Dyslexia and Photography

[greenwell]

At the age of 52 years I have just been told that I am quite badly dyslexic. Like many of my generation it was not picked up on at school despite having the classic symptoms. School days were not the happiest of my life.
One of the few things that I was good at was art and making things with my hands, my camera and fishing rod were my prized possessions. I wanted to go to art college and then do photography but with no qualifications and my parents dead against it, I had to do something else.
I have always enjoyed photography and have up to last year always used film, I decided to try digital, I picked up a DSLR and without reading the manual (I just cannot take in written or spoken instructions) I quickly got used to it. I then tried a M9 as I have the lenses, again without the manual I could do the basics but could progress no further with the camera as I did not 'understand' the finer points.
The biggest problem that I have is with post processing and using a computer, I have had one to one instruction on Lightroom but after one session I just did not understand a single thing and handed the M9 back and went back to film.
It is a huge weight off my shoulders that I now know what my problem is.I would like to try digital again but if there is anyone who has dyslexia I would be very grateful for advice as to the best way to go about it.

Regards

Rupert

 

[j j]

I do not have dyslexia but I have three suggestions.

Do you like film? You could stay with it and forget digital.

Most people do not understand Lightroom after just one session. All the changes you make in Lightroom are reversable. You can play and see what pleases you.

If written instructions do not help, have you tried video instructions?

 

[Bobfrance]

I suspect you'll have a steeper learning curve with Lightroom than with an M9, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

As has already been said it is best just to play with the software and familiarise yourself with it.

Once you are over the initial hump of finding your way around the interface you should start to make good progress.

I would also ask the question why you want to move from film to digital?

If you really want to then I'm sure you can. You like fishing then I'm sure patience isn't an issue. 😉


Bob.
.

 

[greenwell]

Staying with film is the easiest option, I simply send my films off to be developed, keep the prints I like and return any negatives so that enlargements can be made.
With Lightroom, the first one to one session that I did was with the storage and management of photos, I gave up long before we even got to post processing a photo!
I have not tried video although I have watched clips on You Tube, the problem is my concentration, I cannot watch TV for more than a few minutes without wandering off and doing something else.
There are one or two things regarding the use of my Olympus OM4ti that I have not mastered, I have read the manual hundreds of times over all the years that I have had the camera but just cannot do it.

Regards

Rupert

 

[Matus]

Rupert, you mentioned that your dyslexia was recognized only recently. I am not really familiar with possible approach, but would few sessions with a doctor who could advise you on possible approach to things you want to learn, help?

You have obviously found your way until now (and I guess it was often not easy) - so I am sure you can manage to learn some of the digital techniques even if it will cost you a lot of effort.

 

[greyelm]

Although not dyslexic myself I have two sons with varying degrees of dyslexia so I understand the problems. If you think about what you can do with film once you have taken the shot, one is to send off for D&P (with/without scanning), second is to D&P your self. So you need to see how this translates to the digital workflow, with film there are less things to fiddle with whereas digital processing is filled with options. I found Lightroom confusing when I first started using it so I followed advice I heard from a professional which is to use the Auto button, this often gives acceptable results. As I became familiar with LR I tried the options that were similar to those done in a darkroom i.e. Exposure adjust, brightness, contrast. I then moved on to Fill Light to lighten shadows and Recovery to enhance detail in the highlighted areas. Next I tried all the other options to see what effects they produced so now I am able to produce better images from mediocre shots. In a nutshell I'm advocating suck it and see, remember that LR doesn't alter the master copy of your image file so you can always go back.

Finally if your post processing needs are modest I recommend Snapseed as an application with nice preset effects.

 

[greenwell]

I have often thought that I should try developing my own films, I have a problem with the smell of chemicals, again I have learnt that this is one of the many symptoms of dyslexia, when I work on my farm I always wear a face mask when using anything that does not agree with me, no fun in warm weather, I wonder if it would be okay to use a mask when developing film.
Again it is using a computer that I struggle with, I am self taught and find that by trying different things I get the computer into a muddle and then cannot get back to how it was to start with!

