The Basics of Photography You Should Know: A Checklist

Although my blog focusses mostly on advance3d business ideas and how to develop your career as a professional photographer, I know some of you might be just starting out your journey. This blogpost is for those of you who are looking for guidance to get started.

Firstly, I want to guide you to a few older posts that will be helpful.

The top 5 things holding you back from success

In this blogpost, you can learn about the importance of mindset and the things that could be holding you back from success.

How to achieve proper exposure using aperture, shutter speed and ISO

In this post, you will learn the basic operations of a camera and how to produce properly exposed images.

The best ways to build photography experience

This post can guide you through the difficulties of growing your experience behind the camera, building your portfolio, and gaining experience.

The Checklist

I know photography learning can get a bit overwhelming, so lastly, I wanted to give you a checklist of the knowledge you should have to cover the basics. 

The basics of photography checklist:

• Exposure and how to control it: Shutter speed, how to control it in-camera, and how it affects your image
• Aperture, F stops, how they modify your image and proper settings for focus control
• ISO, how it affects the quality of your image, and how to use it
• Lenses: different types, focal length, quality, and how they modify the look and feel of your image
• Lighting: quantity, quality, direction, and type of lighting (natural light, studio lights, and flash photography)
• Focusing: how to properly use autofocus and make sure your images are sharp
• Framing: the rule of thirds and other principles
• Composition and angle: how to use the space and your tools to turn a three-dimensional situation, into a flat image that still tells a story and has depth
• Posing: how to direct models, actors, and non- performers, plus how to pose families, couples, and co- workers
• Colour: how to use rules of colour to create pleasing images
• Technical: the difference between camera types, sensor sizes, resolution, raw images, and proper workflow from shooting to editing.
• Post-production: importing, editing, and exporting your images with Lightroom, and advanced editing with photoshop.

Hope you found this post helpful and inspiring on your journey. I know starting a photography business can be quite overwhelming, but setting clear goals and pacing yourself with structure and direction can get you really far.