On Sunday over the long weekend, I went to a photography class. Michael got me the new camera, a Canon Rebel XS, for Christmas and a few weeks later I saw a Living Social deal for a photography class. I could have chosen the portraits class or the manual class–I chose manual. Learning to work in Manual Mode was the entire reason I wanted a DLSR camera to begin with. I wanted to be able to take photos with my vision and my perspective. What I found was that manual was a lot harder than I expected.
This is not a bad thing. With anything, learning a new skill or hobby takes time and practice. I’ve taken a million horrible photos but I have gotten some really nice pictures, too. Taking those diamonds in the rough motivate me to keep trying.
My knowledge of photography was definitely beginner. I have things like perspective and point of view down, and lighting isn’t hard for me. When I was a teenager, I ran a 1 Hour Photo booth and was actually really good at it. It may sound silly because it’s a machine that does most of the work, but I was actually really skilled at making color corrections to make people’s photos look amazing. I even had one client send my boss a glowing letter about my skills at making her photos better.
What is hard is the “other stuff” and this class helped give me a good introduction to things like aperture and light metering.
I saw the Living Social Deal come through and I bought it immediately because $50 for a 3 hour class with hands on training was exactly what I needed! I think the class is originally $200 or so for the 3 hours. What a deal!
The class was held in a cool studio in downtown Portland, about a block from Voodoo Donuts. The class was pretty big and they split it into three groups–Nikon, Canon and Olympus. I was in the Canon group (Nikon was the biggest, Canon was the second). Each group had an instructor to help people learn the buttons on their cameras. That was a nice way to start the class.
After about an hour of “small group instruction,” there was about a 45 minute PowerPoint lecture about the basics. They talked about camera RAW –which is what I’ve been shooting in since I got my camera and already knew about–and they really emphasized that you have to turn all the “auto” stuff off to really learn how to use your camera. Last month I discovered how much for manual focus is and I’ve been practicing ever since!
The lecture also included less technical info– Nicki talked about the practical things we can do take better pictures. I’m sure it’s all rudimentary stuff for most photographers reading this post, but for me it was nice to hear.
The last hour or so of the class was the hands-on-practice. There were stations set up around the studio for everyone to practice the different things we learned.
You can read your camera manual til you’re blue in the face but until you actually PRACTICE with the aperture it won’t make sense (which is where I was until I took the class). Changing the aperture changes the depth of focus. If you want to take a picture of a flower in the foreground with a the green grass blurred out in the background–that’s aperture.
Aperture Examples
Aperture Example
What I need help with now is histograms! They only covered that briefly in the workshop and I was still a little fuzzy on the whole thing when I left.
As sad as it sounds, the f-stop is the one button on my new camera I haven’t really been using. Now I know how and I love it!
The class was good–it gave me the beginner information I really needed. I knew a fair amount of stuff but the new things I learned will definitely help me. I kind of wish the class had spent more time on the nitty-gritty stuff about apertures.
If you are in the Portland or Seattle area, I definitely recommend trying this photography class. (Her website lists a bunch of other cities, so give it a look and see if there’s a workshop near you.)
It was a fun thing to do for myself and I was inspired to immediately get out there and play with my camera! Which I did! Practice, practice, practice!
QUESTION: What kind of camera do you have? What do you like to take photos of?
Deb
I have an older Fuji Finepix S700. It was a pretty nice camera with quite a few features when 7.1 megapixels was about all you could get… lol. I took a photography class 2 summers ago and learned a lot. Do I use that knowledge? Not really. The only thing I take pics of really is the dog now because the teacher for the class was so brutal and unforgiving that I felt like everything I did was wrong… that burned me out, I lost interest, and just quit taking pics for the most part. Literally every class I would hear “Wilson! Do it over!” “What is that? That’s crap!” The only photo I took that he liked was of my friends horse, because he likes horses. Ugh. I’m glad you got a better introduction to the manual side of camera usage than I did. I wish I had had a more positive experience.
Lisa Eirene
It’s a shame when a bad instructors ruins something for people. I say give it another try with an instructor you get a long with! Or just practice on your own. I enjoyed the class and didn’t have a bad experience at all. I do photography because I’ve loved it since I was a little kid and got to practice with my mom’s camera. It’s something I want to get better at, so I don’t think anyone can discourage me! 🙂
Deb
It wasn’t something I was really passionate about to begin with; I signed up for the class on a whim. About twice a year, I’d get picture crazy and take several hundred photos- flowers, landscapes, animals, myself. There’d be about 15 or 20 I’d love and the rest would get pushed aside. Then no pics for another 6 months. This instructor though… he is a professional commercial photographer, and his attitude was “I’m a professional, therefore I am better than you on every level.” There was one woman who could do no wrong, me who did everything wrong, and everyone else he was pretty neutral about. The only things I did right were my photo manipulations- I’ve been doing graphic design for about 11 years so have a good grasp of the tools already. And this was 5 hours a day, once a week, for 6 weeks. 30 hours I would love to have gotten back despite what I learned. *shakes head*
Lisa Eirene
That’s not cool. That a sign of a bad teacher–talking down to everyone. Oh well.
That’s great that you were good at the edits. That’s the part I’m struggling with. Not only am I learning a new camera, I’m also learning computer programs!
Karen@WaistingTime
Wow – that’s a lot of detail on that apple! I only know how to use a point and click. We mostly take vacation photos. I’m pretty bad about not taking enough family stuff and it gets worse and worse now that my boys are older. I hardly had anything to put in our scrapbook for 2011. Lots of shots from my teen’s HS graduation and college move in day though. And lately I’ve been taking some shots for my blog:)
Lisa Eirene
Since I’ve always loved taking pictures I have TONS. I want to document everything. I end up being the family photographer for all events. 🙂
Lori
Cool! I am going to have to take an online class because there aren’t any around here in tiny town. I am going to get a DSLR later this year. I want to take better shots of my garden (and my food).
Lisa Eirene
You will love your new camera, Lori! An online class sounds like a great idea. I might have to look into something like that here.
Roz@weightingfor50
How fantastic Lisa. Love how they divided you by “make” to start. I’ll be buying a Canon Rebel myself later in the year…and love the idea of taking a class so I use it for all it’s worth! Have a great Wed.
Lisa Eirene
I definitely recommend looking for a class. I learned a lot. I LOVE my Canon Rebel!