Regards

Rupert

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Interesting problem. Until you asked the question, I never thought about the overall effect that inserting a computer, with its written-language interface, into the image-making mix (or as we now like to say "workflow" -- what a word. . . ). I notice that your original post articulately states your problem. You might start by identifying the set of coping skills have you developed that enabled you to make the post.

I like the idea of using a program like Lightroom that allows non-distructive editing with a graphical interface. You should be able to learn the program "by feel" so that you you can ignore the textual part of the process. May I ask, though, what you visualize the end product to be? If it is prints you produce yourself, the process is much more involved (more machines, more manuals, more matching of a monitor to a printer and so on). If the goal is digital images that are presented on a monitor, then you have a different set of problems to solve.

Ben Marks

 

[greyelm]

As I mentioned in my post, Lightroom is non destructive and you can step back one step at a time or reset back to the beginning at any time. Although I haven't done any D&P for thirty years I still remember the many times I re-did enlargements just to get the right effect, this often resulted in only one or two pictures per session so chemical processing isn't a piece of cake.

I should add that over the years there have been many advances in the help that dyslexics can get so I would suggest joining a Dyslexia group and see what options are available.

 

[filmtwit]

I'm dyslexic (more specifically I have Disgraphia).
I took classes to learn lightroom and within taking them forgot half of them, what I did learn to use were the tools I'd use daily, so it was easy per say for me to keep using it, but I'd have to continually look up how to us less obvious tools that most of us rarely every use.

So how do you learn to use those tools? test tools you're not families with as much as you can, because you can reverse changes so easily in Lightroom and you'll eventually obsorb what they do. At least that's what worked for me.

 

[greenwell]

Thanks Ben for your comments, I suppose I have learnt to cope by staying inside my comfort zone, I have always been mainly self employed, spell check is a great help ! I am taking quite a long time to compose these replies, there are words that I want to use but can never remember them when needed.
If I were to use digital the end product would be prints that my camera shop would print for me, they have very good know how and pro machinery.
My frustration is that my photos do not always portray the scene that I have shot and by adjusting a few things I could get it right. I also like the idea of converting photos to B & W.
Regards

Rupert

 

[Sparrow]

... I started taking photos at six or seven I would have been dyslexic from the start but they hit me repeatedly, at twelve I went to grammar school and they hit me with sticks until I stopped ... I still do the occasional howler even toady ...

I found getting a secretary, or PA as they are these days, was the best way to hide it ... that and concentrating on the graphic side of things in my work and life.

 

[greenwell]

Stewart, I was punished throughout school, made to write lines 100's times in english, french and latin, I still did not understand. I am afraid that my parents took the teachers side. I was good at art and loved it but then was sent to a school that did not teach it.
My mum rationed me with film for my camera as she did not understand what it was that I saw to photograph, I guess that my imagination was ahead of me. The army would not take me as I had nearly lost my leg in a accident so I set off around the world working on farms.
I to use a secretary and have hidden it but now that I know ,some of my friends are saying that they suspected all along as they have husbands and sons with it.
Regards
Rupert

 

[Beemermark]

At the age of 52 years I have just been told that I am quite badly dyslexic. Like many of my generation it was not picked up on at school despite having the classic symptoms. School days were not the happiest of my life.

I can sympathize. At age 40 I was diagnosed with ADS. Sort of explained why I dropped out of HS but completed college years later -🙂.

Anyway, I just don't have the patience to learn any digital software program. I lost my darkroom so I use Picasa, very easy and little to nothing to remember. If you use film, expose and develop it correctly you'll need no post processing software. Scan it and use Picasa. If digital Picasa sucks it straight from your camera. And a digital M9 is no different than a film M3. Set the ISO and shoot.

 

[greenwell]

Thanks for mentioning Picasa, I had not come across it before but will start looking into it, I see to that there is a You Tube clip swell.
Regards
Rupert