Table of Content:

-Introduction: An overview on photography and its expressive capabilities……….. 2

- Genres and Styles of photography…………………………………………………...7

-Analog vs digital……………………………………………………………………....38

-Analog……………………………………………………………………………….39

-Digital………………………………………………………………………………50

- The Photographic Digital Camera: Different kinds and its basic components …….61

- Care and Maintenance of DSLR Cameras…………………………………………....66

-Exposure……………………………………………………………………………….70

-Lenses……………………………………………………………………………….....73

-Filters…………………………………………………………………………………..76

-White Balance…………………………………………………………………………79

-Basic Composition ……………………………………………………………………81

- Basic Post Production…………………………………………………………………84

-How to store and share your photos………………………………………………….86

 Introduction
An overview on photography and its expressive capabilities

Many people think that making a photograph is very simple and that it doesn’t require
much knowledge or skill. “It’s just looking and pressing a button”, “anyone can do it”,
“dedicating yourself to photography is just a waste of time” you might have heard. And
they are partially right, at least with the first two points mentioned. Photography
consists essentially on picking up your camera, looking at your framing and pressing the
shutter button. Anyone with a functional sight can take a photo even if he or she doesn’t
care at all about the technique, fundamentals and principles involved in the art of
photography. When these principles are ignored due to lack of knowledge or interest,
the result is usually a not so good photo, just like when someone who doesn’t know or
care anything about music picks up a piano and tries to play a melody. I hope that if you
are reading this, you are not part of those people and you are actually interested in the
subject, acknowledge that there are a couple of things to keep in mind in order to make
good photos and you are willing to study and learn the fundamentals of photography.

Photography is defined as the art and technique of capturing light to create long-lasting
images. In digital photography, this is possible thanks to the image sensor, which is the
component designed to detect the information – or light – of the object being
photographed. These images can also be created through a chemical process which
involves materials sensitive to light, such as the photographic film.

The first important thing you have to keep in mind is the difference between “taking”
and “making” a photograph. Before we start to delve into the comparison between these
two terms (that some people interchangeably misuse) you have to acknowledge
something: Traditionally, photography has been considered as the most exact and loyal
representation of reality. This led to the consideration of photography as an objective
way to record reality for further study. However, later it was recognized that depending
on what elements the photographer includes in the picture and his decision on what
object he would photograph, and other things like the angle, exposure or the
composition the image would be perceived differently by people, so photography
wasn’t that objective after all.

Now, coming back again to the comparison between “taking” and “making”
photographs I want to clarify that although most professional photographers prefer to
use the term “making” it doesn’t necessarily imply that it’s better than “taking” (used
mostly by common people nonrelated to photography).

When I talk about “taking” photographs, I refer to the act of just capturing a moment, to
take it from reality and convert it into a durable image. This is sometimes a pejorative
term (usually used this way by contemporary professional photographers) because
according to some of them it implies not only that you are somehow “stealing” the
object being photographed but, you also are not doing anything to get the image you
want but “just pressing a button”, without any other consideration. This is a highly
debated subject on the photography community but in my opinion it’s incorrect to
consider it that way. Capturing a moment may be a really difficult task that requires
skill and experience; it is an art form itself. It’s related to the old saying of “being in the
right place at the right time”. Outstanding photographs can come out with this
“philosophy” of photography. In fact, there are certain things that can only be captured
in this way. When you just shoot and the subject doesn’t even know that you are
shooting, you get more natural and “realistic” images (this is pretty common in street
photography, photojournalism and wildlife photography). Henri Cartier-Bresson was a
well known, respected and influential photographer that photographed this way, getting
incredible images. Usually these types of photographers reject the use of image
manipulation techniques as well as image retouching and post-production.

“Making” photographs, on the other hand, refers to the act of “creating” the photo. Even
though it still consists of taking something from reality to make it a durable image,
when the photographer makes his photo, he creates the lighting and can be as detailed as
they want with all the elements that will appear on the image. Usually everything is
already well thought and planned when the photographer comes to place and picks up
his camera, and this kind of photography tends to happen in more controlled
environments like inside a photo studio (although this isn’t always the case, you can
“make” street or wildlife photos as well). This kind of photographers are more open to
the use of retouching software like Photoshop or Lightroom, as well as other analog
image manipulation techniques. Dave Hill is a good example of an excellent
photographer that “makes” epic photographs in different environments.

In the end, none of them is better than the other. In order to get good pictures with both
of these styles, it is an obligation to be conscious of all the photography principles and
the photography technique. Composition must be considered always; anytime anyone
picks up his camera to take a photograph of any genre and style, all the rules must be
kept in mind (and the photographer must consciously decide how many of them he will
break and why).

It is also very important to know that a good photograph doesn’t need caption or any
other extra information in order to be understood. When a photo is well composed, shot
in the right time and with the correct use of exposition and light, it will evoke feelings
by itself. It’s also an essential work of the photographer to “develop his eyes”. This
means to develop a good sense of understanding about when is the right time to press
the button, when an image is correctly balanced, where to position himself, where to
point the camera at, where he could potentially get a good looking picture etc. The
camera is a tool, and although it has really good options and auto modes, it isn’t really
smart. It doesn’t matter how expensive your equipment is, the camera will not make the
decisions for you. It is your work as a photographer to make all kinds of choices and
then tell the camera your instructions before pressing the shutter button. In order to
develop your photographer eyes, you have to study and master the photography
principles and technique; you have to see and analyze the work of other established and
professional photographers so you can internalize the visual language of photography
and its aesthetics (developing a visual and aesthetic culture) and, of course, a lot of
practice is needed. Take as much photos as you can! The more photos you take, the
more you will improve (practice, though, is way more efficient when it’s done
consciously on the subject you are trying to learn),

Another thing to consider is that when you start taking (or making) photographs you
will immediately find a first challenge: Cameras see in a different way than we, as
humans, do. Controlling the different aspects of photography will help you to achieve
the looks you are looking for in your pictures, doesn’t matter if you want to make the
image as similar as possible to reality or if at contraire, you want a surrealistic view on
the subject you are photographing. Also, when you start learning photography
fundamentals at the same time you practice with your camera, you begin to notice how
your sight sharpens in the sense that it becomes easier to perceive and manage visual
elements such as texture, colors, figures and photogenic situations.

Photography can serve as a very useful tool in different areas, industries and contexts
like science, business, communication, publicity, film, art, journalism and more. But
photography can also be a mean by itself, as it doesn’t work only as a way to record a
specific moment or object for its later study but it is a powerful tool for communicating
ideas, concepts, feelings, opinions or emotions. It is often used as a way to sell or
promote a product (which can be an object, a service, or even just an idea) and also as a
way to express and evoke inner feelings. But it doesn’t stop there: photographs, just like
any other image, can be powerful enough to cause aesthetic pleasure, like when you are
watching a painting or any other piece of art (and evokes aesthetic pleasure in the
creator of the photograph as well, just like when an artist is making his painting).

Photography shouldn’t be underestimated. Even though you decide to take photos only
as a hobby, or to take simply good looking “pretty” photos, you have to be conscious on
the impact a photograph might have on its viewers and the world. In 1972, for instance,
a photograph denounced the horrors of an armed conflict in Southeast Asia. The photo
shocked the world to the point it became a flag for a worldwide peace movement and
changed the opinion of a whole country about their participation in a war that appeared
to be doing more harm than good. The photo is “The Terrors of War”, taken by Nick Ut
in Vietnam after a huge load of Napalm dropped in a local village. The photo showcases
a group of children crying in the road with soldiers and a naked girl between them,
screaming. She had been hit by napalm, and had third-degree burns in most of her body.
Ut won a Pulitzer award for his powerfully shocking photograph and the United States
retired from the conflict one year later. It is amazing how a single photo can tell so
much.

“Guerrillero Heróico” (Heroic Guerrilla Fighter) is another memorable photograph. It

was taken in 1960 in Havana, Cuba during Fidel Castro’s speech at a memorial service
for the victims of an explosion that killed 100 people and injured several more. Castro
blamed United States’ CIA for the attack and said his famous “Homeland or death”
phrase for the first time. Guevara, who was there during the fiery speech, was captured
by Castro’s photographer Alberto Koda. This photo is probably one of the most viewed,
replicated and famous images of all time, and have done for Guevara’s cause arguably
even more than he ever did alive. This photo has spread the Marxist ideology worldwide
and has become a flag and symbol of protest, discomfort and revolution from not only
leftists but groups of all kinds.

When talking about incredible photographs with huge impact, it’s impossible not to
mention Eugine Smith’s “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath”. The photo was taken in 1971
in Minamata, Japan as part of a photo-essay covering the effects of the pollution in the
small city. Minamata city was heavily affected by the “Minamata disease”, a tragic
neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning, related to the release of
heavily contaminated industrial wastewater produced by a chemical company (Chisso
Corporation), which heavily affected the sea life and big part of the population. The
photo dramatically shows the drastic deformation of Tomoko in her mother’s arms. The
photo gained global attention and brought the Minamata disease and pollution problems
of the city to worldwide media. Today, over 10.000 victims of the disease have received
financial compensation by the Chisso Corporation, and the Minamata City improved on
its environmental management, becoming an official Japanese Eco-Town in 2001.

It is fair to say that even though photography can serve to lots of different purposes, a
single photograph can change the world.

In this book I will cover all the basics of photography, focused mainly on digital
photography. The main reason why this book is centered towards digital photography is
its accessibility. It is not a secret that today, digital cameras and its equipment have
practically replaced that of film photography. Even though the initial investment when
starting in the digital photography realm is a bit higher than in the analog world (entry-
level DSLR cameras and other types of digital cameras tend to be more expensive than
the common 35mm film camera), at long-term digital photography ends up being more
affordable (you only need to invest in a large capacity memory card once or twice in
several years, no need to make a continued investment in roll film for your film
photography work) and has the great advantage of its ease of use. Let’s be clear, even
though mastering the art of photography may take from several years to an entire
lifetime (you won’t be taking -or making- photos with the quality of those by Sebastiao
Salgado, Ansel Adams, Michael Kenna or Eugene Smith in your first couple of
months), the technical aspects required to handle a digital camera and producing decent
enough photos are less complicated than those required for film photography (where a
chemical process is necessary in order to get the actual image). Even assuming you
don’t make the process yourself but take the rollfim to a lab (which are almost extinct
nowadays), it is less practical than just downloading the photo in your computer,
applying a Lightroom preset and maybe some other small retouching and then send it by
email or print it at home. When shooting digital you can safely back up your photos in a
hard drive or in the cloud without worrying that some terrible accident would happen
and damage your precious negatives. Due to the mass expansion of digital photography
you can find lots of information everywhere (books, ebooks, online web pages, blogs,
online forums, video tutorials and courses etc.), not to mention that you also are able to
record video with a DSLR camera. But the most important advantage of digital
photography over film photography is that when shooting digital you can actually see
what you are shooting, before and after, and this is a very important and valuable
feature to someone that is starting to learn and trying to apply the concepts and
explanations just learnt. You don’t have to wait for hours or even days to see the final
result, and you can analyze in real time how the changes you make into your setting
(camera position, composition, exposure, depth of field etc.) affect the photograph.

Don’t get me wrong, film photography is great and has a lot of advantages and qualities
over digital photography. If you are making photographs in extreme climate conditions,
for instance, you probably might want to go back and pick up your old film camera. At
the end of the day it depends on what you are trying to achieve (you can get almost the
same results with both styles if you are experienced enough though), and what best suits
you depending on what and where you are photographing and most importantly, what
makes you feel more comfortable. However, for a photography beginner it is easier to
start working on digital photography due to its accessibility, affordability and all the
benefits of being part of the digital world which surround us today, making it part of our
digital workflow.

Most concepts explained here (like exposure, depth of field or composition) can be
applied to film photography as well. Only concepts and explanations directly related to
electronic components and the digital world (RAW and JPEG formats, post-production
software etc.) are not applicable to film photography, but they are still useful for those
beginner film photographers that someday might want to migrate to the digital realm.
After finishing the book, you will understand all the necessary concepts of photography
and will start taking better photographs. I will give you the fundamentals so you would
be able to research further in the future to improve even more your knowledge,
technique and, of course, your photographs.
 Genres and Styles of photography
Before I start to explain the basic principles and techniques (i.e. “fundamentals”) related
to the art of photography, you first need to be aware of all the different kinds of
photographs that are actually possible in the world of photography. This is closely
related to the capabilities of photography, since now you will actually understand and
acknowledge with examples what can be potentially achieved with photography. This
will also help you to understand where your pictures belong in the photographic world
and how to position your photographs, which is essential knowledge if you are looking
forward to start a career in this field. Even if you are planning to take photographs only
as a hobby, you should know your genres and styles in order to be able to find the work
of other photographers as a source of inspiration and a good resource for practicing
(imitation tends to be a great tool for learning and mastering almost any skill, specially
at the beginnings).

You should know that classifying photography is not an easy task. There is not an exact
general classification like there is in other sciences and disciplines. When you start
wandering in the dark woods of photographic genres you will find that there is a huge
number of genres and that photographs can belong to several different “genres”,
”classifications” or “styles” at the same time. Not only that, but you will later find out
that every genre has a ton of subgroups or subgenres with a not so clear difference
between them sometimes. It is also important to mention that there doesn’t exist one
single criteria for the classification of photos (hence the blurriness of the subject and the
inexact classifications). You can classify photographs by their content (which certainly
is one of the most frequent ways of grouping photographs), the medium of their
creation, their technique or their intention, entire conception and intended use.

I assume that if you are reading this you are an aspiring photographer. A basic and
fundamental part of any photographer’s (and any other artist really) work is intention.
Intention is one of the keys in the creative process that will help you produce good
photographs, and is what will essentially distinguish you from any other person without
any knowledge or interest on the subject shooting in automatic mode. When you are
shooting with intention, it means that you actually want to accomplish something with
your photographs. It means that you want to evoke people to feel nostalgic or pleased
when looking at your photograph. It means that people will feel attracted to the product
you are photographing in order to be sold or that they will feel hungry when they see the
delicious plate you are pointing your camera at. They will want to be part of the skating
community and its lifestyle due to your amazing photographs and they will start
worrying about the pollution, and will be willing to join your environmental cause when
they see the devastating effects it has on your local town. Without intention, you will
probably get technically correct images that have no impact whatsoever in the viewer.
This means that people will look at your photo and will just continue scrolling down to
forget your photo in about five seconds or less, even though the image might be well
exposed (we will get to that term and how to control it further in the book), with a
correct focus and decently composed (we will also talk about these other terms as well).
You probably don’t want that to happen so, intentionally shooting should be very
important for you.

The importance of intention is the reason why I classified photography into three big
groups according to the intention of the photographer when shooting the photo. These
groups are: Artistic and creative, Editorial and Commercial. Please note that as I stated
before, a photograph may belong to multiple genres at the same time and the line that
separates them might be blurry sometimes (actually, it is in a lot of cases). Even with
these 3 big apparently nonrelated groups, there might be space for debate and confusion
when trying to include a specific kind of photography into one of them. Think about
“wedding photography” for instance. Depending on how the photographer addresses the
shooting, the resulting photos may belong to any of the three big groups. If he or she
reserves himself to only documenting and registering this beautiful event, the most
objective way possible without intervening in the ceremony and ensuring that the
photos are a pure representation of the event taking place, without printing his personal
and subjective point of view, ethical considerations or position towards the image , we
might say that the resulting photographs belong to the group of “Editorial” photos (into
the genre of documentary photography, to be a bit more specific); the photographer has
not created the images (he didn’t make them but he took the photos). However, if the
photographer decides to take more risks when making the photos (note the use of
“make” instead of “take”), constructing and creating the images with the use of lighting,
composition and photographic techniques instead of just capturing moments, looking
forward to generate aesthetic pleasure and other subjective emotions and feelings
related to those of beauty, love, tenderness and more in the viewers, we can safely say
the resulting photographs fall into the group of “Artistic and Creative”. The photo shoot
can even result in a “Commercial” set of photographs, in the sense that the photographer
might be trying to “sell” the image of the groom and the bride as a happy, loving couple
to themselves and others, he might be trying to sell his own photographic work or even
the idea of marriage as an essential part of society (although in this case it would be
highly related to the artistic group of photos, demonstrating once again that the lines
between all these groups and genres are not clear quite often).

So, what does “genre” and “style” mean?

When I talk about photographic genres I refer to the groups of photographs that have
certain things in common, usually their theme or content. For example, “Still Life”
photography, which is a genre derived from painting, refers to photos that contain
basically anything that doesn’t move (rocks, fruits, flowers etc.) usually trying to evoke
feelings of peace and steadiness. This genre of photography can be photographed in
several different ways, and that is what I refer when I talk about “Style”. You can
photograph a Still Life scene in “colour” or in “black and white” for instance, or with
large or short depth of field (we will get to the explanation of depth of field later in the
book). That is what I call “style”, the way you use photographic techniques in order to
get the desired results. Genre = Content. Style = Techniques.
Please keep in mind that in order to mention and explain all the photographic genres an
infinite amount of pages would be needed. It would be an exhausting task for you to try
to memorize all of them (specially, when you are anxious to get into the technical part
of making good photos), it would be a pointless exercise. Photographic styles represent
a bigger problem because they usually evolve even faster than the different genres of
photography, new techniques are appearing everyday and with technological
improvements regarding digital photography and editing or retouching software,
experimentation with them ends up creating new styles. In fact, most pro photographers
even have their own style or techniques, so it would be a marathon to even mention all
of them. Considering that, I will explain only the most common and usual genres of
photography and photographic techniques. You can always investigate further in the
subject (and I encourage you to do so with everything explained here). You will gain a
fundamental knowledge on the wide variety contained in the photographic world with
my explanations on this chapter.

When studying the genres and styles showcased here, be sure to notice their aesthetic
patterns, the common subjects or themes they have and their “look” in general.

Artistic and Creative Photography

The first big group of photography I will explain is the one of Artistic and Creative
Photography. Photographic genres included in this group are the ones where the
photographer has the freedom to express himself (his personal opinions, feelings,
viewpoints etc.) through the photographs. In these genres, it is very common for the
photographer to “make” instead of “take” photographs. The photographer usually works
in a more controlled environment like a photo studio, but he can also work in other
contexts and spaces (like the Landscape work of Ansel Adams, one of the top
Landscape and Fine Art photographers of the last century). Photographers that belong
to this group usually have a more artistic and free approach when working on their
images. They tend to carefully control the composition, lighting, focus, position of the
subject and the camera, framing and everything that will appear in the final image. They
might even shoot at “incorrect” exposures resulting in over or underexposed images
(known as “high key” and “low key photographs) according to their purpose in order to
get different aesthetic feels. It is very common that this kind of photographers sit down
to plan their photos within days, weeks and even years before the actual shooting. They
focus more on designing their photos instead of “capturing” the moment (although a
photo might be pretty well designed and still be capturing a pretty interesting, moving
or outstanding moment). Objectivity is not paramount in these kinds of photographs. On
the opposite, it is understood that the photographer prints his personal subjective take of
reality into the photos. Even though these photographs do not intend to represent an
actual truth or a loyal representation of reality per se, sometimes the genres included in
this group may highlight truths in a more poetical manner than those included in the
editorial group (and because of this, these photographs tend to be more aesthetically
pleasing and visually interesting than most of the editorial photos, they might resonate
more into the viewer’s conscience and thus causing more impact in them).
Photographers working on this group usually are more open to the use of analog and
digital techniques to alter the image. Photomontages are very common within these
photographers by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping various images into a
new resulting one, process known as compositing when working in a digital
photography software (also known as “photohopping” due to the popular and well
known editing software developed by Adobe Systems). Image retouching is also pretty
common in this group, but it is pretty much accepted by other groups and genres as long
as it doesn’t alter the perception and ethics of the original image (as you might have
guessed, there isn’t usually much problem with this matter in the creative and artistic
photography environment). The primary ethics of this group is that of aesthetics and it
can be resumed in the following sentence: “Whatever looks good goes”.

These are some of the most common genres included into the big group of Artistic and
Creative photography:

 Fine Art Photography:

When photography as we define it today (the art and technique of capturing light to
create long-lasting, durable images), it first started in the early days of the 19th century
it was considered just a scientific experiment. The art community wouldn’t even think
of considering photography as an art form in the same level painting or sculpture was
considered. The names of Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, John Herschel, Ferdinand
Hurter and Vero Charles Driffield, among others, are today considered important in the
history of photography, but they were not considered artists in their times nor even
photographers in some cases, but inventors or photographic scientifics in the best case
(they usually aren’t really considered photopgraphers today, either). In those times,
there didn’t even exist fictional photography, all the photographs were a mere
representation of reality. Non-fiction photography was the law; every photograph taken
was taken with the intention of just recording an object, a scene or a moment with
scientific, historical or archival value. How could the act of saving a moment from
reality (in other words, taking or “stealing” something that already exists) be considered
a creative process or more roughly an art, if it doesn’t even require much technical skill?
That was their way of thinking. It was closer to a scientific experiment, but it couldn’t
be considered as a science itself. A magic trick however, is closer to how photography
at its early beginnings was perceived and considered by the vast majority (if not all) the
people. In that point of history, people related to the art community (like artists or art
critics) would never consider photography as an art itself. Famous poet Charles
Baudelaire even went as far as stating the following about photography in year 1855: “It
is useless and tedious to represent what exists; because nothing that exists satisfies me
… I prefer the monsters of my fantasy to what is positively trivial.”

