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Hi thanks for signing up for this free course on how to become a better photographer Inc I am founder and director of so this film photography Private Limited basically an engineer by background electronics and communications engineering who worked in the software industry for close to 18 years the first nine years, I can say more of a purely technical software programmer working at the device driver kernel programming that kind of work and the remaining part more into the corporate section of management level I would say of handling the software the division itself so I come with a pretty strong technical background and on top of that 25 years of photography so I've been doing photography and most importantly I've been teaching photography for close to 15 years and in the photography field itself if I had to say some of my achievements so I have been a Canon brand ambassador for close to eight years on top of that the sanctuary Asia wildlife photographer of the year and then even with respect to National Geographic I have one or rather my cover shot of this beautiful image has won the National Geographic yellow border award so this cover short featured in the National Geography traveler India and then the internal. competition within Nigeria across the 14 countries and this one the first press for India beyond that when it comes to the recent Asian photography I was touring for 2017 I have been recognized and awarded as the third most influential person in the photographic industry in India so the first has been the Canon MD and CEO the second has been the Nikon MD and CEO and I have been at number three so when it comes to a photographer probably the most influential photographer for in India itself for 2017 and then again for 2016. I was placed at number two and then the year before that I was placed at number five so the last three years. consecutively I have been rated as one of the most influential people in the photography industry itself and then in the recent survey concluded in the top100 photographers on the web the most talented famous photographers on. I've been placed at number 12 across the globe so number one in India I would say and then when it comes to wildlife. Photography across the globe in the top hundred list I've been placed at number one so the awards and recognition it goes on and on and on so that basically gives me the confidence to teach the kind of credibility. I have and that is where the big brands like Canon Nikon.Samsung Adobe a lot of these big brands they work with me because of the trust they have in me with my capabilities with my technical knowledge of photography and everything related to photography so I've been conducting

photography twos workshops all these four years together and in the last three years. Alone I have thought for more than a thousand five hundred students so I come with this very strong background when it comes to photography teaching that's about me now let's come to the course itself. what is this course about now in the next 40 minutes? I am going to teach you everything you need to know on the basic fundamental aspects of photography fair enough you have bought your new camera and you look at all the various settings in the camera don't matter beat a cannon or a Nikon or Sony or a Pentax or a reco the brand it just does not matter it's the concept which is more important so what the camera you look at the camera the settings it's very complicated there are way too many buttons in fact if you see the current is digital cameras they're

very complex the photographic manual itself if you see like I mean 200 pages 300 pages I don't expect you to go through those 300 pages to start operating this camera or how to become a better photographer so in this course. what I'm going to do is like I am going to help you understand if you look at the very basic things what gets displayed at the back of the camera, I am going to help you understand what each of those things is how they impact photography how you can start using that so I am going to teach you all those even though in the course I'll be using a Canon camera to explain the concept holds good for any brand of the camera so what I want you to do is charge your camera completely and then hold the camera in your hand go through the course, one step at a time and start experiment along with me and now comes another important point go at the end of the course I mean once you finish the entire course I want you to stick with me for the full course that is very important once you finish the entire course at the end of this course.I am going to give you some very useful information and tips so don't cut it across stay till the end go through it and hear what I have to say at the end of the course which is where it is going to be very very important for you. when it comes to your photography learning and now comes another very very important point now as a part of this course this is what around 40 minutes, of course, that's all it's not a very very big course now if you look around you have a lot of distractions your cell phone your email is coming up you have your Facebook or Instagram account you keep looking at all those things so if you want to learn if you want to be a better photographer before you start this course what I want you to do is switch off all those things no distractions nothing you give me your undivided attention for the next 40 minutes and I'll guarantee. you are going to become a better photographer your understanding about photography will change like anything so switch off all those things pay complete attention to what I have to say it's a part of this course experiment along with me and most importantly as I said at the end of this course I have some very very important information to share with you go through that as well and then you can feel the difference in your images and then you will be very happy looking at the images the wow factor in the image all those will start coming in so let's get started with the course hi in this tutorial, I am going to take you through the core concepts the fundamental concepts of photography and give you my recommendations so that you can start making some awesome images another good part about this tutorial is like I'll be conveying some of the settings and in your camera, you should be able to try it out and do the things do things practically along with me. so in the next 30 minutes stay tight to follow the concepts experiment along with me and you will see the difference in your image just where you will understand what it takes to make those awesome images so let's get started. I have currently connected my car 1,200 D an entry-level camera to the TV so that you will see the various displays the settings what the camera does and you should be able to follow me now as a beginner in photography you don't have to go through very in-depth or any advanced settings or any of those things forget about all the various advanced features whatever the camera supports let's get some of the very basics right so for example aperture so since I am shooting in aperture priority mode the very basic exposure triangle parameters bit your shutter speed your aperture your ISO what are they what impact it has on your image we will see that next comes to your exposure compensation about when to underexpose. when to overexposed make the image brighter or darker what to do your picture style what kind of pictures tell you should be using we will look at what you're white balance so what is white balance what kind of white balance you should be using I am going to help you understand those concepts next comes the other set of parameters is it concerning your shooting mode. So whether you want to shoot it in one-shot mode servo depending on what is happening in yours in your scenery the

