The Secret To Learning Digital Photography

The secret to learning digital photography is a relatively simple one... you just have to realize that it is basically the same as film photography. Once you truly get that - the rest is a snap.There are only 2 main differences between film photography and digital photography...First: There is a difference in the way the light is recorded. Now we record light by using a digital sensor where historically light was recorded on film.Second: We end up with our images on a digital memory stick rather than a film negative. So this makes it possible to see our photos immediately rather than waiting for the local one hour lab to process our negatives and to print our photos. We simply download the images from the memory stick and into our computer.The purists among us feel that film still produces a better photo, but with all the recent scientific advances in digital - only the most discerning eye can tell the difference. And only then if it is enlarged to a huge size.So basically, in learning digital photography we still need to follow the basic steps we have always followed:Learn how the shutter speed affects our photos and when to use a fast one or a slow one to reach our creative goals.Next we have to understand the f-stop settings and how they creatively affect our photos.Once these basics are under our belts, then it's time to study light and how to manipulate it to turn a drab unappealing scene into one that adds the jaw dropping "wow" factor into our photos.Toss in some study of and practicing the various poses and we will have all the skills we need to shoot stunning photos - whether film or digital.At this point in our progress, we see the biggest advantage of digital over film photography...ease in manipulation.Retouching and photo manipulation is an important part of the creative process and digital makes this easy for anyone! It used to be extremely difficult to make changes and retouches on film but now, a few minutes in any basic photo editing program - and we can ALL look like pros.So the secret to learning digital photography is not to be too concerned with the fact that it's digital - it's just a storage medium - learn the basics of good photo techniques and you will do fine.