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.

I no longer remembered how much I still knew, so I took the lead in my
little impromptu “course”. I
remembered that the exposure was based on a relationship between the
aperture setting (f-stop) and shutter speed. You can use the aperture
to change the depth of field, or how much of the image is in focus. To
get a correct
exposure, when you increase the f-stop you
must slow down the shutter speed to let in more light. I typically used
the Aperture Priority setting on my FG, and the dSLR also had that
option. So, if I wanted to play with the f-stop to change the depth of
field of the image, it would automatically increase or decrease the
shutter 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.