When I was a kid, my goal in life was not to become a photographer. It was actually never even a thought in my mind growing up. I was artistic, and creative, but photography really didn’t fall into that specific skill set for me. Music was my thing. I played piano and violin and involved myself in basically anything musical that I could. From playing in a quartet in weddings, to accompanying church masses, I never considered doing anything else.

When I became a mom in 2013, my life changed a little bit. Okay, a lot a bit. My son was (and is) my pride and joy and life revolved around him. I spent most of my days chasing him around and relishing in the moments of this new experience for me. I wished I could document his life in a way that would stop time, so to speak. Enter: photography. It sounds cliché, but I started photography because I wanted to document my son and our life together. I began researching the best entry level cameras and in 2014, my husband bought me a Canon Rebel t3i for my birthday. It was one of the best gifts I had ever received and I will never forget how excited I was to finally get it in my hands (or how the FedEx delivery man decided not to run it up to my apartment on the scheduled delivery day and made me wait for it to arrive again over the weekend!) I began photographing my son as soon as it arrived. Of course, I threw it in auto mode and I was off. That was the day I became a “momtographer”. A couple months after my second child was born in 2015, I began to really dive into the world of photography and realized I wanted to be more than just a mom with a camera (which I still am).

During my research, I realized there were two main lessons a person should learn when jumping into the world of photography. 1— how to shoot in manual mode, and 2— lighting! It is important to have a good camera, but that is not the most important lesson to learn if you want to become a photographer. A professional would be able to take my beginner level t3i and create something just as beautiful (with only minor differences) as something taken with a professional level camera like a Canon 5D Mark IV. The camera does not make the photographer, but lighting and settings do! I have heard a few comments like “if only I had a nice camera, I could take my own photos”, or “wow, your camera is so nice, that’s what I need!” And yes, I do have a nice camera (Canon 6D), but that is not what got me to my current level of photography.

The first step to learning photography is getting to know your camera and all that it can do. Manual mode allows you to be in control of every aspect of your photograph. When you put your camera in auto, your camera is only guessing the best settings for your lighting. It has no idea if you want your photo to be bright, or dark, or if you want to see all of the beautiful colors in the sunset sky, or if you want to expose for the tree in the foreground instead. There are three essential settings to learn on your camera in order to be confident in taking pictures in manual mode. They are: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. I’m going to dive into these settings more in my next post, but for a quick run down— shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter of the camera is open to let light in to capture the picture. Aperture is the hole or opening in which light travels through the camera lens. This setting has to do with how much blur your background will have. Lastly, is ISO, which generally refers to light sensitivity. All three of these elements have to do with lighting and each one plays its own special part in the lighting of your photograph. Change one of these elements, and you could have a completely different picture. It is important to know what each of these elements do and how to change them to get the desired result. This is why using manual mode is so important, and the first thing you should learn when working to expand your photography knowledge.

Take a look at the photos below. Both photos were taken with the same lens, lighting, and subject, but I changed my settings after taking the first photo. Can you spot the differences? Notice the black cord in the background, and the DVDs sitting on the floor. They are more out of focus in the first photo and much less distracting. Also, the focus of the photo is on the cats eyes, which is the sharpest point of the photo. In the second photo, the plane of focus is much larger so there could be multiple points of focus when looking at that particular image. The second photo also has a large amount of grain compared to the first photo. Because I knew how to manually adjust the settings of my camera, I was able to manipulate all of these aspects of the images.

Now, check this out! Just for fun, I threw my camera in auto mode just to see what it would think were the best settings for this situation. It took my shutter speed all the way down to 1/30, which is not at all ideal for portrait photography, or any type of photography for that matter (with a few exceptions)! With just a slight shake of my hand, my photo turned out blurry. This is a perfect example why it’s so important to shoot in manual mode if you want to take your photography to the next level.

Another important aspect of shooting in manual mode is manual focus! And by this, I do not mean the little switch on the side of your lens, but rather the focus point that your camera is using to decide what is most important in your photograph. If you are in true auto mode, your camera will dictate everything for you, including focus point. It will decide itself what is the most important point of your picture. But how can it truly know? It can’t. Which is why it’s so important to set a single focus point for you to use to select this yourself. With manual focus, you are able to focus on something in the background, and then switch to focusing on something in the foreground. Each of these photos will look different because different parts of the photos will be blurred (out of focus). When photographing people, I always make sure to focus on the eyes, which in my opinion is the most important part of a portrait. Auto focus may decide to focus on the nose, or mouth instead, resulting in the eyes slightly out of focus. In the photo I posted above when I switched my camera to auto focus, my camera decided that the cat’s ear was the most important part of the photo and focused on it instead of her eyes.

The last, and arguably the most important, part of learning photography is learning about lighting. We talked about learning to properly expose your photos, but also learning how to properly light your subject, or how the light is presenting itself (whether outside, or indoors) is imperative as well. I’m sure at some point in your childhood you, or one of your friends, took a flashlight and held it under your nose while telling a scary story. This is the perfect example how to NOT light your subjects, and this goes for people, or objects. Lighting is SO important because if a subject is properly lit, all of their best features will be exposed. If not properly lit, they could look like a completely different person. Light is all around us, and learning how to use different types of light, whether it be natural light through a window, sunlight outside, or a studio strobe light, you must be able to properly light your subject to get the best results in your photo.

When I was just starting out, we lived in a duplex with a big picture window in the living room. I used this window for lots of practice and when I was ready, booked some sessions using the window as my main light source. It wasn’t instant, but after each session or practice with my kids just sitting in my living room, I learned the best places to seat my subject so my photos had the best lighting. With light, also comes shadows, which is something else I was able to learn about during my practice. Shadows are not bad, they are actually a very important aspect to have in every photograph. When your photo is properly lit, you will have light in all the right places, and shadows in all the right places.

I am going to dive into lighting in a later post, but hopefully if you are interested in photography, like I was back in 2014, you know just what you need to learn to take your interest to the next level. There are LOTS of YouTube videos out there on learning manual mode and proper lighting. I spent lots of time on YouTube, Pinterest, and Google picking up everything I could about everything. If you are interested in photography and want to get started, take the time to learn about your camera and learn about lighting, and you will be well on your way. It’s so exciting at the beginning and I remember I just wanted to dive in and start taking sessions right away. But it is so important to practice and hone in your skills before offering them to strangers. Practice on family members, or friends, and take your time remembering what you have learned so far. Analyze your light and tell friends or family to be patient with you as you are still learning. The best way to learn is to take your time and focus. Nerves can get in the way of learning, which is why it is best to photograph strangers once you are more confident in your skills. These are great things to learn even if you aren’t interested in the professional side of photography! I photograph my kids almost every day, as do most parents— whether it be with a phone or dSLR, and I am able to put these important tips into practice when using my phone as well!

My next post will be more information about the exposure triangle, so stay tuned if you want to learn more basic tips on how to use your dSLR. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to share!