focusing options will see than even the metering so what kind of metering you have to use be it spot metering evaluative so what are those various metering options and then of course what kind of image quality you should be using I'll be guiding you with that and

of course, the last point is obviously concerning your focusing points. when to use what fine what kind of focusing points so here this is the very basic thing but what you see in your Canon cameras now the same concept applies to your Nikon cameras as well. where if you look at the info the display what your Nikon camera gives even that will have your exposure triangle parameters about aperture ISO shutter speed the same things than you even have your compensation exposure compensation your white balance parameters and in case of your focusing mode whether it is like autofocus single autofocus continuous so what kind of focusing you more do you want to use then comes even the metering the concept is the same and even your image quality the raw or the JPEG. What kind of quality you should be using and then the focusing points so if here if you see beat Canon Nikon or any brand

it doesn't matter so let us go through each of these basic concepts and see what they are what impact they have on the image and what is the setting which you should be using to get some good images as a first step let us understand about the image quality so here as you can see from the display in the info, you can quickly you can press on the Q axis the Q button at the back and access this or

you can go into the menu option in that you have the image quality. If you go into the image quality, you have various options right from the large to the medium to the small and then you have a combination of replacing largely and then just the rock so here you are welcome to use any of this combination and each of them as you can see here, the resolution will ready so if I keep moving so as you can see the resolution will keep changing which is the print dimension if you are trying to print the images. So it's more to do with your megapixel the resolution so here one of the main things is as a beginner I understand that raw probably may not be the right option because you may not be comfortable on how to process the raw images so chances are you end up using just the JPEG so but my recommendation would be to use a combination of raw plus large depending on the size of the memory card so yes please go ahead buy a larger sized memory card so that it can store more images now one of the keys advantages of the raw file is even if. You make minor mistakes in the field are it concerning the various settings concerning your white balance exposure so even concerning the picture style any of those various the combination you make a mistake still there are ways in which you can very easily fix if it is Rob raw is very very powerful.

So go ahead use the option of raw plus large and then keep that as your standard-setting if you look at your Nikon setting even Nikon has something very similar where you can have a combination of any F so that is the RAW format for NIC on any f+ the different options of JPEG so go ahead choose any of these things but as I said as a beginner, please go ahead with the combination of raw is large because in the future.

