Has anybody bought educational DVD's to learn their camera? I've been on YouTube and it's almost like overload. Piecing stuff together is kinda hard. Has anybody purchased like a DVD for their specific camera? I've seen them at Best Buy, etc. Any suggestions? It seems like it might be easier to go that route. I have a Canon T6i and want to take portraits of my newborn and maybe do some creative stuff on my own. Thanks in advance.
At times, I get rather "preachy" about the various ways each individual takes in information. For the most part, we all fall into a situation where we are most effective at either the visual, the auditory or the tactile process. No one is purely one or the other, we are all a mix of the three with one being more dominant. And, certainly, these three types are hardly the only styles we use when confronting new information. I do, however, feel you should exam your past experiences and make an attempt to determine which of those three best describes your learning style.
If youtube videos are not helping you, it's highly likely you are simply not going to completely respond to the visual/auditory approach. That would leave the tactile experience as your best bet to learning. I would then say initially you might simply sit down at your table with your camera in hand and the owner's manual open on your computer. Go slowly through the manual, section by section, while handling your camera to follow the instructions in each section. Tactile oriented people also tend to do well when they write down information. Try various settings and take practice shots with each new idea. Keep track of what happens with each practice shot and each setting change. Learn what your camera naturally will do and what/how you can make it do another thing when you want something else.
Are you planing on moving away from the fully "Auto" modes of photography? Canon offers many "styles" of photography which allow the camera to make many automatic settings based on the camera's analysis of the scene. Master these settings in the "creative zone" (portrait, landscape, close up, kids, etc) and you can take pretty good photos with minimal understanding of your camera's operation.
Of course, most camera forums will tell you the real creativity occurs in the "PSAM" zones. These do take slightly more comprehension of the camera and photography as a set of rules but they also allow you to more fully express your thoughts on an image.
Your owner's manual will instruct you as your explore these more sophisticated modes. IMO, for most student photographers, simply going through the manual with your camera in your hands is one of the best, and should be one of the first, lessons available. The manual is also laid out in a step by step fashion where you begin with the simplest information and proceed to the most difficult.
Where did you purchase the camera? Many local camera shops offer free to low cost courses for their clients. For a few more dollars, you can buy a course from a shop even if you didn't buy from them.
You have a rather complicated camera, very much so for a student photographer. Many of its features will never be used by you unless you become very serious about photography. Therefore, I would suggest you take the owner's manual on an as needed basis. Don't overload with information you do not need or do not need today. Come back and read the manual again in, say, a month's time when you have some questions you need answered. The Canon owner's manual will be one of your best tools as a student.
The manual will not, however, make you a better photographer. That's an entirely different subject than simply comprehending your camera and its many controls. How to learn the rules of photography is a topic constantly suggested in camera forums. The archives here are full of such responses. Give the archives a try. You might want to try a basic photography course on line and always have your camera in your hands when reading or viewing. Make the experience tactile and it's likely you will retain more of what you've heard or read.
Don't be concerned about quality at first. Like baking a cake, you learn by doing and doing again. Developing your eye for a good photograph is key and that really isn't covered in most lesson plans. You either "see" or you do not. You either understand "how" or you don't. You can learn but the same rules apply to the skills of photography as they do to learning your camera's operations. You are first going to have to analyze yourself and how you learn and then apply that need to your lessons. Have at it! You can't really hurt anything. From the little you've said, however, I would suggest you keep your camera with you whenever you are taking a lesson.
Plus, you are using a digital camera where you can take 1,000 shots and delete each one without costing yourself a penny. There are no shortcuts to learning photography, experience leads to success. Fire away! The key to photography is, like baking a cake, to begin with the Angel Food before you try the Red Velvet. In other words, step by step and walk before you run.
There doesn't appear to be a DVD for your specific camera though here is a downloadable video;
Canon Rebel T6i T6s Crash Course - Download Only Canon Rebel T6i T6s Crash Course Training Tutorial DVD MTM-T6s-T6i-DNLD - 38.45 Zen Cart The Art of E-commerce
Actually, though the specific feature set and exact lay out are slightly different for each Canon DSLR, all Canon DSLR's operate largely the same way. Virtually any DVD on a recent Canon DSLR can be used to learn the most significant operations of your T6i.
Canon's own on line learning center can give you a good start on your camera and photography in general;
Canon DLC Home
If you care to give youtube another try, place "youtube Canon T6i tips and tutorials" into a search engine. Using your owner's manual as a guide to what to learn first, go through the videos as needed.
Here's another popular Canon learning center;
Canon Tutorials from lynda.com
If you don't find the specific instructions for your camera here, simply try watching a similar video on any Canon DSLR and then find the topic in your owner's manual for more specific instructions.
Finally, here's a simple cheat sheet for your camera;
PhotoBert Cheat Sheet for Canon EOS Rebel T6i 750D DSLR TC159-15
There are any number of instructional tools available on the generic topic of photographing babies and toddlers.
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