Photography For Beginners: How To Shoot Artistic Digital Photography For Beginner

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How To Shoot Artistic Digital Photography For Beginner !

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COPYRIGHT…………………………………………… Introduction……………………………………………… Exposure Triangle……………………………………… Shutter Speed…………………………………………. Aperture………………………………………………… ISO……………………………………………………… Natural Light…………………………………………… Studio Light……………………………………………. Composition…………………………………………… Basic Color Study……………………………………… Negative Space………………………………………… Mind Set of New Photographer………………………… Conclusion…………………………………………………


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Introduction I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book, “How to Shoot Artistic Digital Photography For Beginner”. This book contains proven steps and strategies on how to start your photography journey. I have not covered too deep technical theories, instead I’ll cover more about the mindset and understanding the preparation of the photographer when you are in different situation to shoot. In my opinion, If you understand about the Art Element, then you will be able to implement any model or of the camera with professional and artistic photography skill. You can create very stunning image if you know about that element. Nowadays, you will notice that some people are using mobile phone which can create stunning images compared with some people using DSLR Camera. This is the reason those people are understanding the concept. In this book I will explain what is the important element which can create a good image. Thanks again for downloading this book, I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Exposure Triangle Everyone can snap shoot a piece of photograph, but if you want to become a professional photographer, you must to know what is Exposure Triangle. Exposure Triangle is the 3 main controller to create an image, which is; Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture. Any single image from the camera, you need to learn how each of these elements of exposure works together. It can affect the brightness from any adjustment in the different situation. Let’s start to talk about shutter speed.


Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is the controller of motion and lighting. When the shutter is open, it receives the light source from the subject into the camera and close the shutter then produce a photograph in your viewfinder. The faster shutter speed catches the subject you shoot without making it blurred and sharps when the subject is moving or freeze motion. The light source is received less when you using a faster shutter. The slow shutter speed creates more light comes in when the door is open and close slower. It creates the brightness of the subject and blur when the subject is move. How to determine the shutter speed is fast or slow? There is a button to show you the shutter speed number which is 1/100, 1/600, 1/1000 and above. Those are fast shutter speed. The higher shutter speed, the sharp photo

you can get, but the problem is the brightness will be low down of the photo. Because the shutter closes too fast and the light source is received too less. Fast shutter speed is suitable for freezing the flying or moving object like moving car, people moving, etc. The slow shutter speed is 1/20, 1/3, 1 sec, 2 sec and 30 sec until bulb. Those are slow shutter speed. The slow shutter speed is received long duration light source from the subject and it will produce the brighter photograph. Furthermore, if the object is moving it will be blurred.

As this photograph, I shot on this with slow shutter about 1/20 sec and it created motion blur when the Chinese opera actors is moving.

There is another motion you can create, just stand and focus the background and snap when car is passed by


Using Shutter Speed to light up the scenery Shutter Speed can be used for light up the scenery too, you just change your shutter speed to slow shutter. As the below I will show you three different types of shutter speed to create different result and I show you how I lighted up the scene.

Shutter Speed : 1/13 ISO : 100 Aperture : 10 I shot in my kitchen using 1/13 to shoot and there was very dark situation. I used 10 Aperture because I wanted to make all scene clearer and sharper. ISO is temporally not important for me as I was using tripod to shoot. So don’t worry about shaking problem. 


Shutter Speed : 1 sec ISO : 100 Aperture : 10 I change the shutter speed to 1 second and the image is a little bit bright.

Shutter Speed : 3.2 sec ISO : 100 Aperture : 10 This is the exact brightness of the image that I saw from my eye. You can make it brighter too, you just set the shutter speed to lower than 3.2 second.