Once you learn our crop processing you can come back to these images and process the raw files so go-ahead to start with put the setting as raw Plus large or any F plus any of the JPEG oxygen option and keep that as your standard-setting let us now understand the next important the parameter which is your white balance so, in case of cannon, I can access the white balance using the quick access button at the back by pressing Q and going into this or I have a direct access button check your camera and you'll have a direct access white balance I click on that and you have this various parameter various white balance setting rather what is white balance in simple terms white balance is one of the keys a parameter which decides what kind of colors you want in your image white balance is nothing but telling the camera to get a white color as a proper white depending on the lighting the situation now the white balance is expressed in Kelvin so here if you see with respect to the white balance for my Canon 1280 I have all these various white balance setting I have the auto white a balance where the camera decides what kind of colors to put what kind of Kelvin value to put depending on the lighting then I have the daylight so daylight has an approximate value of five thousand to two hundred Kelvin then. I have the shade is approximately again seven thousand Kelvin I go further. I have the cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin then the tungsten light which is more of 3200, Kelvin, then again the white fluorescent lights flash four out those flashes in the range of five thousand four hundred Kelvin and then the custom white balance so depending in on depending on your camera model you may have the advanced setting of the manual a white balance where the K will be displayed and these values you can manually put it let's go each of this let's look at each one of them now when it comes to outdoors if you use a white balance the setting of anything about five thousand or below five thousand Kelvin say for example daylight then tungsten or even fluorescent any of these parameters where the values less than five thousand Kelvin you will get more of the bluish cast in your image so whereas same outdoor conditions if you go into the option of saying shade with this seven thousand Kelvin cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin anything above 6,000 Kelvin, you'll get more l-Lois colors in.

Your image now let us look at this particular an image so this image has been shot outdoors so what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you like how by putting different white balance values the colors of the image basically changes so I'm going to just put it in auto mode. So Auto the camera decides I have no control then if.

I'm going to put it in daylight at 5200 Kelvin this is what I get then. I move it from five thousand two hundred to five thousand four hundred Kelvin which is more of your Flash outdoor five flashes five thousand four hundred this is the kind of color she'd get then I moved to cloudy which is six thousand Kelvin and then even with respect to shade it is more of seven thousand Kelvin it goes up on the other side if I come where I put it for tungsten which is 3200 Kelvin as you can see it is more bluish in color compared to the cloudy and shade which are more alloys more warmer colors even white fluorescent light also gives you more bluish color so as you can see white balance varies the colors in your image my recommendation does not go with auto white balance because in the case of auto white balance the camera decides what colors to put as a photographer you need to be in control you decide what kind of the white balance you want to use based on the actual lighting situation this is for Canon and if you look at Nikon option it is more or less the same where the terminologies may vary a little bit but the overall concept of using the white balance is the same so as I said as a beginner my recommendation when it comes to using the values for white balance doesn't go with auto based on the lighting situation you use whether you want to go with daylight or flash or it is cloudy or concerning shade those things for indoors probably it may be more of incandescent or fluorescent those options come into a picture so go ahead understand about white balance take the camera got in the field the same image what you have the go-ahead and shoot that at various white balance and new personnel see what the difference is and you decide based on the lighting what kind of white balance makes sense so that's about white balance now comes the most important part of photography which is your exposure triangle parameters of shutter speed aperture and ISO let us study what these parameters are what impact they have on the image and what kind of settings you should be using I am currently in the shutter priority mode of my camera which is the TV mode for Canon and yes mode for Nikon so here what happens as a photographer, I set the shutter speed so let us look at what is shutter speed now shutter speed is the duration of time your shutter is open for the light to enter and hit your sensor so if you look at the shutter speed so the value of low shutter speed basically causes motion blur if you are shooting handled the shake which comes into the image that is because of slow shutter speed whereas if. I take it up so all the way I keep going a higher shutter speed freezes action so what the shutter speed do low shutter speed is responsible for motion blur or camera shake which comes because of handle shooting high shutter speed freezes the action so if you look at this particular image so this I have shot it at a high shutter speed where you can see that the waterfalls the overall action has been frozen whereas the same image when I shot it at a very slow shutter speed of say 2 2 SEC 2

seconds 4 seconds at that slow shutter speed as you can see it's more of a silky flow of water so shutter speed is the duration of time the shutter is open and then you can basically decide how you want to take that image my recommendation when it comes to shutter speed if something is totally static if it's a person standing not moving it could be a landscape scene so anything which is totally static you don't have to worry too much about the shutter speed and of course for any beginners as I recommend always use a tripod to get the proper setting now that is about shutter speed now the other parameter the next parameter which was to understand is more to do with your aperture for that let me go into the aperture priority which is the AV mode for Kanon and then the mode for Nikon aperture is basically one of the parameters now okay first what is aperture is the opening of your a lens so if you look at this particular a lens so this is basically the 1635 lens aperture is this opening so how large the opening is so even if you look at this a particular image so aperture basically has blades inside so a smaller aperture say if I go all the way down to f/4 an aperture a smaller f-number basically means a very the large opening of your lens whereas I move up all the way I go to f-16 F 20 f-22 that is a very small opening means less amount of light coming into a camera so here if you can see a smaller.

