Firstly, I must notify you guys that I am still in a school of photography and won't qualify myself as being a “professional” in the field. However, I have acquired enough knowledge to guide beginners on how photography works and other basic things needed to become a professional photographer.

If you are a professional or very knowledgeable in photography, please do make contributions.

What is photography?
I know a lot of you will say photography is all about picking up a camera and taking pictures, well, I won't totally disagree and I won't agree either. I like to see photography as a way of seeing something, knowing how you want it to look, and making it look like your imagination through the aid of a camera and other equipment’s.

The most important thing to note is that photography starts from the mind, not the camera. The camera is just a tool for actualizing your imagination.

Types of Photography
It is necessary to define the area of photography one wants to specialize in because photography is broad and has different branches. Some of which are explained below.

Fashion Photography
Photographs are one of the most effective ways of communication in the world of fashion. Here, photography is used to bring attention to the clothes and the accessories. Models are exclusively selected to showcase products in the best way possible. Fashion photographers today, create the particular look either in natural environment or one that is created in the studio. Often, these fashionable photographs find their way in leading fashion magazines. These magazines cater to the niche crowd that loves to know the best in clothing and other fashion accessories.

Glamor photography
This is also about fashionable visuals, however, with a difference. Glamor photography highlights the model in a different light rather than laying emphasis on the clothing or accessories. Often, nude images are also a part of glamor photography. These can be found on the covers of magazines like 'Playboy'.

Advertising photography

Event photography

Still Life Photography
Still life photography is all about capturing objects on camera that are deliberately grouped together to create a particular composition. A photographer in this case, can create different textures and use objects that add interest to an otherwise normal composition.

Fine Art Photography
Fine art photography is all about visuals that resemble a work of art. These are highly creative images that have an abstract appeal.

These are the most popular fields of photography in Nigeria in my opinion, however there are others like war photography, seascape photography, and wildlife photography etc.

EQUIPMENTS USED IN PHOTOGRAPHY
Every Kazeem, Kamoru and Kasali knows that the Camera is the most important tool in photography but what they don’t know is that there are other equipment’s that are also very important. I am just going to list these tools out for now, I will upload their pictures, discuss their functions and continue the tutorials later.
1. A DSLR Camera & Lenses
2. Tripod & Ball Head
3. Lens Filters
4. External Flash Units
5. Exposure Meter
6. Diffuser & Reflector
7. Lighting kits
8. Filters

Hit the like button if you want me to continue because it will be a waste of time if nobody is actually following this thread. Gracias.

Following sir!!!

its always a thing of joy, to see a youth share his knowledge and his time positively. keep it up !

joefredd006:
its always a thing of joy, to see a youth share his knowledge and his time positively. keep it up !

Thank you sir.

UPDATE coming up once i lay my hands on my PC. Gracias.

Interesting

DSLR CAMERAS
In case you are wondering what a DSLR camera is, it is the normal cameras you see professional photographers carry around. DSLR simply means DIGITAL SINGLE LENS REFLEX. It is termed DIGITAL because it has a digital imaging sensor which allows you to capture images without using films, it also allows the storage of the images captured on an SD card. In simpler terms, DSLRs are designed to take pictures without the use of films, while SLRs cannot capture images without films.

TRIPODS
Tripods are used by photographers to prevent camera movements. Tripods have three legs and a mounting head to couple with a camera. Tripods reduce camera shake when taking pictures. Carrying the camera with your hands when taking some creative shots can lead to the production of a blur image due to fact that your hands are shaking, in order to minimize this, the camera is placed on a tripod to produce better results.

LENS FILTERS
According to Wikipedia, a filter is a camera accessory consisting of an optical filter that can be inserted into the optical path. The filter can be of a square or oblong shape and mounted in a holder accessory, or, more commonly, a glass or plastic disk in a metal or plastic ring frame, which can be screwed into the front of or clipped onto the camera lens.
Filters are basically used to modify your images, more like applying effects to your images without editing on a PC or tablet etc. there are lots of filters and they modify images in different ways. Filters are clipped onto the lens of a camera and they are transparent. They also reduce the amount of light hitting the lens of the camera and might lead to under exposure if you don’t know how to handle a camera.
In case you are wondering what exposure is, relax, I will explain everything in future posts, this is still an introduction to photography.

External flash
Have you ever seen, that long stuff at the top of a camera that flashes light when photographers take your pictures? Of course you have. That is an external flash unit and it is clipped to the top of the camera, oh! It is also detachable.

