Photography Lessons With Joe: Part 1

Clouds on Rocky Knob by Joe Fikes

An Art & A Science

Last month I began photography lessons here in Huntsville, Alabama with my friend Joe Fikes. After our first meeting to get an overview of the class and talk about my experience level, I came home and wrote an introductory article that was supposed to be the first of many that detailed everything I had been taught. However, after the first lesson, I realized that I was learning much, much more than just how to operate my camera (a Canon Digital Rebel XSi – my notes below apply to Canon Digital SLR Cameras).

Joe is a semi-retired physicist who has a deep understanding of the science behind color theory, lighting, the construction of a camera, as well as a camera’s various modes and what they do. He has developed a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation to help communicate complicated information to those of us whose last real science class was in high school! (There is also a lot of added information for the engineers.) Joe has taught photography to hundreds of people in group classes and also individually. If you have a chance to take lessons from him, I would highly recommend it!

This and subsequent articles on my photography lessons will highlight some of the things that I have learned. I’m going to risk embarrassment and post some of the pictures I take along the way, too! Hopefully we will see improvement as time goes on. Although the articles won’t communicate everything Joe teaches, I hope that they will help you with some basic improvements in your photography skills. My goal is to also help you determine what to look for in a teacher and class if you decide to take lessons yourself (if Joe is busy, or you don’t live in Huntsville).

Roses on Stone Wall by Joe Fikes

Class 1

The following notes are quoted from Joe’s class presentation. Please note that these are just a few items taken from his slides; his entire presentation is much longer and more thorough. For example, he explains a little about quantum mechanics when describing how the camera sensor produces an image in the camera. That is a little beyond the scope of this article (but was very interesting)! 🙂

Luminance & Pixels

At its most fundamental level, photography is a mapping of a 3-dimensional “luminance” distribution onto a 2-dimensional surface.
Digital photographs are made up of pixels – “picture elements”. They’re somewhat like a mosaic of tiles. Individually, they’re just tiny little pieces of the scene. Collectively, they form the whole picture.
Once you pass a certain threshold, say 15 MP, then image quality degrades as you increase the number of pixels unless you increase the sensor size. The size of the individual pixels determines the image quality. The larger the pixels, the better the imagery.

A Few Basic Concepts

Shutter Speed – How quickly the exposure is made (usually a small fraction of a second)
Aperture – How much light the lens can admit. It’s measured in “F-Number” or “F#.” Smaller F# means the lens admits more light.
Sensitivity – A measure of how much light is required to get a good exposure. It’s measured in ISO rating (or, formerly, ASA).
Resolution – Sharpness. It’s related to pixel count (measured in Mega-Pixels, or MP), but it’s also related to lens quality and technique.

The First Part of the Course is Technique – Achieving a High-Quality Image

Frame the shot properly – no cut-off heads, etc.
Focus properly on the subject.
Get the exposure right (lighting).
Freeze the motion (both subject and camera motion) – getting a critically sharp image.
Get the color right.

Miniature Garden photo taken by me, after manually setting my camera’s focus point.

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

The Camera (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 1)

Picture Taker: Photographs by Ken Elkins

A Few More Notes

Study

Study photography “coffee table” books. Joe recommended two in particular: Picture Taker by Ken Elkins and The Portfolios of Ansel Adams.
Spend some time with one or two books…what grabs your attention? What do you like about the image?
To develop your artistic side of photography, study the masters and try to imitate.

Camera Settings – “P” (Program) mode

For now, stay on “P” most of the time.
Manually change the camera’s focus point to the middle point, so that when you take a picture, you can tell the camera exactly what to focus on. (Most SLR digital cameras are set to determine the focus point(s) automatically, and the camera doesn’t always know what you want to focus on.)
Change the ISO to 400 – 90% of the time this is the correct ISO. It produces a smoother picture than higher ISO numbers – the higher the ISO number, the more grainy the image. The exception is that indoors or at night you probably want to use an ISO of 800 or 1600.

Cleaning the Lens

Use a UV or clear glass filter to protect lens. Recommended Hoya 58 mm Lens Filter (for my lens) at B&H Photo, Amazon.com or Adorama.com. These are reputable online photo supply shops.
To clean the lens or filter, breathe on it then use a soft lint-free cotton cloth that’s been run through the washer a few times. You can use microfiber cloths, but be sure they are clean. Don’t use a fluid unless it is absolutely necessary.

Joe recommended taking 100 photos between now and next week and applying what I had learned so far. This was very helpful, but I still have a lot to learn. My notes on Class 2 are coming soon!

Photography Lessons With Joe – Week One, Overview(cottonridgecreate.com)
10 Blogs That Will Make You Into An Amazing Photographer(makeuseof.com)
Understanding ISO Sensitivity(nikonusa.com)