EXPOSURE CONTROL CORE SKILLS Exposure control is the process of making sure that you capture your image

with the exactly the right amount of light needed to produce the effect you wish to obtain. You measure light
levels with an exposure meter—usually one that is built into the camera or a separate handheld meter—and
with the aid of meter readings, you adjust the shutter, aperture, and ISO settings. It is important to control
exposure accurately and carefully, as it not only ensures you obtain the best from whatever system you are
using, but it also saves you the time and effort of manipulating the image unnecessarily at a later stage.One
effective way to work with colors is to ensure the main colors in your pictures are complementary pairs—such
as red–green, yellow– violet, orange–blue. Try to capture subject matter with complementary colors; it is not
as easy as you might expect. But you will find that, with practice, complementary color pairs will catch your
eye even if you are not consciously looking for them. As you refine your technique, see if you can use color
complementaries to separate out elements in your image—use the language of color to express and
communicate your response to a sceneCOLOR COMPOSITION CORE SKILLS Color can be used to express
emotion in an image. Pale, soft colors are restful and tranquil, while rich, vibrant colors burst with energy and
demand attention. Color is integral to visual experience, but in photography it is almost a separate subject in
itself. The basis of successful color photography is to use color in its own right, instead of merely capturing the
many hues of a scene. Color as subject One approach is to photograph colors themselves rather than the
objects they imbue—that is, to try to treat the subject as if it were the incidental feature in the scene. You do
not need to learn to see in color, but you do need to learn to see colors for themselves—entirely separate
from the thing that displays the color. This change of mental focus could radically transform the entire way
you photograph. You evaluate a scene not in terms of whether it is a marvelous vista but in color analytic
terms. You will observe that colors vary not only with hue—the name given to a color—but also with intensity,
or saturation. Soon, you will appreciate another quality: the value, or brightness, of a color. With more
experience, you will appreciate that certain colors can be captured in their full richness, whereas others will
appear weaker. Understanding each dimension adds to your ability to compose with color. Color wheel The
colors of the rainbow can be arranged in a circle (the “color wheel”): the basic primary colors CHANGING
VIEWPOINTS CORE SKILLS Always be on the lookout for viewpoints that give a new slant to your work. Don’t
ignore the simple devices, such as shooting down at a building instead of up at it, or trying to see a street
scene from a child’s viewpoint rather than an adult’s. Your choice of viewpoint communicates subtle messages
that say as much about you as they do your subject. Take a picture of someone from a distance, for example,
and the image carries a sense that you, too, were distant from that person. If you photograph a scene of
poverty from the viewpoint of a bystander, the picture will again have that distant look of having been taken
by an aloof observer. Lively markets are popular photographic subjects, but what do they look like from a
stallholder’s position? If you enjoy sports, shoot from within the action, not from the sidelines. Practical points
Higher viewpoints enable you to reduce the amount of foreground and increase the area of background
recorded by a lens. From a high vantage point, a street or river scene lies at a less acute angle than when seen
from street or water level. This reduces the amount of depth of field required to show the scene in sharp
focus. However, from a low camera position subjects may be glimpsed through a sea of grass or legs. And if
you look upward from a low position, you see less background and more sky, making it easier to separate your
subject from its surroundings. ▲ Less can say more At markets and similar types of location, all the activity
can be overwhelming—and the temptation is often to try to record the entire busy, colorful scene. However, if
you look around you, there could be images at your feet showing much less but saying so much more. In
Uzbekistan I noticed next to a fruit stall a lady who had nothing to sell but tERCEIVED DEPTH OF FIELD
Acceptable sharpness varies according to how much blur a viewer is prepared accept. This, in turn, depends on
how much detail a viewer can discern in the image, which, in turn, depends on the final size of the image (as
seen on a screen or as a paper print). As a small print, an image may display great depth of field; however, as
the image is progressively enlarged, it then becomes more and more obvious where the unsharpness begins,
thereby making the depth of field appear increasingly more limited. ▲ Right aperture Even an ultra wide-
angle lens will offer insufficient depth of field when objects are close to the lens and very distant unless a small
aperture is used. In this shot, the charm of the scene would have been lost had either the château or
foreground flowers been unsharp. The smallest aperture on this lens was set to give maximum sharpness, but
the long shutter time needed meant that a tripod was necessary. ▶FOCUSING AND DEPTH OF FIELD
CONTINUED CORE SKILLS Autofocusing (AF) Cameras are able to focus automatically on your photographic
subject by using one of two systems. The active system, which uses a beam of infrared (IR), is now largely
obsolete but was formerly much used in compact AF cameras. In the passive system, however, sensors analyze
the image to determine whether it is in focus and, if not, how best to bring it into focus. One passive method
detects the contrast of fine detail in the image: unfocused images present as low-contrast, because they lack
detail. The lens is then made to change focus so that contrast is at a peak, corresponding with a sharp image.
