Brian Leng - The New Language of Digital Photography: Start Making Photographs Rather Than Taking Photographs

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2014 Brian Leng. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse: 05/20/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7365-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7366-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905221

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Table of Contents:

C hances are you have a new DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) or you are thinking about buying one. If you have one, you probably have tired reading the easy to read camera manual but wound up getting frustrated by not understanding the simple camera instructions and explanation in the manual that came with your camera, so you simply set the camera on automatic and let the camera dictate to you the camera settings. Thats all good and fine, except you bought this expensive camera to make better photographs, right? Instead you wound up letting the camera dictate to you how to make the photographs that you so desperately wanted to create.

These new digital cameras are very good, most of the time when set on automatic but it wont allow you to be very creative. Instead, what you wind up getting is just a mediocre shot like everyone else and not separating yourself from the crowd by adding your own twists and your own personal touch of creativity.

Ive been teaching people in groups and in private sessions on how to make photographs since 1992 and was a professional photographer who had a successful advertising photography studio in Los Angeles for 30 years. Since teaching photography classes, Ive discovered that ordinary people and students who all love photography just as much as I do have a huge problem when it comes to learning how to make better photographs. The camera manuals that came with the cameras are so confusing with very complicated options to learn and use, its hard to wrap ones head around learning the new digital parts of the digital camera.

After spending some time teaching photography, I have identified what the real problem is and that is there are just to many options for any novice or beginner to grasp all at one time. So Ive broken down the learning process by teaching just three basic camera controls. They are, ISO (international Standard Organization), Aperture Priority, and Shutter Speed Priority . Learning just those three main camera controls first for you to build a strong foundation on which to stand. After youve experienced what each control does and how to set them, by constantly practicing and using them until you feel confident enough to set them correctly, you can then move on to more challenging camera techniques and controls and begin on making photographs that youll be proud of showing and hanging on your walls. Learning how to set those three little camera controls are the corner stones in being able to be creative in your photography.

There are so many new and different digital cameras and hardware currently being manufactured that the consumer has to many choices to choose from. The digital age has literally changed the face of photography from analogue film to digital, transforming photography almost overnight.

Never in my wildish dreams, did I think that photographers would no longer use film to capture a moment in time, to preserve it for future generations to come. Which brings us to one of the major problem that the digital image has to over come over film and that is its achievability. Film on the other hand, has a proven track record of being archival for decades.

Kodaks Kodachrome color slide film was very archival. Ive seen Kodachrome color slide film form the fifties, which are still vibrant in color saturation and sharpness as the day they were made. Kodachrome was a process of using color dyes instead of a chemical process like Ektachrome. Both films are similar in that they both were slide film, but thats where the similarities ended.

In any case, Kodachrome a film made up of color dyes produced no grain and was the flagship film of the Kodak Company for many years. It was kodachrome that boosted Kodaks notoriety until the mid 90s when the processing was deemed to be harmful to the environment. At which time Kodak tried to make changes to the film but could not maintain the films quality. Kodachrome was the choice of film for all professional photographers due to its extraordinary quality and sharpness.

Opening up the camera manual for the fist time is real shocker to say the least. You see words and phrase that youve never seen before and dont really understand what is being said. Why is it so hard to read and understand? Its written in English? Its full of photographic jargon thats Greek to you and to everyone else trying to make sense of it. Its like reading a foreign language!

With this simple booklet, I will have you off the automatic setting and have you making photographs rather then taking photographs. Theres absolutely no reason to learn every camera control settings in the beginning especially if you are new to photography and you have just bought your first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). Frustrating & unfriendly are the two most common complaints that I hear from students.

Youve just spent a lot of cash, logically thinking that if you spent enough money and purchased a really good camera, it will make your photographs look more like the pros. But the real truth of the matter is, it will! But you need to learn the language of photography before anything else. You need to practice using just three camera controls. I always tell my students that learning photography is like learning how to drive. Do you remember what it felt like to drive a car for the first time? There were all these crazy foot peddles, turn signals, steering wheel, rear view, side mirrors, not to mention the traffic signals and signs. Which were all very confusing to you. As time went on you practiced everyday and the more you drove the more familiar driving became. Now you hop into the car and without thinking, you take off! Thats all due to the fact that you practiced every time you drove the car. The more you drove and practiced, the more you gained confidence in what you were doing which was all just repetition, which is exactly the same in learning photography.

Digital photography isnt the same as when you had a SLR film camera. In digital photography, there are so many more wonderful options that are now available to you then you had with your film camera. Which tends to complicate things just a bit. But its so much more fun now that you have more control over your photograph from the time you snapped the shutter to downloading the images into your computer. With film, it was very different experience and the onehour double prints photo processing was the only advantage in using film. You had little to no control over what your image looked like. Its way different now. Technology has changed the world of photography forever. Just as you are now pulling your new digital camera out of the box, a new and improved model is now on sale making your new camera old!