Schierer Space

Some friends of mine have recently taken the plunge into the world of digital SLR cameras. For those who aren’t sure if they really want to go there, please take a look at my dated but still relevant series on choosing a digital camera.

For those of you who have that new shiny complicated D-SLR, here are few pieces of advice in approximate order of importance. Most of them involve buying stuff (of course!) so the approximate damage to your budget is given. This is probably going to get long, so here’s a summary list and the fold.

1. Take some pictures. ($0)
2. Always use the camera strap. ($0)
3. Get extra media. ($10-30)
4. Get an extra battery. ($30-50)
5. Buy a UV filter for your lens. ($10-30)
6. Make sure to backup your images. ($30-50)
7. RTFM (more than once!) ($0)
8. Get a bigger bag than you think you’ll need. ($30-75)
9. Take a class and/or do some research. ($0-100)
10. Get decent editing software. ($0-350)
11. Accessorize! ($25-2500)

Ok here we go with the details….

1. Take some pictures. ($0) Yes, really. The first step is to snap away like its going out of style. Don’t worry, it’s not, and you won’t be wasting anything.^[1] I say this because none of the accessories and advice below will make any sense if you don’t at least have some basic idea what your camera is doing when you push the button.
2. Always use the camera strap. ($0) I had to put this near the top because I have actually dropped my camera. ^[2] You’ll really wish you had taken the 1.2 extra seconds to put the strap around your neck. It’s adjustable, so put it wear it’s comfortable. I like it to reach just below my ribcage, also this makes slinging it around my neck and one arm much more comfortable. Camera falling from great height (>6 inches) bad. You were warned.
3. Get extra media. ($10-30) I recommend that whatever media your camera uses you buy at least two cards. Get cards big enough for about 100 images in the maximum format of your camera. If this is too rich for you, at least 50, but I’ve been known to blow 100 shots in an hour or two on occasion. I say two cards because you should never leave your camera without media in it. No, you won’t hurt it to leave it empty, but the moment that camera body has no card in it will be the moment your kid does a handstand while playing Bach on his toy guitar, or the Ivory Billed Woodpecker lands at your bird feeder. Empty camera bad. You were warned.
4. Get an extra battery. ($30-50) Along the same lines as the previous item. If you have only one battery, it will inevitably run out just before your kid scores the winning goal. Also, the batteries take a few hours to charge, so you’ll want to have one in the camera while the other is on the charger. In addition, for you northerners (like me) you will find that battery life decreases quickly in cold weather. I love to take pictures in the snow, so if I’m heading out on an extended trip, I keep one battery inside my coat and the other in the camera. When the camera complains that the battery is dead, I swap them. Dead battery bad. You were warned.
5. Buy a “UV filter” for your lens. ($10-30) So you have your brand new camera and your brand new lens^[3] and you focus in on that precious shot of your child hugging the baby deer when suddenly AAhhhh-chooo!, your child sneezes all over your camera. Good luck getting that out of the grooves on the inside of the lens. Those grooves, by the ways, are actually threads placed there for the specific purpose of allowing you to mount various filters. Some are for color, polarizing, variable light across the lens, or other effects, but the “UV Filter” is essentially a piece of clear optical glass. They would call it “disposable lens protector” but then people would wonder why it costs $20. If the sneeze doesn’t get your photographer’s eye twitching imagine a snowball, or a branch snapping back in the woods, or a rock kicked up by a passing car… As your lenses get pricier (and they will), you’ll thank me more. Broken glass bad. You were warned.
6. Make sure to backup your images. ($30-50) I’ve written a whole post on how to do an effective backup. Go read it if you want to know how. It’s never been easier to make sure that all yoru family memories are saved in event of emergency. Hard drives are small, portable and relatively rugged. Any backup is good, off-site is best. Lost data bad. You were warned.
7. RTFM (more than once!) ($0) I know that you’re too much of a MAN to read the manual, but I find that you’ll need to read it at least three times. The first time through read it darn near cover to cover^[4] with the camera close at hand. Find each button and menu they mention. No, you won’t remember everything, but you won’t have a chance to even know what features you’re missing if you haven’t seen them all once. You’ll want to read the manual again after you get comfortable with every day shooting.^[5] You’ll “discover” all sorts-of features that will make you say “So that‘s how that works” or my favorite: “I knew there had to be a way to do that.” The third (and more) reading will come only when you’re trying to do something you’ve never done before and have that faint glimmer that this situation sounds familiar. (No warning this time.)
8. Get a bigger bag than you think you’ll need. ($30-75) You’ll fill it eventually. Or if not, it will make a nice bonus for whoever you sell your camera to.
9. Take a class and/or do some research. ($0-100) I’ve done both. I’m a gadget geek so learning the details about how the camera operates the lens and shutter to expose the image is beautiful to me. Your mileage may vary. Even if you’re a dedicated “Auto” shooter, or dabble only rarely in “Program” mode knowing how the camera works helps immensely. Knowing how the camera reacts (and the resulting image is formed) when facing particular lighting, or subjects can make a big difference in the quality of your images. I found a local community college and took an online course in basic photography. It wasn’t a ridiculous commitment, but mostly the assignments gave me the excuse to go out and try shooting subjects I wouldn’t normally shoot. I think my photography improved, or at least, i think it made me a better critic of my own shots.
10. Get decent editing software ($0-350) If you’re lucky, your camera came with something decent. It’s hard to say what ‘decent’ is, but the three things I adjust the most on my images is:
    • Crop (Changing ratio, changing emphasis, removing a stray tree branch, etc.)
    • Exposure (brightness/contrast/gamma)
    • White-balance (color temperature/hue/saturation)