This method requires good light levels to work well. Another passive method samples a part of the image,
then splits it into two beams. When these beams fall on certain reference points in the sensor (the beams are
“in phase”), the lens is considered to be in focus. The crucial property of this method is that the phase
differences vary, depending on whether the lens is focused in front of or behind the plane of best focus. This
information enables the system to work very rapidly, even continuously. For best results, note the following: ▪
For off-center subjects, aim the focusing area at your subject, “hold” the focus with light pressure on the
shutter or focus-lock button, then reframe. ▪ Extremely bright objects in the focusing region— sparkling
reflections on polished metal, for instance— could confuse the sensor and reduce accuracy. ▪ Photographing
beyond objects that are close to the lens—for example, through a bush or between the gaps in a fence—can
confuse the autofocus system. ▪ Restless subjects, such as children or flowers in a light breeze, may be best
kept in focus by setting a distance manually and then adjusting your position backward and forward to
maintain focus.Effects of lens aperture The main reason for changing lens aperture is to adjust camera
exposure: a smaller aperture restricts the beam of light passing through the lens. However, the aperture also
alters depth of field. As you set smaller apertures, the cone of light passing through the lens becomes slimmer
and more needlelike. As a result, even when it is not perfectly focused, light from the subject is not as spread
out as it would be if a larger aperture were used. Thus, more of the scene within the field of view appears
sharp. In this illustration, lens focal length and focus distance remain the same, and depth of field at f/2.8
covers just the depth of a person, whereas at f/8 it increases to 6ft (2m) in extent. At f/22, depth of field
extends from 5ft (1.5m) to infinity. ◀ Effects of lens focal length Variations in depth of field resulting from
focal length alone are due to image magnification. With our figure at a constant distance from the camera, a
long focal length (135mm) will record him at a larger size than does a standard lens (50mm), which, in turn,
creates a larger image than the wide-angle (28mm). To the eye, the figure is the same size, but on the sensor
or film, the figure’s size varies directly with focal length. Where details are rendered smaller in the image, it is
more difficult to make out what is sharp and what is not. As a result, depth of field appears to increase.
Conversely, longer focal length lenses magnify the image, so magnifying differences in focus. Thus, depth of
field appears to be greatly reducedFOCUSING AND DEPTH OF FIELD CORE SKILLS Depth of field is the space in
front of and behind the plane of best focus, within which objects appear acceptably sharp (see opposite).
Though accurate, this definition tells you nothing about the power that depth of field has in helping you
communicate your visual ideas. You can, for example, vary depth of field to imply space, to suggest being
inside the action, or to emphasize the separation between elements within the picture area. Varying depth of
field Your chief control over depth of field is the lens aperture: as you set smaller apertures (using f/11 instead
of f/4, for example), depth of field increases. This increase is greater the shorter the lens’s focal length, so that
the depth of field at f/11 on a 28mm lens is greater than it would be at f/11 on a 300mm lens at the same
working distance. Depth of field also increases as the subject being focused on moves further away from the
camera. Meanwhile, at close focusing distances, depth of field is very limited. Using depth of field An extensive
depth of field (resulting from using a small lens aperture, a wide-angle lens, distant focusing, or a combination
of these factors) is often used for the following types of subject: ▪ Landscapes, such as wide-angle, general
views. ▪ Architecture, in which the foregrounds to buildings are important features. ▪ Interiors, including
nearby furniture or other objects, and far windows and similar features. As a by-product, smaller apertures
tend to reduce lens flare and improve lens performance. A shallow depth of field (resulting from a wide lens
aperture, a long focal length lens, focusing close-up, or a combination of these) renders only a small portion of
the image sharp, and is often used for: ▪ Portraiture, to help concentrate viewer attention. ▪ Reducing the
distraction from elements that cannot be removed from the lens’s field of view. ▪ Isolating a subject from the
distracting visual clutter of its surroundings.
Chimping is short for “checking image preview” and seems very appropriate for photographers who
exclaim “Oo! Oo! Ah! Aah!” while reviewing their images on the camera’s LCD screen. If you allow yourself to
be distracted by the preview image, you will miss many shots. It also breaks the rhythm of shooting, and
interrupts the concentration you should be applying to the subject. Try to reserve your reviewing to rest
breaks and moments when you are sure nothing is going on. You do not have to go as far as some
photographers, who tape up their camera screens to wean themselves off the habit, but turn off the preview
and you will find you photograph more, and become more attuned to your subject.

Photographers have the good fortune to be able to build on the experience of centuries of painting and
graphic art with the unique visual tools of photography. Photographic composition arises through the joining
of elements such as angle of view, perspective, depth of field, color, and tone with the visual structures that
generations of artists have found effective in their work. Any photographic composition can be said to work if
the arrangement of the subject elements communicates effectively to the image’s intended viewers. Often,
the best way to ensure a striking composition is to look for the key ingredients of a scene and then adjust your
camera position and exposure controls to draw those elements out from the clutter of visual information that,
if left competing with each other, would weaken the photograph’s impact. Composition is not only about how
you frame the picture; it is also how you use aperture to control depth of field, focus to lead the viewer’s
attention, and expose to use light and shade to shape the image. If you are new to photography, it may help to
concentrate your attention on the scene’s overall