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Vancouver Photo Workshops Review: Clicking with your DSLR

Vancouver Photo Workshops Review: Clicking with your DSLR

Got a new digital camera recently but are wondering how to use it? Many of us know that our digital SLR cameras are pretty slick and have dreams of taking wonderful vivid portraits of our children with beautifully blurred backgrounds, but we get stuck: What’s aperture again? What’s ISO? And how the heck do I get that camera to work?

I’ve been an avid photographer since the eleventh grade when I was taking a graphic design class. Back then, it was pinhole cameras, black and white film (yes film), darkroom processing and a trusty Pentax camera. Over the years, I’ve kept a beginner’s knowledge of how to take photos, but rely pretty heavily on luck and my gut to churn out some decently composed photos. But a few years ago, I treated myself to a Nikon D90 DSLR and while the camera’s auto mode can take remarkable photos, I feel like I could take even better ones if I could master the manual controls.

Enter the Vancouver Photo Workshops, located on West 7th in just west of Main St, which has specific all-day workshops for regular people to get to know their Canon or Nikon DSLRs. The one I signed up for ran on a Sunday afternoon from 10:00am to 5:00pm, including a one-hour break for lunch. You’ll spend the morning in a classroom setting getting to know the various buttons and controls of the camera, including how to change the aperture, white balance, shutter speed and more. Don’t worry if you get a bit confused about what all those things mean or if it might be too boring for advanced users. The instructor had a great balance between imparting the basics as well as teaching more intermediate users a thing or two, including how to get your camera into black and white mode as well explaining how to read the histogram on your camera.

After coming back and snapping some photos over lunch, you’ll spend the afternoon with camera in hand, fooling around with how to make your blacks look more black and your whites look more white, as well as learning a thing or two about white balance – how to get your photos looking less amber or blue, depending on your lighting. You’ll also get a tour of the display functions – like how to turn the beep off – as well as a very fast discussion on how to clean your camera.

If you do decide to sign up, be sure to pack your manual, cords, batteries and lenses. You may find that you forget to charge your batteries and it might be fun to switch up the lenses and see what effect it has on your camera. Also be sure to pack a few extra snacks in your bag since you won’t get a break for three hours.

For $150, the class was worth it – especially considering that I already invested in a fancy camera and wasn’t using even half of its functions. Also, I’m way more informed about what to buy in the future and can now have intelligent conversations with the camera guy behind the counter. I also won’t be wasting my money on stuff that I don’t need.

Vancouver Photo Workshops

14 West 7th Ave (at Ontario), Vancouver
www.vancouverphotoworkshops.com

View Comments (4)
  • Christine, glad you enjoyed your class there. I’ve taken several workshops at VPW (pre kids) and everyone is great there.

  • Hi Christine and thanks for the great post about our school, specifically the 1 day Nikon class.
    I’m glad to read that there is a nice balance for all levels of users. We try really hard to keep the learning fun while being relevant.

    I hope we’ll see you back in the new year for a few more class. As well, if there are any other Mom’s out there with camera questions or problems, we are here to help!

    Thanks Christine!

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