10+ Things I Learned With my First DSLR

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
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May. 19, 2008

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What did I expect to gain?

I think the argument that the camera doesn't take the pictures, the photographer does, is totally wrong. I expected to take better pictures and I was 100% right. While some of my success is attributable to better equipment, mostly it's simply that it's so easy to see what you've done--and what you did wrong to correct for it--that the learning curve lays itself flat. I'm not saying that I instantly took better photos. On my first real photo trek, I shot, oh, a hundred, a hundred twenty-five photos, and with some 'chopping love,' fewer than ten were good enough to keep.

But if I had a point-and-shoot, I wouldn't have even been able to take the pictures. I would have spent twice the time punching the buttons and draining batteries. Real-life photos take the most practice, but it's just easier to practice with a camera that works, well, like a camera.

Perhaps a better example is product shots. It used to take me, at the very least, an hour to take a dozen pictures of a video card or two with that A95. Some camera functions even seemed to get in the way of taking pictures--the delay between pressing the button and taking the picture was the worst; ones that might have been OK I just made blurry while waiting. Now I can set a widget on a backdrop, snap off 20 shots, easily keeping half--and now my choices are between the good shots and the better.

Which is, in a roundabout way, why experienced shutterbugs say that point-and-shoots are useful; they already know how to pre-set a camera, what 'film speed' (ISO) to use, what f-stop to set, and even how to stand and hold a camera, having already learned what works and what doesn't. DSLRs, with better interfaces and full-manual options, show how different settings affect photos. As it turns out, that's good to know when using a camera.

What didn't I expect?

Again with the learning curve... I didn't expect to fully understand how the camera functions affect the photos so quickly. After a single night of shooting, I understood the trade-offs between wide and narrow apertures, how to take advantage of ISO speeds, and really all of the basics that a semester of high school photography never managed to impart.

I'm no expert. I still just qualify as an amateur. I know that at night I want to shoot ISO 3200, and on a snowy mountaintop at midday, ISO 200 is a safe bet. I know that I'll be lucky if, in a year, I'll be able to predict what to set the camera to and get a photo off on the first shot. I'll also be happy if I learn how to use a flash without the result looking too much like I used a flash. Truly, I'm clueless when it comes to that thing.

I thought that I'd slide right into post-production--it's software, after all. And what do I know about more, software or bending light? But I'm far more comfortable driving the viewfinder than driving Gimp (haven't yet shelled out for Photoshop, but yeah, it's on the list) or SilkyPix (included with the camera). I can take a decent photo. Uncovering the potential of a photo beneath the layers of its AdobeRGB encoding is very imposing.

I certainly didn't expect that I would spend $750 and then want to drop another $2,000 by the end of the week on more glass. It's the purchase that keeps on spending, that's for sure. I count my lucky stars that my friends aren't into classic Jaguars.

And, most of all, I didn't expect to kindle an interest in: film photography. Film is like vinyl, it's never going away, not for a lack of good reasons. But it's rich in ways that digital isn't, and very likely can't be. I hope that, this time next year, buying film for my grandfather's Kodak Retina Ib won't be the least bit experimental.

[Editor: It can, and has been argued that digital quality (in terms of resolution) now exceeds that of 35mm film. Still, film is that certain look about it. It's easy to tell the difference between a black and white image shot on my Canon 5D versus one shot on my Canon Elan 7 and scanned into my computer. The tonal ranges are different, and the grain (noise, for digital) patterns are easily distinguishable. And then you have color slide film: Velvia, Provia, etc... which offer their own unique looks as well. Once you're comfortable choosing the appropriate settings without having to guess, film can be a lot of fun when you want to go for a certain style without spending a lot of time in post-processing.]

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Page 1: My First DSLR
Page 2: What I Expected, What Surprised Me
Page 3: My Findings
Page 4: My Findings, continued...
Page 5: The End Bit

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8 User Comments

1 - Posted by aireiq on May 20, 2008 - 3:02 pm

> [Editor: Max has been hounding me for weeks to purchase this lens for him. On behalf of TheTechLounge. Because he totally needs it for product shots...]

So did you buy it for him?

2 - Posted by aireiq on May 20, 2008 - 3:03 pm

I mean, since he seems to be responsible for something like 90% of your content....

3 - Posted by Kurtis on May 20, 2008 - 5:45 pm

No, we didn't buy it for him. But I'm REALLY considering it. ;-)

4 - Posted by handrail on May 20, 2008 - 10:54 pm

me and my clunker D70 will take you and your pentax on any day, max!

brad.

5 - Posted by justsomebody on October 30, 2008 - 10:33 pm

Hi!

i read all your articles on slr cameras and i am really interested in getting one. i know you recommended some cameras, but what other things do will i need to start off eg lens etc? i'm looking at cameras now and there are lots of different bundles i can get - or should i just get the standard kit?? i'm just going to take pix of friends, bdays, holidays - nothing fancy!

Thanks!

Ps ur articles are really cool, easy to understand and funny!

6 - Posted by Kurtis on October 31, 2008 - 12:35 am

My recommendation, if you're just getting started, is to just go with the kit lens. That's a great starting point. If you get more serious about it, you'll learn the ins-and-outs of the camera and the limitations of the kit lens, and that's where things start to get really expensive. But that's the best place to start. :)

7 - Posted by MR J on December 27, 2008 - 6:43 pm

I just bought a refurbished Pentax K100D. Immediately, I happily discovered that my mom's old as dust Vivitar lens, which fit her old Pentax ME Super, fit my camera. The shots all suck ... really yellow and orange due to the incandescent lighting of my house, but never have I been able to so easily capture a shot that looks like it came out of some artsy photography mag. Also, I love how this camera and this old metal lens WEIGH A TON! The huge Canon something or other at the store was about 900x sweeter than this, and it weighed about 3/4 this thing. I love when something feels like it's worth its weight. I have a 200 page manual to flip through, a billion web pages, and a whole lot of photography terms to learn ... but I am optimistic, because next time I need to take a great picture, it ain't going to be an issue of the planets aligning, but whether or not I remembered to bring along this new, bulky piece of furniture that occasionally takes pictures when I fondle it. Totally in love with my Pentax! Hopefully I'll get outside so I can start learning and shooting!

8 - Posted by Kurtis on December 28, 2008 - 1:50 am

That orange you're seeing is a white balance problem - that's easy to correct, especially if you shoot in RAW. I highly suggest giving your camera's manual a read-through. Happy shooting! :)

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