Teaching the ropes of photography

[f/stopblues]

I have a friend who recently has been asking me to show him the ins and outs of photography. He's starting from absolute scratch and doesn't even have a camera outside of his microscopic digi-cam. There's no concept in his mind of exposure, composition, etc etc. I get the fun task of kneading him into a good photographer!

I'm thinking of taking the approach of visualizing what you're photographing first, concentrating on subject matter and composition.. probably stressing to shoot what catches *his* interest, not what others would like or what he saw in magazine X and website Y. Developing that sense of "seeing" things in your environment.

After a bit of that and getting comfy with his new tools, then I thought it'd be a good time to introduce the basics of exposure and how to make it work for you toward what you want on the print. I figure after those two key things he'll start experimenting more and learning the rest for himself. The goal of going in this order is to concentrate on the strength of the image instead of worrying if you need to use exposure compensation, if you're going to get flare, if this lens is going to make her nose look big, etc etc.

Finally, I think its really really important to look at other people's work and know why one photo is good and another isn't so great. I think you can learn a ton from seeing a broad range of photog styles and effects. That's still one of my most important resources for my own skills!

You guys think this is reasonable? Part of me thinks it's better to get the technical side down first, but I hate to get him locked into worrying about that all the time and not enjoying it. Thoughts?

Thanks as always!
Chris

 

[Roman]

Sounds good - but there are two technical things I would throw at him right away - the effects of aperture on DOF, and of shutter speed on shoing movement/stopping action. Those two are very closely related to what images will look like, esp. the concept of limiting DOF through larger apertures is IMHO one of the most important points in photography, very easy to understand (an SLR with DOF preview lever might help), and central to making a picture work the way the photographer wants.

Roman

 

[captainslack]

Tell him to read Kodak's "The Joy of Photography". Best book for beginners I've run across.

 

[Poptart]

Have him either buy or make a film camera first. I personally think that the old cliche of pinhole first camera is a good one because you get a slower and more painterly approach to making photos.

 

[RFFan]

IMHO the best way for a 'novice' to learn to shoot good pics is to burn lots of film and then analyse why the bad photos are bad (incorrect expsure, poor composition, boring subject matter etc) and, secondly, look at the photos in the National Geographic every month. NG photography should be the standard we all aspire to.

Finally, make sure the person doesn't start obsessing about equipment - stick to one or two lenses initially and DEFINITELY not a zoom. As well all know on this forum.....great photos can be taken with the humblest of equipment.

 

[Pherdinand]

What I did in a similar case, I opened the back of my TLR and shown him the insides, the work of the shutter, the work of the aperture, the DOF and luminosity when changing aperture etc. But then. he is an engineer; a literature teacher might find it scary or boring this way.

 

[pvdhaar]

Let's throw a stick in the henhouse here...

What you're all proposing here is not about learning photography, it's about cameras instead. It is unfortunately how most books and courses are structured, but it's far from ideal. The most important skills are interpersonal -putting your subject at ease-, an eye for composition and the ability to judge the quality of light.

Everything else can be solved with the built in scene modes on most cheap automated cameras. Want to shoot a landscape? Turn the wheel to the mountain icon. Want to make a portrait? Make a sports shot? Just click an icon further. 😀

I'll now go hide in a cave untill the dust settles... :angel:

 

[Pherdinand]

Actually, Paul, you are quite right with that. But hey one should teach what he himself knows well...so i picked the camera not the photography 🙂

 

[rover]

I always found it interesting that once you get the basics down photography is relatively simple; time, amount of light and sensitivity to light. In addition to "teaching" the basics a good reference is always helpful. I found Horenstein's Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual to be well written and easy to understand while being thorough. It covers basic B&W darkroom processes too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316373141/102-6680906-0259325?v=glance

Once you get the basics down then the topic of DOF, composition and the artistic style things need to be addressed. Peterson's Understanding Exposure helped me with this.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...4/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-6680906-0259325

 

[nomade]

There's an excellent one, Understanding photography by Carl Shipman, it's old but great as a start...Because it explains everything from scratch, and then if u wanna get deaper, u can get urself some more specialized books ...

There's also a book that contains some exercises, it wasn't bad either: The photographic eye, Learning to see with a camera for Micheal O'Brien and Norman something i don't remember..

This is the 1st book i've ever read http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...5/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-5800215-7056162

It was great...

I own another book it's a handbook The photographer's hand book by Joe Hedgecoe, the 3rd edition..

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I'm going to agree with pvdhaar on this. I think the ability to see and recognize the quality and direction of light and shadow is very important. Along with basic composition skills. Most cameras with aperature or shutter priority mode will do a great job of getting exposure right for negative films.

