Enrico Marega Interactive photography course
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From technique to style

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance aren’t just for taking a correct photo: they’re the levers you use to decide what the viewer feels. In this last lesson the same settings you’ve met in the course become choices of style.

1Simulator

Isolating the subject

Open up the aperture and the festive lights turn into a watercolour of light: only the face remains. Stop down and the street goes back to telling you where I am.

2Simulator

Freezing the stride

Auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed: you choose the speed, the camera raises the ISO by itself. Watch for the moment people stop being trails.

3Simulator

Emptying the square

Lengthen the exposure, with an ND filter and a tripod: anyone walking disappears and only what stands still remains. I stay where I am.

4Simulator

Warming the sunset

White balance isn’t only for correcting: by raising the kelvin value the sunset becomes warmer, all the way to red.

5Simulator

Choosing the crop

The same street, five different photographs. Choose a crop or drag the frame: what you leave out matters as much as what you keep in.

6Simulator

Underexposing for atmosphere

Lower the exposure: the shadows close up and only the blade of light remains. It’s the technique of street photography in hard light.

Tips for the final shot

  1. Start from the intention, not the settings. Before you raise the camera, ask yourself what the viewer should feel: intimacy, movement, silence, warmth, drama. Then choose the dial that gets you there.

  2. Choose the place and the light, then wait. A blade of sunlight, a square, a street running into the distance: set up the frame and let people walk into the scene.

  3. Push just one variable per photo. Either the blur, with aperture priority, or the motion, with shutter priority, or the light, with compensation. Leave the rest to the automatic settings.

  4. On the street, set everything up beforehand. f/8, zone focusing at the hyperfocal distance and Auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/500: when something happens, all you have to do is shoot.

  5. In hard light, expose for the highlights. Compensation from −1 to −2, or spot metering on the lit area: the shadows fall into black and the scene becomes graphic.

  6. Decide the colour, don’t just accept it. Manual white balance to warm or cool the atmosphere, or black and white to keep only light and geometry.

  7. Compose in the final format from the start. If the photo will be square or 4:5, set that format in the camera and compose for it, instead of cropping later as a fallback.

Key points

  • Every setting has a technical effect and an expressive one: the aperture decides how much context, the shutter speed how the motion flows, white balance the temperature of the scene.
  • Underexposing isn’t a mistake if it’s a choice: the light meter measures the light, not the intention.
  • The crop is the last creative decision: what you leave out matters as much as what you keep in.

Try it yourself

Choose just one of the six effects and build a photo walk around it. For example: find a blade of light, wait for someone to step into it, compensate by −1.7 and shoot in black and white. A single idea, taken all the way.

Post the result and tag me @enrico.marega, or send it to me by DM: I’d love to see how you tackled it.

Quick check

You want only the face to remain and the background to become soft light. What do you choose?
You want a crowded square to look deserted. What do you need?
A person walks through a blade of sunlight in a shaded street. How do you make the photo more dramatic?