drparker
Premium Member
If your shooting in auto taking lots of pictures wont help. Once you move to one of the priority modes or full manual then you get the benefit of taking 20 pictures of the same thing with different settings and learning how the settings relate to each other and how they affect the shot. This will teach you how to get fussy backgrounds or crystal clear, how to blur motion or freeze it.
There is not one right exposure for a given photo, it's up to you the photog to decide the feel or mood you want. Work through the book on how Aperture, Shutter and ISO affect your shots. Once you understand this then you can use any camera.
Our cameras have tons of buttons and features. Read through the manual and ask here about features you don't understand or ask over at P.O.T.N.
I will strongly suggest that you shoot raw and not jpg. With jpg a computer in the camera processes the raw image making change to white balance and other settings then compressing it tossing out a ton of the original information your camera captured. By working on the raw files you will see exactly the photo you took and then with software be able to make the changes you want not the ones the camera picked.
Some people have a hard time learning from a book but do great with auditory or visual learning. If you have a hard time learning from a book then by all means take a class. Make sure it's specifically for DSLRs and not just a digital class as the later will waste a lot of your time on P&S stuff you don't care about. Another problem with some of the classes I've attended is that they spend way to much time on how a digital camera and sensor work. While you might find it interesting it has nothing to do with taking photos. I've found that Bryan's book covers everything they do with the exception of how the buttons on your model camera work.
Once you've got the basics down from this book or class Bryan has another book called "Learning to see Creatively" that is excellent. He has exercises/ assignments through out the book that are designed to help you see the hidden picture.
Take the plain old shot of the swing set with jr on it. Instead of standing, lay down on the ground and take it with a blurred background because you've opened the aperture wide. These kinds of simple things will transform the pictures you take from everyday snap shots to more compelling photographs.
Good luck. And most importantly relax and enjoy your new toy!