What shutter speed is safe within an 80 mm lens so there is no shaking issue? A good rule of thumb is 1/ focal length. So 1/80 sec should be fast enough to avoid camera shake. The longer lens you use the faster of your shutter speed should be at least. If your shutter speed not fast enough, even you shoot a standing model also can be blurred, because your hand will shake too. Assume that my camera lens is 50mm. My camera setting is 1/80 shutter speed and the result is the mean head is clear and sharp. If my camera setting was 1/20, the result would be the blur’s head shaking. Panning

There is one way you can play with it using between slow and fast shutter speed to create object’s background moving. This is call Panning. Shutter Speed : 1/13

Aperture : 10

ISO : 100


Aperture Aperture is actually the lens and inside there is one whole can be bigger and smaller to control depth of field. Aperture also can control the light source come into the camera between small f-stop to big f-stop.

What is depth of field? The distance between the nearest and the furthest objects gives a focused image. It also can be blurred between the furthest and nearest too. The smaller number of the aperture like F/1.4 means smaller F-Stop of the aperture to shoot the object you want, would become very sharp and the object’s background would be more blurred. In the other means, the bigger number of the aperture like F/16 means big F-Stop of the aperture, it would be all sharp and there will be no depth of field at all in the photograph.

Do not get confused with the concept of aperture to create depth of field. Take it simple, bigger F-stop like f/16 can make it all clear in the photograph and smaller F-stop like 1.4 will give you blurred photograph when you shoot one object. If you shoot landscape, just set the F-stop to f/16, then you can shoot a photo with clear and sharp scenery. If you shoot portrait or product, just set the F-stop to f/ 1.4 and make sure to focus the subject carefully, do not move and shoot. Then you can get a clear and sharp subject with blur and clean background.




If you using canon camera, you can use AV mode to set perfect aperture to shoot. In other camera brand, it is called, A Mode.

You may try yourself. 1. Find an object like cup / flower / people / fruits anything 2. Shoot 2 pieces of photo which is focusing the two object as above

ISO ISO is a measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. It is very important for the image quality. ISO is also used to control shutter speed and aperture, it means ISO is a booster for slow shutter speed or increase the brightness of the photo when it is in the low light situation. ISO’s is basically starts from 100, 200, 300 and up to 3200, and some can go higher. ISO can produce noise to the image quality if the number of ISO is higher but the amount of the light to the image would be more. When you shoot outdoor, you have to remember whether you are in daylight or after sunset or night time. Different light source can decide whether you need to use balanced ISO or more. Even Indoor, sometime the light source is very low for the, if there is no movable subject, you can low down your Shutter Speed and Using 


Natural Light Lighting is the soul of photography. You have to train your sense to pay more attention on where is the light come from before you shoot. You have to be sensitive with the beauty of light so you can easily catch up the good shot. If you do not understand about lighting, no matter how great of your camera or how high end of your camera, you would not catch up a good image even the 500$ camera also can be better than a 2000$ of the camera. Now I will explain for you with the exposure triangle together Choosing the Time of Day for the Best Light Different country has different direction sun light comes from, as I came from Malaysia, I’d like to choose 6am morning to 8am and 5pm until 7pm evening. Because it can produce the direct light and warm light when I shoot landscape and portrait at outdoor. It can introduce the strong and solid highlight to the subject and the hard shadow. I do not like to choose 12pm or afternoon to shoot at outdoor as it would easily to have a cloudy whether present the grey skin tone and it produce the grey ambient light in the environment. If you shoot an hour after the sun rises or an hour before it sets (also called the golden hour), you’ll be surprised at how the color in your photos look more vibrant.

Front Light The sunlight is behind of the camera and shoot on the model. It create light and soft shadow. There is not much shadow as you see from the above, but the problem is it will very flat of this photo.


