Introduction to photography. There is nothing. Four words. A whole world. Congratulations, you have embarked on a wonderful and deep ocean. Learning photography may seem easy, but it’s just a mirage. I explain. Now the cameras make almost everything for you It seems that you buy a SLR and now you can take good photos. Or is what most people believe.
I confess that even I myself believed it a long time ago. And I got the hit of the century. That is why I can speak with propriety, from the experience of successes and failures. And that is what I bring you today. So that you don’t fall from the same height from which I fell, or that you do like me, that you get up as many times as necessary.
With this article I intend to give you an introductory guide to photography but without dying trying, or what is the same, without throwing in the towel two days after leaving all your savings in a brand new camera. Because if. There are many who leave it abandoned in a drawer out of desperation or end up shooting automatically, which is almost worse. I don’t want this to be your case. So here we go. Settle down.
Introduction to photography: basic concepts
The first step is to be clear that having a better camera is not going to take better photos. The camera is just a tool at the service of the photographer. First you have to learn photography, from there, you will be able to get the best out of any camera. Clarified this, we can continue 😉 .
Do you know what aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, focal length or depth of field mean? If you do not know these terms, start your initiation to photography there. You will not be able to advance until you are familiar with them. More will come later, but these are basics.
You can now have the best SLR in the world that if you don’t master them you won’t be able to go beyond the automatic mode, and believe me, for that you better shoot with your smartphone that weighs less and you can also achieve interesting photos.
But how? You have two options:
- The fast way, sign up for a photography course with which you can save a lot of time and headaches. For example, in Escuela del Fotografo you have one online, to start from scratch and at your own pace.
- be self-taught It can? Yes, you can learn photography in a self-taught way. I did it, but for that very reason I recommend option 1. If you know where to walk and you follow this guide more or less, still, but if not, you will lose a lot of time, you will suffer more frustrations than usual and then, when looking Back, you’ll regret it. It would be very helpful if you got some guide material, such as our ebook The magic of photographing in manual mode or a simple book like the one we recommended by Henry Carroll.
Another option is through our articles, if you start from scratch, I recommend that you start here. Preferably in this order and please don’t binge in one day. Put this article somewhere close at hand and spend a day on each of the following articles so you can experiment with your camera and practice:
- exposure triangle
- depth of field
- Focal length (if you missed it when we told you about it in the depth of field article 😉 )
In case you are more into video, I leave you with this video about shutter speed, on our channel you will also find another very clear video about depth of field.
This will be a first phase, the most basic. When you have this clear, even if it is practicing at home, without leaving the sofa (you can) you can move on to the following concepts. One more link. Some sound a bit ugly, but they are not as ugly as the name and we explain them to you very easily:
And, of course, don’t forget to learn how to hold the camera correctly.
Once you have passed the technical part, or in a parallel way, if you see that it motivates you, that it is the fresh air you need, update yourself on composition and light as a creative element.
For now start with this, little by little you will discover your own needs depending on the disciplines that you like to practice the most.
Read your camera’s instruction manual
I know that this is the most tedious part of the introduction to photography of all. The instruction manuals are truly infumable, I am aware. But it is the only way to truly know your camera. Because you can always pull the Tras-Ton method, but expect it to take longer and you may lose a lot of features along the way and never even know they’re there.
For me, the most effective thing is to read the manual with the camera in hand. It’s the way to get to know your camera inside out, to enter into symbiosis with it and not lose photos by getting to the moment to look for the buttons.
practice photography
This is essential to learn photography or any other discipline. That practice makes perfect you will have heard it thousands of times. And it is a truth like a temple. It is so. You can read a lot, articles from the Photographer’s Blog, books, courses, whatever you want, but if you don’t put into practice what you learn, it won’t do any good. You will only have wasted your time.
And practicing is not waiting to have a heart attack landscape to go take pictures. practice is take advantage of any moment whether you are at home or on the street. It’s about practicing, not about achieving the photo of your life. Step by step, everything will come, but if you wait for the ideal opportunity to practice, you will end up getting bored and wasting precious time.
