Using What You Already Know
Because most digital SLR photographers were already seasoned veterans before they began using a dSLR, they already have a considerable advantage over neophyte photographers who must master digital technology at the same time they are learning photographic basics. For example, you already know not to shoot into the sun unless you want to produce a silhouette, and wouldn’t think of using your camera’s built-in flash from the last row in the balcony to capture a photo of Bono pacing the stage at a U2 concert. You know to hold the camera steady in dim light and how to make a background less prominent by throwing it out of focus.
You understand terms like lens flare, motion blur, and grain, and may have more than an inkling about things like solarization, halftones, mezzotints, or unsharp masking. There are other photographic concepts that you already understand that you can put to use with your digital SLR.
- Basic composition: Seasoned photographers know how to line up shots to produce a pleasing composition. You’ll find this skill valuable with dSLRs, because their WYSIWYG viewpoint makes composition more precise.
- Choosing lenses: Beginners don’t choose lenses or zoom settings. They just zoom in or out to make the image appear to be the size they want. Photographers understand that lens choice is an important part of the creative process to, say, compress the apparent distance between objects, emphasize the foreground, or produce pleasing portraits.
- Using selective focus: Point-and-shoot cameras generally don’t offer much flexibility in applying depth-of-field. Your understanding of selective focus will let you place the emphasis in your pictures exactly where you want it.
- Choosing a film “look.” :If you’re a veteran film photographer, you’re used to choosing one film because it provides vivid, saturated colors even on overcast days, or another film because it has accurate flesh tones for portraits, or a third because it has extra contrast that makes product shots look their best. You can apply this knowledge to your digital camera to select saturation, contrast, and exposure settings that suit the exact look you want.
- Knowledge of what you can do in the film and digital darkroom: Experienced photographers know how and when to take advantage of image-editing techniques, such as retouching, compositing, color correction, and special effects. These can be used to fix problem images, or make a good image a great one.
