Commons:Photography Guide Project Alpha

Welcome. This page is created for purposes of developing a Commons Photography Guide. The purpose of the guide is to collect common knowledge in easily readable and comprehensive form, which should assist both beginning and more advanced photographers to ventrure further in their photographic interests.

Should you wish to contribute to this guide, please enrol on the discussion page and express your interest. Contributions from users with numerous QIs or FPs would be especially appreciated.

As for the structure of this guide, section I and II are intended to provide beginning photographer some rudimentary information regarding equipment choices and basic camera operation, while section III is intended to provide reader with further understanding about certain technicalities to better understand why something is done. Section IV is intended to be quick, task oriented guide for some situations which may be of interest. The final section is more technique oriented and explains how certain results can be achieved and should be consulted if section IV does not appear to provide adequate information.

Please notice that the structure below is written only as a starting point and is subject to change due to discussions about the guide. For those discussions, please see the discussion page.

I Equipment

- About cameras

- About lenses

- About other equipment (filters, tripods, flashes, memory cards)

II Photography basics

- Using automatic and program modes

- Advanced modes and their purpose (aperture priority, timing priority etc)

III Further reading

- Exposure and metering

- Effect of ISO-sensitivity

- White balance

- File formats, JPG, RAW and others

- Continuous shooting modes

- Focus modes

- Miscellaneous

IV Subject specific advice

- How to photograph people

- How to photograph landscapes

- How to photograph arthropods (insects) and flowers (macro)

- How to photograph birds

- How to photograph mammals

- How to photograph astronomical subjects

- How to photograph still life objects

- How to photograph sunsets

- How to photograph sports

- How to create a panorama

V Effect specific advice

- How to control Depth of Field

- How to avoid camera shake and motion blur

- How to control colour

- How to aim for pleasant composition

- How to control movement

- How to control perspective