However, photography did have a significant impact in the world. In painting, for
example, there was no longer need of accurately representing reality; photography
already did that in a more accurately and objective way. Portrait photography became
very important, and important people started having photographic portraits instead of
painting portraits but, as stated before, even though this genre became popular, it still
would not be classified as art

Societies representative of this new “art” form were founded around the 1850’s, like
The Photographic Society of London (today known as The Royal Photographic Society)
in England and the Societie Francaise de Photographie in France, as a response to the
conservative reaction to photography by the art elite, but it was not until the late years
of the 19th century that photography started to come closer to the label of an art (The
first exhibition labeled as “Art Photography” took place in the year of 1891 in Vienna,
known as the International Exhibition of Art Photography which held more than 4000
photographs summated from several different countries). Even though the label of “Art”
appeared next to the term “Photography” for the first time in this exhibition (and a
couple of others), those photographs were still far from what most critics would call art
in those times (and even today, when you look at those pictures you can clearly see that
they come closer to documental photography or photojournalism –I will get to those
genres in the next pages-, as they were a form representation of the Industrial
Revolution and its fruits, more than anything close to “art”). They were still all non-
fiction photographs with not much of a creative or artistic approach.

It was in the small galleries and cafes of New York City, in the United States, during the
early days of the 20th century, where photographic images started to share space in
exhibitions where they considered, perceived and labeled with the same level of
“artistry” as other more traditional ways of visual arts, such as painting, drawing or
sculpture. This advancement in the consideration of photography as an art, was mostly
due to the experimental, freer, less conservative, less traditional and more open minded
context surrounding these galleries.

During the first two decades of the 20th century Alfred Stieglitz became an important
name for spreading photography as an art form. Stieglitz along a number of like-minded
collaborators (like Edward Steichen) started founding little galleries that later startet
growing. These galleries (like the Intimate Gallery or the 291) showcased photographs
side by side with all kinds of modern paintings, becoming the first venues in the world
dedicated to photography, helping photographers to get themselves a name in the art
medium and changing for ever how photography could be perceived and understood.
Photography continued developing as an art form and the number of dedicated galleries,
exhibitions and venues kept growing and growing in size and number getting to the
point where we find ourselves today, where almost anyone would dare to deny the
expressive capabilities of photography and its full possibility to be an art form itself
(known as fine art photography).

That’s a brief history on how photography developed from its early, non-expressive
days. You might be saying to yourself “yeah, that’s interesting. But what does Fine Art
Photography actually mean?” And this is where I’m coming now.

“Fine Art” Photography should be understood as the act of creating a photograph where
the view of the author or photographer is more important than the objective and loyal
representation of reality. It is not really clear how to classify photos and then separate
them in order than only the “artistic” ones belong to a single group. And that is because
in order to do so, you must ask yourself “what is art?” and that might be a seriously
difficult question to answer accurately (funny fact: there is no accurate way to answer
that question). Artists, philosophers, historians, critics, art theorists etc during different
times from all the history of mankind have argued and tried to give an honest, and
correct answer to that question, they have been trying to definitely define art for literally
dozens of centuries, and they have failed.

The only truth when discussing about the eternal question of the definition of art is that
most cultures have, according to their times, a specific way to consider what is art and
what is not (and to make things more complicated, even individual persons from the
same culture may differ on their definition or their considerations). It comes to a
personal interpretation at the end of the day. But even though there isn’t a general
consensus about what should be art and what should not, when you try to answer the
question in order to be able to identify “fine art” photography, you should keep in mind
this: Probably the most important factor that might define “artistic” photography and
separate it from the rest is transformation. In order to positively consider a photo you
just took (or made) as a piece of art, it is necessary that the photo has at least been
submitted to your interpretation, intelligence and thought process during its creation. It
doesn’t matter how good the photo you just captured is, it must have some sort of
intention and intervention so you can separate it from other genres of photography. It
must have aesthetic value as well (with the thought in mind that aesthetic considerations
vary within societies, cultures and individuals), so it isn’t just a simple record of a scene
that just occurred.

It is not mandatory to compose (or create) complex scenes or to set up complex lighting.
Fine art doesn’t even require complex image alteration/editing/retouching techniques.
You can see the landscape work made by Ansel Adams, for instance, which portraits a
beautiful view on the scenes he was photographing, which portrayed his point of view
on the environment and helped him spread his cause (Here is a clear explanation of a
photographer who crosses borders between genres). Aesthetic is probably the most
important factor to look for on this genre of photography, which oddly enough, may
contain inside basically any other genre from any other of the big groups mentioned
before (you can find “Fine Art” Landscape photography, as well as “Fine Art” Fashion,
“Fine Art” Documentary, Photo-Essay, Events, Nature, Street etc.).

In short words, photographs catalogued as “Fine Art” are the ones that showcase the
subjective vision of the photographer on the reality, with a clear (in most cases)
intention and interpretation of the scene captured (the scene was transformed thanks to
photographic techniques or by just physical intervention), and have a strong aesthetic
value. A Fine Art photographer is an artist. Fine Art Photographs might reach high
economic values and can be found in art galleries, museums, private collections, luxury
hotel lobbies or expensive restaurants.

Photographs from
the series
“Without Light”
By Emmanuel
Peña. 2018
  Conceptual Photography:

This term is not applied consistently in the photography niche. You might see, read or
hear people use this term when referring to the photographs made of other forms of
conceptual art, such as painting (which would be more into the editorial group of
photography, as it is just a form of registration). However, it is also often used when
referring to the modern genre of photography, which is the meaning I will be giving it
here.

The first thing you need to know about conceptual photography is that this is a kind of
photography that works to illustrate an idea. The key factor in this genre of photography
is that it is definitely not capturing a moment but constructing an image that already
exists in its abstract form deep inside the mind of the photographer. A usual task of
photographers from this genre is to carefully plan and design every shot and every
photo they will make (note again the use of “make” instead of take”). Physical
intervention of the scene is very recurrent in this type of photos, because the
photographer is in need to construct the image in order to bring to reality the abstract
idea he has on his head (also note that in this case, photography is not a way of
recording reality or a representation of reality anymore, it is instead a form of creating a
new, non-existent, different reality). Post-Production software is pretty common too,
with techniques as the photo-montage that allows the photographer to create unique
realties that would be impossible to photographs with traditional techniques. Conceptual
photography is one of the most creative genres of photography, creativity comes to
place when the photographer needs to express a specific idea in a fun, poetic, clever or
interesting way (usually, conceptual photos are not explicit, the photographer tends to
address the photo in a creative way resulting in a more intriguing and thought-
provoking photo than a explicit one).

The use of symbols is prominent in conceptual photography, as it is the tool used by

photographers in order to communicate ideas in a not explicit way. Hearts, smiles,
coins, light bulbs etc. are often used as symbols in conceptual photography. There
always exists a big dilemma between conceptual photographers that torments them
when they are making their photos; it’s the decision of using universal symbols that
might be understood by everyone in the planet or more specific (and even personal)
symbols designed to created some sort of ambiguity in the interpretation of the
photograph (the level of ambiguity is determined by the photographer according to the
symbols used). If the photographer decides to make images with universal or
ambiguous symbols depends on the kind of conceptual photography he or she is
planning to make.

Conceptual photography usually has two different “branches” or subgenres: A first one
where the message is intended to be universal and as clear as possible, hoping that
everyone who sees the image would understand the concept or message created by the
photographer. These images are less complex and are pretty straightforward (although
they still don’t get to the point of being completely explicit and obvious), without
elements inside the framing or other elements and techniques (like a complex use of
lighting, composition or techniques involving odd use of depth of field and shutter
speed) that may distract the viewer. This branch or subgenre of conceptual photography
is often used in advertising (moving from the artistic group to the commercial area).
When selling a product, it is quite often that not only a product is being sold but an idea
is attached to it (this drink will make you happier, this watch will make you
sophisticated, this car will make you unstoppable, this other product will make you
exclusive etc.), and it is the work of the photographer to capture the essence of that idea
and print it into the image, effectively communicating what the product is about and
then rising the product sales (this is way the photo must be pretty straight forward in its
message, so everybody can understand it and buy the product being sold).

The other subgenre or “branch” of commercial photography is the one that is centered
towards a more artistic and subjective approach. In this kind of conceptual photography,
messages tend to be more complex and fuzzy. Images are always open to the
interpretation of the viewer, resulting in the possibility of pretty different (and
sometimes opposite) conclusions depending on the analysis made by each viewer.
Symbols usually are not universal but way more personal and images tend to have more
elements and a greater variety on its atmospheres. Sometimes this kind of photography
is classified as a subgenre of Fine Art Photography (this is because a big part of Fine
Art photographs have a strong concept or idea attached to them). It is also very
important to mention that it’s hard to find a photograph that completely falls into one or
other subgenre. Usually the conceptual photos navigate in between these subgenres;
taking elements of both of them (you can find, for instance, an image with a very
straightforward message due to universally well known symbols but, with the use of
complex lighting and a odd camera position).

Although you can find some examples that might be considered as conceptual
photography even from the very beginnings of the art itself (“Self Portrait as a
Drowned Man” by Hippolyte Bayard dates back to 1840, and it’s considered the first
Conceptual Photography of all history), Conceptual photography as a genre started in
the decade of the 60’s along with the Conceptual Art movement that prioritized the
concept over the formal aspect of the artwork. First artists considered as “conceptual”
appeared in the 70’s, and their work was characterized by experimentation, taking
elements of documentation and reinterpreting them in several different ways. Some
amazing and well known photographers from this genre are Chema Madoz, Amy Stein
and David Levinthal. I highly encourage you to take a look on their work for a deeper
understanding of the genre and as a source of inspiration for your future photo
shootings.
 Photograph from the
series “Transcience”
by Emmanuel Peña.
2017

 Still Life Photography:

Have you ever seen those pictures with unanimated subjects, usually a small group of
flowers, food or different man- made objects that are “just” sitting there in the photo but
for some reason it results tremendously pleasing and attractive? Well, let me tell you
that all those photographs belong to photographic genre of Still Life Photography.

Still Life Photography was one of the first genres to develop on the first years of
photography (along with portraiture, but that might be considered more a technique or
style than a genre), and it was due to the long exposure times needed in order to be able
to take photographs in those times (several hours of exposure were needed in the best
cases). It was pretty difficult to find a person or a scene that remained still without
movement for such long periods of time (imagine sitting yourself in a chair trying to
keep quite without major movements for 8 hours or more! It doesn’t sound really fun
right?), so some photographers began to take photos of small objects and scenes that
would remain without movement for such long periods of time. Also, Still Life was one
of the most popular genres in painting (alongside with portrait and landscape painting)
and it resulted natural for photographers to develop the genres that where already
popular in the visual arts (this explains the popularity that portrait, still life and
landscape photography still have even today), with the exception of historical or
religious genres due to the impossibility to make those kinds of photographs. You might
recognize a famous Still Life painting by Vincent van Gogh called “Vase with Fifteen
Sunflowers”. In fact, a lot of famous names in the visual arts history made Still Life
paintings, such as Caravaggio, Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velázquez, Goya, Delacroix, Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Braque and even Picasso. It was
natural that photographers imitated these kinds of paintings.
Contrary to some other genres, making still life photographs doesn’t necessary require
expensive top-notch equipment or beautiful and sophisticated locations in order to get a
good shot. You can even take high quality photos with a professional look in the
commodity of your home with only using a table, your DSLR camera (I’ll explain
different types of cameras when I finish this chapter) and placing your object next to a
window (you may also need 1 or 2 common lamps but those are not mandatory
required). However, even though much gear and equipment is not required for taking
photographs from this genre, it might result a hard genre for an aspiring photographer
with no much experience in the field (believe me, I failed several times as a beginner
photographer when I tried to achieve good results in this photographic genre). And this
is partly because due to the apparent inherent simplicity surrounding this genre, the
aesthetic proposals and decisions the photographer takes must be very accurate in order
to make the photos actually interesting. A good understanding of lighting and especially
composition is required to make photos that don’t end up resulting dull or uninteresting.
Retouching of images is commonly allowed but it is pretty uncommon to make
photomontages and use other heavy editing techniques on this kind of images.

Photographers have to be highly creative as they will control every aspect of the still life
photograph they will be trying to make. The author is required to build the entire scene
for the shooting (although scenes are not usually very complex, the task of building a
scene with few elements might result very difficult). However, if you as a beginner
adventure in the world of Still Life Photography (maybe you have more talent for this
genre than what I had when I started!) I would highly recommend you a few things:
First, make sure the object you choose to photograph is an object that captivates you in
some kind. It must be an object that actually means something to you. That way, you
will already have the intention of showcasing more than just a couple of flowers in your
photos, but you will want to capture the essence of the feeling they generate in you,
resulting in way more interesting photographs (photographing with feeling is usually
good advice in almost any genre of photography where objectivism is not the desired
characteristic). Please, do not limit yourself to only make photos of fruit or flowers just
because everybody (including big artists and photographers) does. Feel free to chose
anything you want.

My second recommendation would be that you have to work your composition!

Composition is a key factor when making Still Life Photographs (actually, it is in any
genre of photography, but composition mistakes are by far more noticeable in this
particular genre). Keep your compositions as clean as possible, and consider if the
object is powerful enough to work on its own and attract the viewer or if you need to
put another element to place it in context and add more strength to the photograph.

My third advice is that you should try to take your time. No hurries. The advantage of
doing Still Life Photographs (when working with them as personal, artistic projects) is
that you might be working in the facility of your own home, with no strict deadlines, no
subject that will get tired within the hours passing by nor the sunlight is going anywhere
(if you are working with a window as a source for lighting, you can just retake the
shooting the next day when the sun rises again). Try different camera positions and vary
the position of the object. Move yourself, try different angles, different backgrounds
and, if you are able to, different lenses. If you get stuck and cannot get your way around
making good photos from your object, just leave everything set up and go out for a
walk. Watch a movie, walk your dog, kiss your girlfriend or make a cup of tea.
Anything that would make you relaxed and distracts you from the subject. When you
come back to the set up, you will notice your head full of fresh and great ideas for your
photographs. And last but not least, please stay away from glass, crystals and any other
reflective materials! They will become a living nightmare and they might even frustrate
yourself in the middle of the process making you lose your motivation. Do not let that
happen to you.

Previously I stated the advice of taking your time with your still life photographs when
you approach them as personal artistic projects. This is because still life photography
has various subgenres and depending on them it might belong to the artistic and creative
group of photographs or the commercial group of photographs. I am sure that you have
seen a lot of food and product photographs that match the description of these
photographs I made before. They tend to have non-living and non-moving objects, that
are “just” sitting there, with a good enough sense of composition reflected on the image
(compositions indeed are pretty neat and tidy). These photographs (food and product)
are subgenres included inside the Still Life genre. But, they are conceived, made and
perceived not with a so personal, artistic and poetic approach but a more personal one. I
will address both subgenres later when discussing the commercial photography genres.
For now, I’ll leave you with an explanation and overview on the mostly creative side or
subgenre of Still Life photography. Feel free to check out the names of important Still
Life photographers like Daniel Gordon, Paul Outerbridge, Edward Weston and Irving
Penn.

Photograph by
Emmanuel Peña.
2017.
  Architectural Photography:

Ok, I know some of you might be a little bit confused because of my inclusion of this
genre on the artistic and creative category. I know out there are tons of photographs of
all kinds of buildings that have nothing to do with the artistic or the creative conception.
You are right, those photographs do belong to the editorial photography realm, because
they limit themselves to just documenting a given building for any given reason apart of
the thought-provoking, feeling-evoking and aesthetic approach of artistic and creative
photography. But those photos might be considered as a single subgenre of
Architectural Photography. There is also another big and important type of photographs
that belong to this genre that indeed come closer to the artistic approach. This type or
subgenre of architectural photography is the one I will explain here.

I once heard that Architectural Photography is both an accurate representation of the

subject photographed and an aesthetic image at the same time. However, in more recent
times architectural photographers started to move away from the goal of accurately
representing their subjects and started concentrating more into the design itself. That led
to a more artistic approach with a strong search for aesthetic elements in their
photographs (even if the result is an aesthetically pleasing image but without enough
context to understand the real shape or form of the subject). Some Architectural
photographers even fell into the style of Abstract Photography such as the work of (yes,
they make regular looking buildings turn into unrecognizable aesthetic images!). It is
common practice by modern architectural photographers to just focus the approach of
their photographs into single pieces of the building, and not showing the entire building
in the photo. It is fairly usual to see photographs of just a hall, a single wall and maybe
just a couple of windows of the buildings.

The interesting part of architectural photography is that you have different ways to
approach the creative process of making the photos. You can find architecture
everywhere you go, so architectural photographers do not have trouble trying to find
subjects to photograph. They can shoot everything from skyscrapers to farm barns, little
churches, cathedrals, bridges, factories, houses, warehouses, modern buildings, old
buildings etc. Another subdivision of this photographic genre may be exterior and
interior photography, although interior photography tends to be closer to the
commercial group since it is usually related to interior design web pages, commercial
stores etc. Architectural photographs find their biggest limitation in lighting, since they
cannot control the quality of the light produced by the sun, nor the position of the light
source –the sun- itself (that is why most architectural photographers that choose to
photograph in exteriors tend to shoot at very specific hours of the day in order to get the
best possible lighting). Artificially lighting an entire building is not only difficult but it
also might result extremely expensive. However, interior architectural photographers
usually don’t have these lighting-related limitations, since they can complement the use
of the natural sunlight (which usually is the major or principal light source) with other
interior lighting fixtures.
Another major problem that most architectural photographers have to face is that of
perspective and lines in their buildings curving and getting distorted. Depending on
your approach (if you have a more modern artistic approach or a more traditional and
editorial approach is completely up to you), this might be an interesting and even
desired effect, but it could also be a major problem, that is solved with the use of
specific photographic lenses and the position itself of the photographer (it is common to
see photographers fixing the curved lines problem by using a telephoto lens and
positioning themselves farther from the building).

Creative choices are needed to be made when doing this kind of photographs (even if
you are just photographing the building in a traditional “editorial” way). A common
decision that architectural photographers face every day in their job is that of deciding
to include or cut-off the context of the building. If the photographer is taking photos of
an old house surrounded by modern buildings in a big city he could take two different
approaches (if he decides to take an exterior photograph). The first approach is the one
of including the context in the framing. This might be useful if the photographer wants
to show the contrast between the old house and the modern buildings that surround it,
creating the feeling of the house not belonging to the context. On the other side, the
other approach would capture the beauty of the old-fashioned house on itself, but
cutting-off all the elements that make part of the context that surrounds the house.

It is good practice when doing architectural photography to visit the building before
going there to make the photos. By doing that, the photographer can plan the photo
shooting and come to the place with an already well thought idea in mind. If not, the
photographer might find himself in the place of taking instead of making photographs.
Remember that taking photographs is about capturing specific and special moments in
order to make them timeless. It can result ridiculously hard (although not impossible)
for a beginner photographer to capture interesting moments from a subject that is not
alive and, in most cases, doesn’t even move.

Do you want to read an interesting fact? The first photography ever made, “ View from
the window at Le Gras” taken by Nicéphore Niépce in 1935 is considered an
architectural photograph, since it basically was a view of buildings. It was common
practice for photographers in that time to make photos of architecture, since the non-
moving buildings were perfect for their long-exposure cameras.
 Photographs by Emmanuel
Peña. 2017

Editorial Photography
The second big group of photographic genres (and the biggest one of them) is the group
of editorial photography. In this group, the interest of the photographer is directed
towards a correct representation of the subject and the scene, a loyal portrait of the
reality that is being photographed is more important than an aesthetically pleasing
image. When you are entering into this group of photographic genres be careful with
your understanding of the genre. Even though an aesthetically pleasing image is not the
main goal of the photographer, it is still very important that the photographer gets a
clean and well composed image, with correct use of exposure, white balance, focus and
depth of field (usually photographers working on these genres tend to use a very large
depth of field, but that depends pretty much on the characteristics of each specific
individual shootings).

The key factor involving most genres included on this big group is that of capturing
moments. A very common phrase used to this photographic approach is that being a
good photographer means having the ability to be “in the perfect place at the right
time”. The editorial photographer concentrates into waiting for the best moment to press
the shutter button. He develops a good eye for capturing interesting, moving or
shocking situations, and his job consists on going directly to the different spaces where
interesting scenes happen in order to be able to capture them. This includes everything
from going to the central square of your city to travelling worldwide into dangerous
warzones straight to the middle of real life shootings (I’m talking about guns here).

As you might already guessed, it is the job of an editorial photographer to take good
photos instead of making them (this may vary between different genres –like photo
essays- where there is an incredible huge amount of previous work before the actual
shootings, resulting on hybrid images that are an incredible mixture between editorial –
documental genre, to be more specific- and artistic photography). Although images
must be decently composed, the editorial photographer has to capture the unique
elements of reality that are worth to be seen and reproduced. Do you remember my
examples of photographs that changed the world (Heroic Guerrilla Fighter, the Terrors
of war, Tomoko Uemura in her bath)? All of them belong to the editorial group of
photography. This is due that even if the images are well composed; the main intention
of the photographer was to capture extremely powerful moments (each of them with
different meanings). The fact that these photographers achieved their goal of being on
the perfect moment at the right time, mixed with a good use of the main techniques of
composition, resulted on images with huge impact on their viewers, being capable of
even changing the course of the world. They indeed took amazing photos (with the
exception of Eugene Smith, whose subjects actually posed for the photograph. This has
caused many discussions inside the photography community but the truth is that, even if
the photograph is posed, it is a very loyal and raw representation of what was occurring
there during those hard times).

