The Best online Photography Tutorials to get you Started

So last Friday I left you with a few websites that will help you with finding the best camera and lens suited for your needs. If you haven't yet, go check out last weeks post and then you will be up to speed.
Okay, now that you are caught up, this week I wanted to share with you a few online tutorials I found that really, really, REALLY helped me understand my DSLR.

 I can't say this enough, but if you want to take really good pictures, you need to understand your camera!  If you want crisp, sharp, beautiful pictures you need to understand how to shoot in Manual. Shooting in automatic is just not going to cut it, you won't get the results you were hoping for.

Shooting in manual means that you need to have a good understanding of aperture, ISO, depth of field, shutter speeds, white balance, and exposure. The tutorials I'm sharing today will be really helpful for teaching you all these aspects. Plus, I included a few fun, yet, a bit more advanced tutorials for you adventurous folks.

I think the best thing for you to do is start with Expert Photography. This website provides you with individual tutorials on all the main aspects of shooting in manual: aperture, ISO, Depth of Field, White Balance, Exposure and more. If you read through all of these tutorials you will absolutley have a better understanding of shooting in Manual.

 (photo credit: taken from the blog Fly through our Window)

But if your anything like myself, you will want to make sure you totally understand how to shoot in manual so you will want to read more tutorials. I stumbled upon a blog post called  "Here's Marla" on a blog called Fly through our window. This post was featuring a professional photographer who was answering blog readers' questions on photography. In this post, Marla provided a bunch of links to tutorials on aperture, ISO, shutter speeds, bokeh and what are the best settings to shooting at night. I found these links very helpful because they explained these terms in very simple terms. If I can understand it, then so can you! Also, in this blog post, Marla also gave great advice on what lenses to purchase, what editing program to use, where to print your pictures and so on. I highly recommend checking this blog out.

 

Photo credit: Taken from the blog Kevin&Amanda

Another great source is the blog Kevin&Amanda, they have a bunch of photography tutorials and this Quick guide to your DSLR is great!

Now, when I first started taking pictures with my DSLR I had no idea about RAW v.s JPEG. It really didn't matter that I was taking my pictures in JPEG because I didn't have a fancy editing program to edit my pictures in. I used a free online program called PicMonkey. This program was very user friendly and a lot of fun, (I will talk more about it on a later date).
I later learned that if you want to dramatically improve your pictures you need to have a good editing program like Adobe Photoshop's Lightroom or CS6. I will touch on more of that on a later day as well.   I did eventually get Adobe Photoshop's Lightroom and this changed my whole world in terms of my photography. I learned that in order to achieve great edits I needed to shoot in RAW. I stumbled upon this blog called Make it Cozee that explained RAW v.s. JPEG excellently. If you are looking to switch from shooting in JPEG to RAW this is the tutorial for you. 

Now on a daily basis I'm always looking for inspiration in my photography and there are two blogs that I have come across that do exactly that. Not only do they inspire me everyday, but they are amazing resources. They are constantly providing me with awesome photography tutorials. These blogs are Clickin Moms and I Heart Faces. If you are serious about your photography I highly recommend you start following these two blogs.

When I first started following I Heart Faces, I came across this tutorial which also explained the aspects to shooting in Manual very well.

And Clickin Moms changed my whole world one day when they introduced back button focusing.  Basically, back button focusing helps you to take action shots. It is fantastic for taking pictures of my busy little boys! This tutorial explains it much better than I can and it is a little bit more advanced so I suggest that first you learn the ins and outs of shooting in manual and then start practicing back button focusing. 

And last but not least, I learned how to do this

 and this

with the blog Kevin & Amanda. They taught me how to create beautiful Bokeh with this fun holiday photography tutorial roundup.

Well it looks like you have a lot of reading to do this weekend! I hope you enjoy my DSLR camera tutorial roundup. I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me.

If you are looking for some more photography inspirations come check out my photography pinterest board.

Have a great weekend!!!!