Beginner's Guide to Photography Part 7 - Assembling an Image

Article by Mike Browne from PhotographyCourses.Biz


Hello again and welcome to the final part of this series where we’re going to use everything we’ve already learned, put it all together and create this image.



OK – maybe not this exact image because you won’t have access to this car or this particular country lane, but by the end of this beginner’s guide you’ll be in a position to go out and shoot your own version of it.

If you haven’t seen the first six articles in this series and don’t know what on earth I’m on about, go get yourself a mug (or glass) of your favourite ‘sitting comfortably’ drink and let’s have a re-cap:

• Beginner's Guide 1 - Why you need Shutter Speeds and Apertures for more than just exposure.
• Beginner's Guide 2 - Manual Exposure made Easy.
• Beginner's Guide 3 - Get creative with Apertures to control Depth of Field.
• Beginner's Guide 4 - Get creative with Shutter Speed to freeze or blur motion.
• Beginner's Guide 5 - Using ISO to get the shutter Speed or Aperture you need.
• Beginner's Guide 6 - Make an image look the way you want by understanding Focal Length.

These are some fundamentals of photography which you can assemble one at a time like bricks to build not only your own ‘Fast Car’ image - but any other image too.

And I do mean assemble! In all our photography videos, courses and one-to-one tuition I'm always telling photographers to slow down and think each step through one at a time by asking themselves questions like...

1. How should I compose this so it looks the way I want it to?
2. Which focal length should I use to achieve that?
3. Do I want front to back sharpness - or a shallow depth of field?
4. If movement’s involved – which shutter speed do I need to freeze or blur it?
5. Do I need to adjust my ISO speed to enable me to have the shutter speed / aperture combination needed for this shot, in this light?

Asking yourself questions like these naturally leads you to set up your camera in such a way that you achieve whatever it is you have in your head and make it real.

So bearing all this in mind it’s time for the ‘main feature presentation’ as they say in movie land. Let’s go through how I shot the image at the top and I’ll explain how I’m assembling it - one ‘brick’ at a time!



Please note that when I did this it was an overcast evening not a bright sunny day so light levels were quite low. This meant I could use a slow shutter speed without needing a neutral density filter to cut down the light. If you try this technique in sunshine you probably won’t be able to get that all important slow shutter without over-exposing the shot.

I hope this made sense and you’re feeling inspired to get out there and give it a go. I’d love to know how you get on and see your images so please post them on our Facebook page and come say ‘Hello’ to everyone.

Also, if there are any specific topics you'd like covering or questions you want answering head over to ePHOTOzine's forum and post your suggestions.

Hope to see you soon.

Mike.