Another important factor that define genres included on this group is that Editorial
genres usually are conceived with way more strict rules and a strong code of ethics than
artistic photography, regarding the subject being photographed and the intervention of
the photographer on the scene, as well as his manipulation on the final image with
chemical processes or digital editing techniques (with the use of software like Adobe
Photoshop). Editorial Photographic genres related to journalism and science tend to be
especially careful and reserved regarding ethics and the intervention of the photographer
on the scene, as well as post-processing techniques. This is due to their inherent search
for the maximum objectivity possible on the image, in order to guarantee the clarity of
the scene. So, image retouching and altering techniques usually are not allowed in this
kind of photos. Editorial photography in most cases is about just capturing what the
camera sees (in opposition to the artistic photography where the goal is to capture what
the photographer sees).

Usually when you are working with editorial photography (although some genres may
differ from this), the images work as a compliment for a piece of written work already
made, and is commonly conceived to be published on magazines, newspapers or
internet blogs. When you search online for “editorial photography” you might find out
that it refers to photos that include people, buildings, products or any other type of
private property on them, but the photographer does not have a model or property
release from the person or the owner of the product shown in the image. This means that
the photographs catalogued as “editorial photography” or for “editorial use only” cannot
be used for promotional, advertising or commercial purposes. But in the classification
made here, the term includes genres with a little bit wider sense other than this legal
meaning. As usual, some described genres that belong to this group of photography
might be a mixture between two and even all 3 big groups of photography, blurring the
lines that separate genres.
  Photojournalism
The first editorial genre I will cover in this book is photojournalism. Have you ever
heard of the saying “A picture is worth more than a thousand words”? Well that is,
basically, the main principle of photojournalism resumed into a single phrase.
Photojournalism is considered to be a form of journalism where, instead of using a pen
and paper for writing his words, the photojournalist uses a camera and his photos as his
main medium of work. One might say that photojournalism is conceived as the process
to tell stories (usually news reports on recent events) with the use of photographs.
Usually the photos produced by photographers from this genre are not to be shown on
their own, but they are used as a way to compliment the written information displayed
on a news article. Magazines, newspapers and other news publication services may be
able to pay big amounts of money to the photographer that manages to capture the most
powerful or dramatic images of the subject.

The job of a photographer from this genre is to give “real-time” coverage of news and
other important acts and situations. Latest news, sport events, political acts, accidents,
terrorism news events, social injustice and other issues that are common interest for the
people are covered by photojournalist photographers. The photojournalist photographer
must be a well educated person regarding latest events occurring near to him and should
have a sense of global awareness, in order to be able to give a good, fair and objective
coverage of the situations and acts he is photographing. If the photographer does not
have enough knowledge on the subject he is covering, it may result in not only dull and
uninteresting photos, but also in an incorrect and subjective approach to the
photographs, which is not desirable.

One of the key factors regarding this genre is objectivism. As explained before, editorial
photography usually has a more strict ethical approach than artistic photography, and
this is especially true for photojournalism. Think about traditional journalism written in
paper. Most ethical and legal considerations of traditional written journalism applies to
photojournalism, where the intervention of a scene in order to get a good photograph is
near the equivalent to making up an interview in order to get a good article. A common
ethical issue within this genre is false or misleading captioning. This has led to a lot of
controversy, due to some photos being labeled or captioned with false titles (and some
photos where even used in articles with no real connections between them) in order to
cause a possibly false impression on the people viewing the photo and reading the
article, as a way of mass manipulation. The use of photos taken out of context is
recurrent within different biased media outlets, magazines newspapers and even
governments, with the goal to impose their private agenda. Because of the moral and
ethical consequences of posed, staged, misleading or out of context photographs it is
very important to the photojournalist to keep his or her work as ethical and loyal to the
truth as possible, looking for an objective representation of reality and staying away
from subjective approaches to the event the photographer is covering.
Photojournalists should also be aware to stay away from sensationalism. Not because it
brings legal consequences, but because of the ethical and moral factor. Photos of
violence, tragedies, and blood-covered overly-dramatic stories tend to be very popular
and sell a lot of numbers, because people usually feel attracted to shocking images.
Because of this, photographers may be tempted to not only choose this kind of images
and stories to cover and photograph, but also to exaggerate them and take them out of
context. I think there is no need to say why this is not good practice.

Simply put, the photographer working on this genre is required to be in search for the
most objective representation of reality, is not allowed to heavily manipulate his or her
photographs (only small color and exposure retouching is usually allowed), should have
a strong sense of ethics and moral values and, of course, should be really fast when
moving and taking the
photographs (note the use
of “take” instead of
“make”). It is also
important for the
photojournalist to “get
closer” to the subject
photographing. If the
photojournalist is covering
an important event or act,
getting as close as possible
to it will allow him to get
better photographs, that
actually show what is
going on.

 Scientific Photography
Now, let’s talk about scientific photography. Scientific photography has served, for a
long time, as a way of seeing science from a different point of view. Sometimes this
practice allows us to get closer and understand details of parts of elements that until
then we were not able to completely study or understand. It is a way of learning, not
only as scientists, but as artists.

This is the case of bacteria, viruses and even constellations. With the capture of a
scientific photograph we can calmly stop to appreciate the beauty of something, but also
to study in detail every aspect of it. And, although sometimes it seems incredible, you
can get to capture authentic works of art (although creating aesthetically pleasing
images is not usually the main goal of the scientific photographer). One of the most
surprising scientific aspects that have been the subject of a snapshot is, for example, the
interior of the human eye. Every day more and more scientists try to get closer to their
world, and one of the most effective ways for getting closer to their subjects of study is
the use of scientific photography. Scientific photographers mange to get closer to
certain amazing subjects, subjects that remain almost unattainable and unimaginable for
the vast majority of the common people. Science continues to amaze many of us, not
only because of the speed of evolution of the new technologies or how they continue to
outdo themselves. Thanks to scientific advances we can see the inside of the human eye,
how neurons behave in the brain.

Scientific photography has existed almost since the beginning of photography,

decisively helping the advancement and dissemination of science. Photography and
science have gone hand in hand since the invention of the first camera. Since Henry Fox
Talbot published The Pencil of Nature, science and image have supported each other
becoming a very important tandem for the advancement of both. Nowadays, scientific
photography is responsible for immortalizing experiments, illustrating and representing
scientific information and bringing closer to the human eye issues that, without the help
of photography, could not be seen. To achieve these objectives, scientific photography
uses multiple disciplines and techniques, such as ultraviolet, infrared, fluorescence,
polarization, high speed, thermal imaging or X-ray photography. On the other hand, the
photographs that are included in the scientific dissemination articles provide
information, visual in this case, and improve the understanding of the subject. In
addition to that, attractive images attract more people.

Scientific photography is seen as the most objective possible representation of reality.

Scientific photography has lots of styles and techniques that are not often seen in other
genres of photography; techniques such as thermal imaging or X-ray photography.
Scientific photographs have the function of capturing moments, objects, subjects or
experiments for further study. But it is not limited to that; scientific photography is also
often used for illustrating articles for a better understanding of the public reading the
article. Scientific photographs, depending on the subject photographed, the technique
used and the ability of the photographer, have the possibility to generate or cause a huge
impact on the common audience, raising awareness on the people respecting certain
issues. This genre may also function as a great way of making science and its
understating more accessible to common people.

It is important to notice that, as a general rule, image editing or retouching is not

allowed in scientific photography (other than some exposure and color correction).The
goal of scientific photography is to present a true copy of reality, for further study. A
photomontage, a heavily edited and retouched image or a photograph taken out of
context may not be useful for further scientific study and analysis, or as an illustrative
accompaniment of a written article, resulting in what may be an aesthetically pleasing
photograph but a “bad” photograph regarding the rules and considerations of this
specific genre. Photographers working on this genre must be very careful regarding
these aspects.

 Documentary Photography

Documentary photography aims to faithfully represent and freeze a fragment or moment

of reality. It focuses on people and social groups to show aspects of their daily lives.
Documentary photography can be defined on many several ways. A very widespread
and accepted definition states that "a documentary photo is born with the intention of
capturing reality in a fixed image". It could be understood that all types of photography
are documentary, since they show something that is happening in front of the camera, in
its strictest sense. However, this genre of photography only refers to images that show
evidence that an event or situation actually occurs, and that would still be occurring
even if the photographer had not been there to document (photograph) it. Therefore, the
use of digital image post production software and other means of image manipulation
usually are not accepted, and the scenes photographed should not be staged or posed.

Even though what is said above is generally considered true, it is still a highly debated
subject on the photography niche. That is because of the consideration that even if it
might seem on first hand, it is impossible to absolutely represent reality on a photograph
on a one hundred percent objective way. At the end of the day, the documentary
photographer ends up manipulating reality by choosing which subjects to photograph,
where to aim the camera, where to position the camera and everything related to his or
her visual language and the composition of the photograph. An image might result
dramatically different and cause several different opinions with the use of different
compositions and lightings of the same subject and scene. Also, documentary
photography is often used as a mean to communicate and spread different ideas, as well
as a way of generating common awareness regarding specific issues. Because of this,
image retouching by the photographer is usually done in order to create more
dramatically impactful photographs (photomontage, however, is rarely seen and more
rarely allowed). When the image is manipulated intentionally in order to create a
different sensation other than the one that could be generate by the actual scene, often
with the use of mass manipulation, is called sensationalism.

It is important to notice that documentary and photojournalism are two genres of

photography that are very closely related (they are very related to two other genres I
will explain further in this section: war photography and photo essay). The main and
most important difference between these two genres is that photojournalism usually
aims to cover situations that are literally occurring at the specific time, in “real life”,
like some kind of the “latest news”. Documentary photography, even though it aims to
objectively capture different moments and elements of reality (just like
photojournalism), is usually not approached in the sense of “life” or “real time”
coverage of the “news” or situations being photographed. Because of this, documentary
photographers might alternate both taking and making photographs, depending on the
situation and the context.

Also, documentary photography tends to go deeper in the subject being photographed,

it goes beyond that photojournalism because it does not only stays in the news being
covered, by delves deep on its causes and its consequences, trying to show the way the
subject perceives and is perceived by its context. It often portraits the ways of living and
the social situations of a
given person or group (even Mutación del
merging itself with artistic hábitat.
photography sometimes). Photograph
Just like what it happens to by Emmanuel
any other genre of Peña. 2017
photography, the distinctive
line that separates
documentary photography
might be blurry and it can
mix itself with other genres
of photography.

War Photography

War photography is one of the most important subgenres of documentary photography.

Probably, even if you have not practiced it (you probably have not), you will know
more or less what this genre is about. War photography captures images of armed
conflicts and their effects on the lives of people in war areas. War photography is not a
hobby, but a lifestyle in which you have to be very aware of the things that can happen
to you. Beyond the fact that your camera will be damaged by a splash, dust, dirt or
gunpowder, you must understand that what happens around a war environment can
become extremely harmful to both your mental and physical well-being. Some
photographers have gotten depressed after witnessing such horrific environments, some
have been injured because of being too close to the actual conflict and some of them
even have been killed during these armed conflicts.

In opposition to other kinds of documentary photography and photojournalism, war

photography implicates by its definition that the photographer must always be
surrounded by dangerous situations and armed conflicts. Other kinds of documentary
photography and photojournalism, on the other side, do not necessarily require the
photographer to be involved in chaos all the time. However, the war photographer is
often required to take photographs instead of making them (however , both are possible
in this genre).

War photography may not only even capture a specific moment but also convey a
certain point of view and feeling regarding certain subject. Because of that, war
photography often blends with artistic photography (in the sense war photography often
evokes powerful feelings and ideas), but is listed as a subgenre of documentary
photography because the war photographer is not allowed to stage or pose his images.

Important values of the war photographer are a solid ethical commitment and, of course
a STRONG psychological preparation. I have not been in a war environment myself,
but if you take the time to see war photographs such as the ones by James Natchwey,
you will see that it is no kidding
that a strong preparation is
needed in order to keep a good
mental health. For a better
understanding on this job and its
implications I highly
recommend you to watch the
documentary film “War
Photographer” by Christian Frei.
As with most kinds of
photographic genres included in
editorial photography, the
intentional manipulation of the photos isn’t only not allowed, but it is usually forbidden
in this genre.

Photo Essay

Another important subgenre of documentary photography is the photo essay. Although

photo essay may vary on its approach and sometimes it is considered more artistic that
editorial or documental (some photo essays are purely artistic), I list it as a subgenre of
documentary photography because it is usually and traditionally closely related to it
(most photo essay photographers approach their photographic work as if they were
documentary photographs). It is fair to say that Photo Essay is a subgenre that is located
just in the middle between the genre of documentary photography and the big group of
artistic and creative photography, especially regarding the genres of conceptual and fine
art photography.

A photographic essay is a group of photographs taken with the intention of showing the
author's vision about a topic of interest, to which he has devoted a time of study,
analysis, and on which an opinion has been formed. The photographer wants to transmit
that opinion seeking an aesthetic coherence when exposing it. As you see, it might
sound entirely as if I was talking about a genre of artistic and creative photography. But
again, these kinds of photographs have been traditionally approached as documentary
photographs. A photographic essay usually portraits photographs that with deep
emotional stages. On this subgenre of photography, photographers usually try to convey
deep emotional messages and feelings through the use of documentary, non staged
photographs.
Eugine Smith, James Natchway (he composes his photo essays with war photographs)
and Sebastiao Salgado are some of the most well known (as well as my favorite)
photographers on this subgenre. I highly encourage you to check out their work.

Street Photography
Street photography is the kind of photography where the main subject is the human
condition in public places. Street photography is often confused with urban photography
(and they are indeed pretty similar), but Street photography does not require the
presence of a street or an urban environment (in opposition of urban photography that
focuses on urban context or environments, in other words, the photographs take place in
the city). Although people are usually the main subjects in this photographic subgenre,
the absence of people, their footprint, or elements of urban environments with aesthetic
or denounce nature also appear on multiple occasions.

It is a photographic
subgenre that takes
place in public places,
that has an important
Passing by.
dose of spontaneity on
Photograph by
the part of the main
Emmanuel Peña.
subjects and of instinct 2017
on the part of the
photographer and that
requires as minimum
equipment as possible
so that the photograph
is as natural as possible and the photographer can go completely (or almost) unnoticed.

Arguably, the only rule that this photographic subgenre has to follow is that never,
under any circumstances, the photographer can intervene in the scene or ask for a
specific pose, since the naturalness, freedom and freshness of this photographic
subgenre would be lost.

Some important and well known photographers from this genre are Henri Cartier-
Bresson, John Thomson and Eugene Atget. As usual, I recommend you to look for their
work for a better understanding of this genre.

Also take your time to read this quote by famous essayist, philosopher and filmmaker
Susan Sontag:
“The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking,
and cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a
landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of
empathy, the flâneur finds the world "picturesque".” (Taken from On Photography,
1977)

Here Sontag is describing the essence and the work of a street photographer.

 Landscape Photography
Landscape photography has always been, since the beginning of the art of photography,
one of the most used, photographed and visualized photographic genres. Without a
doubt, capturing the beauty of our environment and freezing those places that we love
so much when we visit them is one of the situations in which photography becomes
more used and patent.

Landscapes have been one of the engines of the evolution of the history of photography.
The oldest photographic view of which we have knowledge turns out to be a rural
landscape that Nicéphore Niepce bequeathed us in his View from the window in Gras,
1826. Both urban or natural views, the pioneers documented the social development of
our communities starting from those dead landscapes , where no one seemed to inhabit,
realizing the technical limitations of the time (it was almost impossible to accurately
photograph a landscape with a person on it, since it was almost impossible the person
would remain still for such long periods of time, due to the long exposure times needed
for photographing in those times).

These photographic proposals followed others where the poles of realism and idealism,
again and again, alternated their influence. This led to a sifted landscape through the
formal experiences of the avant-garde or Ansel Adams' demonstrations of
environmental mastery. The modern vision of space finds its precedents in the history of
photography, but above all in the change to postmodernity offered by the contributions
of William Eggleston, especially with his use of color and his concern to transfer
photographic attention to that place-in-particular from which the various batches of
European artists of the New Topography have drunk so much, during the 1980s and
1990s.

Landscape photography can involve both natural landscapes and urban landscapes,
although it is more focused towards natural landscapes. Natural and urban landscapes
are the subgenres of landscape photography. Urban landscape photography is closely
related to architectural
photography (although,
urban landscape
photography differs from
architectural because even
though landscape
photography usually
admits heavy image
retouching, abstract or unclear pieces of a building are not what the photographer aims,
but the photographer tends to look for a representation of the whole landscape (usually
including several buildings).

 Nature Photography
Nature photography is a genre of the broad photographic world that tries to frame on
picture the grandeur of landscapes, fauna, flora and small details of them. Nature
photography tends to focus attention on capturing aesthetic aspects, much more than
other types of photography. There are some typical techniques of nature photography
such as the use of "hide" and camouflage meshes to hide and be able to photograph
wildlife as close and as confident as possible. Safety and respect for nature must always
be put before obtaining the desired photograph. There are some basic rules and legal
prescriptions that must be taken into account before starting in these photographic
techniques.

Nature photography is a mixture between taking and making photographs. The

photographer considers a lot al the aesthetic elements regarding the image, its
composition, lighting etc. However, it is very important for this kind of photographer to
capture important and decisive moments of nature. Nature photography often overlaps
with nature landscape photography and wildlife photography. They have a lot of things
in common and the line that separates them is blurry (sometimes landscape and wildlife
photography are considered subgenres of nature photography). Even though landscape
photography might be considered a genre by itself, it is also fair to say that nature
landscape photography is a subgenre of nature photography, as well as wildlife
photography (and urban landscape photography may end up being a subgenre of urban
or architectural photography). There is no absolute and definitive way of categorizing
these genres, but their classification may vary depending of the criteria of the person
doing the classification work.

Keep in mind there are a

lot of important genres of Yellow.
editorial photography (and Photograph
a lot more subgenres!) by Emmanuel
other than the mentioned Peña. 2016
here. But it would be a
exhaustive and pointless
task both for you and me
to list all them. So,
considering that, I
explained the most
popular genres from this
group.
 Commercial Photography
The third big group of genres of photography is the one of commercial photography. I
have already explained artistic and creative photography, where aesthetics and the
subjective view of the photographer where the main element of the photograph, in order
to generate feelings. Genres included in that kind of photographs are usually (but not
necessarily always) posed and staged, and the photographer intervenes in the
photograph in order to get the desired result. The photographer tends to have more time
in order to effectively plan his or her photographs and focuses more on making
photographs instead of taking them. There is no actual need to “be in the right place or
the right time” nor to get as close as possible to the subject or object being
photographed by the photographer. Heavy image editing and retouching is perfectly
allowed, even if it considerably alters the reality that had been captured by the
photographer and, of course, photomontages are welcomed as well.

On the other hand, we have the Editorial group of photographic genres. I explained that,
for these photographic genres, the photographer aims to capture moments instead of
making or constructing them. The famous quote of “being in the right place at the right
time” perfectly applies to most photographic genres that belong to this group
(photojournalism, documentary, wildlife, war, urban, photo essay and many more). It is
practically forbidden, in most editorial genres that the photographer intervenes into the
scene being captured. If publishers find out that their editorial photographer has staged a
particular photograph, they might even fire the photographer from their medium. That is
how strict they tend to be. A strict and strong code of ethics and morals is a must for
editorial photographers. Aesthetics come to be secondary when the most important
thing is to register or capture something powerful that is happening (however, it is
important to consider that a good use of aesthetics – appropriated and intended
composition, lighting etc. , is able to dramatically improve and emphasize that powerful
something that is happening). Also, an objective and loyal representation of reality is
often looked for by photographers working on this genre. Another important aspect of
this kind of photography is that heavy retouching or editing is usually not allowed, as
well as staging and taking images out of context. The “rules” from this genre are so
strict that photomontages are almost forbidden.

Even though I have already mentioned a lot of photographic genres and I have covered
most of them, there is still another important big group that I have not explained yet.
That third group is the one of commercial photography.

Commercial photography includes basically all the photographic genres that are not
included neither on editorial or artistic photography. Commercial photography
sometimes may involve a heavy artistic approach, with lots of creative possibilities;
photographers focused more on making good photographs instead of taking important
moments from reality. Commercial photographers are able to stage, pose and construct
their scenes and subjects, their entire photographs are commonly made (a lot of
commercial photographs, for example, are actually subgenres of Still Life photography,
a genre of artistic photography). Heavy image retouching and editing, as well as both
traditional analog and image manipulation techniques (including photomontages) but it
is not included into the genre of artistic photography because those commercial
photographs are conceived as a way to sell or promote a product, service, brand or idea
rather than an artistic creation by the photographer. In other words, the commercial
photographs conveys and idea, a sentiment or felling not for the sake of expressing itself
the inner thoughts of the photographer, but rather as a way to engage people into
spending money on something.

Some genres included in the commercial group of photographs are sometimes known as
“retail” photography. These genres are understood as a service the photographer
performs for common people. The services performed by the photographer may include
all kinds of events like weddings, birthdays, graduations, ceremonies etc. Other
important events photographed by the photographer like sport events, concerts etc. may
fall both on this group or the editorial group.

