Dvd tutorial??

I am a beginner to serious photography and I need some help, please. I'm so

confused with the manual program settings on my XTi camera. I'm reading Bryan

Peterson's books and trying to apply the lessons, but the info just isn't

computing. I've checked in the area for a photography class but none are

available at this time. Are there any dvd's available for learning at my own

pace? I think seeing, hearing, and applying the techniques would work best for

me. I've tried experimenting on my own but I'm going nowhere fast. Help!!

 

Nancy

Not sure where you are based but if you have access to car boot sales / garage sales and the like, Even charity / second hand stores look out for beginners photography books by John Hedgecoe, (try Ebay too), these can be had very cheaply as they are film based yet are still very very relevant as other than the recording medium all the manual controls remain the same in an operational sense.

Nancy, I was in the same boat, so here's how I am overcoming it: I sit down with my XTi, the manual and Bryan Peterson's book. I read the entire book once, and was very confused, so I sat down with the manual and the book and mentally combined the info from both and put into practical application right there and then. Voila.

 

If you are in Canada, Henrys.com offers great classes cheap.

Chris

Nancy, here is a link to B&H they sell a blue crane video that will give you all of the function's of your camera and some fundamentals of photography($20). Good shooting, Bill http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=details_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=478625&is=REG&addedTroughType=accessory_detail&addedTroughValue=457506_REG

Thanks, Mike, Chris, and Bill, for the advice and direction. I appreciate your kind help.

 

Nancy

Nancy. if you are learning photography for the first time, it can be a bit daunting. you first need to learn about the concept of exposure.

 

google "photography exposure" and learn about shutter speed, ISO and f-stop. you don't have to undersatnd it up and down, but you need to undersatnd that to make pictures, you need to adjust your shutter speed and aperture so that the correct amount of light hits the sensor.

 

taking a picture is like filling a swimming pool with water. you want to fill it up to the brim, but you don't want to overfill it. you can use a fire hose or a garden hose or even a straw.

 

"aperture" is the width of the camera opening when you take the picture - it is variable and it is analogous to the width of the hose you use to fill the pool.

 

'shutter speed' is the lenght of time you expose the sensor to light, and it is analogous to the amount of time..

 

find out how to adjust ISO, shutter speed and f-stop (also called aperture) on your camera. I believe you use the right finger dial in combination with the * button on the back or the +/- button on the back.

 

go outside. set ISO to 400 (one of hte buttons on teh back of your camera), and set the shutter to 1/500th and set the f-stop to 11 if it is bright and sunny, or f5.6 if it is cloudy. take a picture. look at the screen. does it look bright or dark or what? keep your camera pointed at the same thing. now adjust your shutter speed one way and see the result. now adjust it the other way and see the result. do the same for aperture. as you make adjustments, LOOK AT THE NEEDLE OR DOT in your viewfinder and figure out how the needle or dot relates to whether the picture look too dark, just right or too light.

 

that's a very very brief course on how to take a picture, and a $40 lesson for free :-)

 

email me off forum if you have other basic starting out questions.