Learn Photography Online

Digital photo information is about learning photography. Generally speaking, I recommend using a digital camera because I believe it is an excellent tool for learning.

You can shoot lots of photos, and get instant feedback on what you are doing. You can experiment and take lots of different shots without running up a lot of expensive processing and printing costs.

And you can set up a digital darkroom to enlarge, enhance and improve your images without a need for a light tight room and keeping chemicals on hand.

But photography is not so much a matter of the equipment you use, but how you use it.

So regardless of what equipment you are using, you can become a good, and maybe even a great photographer if you learn the visual language of photography.

When you look at a sunset, what do you feel? That was easy…how about a rock…feel anything? Or how about your favorite person…you have lots of feelings for this person, don’t you?

If something attracts you enough to take a picture of it, then it’s likely you feel something. It may be curiosity, amusement, anger, love, or any number of human emotions. The clearer you are as to what that attraction is, the more likely it is you’ll find something interesting to say about it.

Now don’t go off trying to analyze yourself with every picture you take…that is not the point here. What is important is that you feel something about your subject, and want to use a visual language to communicate it. Learn this visual language well and your photos will speak for themselves.

So just what is this visual language? Just as writers use words, or musicians use sounds, a visual artist uses images to show us what they feel about something they have seen.

Using light to paint us an image, photographers show moments that are frozen in time.

Photos can amuse, shock, entertain, document, enlighten or even bore us to tears. But whatever it is you have to say, learn to say it well.

Since you are interested in learning to become a better photographer, we’ll assume you have something to say. So let’s get to it and learn about the ways to say it well.

As you go through these pages and use the photo ideas that are suggested, you will be learning the “visual vocabulary” of photography.

Keep in mind that the exercises in these pages are to train your eye and mind. Your ultimate goal will be to make these concepts a part of your subconscious. Soon, you will find that you instinctively know when everything feels right, and your photos will show it.

As light is the foundation of all photography, I suggest you begin there. While each topic is important by itself, it is the way you combine these items that will lead to developing your own style and creative expression.

What is written here can help you focus on where and how to look, but it is your own pictures that will really teach you how to see. So read a little…and photograph a lot!

Lesson Category: Learn Photography Online

Light …photography means “writing with light”. Learn to use the most powerful tool you have.

Composition …what to do with all those elements in the viewfinder.

Additional topics to be added

Motion …a still photo of something that moves? To freeze it or not to freeze it…and how.

Selective focus …what’s sharp and what’s not. It is up to you.

Texture …can you feel it?

Pattern …Are the shadows more interesting than the objects casting them?

Silhouettes …is your message lost in the details?

Moods …we all have them. Maybe your pictures should too.

Here’s to better photography…

Al Hannigan