Exposure meter
Trust me, you won’t understand these until I post that tutorial on exposure. So stay in touch.

Reflectors
Reflectors basically bounce lights from flash and other lighting kits to produce better lighting on the object to be photographed. In case you still don’t get it, what I am trying to say is that instead of directing your flash (for instance) directly on an object to be photographed, you direct the flash towards your reflector instead, so that when you press the shutter button, the light coming from the flash hits the reflector and not the object, the reflector then bounces the light onto the object. I hope you understand.

Lighting kits
This are artificial light source used in photography e.g. reflectors, fluorescents, spot grids etc.

The next tutorial will be an in-depth tutorial on How to use a DSLR camera, Exposure (ISO, Aperture, shutter speed, Natural light) and Lenses.
If you have a camera, Good for you, if you don't, don't worry, I will break it down as easy as I can. Gracias.

this is great...would you mind if I have your number?

Toluwalagbara:
this is great...would you mind if I have your number?

I'll prefer you drop your mail so i can send you my number.

Following

Nice one boss

loverkomer@gmail.com

woow! some tasty reading....

Following

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THE CAMERA (DSLR), EXPOSURE AND LENS

NB: This tutorial is a combination my knowledge and references to some other photography textbooks, although the texts were edited and rephrased by yours truly.
You must know that “light” is very important in photography whether artificial (e.g. fluorescent) or Natural (Sun and Moon).

So you love photography but you have little or no knowledge about the camera, well, I will explain to the best of my knowledge.
There are loads of DSLR cameras in the market with crop frame or full frame, good pixel pitch, large apertures etc. I wouldn’t want to go into specs now because that will also take an entire tutorial.

I am assuming you have all seen a DSLR camera, well, if you haven’t I will advise you visit a studio and take a picture for #200 or so.
The most important thing you will want to know how to do on your camera is controlling your exposure. Exposure simply means the amount of light that falls onto the sensor of the camera. So if an image is over exposed (Meaning you allowed too much light to hit the senor), when you capture the said image it will be too bright, likewise, if it is under exposed (Meaning you didn’t allow enough light to hit the sensor) your image will be too dark when it is captured. This means that you will want to get a correct/balanced exposure and that can be done using your camera.

The PARTS of a CAMERA
Your camera is made up of many parts, but there are a few in particular that we want to look at as they are the most important. We'll go into much more detail in a bit, but here's a basic overview of the parts we're going to look at:

THE BODY
The body is the housing for your camera. While it has little effect on the quality of your photos, it does affect things like ease of use and comfort.

LENS
The lens is the eye of the camera, and it's a very complex instrument. Different lenses can provide many different features, so it's important to know the differences between them. In future lessons, we'll also discuss how lenses work and how that affects your photographs.

SENSOR
The sensor is basically the digital equivalent of film, in the sense that—like film—the sensor is exposed to light that comes through the lens and it records that exposure. The exposure is then processed and saved to flash memory (generally an SD or Compact Flash card). The caliber and size of the sensor are also very important, as these things significantly impact the quality of your photos. When the reflective light from the photographed subject passes through the lens and aperture, the image is captured by the digital image sensor. A digital image sensor is the computer chip inside the camera that consists of millions of individual elements capable of capturing light.

FLASH
Already explained in previous tutorials

EXPOSURE
Do not forget that I said exposure is the amount of light allowed to hit the sensor of the camera in order to produce an image. The amount of exposure is determined by 3 things which is your aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Read the explanation below for better understanding.

APERTURE
The aperture refers to the lens opening through which light (Natural or artificial) is admitted to form an image, by so doing, increasing the aperture size means you want the opening to get wider and when you do that more light will be allowed to hit the sensor, likewise, reducing the aperture size means you want the opening to get narrow and this reduces the amount of light that will hit the sensor.
For those who do not have access to a camera you can try this at night. Roll a piece of paper and make the 2 ends circular now take a torch light and place it at one end of the rolled paper, now you can see that light is passing through the other end, the more you make this opening (other end) narrower the lesser the light that would pass through. That is just how aperture works the lesser the opening, the lesser the light that passes through.
You can’t possibly be looking at how wide or narrow this opening is on the face of your lens, so the aperture size is measured by f/number (e.g f/6, f/7, f8) on your camera, and a button or ”something you can roll just like that thing you find on a mouse” has been built with the camera to either increase or decrease the f/number. Unfortunately, the number is inversely related to the opening. This means that when you are trying to adjust the aperture on your camera, the more you reduce the f/number the lager the opening and the brighter your picture will be, likewise, the more you increase the f/number the darker your picture will be. E.g. if I reduce my aperture from f/13 to f/10, it means I want my picture to be brighter, but if I increase my aperture from f/3 to f/7 it means I want my picture to be darker.
NB: Some cameras have wider apertures than others, meaning I can buy a camera and its widest aperture will be f/2.8 while a friend can purchase his and its widest aperture will be f/4.3.

