Old-School Principles Applied to Modern Digital Photography
Confused by Digital Cameras? Don’t Be!
Like many in the Baby Boom, I grew up in a house full of cameras. The post-war prosperity meant that most families could afford to chronicle their own lives. The cameras ranged from antique Kodak Brownies to SLR box cameras and gradually to Instamatics and Polaroids.
When I started art school in 1971, Photo 101 included darkroom developing and printing. My “photo editing software” was a dodging stick – a thin rod with variously sized and shaped cardboard forms on the end, held manually between the projector and photo paper to deny light to chosen areas of the print as I counted off seconds. Since I was too broke to afford an upscale SLR, I compensated for my cheap camera’s shortcomings with creative darkroom technique. Today, we’d say most of my work was “Photoshopped.” However, I soon learned that if I planned the shot properly, I needed less darkroom trickery to get the finished piece I wanted. That planning paid off years later, when I finally did have better hardware.
From 2004 to 2007, I taught a series of photography courses at the Ed Tech Training Center in Marion, Kentucky, and shared my approaches to planning each shot, and developing the artistic vision. I was still using the anachronism “film speed,” and would be told each time by the students with digital cameras that they did not have film! What they couldn’t grasp is that they still had film speed settings (ISO) on their cameras.
The manuals I had created for those courses formed a solid instructional core, and were expanded into a full book. Professionals in several states told me they’ve learned from my lessons. I hope you find this work of value to you as well.
Getting Great Digital Photos
In 2007, a student
declared, “I don’t need to know all this technical stuff, I just want to
know what all these numbers on my lens mean.”
I laughed and told her
that WAS all the technical stuff; understand those numbers, and you know more
than enough to use the tool.
Then I wondered how
many other people buy or receive high-end cameras, and feel just as confused.
This book is for them
How many times have
you taken a photo and been excited to think that you’ve taken the most amazing
shot in the world, only to discover that once you have seen the picture on your
computer or in print, that everything is so dark that you can’t tell who is
who? Or you find that all you can make
out is a line of rather fuzzy things that could be people, or trees, or a piece
of abstract art?
So what went wrong?
Modern cameras are
getting smarter and smarter. They are able to do fantastic things when in
automatic mode to help you and I get better pictures.
But sometimes putting
the camera on automatic isn’t enough, and we need to use and change some of the
controls and settings in the camera’s help menus to get a better picture.
How does that make you
feel? Are you confident changing the
settings on your camera, or does the thought of changing anything fill you with
terror because you’ve never even looked in the manual, never mind taken the
camera off automatic and looked inside a menu?
So what is holding
you back? Is it simply a lack of
knowledge? Are you completely in the
dark when it comes to your digital compact camera, can’t tell your ISO from
your AF?
You’re not alone. Many people struggle to make sense of the
principles involved in photography and the common controls used by all cameras,
whether you use a compact camera or digital SLR.
Does that sound like
you? Have you ever caught yourself asking something like:
·
How can I capture better holiday
memories?
·
Why can I not get a good picture of the
children?
·
How can I start taking better pictures?
·
How do I get a better understanding of
the way my compact camera works when no-one seems to want to explain it in a
simple, straight forward way?
·
How do I get a solid foundation of
photographic knowledge, one that is explained in simple layman’s terms that can
be understood by young and mature alike?
·
How can I get more creative with the
pictures I take?
Basic principles
aren’t difficult to understand IF they are explained simply and in a way that
uses everyday language. But when you
flick through many of the camera manuals, they can seem to be written in a
foreign language.
Well now, I have a
solution for you!
In the following 27 lessons, we’ll take a look
at some of the basic common controls found on most cameras, whether compact or
DSLR (digital single lens reflex). You will start to get an understanding of
what each of these controls does, how they work, any disadvantages or draw
backs to them and how to start getting better results from each control. They
may look different one each camera model, but they are all the same in
principle.
Using this understanding, you will be able to
use each control to improve the quality of the pictures you take, and get
yourself ready to move on to more complex techniques and camera controls.
What’s even more exciting is that everything
will be explained in a straight forward, easy to understand way. If any photographic term or jargon is used,
I’ll be sure there is a clear, concise and understandable explanation of what
it is.
– Brian Wilkes
