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This 19-minute photography crash course has everything you need to break out of automatic modes on your camera

At some point, we were all beginners and there are new people coming to photography and buying their first DSLR or mirrorless camera every day. A lot of people starting out stick to the automatic modes and basically treat their camera like an expensive point-and-shoot, not really understanding how it all works. And that’s fine if that’s your thing. But if you want to learn more, it can be difficult to know where to start.

In this video, the Koldunov Brothers walk us through the basic principles of cameras and photography, and how they all tie into each other. It’s an easy-to-digest video, that’s a little over 19-minute long going over everything you need to really understand how your camera works.

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All you could ever want to know about aperture (and more)

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If you’re feeling a little rusty on camera functions and settings, or simply want to brush up on your basic knowledge then you could do a lot worse than watching this video presented by photographer Andrew Boey. It is quite literally everything you could ever possibly want to know about aperture!

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Watch YouTube’s most informed sock puppet teach you how to shoot with manual exposure

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For those who’ve never seen TheCrafsMan SteadyCraftin on YouTube, you’re in for a treat – even if you already understand everything contained within this 25-minute video. For those who have, you know exactly what to expect. I’ve been following this rather unconventional channel for a while now. It covers a lot of handy DIY and crafting topics as well as the occasional random tangent.

Today’s random tangent is the topic of exposure as it relates to photography. Although our host is a sock puppet, the principles are explained very well, in a manner that most people will be able to grasp quite easily – and probably find quite entertaining, too. So, if you’ve struggled to make that switch to “M”, this video may just help you out.

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Five ways to master manual mode

Master manual mode

If you own a DSLR and have a passion for photography, you have landed in the right place. A lot of people are under the common misconception that buying a new DSLR camera will instantly improve their photography. They place an order, and a few days later, their new, shiny toy arrives on their doorstep. Then things usually get tricky. Once the camera is out of its packaging it becomes quickly apparent that working the damn thing is much harder than it looks. Therefore the dial is switched to Auto mode, and that is where it stays for the foreseeable. Here is a handy guide to help you master manual mode in no time.

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The three things you need to know if you’re new to shooting in manual mode

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Shooting in manual isn’t some magic bullet that will make all your shots perfect, no matter what some photographers might want you to believe. But there are things you need to understand in order to be able to use it effectively. Those three things are ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

In this video, photographer JoshinCincinnati walks us through the three basics of manual mode exposure, what they mean, and the implications of changing each.

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Everything you need to know about depth of field in under 4 minutes

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Depth of field can be a somewhat confusing topic to get to grips with if you’re new to photography. That is to say, it’s easy to see what depth of field is, but it can be tricky to understand what elements can cause it to change, whether intentionally or by accident. In this video, photographer Kellan Reck takes a look at depth of field and explains the variables that can affect your depth of field.

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This in-depth beginners guide shows everything you need to know about manual exposure

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Manual exposure. It’s probably the scariest term out there for new camera owners. Stepping out of automatic or semi-automatic exposure modes for the first time can be a daunting task. When you’ve only ever shot in the automatic modes, understanding the manual and the exposure triangle can be difficult to wrap your head around.

Well, this 26-minute video from photographer Sean Tucker should help to demystify it for you. He goes in-depth to break everything down to the basic fundamental principles. He explains what each of the three settings means, how they function, and how they all work together to create a good exposure.

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This video teaches you the basics of aperture using Star Wars Lego

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If you’re new to photography, there can be many concepts that still seem overwhelming and confusing. In this video, Aaron Nace of Phlearn explains the basics of aperture to help you grasp the concept and see what the change of aperture does for your shots. But the fun part is: he uses Star Wars Lego (and even Master Yoda’s voice occasionally) to guide you through the theory. I think that it hardly gets more amusing than that.

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Learn how to get the perfect exposure every time

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A camera’s built in meter often does a great job of making a “correct” exposure, but it’s not always what the photographer wants to capture. Despite how “smart” they’ve become, camera meters will still often get it wrong. They’ll blow out the sky to maintain the ground, or you’ll get a well exposed sky with your subject crushed to a black silhouette.

This three part video series from photographer Greg Benz walks us through the process from start to finish. It begins before we’ve taken the shot through to reviewing the raw file on the computer. We’re not talking about the “technically correct” exposure here. We’re talking about the right exposure. The exposure that, all things weighed up, gives you exactly the shot that you want.

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Quick tip: how to remember the F-Stop Scale like a boss

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you know how funny the f-stop scale is. All those weird numbers that make no sense.. (well, they do make sense if you look at the square roots of powers of two, but this is really not making anybody’s lives easier).

Griffin Hammond came up with a clever trick to remember the entire scale of F-Stops using only two numbers: 1 and 1.4.

The secret to the method is making a series of numbers that starts with those two numbers and then the next member is the prev-prev number times two.

So, it’s 1, then 1.4, then 1×2=2, then 1.4×2=2.8, then 2×2=4, then 2.8×2=5.6 and so on.

[Griffin Hammond via nofilmschool]

P.S. 1.8 is not a “round” f-stop number

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