Know your camera. Control your lighting. Compose your shot.

Three thistles in directional light to compliment the thorny shape and bring out the deep purple and green colors of the plant. A large aperture of f/5.6 was used to highlight the center thistle with selective focus. Photo by Sean Ferry.

      The first step for any photographer hoping to improve their work is understanding what your camera controls do and how changing them will effect your final image. The next element to understand is how to work the quality of light falling on the scene to highlight and represent your subject in the best possible way. Then, before releasing the shutter, the photograph needs to be framed with a pleasing composition that will leave an impression on the viewer. 

     Basic camera controls to understand are: shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length. 
    Shutter speed is used to show blurred or panned motion, and stopped action. Shutter speed also comes into play when balancing ambient light with light emitted from a flash. 

A bottle of tequila set against a bright white background. Photo by Sean Ferry

      Aperture allows control over depth of field. Larger apertures produce narrow depth of field and work to blur foreground and background areas. Most landscape photographs follow the rule of thirds, placing an object of interest in the fore, middle and background, a smaller aperture is then used to widen the depth of field to show all elements in sharp focus. 

      ISO controls the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light. In low light situations or when a fast shutter speed or small aperture is needed, a higher ISO is chosen. 

      The focal length of the lens will effect depth of field much like the aperture. A long lens, like a 300mm, will produce very narrow areas of focus. While a super-wide fish-eye lens rarely needs to be focused at all, since the depth of field is so wide.  Another factor of focal length is distortion of the image. The closer you get to your subject the more the barrel distortion becomes apparent. Long lenses only show a narrow field of view, requiring you to be further from your subject and, therefore, produce less distortion, making it the lens of choice for portraits. 
      I wish more people understood that cell phone cameras have wide angle lenses which cause you to hold the camera very close to your face to take a selfie (no, your nose isn't that big).

      In Greek photography means writing with light, and the type of light you choose to write with will make or break your image. Sometimes, like when in a studio, we have total control over the quality, direction and color of the light we choose to illuminate our subjects. Other times, like showing up to cover an event without a flash, we just have to make do. Light can be diffused and soft, spreading out to soften shadows and producing less saturated color. Hard directional light tends to accentuate texture and deepen colors, while producing clear definition between highlight and shadow. 

       Composition can be as complicated or as simple as you make it. In my top photo of thistles I chose to balance near identical objects simply by including three of them in frame and then highlighting one of them by using a narrow depth of field. 
      The next photo of a bottle and glass of tequila is meant to highlight the product. The subjects need to be separated from the bright white background so I used black cards to produce black reflections along the edges of the bottle and glass. 
      My final image is architectural in nature and includes many repeated shapes and interesting lines to capture the eye's attention.

The CFPA building is illuminated by an unobstructed sun, the hard light saturates the green grass and blue sky. The lines of the building add to the graphic quality of the image and a small aperture of f/14 ensures that everything in the photo is sharp. Photo by Sean Ferry