Back Light In this photograph, I chose to shot at 6:30pm, the sunset is going to end. The sunlight is going down and the light source is going to lower. I ask the model to stand in front and shoot. I want to create the strong Highlight on his body then it pops out from the background. This created a Back Light, It has strong highlight on his back but the shadow is very dark on middle side of his in front. - Aperture: F1.8 - Shutter Speed : 1/500 - ISO : 200 - 50mm Focal Length

The reason I have chosen Shutter speed 1/500 is because the sunset is going to end and the brightness is going to lower. If I lower down the shutter speed, then I’d have to worry about the photo would become blur if my camera is shaking. I wanted to create the depth of field and bokeh effect on his background, so I turned the aperture to F.18. Prevent my photograph’s brightness, I turn on the ISO to 200. I want to make sure my photograph is not too dark.

Side Light Above of this photograph, shows that the light source is come from left side, Side light is can be come from left side or right side, as long as the light is come from side view and opposite is create shadow. - Aperture: F2.8 - Shutter Speed : 1/500 - ISO : 100 - 50mm Focal Length


Studio Light When you create lighting on studio, make sure you have to understand these 3 things you have to cover. 1. Rim Light / Highlight 2. Main Light / Key light 3. Fill Light Main Light Main light is a one of the main source light or high intensity of all the light being use and decide where is the direction to the subject. It cannot be over expose or over brightness with highlight .It can be positioned to the side, at an angle above or below or straight on your subject depending on the desired result you are looking to achieve. You have to decide what the image mood you want to achieve is then you may decide what the main light position is. I will explain about mood in another chapter. Highlight Normally I use highlight to emphasis then shape of the object. It can pop out your object from the background.

Fill Light When you decide the main light, then you need to create a fill light to fill up the darkness side. I do not recommend to leave it if you want to create hard shadow, because in the dark shadow, you’ll also have details of object. I use fill light with very low lighting source to fill up. You also can use reflector to do bouncing light for fill light.

Composition I recommend for beginner to understand about the composition, at least you need to know how to bring out your image and lead the audience to see your photo. When you go to advance, then break the rule and follow your feeling. Composition is a guideline to design your photo and make it beautiful and strong persuasion. Rule of Third




Rule of Third is a two horizontal and two vertical line cross together and create nine square in an image. There is some point is lead your subject




Central There is always safety and beautiful shot for every beginner. I direct myself to create attention for audience. 


Repetition These repeated photographic elements will create a type of unity and structure to your photography. By finding a pattern in lines, shapes or colors you can easily add Repetition to your photographs that the human eye will easily follow.


Framing Framing is using one of the element in composition from the scene to create a stunning image. You might shoot through a doorway, pulled back curtains,

branches, fences, tunnels, or arches to highlight your subject. Leading Line There are some building lines or road lines or we call “natural line” to lead your eye into the photo


Basic of Color Study The reason why I wanted to share about color study in photography because, I hope you can easily understand the reason why your photo is not pops out compare with others photographs. It is not only the composition can be your photo interesting, color is also part of the composition. It is mixed and matched to make a photo great. I won’t share too deep for you, because it will confuse you. I am just give you some basic and useful ideas for basic photography.

RGB color & CMYK color RGB color is stands for Red, Green, and Blue. These three are created from the light source. RGB color is displayed image and color on screen like TV, Computer, Phone, etc. CMYK color is stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black). CMYK is used for printing, and for rendering colors in a physical environment.

Complementary colors

Complementary colors create difference between two colors opposite directly in the color wheel, it would produce contrast. But too high contrast between color subject and background might give an unsettled and messy impression.

This image is the sample contrast colors. Those are two color merge together can produce complementary color. Complementary color creates contrast. It is a

tool that photographers use to direct viewers' attention to their subject. There are two types: Tonal Contrast and Color Contrast Color contrast is used to achieve great compositions. Colors with opposite characteristics, like blue and yellow, contrast strongly when placed together. When two opposing colors are placed together, they complement and accentuate the qualities of the other color. Cold colors and warm colors almost always contrast, light colors contrast against dark ones and bold colors offset weak colors.

