain). 1/200-1/1000 sec. is a good range to hang out in when doing general shooting. 1/60 sec. arguably the slowest you can shoot while handholding. Any slower and you ll want to have your camera on a tripod or a level flat surface. 1/4 second or slower is called a dragged shutter. These are great speeds if you are trying to capture motion blur or shoot in very, very dark conditions (i.e. photographing stars/milky way on a moonless night). ISO - ISO is simply your camera sensor s rating of sensitivity to light. ISO 100 is very low and is the standard setting for shooting in bright sunlight. ISO 100 = Low, Low sensitivity. ISO 500 or so is great for overcast days. ISO 1200-4000 is good for evening, or darker sunsets. Really high end cameras on the market (Nikon D5, Canon 1D X MkII) can even shoot up into the ISO 50,000-102,000 range. At this rate, you can almost take decent images in complete darkness. Note: It s very important to understand that while upping your ISO setting will allow you to shoot in darker conditions, it will also introduce noise (graininess) in your photos. There is a tradeoff that you have to be ready to handle in this area. 7 of 15

Focusing - Auto vs. Manual AutoFocus - Basically that, autofocus is when you simply allow the camera to decide what the subject is and what to focus on. While it s good for remaining comfortable, and not having to do the work of manually focusing, this also takes a level of control away from you. This is especially true if you are shooting with a fast lens and have a very shallow DOF. For example, if you are shooting a close-up at f/1.4, your plane of focus is only going to be about 3/4-inch deep. So if you are trying to photograph a person s eyes, but you use AF, the camera is going to find the closest point to focus on, in this case the person s nose. At 3/4-inch DOF, the person s eyes are out of focus. This would have been a prime time to use manual focus. On the other hand, if you are shooting a landscape at f/22, autofocus is absolutely fine to use, as the whole scene is going to be in focus. There are other methods that can be used, like single point back-button autofocus (this is the only autofocus method I use). This is a slightly more advanced technique and camera setup. I ll cover this in a later ebook. 8 of 15

Composition Rule-of-Thirds - Basically, the Rule-of- Thirds (RoT) states that when composing a photo, you should place your subject along one of four imaginary lines that divide the image into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. While we call this a rule, you don t have to follow it 100% of the time. Be aware though, if you are going to go with a centered photo, you must make sure it s 100% centered. Otherwise it s going to look weird. Angles and Elevation - One way to give a good photo a little extra punch to make it a little more awesome is to adjust your angle or elevation in relation to the subject. Sometimes, crouching down a bit and shooting a little lower to the ground, or climbing a ladder to get an elevated perspective of your subject can make all the difference in the world. It can cause the viewer to take a second or third look, which ultimately could mean a sale of a photo print or booking a wedding or portrait shoot. Depth of Field - Earlier, we talked about DOF and how it works in relationship to our aperture. Now I want to talk about how DOF works in relationship to composition. When we, as photographers, go to photograph an image, many calculations have to take place within our cameras as well as our heads. One thing you need to take into consideration when composing a shot, is whether you want a shallow or deep depth of field. When it comes to weddings, portraits, or macro photography, the answer, 95% of the time, is that you ll want a shallow DOF. The opposite is true for 9 of 15

landscapes and real estate; for those, you ll almost always want a very deep DOF. Special Plug: To see some incredible examples of deep DOF landscape work, check out these two guys on Instagram: Tom Anderson @myspacetom; and Jay Lynch @jlynch_photography They have incredible work! Macro Photography - Basically the art of taking pictures of things really, really close up. In my opinion, this is one of the most fun methods of shooting. The details that you can capture, often unnoticed by the naked eye, are astounding. A quick tip: you ll want a fast lens and a very shallow DOF in order to showcase the minuscule details of your subject, whether it be a flower, an insect, or a wedding band. Zoom Photography - When it comes to something like zoom photography, it s a pretty straight-forward. The one thing I would say though, as a word of caution, when shooting at really long zoom lengths, always remember that a little bit of hand shakiness becomes a lot of zoom shakiness. If you have a lens with vibration-reduction or are using a tripod or are shooting at fast shutter speeds, you ll be ok. At slower speeds, you ll definitely need a tripod while having the lens at a zoom length. 10 of 15

