Lessons
Class Introduction
17:26 2Welcome to Photography
13:08 3Camera Types Overview
02:00 4Viewing Systems
28:43 5Viewing Systems Q&A
08:45 6Lens Systems
32:06 7Shutter Systems
13:17 8Shutter Speeds
10:47Choosing a Shutter Speed
31:30 10Shutter Speeds for Handholding
08:36 11Shutter Speed Pop Quiz
09:06 12Camera Settings
25:35 13General Camera Q&A
14:38 14Sensor Sizes: The Basics
15:33 15Sensor Sizes: Compared
19:10 16Pixels
20:13 17ISO
21:13 18Sensor Q&A
13:34 19Focal Length: Overview
11:09 20Focal Length: Angle of View
15:09 21Wide Angle Lenses
08:48 22Telephoto Lenses
25:23 23Angle of View Q&A
09:29 24Fish Eye Lenses
10:39 25Tilt & Shift Lenses
23:42 26Subject Zone
17:19 27Lens Speed
09:56 28Aperture Basics
08:46 29Depth of Field
21:49 30Aperture Pop Quiz
13:23 31Lens Quality
18:30 32Photo Equipment Life Cycle
03:57 33Light Meter Basics
09:25 34Histogram
15:25 35Histogram Pop Quiz and Q&A
10:58 36Dynamic Range
06:03 37Exposure Modes
15:58 38Manual Exposure
09:38 39Sunny 16 Rule
05:54 40Exposure Bracketing
10:18 41Exposure Values
27:21 42Exposure Pop Quiz
26:43 43Focus Overview
16:15 44Focusing Systems
05:15 45Autofocus Controls
11:56 46Focus Points
07:35 47Autofocusing on Subjects
20:19 48Manual Focus
07:52 49Digital Focusing Assistance
03:40 50Focus Options: DSLR and Mirrorless
04:58 51Shutter Speeds for Sharpness and DoF
05:20 52Depth of Field Pop Quiz
12:14 53Depth of Field Camera Features
04:54 54Lens Sharpness
09:58 55Camera Movement
05:20 56Handheld and Tripod Focusing
04:32 57Advanced Techniques
07:12 58Hyperfocal Distance
06:50 59Hyperfocal Quiz and Focusing Formula
04:36 60Micro adjust and AF Fine Tune
05:34 61Focus Stacking and Post Sharpening
06:00 62Focus Problem Pop Quiz
18:07 63The Gadget Bag: Camera Accessories
25:30 64The Gadget Bag: Lens Accessories
12:46 65The Gadget Bag: Neutral Density Filter
20:43 66The Gadget Bag: Lens Hood and Teleconverters
08:55 67The Gadget Bag: Lens Adapters
05:43 68The Gadget Bag: Lens Cleaning Supplies
04:34 69The Gadget Bag: Macro Lenses and Accessories
15:57 70The Gadget Bag: Flash and Lighting
05:08 71The Gadget Bag: Tripods and Accessories
18:50 72The Gadget Bag: Custom Cases
11:20 7310 Thoughts on Being a Photographer
07:37 74Direct Sunlight
25:04 75Indirect Sunlight
18:49 76Sunrise and Sunset
18:39 77Cloud Light
14:48 78Golden Hour
09:50 79Light Pop Quiz
07:53 80Light Management
14:00 81Artificial Light
13:56 82Speedlights
16:02 83Off-Camera Flash
27:38 84Advanced Flash Techniques
09:49 85Editing Overview
08:24 86Editing Set-up
08:06 87Importing Images
16:45 88Best Use of Files and Folders
20:54 89Culling
20:56 90Develop: Fixing in Lightroom
18:13 91Develop: Treating Your Images
10:53 92Develop: Optimizing in Lightroom
14:51 93Art of Editing Q&A
06:01 94Composition Overview
06:53 95Photographic Intrusions
10:10 96Mystery and Working the Scene
16:18 97Point of View
09:11 98Better Backgrounds
16:02 99Unique Perspective
11:02 100Angle of View
15:06 101Subject Placement
41:14 102Subject Placement Q&A
05:18 103Panorama
07:39 104Multishot Techniques
13:57 105Timelapse
16:13 106Human Vision vs The Camera
20:07 107Visual Perception
08:35 108Visual Balance Test
22:56 109Visual Drama
12:25 110Elements of Design
28:57 111The Photographic Process
12:28 112Working the Shot
27:38 113The Moment
04:42 114One Hour Photo - Colby Brown
1:04:32 115One Hour Photo - John Keatley
1:03:05 116One Hour Photo - Art Wolfe
59:01 117One Hour Photo - Rocco Ancora
1:01:20 118One Hour Photo - Mike Hagen
1:01:20 119One Hour Photo - Lisa Carney
1:00:52 120One Hour Photo - Ian Shive
1:08:00 121One Hour Photo - Sandra Coan
1:10:29 122One Hour Photo - Daniel Gregory
1:06:07 123One Hour Photo - Scott Robert Lim
1:05:41Lesson Info
Micro adjust and AF Fine Tune
All right, something else for all of you Nikon and Canon users, well, Pentax too. Anybody who uses an SLR. Your camera uses a phased detection focusing system. We talked about this earlier. This is that focusing system that's below the mirror, and what it does is it is estimating the distance from you to your subject. It's an estimation, and sometimes estimations are slightly incorrect for a variety of tolerance reasons. If you find that when you focus on a subject that it's always focusing in front of where that subject is or focusing behind that subject which is what we call back focus, and it's consistent, then there is a problem with your camera. Now you can send it back to the manufacturer if you want, or you can fix it yourself. And the problem is that in the early days of auto focus, they wouldn't let us fix our own cameras, and so we had to send our camera back. We had a camera that was constantly back focusing. So we send it in to the manufacturer. They recalibrate it, they se...
