Free photography guide
A Practical Guide to Learning Photography
Short, plain-language lessons on your camera, exposure, lenses, and light. Read them in order, or jump to what you need. Each chapter follows a course in the Beginner Accelerator, so you can read ahead or review afterwards.
What’s in the guide
Six chapters, from setting up your camera to shooting in manual.
01
Basic Camera Settings
Set up your camera before you shoot: the mode dial, the viewfinder, file formats, white balance, and the histogram.
Taught in 101 Camera Basics →02
Introduction to Exposure
What exposure is, how stops work, and how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO trade off against each other.
Taught in 101 Camera Basics →03
The Lens: Aperture, Focal Length, and Depth of Field
How aperture, focal length, and camera position shape your photos, plus depth of field and crop factor.
Taught in 102 Aperture and Lens →04
Shutter Speed and Motion
How to freeze action, blur it on purpose, and keep camera shake out of your photos.
Taught in 103 Shutter Speed →05
ISO, Image Noise, and Dynamic Range
When to raise ISO, and what it costs you in noise and detail.
Taught in 101 Camera Basics, revisited in 104 →06
Metering Light and Setting Exposure
How your camera measures light, when to override it, and how to set exposure manually.
Taught in 104 Manual Exposure →Further reading
Topics outside the course curriculum that are worth knowing once you have the basics.
Learn faster with a teacher beside you
Reading helps, but most people need to practise with someone who can spot what’s going wrong. The Beginner Accelerator covers the core of this guide hands-on, over one weekend, in a group of six or fewer.