Overcoming Cameraphobia
2. Relearning the SLR Basics
It seemed kind of silly for me to take a beginning photography class when I live with a talented photographer. Moreover, I really didn’t need to start from scratch since I had a bit of SLR experience. I probably would have been fine with a quick flip through a for Dummies
book, or even scanning a website like All Things Photography’s digital SLR overview. I decided to just
have my partner walk through the basics with me to see if I could get
back up to speed.But, I recalled that there were limits to how slow I could go and still get a steady shot hand held. How slow? My partner reminded me to keep the shutter speed around 1 over the lens focal length in mm- i.e. 1/200 of a second for a 200 mm lens. So with a zoom lens, I needed to think of how far I was zoomed as well as the aperture and shutter speed. There were also limits of how fast the shutter could go if I went too far down on the f-stop. On a bright sunny day, I might accidentally overexpose trying to get a low depth of field.
Then he reminded me that I was no longer tied to a single film speed or ISO like you are for a roll of film. If I was exceeding the camera’s shutter speed, I could just change the ISO as if I put in a slower film. And on the other end, if I couldn’t get a fast enough exposure, I could just up the ISO. Just like with film, though, increasing the ISO increases graininess, so pushing too far can seriously impact quality.
3. Handling the dSLR
I was pleased that I got through most of that just by talking it out. My partner had helped me in some areas, but mostly I had remembered more than I realized. Next he went through showing me how to actually make all of these changes on the digital. He had learned to use the camera from the manual, and from Peter iNova’s excellent ebook but I got to cheat. He showed me where to set the Aperture Priority and how to change the ISO, which on the Nikon digital were both very similar to using the FG. He also showed me how to use the wheel to change f-stop, which becomes intuitive pretty fast. I was quite embarrassed to also learn all these years later that the f-stop and shutter speed meters were visible through the viewfinder just as with my old FG, albeit in a digitized form.As we were slowly stepping through these features, I was taking note of other things that were more like my digital p&s. I was familiar with using memory cards, and checking battery and storage indicators. I was familiar with the option to set the image quality. It has a built in flash unit, though it’s not quite as automatic. You have the LCD to review the image after taking the shot, but he also showed me how to look at the exposure curve to see whether I was under or overexposing.
As we sat at the kitchen table and he showed me the settings, I once again encountered the awkwardness of holding the thing. The digital was much heavier than the FG, let alone the digital point and shoots, so I wanted to support it with two hands but it had an LCD and buttons all over the place. He tried to direct me and I got better, but then I realized I just needed to watch him use it to see what worked. Basically, I can just turn my left hand palm up and rest the body there, leaving my hand is in a good position for adjusting the zoom or focusing from under the lens as well. That probably sounds obvious, but it was an unexpected shift from the sort of “steering wheel” position I had used with the FG.
I just mentioned focusing for the first time. Although the FG was fully manual and I once knew how to focus, the p&s cameras had gotten me quite out of the habit. I am comfortable enough with using the autofocus, but was overwhelmed by trying to manually focus a proper lens. Especially now that I wear glasses, I struggle to use the focusing bands through the viewfinder. So for our next attempt at a two camera outing, I decided to stick to using autofocus. Once I got used to holding the camera and using the digital navigation, then I could add manual focus back in. My partner reassured me that the autofocus would do what I wanted at least 90% of the time anyway. He usually only needs to focus manually when he wants a very specific macro or low depth of field shot.
This article was written on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 and is filed under Mastering Skills.
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on May 14, 2008 at 11:53 pm mossygirl wrote:
Wonderful article–baby steps are the key. Pick one thing and begin learning it until it’s pretty solid and then pick the next thing. I have to keep reminding myself because I have the same experience of being overwhelmed, and learning SLR from the very beginning. Baby steps and consistency. Thank you for reminding me I am not alone, and that success is but practice away! It need not be intimidating.