nd it back to us, and we go out and we shoot and we continue to have the problems. And the reason was is because it's not only a problem with the camera, it's a match to the lens. And so you need to able to match the lens and the camera body and so, you can still send it off and have somebody do this for you but it's something that you can do yourself if you're willing to take a little bit of time and play a little bit with the camera. In order to do this test, what you need to do is you need to focus on a target. And I usually just take a ruler or a yardstick, and then you need to see if you are in focus in front, or behind it. So I take another ruler or a yardstick, and I line it up and I focus on the target, and I see if I'm consistently focusing in front or behind that particular subject. Now you can buy a device for about a hundred bucks, that allows you to focus on the target on the left, and then see if you're in focus either in front or behind that particular subject. We're not talking about a random error here or there. We're talking about things that are consistently causing a problem forward or back. And so as I say, I'll just use a ruler and a yardstick. And so I'm focusing on this kind of ruler on the left, and then I'm gonna measure over on the right hand side if I am in focus or out of focus. I'll shoot a bunch of photos, and here are the results of one. Now in the cameras that allow you to make these adjustments, which is called a micro focus adjustment on Canon, or a fine tune focus on Nikon. There is gonna be an adjustment usually from minus 20 to plus 20. What is one? I don't know, it's a little bit. It's a little bit in one direction. And you can see I just decided to do a test where I would shoot it at every 10. And you can see at minus 20 I'm a little front focused because the 10 is supposed to be in focus. And so when I got my camera it was at zero which means it is front focusing ever so slightly. This is something I may not notice in actual shooting. But in this case, I think what I did is I set my camera to four, because four seemed to be a little bit between where these were and that the focus would be right about spot on in that case. And so you shoot a bunch of test photos. You see what little adjustment fixes it for that lens, and you have to do this for each lens you have, all right. So if you have five lenses you're gonna need to make five adjustments and your camera will record minus five and plus two and plus three, for each of your different lenses, whatever it needs to be. Now some of the better systems will also allow you to adjust for the wide angle setting and the telephoto setting of a zoom lens. Now if you want to do this, you're gonna need to get all your camera tripod stuff out. Set up a little test scene to shoot, a little tabletop set up. You're gonna need to shoot at a shallow depth of field and as high a quality as possible. And so this is where you should probably be shooting raw images as well, maximum file sizes, shallowest depth of field. You can shoot an aperture priority, or manual if you want, either way. And then what I do is I manually unfocus the lens and I let the camera auto focus on the subject. And I will let the camera do this, I'll shoot a couple of test shots because I want to see if it's consistent. It's not just a one time problem, it's a consistency problem. And then you're gonna play your images back, you don't even need to download 'em to a computer. You can usually just play them right back on the camera and check 'em right there to see if there's something consistent about the focusing problem. And so, this is something that is, something that's important for SLR users to know. Now as far as to who really needs to do this, it's typically people who have lenses that give you very shallow depth of field. If you're a portrait photographer, and you're constantly shooting with your 70 to 200, 2.8 lens at 2.8, this would probably be something wise to do. If you're a landscape photographer or an architectural photographer who shoots everything all in focus, this isn't gonna play much of a difference in the way you operate your camera. Not gonna have much difference. And so once again, people with fast lenses, it's gonna be a little bit more noticeable with longer telephoto lenses as well. And so if you have some of these bigger more expensive wide open lenses, this is something that you're gonna wanna at least check out, because if you're getting inconsistent results, that's not a good thing. I wouldn't tolerate that.
Class Materials
Free Download
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.
Eve
I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!
Vlad Chiriacescu
Wow! John is THE best teacher I have ever had the pleasure of learning from, and this is the most comprehensive, eloquent and fun course I have ever taken (online or off). If you're even / / interested in photography, take this course as soon as possible! You might find out that taking great photos requires much more work than you're willing to invest, or you might get so excited learning from John that you'll start taking your camera with you EVERYWHERE. At the very least, you'll learn the fundamental inner workings and techniques that WILL help you get a better photo. Worried about the cost? Well, I've taken courses that are twice as expensive that offer less than maybe a tenth of the value. You'll be much better off investing in this course than a new camera or a new lens. I cannot reccomend John and this course enough!