Dramatic Changes with 3 Tips! How Camera Beginners Can Stop Failing and Take Photos That Are Uniquely Their Own

That one shot becomes a treasure. A gentle guide to becoming friends with your camera

Hello. I am Soma Hanasaki.

When you first picked up a camera, have you ever had the experience of excitedly pressing the shutter, only to look back later and feel disappointed, thinking, 'Huh, something is different'? Maybe the screen was pitch black, or conversely, so white that you couldn't tell what was in the shot. I was like that in the past, too. I wanted to capture that sunset I saw with my sister Shion more beautifully, but no matter what, I couldn't quite reach the scenery I was seeing with my own eyes.

But it's okay. Photography isn't something you do with technique alone. With just a few tips and your own 'power of seeing,' the world will start to look more gentle and beautiful. This time, I'd like to talk about the basics I value on-site to stop making mistakes.

To let go of hesitation and shoot with your heart. The magic of A-mode

For example, when you're cooking, if you try to perfect the heat, seasoning, and plating all at once, you'll lose your composure, right? The camera is the same. When you feel like you're going to panic because there are too many settings, please try relying on 'A-mode (Aperture Priority Auto)' first.

I work as a professional, but in fact, I do most of my shooting in this A-mode. That's because I want to focus my heart on the most important part that determines the expression of a photo: 'how much to blur the background.'

Let's leave the difficult calculations like brightness and shutter speed to your excellent partner, the camera. You just need to make the F-number smaller if you think, 'I want to capture this flower as if it's being gently wrapped,' or make the F-number larger if you think, 'I want to capture the vast sky in front of me to every corner.'

When you are freed from mechanical tasks, strangely enough, you will start to notice grains of light and the swaying of the wind that you hadn't noticed before.

Communicating through data, not through the screen. The secret of the histogram

After shooting, you looked at the camera's LCD monitor and thought, 'Yes, perfect!', but when you saw it on a large computer screen, it was pitch black. The small graph called a histogram helps prevent such sad failures.

A camera monitor can look dark in bright surroundings and bright in dark surroundings. So, please trust the shape of the graph, not your own eyes.

If the mountain is in the middle, it's proof of a healthy photo packed with plenty of light information. If the mountain is skewed to the left, it gently tells you, 'It might be a little dark,' and if it's skewed too far to the right, it tells you, 'It might get blown out.'

So that your excitement remains firmly intact when you look back at your photos later. Just by becoming friends with this small graph, your peace of mind while shooting will increase significantly.

With the feeling of sitting next to the subject. The kindness of matching eye levels

The easiest and most important way to dramatically change the impression of a photo. That is to match the height at which you hold the camera to the 'eye level' of the subject.

Small flowers blooming on the roadside or cats passing by. We tend to stand and look down to take pictures. But, just once, please crouch down and look at the same scenery as them.

When you view the world from a place close to the ground, distant light enters the background, or depth that you couldn't see before is created. That is the moment when the 'everyday life' that humans usually see changes into a 'story' that only a camera can show you.

Standing at the same height as the subject is a shooting technique, but at the same time, it is also a sign of respect for the subject. Pressing the shutter while saying in your heart, 'You are blooming beautifully.' Such a warm sense of distance will definitely be captured in the photo.

Summary

A camera is like a mirror that reflects your heart.

Use A-mode to focus on expression. Use the histogram to make light your ally. And, view the world from the same eye level as your subject.

By just being conscious of these three things, your anxiety about failure will disappear, and photography will become freer and more fun. You don't have to try to take the perfect shot. Just cherish and capture those moments when you think, 'Oh, that's nice.'

Flowers and people don't have to bloom by force. Please enjoy your time with your camera at your own pace.

I look forward to the day I can encounter the gentle scenery you have captured.

#CameraBeginner #Photography #PhotoLife #WinterWalk