Help for New Digital Camera Owners

Get a digital camera this Christmas? These classes can help.
LINDSAY CHRISTIANS | The Capital Times | lchristians[at] madison [dot] com | Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 

New digital cameras can be daunting for first-time users.

Instructor John Lorimer sees two kinds of people attending his classes on digital photography.

First are the ones who were nervous when they opened that new Canon from their grandkids this past Christmas. Some have even been shooting film for years, but digital is a different story. They have questions: What are all those settings? Do they have to use a computer? Once they take the pictures, how do they develop them?

“They want to take pictures the same way they shot with a point and shoot disposable camera,” said Lorimer, who teaches photography at local senior centers through Madison Area Technical College.

The second group is slightly more advanced. The 1,500 pictures they shot in Europe came out fine, mostly, but the photos don’t have that “wow” factor. They don’t impress people.

For this group, Lorimer spends time on how to compose photos in difficult situations, like backlit scenery or sporting events.

“There are a lot of people who have these fancy cameras and they don’t know what to do with them,” said Laura Malischke, who took a class from Lorimer in 2005 and is now a professional photographer. “They have a $4,000 camera they don’t know how to use, or they don’t know how to relate it to film.”

When she took Lorimer’s class, “I didn’t know anything about photography except I really liked taking photos,” Malischke said. “I was a raw beginner.”

That’s where teachers like Lorimer can help. Through MATC, the Camera Company and the Center for Photography in Madison, novice photographers and established camera buffs can take classes to expand their skills, from advanced SLR (single-lens reflex) to just learning how to turn the darn things on.

Digital cameras can cause panic in the computer-phobic. But Lorimer said there are ways to develop digital photos without ever using a computer, by dropping a memory card off at Walgreens, for example. Also, since Lorimer is in the same age group as some of the most nervous students (he’s 69), he knows how to relate shooting digital pictures to the film his students are more familiar with.

He uses examples like this: You’re on vacation, and you’re shooting inside a famous cathedral where you can’t use flash. Previously, you had to waste the rest of the film you were using outside, change the film to a different speed, then when you’re done shooting inside, waste the rest of that film and change it again.

Now you just adjust a setting. No waste.

“That’s what hooks them,” Lorimer said. “You can do things you couldn’t do before.”

Daniel Rich teaches an introductory class at the Center for Photography at Madison, as well as a course on good techniques where he goes over seven photo killing mistakes. These include backlit pictures, where the subject is in silhouette; focusing challenges and shutter speed problems.

“Snapshots are taken, photographs are made,” Rich said. “That quotation goes way back to Ansel Adams in the 1940s. A really good photograph, the kind you see in museums or art exhibits, the photographer knows what they are looking for.”