The most popular subjects for photography are people, landscapes, children, architecture and travel, and in Chapter Five we explore them fully, along with other subjects including sport and action, pets, close-ups, documentary and nude. As you learn specific techniques that are particularly effective in each area, so you will produce even better pictures.
For those who would like to go further, in Chapter Six we examine the challenges of taking pictures in the studio, and consider ways of making money from photography – perhaps even the potential for going freelance or turning professional.
Enhance and manipulate
Capturing your subject, though, is only the beginning. Once you have transferred the image to your computer a whole world of creativity opens up. You can improve colour, exposure and composition, or selectively lighten and darken specific areas. Unwanted elements can be completely removed. Images can be combined, filters added to creative effect, pictures transformed into black and white or toned. All these options are explored in Chapter Seven to get your creative juices flowing.
Looking forward
Photography has been in existence for over 160 years, and it is still as exciting and as interesting as it ever was. Collins Complete Photography Manual has been designed so that you can either read it from the front to the back or dip into each of the sections as you prefer – to find the information you need to become a better photographer.
We have sought not only to give you clear, practical advice but also to include inspirational, powerful pictures as a spur to your creativity.
Enjoy your photography!
chapter 1 Getting Into Photography
Everybody takes pictures-and virtually everyone now shoots digitally. The medium offers many advantages, and it is easy to see why digital has replaced film. For a start you can viewyour pictures immediately, which means that you can check you have captured exactly what you wanted before moving on. Digital images are also tremendously accessible when you transfer them from the camera. You can view them straight away on a computer or television, and then print them out on your own inkjet or at one of the many instant print outlets. Best of all, once you have your digital camera and removable card, taking pictures is more or less free.
The Changing Nature of Photography
These days, getting started in photography generally means getting started in digital photography. Although film dominated the medium for decades and digital imaging is a quite recent phenomenon, relatively few people now buy or use film cameras.
The early days of photography
The first permanent photograph was produced way back in 1826 by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce – and incredibly it involved an eight-hour long exposure! From this starting point, for all of the 19th and for most of the 20th century, taking photographs was a chemical process. Light-sensitive materials were exposed to light, developed in a darkroom, enlarged to the size required, and then fixed so that the image was permanent and would not fade. Since then the equipment and processes used have become ever more sophisticated – but the principles have basically remained the same.
The rise of digital photography
Over the last decade, however, we have witnessed a fundamental change in how we take pictures. ‘Wet’, chemical photographic processes have been replaced by ‘dry’, digital processes, revolutionizing every aspect of photography. The processes pioneered by Niépce and Daguerre have been dramatically superseded.
THE SONY MAVICA
Sony announced its Mavica digital camera in August 1981, but it was not until the late 1990s that production models were available in the shops. Technically the first Mavica was not a digital camera but a video camera, from which freeze-frame images were taken. Later models recorded onto floppy disks and then CDs, which made them extremely popular.
You might be surprised to learn that the first digital camera, the Sony Mavica, was announced as long ago as 1981, but it was not until 1990, when Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, that digital cameras became commercially available. Initially sales were slow, because the prices of digital equipment were high and the quality of output was low. However, as prices have tumbled and quality has improved, sales of digital cameras have sky-rocketed. These days not many people buy cameras that use film – sadly they have gone the way of the slide rule, the Betamax video recorder and the vinyl record. Digital is now the norm. In fact, some leading manufacturers have completely discontinued film models, and are focusing exclusively on digital.
So, when you first get started in photography, it makes sense to buy and use digital equipment, for all the reasons we gave in our introduction: economy, quality and immediacy.
Digital Compact Cameras
Digital compact cameras are small, portable and inexpensive. They are easy to use for beginners as well as being ideal ‘go anywhere’ cameras for more experienced photographers.
Megapixel ratings
The ‘megapixel’ rating typically found on digital compacts is a rough guide to the picture quality you can expect, although this is not as important now as it was when digital imaging technology was first emerging. This is because these days digital photography has advanced so much that just about any camera will take a reasonable image, regardless of the number of megapixels that it advertises. Five megapixels will give you excellent 6″ × 4″ prints and good enlargements up t0 7″ × 5″ or even 10″ × 8″. If you regularly want to print at larger sizes, go for a higher-resolution camera with 7-10 megapixels.
Zoom ranges
How long a zoom range do you want? Basic digital cameras usually have a ‘3x’ zoom range. In other words, this means that at the maximum telephoto setting you get a 3x magnification compared to the wide-angle setting. If you want to shoot subjects which are further away, you need a longer zoom range. Some compact cameras have zoom ranges up to 6x, but if you want more (10x or 12x), you should look for a ‘superzoom’ camera, though these are generally bulkier.
Tips for basic usage
Most compact digital cameras are designed for simple snapshot operation, and control the shutter speed and aperture automatically. If you want to control these manually, you will need to look for cameras with ‘PASM’ (Program AE, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority and Manual) modes.
Checkthe battery life of your compact. Some cameras may take as few as 100-150 shots on a single charge, which is not always enough for a full day’s shooting. Aim for a battery life of 200 shots or more.
Once you have acquired your digital camera, there are a couple of tips you can use in order to take better shots.
Firstly, use the LCD to compose shots when you can, rather than the camera’s optical viewfinder(if it has one). Optical viewfinders are good in bright light, when the LCD can become hard to see, but they do not give an accurate indication of the precise area that the camera will photograph.
Shutter lag
You will also notice that compact digital cameras suffer from ‘shutter lag’, in which case you press the shutter release, but the shutter