Photography course. The beginning: useful advice

White balance

First of all, we need to ensure that the photograph is well exposed and has a correct white balance. If we shoot in daylight or in overcast weather, or in an environment lit by tungsten bulbs (the classic ones at home) or fluorescent bulbs (commonly called neon) or even candlelight, the color dominants change because the color temperature of the scene being photographed changes.

There light from a tungsten filament It is a warm light (with red dominants) and has a colour temperature of around 2700° Kelvin, while a snowy slope in the high mountains has a cold light (with blue dominants) and a colour temperature of around 8000° Kelvin.

To avoid subsequent interventions with a photo editing program, it is often a good idea to use the automatic settings and preset programs of our camera because they are designed specifically to deal with the most common situations in an excellent way. Therefore, whether it is a question of fireworks, of children's birthday photos, of landscapes or whatever else, select the program that comes closest to the scene on the settings dial, concentrate on the shot. and… trust the result.
If instead you want to “personalize” the shot then you will have to think about the results you want to obtain but also about what will oppose your idea.

As for the white balance, as I said before, I suggest always leaving it on automatic because the results are always quite correct.

Camera: Sensitivity

There sensitivity you can increase it up to 800 ISO before the electronic noise starts to get annoying. The shutter speed must be strictly equal to the focal length you are using even if your camera has an anti-vibration system, therefore, if you use a focal equal to 35mm use 1/30 of a second; if you have a very powerful zoom available, you will have to adapt the shutter speed to the focal length even more: are you photographing with the 200mm? Well, never go below 1/200 of a second.

If you are forced to use a slower time because there is little light and the diaphragm it is completely open you can increase the sensitivity beyond the 800 ISO and then eliminate the electronic noise with a specific program: “Noise Ninja” is one of the best around but, unfortunately, it is a paid program.

Remember then that the noise It is more evident in the low lights, so if the scene you are photographing has darker parts it is better to overexpose by 2/3 of diaphragm. If you work in manual (i.e. if you set both the shutter speed and the aperture) you will have no problems modifying the exposure, but if you are using the camera in automatic mode, either with shutter or aperture priority, to overexpose or underexpose you will have to look in the settings for the function that modifies the exposure, usually marked by the symbols /-.

Camera: shutter speed/aperture pair

When you work in automatic also pay attention to the time/diaphragm couple whichever you choose: to please you, the camera may set a very high sensitivity with an unexpected increase in electronic noise.

To make the most of the qualities of your lens, then, try to never set the diaphragm at the two extremes of the scale, but rather prefer an intermediate value, between 5,6 and 8, because the lenses are made to perform better in the middle rather than towards the edges or center.

Therefore, holding a diaphragm closed halfway you will be able to make the most of the “cleanest” part of the lens, with fairly limited chromatic aberrations and barrel distortions. When shooting against the light, try to use the built-in flash to brighten everything in the foreground, otherwise you will have very dark subjects with perfectly exposed backgrounds, and no photo editing program will be able to solve the problem.

If you are in mountain and you want to photograph a river with a “trail” effect, use a shutter speed of 1/10 of a second or slower and a very closed aperture, and if the light is too much, lower the sensitivity to a minimum. If you still can't manage to use such a slow shutter speed, mount a neutral density filter on the lens that further reduces the exposure. For camerascompact that do not have a thread, there are also pressure-type ones on the market. Do not forget to place the camera on the easel and to use theSelfie to avoid the micro blur.

Overexposure and underexposure

Finally, in another article we mentioned the fact that the exposure meters of all cameras are calibrated to correctly reproduce the 18% gray, so everything that is lighter will become darker and vice versa. What to do? Overexpose the brightest scenes and underexpose the darker ones. The example that we all know is the photo taken on the snow or on a beautiful white beach and in full sun which, who knows why, always turns out dark! Well, to get the desired result just overexpose by a couple of stops.

Complete photography course

1. Photography course: which camera to choose?
2. Photography course. The beginning: useful advice
3. Photography course: sensitivity
4. Photography course: blurred or moved?
5. Photography course: the confusion club
6. Photography course: the diaphragms
7. Photography course: the battery
8. Photography course: how to challenge the camera