What is the Stop in Photography?

This arti­cle will teach you about one of the most fun­da­men­tal con­cepts in pho­tog­ra­phy — the pho­to­graph­ic stop. The stop is ubiq­ui­tous — it’s every­where — and under­stand­ing it will make you an effi­cient pho­tog­ra­ph­er. How­ev­er, to learn why the stop is so vital, we need to estab­lish a foun­da­tion of knowl­edge about the basics …

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How to Photograph the Moon at Night

The fol­low­ing arti­cle is a tran­script of the video above.  Hi there, my name is Paul, and this is Expo­sure Ther­a­py. In this video, I’ll explain why your pho­tos of the moon are often over­ex­posed and how you can fix them.  It’s sun­ny on the Moon I teach group pho­tog­ra­phy work­shops, and occa­sion­al­ly, stu­dents will …

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How to Check a Used Camera You’re Buying in Person

This arti­cle com­bines the scripts from the video above into a sin­gle resource, detail­ing what to check when buy­ing a used DSLR or mir­ror­less cam­era on Face­book Mar­ket­place or Craigslist. When you’re fin­ished, don’t for­get to check out my guide on inspect­ing a used lens in per­son. Buy­ing a used DSLR or mir­ror­less cam­era is …

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How to Check a Used Lens You’re Buying in Person

In this post, I’ll walk you through what to look for when inspect­ing a used lens in per­son. Once you’re done, check out my guide on what to inspect when buy­ing a used cam­era in per­son. New pho­tog­ra­phers who are pas­sion­ate about their hob­by quick­ly devel­op an enthu­si­asm for lens­es and the cre­ative pos­si­bil­i­ties they …

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Relation of F‑numbers to the Aperture

F‑numbers and the aper­ture have an inverse rela­tion­ship Hi there, my name is Paul, and this is Expo­sure Ther­a­py. In this video, I’ll explain the rea­son for the inverse numer­i­cal rela­tion­ship between f‑numbers and the aper­ture. This rela­tion­ship is a wide­spread point of con­fu­sion for many begin­ner pho­tog­ra­phers, who regard it as irra­tional or need­less­ly …

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How to Choose Your Next Portrait Lens—Part 2

Por­trait lens­es and focal length One of the most dis­cussed and mis­un­der­stood prop­er­ties of por­trait lens­es is focal length. If you ask your pre­ferred online com­mu­ni­ty for por­trait lens sug­ges­tions, chances are, many users will respond by rec­om­mend­ing spe­cif­ic focal lengths.  Per­haps the most com­mon­ly rec­om­mend­ed focal length for por­trai­ture on full-frame cam­eras is 85 …

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How to Choose Your Next Portrait Lens—Part 1

What is a pho­to­graph­ic por­trait? In pho­tog­ra­phy, a por­trait is loose­ly defined as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of a per­son whose face and expres­sion form an inte­gral part of the image. While the pre­dom­i­nant sub­jects of por­traits are peo­ple, they may also fea­ture ani­mals, such as pets. Per­son­al­ly, I’ve tak­en many por­traits of my pets. Many begin­ner …

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Choosing Your Next Prime Lens (Using Adobe Lightroom)

How do you select a focal length for your first prime lens? Hi every­one, my name is Paul, this is Expo­sure Ther­a­py, and in this video, I’ll demon­strate how Adobe Light­room Clas­sic can help you select your next prime lens. Most of the stu­dents that attend my pho­tog­ra­phy work­shops bring gear pur­chased as part of …

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Composition Techniques for Beginner Photographers

A tran­script of the text fol­lows below. Many new pho­tog­ra­phers, espe­cial­ly those who don’t have some artis­tic back­ground, have trou­ble with com­po­si­tion. I’ll try to dis­till the idea of com­po­si­tion to its core, dis­cuss how our minds process visu­al infor­ma­tion in a way that could sab­o­tage a casu­al approach to com­po­si­tions and share a few …

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3 common mistakes by beginner photographers (and how to fix them)

[The fol­low­ing is a tran­script of the embed­ded video.] Are you dis­ap­point­ed by the qual­i­ty of your pic­tures because they look pix­e­lat­ed, or the colours don’t look authen­tic, or they’re sim­ply too light or dark, and you just want them to look good?  Let’s sort it out. My name is Paul and this is Expo­sure …

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