Take your Best Shot E-Book

Kevin Wilson

• Herausgeber: Elluminet Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 69

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Written for complete beginners, this photography book is easy to read and understand, even if you have never worked with a camera before, or a budding photographer who wants to improve. It has step-by-step tutorials covering the basics of digital cameras and photographic techniques.

In this guide you'll explore

Types of cameras available

How digital cameras work

Camera Cards

Lenses and Filters

Techniques used to take better photographs

How to align and compose your photos

Suggested camera settings

Understanding f-stops, shutter speed and ISO

Understanding depth of field and focus

Taking photos and using shooting modes

How to transfer your Photos to your computer

Basic Photo Editing and Touchup

Leseprobe

Take your Best ShotThe Illustrated Beginner’s Guide to Digital Photography

Kevin Wilson

Take your Best Shot

Copyright © 2021 Elluminet Press

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from the Publisher. Permissions for use may be obtained through Rights Link at the Copyright Clearance Centre. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.

Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

iStock.com/golibo, PeopleImages, ymgerman. Photo 130859010 © Kaspars Grinvalds - Dreamstime.com. Photo 103557713 © Konstantin Kolosov - Dreamstime.com. Yuri Arcurs via Getty Images

Publisher: Elluminet Press

Director: Kevin Wilson

Lead Editor: Steven Ashmore

Technical Reviewer: Mike Taylor, Robert Ashcroft

Copy Editors: Joanne Taylor, James Marsh

Proof Reader: Steven Ashmore

Indexer: James Marsh

Cover Designer: Kevin Wilson

eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. Any source code or other supplementary materials referenced by the author in this text is available to readers at

www.elluminetpress.com/resources

For detailed information about how to locate your book’s resources, go to

www.elluminetpress.com/resources

Table of Contents

Digital Cameras 10

How a Digital Camera Works 10

Optics 11

Crop and Full Frame Sensors 12

Storage 13

Image Formats 16

Digital SLR (or DSLR) 17

Mirrorless Cameras 19

Bridge Cameras 20

Compact Point-and-Shoot 21

Smart Phone Camera 22

Some Points to Consider 24

Exploring your Camera 26

LCD Panels & Menus 27

Compact Cameras 28

SLR Cameras 30

Mirrorless Cameras 31

Optical vs Digital Zoom 32

Macro Modes 33

Light Metering Modes 33

Shooting Modes 33

Other Features 34

White Balance 34

Exposure Compensation 34

Burst Mode 35

Time Lapse 35

Slomo 35

Filters & Effects 35

Panoramic 36

Timers 36

Image Stabilizers 37

Storage 37

Lenses 38

Lens Basics 39

Focal Length 39

Types of Lenses 40

Prime Lens 40

Zoom/Telephoto Lens 41

Macro Lens 45

Fisheye Lens 46

Lens Filters 48

UV Filters 49

Polarizing Filters 49

Neutral Density Filters 52

Other Equipment 54

Photography Tripods 55

Monopods 57

Video Tripods 58

Bags 58

Lighting 60

Light Sources 61

Light Modifiers 62

Reflectors 63

Types of Light 64

Lighting Angles 66

Front Lighting 66

Side Lighting 67

Back Lighting 67

Background Lighting 67

Composing your Shot 70

Lining up your Shots 71

Rule of Thirds & Golden Ratio 71

Golden Triangle 75

Horizon Lines 76

Leading Lines 77

Vanishing Points 78

Looking Room 79

Head Room 80

Depth 82

High Angle 84

Low Angle 85

Bird’s Eye 86

Dutch Tilt 87

Depth of Field 88

Exposing your Shot 90

Aperture 91

Shutter 92

ISO 94

Exposure Triangle 95

White Balance 97

Metering 98

Focus Modes 99

Taking Pictures 100

Shooting Modes 101

Auto Mode (A+) 101

Aperture Priority (AV) 101

Shutter Priority (TV) 101

Full Manual Control (M) 101

Preset Scenes (SCN) 101

Low Light Photography 102

Night Photography 103

Using a Flash 104

Freezing the Action 106

Touching up Photos 108

Import Photos 109

Camera RAW 112

Opening 112

Reading a Histogram 113

Adjusting a Photo 115

Leveling Photos & Removing Lens Distortion 116

Video Resources 120

Using the Videos 121

About the Author

With over 20 years’ experience in the computer industry, Kevin Wilson has made a career out of technology and showing others how to use it. After earning a master’s degree in computer science, software engineering, and multimedia systems, Kevin has held various positions in the IT industry including graphic & web design, digital film & photography, programming & software engineering, developing & managing corporate networks, building computer systems, and IT support.

He serves as senior writer and director at Elluminet Press Ltd, he periodically teaches computer science at college, and works as an IT trainer in England while researching for his PhD. His books have become a valuable resource among the students in England, South Africa, Canada, and in the United States.

Kevin’s motto is clear: “If you can’t explain something simply, then you haven’t understood it well enough.” To that end, he has created the Exploring Tech Computing series, in which he breaks down complex technological subjects into smaller, easy-to-follow steps that students and ordinary computer users can put into practice.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the staff at Luminescent Media & Elluminet Press for their passion, dedication and hard work in the preparation and production of this book.

To all my friends and family for their continued support and encouragement in all my writing projects.

To all my colleagues, students and testers who took the time to test procedures and offer feedback on the book

Finally thanks to you the reader for choosing this book. I hope it helps you to use enjoy Digital Photography with greater understanding.

Have fun!

Digital Cameras

Since the 1990s, digital cameras have become more and more common, and more affordable. Because of this, it’s easy to get started with photography and you don’t need to buy a professional camera to get good results.

There are various different types of cameras on the market, from full size SLRs to compact point and shoot.

In this chapter, we’ll take a look at

How a Digital Camera WorksCrop and Full Frame SensorsStorageImage FormatsDigital SLR CamerasMirrorless CamerasBridge CamerasCompact Point-and-ShootSmart Phone Camera

Lets take a look at the basics of how a digital camera works, some of the different types of cameras on the market.

How a Digital Camera Works

In principal, a digital camera is similar to a traditional film-based camera. There’s a viewfinder to aim and frame your shot, a lens to focus the image onto a light sensor, and some means of storage.

Optics

In a tradition film based camera, light-sensitive film captures images and is used to store them after chemical development. Digital photography uses a combination of an image sensor and memory storage, which allows images to be captured in a digital format that is available instantly with no need for a film development process.

Although the principle may be the same as a film camera, the inner workings of a digital camera are a little different. Instead of film, a sensor called a charge coupled device (CCD) or sometimes CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) is used.

Each sensor element converts light into a voltage proportional to the brightness which is passed into an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). This converts the fluctuations of the CCD into a discrete binary code. The brighter the light, the higher the voltage and the brighter the resulting pixel. The more elements, the higher the resolution, and the greater the detail that can be captured.

The output from the ADC is sent to a digital signal processor (DSP) which adjusts contrast and detail. It then compresses the data and stores it as an image on the storage medium (such as an SD memory card).

The CCD or CMOS sensors are fixed in place and it can go on taking photos for the lifetime of the camera. There’s no need to wind film between two spools either, which helps minimize the number of moving parts.

Crop and Full Frame Sensors

A full frame sensor is 35mm by 24mm in size and tends to offer the best image quality.