 Fashion Photography

Fashion photography is one of the most desired genres of the world of photography, not
only because of its glamour but also because it is between the most profitable ones
(fashion industry generates millions of dollars every year). This always evolving genre
(fashion photography evolves at the same time fashion itself evolves and gets
reinvented) is built around portraits, beautiful locations, posing, beautiful models and
good (and sometimes pretty complex) lighting set ups (although photo shootings made
on exterior locations with sunlight as the main light source are not un-common, an
extensive analysis and study of lighting is always required).

This genre of photography became very popular in the beginnings of the 20 th century
when fashion magazines, such as Vogue, started to hire photographers to shoot models,
aristocrats and actresses (portraiture was the preferred technique). Fashion magazines
increased their popularity when they began to collaborate with designers and, with the
help of photography, new rising couturiers began to get well known due to their
particular and distinguished styles (Schiaparelli, Chanel or Lanvin for instance, were
between the generation of couturiers that began to earn popularity). You may recognize
the names of some of the photographers that navigated in the fashion photography
world during its beginnings. Edward Streichen, Man Ray or Cecil Beaton just to name a
few, are between the most important ones from the first decades of the 20th century

The photographers involved in this industry continued developing different styles and
techniques, and fashion photography kept evolving to the point it is today, where
sometimes the line that separates the commercial and the artistic root of the photographs
is not really clear. The biggest changes in the fashion photography world occurred after
the World War II (with a new sense of aesthetics, such as the minimalism of Irving
Penn) and after the 1970’s, where the social image of women and the way they should
be represented was heavily influenced by the rise of feminism and other major social
changes.

Fashion photography is one of those genres that be classified into different big groups:
It can (and it is) part of both creative/artistic and commercial groups. This occurs
because fashion photography is a genre focused on displaying clothes and other items
and accessories that are part of the fashion industry. After photographing these items,
the resulting images are often used for advertising of the brand that signs, designs,
develop or manufacture the cloth or accessories mentioned, images being showcased in
magazines, web stores and fashion-related websites, posters, billboards etc. The thing is
that fashion photography evolved to become a very creative and aesthetic genre, to the
point fashion photographers need to master lighting techniques and composition, as well
as a strong knowledge on the specific aesthetics that were developed in this genre
(models, for instance, are required to have a certain body-type in order to match the
aesthetic values involved in the fashion industry), but they must as well design,
construct and develop the photographs in a way that the item showcased results unique
and attractive enough in order to be able to sell it, also keeping in mind the style of the
firm or client, its values, the idea they are promoting and the feel and ambience they are
looking for (it is very common for instance, that some firms or magazines do not only
sell a clothing item but a lifestyle and a whole set of concepts that need to be printed
into the photograph in a straightforward but evocative way). Fashion photography ends
up blending the motifs, conceptions and intentions of commercial photography
(especially product photography) with the creative and evocative artistry of artistic
photography (especially conceptual photography, since different concepts are heavily
attached to the product being photographed and sold). Blending these two genres might
be a difficult task. In order to create such a big impact on the viewers or potential buyers
photographers have to be highly creative in the use of the photographic techniques with
the right intention in order to accurately transmit and evoke broad and concepts that
sometimes might be very profound. “Beach lifestyle”, “fuck the police”, “big city
lifestyle” “tenderness” or “sophistication” may be examples of concepts and emotions a
client could leave in hands of the photographer to bring them to life. Just imagine how
carefully planned and in detail designed the photo shoot must be in order that all the
elements being part of the photographs (the objects, the location, the ambience, the
backgrounds, the lighting, the makeup, the composition, the model etc.) contribute to
communicate the message or concept that the photographer is trying to convey. Within
a single photograph (in fashion photography photographers have to be aware of
composition just like in any other genre) the photographer must convey both aesthetic
pleasure and an effective communication of the concept or idea. It’s primordial that the
photographer in this genre makes his photos instead of “just” taking them.

There are usually a lot of people involved in a fashion photography shooting. Besides
the photographer (and maybe one assistant for him), there also is a model (which seems
pretty obvious), a makeup artist, a stylist, an art director, a hair stylist and a producer
(there could be even more people involved depending on the shooting). Due to the huge
amount of people involved in this genre of photography (in an art where the author or
photographer usually does all the work by himself), it is quite important to form what is
known as a “crew” or team of people that do not only work with you in order to help
you get to the desired results and are technically qualified, but also resonate in the same
frequency as you do during the photo shooting so the workflow ends up being
comfortable and the resulting images are top quality (trust me, it doesn’t matter how
technically qualified and experienced the other members of the team are, if they don’t
get along during the photo shooting it will not only be an extremely unpleasant
experience but also it will be very unlikely to get optimum results –nobody will be
concentrated in doing their jobs).

Also, one golden rule of fashion photography (that might apply to any other genre as
well) is that you should never touch the model without permission! It looks
unprofessional but that is not the only problem, it will make the model feel
uncomfortable resulting in a bad posing and a really weird and awkward photo. It even
may generate a bad image towards you as a person and as a photographer (as I said
before, it looks unprofessional). Good communication skills are required though, so you
can accurately transmit what you are looking for to the model and give her or him
appropriate instruction in order to get a good pose and perfect shots.

 Product Photography

Its name might be obvious, but just in case you are wondering, product photography
refers to those photographs or images that are produced for selling or simply presenting
a product. For example, photographs of electronic components, clothing, automobiles,
footwear, food products etc. Product photography, therefore, is one that is used to
present a certain product and the degree of acceptance and the desire to acquire the
product might heavily depend on the quality of the photograph. Hence the importance
of these photographs. A product photograph might be aesthetically pleasing but, it is fair
to say that a “good” (or a more appropriated term in this case, “effective”) product
photograph is the one that manages to convince the audience to buy or at least accept a
given product.

Product photography is, in most cases, Still Life photography. But product photography
is a kind of still photography that has to be creative but objective at the same time. What
do I mean by this? Well, It is very important that the photographed product is
represented in an accurate way. The possible buyer or consumer must be able to see
most (if not all) of the features and facets of the products, its characteristics, design etc.
For example, if you are a product photographer and some company hires you to take
photographs of a pack of sausages, it is very important that if the mentioned pack of
sausages contains 12 sausages, you do not show a pack with more (or less) than twelve
sausages. Or, for example, if you are taking photographs of a pair of shoes, you should
not take an “abstract” or uncommon photograph showing only one part of the shoe, but
you definitely should photograph the shoe in a way its entire design can be seen. That is
in order to let the possible customer or buyer to actually know what he or she will be
buying. However, even though these kind of photographs should be an objective
representation of the product being offered, the photographer should not only show the
product completely and correctly on his photo for a correct understanding for the
possible customer, but it is also part of the work of the photographer to capture it in an
interesting and appealing way, in order to attract the attention of potential customers or
buyers.

Common practices for photographers when doing photographs in this photographic

genre are, for example, avoiding natural light and working only in studio; natural light
is difficult to control and is always changing, this may end up in a disaster if you are
talking product photos for a catalog and all the different products have different lighting
setups (due to the change of the position of the sun –the main light source- , the change
of color temperature and the quality of the light). On the other hand, the photographer is
able to directly control the light when working on a studio.

Another common practice is to use a lot of image editing and retouching. Heavy image
retouching is allowed until the point it changes the overall appearance of the product
and the product itself. The product photographer is able to do all kinds of editing and
retouching (I highly recommend you to do image retouching if you adventure into this
photographic genre) with the single limitation of not crossing the line of altering the
product photographed. I once heard a very experienced product photographer that image
editing and retouching (for this genre) is definitely not an option, but an obligation. One
of the main and most common subgenres of product photography is food photography.

Along with food photography, product photography might be sub-divided into two
categories, kinds or subgenres. One is the kind of photographs usually shown in
marketplaces (such as Amazon, eBay or Mercadolibre), they are known as stock
photography or stock product photography. They have a neutral background, with the
object correctly represented just as it is. It is the kind of commercial photography that is
less creative and closer to editorial photography. The scene is obviously staged (the
product is carefully put in a specific place – usually in front of some white screen-), but
the resulting image is intended to be an objective representation of reality.

The other kind, branch or subgenre of product photography is the one that is more
focused towards publicity. It is way more conceptual, and tries to showcase the essence
and the functionality of the product that is being advertised. Heavier editing is used
here, with the possibility to do photomontages. This kind of product photography is
more creative and comes closer to artistic photography than editorial photography.
However it still is considered part of the big group of commercial photography because
its final end is to sell the product (or brand, or service ) and not just to showcase
something for the sake of aesthetic value and evoking feelings.
  Event Photography

Event photography is a photographic genre that covers a wide range of events that can
be classified as "social". There is no parameter or line that delimits the exact events that
take place in event photography, and the kind of event that is set aside from this
photographic genre and included into other genre (like photojournalism

Because of the great demand in recent years of photographic reports for these events,
weddings, baptisms and communions are very common today in the world of
photography.

Event photography usually consists on a photographic service provided by the

photographer to a person that decides to hire him or her. This is usually true for
subgenres of this genre such as wedding photography, baptism photography or
graduation photography. These subgenres might be approached as both artistic and
documentary photographs, depending on the agreement made by the photographer and
the person that hires him or her. Another important subgenres of event photography are
the ones related to major events like sport events and concerts. This photographs are
usually more related to documentary photography, but creative approaches are usually
welcomed. Depending on the specific case of each photo shooting and the agreement
made between both the photographer and the client, which would determine the
approach of the photographer (determining if it would be more creative or more
documental), heave image retouching, photomontages and editing techniques may be
allowed or not. In both cases, however, basic exposure and color or tone correction is
usually accepted and welcomed.

Raul and Viviana’s

Wedding by Emmanuel
Peña. 2017
 Analog and digital photography

A lot of times we use different machines and devices that we do not completely
understand, we do not know exactly what they are or how they function. This tends to
happen a lot when talking about photography. Most people would not know how to
define a photographic camera or even photography alone. Photography, as stated some
pages behind, is the process of capturing durable images from reality through the light
reflected by objects. The light reflected by the object (or group of objects) being
photographed goes inside a device known as the photographic camera, through a
component commonly known as the lens. There are a lot of different kinds of lenses, but
I will cover that later in the book. The lens is made by small parts that do the work of
regulating and, sometimes modifying, the light information with the help of another
component known as the diaphragm, which controls the exact amount of light that goes
inside the camera. All the process of capturing durable images, in other words, taking or
making photos, is closely related with the use of light, which is a wonderful element
that can be either found in nature or generated artificially by humans through different
objects or devices, both “homemade” and professionally designed (like the fire of a
candle, lamps, lanterns, lighting bulbs etc.).

Photography has become an important and essential part of our every-day life. The
impact that photography has had on society is huge. Today, we can find photography in
all different situations or contexts everywhere we go: a photo of us is taken for our
personal I.D. and a photograph is also required for most legal procedures. You can
easily notice that social media is full of all kinds of photographs and even some of them,
like Instagram, are fully dedicated to photography and images. You got artistic
photography, photojournalism, food photography, architectural photography, archival
photography, wildlife photography and many more. People make (or more usually,
take) photographs on social events, special occasions and ceremonies like birthdays,
weddings, graduations, concerts, meetings, vacations or just selfies, and some people
even take photographs of almost every activity of their common daytime an upload
them to their social media pages as a way to communicate with their friends and
relatives. Photography plays a big role in the modern society.

It is fair to say that independently of the photographic genres and the big 3 groups of
photography discussed previously, photography can be classified on two major kinds,
that is according to the technology and the physical processes used for creating or
capturing the image. When I explained the different types of photography I used the
term “genre” to refer to the different ways of conceptually conceive and understand
photography, and the approach the photographer would take in order to generate the
photo. I also mentioned some of the most common “styles, understanding styles as the
photographic techniques the photographer would use to create his photos ( with the
thought in mind that most experienced photographer usually get to the point of having
their own unique “style”). But now, I will talk about the two major divisions of
photography, regarding the means of the creation of the image (that is, the technology
and the process used by the photographer). This has nothing to do with genre or style;
you can easily find editorial, artistic and commercial photos in both types of
photography (although some are more common that others, that is because the historical
correlation between technological improvements and the development of photographic
genres).

You may have already guessed on what types of photography I’m talking about. Yes,
I’m referring to “digital” photography and traditional, film or “analog” photography.
Although cameras used on both major kinds of photography share most of their main
and most important parts and components, there are a few differences between them
(and between both processes of capturing the image). I mentioned before that this book
will be centered on digital photography, but it is important for any photographer to
know the fundamentals of classical photography, as well as the functioning of the film
camera.

Traditional or Analog photography

Traditional photography refers to pretty much every kind of photography that is not
digital. It usually refers to the use of film rolls, film cameras and a darkroom. It also
includes medium and large format photography and other kinds of “alternative”
chemical photographic processes. The term has always existed but it usually was used
to refer to photographers that worked on their own dark room to create their images.
Since the appearance of digital photography, the term “traditional photography” refers
to everything that was being done before the appearance of digital photographic
cameras. This kind of photography is also called classical photography, analog
photography (due to the common separation made between analog and digital),
chemical photography (because of the use of chemical processes to generate the images)
and film photography (due to film being the most common material used in traditional
photography).

The origins of traditional photography are based on the knowledge of the different
physical properties and qualities of light, knowledge that comes from all the physical
and chemical discoveries and studies made during decades. People dreamed for ages to
be able to capture important moments of their lives into physical, durable images. In the
nineteenth century, this was finally made possible, thanks to the physical discoveries
and technological improvements achieved due to the effort of various, some of them
non-related, scientists and inventors. These efforts made possible the surfacing of
traditional photography which continued evolving through the years until the
development of digital photography thanks to several important technological advances.
And don’t get me wrong, digital photography is not the “end” of photographic
discoveries and improvements; digital photography keeps evolving everyday as well.
We can say then, that traditional photography is any kind of photography that involves a
chemical elements and chemical processes.

With the arrival of digital photography, traditional photography has been forgotten by
the newer generations. However, in the last couple of years, traditional photography has
“reborn” or experienced a new surfacing thanks to the new trend of vintage
photography, where the photographers defend the use of old-fashioned photographic
practices, like using film cameras that work only with film rolls, building their own dark
room in order to reveal their own images, learning traditional chemical processes for
their work on the dark room etc. The demand for photographic emulsions, paper, film
rolls, film cameras etc. has increased due to the new amount of lovers of vintage or
traditional photography, although this demand is still not comparable to that of the
equipment for digital photography or the demand of traditional photographic equipment
before the arrival of digital photography.

The photographic process

Simple activities that we practice on our everyday life like eating, going to sleep,
checking your email and taking a photograph imply a whole process to them. I
mentioned before on the first pages of the book that for most people taking a
photograph consists on just pressing a button to obtain or “take” a durable image from
reality. But the truth is that actually there are a lot of events involved on these activities,
and they may not be easy to distinguish or event notice for a person that doesn’t have
any knowledge on photography. In the old days of traditional photography, the
photographic process was a little bit more complicated than it is today when taking a
photograph with a digital camera. I am going to explain what this process consisted on.

In the case of traditional or analog photography this process was everything that
happened between the moment the photographer pressed the shutter button on his
camera to “take” the image to the moment the photographer finally had a physical,
durable image on his or her hands. Light is a fundamental and critical part of this
process. I know that I have repeated this a lot of times and you might be a little tired of
reading the importance of light, but I want to make sure you acknowledge that every
photo is basically light and it is impossible to generate a photograph without light. All
the known objects and subjects that exist on this world and are visible to us reflect and
emit light, which is captured or recorded by the camera once the photographer press the
shutter button (in a similar way a microphone captures and record audio to the sound
recorder). This light information enters into the body of the camera (which is basically
the camera without the lens) through the lens. The amount of light that goes into the
camera is controlled by the photographer with the diaphragm; the photographer
consciously sets or modifies the aperture of the diaphragm, located between the lens and
the shutter of the camera, which is the component designed to control the amount of
time the light will be entering into the body of the camera and affecting the
photosensitive material, by controlling the amount of time the shutter will be “open”.

Once the photographer has consciously decided what aperture of the diaphragm and
shutter time or speed will be used, according to his or her creative criteria, the
photographer will press the shutter button making the shutter to open in order to expose
the film (or the chosen photo-sensible material) to the light. The image gets recorder
into the film thanks to the emulsion, because light activates the emulsion of the film,
formed by tiny silver atoms. These emulsified atoms are what is known as “latent
image”. In traditional photography the photographer needs the help of a process known
as photographic or negative development, processing or revealing, in order to be able to
transform the invisible latent image into a durable, real and visible image.

When working on film, the image taken is created as a negative image (after going
through the photographic development). The negative image is an image where the
lightest zones of the object or subject photographed appear darkest and the darkest
zones of the subject appear lightest. The parts of the film that have been exposed to light
will vary between tones of black and white according to the real tone of the object or
subject photographed and the light emitted and reflected by them. The parts of the film
that have not been exposed to light will remain transparent. In order to be able to get an
accurate image that matches the tone and colors of reality, the negative is submitted to
an enlarging process and then printed on to a sheet of photographic paper. Here, after
printing, is where the photographic process ends.

As you can notice (again), light is an essential part of the photographic process. It is fair
to say that light is the main element of the process, but other important elements like the
photographic camera, creativity, negative development, enlarging and printing are also
fundamental and must be mastered if one falls in love with vintage or traditional
photography. Nowadays, most images are not obtained in a physical format, so the
process is way simpler.

The traditional photographic camera

Nowadays, with the rise in popularity of photography, we are surrounded by cameras

everywhere we go. The demand of photographic cameras has increased according to
the rise of photography itself, so now we can find cameras on every cellphone, laptop,
desktop computer, videogame console, TV and even some watches. Almost every
electronic device has a camera integrated into it. But even though we see and use
cameras every day, most people would not accurately define a photographic camera.
Photographic cameras have evolved a lot during the past two hundred years. They have
changed in size, weight, design, the technology used etc. But in spite of that evolution,
there are still some main components that still remain constant from the origins of
photography and we can find them on any digital camera. These fundamental
components of traditional cameras are needed to understand modern photography.

So, what is a photographic camera? I defined the camera a couple of pages back, but I
will do it again. The traditional photographic camera is a mechanical device composed
by a series of mechanisms design with the goal of creating a physical and durable image
taken from reality. In opposition to digital photographic cameras, traditional cameras
aim to only create an image over a physical tangible format, which usually is
photographic paper. Remember, the traditional photographic camera works with film or
materials similar to film, and its photographic process is a chemical process. In this
moment I will only explain the body of the camera, the viewfinder and the shutter. I will
go more in depth into explaining the other components of the photographic camera
further in the book.

The Body of the camera

The photographic camera is a device that is formed mainly by a box where the light
cannot come in. This box is what is known as the body of the camera. The body of the
camera is the main part of it and is what will determine the size and shape of the
photographic camera. It is fair to say that this part of the photographic camera is the one
that has evolved and suffered more changes through the years. It has been made from
several different materials, such as wood, plastic, aluminum and more. Today what
determines the quality of the camera body is its weight, size and manageability.

The viewfinder

Every camera needs a system that we depend on in order to be able to actually see what
we are taking photos of, and that is the viewfinder. Through the viewfinder the
photographer can see the subject or object that he or she is going to photograph and that
way, the photographer can accurately determine the framing, the composition, the
perspective and the visual field that covers the image being photographed. Traditional
cameras may have either an optical viewfinder or a reflex viewfinder. The optical
viewfinder is normally placed on top of the lens which produces an unfavorable and
unwanted condition. This condition is commonly known as the parallax effect. The
parallax effect is the difference or displacement in the apparent position of the object or
subject being photographed. The parallax effect happens because the lens is located in a
different position than the viewfinder, so they end up working independently. This
causes that the image viewed by the photographer on the viewfinder is different than the
actual photograph taken by the photographic camera. Of course, due to the parallax
effect the resulting images probably would be poorly framed, with an odd or directly
“wrong” composition; they would appear like some novice or someone with no real
interest in the art of photography took them, like they were mistakenly taken, because
the composition of the photographer just “disappears” being replaced by a “random”
composition or no composition at all. It is like if you were going to shoot a gun and
when you are aiming, what you see is not where the gun is really pointing at. It will not
only generate what one would probably call “bad” photos or images, but most
importantly, it completely eliminates the intention of the photographer and even
eliminates the key role of the photographer as the creator of the image, because the
photo captured by the photographic camera with an optical viewfinder affected by the
parallax effect, is not the photo that the photographer intended to consciously take but
something completely different. I want to recall that the key word here is “consciously”,
because if the photographer is already well aware and conscious of the parallax effect,
he or she can develop a way to work with the parallax effect, knowing that what the
photographer is seeing on the viewfinder is not what would be captured at the end.
Keeping in mind that fact, the photographer can start making his compositions
according to how they would appear at the end of the photographic process. But this is
the same as saying the photographer would be shooting blind or with his eyes closed.
The photographer would need to be very experienced and should have already mastered
this way of photographing in order to accurately predict how the photos will result and
take (or make) some actually good photos. I would not recommend the use of this type
of viewfinder for beginners.

