Back to Basics: Starting Photography All Over Again

It's been a while since the last time I wanted to study photography. When I had my first SLR camera, an entry-level Canon T60 with an f/1.8 50mm prime lens, it took me a while to learn the ins and outs of the camera as well as photography in general. (I guess being a techie, I have to look at the objective with the tool in mind.)

There was a point in time that I was pretty much into the technical details of it, that I always had a ready roll of film somewhere. The subjects were whatever was available. Good thing that the subjects were fun to be with, the kids were growing, and there were a lot of activities at the time.

My son is now into photography (he has his own SLR, a Nikon D80 and lenses, which was given to him by my brothers). But my daughter, Darwi was the one who was my proxy when I was still using the Canon T60. She was not yet 10 years old at the time. Don't let the glasses fool you, she has sharp eyes. Though nowadays, Kenneth is producing better pictures, regardless of the camera used.

Even when the flash unit gave in and died on me, I was still using the camera, mainly for available light photography. Mind you, I had a very good grasp of flash photography. With a manual control, you only need to set the f-stop and shutter speed, get the focusing distance, and shoot like mad with no other adjustment, with the limiting factor being the flash unit. But when that flash finally died, I had no other choice but to be good at making do with available light. (Money was tight and I was not too keen on buying a new flash unit.)

Since I stopped using the SLR, I tried to keep up with the technology. I even had the chance to work for a technical support account which had a lot of cameras to play with. We were supporting the software, but we had the cameras which bundled the software. That was fun, specially when the accounts supporting the camera brands had to ask our help with their tech support calls. I had a chance to handle Sony CD and DVD cameras, along with an early model Cybershot, Fuji and Kyocera cameras, and a Pentax point-and-shoot.

Compared to today's cameras, these had a smaller size pixel count, and relatively rudimentary features. But the great part about these cameras was that the team was on the ground floor of digital still photography (and video) technology.

Along with the software and cameras, the account also had two Macs (an iMac running OS 9, and a laptop running OS X). Now that was the real wow factor back then.

Even after leaving that account, I have had the opportunity to play around with some cameras, and learning their idiosyncracies. Yes, these individual camera models have personalities, quirks, and eccentricities which makes each camera model unique. The key to understanding digital cameras is to stay within the common denominators.

I'm trying to study photography again, from scratch, and I'm starting with RAW files. One thing I've learned through the past few years is that my kids, Kenneth and Darwi, have a better eye for photography than I do. I have no plans of being better than they are, when it comes to taking pictures. I just know that every so often, I can still surprise them with a trick I know. Besides, when it comes to technical, and post, I have more patience than they do. RAW files need a certain amount of patience.

I choose RAW files because of several factors. RAW files (files not picture files) contain all available data, whereas JPEG is a compressed picture file. When editing a file, subsequent edits will degrade the JPEG. Consider RAW files as digital negatives, and JPEGs as prints. Editing the prints (JPEG), you have to blow it up, shoot it again, and then develop. Something like that.

RAW files, however are large. Supposedly, your shots will slow down because of the large file size being saved. But if the camera has a slow burst speed, this is irrelevant. And if you're using flash, the flash cycle time is the limiting factor. In terms of storage, I'd rather have multiple small capacity SD cards, rather than a really large card. And besides, with a 4GB card, that's good for almost 200 RAW files. (Thinking in terms of old school film SLR, that's almost 6 rolls of film.)

Maybe I'll get there, but I'm giving myself six months working at this, to get to a level where I'm comfortable with my technical skill and knowledge. Hopefully, by then I can get better with an eye on the subject.

Unfortunately, for now, the above is an unedited JPEG.

Update: Below the JPEG from the converted and edited (fine-tuned?) RAW file.