Have your camera always at hand and take advantage of every moment. Once you master your camera and the basics, you can go up the steps and look for more favorable situations, remember that houses start to be built from the foundations, never from the roof. Here the same 😉 .
And if you don’t know where to start practicing, we have something for you: all the photography exercises you may need to improve in this art.
tolerate frustration
If I told you that in your initiation to photography you will not get frustrated at any time, I would lie to you. The good news is that frustration is not bad. On the contrary, the bad thing is to throw in the towel. The problem is not in the frustration as such, because if you know that it is something normal and you learn to manage it, the only thing that will lead to it is growth. The problem is getting discouraged by any photographic disappointment or frustration.
When the dreaded frustration hits, use that energy to improve, to seek the results you expect, to practice and grow as a photographer. On her day, our colleague Iaio wrote an inspiring guide to dealing with her.
Management of criticism in the initiation to photography
Closely linked to frustration, criticism arrives, as if it were the same producer of two films 😉 . The reviews are there. You will find them. Good and bad. Constructive or derogatory. When you expose your work to the world, you are giving others the opportunity to value it and talk about it. And this is good.
What happens is that there are some people who haven’t learned the art of making constructive criticism and most of us haven’t been taught to accept it, and hunger and the desire to eat come together. And we have to digest it alone.
The trick, which seems easy to say but must be carried out 😉 , consists of Ignore all those criticisms that do not contribute anything to you. Those that have no foundation, those that are not justified. Both the good and the bad. Listening to someone who doesn’t know about photography tell you your photo is good, period, it’s not helpful. On the contrary, you may really believe it even if it is not and that does not help you to move forward, but to settle into your comfort zone.
My advice is what filters and stay with all those criticisms, good or bad, that have a reason behind them. These are the ones that will help you enhance what is good and improve what can be improved. That is, to enhance your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
Develop the photographic eye
There are those who are born with a gift to see photos and there are those who develop it, 90-95% of normal people (unscientific data) belong to the second group. Only a privileged few are born with the gift in their veins.
The good news is that you can learn and develop. For this it is necessary to see many photos of great photographers (this, for example, can be a guide list with which to start). Luckily, in this era we have it really easy. You have the option to browse photography books, but also to immerse yourself in the network. Instagram, Flickr, 500px, etc they are resources you can use to develop your photographic eye.
On the other hand, observation is very important. Take photos even when you don’t have a camera. Observing your surroundings, studying the light, mentally framing or using your hands as a frame will help you prepare for when the time comes for a great photo. Because on many occasions the great photos arrive because the photographer has known how to foresee them a few moments before.
Do you want to learn photography?
Obviously you can’t learn photography in a day, nor can you play the piano in a week no matter how much you buy the best piano in the world, unless you’re a child prodigy of course (but there’s only one Mozart). Sound will sound, but noise will sound, quality 😉 , but noise after all. Just like you can’t learn a language, play tennis well or sail a ship in a few days. Everything requires time and effort.
If you consider that this is too much for you, if photography does not arouse that much interest or you think it deserves so much effort, you just want to capture some memories but decent ones, maybe you should rethink if this is your ideal hobby. It is possible that by learning composition and with a compact camera that offers good features, you will achieve your goal without breaking your head and without spending your savings on SLRs and various lenses. Which would be just as lawful and respectable.
But if you like it so much that learning photography doesn’t seem like an effort but a pleasure, an investment of time, your body asks for it, photography runs through your veins and without clicking you feel short of breath… then you’re in your place. Now yes, from the community of photography lovers we welcome you with the red carpet and everything. It is a long but wonderful task and, remember, the important thing is not to reach the goal, but enjoy the way while you arrive.
If you have found this article useful, I ask you a small favor, share it on your favorite social networks. Send it to those newcomers who are lost. Help me shed a little light on the path of initiation to photography. Thanks.
Happy photography.