I am not the last word or total expert in photography. I have a great deal of experience in photography and have been doing it since the late 60's. I started out with film and a 35mm camera and darkroom. I was also able to get my hands on a digital camera in the early 90's when they first started to become mainstream.

I'm thinking that most people want to learn about how to use all the features of their camera so they can take better pictures.

The lessons are merely a breakdown of all the features most digital cameras offer.

If you want to share your experience and information about a certain subject like f-stops, shutter speed, macro, flash or whatever please do so and start a thread.

I volunteered to take this on because people seemed very interested and do better in learning with 'bits n pieces' rather than the deluge a camera manual dumps on you. I thought a structured lesson plan was the way to go.

I seem to be offending a lot of people and I don't mean to be. If the majority are upset with me taking this on or misinterpreting my attitude then I'll be happy to bow out because this project is going to take a lot of my time and I'll be more than happy to let someone else do what they seem best.

You are a blessing, Anne, and I thank you for all you've taught me so far. The "stand back" is so very valuable for getting good close-up shots. I appreciate all you're doing.

Although some of your info goes over my head, I think I have to be in the water to learn to swim. So I for one appreciate what you have to say. I am starring some pages that I will want to come back to later (when I have learned a bit more and maybe read more of my manual.) That way I can find info. I label it under photography and then the subject so I can find it easier later.

Thanks for sharing with us.

By all means, proceed. I look forward to reading and participating.

Anne, oh my goodness ... I so appreciate you for taking on this project. I haven't taken offense at anything you've posted; I've been browsing some of the threads and you have a wonderful way of explaining things! Thank you so much for taking the time to and share your knowledge!

Thanks but it looks like I don't need to do any more. Everything is getting covered in more depth than I was planning.

I am at a total loss trying to understand how anyone could be offended over you offering to help them learn a little about the basics of photography . I has to be just a misunderstanding of what you are trying to do. I think the hardest lesson to teach will be that "you must understand your camera" in order to take good photos. My camera is not the best in the world, but I do sometimes think the menu structure is the most complicated in the world. After having this camera for years, after reading and studying the manual over and over, I still find new things, and am constantly forgetting the old ones. So my best advice is to buy a camera that you are willing to spend the time to learn about all the "bells and whistles" you paid for. If you don't like to read manuals and don't want to devote time to study details, buy a simple camera, you may not take the best photos in the world but you will at least take photos... instead of getting dejected and aggravated with a complicated camera.

Xeramtheum
Please reconsider your offer, you may be correct in that things are getting covered in more detail than you planned, but that extra detail could be way over the heads of many people coming here looking for help. Photography can become very complicated in a hurry, for many that much complication is not what they are looking for. Most people will find those few tips all that is necessary, only a very few will want to get into all the details of the true hobbyist photographer.

Thanks .. the whole point of what I wanted to do with Photography 101 was to just take apart your camera so to speak and go through the basics. A deluge of information is what kept them from looking at the manual in the first place. The truly awesome posts about f-stops and camera modes in my opinion are perfect for more advanced students that want to dive in deeper.

Xeramtheum said: The truly awesome posts about f-stops and camera modes in my opinion are perfect for more advanced students that want to dive in deeper.

I agree ... and although I scan through some of the more advanced technical stuff being talked about that I don't quite understand, I truly appreciate the tips and knowledge that you are sharing for us novice camera owning folks.

Many years ago when I was in my mid 20's I took a Photography 101 class at our local community college. It was supposed to be a class for beginners but as it turned out, of the @ 35 students there were only three of us in the class who were true beginners and we all ended up dropping the class after the third week because every single session ended up with the instructor and the other students getting off topic and spending the entire class time discussing their advanced cameras, dark rooms, chemicals and film developing etc.

I think that one thing to keep in mind when embarking on a project like this is that people learn (and even store knowledge) in different ways.

For me, it doesn't cut it to have black-and-white (no pun intended), step-by-step instructions to get something done. It's very, very important to me to understand the question or problem conceptually before I try to perform a task (or take a picture). So that's why, in my post about light (lightwriting), I stuck to the mostly conceptual and basic mechanics - providing the info to make good decisions rather than telling someone what to decide. And, if I create any more posts for this section, they'll likely be about (illustrated) concepts as well - why the darned thing behaves the way it does (so the reader can make better guesses about how to get it to behave in ways that created desired outcomes - good shots).

