Tutorials

1. How to take amazing photographs with just a phone (Android only)

First, check if your phone has a "Pro" or "Advanced" mode in the camera app. You can click "More" next to the "Photo" and "Video" tabs, or scroll across to find "Pro". Most Galaxy and some other Android phones have a Pro mode in the camera app.

Example of the UI on the Samsung Galaxy A13:

There are 3 options on the A13:

ISO: The amplification of light in the image. A higher value would make the scene brighter, and a lower value would make it darker, as the camera would amplify the light less, unless you balance it out with the other settings of course. For example. I recommend using a low ISO when you are taking photos in well-lit environments as it will give you more freedom with the other settings.

EV: The amount of light obtained from the combination of the aperture and shutter speed. A higher value would be very bright and over-exposed, and a lower value would be a lot darker. Using a low value can make your picture look gloomy, and is good for capturing the sky when the sun is bright (which is most of the time).

WB: Stands for White Balance. This will change the temperature of the image. A higher value would be more red-tinted, and a lower value would be more blue-tinted. It is recommended to use a higher WB value for "sunny-day" photos, or if the subject is orange, and a lower WB value for winter photos, or if the subject is blue. The WB acts as real-time editing, which can save you a lot of time with editing in post. It is also known as the "temperature" of the image, as the maximum positive value makes the image extremely orange (warm) and the maximum negative value makes the image extremely blue (cold).

Your phone will most likely have more options than mine, such as Shutter Speed. Shutter Speed is similar to EV, as the higher the value, the brighter (and more motion-blurred if you aren't using a tripod) the image would be, and the lower the value, the darker (and sharper) the image would be. Aperture may also be an option, which will control the depth of field. A smaller value would mean a deeper depth of field (and darker image), and a higher value would mean a shallower depth of field (and a lighter image). Combined, these can be used to capture objects in motion sharply and with the right amount of light.

An example of a Samsung Galaxy's Pro mode options. It includes AF and MF focus options, Aperture, along with plenty of other options.

Settings:

ISO: 100 (-Max)

EV: -2.0 (-Max)

WB: 10000K (+Max)

I used these settings to make the sky stand out. It was sun set, so the sky was very orange. I emphasised this by increasing the WB. Every option is at its maximum value, negative (-) and positive (+), because it was dark outside, but not dark enough to not show any detail on the houses and trees, meaning I had to darken the image by decreasing the EV and ISO.

2. How to enable RAW (CR2) on a Canon DSLR camera

The CR2 format makes editing 10 times better. When editing JPGs, you lose a lot of quality, especially when you adjust the exposure. Whereas CR2 (RAW) photos allow you to edit anything while preserving the image quality. Obviously, this means that CR2 files are larger in size, therefore you will need a high capacity SD card (32 - 64GB or more) if you plan on taking lots of photographs in CR2.

I'll be using the Canon EOS 1000D for this tutorial, but most Canon cameras have very similar menus.

Press the MENU button
Go to the Image Quality option on the first menu tab
Set it to RAW*

↳ *You can also select RAW + JPEG, which is what I recommend using, because it saves a CR2 picture and a JPG picture, which does take a toll on your SD card, but its worth it, as it saves time with converting while also allowing you to edit your favourite outcomes easier.

The RAW format takes up more space than the JPG format, so make sure your memory card is big enough.

One downside is that you will need to convert your images from CR2 to JPG using an image editing software, like Photoshop, Photopea, etc. You can edit your picture, and then save it as a JPG.

3. How to download Camera Raw on Photoshop

Once you have your RAW images, you are going to need to edit them.

Camera Raw is a Photoshop addon that allows you to edit RAW images in great detail. Usually, Photoshop rejects RAW files as they are unsupported, but Camera Raw allows you to bypass this.

The UI of Camera Raw.

Step 1. Go to Camera Raw plug-in installer and download the right version for your Operating System and version of Photoshop.

Step 2. Make sure all adobe apps are closed and double click to open the .exe file that you downloaded to start the installer.

Step 3. Follow the installer instructions.

Step 4. Once you complete the installation, restart all Adobe apps that are open.

And you should have it! You can check if it has installed successfully by dragging a RAW file into Photoshop. If a window appears with sliders, as seen on the image (left), then it worked. If not, make sure you have done all the steps correctly and retry.

4. Guide to Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is one of if not the most important setting on your camera. It dictates the exposure and sharpness of the image, which can be a dealbreaker.

What is shutter speed?

Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter opens and closes. The longer is it open, the more light the sensor takes in. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second. For example, 1/100 means the shutter is open for one one-hundredth of a second. A fast shutter speed is anything above ~1/60, and a slow shutter speed is anything below ~1/40.

Fast shutter speed:

When the shutter opens and closes quickly, less light can enter the sensor. This means that the image will be darker (unless the other settings are changed to balance it out). However, the image will also be very sharp and motion will be frozen in place.

Slow shutter speed:

When the shutter opens and closes slowly, more light enters the sensor. This results in an image that is brighter but also blurrier, which can make for some interesting and creative photos.

A fast Shutter speed image using the "panning" technique. The moving car is frozen and sharp while the static background and foreground is blurred. This is because I tracked the car by moving the camera at the same speed that the car was moving. My shutter speed was 1/80.

A slow shutter speed image. The subject walked up the stairs slowly while the camera was on a tripod. This resulted in the subject being blurred, creating a ghostly effect where the subject stays on the image in multiple places, while the background is completely crisp. If I had taken this image while holding the camera, everything would be blurred because you can't stay as still as a tripod, obviously. My shutter speed was at 2" (2 seconds), as this allowed the subject to move at a normal pace while allowing the camera to capture him moving to create the effect.

