Photography Explained Tutorial Series
Virtually everyone has a camera nowadays. We carry them around everywhere and use them ubiquitously, such is the versatility and convenience of mobile devices.
Photography means different things to different people. Getting a quick snap on your phone to show someone later, before deleting it. Memories of your holidays or children growing up of course. Documenting what's happening around you, endeavouring to capture the perfect shot or indeed, making a living.
I can remember being interested in taking pictures going back quite a long time, but I never set out to create something specific or even thought very much about what I was doing. I would take a camera with me on holiday or to special events, snap a whole bunch of shots, delete the 99% of them that were rubbish and keep the rest to look through in the future. Probably how most people get started.
Digital cameras were improving and becoming more affordable almost every month. I would upgrade every couple of years, getting happier and happier with the images each new model could produce and for a while that's what I thought was the top and bottom of it. The quality of your photos depended pretty much on the quality of your camera and nothing else. I remember thinking how easy it must be to become a professional photographer. All you had to do was buy the best camera possible.
The penny dropped while I was playing with my latest shiny new camera one afternoon. I wondered for the first time why my pictures weren't coming out how I expected them to. A picturesque garden scene, which should have been full of vibrant colours, looked flat and lifeless in all my photos. That finally prompted me to try and understand what all those buttons and dials decorating the camera actually did, rather than just taking loads of shots on different settings and hoping for the best.
It only took a small increase in understanding before the art of photography dawned on me. Once I realised the creative possibilities, I wanted to learn more which led to greater curiosity, so forth so fifth, and just like learning a musical instrument when you practise a lot, the quality of my images began to rapidly improve. Literally from one day to the next.
I moved to Berlin a few years ago but the city made an impression on me from my first visit. I don't think I've ever been to such a unique and fascinating place and it wasn't long before I was carrying my camera with me most of the time, not just to special events.
This was the next part of my learning curve. Berlin is packed with famous landmarks and historic buildings which have been photographed countless times. How could I do something different and keep it interesting? I started to think more carefully about how I was taking photos and what I wanted to accomplish with them to see if I could present the city in my own way somehow.
I've found that people in this field are extremely generous in sharing their knowledge and hard-earned experience. I've learnt a huge amount from everyone I've met or worked with, as well as from blogs or articles I've read while researching one topic or another. The kind of stuff you could pay a small fortune for if you took a photography course.
I realised quickly that I needed to get my head around the fundamentals then just go out and take loads of shots. If I'm not happy with the results, I try to work out what went wrong and if I am, just as importantly, I make sure to understand what made that session a successful one.
In these few tutorials I want to explain some of the things I've learned in the simplest way I can. I've stuck to what I believe are the basics because, really, they're all you need as a starting point. That and the desire to improve, plus the imagination to interpret your surroundings and interests in unique and thought-provoking ways. Combining these factors will earn you some quality photographs and enable you to learn far more as you continue with your photography. I hope you find them useful.
