Digital Photography for a Novice

I never really understood why photography enthusiasts loved to take pictures. A friend of mine had 4 digital SLR’s and I asked him why he had to buy 4 cam’s to which he replied “it all depends on the type of shot your gonna take, the situation, the scene, the moment…” Gibberish I said to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I like taking pictures but I’m more of the point and shoot guy and I’ve never really paid attention to “detail” or “composition” or what the heck the “rule of thirds” is. Add to the fact that I grew up with the old school cameras which had film in them, you wouldn’t really see your work not until you had it developed. I remember when I was a teenager I wished that one day cameras would have the technology of seeing the shot taken immediately not like Polaroid cameras but you know film type cams. I didn’t really know how inventors would do it but I’d use to think that cameras should have that option.

Fast track a few years later, that wish actually came true! The dawn of the digital world has finally arrived and lo and behold digital photography has taken the world by storm. Before you knew it even cell phones had cameras in them too! Heck even laptops have ‘em. Ah yes, the convenience of taking that shot and seeing it immediately is such a joy (or drag depending on the quality of your composition). But you see the great thing about it is, just delete it and take another shot! And you go can do this over and over again to your heart’s content.

How cool is that? With the advancement in technology you can even “tweak” your picture using any kind of photography software out there in the market free or otherwise (you wanna change your complexion? Don’t bother with glutathione! Just Photoshop it!). So with all this happening and having no digital cam myself I decided to get 1. A simple point and shoot camera (Sony Cybershot DSC S730) was all I could afford. It was a pretty decent camera, decent pictures, not so great though in low light conditions but hey who could complain? With the right moment and right lighting the cam delivered. Then again as time goes by I needed something more, something better. A cam that can take pictures even better!

So I bought another cam (after painstakingly paying it for a year) this time it was a Sony A200. My whole world changed with photography when I got it. But this is article is not about reviewing the sony A200 rather it’s an article that would help the common layman have a taste of digital photography. I know how it feels to look at a camera over a store and wonder if it works well. So here it is, I hope the following articles I’ll submit will help you decide on what kind of Digital camera you’ll get to use. For the novice I won’t go into fancy technicalities as a lot of people will just boil it down to this question “will it take great pictures?” I’m sure other people in the digital photography community will contribute here as well. Good and bad feedback is always welcome.

Anyway, a lot of factors come in when trying to decide on what kind of camera you’ll get. There’s the price of the cam, how well it performs, portability, design, how good it feels in your hands, and of course how well it gives you precious memories or pictures. In our next article we will try and explain these factors. In the mean time for the novice enthusiast, welcome to digital photography!