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Welcome to Digital Photography, Newbie!
14 January 2025
The first tool you need to make a photograph is, of course, a camera with some sort of lens on it. But for many newbies, that's where the investigation stops. They've been misinformed by their experience taking pictures with phones.
Welcome. Start with a camera but don't skip the software.
In fact, nearly any recent camera will admirably answer that first need, even used cameras if you can't afford a new one. Manufacturer refurbs (that come with guarantees) and the used market (keh.com, for example) are loaded with good options. Just do a little price research first.
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Moving up from a phone, though, does introduce a few new wrinkles in making photographs.
Among the general things to consider:
- Sensor size: There are full-frame (35mm equivalent), APS-C and Four Thirds size sensors, in order of size. What matters about this is that the larger the sensor, the larger (and more expensive) the lenses. Some full-frame cameras can be quite cumbersome.
- File Format: Cameras record sensor data in several formats: Raw (which varies by manufacturer), JPEG and HEIF (like a phone). To get the most out of the data, shooting Raw and post-processing in applications like Lightroom is standard practice. Which is quite a bit different from a phone, which relies on computational photography algorithms to improve the image.
- Lenses: Whichever body you invest in will have a wide range of lenses to use with it from wide angle to telephoto.
- Viewfinder: Not all cameras include a viewfinder but it's essential if you shoot outdoors in sunlight, which makes the monitor difficult to see.
- Flash: Not all cameras include a popup flash. Sensors are so sensitive these days, you may not need flash as much anymore but it can still be handy (or phones wouldn't have them).
Some of the more respected manufacturers are Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Panasonic, OM System and Sony. Here are a few of their entry-level offerings to consider:
- Canon R10
- Fujifilm X-T30
- (OM System) Olympus E-M10 Mark IV
- Nikon Z f, Z50 II
- Sony V-E10, A7C
Once you're acquired a camera, charge its battery and meanwhile skim through the manual so you'll know where to find answers when you are trying to learn how to use your new gear.
MORE ON FILE FORMATS
You may be used to capturing photos as HEIF or JPEG files, often heavily manipulated by the phone's processor to optimize the image.
But on a digital camera, that HEIF and JPEG processing does not intrude on your image nearly as much. Depending on your camera settings it may only compress the data from the sensor.
To get the most out of any capture, you'll want to work with the raw data captured by your camera's sensor on your computer. You record that data as a Raw file, whose format varies by manufacturer. Nikon records NEF Raw files, Canon CRW Raw files, Olympus ORF, and so on.
Adobe has, for many years, offered a standard Digital Negative Format that all of those can be converted to for subsequent processing. We convert all our proprietary Raw formats to DNG automatically when we copy the files from the memory card to our computer.
We also only shoot Raw. No JPEG (or HEIF). In fact, every Raw has a JPEG thumbnail you can easily extract to see for yourself what a lousy job you camera does with the data it records.
SOFTWARE
So what do you do with those Raw files? You process them in image editing sofware.
That scares a lot of photographers (not just newbies) but there's nothing to be frightened about. It's actually half the fun of taking a photo.
And we don't mean the fun of applying "filters." We mean the fun of adjusting the tonality and color of an image to bring out whatever it was you saw when you pressed the shutter.
Tonality? Color? These are topics that never come up in phoneography. But you can't escape them in photography. Tonality is the darkness and lightness range of an image measured as if it were a recognizable black-and-white capture. Color is just the hues applied to varies areas of an image, which in themselves present an unrecognizable map of your image.
With image editing software, you can easily shift tones, making some darker and some lighter, as well as adjust color. That's what goes on behind the curtain with filters, anyway. The difference is that you are making the decisions, not some formula.
If you are working with Raw files (which are not images, strictly speaking), there are a lot of image editing software options. Some are free, some paid, some subscription. Even the paid ones offer a free trial, though, so you have no excuse not to see what you'd be missing if you don't want to buy in.
But just as you bought in to a camera, we suggest you buy into your image editing software. Don't ignore subscription-based options. They may turn out to be cheaper (not to mention more responsive with new features and fixes) than buying a license that turns out to require an update each year. And don't get frustrated with free software when there's so much mature software available for a price.
We have used everything over the years. On both macOS and Windows.
We rely on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, both of which use Camera Raw, but we have been impressed with DxO's PhotoLab (which knows more about your camera and lens than Adobe) and Exposure X.
But you might start with the free Gimp just to get your feet wet. Or whatever your computer came with, like Photos on macOS.
PRINTING
With a phone, it was easy to share photos by texting them to whoever you wanted. With digital photography, it's not quite so easy.
Yes, there are online services like Flickr that allow you upload your edited images for sharing. And Google Photos still does allow that too.
But every now and then you'll be so pleased with a picture you don't want to stop looking at it. So you'll want to print it. And frame it. And hang it on the wall. Or make a present of it.
Digital photography is just more precious than phone photography (and we take a lot of iPhone shots here and even print them once in a while).
We won't get much into this because it's another can of worms. Ink sets, calibration, paper profiling, types of paper all come into it. So if your first attempts are disappointing, don't despair.
Instead, upload your image to a photo printing company and see what they can do with it. WhiteWall is one of the best.
CONCLUSION
It isn't like us to avoid linking to the companies we've named but in this case we have because they're only suggestions to get you thinking.
And there's a lot to think about.
None of it, represents obstacles so much as opportunities to make more choices about what you image can become. And choices are the name of the game. Your choices.
That's why we say editing is half the fun of making photographs (which we'd never say about printing). It gives you more choices than what the camera on its own can do.
Enough from us. Your battery is charging, skim the manual. And enjoy a new level of fun in photography!