Another technique you can do with slow shutter speed is the "zoom burst" technique. To do this, set your shutter speed to no slower than 1", and zoom in (or out) at the same time as you take the picture.

Ignore all the dirt on the image, I somehow got some dust on the sensor and didn't realise.

5. Guide to Aperture

Aperture is another very important part of photography, as it can show the difference between an amateur and a pro.

What is Aperture?

Aperture is the setting on your camera that dictates the depth of field of the image. It is measured in "f stop" (f/n). The lower the aperture number, the shallower the depth of field, and the brighter the image. This is because the aperture changes how wide or narrow the "entrance pupil" (the part of the lens that controls aperture) is. When the hole is wider/more open, the image is brighter but the depth of field is shallower than when the hole is narrower/more closed, where the image is darker and lots is in focus. You can test this out by making a circle with your hands and putting your eye over it; when you close the gap, your depth of field increases, whereas when you open the gap, you focus on one thing and everything else blurs.

Low aperture:

A low aperture results in the subject to be in focus while the background (or foreground) is completely/mostly blurred. A low aperture is anywhere from the lowest your lens allows to around f/5.6 - f/8 at most. My 50mm lens can go from f/1.8 to f/22. Use the lowest aperture values when doing closeup/macro photography, portraits, low-light and even astrophotography.

High aperture:

A high aperture results in a large depth of field, meaning most of the image is in focus regardless of its distance from the focal point. A high aperture is anywhere from the highest your lens can do to around f/10 at the very least. Use the highest aperture values when doing most kinds of photography, such as landscape, urban (mostly architecture), or any scenario where you would need most of the image to be in focus as well as the subject.

Examples of low aperture.

Examples of high aperture.

6. What even is ISO?

ISO is a simple concept that is often overlooked by most amateur photographers. ISO is a value that dictates the amplification of light in an image, by enlarging the pixels of an image in order to make it brighter. This can lead to grain, as by amplifying the light, you also amplify the unwanted background "signals" that you don't want, so to prevent it, simply set your ISO value to the lowest (usually 100 - 200) and never go higher than 400 - 800*. For 6 years, I ignored ISO as I didn't understand it. Usually, I would set it to either AUTO, a random value, or the highest (6400). Once I found out what it did, I set it to 200 and set the maximum that AUTO ISO mode can go to to 400.

*However, if you are ever doing low-light photography, you HAVE to use high ISO values, otherwise you will be forced to use slow shutter speeds and thus have burry images unless you use a tripod.

Additionally, most modern cameras (e.g. mid range ones that have come out within the last 5-10 years) are extremely good at dealing with the noise that comes with amplifying the light.

Here's what you should do in certain scenarios:

Low light, night time street photography: High ISO, allowing you to use a medium or even fast shutter speed and any aperture (depends on environment). If you see lots of grain, you can remove it in Adobe Lightroom/your preferred editing software.
Daylight, outside photography: Lowest ISO value(s), just use the lowest one that works well in that environment.
Night photography with a tripod: Low to medium ISO, slow shutter speed, medium to high aperture.

This video explains ISO very clearly

7. White Balance: the reason your images look rubbish.

Have you ever looked at an image and wondered why the colours sometimes look a little off? Mine did for 6 years, and it's because White Balance is the reason. WB is the setting that changes the colour temperature to balance the colours to make them appear how they would under a neutral white light. For example, when you take a photo under a warm, orange Tungsten light, the "whiteness" of the image becomes more orange and warm. By changing the WB setting to the one labelled "Tungsten light" (3200K) will decrease the colour temperature, making the whiteness more white than orange. Most cameras range from 7000K to 3200K. They are as follows:

AUTO (Ambience Priority)
Daylight (5200K)
Shade (7000K)
Cloudy (6000K)
Tungsten Light (3200K)
Fluorescent Light (4000K)
Custom
and finally, Flash

How do you use them?

Next time you do a photoshoot, change the setting according to your environment. If it is a cloudy day, use Cloudy or Shade. If it is a bright, warm day, use Daylight. I have used Auto (and sometimes daylight) since I started in 2019 and I always wondered why the colours would look dull on cloudy days. So simply change the WB setting depending on how and where you are shooting.

8. My favourite technique: Panning

Panning is a shutter speed technique that mainly conveys motion. I love doing it as it's not too easy and keeps your images interesting.

To do it, simply set your shutter speed to something around 1/60 to 1/120 depending on the lighting situation. Then, focus on a moving object and track it by just following it with the camera. Naturally, you will move the camera at the same speed as the object.

Here's what it looks like:

You can see that the moving subject is perfectly in focus while the background has this horizontal blur, sort of like "speed lines" that you find in cartoons or illustrations.

This technique works very well in sports photography, especially F1 or other Motorsports (and basically all moving vehicles).

(Example, not my photo ↓ )

I especially like how this image came out. It perfectly conveys the sense of chaos that happens when you lose control of a horse. And to top it off, even the horse looks confused too; if you look at his eye he looks quite shocked!

The horizontal blur effect representing "speed lines" adds to the chaotic feeling by conveying motion, and because of the way I moved the camera, it appears to be very fast.

I also unintentionally used the 'Rule of Thirds' composition technique as I didn't centre the subject, it's off to the left. This also helps to convey speed as the subject is moving left to right, and since there is space for the horse to (theoretically) move, it makes the image feel more alive.

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