It's an interesting hobby, I must accept. Surprisingly, never quite grabbed my attention a few years back, as much as it has now. Photography, and to be specific, digital photography has become much cheaper than it used to be, still owning a digital SLR comes at quite a price. I guess having a little more cash in my pockets compared to a few years back, I now have the freedom to indulge in this creative art or perhaps get to be a little extravagant. Non-digital photography is still expensive and arduous, what with all the roll of films and hassles of printing, although I gather that it still gives better results, if you know what your are doing.
The lines of shiny DSLRs in the local store, did attract me over several occasions, what with their big zoom lenses, sophisticated looking buttons, a contraption that looked far rugged to be the creator of beautiful art. And yet, all my engineering intuitions forewarned me of the lack of any elementary knowledge I had about this device and the art associated with it ( this of course excludes, the usual point and shoot pictures we take).
At first, more than the art, the science of the device (DSLR Camera) attracted me towards it. And most probably, that would remain to be the reason that I might never become an artistic photographer, but probably become, a technical one. But well, who knows what this hobby turns into later. Isn't art all about the culmination of perfect technique, and experience?
Thus begun my tedious journey of looking through online contents, books, tutorials etc about photography. Checking camera reviews, randomly skimming through photo forums etc etc and etc. I hate to enter a shop with an open surprised look, especially while buying an electronic product. I always need to know as much as I can before I start scraping the sales person's head. I chose a camera, did my research in spare time, thought over it for quite a few months and then finally decided to plunge into this hobby with a sizable investement, at least to my economic conditions.
Buying the camera is the first part, then comes getting used to all the controls and features of it, how many of us even on rare occasions fiddle with all the features of our point and shoot, probably not many. But a DSLR is different, and comes with a sense of guilt, if you are not able to exploit all its capabilities. Mostly, i guess due to its price tag.
Once you get used to all the controls and are familiar with what each of the dials, the knobs, the buttons etc do, you get a little comfortable. May be you might capture some great shots with the auto modes, notice the clarity, the sharpness, the depth of field effect that looks so awesome for a beginner. But then, comes the part where you jump into the manual and semi-manual modes (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program mode). This starts your never ending drive to understand the dance of "Exposure" which the Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO play.
Terms like f-stops, Exposure compensation, metering etc look formidable in the beginning. And believe me, the manual that comes with the camera is just not enough to grasp a hold over all of it. I found internet to be a good resource of resolving most of my questions and doubts about all of the above. But still, it takes considerable time and involvement to actually get it right. If you have a photographer friend, or an amateur enthusiast who is your friend, that of course makes things easier.
In any case, this is just something I wanted to share about photography as I experienced it in the very beginning. I would soon be writing accounts of how I either didn't understand or misunderstood many of the concepts related with photography, and what i did to finally get more clearer understanding.
For now I am mostly struggling with being able to effectively use metering in proper situations, reading about the Zone System, Ansal Adams and his great works, using lightroom, adobe camera raw etc etc.
Side-note: Even if you shoot in auto, it would be wise to look up "Rule of thirds", its a composition rule, that on more than many occasions helps you get a better composed picture, but of course its not an ultimate rule. The idea is to imagine your frame with two equally spaced vertical lines and two equally spaced horizontal lines intersecting each other, the rule asks you to put your main subject at any of the intersections. ( google online to find more)
~ photography is an amazing hobby. over the years it has exceedingly cut down the possibility to live out of it due to the advent of digital photography, as now anybody can be a photographer. nevertheless, i strive to live from this profession.
ReplyDeletei have been doing photography for almost twenty years but still have not studied the technical aspects properly. i have tried to understand what is a focal length or the f-stop or why a lens is called so and so mm (such as 24mm or 135mm). my efforts to study them didn't work out for me as i have always failed in mathematics ;)
however, i understand how and what a lens does or which lens to use for a particular picture, etc :) and i can see right way at what iso, aperture, and shutter speed i should use for a picture i would like to have. and whether to use a flash or not and that too in which angle ;)
i also follow/do, like you have mentioned, the concepts of: composition basics, depth of field, perspective distortion, the rule of thirds (also knowing when to break this rule), etc.
i feel the most important is being keep shooting and then reviewing each shot. that's the key to master it :)