Teaching my wife...please for the love of god, I need help!

[marknagel]

I've taught hundreds of young pilots to fly an airplane, but I couldn't teach

my wife to drive a standard transmission. Now she wants to learn photography.

I tried to explain and give examples on shutter speed and aperture and how the

affect the photo and each other. That didn't go well. I signed her up for a

class, but I'm looking for other suggestions. Can anyone suggest a good,

simple book to help her get it?

 

Mark

[phyrpowr]

The class idea is good, and you know what? She'll come home and say, real wide eyed, "the instructor said the same thing YOU did!"

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Good move - don't try to teach your wife.

[nolefan32]

If you're giving her specific examples up front, you might be giving her too much detail to absorb all at once. I find it easy to start with a very general, abstract concept of how aperture size and shutter speed work together to properly expose a photograph.

 

The analogy I've always used when explaining equivalent exposures is filling up a sink with water. It takes a specific amount of water to fill the sink, but you can get the water in the sink by either turning on a trickle for a long period of time or turning the faucet full-blast for a short period of time, or somewhere in-between. Same thing with a properly exposed photograph -- a specific amount of light has to hit the film plane, but it can be done by letting in only a little light for a long time or a lot of light for a short time, or somewhere in-between.

 

From there, you can begin to explain why someone might want to go with the small aperture and slow shutter speed (the inevitable next question is almost always, "Isn't it better to stop the action?"), but I'd start with just getting her to grasp the abstract concept first.

 

As for a book, I don't know if there is a "Equivalent Exposures for Dummies." There probably should be -- that can be a tough concept for some people to grasp.

[michaelging]

Mark Twain said, when he was 18 yrs old his father was the stupidest man alive, and when he turned 21, he just could not believe how much his father had learned in only 3 yrs. In difference to your wife who might read this , some of the best photographers are not the best teachers.

[steve santikarn]

Mark, use the green setting on the Canon and everyone is a pro! I kid you not, get a Canon 30D and 17-85 USM IS, set everything to full AUTO and you'll get 90% of the shots almost right 90% of the time. Now if you wife wants to learn Photoshop then you'll have some real uphill work.

[timcorridan]

i think every eos manual has an example of depth of field, shutter speed, ect... books from library, ect... by the way, YOU didn;t learn in a few easy lesson did you?

[phoneguy]

I'm going through the same thing...Don't do it, it only creates problems. Send her to the class.

 

Mike

[ericreagan]

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=cyclingshots-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0817463003%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1150600805%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_1%3F%255Fencoding%3DUTF8">Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson</a> is a book that I would recommend any beginner read. Bryan does a great job of introducing photography to novices. He's really a great teacher. He's also a regular contributor to Popular Photography.

[neild]

Don't 'explain' it to her; just set her some tasks (eg, say to her, "I want you to put the camera on a tripod and take 6 photos, each with a different f-stop"). The get her to tell you what's going on with the photos (DOF etc.). Then, when she's ready, she'll ask you to explain - she'll be more receptive this way.

[iori]

Good move Mark. I tried teaching my wife stick just after we got married, because it was the only car we owned. It lasted 30 minutes after I realized that it was the fastest path to a divorce. Teaching her photography? Forget it; besides, who then is going to carry my camera gear? ;~}

 

I did recently spend five minutes SHOWING my 14 year old daughter how to use the controls on the Rebel XT. I stuck a 50/1.8 lens on it, then took one photo with the lens wide open, and another at f/16. She stared at the small screen, and was amazed by the ability to control DOF. I then swung the camera up to take a picture of the ceiling fan with the shutter at 1/15 second, and again at 1/250. She could not believe the image of the motion freeze.

 

Since then, she has not let go of the camera (which gave me another excuse to finally get the 5D), and has been experimenting with the various controls and taking a ton of images, learning from mistakes. I wish I had unlimited "film" and immediate feedback when I was learning as a kid to use a camera.

 

I've tried this same method with my wife, but she just isn't excited about such things. As another poster said, just put the camera on the Green setting, and let her be. Your marriage will thank you for it.

[les_baldwin1]

OK, there are several issues going on here. First teach composition, not the technical kind but what looks good to her. Too many students are turned off by well meaning teachers trying to show what you know, but instead teach what they want to learn.

 

The issue is not what she learns but when. Take her out and create some pleasing images. Learning to see is and should always be first. The tech parts can come later once she learns to see photographically. I have 30 years of experience as a pro and I both teach and judge. How the camera works can be taught with a piece of cardboard and a small hole (camera obscura). Then when she has questions about how an image is created then you can show the proper technique to get it.