As far as it goes, this site seems to be very, very much about crowdsourcing (photos, info, knowledge, experiences, etc.) and, therefore, I think that in this sub-forum (Photography), posts will probably run the gamuts of simple-complex, conceptual-practical, useful-lessuseful, etc. - but that's part of the nature of the crowdsourcing beast. I think that the best we can hope for is clear, high-quality stuff...and then fill in the gaps (subject matter, level of detail, etc.) as needed/able. Crowdsourcing is a strange animal in that it tends to grow from the bottom up rather than from the top down - in pretty unruly ways. I've never tried it, but I'm guessing that crowdsourcing prescribed/proscribed curriculum would get frustrating pretty fast.

I really like your idea of simple photography posts - and would encourage you not to abandon it. But I also think that there's a place (and interest) for the conceptual as well as more advanced topics. In other words, the audience here (as evidenced by the quality of the photos posted on the site) runs the gamut from novice to skilled professional - and, wonderfully, not only the audience, but the potential contributors to this sub-forum (read: teach me, please).

The one thing that would really, really serve this sub-forum well is organization - the ability to figure out which post to read to get your question answered. There's already a lot of good stuff here and I expect that the body of shared knowledge/experience will grow pretty quickly. Not sure if that's something that anyone wants to take on, but it would be incredibly useful.

Just my .02 on this nascent section - YMMV, of course.

I like the idea of having both novice and advanced information on this forum; there's something for everyone in all stages of camera/photography learning ... it's a good thing!

I am a total novice when it comes to cameras and at my age and with my short attention span and forgetfulness I will surely remain a novice but I still enjoy reading and picking up a few tips here and there that might help me take a better photograph.

I'm an organized person and I like to be able to quickly locate something that I want to re-read again rather than having to go through page after page of info to find what I'm looking for so I've copied and pasted into a word document some of the tutorials here that I want to be able to easily find. :)

I truly appreciate those of you who are offering your camera tips and help on this forum!

Hi and Welcome to ATP!

I totally agree with you. Though I think all the "how to" posts should have something in the subject line of as to level of information. Photography 101 to my mind was about how to access and use all the features on your camera - the mechanics. Ideally keep it short and to the point with weekly installments so people would have time to get comfortable using a specific feature. Information overload in a beginning course in my experience tends to make people tune out.

Your post, Photography 050: Light – ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed and Dirtdorphins, How I learned about F-stops is very far from basic. Both belong in a more advanced category in my opinion and I'm in awe of all the clear information and examples in both posts. But as I already knew a lot of what you both were writing about it was easy for me to read and understand.

Since this thread is about photography, I think each post should reflect on the Subject Line the level of knowledge being covered.

Xeramtheum,
I think "basic" for the advanced photographer has a totally different meaning than "basic" for a beginner.
I would like to suggest you start your own thread something like "Xeramtheum's photo lesson 1" Post the first lesson and let's see what response we get, if it meets your expectations then you can continue on, I think it is hard to get the concept you are proposing for some, they may need to see the first actual lesson. I am sure many people here with simple point and shot cameras still need help with the "bells and whistles" they come with. I am just saying I think you have a good idea and I would like to see it implemented.
I am not sure this is the place to mention this, but the web now has a large portion of the manuals for cameras available, so for those who never had a manual or have lost it you may be able to get a free copy online. I keep mine in my favorites.

plantladylin,
The starred pages feature works great for keeping up with tips in threads here on ATP.

I did post my first lesson called Focus. Perhaps change the title to Learn how to use your camera or something like that.

Oh I was suggesting something like "Lesson 1: Focus", just to make it easier to keep the lessons in order and know when a new one was submitted. It would also come in handy to in case you needed to "refer to lesson one" etc.
I did not see the "Focus" lesson, I will go read it.
Thanks.

Hi evermorelawnless, a big to ATP.

I am hoping none of you that understand photography are going to bow out. As I read the different threads and posts written by all of you it is helping me to see things from different points. Sometimes this is what will make it finally click in my mind.
Please keep up the great work. And I thank you for taking this one.

Seedfork: Yep, I do star some pages ... then forget to look at them. When it's staring me in the face on my desktop I am more apt to notice.