Learning how to photograph

I started photography on a point and shoot camera with manual controls. I did not know what was “manual”. All I knew was one mode — auto.

Clicking a photo.

The first day I took a photograph — it was just a click. The subject I wanted to focus was on my window, a sapling. I had ‘clicked’ the shutter and I had taken a photograph.

When I saw the photograph on the LCD screen, it was a shabby, an out of focus image. The sapling was out of focus. I has just clicked without anything in mind and the result was that image.

I started experimenting with the camera. I would keep on clicking on auto mode. The photos were good but I was not using or honing any skills. It was like using a cell phone camera. You just click. The auto mode would pop the flash up whenever it felt there is less light around. I did not want the flash every time.

Graduation to Program.

I graduated to Program mode.

I had two more controls (against the auto mode) — I could vary the ISO and decide when to pop the flash up. I started keeping ISO 1600 (the maximum on that camera) and shoot. There were grains on the photograph. A lot of them. I reduced the ISO to 100 (the minimum the camera was allowing). The camera would not allow me take a photograph in low light. I did not know what was happening.

ISO. The Greek and Latin.

I stumbled upon a few sites that explained how the ‘making of photograph’ works. The ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

It was all Greek and Latin. Except I knew that how to change ISO and when to use higher ISO and vice versa.

I would try and use other modes and end up staring a black screen and the lens trying to focus and failing. I did not know what was happening.

Now, how do you vary shutter speed?

Gradually, I started looking at the articles on web explaining how the variation of shutter changes the way a photograph is made.

For example, the waterfall photographs where the water is smooth (which does not look like that when seen with eyes) or the star trails, they have a shutter speed ranging anywhere between a few seconds to hundreds of hours. My camera, when looked in, allowed a shutter between 1/2000s to 15s. I had not seen that till that day. It was a revelation.

The sports photographs on the other hand should be sharp. You must capture the fast moving athlete in very less time. In one thousandth of a second. Or 1/4000th.

The magic of creating bokeh.

What startled me back then was bokeh. How do you create it? With my camera that had maximum aperture of f/3.5 and minimum of f/8.0, how can I create bokeh? I learnt about bokeh and how it is made. Tried. Failed. Tried again and failed again. Welcome to aperture.

Then there are these photographs that show the landscapes. They are magical. All the elements in the frame are in focus. How do they do that? I tried to find an answer on web. Followed whatever they had mentioned religiously. There were figures like f/22. My camera did not support that. The minimum aperture possible was f/8.0.

Slowly, after a span of six to eight months, I combined all that I had known and tried fiddling with Manual Controls. It was difficult. I had to control everything while making a photograph.

Making a photograph.

I was not “clicking” or “taking” a photograph any more.

The Manual mode was fun. I would be setting a low aperture and shoot a landscape, use maximum aperture and take a portrait. When there was low light, I would increase the ISO. Adjustments. More adjustments.

It took another few months to get used to shooting on manual. I had to concentrate on many parameters. Now, with a DSLR, I can make photographs. Make that bokeh and more.

This appeared on Quora as an answer.