Photography is the art, craft, and discipline of taking beautiful stills by exposing light, either by means of an optical lens, by the touch of an electronic sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material like photographic film. While the technology has come a long way over the years in terms of color correction, image stabilization, and exposure, there are still many things that amateur photographers can do wrong with their photography that will greatly reduce the quality of the image taken. One of these things is lighting. Just like all forms of art, photography is affected by lighting. This doesn’t mean the kind of light you should avoid or have completely removed from your scene, but rather how you correct it so that it enhances the image.
One common problem among amateurs in terms of their photography is improper lighting. The aperture, for example, can greatly affect the quality of the image taken and, thus, one of the most important things that beginners need to know about their photography is about lighting. One common mistake when it comes to lighting is trying to expose your camera lens at a fast shutter speed. This is, in fact, very bad photography because your camera lens will get damaged if left in such a position. To understand why this is so important in photography, it is best to understand why there are shutter speeds in general and why using a slow shutter speed in general is bad, too.
Many photographers, especially beginner photographers, don’t realize it, but the biggest reason why amateur photographs turn out bad is not because the photographer is bad, but rather because the photographer wasn’t paying attention to lighting at all. With a fast shutter speed, the photographer is likely to be putting the shutter button on for a very long time, which means that the light that reaches the camera isn’t evenly exposed. Because the photographer is concentrating on the image itself, instead of focusing on the lighting, the result can be photos with overly dark or overly bright areas. Even worse, some photographers will actually leave the aperture setting on automatic, which means that the camera automatically opens and closes the aperture at a wide open position. The result is that these types of photographs tend to have very soft images that the photographer had no control over whatsoever.