
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
05:52 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
Shutter Speeds for Handholding
Let's talk about handholding the camera and safe shutter speeds for holding the camera. First off, there is a correct way and an incorrect way of holding the camera. And the correct way is with the thumb up. So as you grab a camera, obviously you will probably grab it with your right hand, because there's a nice grip on most cameras. But what do you do with the left hand? And a lot of newbies to photography just kind of grab the lens like this, and the problem is, is that leaves your elbow out here in the wind without any support. If you grab it with your thumb up like this, it forces your elbow a little bit more down to your torso. And I have found in my own unscientific testing that I can hold the camera one to two stops steadier by holding the camera properly than improperly. Also when you get into longer lenses, it's kind of nice 'cause you can support the lens and control the fine tune movements with your fingers without trying to support the weight and do the movements at the sam...
e time. The rule of thumb for handholding is that you need one over the focal length in a shutter speed in order to hold the camera steady. If you have a 60th of a second, you will need one 60th of a second in order to handhold that camera steady and get a sharp photo. It's a general rule of thumb, which means it is not accurate all the time. But it's kind of a good general rule. So if you have a 70 to 300, if you're at 70 you would need one 60th of a second, if you're at 300, you would need one 250th. You could say one 300th but we kind of just round things out here just to be simple. Your normal 28 millimeter lens needs about a 30th of a second. And if you have a wide angle lens, 16 to 35, somewhere between a 15th and a 30th of a second. And so that's the idea behind the one over the focal length rule. Now one feature that does play a little bit of havoc in a good way with this, is any sort of stabilization or vibration reduction system that your camera and/or lens system may have. This is gonna allow you to shoot at a slower shutter speed than you would normally be able to hand hold because there are actually lens movements or sensor movements that are compensating for your movements and giving you a steadier image. So normally in a 200, with a 200 millimeter lens, you would need one 200th of a second in order to get a sharp photo. But if you have a stabilization system of some sort, it's quite possible that you are gonna be able to get sharp photos with that system. So let's look at Nikon's for a moment. Nikon makes a number of different lenses. They have lenses with built-in vibration reduction, and it varies and you have to look at the data for your lens. If it's four stops, three stops, or two and a half stops. So, what does three stops of VR mean? Well with the 300 2.8 you would normally need 250th of a second. Three stops mean you can go down and shoot shots at probably 125th, 60th, and down to a 30th of a second, handheld with that lens. Quickly look at some of the Canon options. Most of the Canon lenses over the last, well almost 10 years now are four stops of stabilization. There's a few older ones that are less than this, but most of them are four stops. So with a 35 millimeter lens, normally you could handhold it at a 30th, let's go four stops lower. That takes us down to a 15th, an eighth, a quarter, all the way down to a half second potentially. And so, once again, this is, you know, theoretical. Hopefully this is what it can do. I have found that in many cases, the manufacturers over estimate how good they are by one stop. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. And so, in theory, let's take a 50 millimeter lens, everything from 60 faster should be sharp, everything from 30 slower is gonna be blurry. So I did my own test, and here are the results of my test, is that I was exactly spot on with the rule of thumb on this case. But I did find between a 30th and an eight of a second I got a mixture of sharpness and blurriness. If I tried really hard in a lot of shots, I did get a sharp picture in there. And everything below a quarter of a second was always blurry. And then I turned on the stabilization system that my camera had, and I was able to get sharp photos all the way down to an eighth of a second. I then got kind of a mixture for a couple of shutter speeds, and then once again everything else was blurry. And so the stabilization on the right side of this graph indicates that I was able to reach a little bit further. I mean it doesn't compensate for those of you thinking that you're gonna replace tripods with stabilization systems. No, it helps you for a couple of steps. Now I tried the same testing with the 24 millimeter lens. And once again, I was exactly spot on with the rule of thumb down to a 30th of a second, got a mixture, kind of sharp, kind of blurry images. And then with stabilization I was able to get all the way down to a quarter of a second. Now with the 200 millimeter lens, I found that I was slightly better than the average bear when it comes to holding that 200 millimeter lens steady. I got a couple of mixed in the middle there, and then lots of blurry stuff after a 15th, unless I was using stabilization then I could occasionally get some sharp shots all the way down to an eighth of a second. Now the thing is, is that these are gonna be different for everybody and every camera system out there. But I wanted to do the test just to see how good am I at holding a camera steady? So one of the things to be aware of, is that if you do have a stabilization system, on most systems, most particularly Canon and Nikon, it is recommended that you turn the system off when you are putting the camera on a tripod. And the reason for that has to do with a bit of a feedback loop. In you cameras and your lenses are lens elements that are moving around and you don't want them moving when everything else is perfectly rock solid on a tripod. There are a few little exceptions to that, but for the most part it's best to turn this system off. Now there are some cameras that do a little bit better job. I think Olympus is one of the ones that do a little bit better job of not having to go in and electronically turn it off in the menu system. But it's something that is definitely worth a little test because it's a way for you to be shooting on a tripod and be getting blurry photographs. So it's something you need to be careful about. And I know what a lot of the new photographers are thinking about. Tripods, I don't know that I want to be that type of photographer. Well if you think about the range of shutter speeds, there's a lot of neat things that you can do with handheld photography. But there's a lot of really cool things that you can only do with a tripod. And if you say, I don't want to use a tripod, that's your choice. But you are ruling out a huge part of the photography world. And it's a lot of fun too. And so, I highly encourage using tripods because they allow you to shoot under low light conditions. Get shots that you would never be able to get handheld. So, with tripods, let me just give ya a few quick tips. We'll talk a bit about these more in the gadget section, but you're gonna get nice sharp shots. You're gonna be able to get more depth of field, which is a topic in an upcoming class. You end up throwing away less shots, because you just, you take a little bit more time and care about composing your photographs. And so it's one of the first and easiest keys into getting better photographs, is taking photos from a tripod. And there are plenty of photos that I would have no hope of taking in a handheld situation. Satellite dish down in New Mexico. Waterfalls, with that blurry water look to them. In Cuba, a little mixture of light and still action there, and so using a tripod often using one of those cable releases in order to get sharp photos. So you have another learning project, and this is a hand-holding test to see how good you are at holding your camera and working with different lower shutter speeds. It's good to know, kinda your outside boundary of what you can hand hold.
Class Materials
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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!