The reflex viewfinder, on the other hand, is way simpler to understand and to work
with. Although the reflex viewfinder is also commonly located on top of the lens on the
majority of traditional photographic cameras, it works on a different way than the
“normal” optical viewfinder. The reflex viewfinder does not work independently to the
lens, but works the “same” way the lens does. Although the reflex viewfinder is still on
top of the lens (and not in the same position of the lens), it still is vulnerable to the
parallax effect, if we only consider its position. Then you might be asking yourself, how
come the reflex viewfinder works in a different way than the optical viewfinder? How
come the reflex viewfinder functions accordingly to the lens of the camera? The answer
is pretty simple. In cameras incorporated with a reflex viewfinder (both traditional and
digital cameras may be designed with reflex viewfinders), a series of little mirrors are
built in inside the camera. This series of mirrors are called “pentaprism” and they
“reflect” the light between all of them. The result is that the image seen on the
viewfinder is almost exactly the same as the resulting image from the photographic
process (in other words, the photographer takes the image he or she is actually seen).
This gives the photographer the ability to work in a more comfortable way. Now that
the photographer is sure that he is talking the photograph he wants, the photographer
can work more confidently on his composition, framing, perspective and other visual
aspects. The result of working with this kind of viewfinder tends to be more balanced
and “correctly” composed images, photographs taken (or made) with the actual
intention of the photographer, indeed a result of the creative and conscious thinking
process of a human mind. The pentaprism incorporated in cameras with reflex a reflex
viewfinder, also takes the roll of straightening the image, so it does not appear “upside
down” anymore. I would highly recommend working with this kind of viewfinder to
beginner photographers, since the viewfinder itself does not required to be mastered,
due to the correct representation of the part of reality the camera would be recording or
taking.
The shutter

I have talked about the shutter before, but now I will explain on simple words what it is.
The shutter is a term that refers to the mechanism and the device used by the
photographer that allows the light to enter into the camera through the lens. When
pressing the shutter button, the photographer activates a mechanism inside the camera
that makes the camera to start working by opening the shutter for an already determined
period of time, letting the light information to pass inside the body of the camera
reaching the film or other photosensitive material. That way, the camera takes or
records the desired image. “Shutter buttons” might be incorporated on the body of the
camera but they can also appear as a remote device, allowing the photographer to take
the images without even needing to directly touch the camera. When the shutter button
appears as a remote device is called remote shutter or simply just shutter (which often
causes confusion between beginner photographers, because the external mechanism
used to activate the internal device that allows the light to enter the body of the camera,
and that mentioned internal device, are known by the same term).

The advantage of a remote shutter is that due to allowing the photographer to take the
photo without the need of physical contact to the body of the camera, when the
photographer is taking photos with long exposure times, the subtle shaking of the
camera when pressing the button is absent. Usually the remote shutter is used with the
camera set on a tripod for photography. On traditional photographic cameras, the shutter
(referring to the mechanism, as the remote shutter or the shutter button) is connected to
the body of the camera through a physical cable.

Ok then, just to remember you, the photographic camera is a device composed by

different mechanism and its main function is create long-lasting, durable images taken
from reality. Understanding this allows us to correctly name some parts of the camera
by the right term.

The photographic negative

Not to be confused with “negative space”, an important term used in composition for
photography but also in other disciplines like design, film, painting and sculpture. The
photographic negative was mentioned before when I was explaining the photographic
process of traditional photography, but just in case you have doubts about it or you did
not completely understand it before, I will explain now a little bit further about the
photographic negative on this section of the book.
The photographic negative is a fundamental and mandatory element that should be
understood by any aspiring photographer that wants to take the adventure of going
through the romantic and sometimes complicated process of traditional, analog or
vintage photography. Even though you, as a beginner photographer, are not interested
by the moment on traditional photography, it is important as part of your photographic
culture to know what a photographic negative is, and a little bit about how it works.

Although traditional photography has the possibility to create the images directly into
paper, the most extended format used in traditional photography is the photographic
film, also known as the photographic negative, cartridge or film roll.

Black and white negative

The negative is formed by a base that acts as a support for all the rest of layers of the
negative. This support is usually made of cellulose acetate, which is chemically stable
and is also flexible. This base of acetate supports all the rest of the layers, which in the
case of black and white film, represents a minimum of a single adhesive layer that glues
the support base with the photosensitive layer. The photosensitive layer is the one that
contains the emulsion and, in most cases, is composed by a gelatin and silver halides.
The quality and the resolution of the film (and the image) depend heavily on the amount
of silver halides found on the photosensitive layer. The more silver halides there are,
better quality and better resolution will result for the photographic film. Also, most film
negatives are produced with another layer that prevents the dissemination of light rays
through the film. Added to that, photographic films generally have another additional
layer designed to protect the photographic film from scratches and erosion.

When the light rays get in contact with the black and white film, the silver halides
contained in the emulsified photosensitive layer suffer an important molecular change
that is only noticeable and visible when the negative is taken to the negative
development process. The light emulsifying the photosensitive layer of the film
generates what is known as the latent image, which will be the negative, when the
photographic developer acts on the latent image. After the chemical reaction, the silver
halides have already been converted into dark metallic silver, only if the light has
produced its molecular transformation. If the light has not reached the silver halides,
silver will not be produced and the part of the film not reached by light will remain
transparent. Between the dark silver (also known as black in the negative) and
transparent there are an infinite amount of tones of gray, which would appear cleared or
darker, according to the amount of light that has reached and acted on them.

Color Film

Black and white negatives have a way simpler composition than the one of
photographic color film. The color negative is made of more layers than the
monochromatic photographic film. Each layer of the photographic color negative is
photosensitive (in opposition to the monochromatic photographic film where usually
only one layer is photosensitive), which allows the negative to react to each one of the
basic colors that compose the color spectrum: magenta, cyan and yellow. Added to
these layers of color, it is necessary to add at least three more layers between each color
layer that prevents the longitudes of posterior color waveforms pass and emulsify the
next layer. Due to the fact that each manufacturer produces their own pigments, it
results really hard to find two photographic film rolls that are able to reproduce the
colors of reality exactly the same way (small and sometimes big differences between the
representations of the colors of reality usually occur between photographic film rolls
made by different manufacturers).

While monochromatic (black and white) film usually has no more than three layers,
color film needs to be composed by a larger amount of layer, in order to accurately
reproduce the basic colors of the color spectrum: cyan, magenta and yellow. Through all
the existence of traditional film (or vintage, analog, chemical etc.) photography a solid
knowledge of the behavior of light and its physical functioning was needed, as well as
the different chemical elements and reactions needed to produce the image, especially
regarding traditional film color photography, that was a little bit more complicated to
produce.

The sizes of photographic negatives

The photographic negatives on traditional film photography are actually pretty positive,
because they allow the photographer to make and keep copies of the image created. The
actually size of the negative is an important factor that might determine the final quality
and resolution of the photograph. Bigger photographic negatives are able to capture
more details in the image created than smaller photographic negatives. Photographic
films can be classified according different criteria like the color of the final photograph,
as well as the sensitivity of the photographic film, the velocity and the size.

One of their most common classifications for the traditional photographic film is their
size. The choice of the photographer regarding the size of his photographic negatives is
made according to the kind of camera the photographer owns, or the type of camera he
will be working with. This is because most cameras are only compatible with one single
size or “format” of photographic film (that is why cameras are sometimes called
according to the size of the photographic film they work with). There is a special device
designed to adapt the camera to different sizes of photographic negatives, that differ
from the established accepted format of the camera.

35mm Format

According to their size, film negatives can go from small, medium to large formats.
Inside the small formats of traditional photographic film, the 35mm negative is the most
used extended and affordable size for the general public. Is the format used by the vast
majority of common traditional analog or film cameras, and it is called that way because
the size of its frame is that of 36x24mm. It became very popular among photojournalist
and editorial photographers in the last century, because of their small size, light weight
and manageability. This allowed photojournalist photographers to pick up their cameras
and shoot fast photos in order to capture important moments or actions happening right
in the spot, moments that would be missed if the photographer was trying to capture
them with less manageable and heavier cameras. Most “big” and important photos of
action and conflict were taken with this format of traditional photographic cameras
working traditional photographic film, including a lot of war photography and “in the
spot” photos and portraits of celebrities and important people. In the size of 35mm
photographic negatives and cameras, photographers can find photographic film
cartridges with different amount of available frames, shots or stills. The most common
film rolls allow the photographer to take either 24 or 36 photographs

Medium size format

The negative of medium size format has a much higher image quality than the small 35
mm negative and camera format, and usually can be found on two major different
lengths: 120mm, which allows the photographer to take 12 photographs and 220mm
which allows the photographer to take up to 24 photos. The width of this traditional film
is invariably and exclusively that of 6 centimeters. This was the most common and most
used format for traditional photographic cameras and traditional photographic negatives
until the development and arrival of small 35 mm format, which then became very
popular. One of the reasons this format allows the photographer to obtain higher quality
images than 35mm format is that with a bigger size, the medium size negative contains
more silver halides than small size negatives. Remember that the amount of silver
halides contained in the emulsion determines the quality and resolution of the image.
This format of photographic camera and traditional photographic film has been
commonly used for publicity and commercial photography, as well as for fashion
photography and for book image illustrations.

Large format

Large format traditional photographic cameras do not use traditional film rolls as the
small size and medium size formats. Instead of traditional film rolls, large format
photographs are captured on plates with sizes that vary from 9x12 cm to 25,4x 20,3
centimeters. Logically, the image quality and resolution obtained with photographs
captured by large format cameras with the use of large format plates are highly superior
the quality of all the rest size formats. However, large format cameras and plates are not
accessible and affordable at all for any person entering into the photographic world. In
fact, traditional large format cameras and traditional large format negatives or plates are
the most expensive ones, when compared to traditional medium or small format
cameras or negatives. Added to that, large format cameras are way heavier than the
other sizes of cameras; they are pretty difficult to manage as well, due to their big size
and heavy weight. Large format cameras have a restricted capacity of mobility, so
photographers working with this kind of cameras would find a hard time trying to take
photographs from high action situations, where the photographer must be moving all the
time and must be fast enough to capture the desired moment. Photographic genres like
photojournalism, war photography, sports photography, wedding and event
photography, among others, are not usually worked with large format cameras. These
kinds of cameras are often used in the context of scientific photography, and I would
not recommend them to beginner photographers.

Depending on the size of the negative, we may obtain different qualities and resolutions
for the image taken. Remember: A bigger size of the camera and the negative implies
that more silver halides are contained in the emulsified film, which should result in
better quality images with a better resolution. But the vintage, traditional or analog
photographer would not only decide which negative and camera format he or she will be
using, depending solely on the quality and size of the image desired, but also
considering the kind of photograph the photographer would be taking, according to the
mobility and manageability of the chosen film and camera format. The chosen format
varies depending on the genre, the kind and even the style of photography the
photographer would be taking. A small 35mm camera and negative would be preferred
for making photojournalism or taking wedding photographs, but a large format film
negative and traditional camera could be more appropriated and chosen by the
photographer when doing scientific or archival photographs. Medium size format
cameras and negatives can be found in photography for publicity and fashion
photography (although the use of small format cameras was –and still is- very common
on these genres).

The sensitivity of the film negative

The film roll can be also classified according to its sensitivity and its velocity. These
terms are related to the photosensitive emulsion that each negative has on it. The film
negative is composed by tiny silver halides crystals. The size of these halides has a
direct effect on the velocity on which these crystals or grains react to the exposition of
light rays, so they are the ones who determine the sensitivity of the negative. With
smaller halides, more definition, clarity and detail can be obtained on the taken
photographs. However, smaller halides need to be more exposed to light rays, which
mean they would need more exposition time (a larger shutter speed) in order to capture
clear images. Just in case you got confused with what was mentioned regarding silver
halides when I was explaining the different formats for film negatives, remember: large
formats of negative film have a better resolution, quality and detail on the image not
because the silver halides are bigger, but because there is a bigger amount of silver
halides on the emulsified film. So, in order to take the “best” quality traditional
photograph the photographer would need to use a large amount of smaller silver halides.
But, of course, this is not necessary nor mandatory for taking good enough (even
professionally looking) images with traditional photographic cameras.

ASA, DIN and ISO scales

There are different scales developed to regulate and standardize the different velocities
of traditional film negatives. The American scale is known as the ASA, which augments
its proportion arithmetically and where each unit is twice higher bigger or half lower
than the next closest unit.

This means that a film negative with a 200 ASA sensitivity is the twice of sensitive than
a film negative with a 100 ASA sensitivity. Another common scale is the German scale,
known as the DIN scale. The DIN scale augments its proportion logarithmically, which
means that each unit is a third higher or a third lower than the next closest unit. This
means that in order to augment the luminosity on the DIN scale by one step, you have to
go up by 3 values. 15 DIN is the next closest unit and a step higher than 12 DIN.

In our current times, the ISO scale is the most use and extended scale of all of them,
used worldwide. The ISO scale contains both DIN and ASA scales. The ISO scale is
represented by the value of each DIN and ASA scales separated by a bar. For example,
on a film negative sensitivity of ISO 100/21, 100 represents the ASA sensitivity and 21
represents the DIN sensitivity.

ISO sensitivity (or film negative sensitivity, in general), refers to the sensitivity of light
required by a photograph according to the amount of light existing on the scene being
photographed. With low or poor light conditions, a higher ISO sensitivity is required in
order to be able to take clear photographs.

Velocity of the film

According of the size of the silver halide crystals contained on the emulsified film, the
velocity might be slow, medium or fast. Traditional film negatives with a slow velocity
are the ones that offer a better quality of image, because the grains they contain are
ultrathin. However, they need a big amount of light in order to be correctly exposed
(this means, of course, longer exposure times). Traditional slow sensitivity film
negatives are the ones that reach up to a maximum of ISO 64/19, on the ISO scale.

Film negatives with medium sensitivity are the ones that are between ISO 64/19 and
ISO 360/26, on the ISO scale. It is included on this category one of the most popular
and used traditional film sensitivity, the ISO 100/21, on the ISO scale. They have a
grain size that returns a decent and acceptable result of resolution, detail and general
quality for the image taken. The main reason this kind of film negatives with this
amount of sensitivity are so popular between pro and amateur photographers, is because
they deliver good enough photographs but they do not strict light conditions such as
slow velocity film negatives. However, they still need decent light conditions in order to
work properly (so forget about taking photographs on poor light conditions with and
ISO sensitivity of 100/21!).

Last but not least, fast traditional film negatives are those that have a ISO sensitivity
over 400/27 on the ISO scale. Faster film negatives are the ones with higher values on
the ISO sensitivity scale (over ISO 400/27), which translates into bigger silver halide
crystals, bigger grains and, because of that, lower image detail, resolution and quality in
general. However, even though this kind of traditional photographic film negatives
really are not the best choice for taking clear images, they are very popular and common
between photographers when taking photos in extremely poor or low light conditions,
such as night photography.

It is known by several different names, such as analog photography, film photography,

chemical photography, arsenic photography or simply just traditional or classical
photography. Through the years, all these terms had different meanings and were used
on different contexts but today, all these terms are used to refer to any kind of
photography that is not modern digital photography. Although in our current times there
are important trends making a romantic effort looking for the reborn of the traditional
photography (such as vintage photographers), the truth is that traditional film
photography is not very popular today and its demand has fallen against modern digital
photography. This phenomenon occurs probably because the photographic processes of
traditional film photography are more complicated and more exhausting that the ones of
modern digital photography, but thanks to traditional film photography, we can
acknowledge that the main parts of the camera (such as the body of the camera, the
viewfinder and the shutter) still remain constant even today; we can find them in all
modern digital photographic cameras.

The traditional photographic process is everything involved in the production of the

photograph from the moment the traditional photographer press the shutter button until
he or she gets the resulting final, physical and durable image. Now you know that
traditional film photography involves a series of chemical components and chemical
processes in order to capture a piece of reality and turn it into something actually visible
and tangible. The traditional photographic process of development of an image is almost
like magic.

Digital Photography
It is fair to say that digital photography makes an important part on the everyday life of
the big majority of the world’s population. We commonly see digital photography
everywhere we go, almost everything that surround us and is related to the modern
lifestyle is related as well to the digital photography: internet, social media, news media,
laptops, mobile cellphones, desktop computers, smart watches, smart TVs, videogame
consoles, magazines etc. Everyone has taken or seen a photograph at least once on his
life. But in spite of the amazing popularity of digital photography in our current times,
only few, really few people actually know what a digital image is and how it is
generated by digital cameras. The creation of a digital image is a process that involves
various specific electronic mechanisms and devices. But do not worry, even if these
mechanisms and devices that are necessary for generating and storing digital images
might be a little bit complicated or confusing (in a similar level of complexity to
traditional, film or analog photography), the truth is that in opposition to traditional film
photography, the photographer is not in need to master these mechanisms and devices in
order to be able to generate the durable desired images. A basic understanding of these
mechanisms and devices is all that is required by the photographer in order to take (or
make) good photos. However, if you are deeply interested on the technical part of this
subject (and the technical part of traditional film photography), I highly recommend you
to investigate further on this! There is an old saying that any knowledge is valuable, and
I highly agree on that.

In the old days, photography was directed to professionals of this field and die-hard fans
of the photographic art. The regular person would not delve into the complicated mess
of the traditional film photographic process. In modern times, since the arrival of digital
photography, it is almost impossible to image a home without some kind of digital
camera, most if not all personal computers are designed with an integrated digital
camera (and in case the camera is not integrated, external cameras compatible with
personal computers are sold and have great popularity). Today, the photographer is able
to build his own “lab” with only a digital photographic camera, a personal computer and
a regular printer (and even the printer is not mandatory, since most images produced
nowadays are destined to be shared digitally). This has caused that major photographic
companies, like Kodak, have diminished their production on chemical materials for
traditional photography.

Digital photography is more accessible and affordable than traditional photography for
most people, referring to both standalone digital cameras and digital cameras integrated
on mobile cell phones. Some of the advantages of modern digital photography are its
cost reduction and the improvement on the processing speed. Extra costs related to film
rolls and the developing process are non-existent now. Sharing your images is faster and
easier than ever, the photographer only has to download the memory card into his or her
personal computer and then he would be able to send an infinite amount of copies of his
photos to anyone on any part of the world via email or any other internet service. The
memory card allows storing the images saving the image in a portable way so you can
take them with you and see them, print them or share them to anywhere you go. Once
you downloaded your photos into your personal computer or an external hard drive, you
can empty your memory card and use it again like if it were a brand new one, the
photographer does not longer need to worry about buying another support for his photos
for a while, until the memory card gets broken (usually after various years of hard use).
One of the most pointed out characteristic of modern digital photography is that now the
photographer can instantly see on the spot what he just photographed, being now able to
make quick decisions on the spot regarding composition, exposure or any other subject
based on the actual look of the photograph.

But, even though those features does sound interesting and are very important, I would
say that the main advantage of modern digital photography is that you can find lots (and
when I mean lots, I really mean huge amounts) of information online about everything
related to modern digital photography, you can find free tutorials, blogs, forums etc. as
well as paid courses, books etc. Any subject regarding the art of digital photography can
be found on the internet: Tips on how to correctly compose your image, post-processing
software tutorials, comparisons between different gears, personal insights of
professional and amateur photographers about their approach to photography, tutorials
on exposure, tutorials on lighting, tips for wedding photography and many more can be
found online. And this advantage is due to the huge popularity of modern digital
photography. Since there is a huge demand for digital photography related articles,
tutorials, forums, tips, questions etc. A huge amount of information is available.
Although you can still find a lot of information regarding traditional film/analog
photography on the internet, the demand is not that high and the supply is not either.
You will not find that much information on analog photography, although important
tutorials and other helps are available out there.

In short words, digital photography brings a huge reduction on costs, time and risks (the
analog photographic process might cause health issues, especially if the recommended
safety-related advices are not followed). In addition to that, it is easier to master digital
photography than traditional film/analog photography (but do not get me wrong, hard
work, study and practice are required to become a pro in any kind of photography you
want!).

The Digital Image

On traditional photography, when a negative is developed, the photographer obtains a
physical, visible and durable image printed on photographic paper. That is the “goal”
and the end of the traditional photographic process. Obtaining a physical image printed
on photography paper may be the end of the digital photographic process, but it is not
its main goal. Together with the image, the digital photographer obtains a computer file.
Both elements together are what is known as the digital image, created by a modern
digital photographic camera (although digital images can be created through other
mediums than photographic cameras, like scanners or computer software dedicated to
digital drawing). Digital images are formed by a series of numeric matrices composed
by zeros and ones, which are stored on a computer memory and are what actually
defines the characteristics of a given photograph. This means that digital images make
use of the binary system.

The Vast majority of images we take now are digital. Digital images taken now are the
opposite of traditional analog images, which need to go through various chemical
processes for their creation and to become actual visible images. I said before that
digital images make use of the binary system. This means that digital images are a
numeric representation (usually made formed by zeros and ones) of a given scene in
only two dimensions.

The binary code or binary system is a code or system that uses only two numbers (zeros
and ones) to represent images, texts or different orders from a computer. These
numbers, the zero and the one, are known by the name of “bit”. In digital photography,
the binary code is directly related to pixels. The pixel is the minimum unit of a digital
image bitmap. The bit map is a matrix where the bits (zeros and ones) are placed on
lines and columns. Between its main functions is the one of storing lighting information
or tone information from the scene photographed. A bigger number of lines and
columns mean a bigger number of pixels, which translates into better detailed images
with a higher resolution and better quality. Bitmap images are defined by their width
and height, as well as their color depth. The color depth is a term that makes reference
to the amount of bits (zeros and ones) that are needed in order to correctly represent a
given real color from reality into a pixel.

