So let's talk equipment. Before we get into the course, we just need to clear up a few things. Now, to get the most out, of course, you can invest in a budget DSLR budget prime lens, a budget 200 millimeter zoom, as we'll talk about that in a moment. But to be honest, you don't need lots of equipment. We're not going to be dealing with complicated exposure techniques. What we're going to be doing here is helping you to learn to see the light in your photography and use the light.

So pretty much any camera that will take a decent image, even an iPhone or a smartphone is sufficient to get you through this course. Now if we are going to be talking about going out and doing some photography, I'm a commercial photographer. So I have lots of equipment. But for something like what we're doing here an entry level DSLR now this is an old Canon 70. This is a Semi Pro camera, but they're quite cheap nowadays. If you want to pick one up secondhand, it's not the greatest sensor in the world.

That means it doesn't produce the best quality images. But it's a good solid camera, any sort of budget camera will do. Now when it comes to taking your photos, first of all you have to choose a camera body. Then you have to choose your lenses. I'm going to keep it really simple. Now you can go and get a prime lens and that's a lens with a fixed focal length.

And if you're going to do that and you want to budget prime lens look between the 50 millimeter and the 85 millimeter Mark when you're buying a lens. The 85 millimeter will not distort the face at all. So it's a matte most natural looking lens when it comes to To bring in the features across of an individual so a 85 millimeter lens is about spot on 50 millimeter was slightly wide and go below that 230 millimeter 35 millimeter and you can start stretching the face making the nose big when you get close, but my favorite absolute favorite shooting lamp and my favorite lens to use for non commercial stuff, so I'm talking about my own personal stuff here when I'm doing commercial stuff, I use a five D Mark free. I've got siggy 70 202.8 lens. Don't worry about if you don't understand it's not that important.

It's just in case you're a photographer and you want to know what I'm using normally. So I've got 70 on all I've got on this is a Canon 18 to 200 millimeter zoom lens. Now when I zoom this out to 200 it will only go to F 5.6 but any 200 millimeter here's a little tip for any 200 millimeter lens will really help you when it comes to portraits because what it's gonna do is it's gonna compress the background. So it's gonna make the subject stand out from the background. that's easiest way to understand I don't want to get too technical right now, but taking portraits with a 200 millimeter where you've got the room to step back a bit is absolutely phenomenal. Now when you indoors you don't always have that and you might need to come down to 85 or 135 but this is why I like this little lens this the Canon 18 200 millimeter lens.

It's not the sharpest lens in the thing a lot of camera purists say these lenses are absolute waste of time. But if you're learning photography, something like this is absolutely fine. In fact, if you're shooting on the canon, have a look at the 55 to 50 millimeter their budget lens that and the 50 millimeter prime lens and you've really got everything you need to get going with a DSLR camera but if you want to do DSLR photography so 55 to 50 is a great little lamps rack out to 200 that means just pull it out so it goes to 200 millimeters, rack it up to tournament layers, and you've got a great portrait kit that you can use in natural light. Now obviously with the lower end and the older equipment is an older camera now this has been replaced. When you're shooting available light, the more money you spend on your camera, and the better quality lens you have or the faster the lens the more light you can use.

So when I use this, I'm not getting the best Christmas image, but I'm getting my shot. And the most important thing a lot of time is to get the image and there's a practice within photography called pixel peeking where everyone taking little like magnifying glasses and checking stuff that's paid commercial work understand that but if it's just personal for you, and it's just enjoyment, it's a hobbyist art for you. summit. This is going to be absolutely And you're going to see some photographs in this, those taken on just a little compact camera so that you can see that actually, it's more about the light than the equipment. Don't get me wrong, good equipment helps. But the first thing you need to learn is how to see and control light.

Once you can do that, then you can worry about whether you want to upgrade your equipment and start thinking about an equipment path. Like I said, I'm not gonna worry too much in this course about how to take a correct exposure. It's all about seeing the light. I'm not going to go into all complex different lighting patterns. I will do that in a future course for you. In this course, we just want to get you out get you taking pictures and get you seeing the light and this is the thing.

This is what the good photographers can do. They can see light. The good photographers are not the ones that know all the technical specs of their camera and they know which lens to use, in which situations. The really good photographers are the ones that can see the light in your eyes. It's good to know your equipment. But as a as a professional commercial photographer, I could give an amateur this camera and I could take an iPhone, and I can guarantee I'll take a better image with the iPhone than they will with this because I know how to see the light.

And that's what I want to teach you as well.