The 10 Commandments in Photography

by Gezelle Rivera
1. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's camera. Thou shall improve thy photography skills and match or exceed the performance of the camera before thinking of buying a new one. Though shall take good care of thy camera.
2. Thou shall not take the camera manual for granted.
3. Thou shall master the exposure triangle and respect the histogram.
4. Thou shall learn and follow good composition techniques but have the guts to break them once in a while.
5. Thou shall learn how to critique thy own work, be willing to have thy work critiqued by others and discover and develop thy own style in time. Thou shall avoid copying the work of others.
6. Thou shall learn how to lock the exposure, adjust the metering mode, the white balance, aperture, ISO and shutter speed of thy own camera by heart.
7. Thou shall not ignore the tripod, the various filters, the built-in flash, the off-camera flash, the reflectors and the diffusers and use them when necessary. Thou shall not rely on image processing software as much as possible.
8. Thou shall learn how to “salvage” a photo when the seventh commandment has been broken, using any chosen image processing software. Thou shall shoot in RAW on difficult lighting situations. Thou shall also learn how to enhance a photo (crop a photo, straighten a photo, adjust the contrast and brightness, sharpen a photo) and convert a photo to B&W.
9. Thou shall learn how to build a portfolio and learn how to protect thyself with copyrights.
10. Thou shall always charge the batteries prior to a shoot and bring enough CF/SD cards during the shoot. Thou shall bring the camera, the right lenses and thyself to the shoot. Thou shall have fun while shooting :)