Tones are normally described as high, normal or low. A high tone image mainly includes white and black with few or no middle grey tones. A normal tone image will have elements that are white, some that are black and many middle tones of grey. A low tone image is the one with almost no highlights or shadows; all the tones are very similar one to the other. High tone images are harsh while low contrast images are soft.

Low Tone

Normal Tone

High Tone


Warm & Cold Color

Warm and Cool color is a two group of color is create two type of basic feeling. Warm Color like a fire and fire color element include as red, orange, yellow and light green. Example of this photo below, the color plate is green, yellow and orange. It is create warm color in the image.

This image of Tibetan kid’s wardrobe is create warm color.


On the above of the photographs, the landscape created a warm color as the domain color from the photograph is yellow and orange.


Cool Color Cool Color remind us of snow, water, rain, ice, sea, night time. The color group is blue, purple, dark green, dark purple, dark blue. Cool color creates comfortable and steady feeling.

This night scape is create comfortable feeling. The domain color is cool color which is dark blue and a few of yellow color for lighting. The important is the domain color brings out what is the feeling of this photograph.This photo also brings cool color feeling, behind of the people, there is mist, smoke, blue sky.


There is some photo is turning from warm to cool color like this photo above, it is late sunset. The late sunset creates cool domain color with minor warm color in the middle.

It also can turn color tone from cool to warm as this above photograph. This photo is turning to early morning and the sun just rising up but the street lights are still on. When I took this photo, it creates warm and cool color.


Negative Space The negative space sounds bad. Well negative space is not a bad thing, it allows you to make the photo feel comfortable. Negative space also can be describe the breathing space or empty space and using negative space to support the subject pops out. The photographer in studio, negative space can be create because the background and subject can be setting but for landscape photographer, the background and subject is all around naturally. What landscape photographer can do is using the lens and the eye to find the breathing space and the subject he want to bring out too.

What does it mean breath feeling of your image? It means that the image inside has covered many things, therefore your subject could not catch by the audience and they won’t understand what you want to present about if you intend to present for public , I understand that art is very subjective and it is not right or wrong. I will show you the difference between negative space and non-negative space.

The Mindset of the Photographer Do not think too much to shoot in the beginner stage In the beginning, sometime we will too focus on the correction of exposure triangle or composition. Don’t think too much, just press and shoot whatever you feel good. There is no right before you know that is wrong. Think about composition + color + lighting + object before you shoot When you feel reliable with your camera, and get comfortable to handle exposure triangle and make sure no shaking then you will go to next stage. You may start to combine what you learning. Before you shoot, you may have the awareness about Art Sense. Its mean that you have to pay attention on composition, color, lighting and the object you want to shoot , think about those things is it you feel comfortable? It may help you go to next level.

You can plan to design your style & composition before you shoot After you understand about composition, lighting, color, you can design your own style. You can start on Portrait, Food or Product Photography, because there is able to control the surrounding if you shoot in the studio. Those who are shoot in Landscape photography, there is cannot be control of the lighting. Do not be control by all Camera Gear, limited yourself in the lens and gear when you are in the beginner stage I have a lot friends who are addicted and rely on the lens, sometimes I think that you can adjust your angle then you may get a nice shot but they think they can’t get the shot because of they don’t have the lens. There is right , most of them we need to have a good lens to get a beautiful shot but try your best and fully utilize on one lens first , then you buy a another lenses. I remember that when I was in college and I produce a short film with my classmate for the assignment, that time we do not have budget to buy a studio light. Then I observe that there is one Ikea table light can be used for the shooting and I bought a manila card stick with silver warp paper, finally we made it.


Conclusion As you can see, you’ve already learned about Exposure Triangle and how to implement in your every single shot. You can understand that, Composition, Lighting, Color is important for the photography. If you only study setting and camera angle theory, you cannot understand how to make a photo more stunning. Photography is very fun, it can train your observation around you. You will become more sensitive in every beautiful moments. You will be very appreciate that the world. You can check out my Instagram : @benlim_lifestyle