High-Speed Photography - When you speak of high-speed photography, you are normally wanting to capture a moving object in pure, crisp clarity. Whether it be wanting to capture an Indy 500 race car speeding around a corner, or perhaps you want to capture the wings of a hummingbird in perfect stop-motion, one thing is certain: you need a fast shutter speed! This is a matter of personal preference, but when I do high speed photography, my minimum speed is 1/2000 second. From there, you can go to 1/4000 second, or even 1/8000, if your camera has the capability. Understand though, that if you are shooting in lower light, you are going to have to compensate for the fast shutter speed. This means a higher ISO (which could introduce graininess), and/or a wider aperture (which would introduce a shallower DOF; Not a bad deal unless you were wanting a deep DOF). Motion Photography - The purpose for shooting motion photography is that you want to capture - you guessed it - motion. You can approach motion photography from one of 2 basic methods, 1) Hand-held, slow shutter, while panning; or 2) Tripod, slow shutter, while keeping the camera perfectly still. The first option, hand-held, slow shutter, while panning, will generally get you an image that is mostly motion-blurred, with just a spot of clarity in the photo. The second option, tripod, slow shutter, while keeping the camera perfectly still, is excellent for getting crystal clear images with just a spot of motion. An example of this would be A water fountain where you want the entire image clear but the falling water to have the feathered motion blur. Here is a photo I got a few years ago in the Shenandoah Mountains. 11 of 15

Lighting When it comes to lighting, there are a few paths you can travel, and one terrible path which you should never travel! :) Let s talk about the do-not s before we talk about the do s. On-Camera Flash - Do not - I repeat - DO NOT use your on-camera flash (aka pop-up flash). I almost feel compelled to tell people to just break it off of their camera, but that would be pretty bad advice. What I did when first starting out is I got a piece of black electrical tape and taped down the popup flash, so that every time I saw the tape on the camera, I would remember how terrible of an idea it is to use the on-camera flash. Any professional that knows anything about photography will tell you the same thing. And if they tell you that it s ok to use the on-camera flash, they're either lying to you, trying to misguide you, or they aren't actually a pro. So, you may be asking What s the big deal with the on-camera flash? That s a very, very good question. For starters, it lights the image in all of the wrong ways. It blasts out and flattens your image, when the point and goal of photography is to create an image with emotion and depth. It makes your photo look like it was taken with one of those $3 disposable Kodak film cameras from the 90s. Why would you pay $1200+ on a beautiful digital camera, just to take photos that look like they were taken with a $3 j throwaway camera? The answer is, you wouldn t. So, what is the remedy for this? Obviously, by this point, we are working our exposure triangle to its fullest, so we will start there. If you are shooting in a location that you feel needs the light of a flash, first start by adjusting your ISO (as wide as it can go). This will introduce some graininess on the higher ISO range, but that can be adjusted in postproduction. Next, lower your shutter speed (slower). Depending how low 12 of 15

you go, you may need to have a tripod handy, however, if you can keep the shutter faster than 1/60 sec., you should be ok. Here is an example of a photo I took with the on-camera flash vs. exposure triangle vs. OFF-CAMERA FLASH (we ll cover that in the next section). On-Camera Flash Ambient Light Off-Camera Flash The first image, is the on-camera flash, and frankly looks terrible, flat and putrid. The second image, taken with ambient room light, while just adjusting the exposure triangle. The third image is far-and-away the very best of the three. It was taken using a Nikon SB-700 speed light, a very cheap transmitter/receiver set, and a $15 thirty-inch shoot-through umbrella (a soft-box would also work very well for this). If you want to see some of the gear I use, click here. Speed Lights - While it takes a little more money to get started with a speed light, the benefits far outweigh the cost. With a speed light, you have the ability to hook it into your camera s hot shoe and use as a very versatile light source. There is a word of caution though: you never want to point the flash directly at the subject. This causes the speed light to act just like the pop-up flash (which is what we are trying to get away from). :) Instead, turn the speed light head toward a wall or the ceiling where you can use it as a bounce flash. By doing this, you will fill the room with a beautiful, soft white light that will compliment and light your subject nicely. 13 of 15

You can also use a speed light for Off-Camera Flash by utilizing a trigger/ receiver set, a light stand, and an umbrella or soft box. This is the technique I used for the third photo in the example above. While this lighting technique costs the most out of all three examples described, it also turns out the most beautiful, depth-filled photos. Below is a wedding portrait that I photographed using the exact setup that I used in the third photo of the coffee cup. Nikon D610, with an 85mm f/1.4 lens at f/4.5, 1/200 sec., ISO 125, Speed Light at 1/2 Power. Straight from the Camera. No Photoshop or Retouching. 14 of 15

Closing I hope this short ebook has been helpful to you and will continue to make the digital photography learning curve a little easier for you. Obviously there are many more subjects and topics that could have gone into this ebook, however, my main goal in writing this has been to make something easy to understand, comprehend, and implement. If you have any questions about topics discussed in this ebook, or perhaps topics not covered, please feel free to book a consultation call with me. About Nicholas Nicholas is a Couples Choice Award-winning, published professional photographer, specializing in weddings and portraiture. He started in 2010, working full-time as a photographer while simultaneously holding a fulltime job. In June 2014, Nicholas quit his full-time job to work photography 100%. He has been married for 10 years to Leona, and has 3 children: Ethan, Lilly, and Hunter. They reside in the countryside of Virginia. 15 of 15