The Beginner’s Guide to Learning Photography

This guide is meant to accom­pa­ny the Begin­ner Accel­er­a­tor. Each sec­tion of the Guide that is asso­ci­at­ed with the first four lessons is labelled with 101 Cam­era Basics, 102 Aper­ture and Lens, 103 Shut­ter Speed, and 104 Man­u­al Expo­sure.
Book the Begin­ner Accel­er­a­tor

Core Photography Topics

Basic Camera Settings (Lesson 101)

  1. The Shoot­ing Mode Dial
  2. Adjust­ing the Viewfind­er for Your Eye­sight
  3. JPEG and Raw Image For­mats
  4. White Bal­ance
  5. The His­togram and Pic­ture Bright­ness

Introduction to Exposure (Lesson 101)

  1. What is Expo­sure?
  2. Expo­sure Val­ue and the Pho­to­graph­ic Stop
  3. Aper­ture and Expo­sure
  4. Shut­ter Speed and Expo­sure
  5. ISO and Effec­tive Expo­sure
  6. Reci­procity Law in Pho­tog­ra­phy

The Lens: Aperture, Focal Length, and Depth of Field (Lesson 102)

  1. The Aper­ture and its Effects
  2. Lens Focal Length
  3. Per­spec­tive and Cam­era Posi­tion
  4. Lens Aber­ra­tions and Dis­tor­tion
  5. Sen­sor For­mat and Crop Fac­tor
  6. Depth of Field

Shutter Speed and Motion (Lesson 103)

  1. Intro­duc­tion to Cam­era Shut­ters
  2. Choos­ing the Right Shut­ter Speed
  3. Freez­ing Motion with the Shut­ter
  4. Blur­ring Motion with the Shut­ter
  5. Cam­era Shake in Hand­held Pho­tog­ra­phy

ISO, Image Noise, and Dynamic Range

  1. Choos­ing the Right ISO for Your Pur­pose
  2. Image Noise in Dig­i­tal Cam­eras

Metering Light and Setting Exposure (Lesson 104)

  1. Meter­ing Light to Deter­mine Expo­sure
  2. Expo­sure Com­pen­sa­tion
  3. Tech­niques for Set­ting Man­u­al Expo­sure

Supplementary Photography Topics

The fol­low­ing top­ics are valu­able for expand­ing your pho­tog­ra­phy knowl­edge and skills. While they’re not part of the reg­u­lar group work­shop cur­ricu­lum, they can deep­en your under­stand­ing and enhance your expe­ri­ence.