Artists use all kinds of media and tools to present to the world in tangible form what they have in their minds. They naturally tend to use tools they have predilection for. Thus, we have painters with their canvass, brushes, and colored paints; film directors using actors and motion picture cameras; actors emoting with their whole body, facial expressions, and hand gestures to evoke feelings and state of mind as demanded by their directors. Photographers are artists who use still cameras in portraying different scenes they compose in their minds and letting others into their world of personal imagery. The photographs they produce are evocations of their visual wizardry put into photographic paper, or in digital versions if they used modern digital cameras instead of the traditional film cameras of old. But artists as they are, most of them need to go through a photography course in order to get the technical side of things done properly.
A camera is a gadget full of technical parts that need to be understood so it can be manipulated correctly and so produce pictures with the right exposure, white balance, and other settings that have to be studied and learned. You can always pick up whatever kind of digital camera, verify that it has all the things needed to take pictures, such as batteries and memory cards, point to your subject, press the shutter and see if you got your picture right in the camera monitor. And being a digital camera, you can always delete the shot and take another one. Do you think doing this makes you a photographer already? Yes, you could be, but you cannot be called a great or even a good one. There is more to being a photographer than being able to grab a camera, point to your subject and shoot it.
A good photography course will teach you all the necessary steps and techniques to turn you into a photographer worthy of being called a good photographer. But if you want to be more than good, you have to invest not only in the best cameras, accessories and gears but also in the best photography course that you could find. There is a wide difference between a skilled and an unskilled photographer and you could easily distinguish them from the quality of the pictures they come up with. One thing is to be good in visualizing or composing the contents and subjects of a picture and it is another thing to know how to manipulate light in the set and the camera controls in order to focus and emphasize the subject correctly such as the aperture and shutter speeds. You can be an excellent visual composer but if you don’t know how light plays in the subject and surroundings, you could easily ruin what could have been a great shot. You could recreate a scene countless times if you were in a studio or a set, but if you are shooting pictures outside on location or covering an event where people move a lot and the weather constantly changing, you could really miss out on the best angle and lose a great opportunity for a great picture if you are not familiar with the camera controls and how to position yourself to take advantage of available light.
Photographers start working from their imagination and if there is little to imagine, then their output can be limited and uninspired. A little help from quality photographic gears and accessories can do wonders, as well as those imaging software that you can use to process the pictures. But these are incidentals and you can do without them if you know the principles behind photography. If you are a beginner, you can start with a basic photography course where you can learn the do’s and don’ts of taking pictures. Most of these courses are simple and easy to understand. You must have of course, at least a good DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera. This is the modern digital version of the cameras used by professional photographers. This type of camera allows the photographer to see the image through the actual lens so what you see is what you get. The first lessons will most likely be about light and how it influences the final quality of your photographic compositions. This will be followed by lessons on how to use your camera and about manipulating and adjusting the camera controls. This will be about the technical aspects of photography.
Taking a photography course online is an excellent way to learn a new skill or enhance what you already know. Both beginners and advanced photographers can learn a lot and get advice from other photographers who may have a new tip or two for them. Lifestyle Learning Direct offers several photography courses where you can learn how to improve your skills in composing pictures and using your camera. You can also learn how to use post-production techniques to make sure that all your pictures are excellent examples of your work.
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