However, not all digital images are bitmap images. Another common type of digital
images is known by the name of vector images. Vector images are very well known by
digital designers and illustrator, but as a photographer you probably will not be dealing
with vector images. Vector images are the result of a geometric description (made by
vectors) of reality. When photographing with your modern digital photographic camera,
or the digital camera integrated on your cell phone, you will always capture images in
the form of bitmap images, digital photographic cameras do not capture the reality and
form the images in the form of vector images. However, a photographer may still
convert his captured digital bitmap image into a vector image with the use of image
editing software, such as Photoshop by Adobe.

When working with traditional photography, photographers face different complicated

terms like negative or film development, silver halides etc. You will not here, ever, the
terms binary, bitmap or pixel when working with traditional photography. A solid
knowledge on different chemical processes, substances and the physical behavior of
light is needed in order to master traditional analog or film photography, and that is
where its complexity lies in. On digital photography, the terms mentioned like pixels,
bits, bitmaps, binary matrices etc. may be considered complicated by some, especially
for a beginner who has little, basic or zero knowledge on computer terms like those
(besides, you are beginner photographers, not beginner computer technicians or
scientists!). But do not worry, the complexity of those terms might be superficial,
considering that in opposition to traditional film photography where all the chemical
and physical complicated mess has to be mastered in order to do a good job, nothing
more than a basic idea or understanding of these complicated terms is more than enough
for modern digital photographers in order to master digital photography and take good,
even professional photographs (actually, most people working on this environment i.e.
digital photographers, have little to none idea of binary code for instance, most of them
do not even know what these terms mean). That is way modern digital photography is
more accessible than analog or film photography when we are talking about complexity,
and that is way I highly encourage beginner photographers to go for digital photography
rather than analog.

Digital Sensors and digital photographic resolution

A lot of elements and considerations of modern digital photography are closely related
and heavily depend on the digital sensor of the photographic camera. This digital sensor
is so crucial and important for digital photography than it is often considered as the
heart of the digital camera by digital photographers.

The digital image sensor of a digital photographic camera converts the light that is
produced or reflected by the object or subject being photographed into an electrical
signal, this electrical signal is then converted or transformed into a binary code of zeros
and one forming pixels in order to create the final visible digital image. Digital sensors
are silicon chips of a really small size. These chips are made of millions of
photosensitive elements, known as photocells. Photocells are to ones who are in charge
to convert the light information they capture into an electrical signal. This electrical
signal is processed and converted into a visible digital image that correctly represents
the scene from reality that is being captured.

Photocells are placed in a two-dimensional matrix where the photons make contact;
photons are the ones that are converted to an electrical signal. Each one of the
photocells has the job to transform the light of a point of the image being captured into
electrons. Although there are various kinds of sensors, two of them are the most used
ones on modern digital photography: CCD sensors and CMOS sensors.

CCD Sensors

CCD stands for Charge-Coupled Device. This device was first developed on the decade
of the sixties and was incorporated for the first time in 1970 into a video camera. On
CCD sensors, the interpretation of electrical intensity of each pixel, in other words, the
conversion of this charge into voltage is made through a common amplifier located on
the edges of the digital sensor.

The photodiodes that receive the light information are the ones who do the job to
convert it into a charge of electrons and store it. The charge of each pixel is transferred,
one at a time, to the registries of movement, both horizontal and vertical. Finally, the
output amplifier converts the charge into analog voltage. The analog to digital converter
is the one that does the final conversion and transforms the electrical charge into binary
code.

CMOS Sensors

CMOS Sands for Complimentary Metallic Oxide Semiconductor. Its name makes
reference to the technology used to produce them, which is the same one used in current
times for any kind of electronic chip or microchip. In opposition to the CCD Sensor,
the CMOS Sensor is integrated with an electronic device that converts the charge
created by light into an analog voltage, a process done by the sensor itself. On the same
way as the CCD sensor, on the CMOS Sensor the electronic analog signal is
transformed into a digital image formed by a binary code (zeros and ones) with the use
of an analog to digital converter.
The colors on digital photography

Sensors, by definition, are only able to measure the amount of light information
received on each of its photocells or pixels. They do not have the capacity to distinguish
different colors, everything looks monochromatic to them. In order to solve this
problem, sensors are supplied with a filter that measures the amount of color there is on
the photographed image, the amount of Red, Green and Blue (RGB). This filter is put
on a specific and established way, following a pattern commonly known as the Bayer
Mosaic. On the Bayer Mosaic, we find a pattern that is composed by green photo
sensors on half of it, a quarter part is composed by blue photo sensors, and the left part
of it is composed by red photo sensors. The result of the interpolation of four pixels
together is a full color pixel.

Photographic Resolution

In the context of modern digital photography, resolution may make reference to the total
size of the digital image sensor of the digital photographic camera or the size of an
actual photograph. The terms “resolution” and “size” are often interchangeably misused
by people with little knowing of photography when talking about digital photography. It
is true that the terms resolution and size are very closely related, and it is also true that it
would not be possible to know the actual resolution of an image without knowing its
size, but both terms are certainly not the same and they should be stopped being used
interchangeably by people. I hope that as an aspiring photographer, you understand my
explanation on this subject and you acknowledge the correct use of both terms.

When I mention the term “resolution” on digital photography, I refer to the capacity of a
registry system (such as modern digital photographic cameras or modern scanners), to
distinguish between two points of an image that are next to each other. In addition to
that, the term resolution is used to measure the capacity to register details of the system
(modern scanners, digital photographic cameras etc.). The resolution of a digital image
generated by a photographic camera is indicated on “megapixels”. The prefix “mega”
means one million, so a megapixel is translated to one million of pixels. Every person
that wants to know the resolution of an image needs to calculate it based on the size of
the image, including both its height and width.

If you face yourself with an image that has a size of 4000 x 2500 it means that the
resolution of the mentioned image will be of ten million of pixels (10.000.000) or, in
more common words, ten megapixels. Better amount of detail, quality and definition
will be obtained with a higher resolution. Higher resolution means a better and more
precise representation of reality. This is because a higher amount of information is being
stored, getting a better representation of the details of the scene from reality
photographed. Also, a higher value of megapixels means that the image can be
augmented, expanded or amplified without the risk of losing the quality and detail of the
image. The loss of the quality and the detail of the image (the photograph) is something
that all photographers, both beginners and pro, definitely want to avoid.
At the same time, when photographers talk about resolution, they may refer to
resolution as a measure of distance or area. When this is the case, I make reference to
the amount of pixels there are over a certain measure for length. This measure can be
any measure you want, but the more used ones are centimeters and inches. Nowadays in
modern digital photography inches are the most common ones, so in this kind of
resolution it is pretty common to talk about pixels per inch, or ppi. Ppi are directly
related to the process of printing a modern digital image. It refers to the amount of
pixels that can be printed on a given physical support size. Usually, the terms “image
resolution” and “printing resolution” are commonly misused by people with few or zero
knowledge on photography.

Compression of the image

Have you heard of compression before? You probably have. Compressing a file means
simply just reducing the size of the file. The option to compress (to reduce) a file is
always available on your computer. On modern digital photography, digital images are
commonly compressed in order to reduce their size. This is a very common practice
because the size of digital images are getting bigger and bigger every day, making it a
little more difficult to store them and share them.

The compression of a modern digital photograph consists on the reduction of data

information that is detected as redundant, unnecessary and with not much importance.
The compression process allows the modern digital photographer to keep, store and
send a higher number of digital photos, because small images that occupy less and few
storage space are the result of the digital image compression process.

There are two main kinds of image compression on the digital world: Lossy image
compression and lossless image compression.

Lossless compression

Lossless compression is often used by the modern digital photographer when it is very
important or a priority to conserve and maintain the original quality of the image taken.
On this way, image data information is organized on a more efficient and effective way,
without eliminating any kind of information, which allows a good and correct
reconstruction of the image from the scene photographed. The file reduced usually
occupies half of the storage spaces that is occupied by the original image.

It is also very important to notice that compression depends heavily on the actual
content of the image. Less amounts of compression can be applied to the digital image
when the amount of detail from the actual digital image is too big. The most common
lossless digital image formats are the lossless TIFF digital image format and the PNG
lossless digital image format. This kind of compression is used mostly by professional
photographers that need to maintain the original quality of the image they took, and is
also used for editing purposes. However, this kind of compression is not common
between amateurs, beginners and common people without real knowledge and
conscience of photography, because it tends to occupy huge amounts of storage space
on the hard drive. Most common people do not need to use this kind of compression for
their photographs, because they probably will not need to expand the photograph to a
bigger size and they might not be so worried about maintaining the original quality of
the image.

Lossy Compression

Lossy compression makes an analysis and eliminates the information that it considers
like unnecessary, which allows much higher data reduction. The major problem
regarding this kind of photography is that as its name indicates, quality might be
compromised and reduced to the point of reaching clearly noticeable and definitely
unacceptable levels.

Lossy Compression methods are based on the premise that a big part of the information
of an image is actually non important, unnecessary, non relevant or even imperceptible
to the human eye. Most images that you have seen on internet blogs, social media
pages, your email inbox that are sent by your contacts through private messaging apps
etc. have been submitted and are affected by lossy compression. You probably have
heard of a very common digital compression format, known as the JPG format. The JPG
is the most used digital lossy compresion format for most contexts and uses.

Artifacts on digital photography

In modern digital photography, a series of unwanted known problems with the name of
artifacts can occur if the digital photographer makes wrong choices or fail to keep in
mind important considerations. These unwanted problems known as artifacts are
produced by the condition of the digital element, which directly depends on the
electronic circuit. Also, they occur because of the technological limitations that today
still exist when digital image sensors are being designed. These limitations refer to the
quality of the digital image sensor and, especially, its size. Some of the most common
and known artifacts are the noise effect, aliasing and the Moire pattern. I will proceed to
briefly explain each one of them.

Noise or grain

The noise produced on a digital image might be considered as the equivalent of the
"grain" effect that occurs on traditional film photography. It is also commonly known as
the "salt and pepper" effect. The noise that affects the digital image may be intentional
or unintentional. If it is not intentional, it may damage the photograph and would be
considered a big mistake. When a digital photograph has noise on it, it refers to the
presence of a series of little points or dots on it, which give the photograph the feeling
of being “grainy”. These grains are often seen more clearly in the dark areas of the
image with low or poor image quality and in those areas that only have one single color.
This effect occurs in low or poor light conditions, since the pixels of the sensor are
designed to generate electrical signals and encode them to digital information, even if
they are not receiving it. Remember that in order to be able to generate those electrical
signals, the digital image sensor must receive light information; if there is not much
light reaching the image sensor, problems start occurring. Consequently, we see some
grains in the photo, which are those “parasitic” or “ghost” signals sent by the sensor.
The noise in digital photography is directly related to the ISO setting that is being used
(I will explain ISO for digital photography further in the book). If the photographer
increases the ISO
sensitivity, the sensor Photograph
will make a higher affected by noise
effort to capture the due to por light
light, and the amount of conditions and
noise or “grain” on the heavy editing
digital image will be done on JPEG
higher, since the format.
“parasite” or “ghost” Emmanuel Peña,
electrical signals will 2017
have more intensity.

How to avoid noise or

grain in your photographs

ISO: Please remember that ISO refers to the sensitivity of the digital image sensor or
the traditional photographic film to the exposure of light information. It is good practice
to use the lowest ISO setting that the light conditions of the scene allow. The lower the
ISO value, the less noise or grain the digital photographer will have in his or her digital
photo.

Shutter speed: With the shutter speed the photographer is able to control the time
during which the light reflects the image on the sensor. Long exposure times increase
the possibility that photographer gets his digital photographs full of digital noise. This is
due to the fact that the sensor overheats and prevents the correct luminosity parameters
from being correctly set.

RAW format: shooting in Raw format will not instantly make the digital photo to have
more noise or to be less noisy, but it will make the editing and retouching process way
easier for the photographer in order to make the necessary corrections on the post-
production software (such as Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop). Raw files have
all the raw information of the image. Therefore, quality is not lost during the processing
done by the camera with other formats.

Resolution: when it is very necessary to take a digital photograph with a high ISO
value, it is highly recommended to the digital photographer to lower the resolution of
his digital camera. With higher resolution settings, the sensor would need more work to
interpolate the information, and the grain will be more pronounced.

Aliasing

The resolution of the digital photographic camera is directly related to the number of
pixels that the sensor is able to capture. When the photographer sets a high resolution
setting, it results on a digital image with a high amount of pixels. As a result from this,
the greater the number of pixels that make up a digital image, the smoother the lines that
appear in it will be. When we are able to see the individual pixels that form the edges of
the objects on digital images, we can confidently say that we are witnessing a unwanted
artifact called aliasing. This artifact is mostly noticed when the digital photos are taken
with a very low resolution. In our current days, most digital cameras shoot at resolutions
that make aliasing almost imperceptible. In addition to that, almost all digital
photographic cameras bring a built-in filter called antialiasing, which softens the edges
of objects and melts colors, as an attempt to correct this unwanted artifact.

The Moiré pattern

The Moiré pattern owes its name to a type of silk with characteristics that are very
similar to those that produce this unwanted effect. Aliasing can result in Moiré patterns.
This pattern appears when the texture level or detail of a photographed scene is very
high. It can be described as an effect of visual perception, which occurs when we
observe a set of lines or dots that overlap each others. It is fairly common to see this
unwanted pattern on photographs and television. We perceive the effect as strange
waves of color and tone, which appear mainly on stripped surfaces. For a better
understanding of this artifact, imagine two repeating patterns, for example, stripes and
the existing gap between them. If both patterns are repeated very close together, our
view interprets it as a third different pattern. In classic photography this hardly
happened, but in digital photography it is way more common, especially with those
sensors that use the Bayer mosaic to produce the color of the photograph. The reason
for this is that the existing space between the color pixels can lead us more easily to
have this visually wrong perception. When the details of the scene cannot be accurately
captured by a pixel, the errors occur. These errors manifest themselves in the form of
wrong values, both in the luminance and in the chrominance of the pixels.

Artifacts are presented in digital photography according to the way in which the sensor
reacts to electronic circuits. Probably, we have noticed some artifacts in certain digital
photos; however, it is very probable that many times these artifacts appear they do not
severally affect the digital image. Currently, digital photographic cameras are integrated
with some very useful tools so that these artifacts do not appear and damage the image.
 Color Modes

Color modes are the base for the representation of the different color values of each
pixel. These bases are the ones that take the different supports, in which we can
represent a digital image, to show the color that each pixel has. The mentioned supports
could be a computer screen, a printer, a retouching program, a mobile cellphone screen
or basically anything that is able to display a digital image. Each of these will use the
color mode that the manufacturer has determined in order to represent the color values
of each pixel, each color mode looking for the best way of correctly representing the
true colors from reality. There are several image modes. The main difference between
all of them is how many channels they use to represent a given color and what bit depth
those channels have. The most basic color modes are the grayscale color mode and the
indexed color mode.

Grayscale: it is the simplest of all color modes, since it only has one single color
channel. With this channel, it represents all shades of gray values that go from white to
black. Also, it can have a bit depth of either 8 or 16 bits per pixel.

Indexed: Digital images with an indexed color mode have a reduced range of colors, so
that the storage space occupied by their files is smaller. It is usual for digital indexed
images to be used in web pages or graphics with only few colors. In addition to that,
they only have an 8-bit color channel.

However, there are more common color modes that are also a little bit more
complicated than the ones mentioned. These color modes are the RGB color mode, the
CMYK color mode and the LAB color mode:

RGB: The RGB acronym stands for Red, Green and Blue. It refers to the three color
channels that this color mode has. Each channel contains a bit depth of 8 or 16 bits per
pixel, which results in images with more than 16 million colors. It is the most used
mode by devices that form colors in an additive way, which means adding the light all
the objects and subjects of the scene emit.

CMYK: is a color mode that has four channels. The acronym stands for cyan, magenta,
yellow and black, the four color channels that form this color mode. Like the RGB color
mode, it can have 8 or 16 bits per channel. This mode composes the colors in a
subtractive way, which means it starts from the white value and starts to gradually
subtract colors through the use of their complements. This is the most extended color
mode for printers; most of them work with the CMYK color mode. When the
photographer is retouching his or her photos on the computer through an editing
software like Photoshop, it would be a really good practice to actually see if the colors
of the digital image that he just captured and worked in RGB color mode, will look the
same as those printed in CMYK; this is extremely important because a lot of times they
do not coincide, causing that the photographer gets a physical image that differs from
what he was working for, an image that was not intended by him or her. A common
error of color matching between these two color modes occurs because there are some
RGB colors that cannot be obtained in the CMYK color modes.

LAB: the LAB color mode is a color mode that is independent of the support or device
that represents it, both in the image displayed on the different kinds of monitors and in
the printer. This color mode is composed by three channels L, A and B. L, the first color
channel, represents the tonal information or luminance. A and B, the second and the
third channels respectively, represent the information of color or chrominance, with the
difference that, while A adds the colors in the line of red and green, B adds the colors in
the line of yellow or blue.

The color mode that is predetermined will influence the final image, depending on the
medium on which we see it. If it is one of the most basic, such as grayscale or indexed,
the final digital image will result with fewer colors, and it probably would not look very
good. If it is one of the most widespread, such as, for example, RGB, CMYK or LAB,
the final image will have millions of colors, and probably would look better.

Digital Cameras
Ok, this is probably the most expected part for you from this section of the book. But I
need you to acknowledge that all the explained content about the digital image was
necessary in order to have a wider view and understanding of modern digital
photography.

Digital photography needs modern digital photographic cameras. Digital photographic

cameras replace the film used in traditional photographic cameras with a new digital
image sensor. Currently, there are countless of digital photographic cameras in the
market, the demand for them is huge and the offer is comparably huge, other digital
photography gadgets are well sold as well. You can distinguish all of the offered
cameras in the market by their brand, design, the quality of their materials, the size of
their sensor, the possibility of exchanging lenses between your different kinds of lenses
and also by the use that we can give them. When we press the trigger or shutter button
(or simply just “shutter”) of a digital photographic camera, the process that begins in
that exact moment is pretty similar to what happens in a traditional film photographic
camera. When the button is pressed, the diaphragm is activated, which allows the light
to enter through the lens, for the duration determined by the shutter. However, with
these types of photographic cameras, the light is picked up by the sensor, not by the film
or negative as it occurred on old fashioned traditional film cameras

Types of digital cameras

Digital mobile cell phone cameras: Most people have mobile cellphones. Most of
these have a built-in camera. As phones become smarter, so do the cameras they bring.
The quality of the cameras incorporated into mobile cellphones has been increasing
exponentially since its invention in 1997, by Philippe Kahn. They have gone from being
just another simple and just “fun” app, to becoming an indispensable element and even
the decisive reason for choosing between one mobile phone model or another. The
construction of cameras for mobile cellphones is not very different from that of compact
cameras. The mobile phones, just like any compact camera, have a lens or objective,
which allows the light to pass inside the device, where the sensor is located.

The image sensor integrated into mobile cellphone cameras represents a big challenge
for the manufacturers, since the limited space they have available to install the camera
makes them strive more to offer good image quality. Remember that depending on the
size of the sensor, it can contain a higher number of pixels and consequently, the higher
number of pixels increases the quality of the photo.

The advantages offered by mobile cellphone photography, compared to photography

made with compact cameras, are many; although it also has some disadvantages. At the
moment, the objectives of compact cameras are more developed and are more
sophisticated than those of most smartphones. They are able to capture a higher amount
of light information and the materials used for them are of a higher quality. However,
functions and processors included in smartphones are rapidly improving and are gaining
ground compared to conventional cameras. One of the main advantages of smartphones
is the ability to share the photos the photographer takes right at the moment. The
options to share are endless: social networks, virtual hard drives, email, among others.

Compact cameras: Compact cameras are also commonly known as pocket cameras.
Digital compact photographic cameras are the smallest kind of digital cameras and are
the kind of photographic cameras most used by the common population with no
knowledge or interest whatsoever on photography. As a fundamental advantage, you
can find that they are light and very easy to handle. They have automatic controls and
LCD screens, which the photographer can use as a viewer or to see the image taken. The
main disadvantage is the size of the digital image sensor, resulting in lower quality
images, and the creative limitation of not having manual controls.

The price of a compact camera is quite affordable for the general public and constantly
new models are appearing in the market. There are many camera brands and models on
this kind of digital photographic cameras, so there will always be many options to
choose from. Whenever possible, it is advisable to acquire a camera from a well-known
brand and pay good attention to its features, considering manufacturers are increasingly
including features that were previously exclusive to DSLR cameras. This type of
cameras lacks, in general, extensive manual adjustments. In addition, it does not allow
going into the most important aspects of the photographic technique, such as shooting
speed, aperture of the diaphragm, color temperature, among others.

