Matthew Celeste of Blueflash Photography shared his skills during a “Photography Fundamentals” class at the Central Library in Cranston last Tuesday night.

“I’ve geared this class towards the basics so that you understand what happens when you press the shutter button,” he said. “There are so many questions so often from people who are stuck in the auto mode and not using their cameras to the fullest potential. All of the things you’ll learn tonight apply to any type of camera.”

Celeste provided the class with a page of notes, which gave an overview of what he’d be teaching throughout the almost two-hour class period. The topics covered included shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, resolution, focal length, flash, dynamic range and file formats.

He noted that shutter speed, aperture and ISO are three components that work together, and he spoke about them in depth. He explained how the opening and closing of lenses for shutter speed lets more or less light into a picture, while the aperture controls the size of the lens opening and the ISO controls the sensitivity of the sensor to the light.

He covered what to do in certain lighting situations, including low light, and talked about the different types of lighting such as natural versus incandescent and florescent, stating that natural light is always best.

“Your brain will often start to adapt and neutralize the types of light,” he said. “Controlling lighting manually is often best and gives more consistent results, whereas keeping your camera on auto will give very inconsistent results because your camera is always looking for the neutral lighting. You also always want to try to have one color light source in a picture, so if you’re taking pictures in the daylight, turn the other lights off and keep the window lighting, as it’s a better quality light. The auto pop-up flash is probably the worst thing.”

Celeste had several slides to show throughout his presentation, highlighting his own work. The slides exemplified different types of lighting and settings, and showing more technical diagrams to go along with his topics.

He also explained the differences between various types of photo resolutions and the differences between DPI and PPI, and helped the class participants understand what’s required when printing and enlarging photos.

Celeste provided time during his presentation for questions and answers specific to the needs of the class participants and offered a survey at the close, in order to assess the more specific needs and desires of the participants for future class topics.

For more information about Celeste and his team of photographers at Blueflash Photography, visit blueflash

photography.com.