5 Steps For First Time DSLR Owners
Congratulations, and welcome to the club! You’ve saved the money and invested in a lifetime and commitment of better picture taking by buying your first DSLR. My guess is that you got tired of looking at your boring, out 
of focus, never-exposed-correctly photos that your old camera was giving you. Now before I give you the false hope that all of your photo nightmares are now behind you, let me assure you that they probably aren’t. In fact, some of them are just beginning. Depending on the level of photography you want to get to, whether it’s just taking better pictures of your kids, or making it in the professional world, there is a LOT to learn about this new piece of equipment you now own. It’s going to get confusing and frustrating at times. You will want to give up and convince yourself that you will never be a good photographer. These feelings are normal, and extremely common. I’m here to tell you that if you stick with it, you WILL get the results you’ve been wanting. It takes a little bit of patience and a lot of practice. Ok, maybe a lot of patience sometimes. I’ve compiled a brief list of things will can jump start your new life of colorful, interesting, well-composed photographs:
1. Take out your manual.
Get to know your camera! You should learn how to make your way around all those menus and options. Find out what those strange icons like the running man, flower, mountains, etc. all mean. Read about M, P, AV, TV, and figure out the differences in each. There are so many things to learn! Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc. etc. etc. If your manual is too wordy/boring for you, go to the bookstore and find a book written specifically for your camera(they have TONS!) and follow along with the colored pictures that are included.
2. Experiment with what you learn.
Have your camera by your side when reading/learning about it. When you find out what TV means, go outside and practice on moving cars. Go to a darker room and try out different ISO’s. Take the same picture with a different white balance every time. When you actually try things out yourself instead of just reading about them, you will catch on 100x quicker.
3. Take advantage of the World Wide Web.
So many people are successful self-taught photographers because there are countless resources available to them on the internet. I would suggest participating in forums where you submit your photos and get feedback on how to improve them. People out there may be brutally honest, but don’t take it personal. They are only trying to help you get better. Flickr is great – and you can join different groups depending on the type of photography you are in to. There are online tutorials for digital photography like you wouldn’t believe! So many people out there are willing to share everything they know to help people like you reach the level of photography you desire.
4. Find a program for your editing needs.
I put this step 4th on purpose. You need to learn how to use your camera BEFORE you start going crazy with the editing. You should work up to the point where you don’t DEPEND on your post processing to get a properly exposed image. There are some free programs that are great for organizing and simple touch ups. Google’s Picasa is very easy to use and has a good amount of features. Another one that is more similar to Photoshop, but is free, is GIMP. If you have the money, go ahead and invest in Photoshop. It is completely overwhelming, but once you get the hang of it, you will be welcomed in to a world of limitless photo manipulation opportunities.
5. Practice, practice, practice, practice.
Enough said.
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No mention of Aperture, Lightroom or shooting in RAW? I think that would be some crucial information for first time DSLR users. Photoshop, GIMP and Picasa are hardly anything I’d recommend to a burgeoning photographer when such great file management and post processing tools can combine the workflow into one swoop while putting just the right tools at your fingertips.
Rob – Thanks for your reply. My main focus in the article was to show the importance of getting to know the camera. Too many people are overlooking the importance of getting the right shot in camera, before any editing programs come in to play. As for shooting in RAW, don’t you think that would be a little overwhelming for a beginner to be dealing with such large files? Yes, I understand that the post-processing is different in RAW, but like I said, I wanted to focus more on the in-camera image they are trying to achieve. Once they can learn how to properly expose and get a good image, then they can start moving on to shooting in RAW, manual mode, and do other things that are considered taking the next step up.
The reasons why I recommended GIMP and Picasa are because they are FREE and easy to use. These are only first steps. Lightroom and Aperture definitely have more to offer, but that’s also more money out of their pocket (that they just emptied for their new camera).
Makes sense. I suppose I’m looking at it with the assumption that most people aren’t going to spend the money on an SLR if they don’t generally know how to do the basics of photo editing and management.
Also, I always tell folks new to RAW to use it immediately, because those mistakes that you learn how to fix later down the line via post processing are much easier to fix with the flexibility of RAW rather than jpeg. We learn new tricks every single day, and since I’ve shot in RAW since day 1, I’ve been able to look back in my archive and resurrect photos that may have been a lost cause had I shot in Jpeg.
Rob – good point about shooting in RAW. That’s definitely something to keep in mind, because you never know what you can make of those old photos you thought were worthless! I appreciate your feedback!
why the need to manipulate photos so much, its crazy all the work that people do on photos in photoshop
Margaret- Photoshop offers so many opportunities to help people get the final images they want…whether it is just a slight sharpening or contrast boost, or a dramatic, commercialized look. Depending on what type of photographer you are will determine how much you need a program like Photoshop.
Also, you’ve got to consider that since the dawn of photography there has always been a certain amount of control over the final image, what you would refer to as post processing. With film, when you print you have full control over the contrast, exposure, crop and tonality of the image. Using the enlarger which exposes the negative onto the larger surface you can even darken and lighten certain spots, and some photographers developed incredible talent for creating completely surreal images using nothing but an enlarger, even to the extent you see photoshop used today. The use of photoshop and other image editing tools today simply mirror the tools of yesteryear. I can choose to limit myself to the basic things, like correcting exposure, white balance, cropping, or I can go just as far as the earliest photographers were able to and create a completely new image from what I’ve captured.
The short end of it is that post-processing is part of the photographic process, and how involved that process is is determined by the image you wish to create.
Rob – well said!
IMHO: I think Picasa is a great introduction into photo editing. I’ve been using Photoshop for over a decade and have been using Lightroom on larger projects for almost a year but for quick edits and personal pix I find I can fly through Picasa faster. This may change when I get more used to Lightroom. I love that Picasa also supports RAW files. It’s got to be one of the best free software packages available on the web.
Defiitely agree with shooting RAW from the very beginning, it really doesn’t provide a steep learning curve and file sizes aren’t out of hand. Besides, if you are spending the money on a DSLR I assume majority of people want to get the most out of it quality and editability wise.
I am a beginner to DSLR and I found this interesting. I agree with all your points, in fact I did all the things you said (Im still doing it as I found this site while researching LOL)
I will also agree with the comment about people going to DSLR might have a *small* idea about basics and need advice on other things – like RAW and software options. But then thats what sites like this are for!