Many of us use our cellphones for all of our photography, which means we may have little understanding of how the lens opening, available light, focus and depth of field affect results.
Photoskop.com was created as a visual and interactive website to learn about photography on traditional cameras. It includes a library of lessons with an easy-to-use interactive camera player, as well as explanations, visual markers and directives to guide photographers.
Tutorials cover aperture, shutter speed, exposure, depth of field, focal length, white balance and more. Each lesson includes a brief explanation of the topic with instructions to adjust controls and experiment with different settings. Most lessons conclude with an exercise in which you are asked to produce a certain effect and then click the “shoot” button. If you are not correct, you are asked to try again with a suggestion of what needs to be adjusted. You are also told what equipment (for example, camera, lens, tripod) was used to take the picture with which you are experimenting.
The site also has a blog with interesting posts; a feedback page where you can relay your opinion of the lessons; and a call-out page to photographers, designers and writers to contribute to the website. One drawback: the most recent blog posting was from March, so it is uncertain if the site is still active and adding new content.
Next week, we’ll tell you how to apply some of these lessons to your iPhone camera.
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