What you'll need to do these exercises
- Time: Give yourself some time to work on the practice photos for each scenario you're preparing for.
- All travel scenario practice can be done with any camera. A phone or small point and shoot will do just fine.
- Optional: You'll get the most value from these tutorials by doing the practice photos with an advanced camera so you can control all the settings.
- Optional: A computer with a photo editing software installed: Apple photos and any editing tools on your phone can do all of the adjustments covered in the Basic Photo Editing video. You can install a trial version of Adobe Lightroom here. Or install a 7 day free trial of Luminar which is my favorite inexpensive standalone photo editor.
What You'll Learn in These Tutorial Videos
Camera Skills
Mechanics of operating your camera - 70 minutes total: covering exposure modes (auto, program, aperture priority, shutter priority), the exposure triangle - shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, and the all important auto focus vs manual focus.
Situational Skills
Common scenarios and skills for making photos in travel photography situations - 226 minutes total: landscape, action & motion, street, cultural, wildlife, long exposure. Each video stands alone so you can do just the video and practice photos that you expect to encounter on your upcoming travels or photography project.
Making Impactful Photos
Principles to make a good photo in any situation - 70 minutes total: choosing your subject, what is a good photo and directing viewer attention. These are hard learned lessons through personal education and thousands of hours of practice. These are the things I wish somebody had told me were important to learn when I started photography.Choosing Your Subject: 23 minutes
The difference between taking a photo and making a photo. Making a photograph implies thought and purpose. This thought process may happen a month before you arrive at a location. It can also happen a few seconds before you click the shutter. Either way you have made your own considered decision about the strongest image available from the scene in front of you rather than just clicking the shutter and hoping for the best.
What is a Good Photo?: 30 minutes
Let's look at the difference between a snapshot and an excellent photo. The scale is based on a 1 to 10 ranking that is often used in photography competitions starting with 1 as a throwaway image and moving to a 10 as an exceptional image. A good photo can be made anywhere with any subject.
Directing Viewer Attention: 18 minutes
Creating focal points in an image and how to draw in a viewer's attention. I focus on how a viewers eyes travel through a photo. These are physiological triggers that affect everyone the same whether they are a complete novice or an experienced photographer. While we can manipulate these focal points with editing software, an image should first be captured with these principles in mind.
Basic Photo Editing: 55 minutes
Why you edit a photo is so much more important than how. When I was learning to edit photos I got so frustrated with everyone showing me how to move a slider in a software without explaining why they were making that change to the photo. In this video I cover the thought process that will help you decide what edits a photo really needs in the first place. And if you don't want to bother with editing your photos, these tips will still help you to make better photos at the point of capture.- Why do you need or want to edit your photos at all?
- Adjustments that are common to most photo editing softwares.
- What order should you make corrections in?
- General edits - difference between whites, blacks, shadows, highlights and why that matters.
- Specific edits for more creative control over sharpness, contrast, colors, curves, etc.
- What’s the difference between a basic photo editing software like Apple Photos and a “professional software” like Lightroom? I do an edit on the same photo in Apple Photos and Lightroom and then show what’s possible if you want to learn something more advanced like Photoshop.