 

Les Baldwin

[SCL]

You're a brave (or incredibly daring) man. I agree with others...let her learn from the course and then ask you specific questions. My wife, who had the opportunity to learn from me and use almost any film or digital camera made, chooses to use drugstore disposables. Why? She reminded me that 39 years ago when we were dating I showed off my camera and shot a whole roll of pictures only to discover no film in my camera...she said with a cheap disposable she won't make that mistake. Go figure:)

[PuppyDigs]

Kodak's "Joy of Photograghy" and the "National Geographic Photography Field Guide" are

great starter books. If that fails, there's always "Photography for Dummies."

[jeff_louie]

I agree. Stick it on green and give her positive feedback on what is good about her

photographs!

[pjmeade]

Hello Mark, I think you have done the right thing in sending your wife to the class.

 

I think you can make a big contribution now, by backing up what the teachers say and by heaping praise on her work.

 

I've been teaching my son to use my old digital camera and I started off with getting him compose and not snatch at the shutter.

 

Cheers. Pete

[bill_thorlin]

"A prophet is without honour in his own country"

 

Let her take the course - only offer opinions, comment and advice when asked - make approving noises about progress and just hope she does not steal your kit!

[nam_nguyen]

Well don't drag god into this. You're on your own on this one.

 

I remember there's a book published by Kodak called Basic Photography, or something like that. It's a small, well illustrated book that covers pretty much everything from f-stop to filters. There could be a latest edition now.

 

Good luck.

[andy_van_eynde]

Found this a nice site that explains a lot of stuff on a simple way (with nice examples).

 

Especially part 2 of this site:

 

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/enjoydslr/

[shawngibson]

I think you should just be patient and do it yourself, it's a wonderful way to grow, and eventually she WILL get it.

 

Don't devlate from the most basic relationships and she'll eventually understand. I mean the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and the relationship between focal length, subject distance and aperture (forget the film plane right now, just if she is using 1.6 crop, add that to the mix when explaining focal length...EXPLAIN it later). The rest relies on those. Separate it into 2 areas (light in the first case, and depth of field in the second) and you've narrowed it down to 2 lessons with no more than 3 variables each that must be understood in her sleep.

 

It works. I've taught dozens of photographers this way, in and out of courses.

 

The rest of the things that happen in photography are nothing more than abstractions of the above.

 

Anything else she wants to know, tell her it's not till lesson 3:) Practical use of exposure can be thought of in a simplified Zone System that uses the historgram (don't blow out the highs etc.). Depth of Field (separating a subject) can be related simply as what is, and is not in focus.

 

And if you talk about them at all in outside the basics manner above you are certain to lose her, no offense, it just works that way. It's like trying to teach someone the numbers from 1 to 10 and at the same time trying to teach them how to add, subtract, etc. One grows from a good understanding of the other, and only adds confusion if you try to teach them both at the same time, I mean the concepts purely first, then the relationships between the concepts next, then the abstractions that come from them, in that order, is best.

 

Just IMHO.

 

Shawn

[shawngibson]

devlate=deviate, sorry:(

[boggy_2]

This would be a good time to explain to your wife that in order to learn correctly that she needs to buy the best lenses and gear available (which co-incidently fits your camera)...

[shawngibson]

Lesson one. Light.

 

CONCEPTS (lesson one):

 

a) Aperture gets bigger or smaller by stops, each one stop allowing 100% more light in, or not in.

 

b) Shutter: gets faster or slower by parts of a second. Double the time means 100% more light.

 

c) ISO is the camera's 'other' way of adding more light, and adds grain as it gets higher. 100% more ISO (i.e., 100 to 200, or 1600 to 3200) ALSO equals 100% more light, and increases grain.

 

RELATIONSHIPS:

 

a) relationship between aperture and shutter speed solely as relates to how much light is getting in

 

b) same as relates to ISO

 

c) wrap up of how the 3 of them get used together.

 

...Most of your work is then done...if she gets that far, the rest will be a joyous moment every time she understands what 'blowing out the highlights' means in practical terms based on the lessons she's learned.

 

Lesson 2 would be a plan of the similar order regarding depth of field.

 

...or something like that.

 

Shawn

[John Crowe]

This is just too funny. This is a challenge we all must face with our non-photography savvy spouses! I got my wife an idiot proof and good quality Elan IIe when they came out about 6-8 years ago. It is still brand new!

 

 

All I get is, "How long are you going to be gone?"

 

 

In her defence when she puts her mind to it she gets some pretty good portraits of the kids. Just does not happen more than twice a year.

 

 

Good luck!

[jim_larson1]

<i>The class idea is good, and you know what? She'll come home and say, real wide eyed, "the instructor said the same thing YOU did!"</i>

<p>

No she won't.

<p>

More likely she will try to show YOU what to do.