That was teh awesum.
This class was almost devoid as could be of anything about how to take good pictures. That is apparently a different class, that I will be assuredly taking as well.
This class was 100% devoted to:
What the buttons on your camera do.
How to make them do something different, if you want to.
Why this matters.
A lot of stuff I understood, but didn’t understand how much freedom I had to massage it.
A lot of stuff I didn’t understand, and now that I do, I understand why some pictures were horrible.
These are the basic details of what was covered. I’m not going to further display my ignorance by saying which things were old news to me, and which ones were new news.
Like a film camera, the aperture on a dslr is adjustable. Instead of a ring around the lens, it’s adjusted by a thumbwheel on the back of the camera, if the camera is in aperture priority mode. The aperture is displayed on the back of the camera and in the viewfinder.
Like a film camera, the shutter speed on a dslr is adjustable- instead of a dial on the camera, it’s a thumbwheel on the back. On my dslr, switching between aperture mode and shutter mode is what makes the thumbwheel active.
In manual mode you adjust the speed to what you want and then adjust the aperture till the “Needle” (Or scale) in the viewfinder matches up. (or reads zero, neither positive nor negative)
The BIG takeaway for me on this, was yes, it is still possible to easily bracket exposure. That was very nice news. I like doing that, even more so with the low cost of taking multiple pictures.
I have had several p&s cameras, mostly crappy ones, that had almost no adjustment. The range of adjustment on the DSLR’s is almost intimidating, it is so extensive, and for that reason, I didn’t mess with it. The instructor(s)cleared up the process and gave meaningful reccomendations that just in testing during class I was able to figure out and make good sense of. First, resolution.
My camera has five settings; basic, normal, fine, raw, and raw+f. The camera came from Nikon set to “Norm” which was why enlarged images became grainy.
The next setting is “Size” and the Nikon came set to “Medium”. Large made the images immediately better.
The next is “White balance”. I remember carrying a greycard with me everywhere. A grey card is a piece of cardboard with a very specific color gray on one side. You used to take a picture of a greycard, using the light you were going to be photographing with, and then the lab would balance their process so the picture of the greycard matched the actual greycard, and they could make sure the prints had the correct color balance despite the color temperature of the ambient light. This is white balance, basically. DSLR’s have the ability to adjust this in the camera itself, and compensate for incandescent lighting, fluorescent lighting, arc light, and any number of lighting conditions.
This is one place where the Instructors said “Auto” is the best setting to use 90% of the time. Also, since the camera catches that data and changes it via software, it’s just as easy to keep it in it’s auto format and make changes on a computer later.
One really really useful bit of information is speed. On a film camera, you pick the film speed that you think will be most suitable for your circumstances, and put that in the camera.
if you do not choose wisely, the film may be wasted, or you won’t take the best pictures you can take. Digital allows you to do something that once was only possible with cameras that had removable backs; you can change ISO settings between prints. And it isn’t a big damned deal to do so, either; if you have it set to ISO 100 and it’s too dark to get a good shutter speed you can simply up the film speed. Obviously increasing the film speed (OK, “Virtual” film speed) changes the quality of the picture, but after you take enough pictures you’ll be aware of the causal relationship.
Now for a couple of really good caveats they gave us.
1: Batteries recharge fast and last a long time. You probably don’t need four. And get good batteries, bargain batteries have a tendency to fail catastrophically enough to damage the camera.
2: GOOD MEMORY. If you plan to do any video then get at least a speed class ten SD card. This also means faster write speed and less time between shutter clicks. Cheap cards work, good cards work better.
3: Format the card in the camera. FORMAT THE CARD IN THE CAMERA. Someday your computer’s OS may be incompatible with your camera’s OS. And a card formatted in your computer might not work in the camera. Set aside sdcards for the camera, format them in the camera, and KEEP THEM WITH THAT CAMERA.
4: Don’t buy the biggest card you can afford and only have one. Get several. Smaller cards are better than bigger, and here’s why:
5: Move the photos off the card immediately, and then reformat the card. DO NOT use your computer’s browser to delete files. And a larger SD card makes it harder to delete all the files you want deleted. Think of the cards as film and use them new each time.
of course there was all the typical advice; get filters for every lens, always use a lens shade, consider a good flash rather than the one on the camera, etc.
More as I remember. Now I just need to digest all this shit.
Oh, and I wasn’t that guy, but I did sit next to him.(and he was a her) And there were about four people with Nikon d3100/d3200 cameras, and a LOT of people with really high end cameras.
Og, now you know why I utterly lust after the Nikon Df, digital SLR.
It looks like, and the controls operate much like, a film-type Nikon FM. Shutter speed dial? Pretty much same as the film camera. Aperature control? Ditto. ISO? Lift the shutter speed dial, turn till the right ISO shows in the window. Just like film.