SHUTTER SPEED
The shutter is a complicated mechanism that precisely controls the duration of time that light passing through the lens remains in contact with the digital image sensor. The camera’s shutter is activated by the shutter release button. Prior to the digital age, the shutter remained closed to prevent the film from being exposed. Depending on the type of digital image sensor, a mechanical shutter may not be necessary. Rather than a shutter revealing light to initiate a chemical reaction in the film, the digital image sensor may simply be turned on and off.
When you press the shutter button on your camera and take a picture, the aperture blades take a specific amount of time to close. This amount of time is known as your shutter speed. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open or the digital image sensor is activated. The exposure (The amount of light that is hitting the sensor of the camera to form an image) of the image is determined by the combination of shutter speed and the opening of the aperture. Shutter speeds are displayed as fractions of a second, such as 1/8 or 1/250. The more you increase the shutter speed, the faster the aperture blade will close which means lesser light will pass through.


ISO
ISO is the digital equivalent (or approximation) of film speed. If you remember buying film for a regular camera, you'd get 100 or 200 for outdoors and 400 or 800 for indoors. The faster the film speed the more sensitive it is to light. All of this still applies to digital photography, but it's called an ISO rating instead. The advantage of a low ISO is that the light in a given exposure is more accurately represented. If you've seen photos at night, the lights often look like they're much brighter and bleeding into other areas of the photo. This is the result of a high ISO—a greater sensitivity to light. High ISOs are particularly useful for picking up more detail in a dark photograph without reducing the shutter speed or widening the aperture more than you want to, but it comes at a cost. In addition to lights being overly and unrealistically bright in your photos, high ISO settings are the biggest contributors to photographic noise. High-end cameras will pick up less noise at higher ISOs than low-end cameras, but the rule is always the same: the higher you increase your ISO, the more noise you get. Most cameras will set the ISO automatically, even in manual mode. Generally you can stick with the same ISO setting if your lighting situation doesn't change, so it's good to get used to setting it yourself. That said, sometimes lighting changes enough in dark, indoor settings that letting the camera set it for you automatically can be helpful—even when shooting manually. Note that the more you increase your ISO figure the brighter you picture will get e.g. form ISO 200 to ISO 600, likewise, the more you decrease the ISO figure the darker your picture will get e.g. from ISO 900 to ISO 400.
PS; The image below is a representation of how your aperture looks like.
TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW.....Gracias.

Shooting Modes (Setting exposure on your camera)
Most cameras come with a few different types of shooting modes, from full automatic to full manual. We're going to take a look at the most common and discuss when you should use them.

Automatic mode
Takes care of everything for you, meaning if you switch your camera to this mode, your camera sets everything for you and by saying everything, I mean your ISO, Shutter speed and aperture. This mode is usually denoted with the letter “A” on your camera

Program automatic
Sets your aperture and shutter speed automatically, but gives you control over other settings like ISO (the rating that affects how sensitive your camera's sensor is to light—similar to film speed in film cameras). This mode is usually denoted with the letter “P” on your camera

Scene modes
Generally have icons to represent their purpose, such as a mountain for landscapes or a fast-moving person for sports. So, if you want to take picture in a landscape mode for example, you can just switch or scroll to the mountain icon and snap.
Scene modes can be useful if you want the camera to assist you in photographing the types of photos each mode is designed for.

Shutter priority
Allows you to set the shutter speed and ISO but allows the camera to set the aperture automatically. This mode is useful if the shutter speed is the most important consideration when taking a photo. This is often the case when you want to make sure you take a photo fast enough to capture motion but do not care about the aperture. This is useful for photography sports, dance, or anything with a lot of movement. This mode is usually denoted with the letter “Tv” on your camera.