The f number is a large opening a larger F the number is a very small opening now this again controls the amount of light entering your camera so the one of the key things about aperture is that controls the depth of field now the depth of the field is that area of your photograph which is in sharp focus so this the particular image here if you see the depth of field what we call is very shallow I have used a very low F-number and that is whereas you can see the depth of field is very shallow now the same image if I move my aperture the F number if I make it very large and f-22 or like that then as you can see that same it means the depth of field is very large that means a large area of your the photograph is in sharp focus now as a photographer, you have to decide where to do you want to use a shallow depth of field where you want to use a larger depth of the field now let me give you a quick tip over here if more or less if it is just one single subject what you are trying to shoot in more situations a lowest Fnumber supported by your lens will do whereas if there are more subjects one behind the other and you want all of them to be in sharp focus then your F the number you have to increase now similar to the speed aperture is one of the parameters responsible for your depth of field your the focal length of the lens then camera to subject distance also comes into the picture but go ahead use the aperture based on the scene and as a photographer you decide whether you want a lower F-number or a larger F-number to get an the appropriate depth of field and then the a third parameter which is more of your ISO ISO is nothing but the sensitivity of your sensor so during our olden days when we used film so they were basically chemicals in the film and then that is what we called as the sensitivity of the a film so the ISO or the si what we used to call was more of how fast those chemicals can react to light so in our digital cameras, it is more to do with your sensor so how fast the sensor can react to light that is what is so is all about now if you look at the IES so whatever is so you have in your camera so if you're going to the quick view option and go into the ISO here as you can see I have auto ISO then hundred two hundred have different is shows based on your camera model again here I would recommend your not to use auto ISO because when you put it in auto ISO the camera decides what value to use based on the other parameters not recommended so you go ahead play around with the ISO so remember if you increase the ISO so chances are you will get more noise what is noise in the image so this particular image if you see I have shot it at a little bit lower ISO and wherever there is a dark shadow area as you can see the quality of the details is very good whereas the same scene if I increase the ISO so at this high ISO as you can see I zoom in that area if you see you see those small grains that are noise so depending on your camera a low ISO is always preferable but again depending on mid-range or high-end cameras I also value you can actually take it up so these are the three very basic exposure triangle parameters now how do they work together so let me give you an example now you have various modes in your camera so let me go with the very basic one which is the complete auto mode so when you put your camera in complete auto mode the camera decides all the three parameters the camera decides the camera doesn't know what's in your shooting the camera we'll take into account the amount of lighting and then it will put its own value of shutter speed aperture and ISO to give you a decent image probably that way that may not be what you want next comes and of course if the light is less the camera will pull out the flash as well the next is the P mode which is the program mode in the program mode so when I half-press my shutter release as you can see for a given ISO the camera decides both the shutter speed and aperture again you do not have control, of course, you can increase your ISO you can also put it in auto mode so if you increase your ISO I click on ISO . I increase the value and then again half press my shutter release button so as you can see again the value should vary so you have no control over what happens the camera decides the parameters now another mode is basically the TV mode which is the setter priority mode or for Nikon guy, it is the yes mode so when you put it in TV mode as a photographer you decide what kind of shutter speed you want for a given ISO and when you half-press the shutter release button camera will give a particular aperture not remember if the aperture is blinking which is happening in this case if the aperture is blinking that means that is not enough for this very high shutter speed in this low-light situation. So I'm in my studio the lighting is very low so this high shutter speed for this ISO is not enough aperture is not enough it blinks if I shoot I will get a dark an image so that is where I keep decreasing the ISO and then it is still not enough data see it's very dark in the room here. I go all the way down and there he goes at one point it stops blinking and this is a good value, of course, remember if the movement is happening in the subject you will get shake blur okay if you're especially doing handle so you have to watch out for shutter speed so keep it in mind, if any movement is happening in the scene then make sure to watch out for the shutter speed and try to keep a high shutter speed if you want to freeze the action and then if you want to purposely induce a motion blur go with a slow shutter the speed that is about TV mode or the yes mode and then the other mode is AV mode which is the aperture priority mode and for Nikon guys, it is the mode in case of aperture priority as a photographer you decide to let