Bridge, Semi reflex or hybrid cameras: These types of digital photographic cameras
are located somewhere between the compact cameras and the digital reflex cameras.
They usually have size, comfort of handling and similar weight to the compact ones,
with the advantage that their sensors tend to be larger, meaning better resolution and
quality of image. In addition, they incorporate manual controls in terms of exposure,
sensitivity selection or even white balance. Even though it is possible to take (or make)
acceptable photographs with this kind of cameras, I would not recommend anyone to
buy them if that person is thinking to start making professional photographs. They
might be good enough for beginner photographers, but they would get to a point where
they will get stuck, and then they would need to upgrade to a higher quality camera,
probable a DSLR camera. They are still pretty affordable for most people. Even though
bridge photographic cameras have more manual controls than the regular digital
photographic compact camera, they still usually have lots of limitations. The autofocus
function tends to be slower than in DSLR cameras, lower size of the digital image
sensor resulting on lower quality and lower image resolution, lower sensitivity of the
mentioned image sensor, a pentamirror instead of a pentaprism, among some other
things.

Reflex cameras: The reflex digital cameras are the ones with the highest image quality,
the best image resolution and the ones that offer the photographer the highest amount
creative possibilities, because they allow the photographer to use the manual controls.
They are also known by their acronym D-SLR, which means Digital Single Lens
Reflex.

In addition to their superior features, the reflex cameras are distinguished by their price.
The price difference is considerable, compared to the price of usual digital cameras, that
is, those we see in the hands of an average user with no intentions of being an actual
photographer (I refer here to mobile cellphone cameras, digital compact cameras and
most bridge cameras). There is no clear barrier from which the cameras are considered
professional. However, we can make a series of distinctions about it. It is important that
a professional digital camera is strong, durable and fast. Also, It must be pretty
effective, that means that the camera is capable of taking high quality photos quickly, so
the photographer does not miss great occasions or opportunities. There is a wide variety
of cameras that can be considered professional; but, first of all, we must keep in mind
that their differences consist of the type of photos the photographer is planning to make.

It is important to note that neither the zoom nor the megapixels determine that a camera
is professional, semi-professional or amateur. What defines this is the speed of your
burst, sensor size, processing speed, quality of available optics, and the accessories and
types of lenses that you have or can be added to. The Nikon brand is one of the most
recognized. One could argue that, from their D7000 models, we find good professional
digital cameras. Fuji has the S series, and Canon has, among others, the series of D
cameras, such as EOS 500D, as professional level cameras. The common characteristic
of these cameras is their high price, thanks to which they can easily be distinguished
Apart from a wide variety of models, there are two varieties in the market in terms of
their range, which depend directly on the size of the digital image sensor integrated with
the digital camera. These variants are D-SLR medium range and high-end D-SLR

Mid-range DSLR cameras: Mid range DSLR cameras have many of the automatic
features of compact cameras and some manual controls of high-end D-SLR cameras. It
is common for the body of the camera to be sold with one or two lenses and, as is to be
expected, its price is much more affordable than that of a high-end camera. They have
significantly smaller sensors than the 35mm format, which is the traditional frame. One
of the most well-known sensors on the market is the so-called APS-C format. The small
sensor means that, in digital cameras of this type, the focal length of the lenses is shorter
(I will cover focal length further in the book). This is the kind of camera I would highly
recommend to any aspiring or beginner photographer. The beginner photographer
would be able to make (or take) professionally looking photographs, due to manual
controls the photographer would be able to experiment and learn a lot about them, but
also would be able to start taking good photos right in the spot with their automatic
modes. Even though they are sold by higher prices than compact or bridge cameras,
they are still more affordable that high end reflex cameras. Believe me; the investment
is totally worth it.

High-end reflex camera: High end DSLR cameras are also known as full frame or FF,
due to the size of their digital image sensor. The term full frame refers to the
incorporation of a 35 mm format sensor, that is, one with a size of 36 mm x 24 mm.
These types of cameras are intended for the professional photographer, since they are
pretty expensive. Most modern professional digital photographers nowadays own a
high-end DSLR camera. Due to the size of their digital image sensor, they offer the
highest image resolution and the best image quality possible on the realm of digital
photography. All the known photographic features are manageable on the manual mode
giving the photographer endless possibilities for his or her creativity, but they also have
good automatic modes in order to take fast, right on the spot, good images.

Parts of the digital photographic camera

Knowing the different parts and components of the digital photographic camera and
how they work will help you get more out of them. All digital photographic cameras
have the following basic elements:
• Digital sensor: is responsible for capturing the image.
• Lens: the subject or scene is focused or framed using a lens, which directs the light to
the digital sensor.
• Body: if we remove the lens from the reflex camera, what would remain would be its
body. The body is where all the features related to the camera are centered properly.
Among these features is the sensor, the number of megapixels, the ISO sensitivity, the
shooting speed per second, the place where the memory card is stored, the place where
the battery resides, the screen, the viewfinder, among others.
• Diaphragm: is in the lens. The work of the diaphragm is to limit the amount of light
that passes to the sensor. This is called diaphragm aperture.
• Shutter: controls the time in which the sensor is exposed to light, causing the exposure
time.
• Viewfinder: is the device through which a scene is observed and composed. You can
also use a built-in screen to observe the scene.
• Trigger button or shutter button: is the button that must be activated in order to capture
the image.
• Chip: after the sensor picks up the image, it is processed by a chip. In this way, it is
collected in a digital storage medium or memory card.
• Battery: feeds the electronic circuit of the entire process.
• Photometer: measures the light that is projected through the lens, so that the camera
calculates the correct exposure, that is, that it has enough light. Based on this, it tells us
what ISO, diaphragm and shutter speed should be used so that the composition and the
exposure of the image is correct.

Each element fulfills a certain function. The parts that I have explained are the most
basic and general.
Something very important is to call the parts of the camera by their correct name, since
this is part of the language of a professional. Knowing the parts of the camera and its
functions will help you to compose and expose an image correctly.

Types of digital image file formats

In modern digital photography, digital images can be saved or created in different file
formats, which means that the information can be encoded in different ways. Depending
on this encoding, the file will have a name or another. The most common digital image
formats in digital photography are the JPG files and the RAW files.

JPG files: JPG or JPEG files are the most used and popular digital image file format.
Most of the digital photographic cameras use this file format and it is the most used also
by most web pages. The main disadvantage of the JPG file format is that it suffers loss
of quality, every time it is manipulated. However, it supports 8-bit images, in RGB,
CMYK and grayscale color modes. The main reason JPEG file format is so common is
because due to its compression, the JPEG is very light and does not occupy much
storage space. Because of its low weight, a JPEG file can be easily stored anywhere and
easily shared via email, social media pages, uploaded into blogs, articles etc. However,
its use is more extended through non professional contexts.

RAW files: The RAW format contains the image data exactly as the camera has taken it
and the sensor has captured it. That is, they are only composed of the red, green or blue
values of each pixel without interpolating. To process the raw format, specific image
retouching or editing software is required (like Photoshop or Lightroom, both pieces of
software produced by Adobe Systems). RAW files are the digital equivalent to the
negatives of traditional photography. In the processing to which we must submit, we
can vary all its parameters: saturation, focus, contrast or color temperature. The above is
the most important advantage of the photos taken in this mode. In addition, the
photographs taken can be compressed, without losing quality and no matter that we
have subjected them to infinite modifications. As main disadvantages, we find two. The
first is that there is no standard version of the format and each camera manufacturer
uses its own version. The second is that because it contains a lot of information, the files
are usually very large and take up a lot of space on hard drives or memory cards. I
highly recommend everyone shooting in raw if it is possible. If it is not, due to the
formats that your digital camera allows you, you can shoot in JPEG but try to do it at
the highest resolution that is available.

JPG and RAW are some of the most common formats available in digital photography;
however, there are many more. JPG is the most used format; this is due to the smaller
size of its files, which is detrimental to the quality of the final image. RAW is the
recommended format for higher quality; however, this quality implies that the file size
is greater, so it will demand a lot of space in computers and memory cards. In
conclusion, I highly recommend you taking your photographs in RAW format, for much
greater retouching possibilities. On the other side, I recommend the use of the JPEG file
format, for storing and sharing your digital images.
 Care and Maintenance of DSLR cameras.

I stated in the previous section than digital photography was more convenient to modern
beginner photographers than “analog”, traditional or “film” photography. I already
explained the different kinds of digital cameras that there are available in the market.
Even though it is possible to make decent photographs with almost any kind of camera,
I highly recommend everyone who is starting to take photography at least a little bit
seriously, to go for a mid – range DSLR camera. They are reliable, capable of delivering
high quality, professionally looking images, they allow the photographer to have access
to manual controls (which greatly improves the photographic technique for everyone
who is still learning –we never stop learning photography, by the way -) and although
they might require an important and significant investment, they are not as expensive as
high – end DSLR cameras. That is way, I will focus on DSLR cameras and I will
explain now the most important things to keep in mind in order to maintain your camera
in good state (this might apply to other kinds of digital cameras as well).

The correct way of holding and using your DSLR camera

We know that a tripod is very useful to keep the camera stable and avoid vibration, but
how do we keep the camera stable if we do not have one? The best way to keep the
camera stable is to hold it with both hands. It is possible to take photographs with one
hand, but the camera will be more stable when doing so with both. The exact way to
hold the camera may vary, depending on the type of camera you have available. The
most common way is the following:

1. With the right hand we hold the right edge of the camera. We place the index finger
on the trigger gently, without pressing it. The middle, ring and little fingers, curved on
the right front of the camera to hold it, and the thumb behind the camera, in the area of
the buttons. Some cameras have marks to place the fingers.
2. The right hand must be relaxed; otherwise we will make the camera move with our
tension.
3. The left hand is located on the left side of the camera. The position of this will vary
according to the model of the camera, but normally, the objective is held below.
When taking the picture, it is better to use the viewfinder, especially because it saves us
battery. It is recommended to use the LCD screen only if the viewfinder is very small
and uncomfortable. In order not to lose stability when using the LCD screen, we will
place the camera as close as possible to us.

One technique, so as not to lose so much stability when looking through the LCD
screen, is to stick the elbows to the body and move the camera away while the elbows
are still attached to the body, no more than 30 cm. Of course, this position is only
recommended in cases when using the LCD screen to take the picture is absolutely
necessary.

To have more stability, whether using the viewer or the screen, it is advisable to lie
down on a solid object, such as a wall or a tree. Also, sitting or kneeling might bring
you more stability.

Cares for your DSLR camera

Like all devices, the cameras have a service life. To keep it longer, it is important that
you take care of protecting your camera from these agents:

1. Sand and dust: dust particles, can reach the camera sensor and the rest of its interior,
this is terrible. The sand on the beach is highly dangerous for the camera. It is advisable
to transport the camera in a carefully closed bag. Avoid completely changing the lens,
battery or memory in places very exposed to the wind.

2. Water, splashes and humidity: a simple splash is needed for the liquid to enter
inside the camera and reach the internal circuits. The condensation for the camera is
fatal. To avoid this and humidity, the use of silica gel sachets is recommended, they are
absorbent, and it is positive to have several where we can keep the camera. Humidity
can cause fungus on the camera. In case our camera gets splashed, we should dry it very
quickly; wrap it with a dry cloth and a fist of rice. If this does not work, it is better to
send it to repair.
3. Salt and saltpeter: if the camera receives splashes of salt water, the damage can be
worse. It may not be noticed at the moment, but over time it can cause corrosion.

4. Creams and thick liquids: sunscreen, insect repellent, creams and liquids of this
type can damage the camera. It is difficult to remove and the damage can be
irreversible. This also applies to chemical products.

5. Falls, bumps and shakes: obviously we can imagine the results. To avoid this, it is
advisable to always use the strap to hang on the neck or wrist. Always holding the
camera tightly is a must. If we are not using the camera, let's keep it down on its bag. It
is better to avoid problems than ruining your camera. We must avoid sudden
movements, both for the camera and its accessories.

Tips and advices for take care of the body of the camera

1. Store the camera in a dry, cool and clean place.

2. Always keep it inside the protective bag. If we keep it without the objective, make
sure to cover the body.

3. Prevent the camera from being loose in the bag, make sure it is secured.

4. Avoid dangerous environments for the camera with dust, moisture, beach or snow.

5. Hold the camera securely and always use the strap. When placing the camera on a
surface, never leave the strap hanging.

Tips and advices for taking care of the lens

1. Change the lens in a clean place that is free of dust, sand or drafts.

2. When changing the lens, place the body facing down when possible. This is done in
order to protect the image sensor.

3. When changing the lens, do it quickly but with care.

Tips and advices for taking care of the batteries

1. Keep them on their case or with the plastic that protects them to avoid dust or dirt on
them.

2. Avoid knocks and falls.

3. Avoid extremely low or high temperatures.

4. If the camera will not be used for a while, remove the battery from the camera.
 Exposure
Have you ever questioned yourself what is it that makes a very bright or very dark
image? Is it the light? Is it the diaphragm? Is it the shutter speed? I will explain you
what you need to have a correctly exposed image.

But, what is exposure? The exposure allows the image to be printed on the sensor.
During this time, the light reaches the sensor. When I speak of "correct exposure", I
mean that an image has the necessary amount of light, neither too much nor too little.
The image does not look like it has been burned, extremely bright, but it also does not
look like it is too dark, where you cannot even notice the subject being photographed. A
correctly exposed image is one that is balanced, on terms of light

How does the camera measure light? You might be wondering. Each camera has a light
meter or exposure meter. This only measures the lighting that enters through the lens. In
this way, the camera tries to calculate the balanced amount of light that the image needs
in order to have a correctly exposed image. The measuring of light made by the camera
is divided into areas and patterns that vary according to the model of the camera, from
there the average amount of light needed is established.

Light measurement systems used by DSLR cameras

● Spot metering: light is measured at a specific point in the frame.

● Center-weighted measurement: similar to point measurement. The exposure meter

takes a point and its surrounding as a reference to measure light. The chosen point is
taken as a priority over the space surrounding it.

● Evaluative measurement: the light of the whole frame is measured. The camera
divides the framing into zones and measures the light of each one. By registering the
light of each zone, the camera calculates the average in order to have the correct
exposure in each zone and, therefore, in the image.

The digital photographic camera does not distinguish colors, but sees in black and
white. In this way, the exposure meter decides if the objects are going to look very
white, if the light is too much, or very black, if the light is poor.
Exposure triangle

The exposure is defined and controled by three factors, these are:

1. Diaphragm opening,

2. Shutter speed

3. ISO sensitivity.

It is called the exposure triangle. By altering one factor, others are altered; we must
make a balance between the three of them in order to be able to have a good or “correct”
exposure.

In order to have a correctly exposed image, you should keep in mind the following:

● When increasing the aperture of the diaphragm, we must reduce the shutter speed or
the ISO sensitivity. Remember that when opening the diaphragm, more light enters the
sensor. Also keep in mind that increasing the aperture of the diaphragm, the depth of
field is reduced as well (I will explain depth of field further in the book).

● When decreasing the shutter speed, we have to close the diaphragm or decrease the
sensitivity. Recall that by increasing the exposure time (controlled by the shutter speed)
the light reaches the sensor for longer periods of time, meaning more light is reaching
the image sensor. It is important to remember that if you decrease the shutter speed, you
would not only gain more light into your image, but you will also have problems when
focusing on your subjects, especially if they are moving (for example, a waving hand
will not look as a waving hand but as some kind of shady trail when working with too
low shutter speeds). The opposite occurs when increasing the shutter speed. When
doing that, the photographer “stops” the scene in time.

● By increasing the ISO sensitivity, we should reduce the aperture of the diaphragm or
the shutter speed. Remember that the image sensor captures more light when increasing
the ISO sensitivity, because the ISO sensitivity is what controls the image sensor’s
sensitivity to light. Also keep in mind that a higher ISO sensitivity can generate artifacts
such as digital noise.

A correctly exposed photograph is one that has the necessary amount of light. The
photographer, in order to be able to control this, needs the triangle of exposure: the ISO
sensitivity, the shutter speed and the diaphragm aperture. By making a balanced set up
between these three, the photographer will achieve an image that is neither too dark nor
too clear, but ideal.

A correctly
exposed image,
taken from the
short film
Boarding Pass.
Photograph by
Emmanuel Peña.
2018
 An underexposed image. Notice
how, even if it is underexposed,
the photographer uses low light
conditions in order to transmit
the desired effect. Photograph by
Emmanuel Peña, 2018

Photographic Lenses
Photographic lenses are almost as important as the body of the camera.

The lens consists of some inner small lenses and some materials. The amount of light
that enters and reaches the sensor depends on the diaphragm, which is located inside the
lens. In addition to that, depth of field also depends on the diaphragm. Just as there are
different types of cameras and models, there are different types of lenses as well.

There are many types of lenses, which can be used on different occasions, whether for
portraits, landscapes or fauna. Each occasion has an ideal lens, depending on what we
are going to photograph. But what happens if we want a useful lens for both portrait and
wildlife? For this, there are also standard lenses. In this way, knowing the types of
lenses and their specific functions will benefit your skill and subsequent photographic
composition.

A lens (sometimes known as an objective) is a tube that directs the light into the interior
of the camera. Inside, it houses set of converging and diverging small lenses that can be
made of different materials. The quality of the lens will be determined by the quality of
these materials and the quantity of these lenses.

The lenses inside of the lens have a size, a shape and a specific position. The optical
center of the lens is the reference point that will determine the focal length of our lens,
which is very close to the diaphragm. The diaphragm is what determines how much
light will reach the focal plane and form the image. The functioning of a lens is based
on the human vision, but has certain differences. Our vision is dynamic, that is, our
brain analyzes what the eye sees in its entire dimension, assessing the space where the
object is located and focusing on the different points of interest. In contrast to the eye,
the image captured by lenses is static, that's why the angle of the shot is limited.

Focal Length

The focal length is the length between the optical center of the lens, to the focal point
where we focus our objective to infinity. It is expressed in millimeters and is one of the
factors that determine what kind of lens we need to use each time. The larger the focal
length, the larger the image will be in a proportional mode. It means that a lens with a
focal length of 50 mm produces images twice as large as one of 25 mm, although its
angle of view is smaller. The viewing angles can range from 5º to 180º depending on
the size, thickness and disposition of the lenses. The degree of the scene that the lens
captures is directly related to its focal length. It is important to notice that these are
classified according to the above.

Luminosity

One of the main qualities that photographers look for when choosing a lens is the
luminosity, that is, the amount of light that they let the sensor pass inside the camera. In
this aspect, the diaphragm is crucial, for its great influence on the final outcome of an
image. The more the diaphragm opens, the more light will enter. Therefore, the
brightest objectives will be those in which the aperture of the diaphragm is greater. This
opening is the diameter of the diaphragm located inside the objective. This opening is
measured with a number preceded by the letter f /. The number f / is a universal scale of
apertures, which is based on units called diaphragm steps. Diaphragm steps can reach
values from f / 1 to f / 64. There is no precise algorithm to advance or decrease a step.
The numbers grow as the opening becomes smaller, therefore, f / 5.6 is smaller than f /
4 but larger than f / 8.

Each step doubles or halves the amount of light that enters the lens and reach the image
sensor. For example, with an aperture of f / 16, the sensor receives twice as much light
as one of f / 22, but half that with f / 11. A lower f / number indicates a larger opening,
and a higher f / number indicates a smaller opening. The brightness of a lens is printed
or engraved on it, and it is indicated in diaphragm aperture numbers, while the focal
length is expressed in millimeters. For example, a lens may have a focal length of 50
mm, along with the inscription 1: 1.4. This means that the maximum opening is f / 1.4,
being able to say that this lens is very bright.
 Depth of Field

Most people feel comfortable with their depth of field, even when they do not know for
sure what it is. The depth of field, according to its most widespread definition, is the
area that exists both in front of and behind the maximum point of focus, where the
photograph is still reasonably clear. In summary, we can say that the depth of field is
the focused area of an image. Having an image with a lot of depth of field means that
the clear area of the image is wide. A photo with shallow or short depth of field, offers
us many areas of blur and a small part of sharpness. Dominating this photographic
resource, will make you advance one more step in the way of becoming a good
photographer. Using depth of field will allow you to have a point of interest in your
image and highlight it.

With regard to depth of field, it is necessary to take into account three factors: the
opening of the diaphragm, the distance at which the subject to be photographed is and
the focal length of the lens.

• Diaphragm opening: the more open it is, that is, the smaller the f / number, the less
depth of field the image will have.
On the contrary, as we are closing the diaphragm, that is, increasing the f / number, the
depth of field will become greater and the sharp area will grow proportionally. An
image with more depth of field will occur when less light enters the diaphragm.
• Distance at which the subject is located: the closer you are to the subject being
photographed, the less depth of field there will be.
• Focal length: It depends on the desired effect but usually, especially when starting to
take photographs, it is advisable to work with lenses that offer short focal lengths. The
larger the focal length, the shallower the depth of field will result.

Depth of field is the focused area of an image, the more blur there is in a photograph,
the less depth of field the image will have and vice versa. Playing with the depth of field
will give us amazing results in our photographs.

Different kinds of lenses:

Standard Lenses

Lenses are classified into different categories according to their visual angle. Consider
normal lenses to those with a focal length ranging from 35mm to 50 or 55mm. These
objectives are standard because they are the ones that most resemble the angle of vision
of the human eye, of 45º.