Aperture priority
Allows you to set the aperture and ISO but lets the camera set the shutter speed automatically. This is useful when the aperture is the most important consideration in your photograph. The aperture can have some of the greatest visual impact on your photographs because it is one of the largest contributing factors to depth of field. A wide aperture (represented by a low f-stop like f/1. will produce a photo where your subject is in sharp focus but the background is very much out of focus. This is useful for portraits, or focusing on a single object in an otherwise busy frame. A narrow aperture (represented by a higher f-stop, like f/ will produce a photo where most everything appears to be in focus. This is useful for landscapes, or any other situation where keeping everything in focus is desirable. Wider apertures also let in more light, so they're useful when you don't have much and want to avoid using a flash. Aperture priority is one of the best shooting modes your camera has because you can still control your ISO settings (light sensitivity) and the shutter speed is often something that's best left for the camera to decide unless you have a reason to choose it yourself. This mode is usually denoted with the letter “Av” on your camera.
Manual mode
Let’s you set everything manually, ranging from your aperture to speed and ISO. You should be able to set these manually if you have read and understood this tutorial. This mode is usually denoted with the letter “M” on your camera.

SETTING YOUR EXPOSURE MANUALLY
I didn’t want to write this at first, because I felt you should be able to do this after reading the above posts.

So let’s say I am holding my camera and I am in an extremely dark place with just little light and my aperture is set at maybe f/12, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/250.
The first thing I will want to do is to make use of my flash to artificially create more light when I take pictures.
The second thing I’ll do is to adjust my aperture to let’s say f/4 (meaning I am making the opening wider) to allow more light, then I will also reduce my shutter speed to let’s say 1/60 (to reduce the speed at which my aperture blade closes so more light can hit the sensor before the blades are enclosed) and my ISO will be increased to like ISO 2300 (To increase the sensitivity of my sensor to the light that will be generated once I press the shutter button to snap).
After this I’ll press the shutter button to take whatever picture I want to take, then after that I’ll check the image on the LCD monitor of the camera to check if my picture actually came out the way I’ll like it to, if it didn’t, I’ll just go ahead and adjust my settings again, press the shutter button and check until I get what I am looking for.

I can not believe I read all these. Continue pls

fazbuk:
I can not believe I read all these.
Continue pls

I would probably post something during the weekend, just watch out.

Hello........ really love this.... keep it up...... been studying the write up and taking notes....... #following

May God make you bigger with this interesting and informative thread. Hope to see more of this from you.

LENSES
I hope you guys remember that I mentioned in earlier posts that lenses are interchangeable, meaning you can remove a lens from a camera and fix another lens just as easy as changing covers of a pen. Oh, if you don’t know what a lens look like just check the pictures after this post, you will figure it out.
Certain types of lenses are better for certain situations, so it's important to know their classifications and differences. The first thing worth noting is the difference between zoom lenses and prime lenses.
Note that when you purchase a DSLR camera what comes with it is usually a zoom lens.

ZOOM LENSES
When you read about lenses either online or in photography books, you get all sort of terminologies and numbers which makes understanding the text complex, right? Zoom lens in its easiest explanation are lenses that allows you the freedom to zoom in and out on your subject (what you intend to photograph) while standing at a single point. Basically, zooming in on your subject will mean you will have a narrow field of view on your frame and zooming out will automatically mean you will have a wider field of view.

For the sake of those who do not have a camera, when I say frame, I mean the frame of the subject seen through the view finder. When you see photographers, (I am assuming you have seen one by the way) they usually look through a sort of opening whenever they want to take pictures, that is a view finder. When they look through the view finder, the subject is framed by the camera, then they can zoom in to have a narrow field of view, which means the subject will appear bolder and when they zoom out they get a wider field of view, which means the subject will appear farther/smaller.

In photography however, how far a lens can zoom in or out is referred to as focal length and this is measured in millimeters e.g. a 50mm lens. So zooming in on a subject actually means increasing the focal length of your lens while zooming out actually means decreasing the focal length of your lens.

By the way for those who do not have access to a camera, increasing focal length or reducing focal length can be done by turning the zoom ring on you lens to the left or right, just like turning the cover of a table water to the left or right.

Summary: Increasing focal length on a zoom lens means zooming in which gives a narrow field of view (bold image) e.g. increasing focal length from 18mm to 35mm on your zoom lens
Decreasing focal length on a zoom lens means zooming out which gives a wide field of view (far/smaller/wider image) e.g. decreasing focal length from 35mm to 18mm on your zoom lens.

To be continued gracias.

What a great training, really love it, hope to get more from you soon. Thumbs up for you bro.

hello pls I really wanna enrol for a photography training but I do not know which and where to see a good school...any link? ? in lagos tho