Photography Tutorials Part 2: Basic training

In part 2 of our basic training tutorial, we will look into
1.Taking the Picture
2.composition
3.Paying attention to details.

Hope you all have got your cameras ready. The first thing you should do is get to know the camera you own. Go through its manuals (a few consider the manual to be untouchable). Going through your camera's manual is very important as it will let you explore the capabilities of the camera. In case you have lost your manual or damaged by wear and tear, fret not, as you can always find a pdf version of the camera's manual from the manufacturer's webpage.

Alright, now take that camera, set the image quality to the maximum limit your cam allows, i.e if its a 10mp camera, put it to 10mp and select fine picture quality. Put it in Full Auto mode(some cameras are in auto by default) and shoot a picture you like! Review the picture. Ask yourself these questions without worrying about the technical OSD(on screen displays) information.
(1). Does the picture look good? (2). what does the picture lack?

The picture should obviously look good to you atleast, its important that you dont delete this first picture as few years down the row, you can always look back to those old days and have a good laugh ;)
Ah IMG_0001.jpg, nostalgic! ^_^

Now if doesnt look good, let me tell you what went wrong. The problem is either with the composition, i.e the way the particular frame was composed, or maybe an uninteresting subject, i.e the elements in your picture or it could be with really low or harsh or bright lighting.

Let me start by explaining how to get the composition correct. Strictly speaking, composition is the way you frame or compose your picture, in simpler terms, its your personal choice on how or which angle/perspective you like to shoot. A single scene could be composed in a hundred different ways by hundred different photographers! So let me stress that its you who decide what subjects to include in the picture, what not to, which angle suits the scene and so forth.
But there's this one basic rule called the "rule of the thirds". Its just a fancy name that suggests you NOT to place a single subject in the dead centre of the frame. See the example below.

fig 1. 

                                   fig 2.

In fig 1, the subject has been placed in the dead center with no special attention on the scale of the subject. The 9 column overlay grid you see on the image is your guide that abides rule of the thirds. This is accesible in your cameras under the menu settings, for instance, in canon cameras, you can enable it by pressing the transfer/print button. Pressing twice will disable it.

In fig2, we have recomposed the frame, by moving the subject a little off centre paying attention to the overall scene. The image as compared to fig 1, looks much better right?

This composition is your vantage point where you live by, but sometimes, on the other hand, breaking the rules of the thirds actually does some good! With the digital technology, dont be afraid to take as many shots as you wish and review them as unlike our film cameras, we need not worry about shelling out cash on film rolls. you can always erase the picture from your camera's memory card when full or seems awkward.

Now to the final part, paying attention to details. This requires you to look, i mean, really look around and carefully observe the things up, below and around you! Most often, i hear my friends who are amateurs as well, complaining to me, "Hey! i've got nothing to shoot!".  Its a lame excuse as far as i can say. Look around, it isn't like we live in a void! We live in a world where there is nature's play everywhere, from bugs to animals, plants and tress, millions of people, architecture, art is everywhere! You just need to learn where and how to look. This no one can teach you but you. Learn to observe the day night cycle, the colors of light during the different time of the day. A very same scene looks bright in mid day, but dull and romantic in twilight. I hope you get an idea what I am talking about. Remember, just look around.

Experimentation by trial and error is the key to learn and improve in photography. If you have been reading this far, wow, thank you! Go ahead, post the images you shot here or hotlink them, I will go through them and give you hands on tips on how you can improve them. Afterall, sharing knowledge improvises each other! ^_^

Some important thing to remember is NOT to point your camera directly at the sun, as it will badly damage your eyes and the camera's sensor chips. Its good to know that electric equipments and water do not get along well, so if your camera is not waterproof, drop the idea of trying some underwater photography!!

The next part of the tutorial will teach you about taking really wide angle shots. Stay tuned and keep visiting :)