After one has learned to see and record well light scenes with good composition, then they can start to play with the effects of shutter speeds, dof, filters, etc.

Wayne

 

[djon]

There's a difference between photography-as-technology and photography-as-imagemaking.

Most of us combine both, but probably do emphasize the technical...maybe we'd be drawing, or writing poetry if we weren't inclined technically.

One of Minor White's teaching methodologies involved giving an assignment, asking students to respond by clipping pictures from magazines...no cameras, only scissors.

Minor co-developed the Zone System with Ansel Adams, did more instruction, was plenty technical...but he taught "photography" not "cameras" or "developing."

 

[XAos]

secondly, look at the photos in the National Geographic every month. NG photography should be the standard we all aspire to.

Semi-naked women in public places are not exactly abundant in my corner of the world (Thank goodness, as Dave Barry said, if God had meant for us to run around nekkid he wouldn't have made so many of us so darn ugly). I guess I'll just have to find another source of inspiration.

If his digital camera has a manual or even Aperture priority he should probably stick with that for now. Composition is much harder for me, perhaps because its all subjective.

 

[rover]

Semi-naked women in public places are not exactly abundant in my corner of the world (Thank goodness, as Dave Barry said, if God had meant for us to run around nekkid he wouldn't have made so many of us so darn ugly). I guess I'll just have to find another source of inspiration.

If his digital camera has a manual or even Aperture priority he should probably stick with that for now. Composition is much harder for me, perhaps because its all subjective.

You may want to take a look at National Geographic again. The photography of our existance, and place in a way that tells the story as well as the articles is amazing, and rearly unclothed.

 

[XAos]

rearly unclothed.

Oh my that's even worse. 🙂 Rover, the national geo comment was not made in seriousness.

 

[canonetc]

Hi Chris, your approach sounds good. Have him learn the camera basics (how it works, what does what), and as Roman importantly said explain DOF, then go on to composition based on what interests him. You might have him start only with black-and-white so that he can understand composition and Sunny-16 (without the "distraction" of color). Then when he's ready later on, move into color, and understanding balance of colors within an image. For a good example of color balancing, you might introduce him to the works of Steve McCurry (Magnum Photos, National Geo shooter), whose book "south by southwest" contains prime examples.

Also, you might have him shoot his camera on full automatic during the composition learning phase. I like your comment on focusing on "seeing" instead of tech stuff.

Good luck!

A Fellow Chris
canonetc

 

[VinceC]

About 16 years ago, I taught photography to a class of about half a dozen 6th-graders in a talented-and-gifted program for one school year. Basically an hour a week over the course of a school year. We divided the time equally between looking at books of classic photojournalism and learning how the camera worked. I think we used only 50mm lenses and Tri-X. One girl's family didn't have a camera so I loaned her an indestructable Nikomat. At first, we mainly looked at painting and photographs and studied composition, rule of thirds, selective focus and so on. I also had them gather photos from newspapers and magazines. Then I sent them out to take pictures without film in their cameras, just so they could get used to using the camera and looking at the world through it. We were pretty far along before I let them actually put film into the cameras, but by then they were familiar with the equipment and dying to get their world on film. I did all the developing myself, and by the end of the school year, they were doing some pretty intriguing photo essays of their school- and home lives.

 

[oftheherd]

About 20 years ago, I taught forensic photography at a local state college. I quickly found that I had to teach 1/2 quarter of basic photography and 1/2 quarter of forensic photography. My approach was to start them with history, then the mechanics of camera (which had to have manual controls) use, which included light and lighting, shutter and aperture esentials, then developing and printing, all before moving on to any specifics of forensics. Things moved pretty fast. The whole time, I encouraged them to take photographs with general subjects that would be useful during the forensic stage, and critique their and their fellow students photos. As I said, things moved fast. I was blessed with students who wanted to learn so they all did very well. Just what worked for me.

 

[Justin Smith]

I'll second (third?) the comments made by rover and RFFan regarding National Geographic. One of my favorite beginner/intermediate photography books in National Geographic's Photography Field Guide (now in its 2nd ed.) Plenty of technical basics covering exposure, DOF, film plus sidebars covering NG photogs. Definitely not as boring or dry as your typical beginner books.

 

[oftheherd]

...

What was particularly interesting to me about the week we spent together was that, at the end, she told me she didn't understand at first why we were working with a manual film camera. She had lots of transition problems -- from waiting for the camera to advance the film to not being sure how to rewind it (having never done that before). But in the end, she said, the work on a film camera with a prime lens helped her to understand how to manipulate light to get the results she "saw" in her mind's eye, both shooting film and digital. By the way, she's thinking about picking up an old film SLR.

So you admit you failed then; she wants an SLR instead of an RF? 😀

Actually, good job.