Lessons
The Camera
19:20 2The Shutter
19:17 3The Sensor
10:45 4ISO
14:12 5The Lens
14:23 6Aperture and Depth of Field
15:59 7Focusing
15:07 8Metering
12:06Lesson Info
5 Steps of Photography
launder life. Asked what about shooting a group of people like 10 to 20 people? Do you send of the group? This is a composition question, or do you put them off the side? That would be pretty hard to put him off. Decide cause they would be so small in the frame. And so I would definitely put him front and center. And with a group that large, it would probably be good to get up higher so that people in the back rows you're shooting at a better angle, so you may want to stand on a chair or stepladder. Be careful. I know when they shoot very large groups of people, they will sometimes stand on a balcony or on the roof of ability because they want to shoot and see everyone's face. You want to see their faces as large on the frame is possible generally. Okay, maybe one final question. This is from Braddy Braddy Babs, who would like to know what is the best way to make sure the horizon is perfectly straight in a well. A number of the muralist cameras now have horizon levels that you can acti...
vate in the frame, so you can actually see it. A number of the SL ours will have a mode where you can turn it on in the back of the frame. And there is also little bubble levels that you can plug in to the hot shoe of your camera that will show you if you're tipping the camera left or right. And so I I'm not perfect with it myself. And so sometimes those tools will help me. But you can always fix things afterwards as well. But it's better to get it right early on if you can. Okay. Anything else you want to share with? Well, let's just finish this up. I got a little final bit. You guys ready for just a little bit more? Okay. So, uh, I've talked about all the individual components, but here is kind of my photo five step, which is my thinking process. When I'm going out to shoot pictures from the first one's pretty obvious the subject really be clear about what your subject ISS. What else is in the frame? Do you have the best subject? I know you want to photograph this flower, but is that really the best flour? It's the 1st 1 you saw. Maybe should go over there and check that other one out and so making sure that you have the right subject and there's no other distractions and they're distracting from that subject. Then I'm gonna think about what are my point of view options. Where can I stand? Where can I be in order to get this photograph? Sometimes it's where I discovered this subject. Many times. I need to explore the area to figure out what are my options available now? The final three are ones that are potentially changing in order. It depends on the subject, but usually from that point, I'm gonna be dialing in my shutter speed, my aperture in my eyes. So what type of photo am I gonna take? How much step the field do I need? What's the appropriate shutter speed? What's the lowest eyes? So that I can shoot this at once? That's done that I'm going to be thinking about nailing that focus what I need and focus how much depth field do I need? And finally, I'm gonna be working on composition now. As I said before, sometimes thes last three get mixed up and Maybe sometimes all of them get mixed up. And so it's not the order. That's important. But it's kind of the thought process and somewhat compartmentalizing each one of these. Although sometimes when you change the composition, you've got to change the focus. Or you gonna change where you stand in order for that to work. And so those are the concepts that you want a master as you go out in the field Now, once you take your picture. Was that a good picture? It was kind of wondering, Is this a good picture? I have to ask more knowledgeable people than I is this, like a photograph? Well, when you're early on, it's good to ask for that advice. But once you get to know your work better, you'll be able to be the best judge of your photographs. Now what makes a great photograph? In my mind, there's two overriding thoughts in this. First is that it's beautiful and second, that it's interesting, and I will let you know right now that my definition of beautiful is very wide ranging. I have seen pictures of a garbage dump that are beautiful. Okay, so pretty much anything can be beautiful if it's photographed in the right way. What I really want a photograph is a good subject. I want something to see, something to think about, something that's got beauty in it, and that runs across both spectrums. What's interesting are things that are new that I haven't seen. How I haven't seen that before. That's cool. I like seeing that. Or maybe I've seen that before, but you've photographed it in a new way that makes it very interesting. Harder to define is a mystery, and in many cases in this case it's not trying to tell the whole story. Okay, so maybe you go to Marrakech and you go to the bazaar. There says everything going on. There's this inclination to pull out the wide angle lens to just photograph. Everything you see doesn't do it very well. A lot of times you have to get in a little bit tighter and just show something really well. It's not gonna tell the big story, but it's gonna tell a little story really well. What's beautiful are things that are, well let things that are composed well and things that are captured at just the right moment. and we have a lot of different ways of recording our lives and our experiences and what we see. We could we could write an article. We could paint a picture. We can shoot video or we can take a picture. And photography is the best capturing moments. There's nothing that competes with photography for capturing visual moments. And, you know, I've never really tried to even teach how to capture the right moment. I think that's a really, really challenging skill set. It comes with time, but I have put together kind of some ideas and some thoughts, and so maybe this will help. As photographers, we live and die by the moments that come and go, We look at the world to see what we can see. We judge it not for what it is, but for what it might be wandering the land in search of good light. What we find intriguing is not all by sight. It is the capturing of a moment that is our endeavor, for only and photography do perfect days last forever. These moments are revealed to those that let go free yourself from distractions and your vision will grow, they say. everything has been shot then nothing is unique. View the world through fresh eyes and all its romance and mystique for what it is that we search. I cannot always say when it appears, then most certainly is. I will know the way one must be primed and ready to react for the chaos of the world lives in the abstract. So much as we love capturing these moments of bliss, we equally fear those that we not see or just barely miss. It is in the apprehension of these moments, that peak that photography emboldens us to continue to seek. Subjects are chosen by our interests and vision, but its history and experience that will determine our precision. The camera is critical, your eyes essential. When it sings to your soul, the moment is exceptional.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
user-f3f891
I'm not sure my first review posted. But I LOVE this class! John Greengo is a great, engaging teacher who is really adept at representing the concepts visually and excellent at explaining them verbally. I love how he goes through examples with photographs he has taken. Even though I only have a Nikon Coolpix digital camera, it does have Manual, Shutter priority, and Aperture priority modes. Through his class I've gotten a really good sense of how to balance ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. It's a great overview for me especially since I am new to photography, I can play around with some of these settings, and I have a greater understanding of what I might need in a higher level camera in the future. Money well spend! (For $29, this is an absolute steal). John Greengo is an awesome teacher and I hope to take more of his classes in the future!
Megan Wagner
John is extremely articulate and is a great teacher with lots of visual aids and metaphors to help understand photography. I have been doing photography for a few years now and this class was a tremendous help in boosting my knowledge and refreshing my memory in multiple aspects of photography. The graphics that John uses are helpful and he even goes through images and asks which settings would be best to use and will go through the why. He makes things easy to understand and is very clear about the information he provides. I am so glad I took this course and I would highly recommend it even to an experienced photographer. Thank you John Greengo!
a Creativelive Student
Bravo!!! I am an adventure traveler and have been to many places in the world. I recently completed hiking the ancient Inca Trail in Peru to Macchu Picchu with only my Canon Power shot camera. Even though I have some great photographs, I found that I wanted better quality and decided to buy an upgrade to a SLR camera. I have had no idea how to shoot in manual mode and even when I improved quality by shooting in Automatic mode with my new camera on a trip to Jerusalem, I knew I needed to get to manual as soon as possible. I have an upcoming trip to hike to Mt. Everest Base camp and so I decided to check into this course via Facebook. I am so glad I did! I now have enough information to begin to practice as I prepare for my trek. I am confident that if I need further information as I learn, that I can participate in future courses to improve my knowledge and capabilities. Thank you!