I am not new to photography, I had a have a film SLR camera lens in high school. I was the photographer with the best camera for the school year book, even better than the teacher adviser’s of the photo club. I was not that interest in photography back then. I got into photography because my best friends got a SLR and taking portrait is a cool excuse to ask the girls out. I didn’t touch the SLR since I got my very first digital camera in university. I always boast to my friends who get into DSLR in recent years that I was using SLR long before them. I know the use of shutter, aperture, ISO and filters and how they can affect the photo. However, it quite a shame that I never truly understand theory of photography.

This time when I pick up the DSLR again, I decide to have a complete understanding of photography. I bought a beginner photography book, read it from cover to cover, but still couldn’t get a very clear understanding. I still get the same fuzzy concept I know since my high school days. At last, I decide to learn it hard way. I log on the internet and read how DSLR works. I get to the root of the problem, understand the physics and optics of a SLR. Vola! Suddenly all the pieces fit together and I can link up all the photography knowledge I already know to form a big picture. The technical part of taking a perfect picture is simple. There is only two things you need to care about: exposure and color.

Exposure is controlled by three parameters, ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Shutter speed is the easier to understanding, it’s how long the shutter stays open. In film camera, ISO is the photo sensitivity of the film. In a digital camera, ISO becomes the signal to noise ratio amplifier. Aperture controls how much light arrive the sensor. Choose the right value of the three parameters allow the the senors collects the right amount of photons, so the image will not be too bright or too dark. The histogram is a handy tool to examine the exposure of your photo. The trade off between these three parameters is the artistic part and each one has its pro and con. The higher the ISO, the nosier the image. The slower the shutter speed, the more ghost in the image. The effect of aperture is the hardest to understand. Knowing how depth of field (DoF) works is some real hard physics. It took me almost two hours to completely grasp how the human eye’s field of confusion (FoC) determine the DoF of a given aperture. Color is not a pure optics effect, it is how the thermo-properties of light source affects the sensor. In a film camera, we use color filter correct the color, so a white object will show up being white in the image or we use the temperature of color to introduce mood to the image. In a digital camera, we can simply tweak the RGB algorithm in the sensor to correct the color of the image.

I found one advantage of DSLR over SLR. It is much easier to learn photography using a DSLR. The camera setting is saved with the photo and the image are ready to review instantly. I can take many pictures with different setting and compare the effects side by side. Most important, take photos is virtually free, so I can practice as much as I like. Unlike in the film camera days, buying film is expensive and you have to wait patiently for the film to develop. No wonder we have so many armature photography these days. DSLR really lower the learn curve to become a decent photographer.

I have been resisting the temptation to get a DSLR camera for a long time. Finally I gave up and bought a DSLR camera, Canon 450D. I used to have a film SLR camera when I was in high school, so I am not new to photography. I just have too many other hobbies such that I could not afford to spent any time or money in picking up photography. Well, the camera is not for myself, it’s for my wife. She lost her pocket camera and she want to get a DSLR like her friends, so I buy her a Canon 450D for her birthday present. I compare quite a few of entry level DSLR cameras. I rule out brands other than Canon and Nikon at once. For DSLR camera, there are the top two brands with most support in term of lens and accessories. Then I narrow it down to the choice of Canon 450D and Nikon 90D, since I don’t want to get last year’s model. In the end, Canon is cheaper than Nikon, so I go for the Canon.

I just take a few test shots using the camera. It is quite light. The body is not too big. It fits my wife’s small hand better than the more professional models with bigger body. The kit len is pretty decent. It is a 18-55mm zoom len with image stabilizer. The only complain is the aperture is not big enough, only F3.5. I haven’t take serious photos for many years, so I have forgot most of my photography skills. So I also bought a book on how to become a good photographers using 450D in 7 days. It has lots of illustration on how to use the camera. I guess the only way to become a good photographer is to practice more.

Since the camera is for my wife, I bought her a nice purple camera bag, which is her favorite color. Somehow she think the camera bag is blue, although it says the bag is purple in the tag. I can’t really tell whether the bag is purple or blue, it’s kinda in between. But if the tag says it’s purple, it must be purple.