Plus, it’s dead sexy, silver-metal color and black leatherette. Read the tech specs and reviews on it. I think it’s pretty much the best of both worlds.
Not. Cheap.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/df.htm
Makes me quite sad that I let all my Nikkor lenses go, along with the F2-a I’d sold back in ’02.
If I have a good year of sales in ’15, I’ll buy a Df before I buy any new artillery.
Gear addiction. Can’t quit any time I want, I’m having too much fun!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Arghh…. correcting myself. The ISO dial is where the film rewind would be on a film unit.
I wasn’t wrong, I just mis-remembered! /hillarycampaign
*barf*
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
I was a Minolta guy during the film SLR days, then went through a Minolta digital (P&S) an Olympus E10 (fixed lens prosumer) and finally Canon DSLRs – on my second, a T3i. I’ve built up a small handful of lenses for it and a system around it. I honestly would honestly rather give up body parts than that camera.
But that Nikon, with all the controls like the film camera is mighty tempting.
My DSLR allows me to adjust both shutter speed and aperture, in full manual mode, but it’s more awkward than when I used to do it with the SLR stuck on my face. I tend to use it in Aperture priority and adjust ISO fairly often. It’s surprisingly good to me compared to old film. It’s 1600 is probably like the old 400 speed film. I actually have not spent a single exposure (out of a couple of thousand) in most of the preset modes it has.
But like Jim said yesterday (in fewer words) composition is almost everything. Composition is the second most important thing there is. The most important is light and controlling it. An exercise when I was learning was to photograph a handful of white solids on a white background. Without careful control of the lighting, you get nothing. That will break you of on-camera flash.
All of the principles of good film photography apply to digital photography. All.
But if there’s one piece of advice worth repeating it’s to RTFM and keep the manual with you if you travel with that camera.
sigreybeard.
You’re entirely right. Light absolutely is the most important, but with the degree of automation in today’s cameras, it tends to be self-managing for 90%+ of exposures. Hence, my emphasis on composition as the key to becoming more than a mere “snapshooter”.
That said, here’s the easiest way I’ve yet found to teach the light-triangle.
Presume if you will, that light is a liquid, and that it will take “one gallon” of said light, to properly expose the frame.
The ISO, or film speed, determines just how sensitive the sensor will be. A higher number is more
sensitive, converse with the lower.
A high ISO number is as a sponge, and soaks up light quickly. A low ISO is as a sandstone. It’ll eventually take in the “gallon”, but it takes more time to so so.
Doubling the number, from ISO-400 to ISO-800, makes the sensor exactly twice as sensitive. Lowering it from 400 to 200 makes it only half as sensitive. The higher the number, the lower the resolution, and vice versa.
The interplay between shutter speeds and apertures, is exactly that of a funnel, with a variable spout diameter.
If you’re going to pour our mythical “gallon” of light through a wide-open aperture, it will go through in one large gush, and take almost no time at all in the doing. So, a fast “shutter” speed.
Conversely, if you take that same “gallon” of light, and pour it through a tightly constricted funnel, it’s going to take quite a bit more time to get the same “gallon” onto the sensor. So, a slower “shutter” speed.
And, every full setting of the aperture, either allows twice as much, or half as much light through the spigot, as does the setting next to it.
Same with shutter speeds. Every marked speed allows half or twice the light.
Halves and Doubles. This applies to the sensor, the aperture and the shutter.
You’re always working to get the same “gallon” of light, though. What you’re adjusting for is how “spongy” or “solid” the sensor will be, and you’re adjusting the “funnel” to flow quickly or slowly, depending on factors relating to the compositional results desired.
The effects of aperture on Depth of Field are another lesson, but tie directly to the above information.
I’ve tried to keep this to the proper exposure of the film/sensor ONLY, and not to Zone System issues of exposure for maximum detail in both shadow and highlight.
To that Zone System issue…. at a certain point in one’s photographic journey, a proper, hand held Spot Meter becomes an absolute must, no matter how good the multi-sensor in your camera might prove to be.
Most of us never move into that realm though. I learned it, practiced it, and benefit from the knowledge thereof. But unless I dive back into Medium Format work, I’ll eschew the Spot Meter, and just work on approximations within the scope of my knowledge and experience.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
The BIG takeaway for me on this, was yes, it is still possible to easily bracket exposure.
Most if not all DSLRs can be set up to automatically bracket, too.
(I find this less necessary, since you get live preview and review, and because modern exposure systems are – in all but very challenging conditions – very good.)
Og, your tips #1 through #5. Printed, and stored “ready to hand” on the bookshelf.
I’ll be memorizing those as a motivator to earn my way to that Nikon Df. Egads, then the flash, the lenses, the wireless, a small variety of tripods, gear-bag….
*ssshhhiiivvvverrrrrr*
It’s like mainlining a gear geek hit, ain’t it?
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Oh… That brings back memories… And bracketing the exposure can turn an average picture into a great one!