Photography for Beginners: DSLR Photography Camera Settings

1. Class Introduction: Welcome to the photography camera settings course for beginners. Hello, my name is Chris Barker and I've been a pro photographer for 30 years. I've also been teaching other photographers how to take their skills to the next level for the last seven years, when you've completed this course, you'll know what all the camera settings and different modes your camera has and how to use them. In fact, some of the lectures include projects to help you retain what you learn by applying what you learned. So there's no better way to quickly learn your camera settings by practicing what you learn. Knowing your camera settings will also help you become a better photographer. So throughout the course, I'm going to provide additional tips and suggestions for taking better photos and being more creative. Now this photography course covers all of the following camera modes, focusing, shooting, drive, quality, and metering modes. Plus, you'll also learn what the white balance mode is and how to use it. Once you've mastered those camera modes, you're also going to learn the three different creative modes that will help you become a better photographer. This includes the aperture priority mode, shutter speed priority mode, and the ISO automobile. Then I'm going to share with you a little secret that's built into your camera that will make it super easy to shoot and full manual mode. But you may be wondering, why would you want to shoot in full manual mode? Well, shooting in manual mode will allow you to take back creative control from your camera and allow you to fulfill your creative vision. So if you're ready to learn about all the different camera settings and Modes your camera has. And to become a better photographer and the process, please sign up for my course. Now, I look forward to helping you achieve your creative goals. Thanks for listening. Have an awesome day. 11. What Is Aperture?: Hello and welcome to the lesson on aperture priority mode. In this lesson, I'm going to share with you what the aperture priority mode is. What an aperture means. Some photography terms you're going to need to know in how to use the aperture for creative effects. So in order to use the aperture priority mode, you're going to need to select either the letter a if you're a Nikon user, or the letters avi if you're using a Canon camera. So what exactly is an aperture? Well, the aperture is a hole in your lens that controls how much light is passed through to your camera. And it works very similar to how our eyes work. So when we move between a very bright and dark environment, the iris of our eyes will either expand or shrink, and I'm guessing you've probably experienced this before. So for example, let's say if you're outdoors on a very bright and sunny day, then you go into a building that has no lights and the shades are covering the window. So it's very dark. Your eyes will not adjust to the new low light environment immediately. So what happens is the iris of our eyes will get larger and when they do, they will let in more light. So with our lenses, if you want to let in more light, you can do so by changing the aperture setting of lens. So if you take a look at your lenses, you're going to see something that kinda looks like an iris or a diaphragm on the inside. When you change the aperture, setting, the diaphragm inside will open or close the hole. And this is going to allow more light to enter through the lens. So apertures are represented by numbers, and these numbers are known as f-stops. So when you're reading about articles about photography or talking to another photographer, he or she may say something like I shot this image at F2 0.8, while the f is short for f-stop. Now, depending on the lens you have, the aperture settings can range from f 1.2 to F32. So here I have a lens I purchased about 20 years ago. And the aperture numbers are actually located on the lens right here on this little ring. Now newer lenses are not going to have these aperture numbers on a ring. Instead, we have to control the aperture settings directly on our cameras instead. So right now this lens is set to f 16, and you can see that the hole is very small. But if I open this up to F2, 0.8, we can see the diaphragm or the circle or the hole inside gets much larger, which means more light can get into our camera. So take a look at this image here and you can see how the size of the hole changes based on the aperture selected. Now the one thing you may notice is that the smaller the f-number, the larger the opening. And this is probably opposite of what you think it would be. And it does take time to get used to this. But with practice you're gonna get the hang of it. So as you can see, F22 has a smaller opening versus 1.8. Now the other thing your aperture does is it also controls the depth of field, which is how much of your image is in focus. So the larger the f-number, like F22, the sharper the image will be from the foreground to the background. Then the smaller the f-number, like F2, 0.8, the less and focus the image will be in the background. So the aperture you select will determine how much of your foreground and background are in focus. So this is what gives you creative control over your camera. Just remember, if you want to blur out the background, then choose a smaller f-number like 2.8. And if you want to create your background and foreground so that they are both in-focus. Use a larger f-number like F6 teen or F22. Okay, so now it's time to practice what you've learned. Go ahead and set up your camera in aperture priority mode. And I'll give you the project in the next lesson.