Photo Tip Friday: Understanding your Digital Camera and Photography

by Mary Denman    @MaryDenman

With a new year dawning and lots of new cameras for Christmas, I thought I'd start out with walking you through an assessment of what you want to do with your photography. This will lead to you figuring out what your strengths and weaknesses are. 

There are so many aspects to learn about photograph. Exciting isn't it? Or maybe overwhelming?

Let's try and get rid of the overwhelming part so you can enjoy your camera and capture special moments of your life. 

Even before we get into the technical or artistic parts of photography, I want to think about your experience with it so far.

PART 1: Ask yourself these questions:

Do you just want to take pictures for yourself? Your family?
Do you want to use your photography on your blog or for social media?
Do you want to enjoy your own photographs more?
Do other people ask you to take pictures for them?
Would you like to become a professional?
Would you like to learn more technical tips to help control your camera or the artistic parts?


Once you have a better idea of where you want to go with your photography, then you can start thinking about the areas where you need to learn more. 

PART 2: Now that you've done that, let's talk about different types of photography. See if any of these catch your photographer's eye or your interest: 

• Portraiture
• Family Shots
• Children
• Weddings
• Athletic Events
• Pet Photography
• Nature
• Birds
• Wild Animals
• Landscapes
• Flowers
• Waterfalls
• Urban
• Architecture
• Street Photography
• Gardens
• Fashion 
• Food
• Travel Photography
• Black & White

Hopefully, you see some things on the list that spark your interest or are already a passion  of yours.

How can you improve your photography? 

There are so many ways. I'm going to give you another 2 lists to look over. If there's anything in particular you'd like to learn more about, please leave me a comment. I will go through any comments and write posts to help you.

PART 3: Understanding your camera.

TECHNOLOGY:
DSLR Cameras
Lenses
Filters
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
Manual Control


PART 4: Understanding more of the artistry.

COMPOSITION:

• Lighting
• Brokah
• Bright Light
• Low Light
• Rule of Thirds
• Golden Ratio
• Leading Lines
• Perspective
• Framing
• Close-Ups
• Macro
• Zoom
• Fish-Eye
• Positive/Negative Space

Once you've assessed where you are, you can better figure out where you're going. 

And this will help me know best how to help you!

I'm excited to help you with photography tips in 2016. So please go through the list and leave me comments on how I can best serve you.

Let me know what you love about photography and how you'd like to improve! 

TWEETABLE:
Understanding your Digital Camera and Photography (click to tweet)

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