me take it all the way down you decide what aperture you want for a given ISO and when you have a press the shutter release button camera will give you a corresponding shutter speed now you vary your aperture than the shutter speed will vary so in case of aperture priority as it says the priority is more on the aperture you decide what aperture you want for a given ISO the camera decides the shutter speed so this is more recommended when there is not much movement happening in their scene if you are doing landscape photography or any of those areas of photography where your depth of field is more important than the shutter in that case go with your aperture priority than the another mode is basically the complete manual mode this is a little bit advanced mode for beginners I would not recommend that because you have to decide all the three parameters based on the metering and other complex things not recommended going with any of the other mode of aperture priority shutter priority or even for that more the programmer also will work and then the another set of mode in your camera you have all this various portrait mode so portrait mode here if you see the ISO will be auto and then the default setting so more or less if you see a portrait that camera gives more emphasis to the depth of field and then you have the landscape so even in case of landscape ok it is more of again the default settings are the single-shot not the burst mode and then again the priority is given more for larger depth of a field in case of a portrait mode the camera tries to give you a shallow depth of a field in case of the landscape, it tries to give you a larger depth of field to give everything in focus then you have the close of for the portrait mode again in that situation it is more of trying to give you a shallow depth-of-field then comes your sports action photography action photography as you can visualize or you can think is more to do with action happening you want to phrase it so in this mode camera is going to give you a faster shutter speed than the other one is stars night photography so in this night situation is going to give you a long exposure now depending on what kind of the camera model, you'll have these are some of the very basic kind of shooting modes what you have so once you understand overall so let me go back to the B mode so once you understand the combination of your shutter speed aperture and ISO then play around with the settings and as a photographer you decide what kind of setting you want so my recommendation again let me repeat so any of those genres where the action is happening movement is happening you want to freeze it or you want to create a motion blur go with the shutter priority and decide what kind of shutter speed you want and then depending on whether you're shooting a macro close-up portrait landscape anything static still were the shutter is not of much concern it is more of the depth of the field what you won't to go with your aperture priority and decide what kind of perfection you want in all these cases please keep a tab on what is are using because a very high ISO will eat noise image okay so these are the very basic settings what you have to keep in mind on the exposure triangle parameters and then as a photographer, you decide what you want and go ahead with those settings now comes the next interesting part which is your focusing board and the focusing points now again if I go back to the display here in your display currently, I am in one short mode so even in case of Nikon so you have the different kind of focusing modes so let. I go into this so I'm going to press the quick access button the Q and going to that of course so depending on your camera mode in fact even for me I have the direct access button which is AF button at the back I press that I go into the different autofocus modes now let us look at each of this autofocus modes the first one is one shot in terms of Canon and for Nikon guys, it is AFS autofocus single typically one short a mode is used for totally static subjects so what happens in case of one short a mode is when you half-press the shutter release button you hear the beep, of course, you need to have the beep enabled in your menu options once you hear the beep that means the camera has locked focus onto that subject so even in this a case so if you look at my camera here if. I just loosen the camera here at the head so I am at a particular place i half-press it I'm in one-shot mode say ok and then depending on where I am shooting you have to be in the auto focus on mode okay so once I press I half press it I hear the beep keeping it half pressed even though I move the camera left and right the focusing will be locked at that particular point so this option is quite useful when it comes to locking the focus and then recomposing depending on you want to move the subject within your frame one shot is obviously a good mode so that is one shot in Canon and autofocus single in case of Nicole next comes the let's look at the air servo so if I come to the last option that is a servo for Canon and in case of Nikon it is AFC which is autofocus continuous now as the name says autofocus continuous here what happens you can keep the focusing point on the subject and keep moving the camera along with the subject so typically AI servo or autofocus continuous is used in cases where the subject moving so any kind of moving action photography any kind of situation where the subject is continuously moving in that situation keep the camera in air servo or autofocus continuous mode in this case what happens when you have pressure shutter release button the camera will be continuously focusing it will not stop so there is no concept of locking focus at that place . it locks to focus but when you move the camera along the subject it