    Rare is the image where the basic “digital-negative” adjustments are insufficient and yet it’s worth the effort to ‘save’ it. Even rarer are those images where no adjustment is necessary. The camera is automatic, but not perfect. ^[6] Sometimes, you’ll even have to fudge the exposure down a stop to get a low-light picture without excessive shake… or noise. I use an older version (CS2) of Adobe Photoshop, which is pretty much the defacto standard for image processing, but Photoshop Elements is cheap and pretty good. If you want to go open-source and free-of-charge, try GIMP. There’s even a “feel like Photoshop” add-on for it. Remember, even Ansel Adams tweaked his exposures when he developed his famous images. Read about “The Zone System“.

11. Accessorize! ($25-2500) Tripods, flashes, remote controls, more lenses and even more lenses. You can spend hundreds easily and thousands without trying to hard. I won’t even attempt to advise what you should get first in the very broad world of camera gadgets. You should decide based on what types of picture you find that you are taking the most, or perhaps, what kind of pictures you wish you could be taking. Some quick guidance despite my better judgment: Low-light or portraits? Tripod (see also fast lens). Interiors? Flash. Distance? Long lens. Quick motion? Fast lens. Detail shots? Macro lens. Astrophotography or time-lapse: Remote/Timer.

Most of all, have fun and good luck. Did I miss something? Put it in the comments.

1. Technically, there is a limited lifetime on the few mechanical components, such as the shutter curtain. Typically, an entry level DSLR will have well over 20k activations before any real degradation will occur. Some sources say the mean value is more like 50k. If you should wear it out, a few hundred bucks and a certified technician will have you back up and trigger happy in no time. [↩]
2. Although honestly, it was the strap that did me in that time… but I assure you it has saved me far more times from far more catastrophic losses. [↩]
3. You remembered to buy a lens, right? [↩]
4. Except for the foreign language bits. [↩]
5. You’re not shooting every day? Not even once a week!? Go back to advice number 1! [↩]
6. This is also true because I shoot exclusively in RAW format. This means that I have to process the “digital negative” to produce an image in a conventional format (like .jpg, .tif). I can theoretically use the camera defaults, but I rarely do. [↩]

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Advice, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.