When using these types of lenses, the resulting photos are quite similar in perspective
and size to what our eyes see. These types of lenses do not reduce or extend reality, so
they are quite used by photographers.
They are characterized by the naturalness and little distortion that their perspective
offers, except in the photographic shot made from very close distance to the subject,
since the proportions of the subjects or objects are distorted. In turn, these objectives are
those that are usually manufactured with larger diaphragm apertures, so they tend to be
very bright

Wide angle lenses

Wide-angle lenses are ideal for photographing large areas, for example, a landscape and
not a portrait. We call the wide-angle lens, the one that covers focal lengths less than the
standard 35 to 50 mm and that has an angle of vision superior to 45º.Therefore, wide-
angle lenses are able to cover or capture any plane of broad extensions that is in front of
the camera. The more the focal length of a lens is reduced, the more the covered view
angle will be increased, causing the sensation of distance to be greater as well. In the
visualization through these lenses, the closest objects are seen as exaggeratedly large,
while the more distant seem moved or pushed back and sm

aller than they really are. They are very used for landscapes, due to having a large
viewing angle, they are able to capture larger parts of the scene. They are not
recommended for portrait photography.

Tele – photo lenses

Telephoto lenses are used to photograph subjects that are very distant, so they cover
focal lengths greater than standard lenses. There are three types of telephoto lenses
depending on their focal length: short, medium or long.

Short telephoto lenses: they have a focal length that ranges between 70 mm and 200
mm.

Medium telephoto lenses: they range from 200 to 400 mm.

Long telephoto lenses or super telephoto lenses: they have focal lengths of 400 mm
and up.

The view angle of telephoto lenses is much narrower and we can only frame a small part
of the actual shot we are seeing. These lenses eliminate the remaining elements that are
around the center of interest. For this reason, they are generally used to bring a subject
closer, no matter how distant it may be.

When using telephoto lenses, you might have the impression that the elements are
closer to each other than what you perceive with your eyes. You could even get to lose
the reference of the space between them and see them stacked. It is ideal for
photographing nature, sports or outdoor activities. This is because they have a very
shallow depth of field and focus perfectly on the object or subject chosen.

Zoom Lenses

Zoom lenses are also classified as: zoom telephoto lenses, large zoom lenses or zoom
macros. The main disadvantage is that they tend to be larger and heavier than those with
a fixed focal length. In addition to that they are not usually very bright. The most usual
diaphragm maximum aperture tends to be between f / 4.5 or f / 5.6. There are quite
luminous models in which their price shoots up. As their main advantage, they have the
convenience of not having to constantly change the lens when the photographer is in a
very varied situation that would require different types of fixed focal lenses.

Zoom lenses have different focal lengths, which are very useful in situations where it
becomes difficult to exchange lenses. It is like having, in terms of distance, several
lenses in one. By its disadvantages, we could say that they are not very bright, and they
have a higher weight.

Fish eye lenses

Within the wide-angle lenses, there is a range of them called ultra wide-angle and fish
eyes. The main characteristic of these lenses is the angle of vision that they cover, it
may reach more than 180º in the case of fish eyes. Ultra wide angle lenses and fish eyes
are often confused, however, they are not the same. The main difference between them
is that fish eyes distort straight lines and ultra wide angles do not. In fact, the distortion
of fish-eye lenses is deliberate, while in ultra wide-angle the distortion is sought by the
photographer for artistic purposes. There are two types of fish eye lenses:

Circulars: They capture a full 180 ° view in all directions, which results in an image
that concentrates all the information in a central circle, which normally leaves the edges
black.

Diagonals: They are also known as full frame; the 180º angle of view is captured along
the diagonal of the film or sensor. Although they do not capture an image as angular as
circular fish eyes, the resulting photos do not have black borders and are not so
artificial.

Macro lenses

These lenses have the ability to focus at very short distances. This capacity also allows
us to reproduce the real size of the objects or subjects photographed. Macro
photography brings us closer to objects and smaller beings. The focal length of macro
lenses normally ranges between 50 and 200 mm. We will choose the focal length,
depending on the needs we have and the possibilities of photographing the desired scene
relatively close. The depth of field is very reduced, due to the necessity of having to get
so close in order to the photograph. To compensate for this, real macro lenses usually
have a diaphragm capable of closing to f / 32. This diaphragm closure forces us to use
very slow shutter speeds, so it will be difficult to obtain a good shot without a tripod, or
if we are in front of a moving subject. Sometimes, it will be necessary to use special
flashes for this type of photography.

Filters
In digital photography, the use of filters is based on three aspects. First, it is based on
the application of a traditional photographic process. Secondly, it is based on the
knowledge of how to use our equipment to improve a shot. And thirdly, of course, in
obtaining some effects and qualities, that are in some cases impossible to achieve
through subsequent processes.

One consideration that must be taken into account is that, sometimes, due to the limited
nature of our camera with respect to our sight, we will not be able to capture what we
are perceiving. Our eye has characteristics that a camera can never emulate. On the
other hand the camera, in the case of long exposures for instance, can achieve effects
impossible to perceive by our eye. There are photographers who use filters to
exaggerate reality or even distort it. The most accepted conclusion of this is that authors
must perform their works with complete freedom, so that artistic expression is not
inhibited.

The optical filters are complements of the lens. Filters are formed by a layer of a
translucent material that filters the rays of light. These filters are attached in front of the
camera lens. With them we can balance chromatic situations, modify the qualities of
light or add special effects to photographs. Filters can be differentiated by a multitude of
features. For example, they can be classified by their size, color, construction material,
and utility, among others. Some of the most common kinds of filters are the following:

UV Filters
They are also called protective filters, since their main purpose is to protect the front
crystal of the lens. In the past, its primary function was to protect the lens from
ultraviolet rays and protect the film from the heat they emit.

Nowadays, cameras usually bring built-in UV filters. That is why UV filters now only
serve as protective filters. In addition to that, they are affordable, easy to clean, they
protect from dust, scratches and water splashes, and are easy to replace in case of
breakage. Because of this, they have become the most used filters.

Polarizing Filters
Polarizing filters eliminate reflections from surfaces that are not metallic. They also
allow polarized light rays to pass through them until they reach the objective. This type
of filter has a mechanism, by which they turn and we go choosing the direction of the
light beams that we want to reach the film. When passing the rays in one direction and
not in others, this means that we do not see scattered light. Therefore, reflections can be
eliminated almost completely.

We can polarize, both the rays traveling in the horizontal plane and those traveling in
the vertical plane, thereby achieving a greater or lesser effect. As additional effects, this
type of filters saturates the colors making, for example, the blue sky even more blue,
and increase the contrast. When using the polarizing filters, we must take into account
that the amount of light that enters the lens will decrease. Therefore, we must increase
the exposure values generally, in one or two steps, depending on the quality of the filter.

In general, the UV filter was previously used to protect the target from ultraviolet rays.
Currently, lens crystals include this function. The polarizing filter, on the other hand,
has been conceived to increase contrasts, achieve transparencies and eliminate
reflections.

Neutral Density Filters

They are called this way because they affect the whole image equally and do not make
distinctions of colors, in opposition to what it happens with other filters. It is a filter
with no effect on color and uniform on its surface, which allows reducing the amount of
light that passes through the lens and reaches the image sensor. Photographers need to
incorporate neutral density filters to their lenses, when they are in high light situations
and want to shoot at low speeds. In the market there are many varieties of ND filters.
We can find them more or less dark, which reduce to a greater or lesser extent the
amount of light that enters the camera. They might have either fixed or graduated
values.

Conversion Filters
Depending on the type of light, whether natural or artificial, the photograph will have
different results regarding color. The color conversion filters modify the color of the
final photograph by changing its white balance (I will explain this concept later).
Conversion filters serve to increase or decrease the color temperature of the light,
changing the overall tone of the whole image. These conversion filters work, both for
color photographs and monochrome.
 White Balance
The white balance is a control of the camera that serves to balance the levels of the
basic colors red, green and blue (RGB) so that the brightest part of the image appears as
white, and the less bright as black. If we perform the white balance correctly, those
black and white will be pure, they will not have any dominant color.

This control, depending on the cameras, can be automatic or manual (most DSLR
cameras allow to manually control white balance).

The colors registered by your camera depend on the lighting, and the light we have in
the environment is not always the same. It can be natural or artificial, and it can also
have a different color temperature, that is, it can have different colors: it can be colder,
that is, tend towards bluish tones, or be warmer, that is, tend towards yellow tones,
orange or reddish.

Thus, we see that the 3 components of RGB color (red, green, blue) are not normally
distributed in a balanced way. For example, on a cloudy day the predominant light will
be a bluish tone, while in a room illuminated with incandescent light bulbs (tungsten)
red will predominate.

Our eyes have the ability to compensate for this difference in colors in light, this
difference in color temperature, but our camera cannot do it in the same way, and that's
why on many occasions you will have found that you have shot a photograph and it has
came out in a very different tone to what your eyes were actually seeing.

So, white balance will help you to tell your camera what color temperature there is in
the room, so that it can establish what the white color is, and adjust the rest of the
photo's tones from it.

The white balance and the color temperature are two closely related concepts.
Therefore, before seeing the different modes of white balance that we can find in our
camera, it is important to understand the concept of color temperature, to understand its
operation. The color temperature is measured in Kelvin (K) and sets the pure white
color to 5,500K, which refers to the light we find at noon. The light with lower
temperature will turn to reddish tones, while the light with higher temperature will turn
to more bluish tones.
 Modes for adjusting white balance
All digital cameras will allow you to indicate them in different ways what light is in the
environment in which you are, to adjust the white balance and balance the colors of the
shot. We can find 4 different white balance modes:

Automatic mode: The automatic mode can work correctly in certain situations with
fairly neutral light, but it will not be accurate when we have a different illumination,
that turns to some more bluish or reddish tone. That is why it is the least recommended
mode of all, since it will not offer good results in most cases.

Semi-automatic modes or Presets: In all cameras we will also find semiautomatic

modes or presets. These modes will set the white balance for certain standard specific
environments. So, we will indicate to the camera in which we are, and it will
compensate the light based on that preset. Each camera will offer different balances, but
usually we can find tungsten, fluorescent, sun, shadow, cloudy, flash ... These modes
usually work quite well, except in unusual situations or in the case where we want to
"cheat" our camera, as we will see later on.

Personalized: Many cameras will offer us the option of manually indicating what light
there is in the environment, with the personalized balance. To do this, we must take a
photo on a white or neutral gray surface that is in place, such as a wall, a sheet of paper
or a piece of furniture. In addition, there are also the so-called "letter of grays", with
which we will have at any time a white surface, neutral gray and black. After making
the photo to this surface, the camera will set that color as white or pure gray, and adjust
the rest of the colors of the shot based on that tone.

In Kelvin: Other cameras will also offer you another manual option, which is to
indicate what Kelvin is in the environment, to compensate for that lighting and adjust all
the tones of the shot. This is why the Kelvin scale "will work the other way" than the
scale we have seen. That is, the camera will not shoot at that Kelvin number, but will try
to balance the colors that would exist in an environment with that color temperature.
Therefore, this mode will serve to "deceive" the camera if we want to achieve balances
that are not neutral (that is, for example, if you are looking for an image with bluish
tones)
 Basic composition “rules”
Composition is the way in which the objects included in a photograph are framed and
placed. The rules of composition are not actually rules, you can break them whenever
you want. However, it is very important to keep them in mind when you are making or
taking your photographs, because they will certainly improve how your photograph is
perceived by you and other. Composition, along with lighting (which is actually a little
bit more complicated to use, other than for just getting a “correct” exposure), is one of
the most powerful and important tools the photographer has in order to take amazing
photographs. Believe me, it is incredible what can be achieved with only the use of
compositional techniques and “rules”. I will explain here some of the most basic
compositional techniques so you can start taking good and pleasing photographs.

The rule of thirds

This is the most important of all and is derived from the famous golden ratio.

Divide the image into three thirds horizontally and vertically and you will have four
intersections of lines.

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Eyelines and the rule of the looks
It is very important to leave some space in the area to which the person, his look or the
object are directed, otherwise it will give the photograph a "squeezed" feeling. It is also
very important to see and understand than when there are various people on a single
photograph, the direction of their eyes creates lines known as eyelines. Use these
eyelines in order to give your photographs a stronger value.

Visual Weight and balance

Visual weight is the ability of an element of a composition to attract the gaze of the one
who looks at the image. The more visual weight something has, the more it attracts the
attention of the eye. Some of the most important factors that influence and might
determine visual weight are: The size, the position, the distribution, the texture, the
shape, the color and the contrast.

Balance is associated with the relationship between the various elements present in an
image, their intensity and contrast of colors. An unbalanced image is unconsciously
rejected by any observer and its message cannot be captured. The elements of a
photographic composition can be imagined as the weights of a balance, so we can say
that a composition is in equilibrium when the weights of the different elements that
compose it compensate each other. Usually balance is sought, however, as I have
mentioned before, rules in photography are made to be broken, and if on occasion we
cause an intentional imbalance we can achieve a specific result in terms of the message
we want to convey. When composing your image, try to place your “heavier” element
(the one with a higher visual weight) into one part of the composition (remember the
rule of thirds) and place other elements, with lighter visual weight, on the other sides.
Try not to focus all visual weight on just one part of your photograph. Instead, try to
place the “heavier” element on one part and compensate with another one on the other.
The attention will instantly directed to the element with more visual weight, but the
picture would be perceived as pleasant because it is balanced.

Repetition
The repetition of some element (balloons, birds, pens etc.), might create a sense of
relationship between the different parts of an image.

For example, a flock of birds may be moving in groups through the air, defining
interesting shapes in the sky and adding information about the direction of the
photograph. Sometimes it can bring psychological factors, such as the sense of union
and companionship.

The rule of the horizon

The rule of the horizon is a rule that does not only serve for photos of landscapes in
which we have a horizon, but also for any line of the image that helps us to divide the
composition into two different parts. Draw two imaginary lines that cut the image into
three equal parts and place the horizon in the upper or lower third depending on what
you want to highlight. If you have a spectacular sky, you can place the floor line in the
lower third and leave the upper two thirds for the sky. Never leave the horizon line in
the center unless what you are photographing is symmetry. Also, do not forget that the
ideal horizon line is completely straight.

Use your lines

Lines are an element of vital importance in the visual arts. Lines give us shapes and
contours. With lines we direct the viewer's gaze from one part of the photo to another.

When you go forward in the world of photography you can see how lines are one of the
most effective elements when it comes to directing the gaze of those who look at our
photos where we want them to look. The horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines are
compositional elements that add meaning to the images.

Special types of lines are converging lines. They are the parallel lines that, by the effect
of distance, end up converging in the same point.

In short: I could write an entire book only explaining the use of lines, explaining
everything related to them is no practical now. However, just try to analyze your
composition and visualize where the lines of your photograph are located and pointing
at (if there are any, although there usually are). Make the lines to point at your main
subject, so that way the interest will be set there and when anyone looks at your
photograph they will immediately look at the subject, because the lines direct to look to
it
 Basic Post Production
I already stated that the most common and recommended file format for editing and
retouching your digital photographs is the RAW format. That is because it allows you to
make changes in your image without losing image quality. There are tons of image
processing software out there. However, I would highly recommend Adobe Photoshop
or Adobe Lightroom for image retouching and editing. It is fairly easy to learn how to
use them (although it may take some time to actually master photoshop), and there are
lots of tutorials, manuals, tips etc. that can be found online regarding the use of these
software and image retouching on general.

These are some basic adjustments that can be made on Adobe Photoshop when shooting
in RAW format, these adjustments may help you correct some problems on your
photographs and bring them to life. When you load up your RAW photograph into
Adobe Photoshop you will instantly get a window with various adjustments available.
All of these can easily found on that window:

Lighting adjustments
Exposure: the effect of varying the exposure is similar to what we could get when we
change the shutter speed or vary of diaphragm. It is usually very useful when we do not
calculate exactly the right values at the time of the shot, although it cannot always be a
lifesaver.
Contrast: increasing the contrast also increases the difference between whites and
blacks, so it can be more or less appropriate depending on the kind photograph you are
working with. The idea behind this is usually trying to correct the aspect of a "washed
down image" and with little to none visual strength, but not doing so to the extreme
level of leaving the white or dark spots without any texture.

High lights / shadows: they are two great tools that will recover your images to
unsuspected limits. With the first one you can try to correct the excess of exposure in
the most luminous points, something that is very appropriate for, for example,
recovering the texture of the sky. On the other hand, by changing the shadows you do
just the opposite; recover the darkest areas of the shot. Of course, when using high
values noise is also generated in the intake, so you should be cautious about it.

Color Adjustments
White balance: if we shoot in RAW it does not matter the white balance that we have
selected, since it can be modified later by software. This is not the case with JPEG,
where the image is compressed by applying the values we have set in the camera,
although it can still be modified. The white balance can be altered in a very simple way,
normally it is enough to slide a temperature bar that allows us to have a warmer or
colder picture. Also, we can also use the hue to modify the tone that this image has.

Saturation / intensity: even if they seem the same, these options actually do not act in
the same way. Saturation is responsible for intensifying all colors equally, while
intensity is used to increase those colors less saturated. Combining both techniques we
can have a balanced photo, where some colors do not stand out above others (although,
perhaps, you may want to some colors to stand out instead of others, you can adjust this
as well).

Straightening and cropping

Unless we actually intend to make an image with an aberrant or “Dutch” angle, having a
straight horizon is something of great importance for any snapshot. Otherwise, the
feeling of harmony will shine by its absence.

Although many cameras already incorporate sensors that allow us to see how straight
the horizon is, in many cases they are not totally effective. In addition to that, the use of
the grid will greatly facilitate this task, allowing us to straighten our image in a very
precise way.

Also, we can also modify the framing of the image by just cropping them. Many of the
current cameras incorporate a large number of megapixels, so that cropping it does not
usually mean a huge loss of quality.
 Store and share your images after editing
I already mentioned that JPEG is one of the most extended file format for digital
images. This is because they are very light and easy to share on the internet. I highly
recommend you, if possibly that you make at least two copies on different formats of
each photograph you want to store. That means that you should export your edited
image into a high quality JPEG file so you can easily share your photo on the internet
and save it on your computer without worrying too much about storage space. You
should also save an uncompressed image in a format such as Tiff or RAW if you one
day decide to edit again your photograph. On top of that, if you are going to
professionally show someone else that mentioned photograph, or you want to print it in
the highest quality possible, it is recommended that you do so with a Tiff image format.
However, Tiff (and RAW) files tend to be huge, so if you are low on storage space, you
can just keep your full resolution high quality JPEG file. Some recommendations for
storing your images are the following:

Selection: Keep only your best photos

Create a folder on your PC that is called, for example, bad ones, and take there all the
photos that are dark, are blurred or lack interest for any type of defect. If you have
multiple, almost identical copies of the same snapshot, keep the best 2 or 3. Try to do it
whenever you download the photos from your camera to the PC: you will save much
later time of management and review of your photographic file.

Organize your selected potos into folders

While some phones or cameras are able to organize images by folders and by date of
capture (this is done by all digital equipment), it is advisable for any photographer to
make a personal selection and try to organize the memories by themes, years or events.
For example, you can make compilations of folders with names of events or categories,
as if you were making a small album of the old ones: Holidays Manhattan 2014, First
year of Luis' life, Concerts 2016, Marta's birthday party etc. You can create so many
folders and subfolders as you want and in this way, you will always find that photo you
were looking for in the appropriate folder.

Make shure to choose well your physical support

Photographs are very sensitive material. Currently, many fathers and mothers already
store all their children's lives in digital format: there are the photos of their arrival in the
world and their first times of all: the porridge, the park, the beach, nature, animals etc.
You may not be the first or the last one that technology has given you a dislike. A virus
that has rendered our computer unusable, a failure that has prevented us from turning it
on again ... What would happen if you lost all those photos, all of a sudden? That's why
you have to choose a good physical support to store all that. A very interesting option is
external hard drives. To streamline the process even more (and not have to spend
several hours saving photos and moving files) you can choose a hard drive that has
WiFi, because this way you can synchronize the content wirelessly. There are several
available options in the market to choose from.

Save your potos in the cloud

But, what happens if our hard drive gets damaged? Well in this case, the interesting
thing would be to have a backup in the cloud. Currently there are many services that can
help us keep all our snapshots safe. For example, there is Dropbox, which has also
become an indispensable tool for many users. Of course, if you have many photos you
will have to start scratching your pocket, because the free options are limited. Other
options are Google Drive and Flickr. Flickr had been a good option for those who love
photography, but the constant security problems that Yahoo (the owner) has been facing
make it a not so good service nowadays. Despite that, it offers 1TB of storage.

Print them if you want

Preserving photos on paper is one of the safest ways to have a good backup, saving
extreme circumstances, such as fire or humidity. If nothing extraordinary happens,
having the photos collected in photo albums can be a great option to preserve and
classify your memories.

Once you have already safely stored your photographs into your physical hard drive and
your cloud account, you can share them with friends and relatives, as well as selling
them. If you just want to share them, you can use any of your social media pages. You
can build your own portfolio on instagram easily. Tumblr is another interesting option
for doing that. On the other hand, if you want to sell your photographs online, there are
plenty of stock image marketplaces where you can do so. Alamy, Shutterstock and
Snapwire, are some good, trustworthy and well-known online marketplaces for selling
your photographs online.
On this book I covered all the basics of photography. Everything from its definition or
perception, possibilities, genres, to cameras and the technical stuff that is required to
order to consciously take good or decent photographs, is covered on the book. I hope
that you enjoyed the reading and learnt a lot here. Now, you can start shooting and
taking some actually good photos! The next step is to go a little bit further on these
subjects and practice a hell lot in order master the art of photography.
How to store and share your images