continuously focus so as you can see it is suitable for anything which is moving next comes the other middle one which is here I focus or for Nikon guys it is a FA autofocus auto here what happens so in this particular model if the subject is stationary internally the camera will move to one shot try in case of air focus if the subject is stationary internally it will move to one shot and you'll hear that beep sound in case of air servo you will not hear that beeps on because it is continuously focusing air focus in turn it moves to one shot or autofocus single you will hear the beep but then if the subject starts to move of course in this situation you can again do the recomposition keeping it half press move the camera and then click in case of air focus if the car is the subject is still and then it starts to move and you move the camera along with the subject internally it will move over from one shot to a servo so that continuous focusing will start happening now of course if you look at the situation you feel that this is probably the best option and we should use it as a beginner but my recommendation is don't go with this option because there are certain situations where it takes time for the camera to detect that yes the movement has happened subject has started to move and this switch over from one shot to server or from autofocus single to auto focus continuous there may be a lag there may be a delay and you may miss those important shots so my recommendation is go with either one shot for totally static subjects macro photography landscape portrait you are doing close-up so any of those product photography fashion photography portraits monuments ok so any of these things go with one shot and a servo or autofocus continuous go in those situations where there is continuous movement happening somebody running cadres happening in case of wildlife photography action any of those things go with a servo so this is more about the focusing mode of the camera next comes the focusing points so if I come out of the screen so if I press of course in Canon the rightmost button at the top and even in case of Nikon you have the button in the friend depending on your camera model where you can choose what kind of focusing points you want so it may come in 1200 e if I press on the focusing points you will see all these various focusing points now this is where you will have to decide and my recommendation again here is do not enable all the focusing points because what happens is these focusing points are responsible for getting the subject in focus now if you enable all the focusing points what happens is the camera decides where and how to focus or on what subject within your frame it has to focus based on how much light is falling on the subject based on the contrast of the subject the camera decides so that is obviously not a good option because if there are two people standing one behind the other you want to focus at the front person chances are if it's not properly lit that camera will focus at the back person we just model it and that is not what you want so avoid going enabling all the focusing points and you decide so move your options around and based on how you want to compose you go ahead move the focusing left right wherever you want to focus and honestly speaking the center focusing point is basically the most powerful one where which is the fastest which is which basically focuses on the subject very fast so go with the center focusing point for faster focusing even in low-light situation concept is the same even in case of Nicole now even depending on your camera model the number of focusing points also will vary so depending on the number of focusing points you can decide as to like form a composition where you want to move how we want to move the focusing points okay so again as you said a word enabling all the focusing points go with one focusing and manually move it around depending on how we want to compost so that is more about the focusing mode of the camera and then using different focusing points on how to compose the image so remember you go ahead you decide what kind of composition what kind of focusing mode you want put those parameters in the camera and then take it forward now comes the most complex part of photography which is metering a metering is quite interesting and that is actually the heart of photography based on which the exposure triangle parameters are decided now beat Canon Nikon or any camera model the concept is again the same here what I'm going to do again I use the quick access button on my common camera and then come down and go into the metering so there you go now metering there are different kind of material options this is the entry-level Canon 1200 D so where the spot metering is missing but here we have evaluative metering or in case of Nikon it is called as the matrix metering or we also call it as the multi segment metering then partial metering same in the con as well the Center weighted average metering and then this option if you see this is basically spot metering now let us understand what each of this metering option does now one step back what is metering the whole concept is now if I am in aperture priority mode okay so I am basically at an aperture of let's go down to say f/4 so for an ISO of thousand 600 at f/4 in aperture priority mode when a half press the shutter release button I get a particular shutter speed so that value of shutter speed is decided by what kind of metering mode I am in now in simple terms for you all to understand metering is nothing but it's more to do with the amount of light which is reflected from the subject so the camera calculates how much light is reflected from the subject and to give you a very basic exposure to give you a exposure where it's not very dark where it is not.