This site is designed to help those who are just starting out in photography, or who have been taking photos and want to progress further in the art of photography. In order to get the most benefit from this course, you should have a Digital camera with the option to set the aperture and shutter speeds manually. Also, a camera with a lens capable of changing the focal length is desirable, since there will be lessons involving focal length. If you are a diehard film photographer, this will not necessarily exclude you, however, there will be talk of image manipulation that will require you to scan the image into digital form. As much as I loved the old fashioned darkroom, we won't be discussing that here.
In a world of automation, why would you want to learn manual photography? There was a time when cameras were manual only, and an understanding of basic photography was a must. Even when the light meter in the camera gave a thumbs up indication, when the photo was processed the image may or may not be properly exposed, so it was a matter of learning the limitations of the meter in the camera, or using a separate meter to judge exposure. Automation came along for two reasons: For the professional it allowed him to quickly get a shot that he might otherwise miss, but camera companies are always looking at expanding their market, and automation attracted the amateur photographer who might be intimidated by the science of capturing an image. As meters became more sophisticated and the algorithms that supported them, so did the appeal to more and more amateur photographer. When I was a salesman at a camera store, we used to call these automatic amateur cameras "PhD" cameras for "Push Here Dummy" since all you needed was to point and shoot, and you could be reasonably sure the camera would take care of every situation including adding a flash if the scene was too dark or backlit. So back to the original question, why learn manual photography? Learning the basic gives you better artistic control over how the image is exposed, and will allow you to capture a much better image, even if you have to use automatic settings to do so.
When you have finished an assignment, post you photo to Facebook at Beginning Digital Photography, You can ask questions and get a critique on you photograph, and see photographs from other students.
In a world of automation, why would you want to learn manual photography? There was a time when cameras were manual only, and an understanding of basic photography was a must. Even when the light meter in the camera gave a thumbs up indication, when the photo was processed the image may or may not be properly exposed, so it was a matter of learning the limitations of the meter in the camera, or using a separate meter to judge exposure. Automation came along for two reasons: For the professional it allowed him to quickly get a shot that he might otherwise miss, but camera companies are always looking at expanding their market, and automation attracted the amateur photographer who might be intimidated by the science of capturing an image. As meters became more sophisticated and the algorithms that supported them, so did the appeal to more and more amateur photographer. When I was a salesman at a camera store, we used to call these automatic amateur cameras "PhD" cameras for "Push Here Dummy" since all you needed was to point and shoot, and you could be reasonably sure the camera would take care of every situation including adding a flash if the scene was too dark or backlit. So back to the original question, why learn manual photography? Learning the basic gives you better artistic control over how the image is exposed, and will allow you to capture a much better image, even if you have to use automatic settings to do so.
When you have finished an assignment, post you photo to Facebook at Beginning Digital Photography, You can ask questions and get a critique on you photograph, and see photographs from other students.
