Week 18: Recommended camera settings

This the final post in this 15 week free photography course.
Start at Week 1 and work your way through.
To find Week 1, use the navigation panel over there on the right, or search through "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page.

So, for those readers who have done all the work and got this far:
This might seem an odd place to finally get around to spelling out all the camera settings that I recommend...And it is! But in my defence, if I did this right at the beginning, before students had a grasp on the fundamentals of photography and why things work they way they do, it might seem a bit arbitrary and meaningless. Anyway, we've had plenty of other stuff to get our heads around. So, here goes...

Week 17: Assignment 4 A flash of inspiration

Modern film and digital camera’s use three basic ways of measuring and controlling flash exposure so let’s have a look at them.

Week 15 Assignment 2 Creative use of apertures

Before we set off on assignment 2, let's just take a moment to remind ourselves what apertures are really all about; Depth of Field.

Week 14: Assignment 1 Creative use of Shutter Speeds

If this is the first post you are reading on The Complete Level 2 Photography Course, stop! Read the preceding 13 posts first!

Here it is, the first assignment. It's pretty easy really. Won't take too much time. All you have to do is research, plan, test and shoot two photographs. The first will be "creative use of a fast shutter speed" and the second will be, you guessed it, "creative use of a slow shutter speed". By "creative use" I mean thinking up a shot that really uses the attributes and benefits of shutter speeds to create a picture that looks great.

Week 13: Unlucky; it's time to do some work! How to do the assignments

If you really want to improve your photography it's time to stop reading and start shooting - and writing! Yes, that's right. In order to learn stuff you have to get practical and go out and practice, practice, practice. And then, in order to absorb what you just did you need to review it and the best way to do that is to write about it - like I do.

Week 10: See the light. Fill-in flash

Nearly all modern DSLR and Bridge style cameras have a built in flash, until you get to the “Pro” models, which assume you will be using a more powerful and flexible speedlight on the cameras hotshoe.

The little pop-up flash is more useful (and more powerful) than you many people think and we’re going to take a look at how to get the best out of it and in what situations it can be applied.

Week 9: Flash, ah ha...saviour etc.

Modern film and digital camera’s use three basic ways of measuring and controlling flash exposure so let’s have a look at them in turn.

Week 1: Drive the camera. Camera Modes

We're going to start by learning how to drive the dslr camera:
Many camera users (as opposed to photographers) leave their camera in one single mode, Auto mode and don’t get any further than that. Sure, the camera will produce good exposures for you most of the time in the Auto mode but it's no thanks to you. You are locked out of the process, you play no real part in the decision making and when the camera doesn't get you a good result you may not know how to fix it.