Helping parents new to digital photography?

[tink774]

I am hoping that you photographers can help me! And I apologize if this post runs on a bit long. My family (myself, my sister, and our parents) made the transition to digital photography a few years ago, and now we've all had at least one camera each. We're all still using point-and-shoot cameras, because none of us has the $$ to upgrade to DSLRs (although I'm hoping to get one in the future!).

Anyway, last year for her birthday we got my mom her very own digital camera, I believe it's from the Kodak Easyshare line. And my dad just got my sister's old digital camera (sorry, but I can't remember what kind it is) after she bought a Coolpix. And although they've had a couple of years' experience using standard point-and-shoots, their pictures have not been improving. I don't want to sound mean at all, but most of the pictures that they take do not come out well. My sister and I are by no means pros at taking photos, but we both enjoy candid shots and taking the time to get to know the various features on our digital cameras so that we can enjoy our picture-taking and constantly try to improve our techniques.

Our parents, however, love to take photos of their family but haven't taken the time (or had the opportunity) to become familiar with different techniques or different types of shots. For example, they really only prefer to take shots of someone posing and saying "Cheese!" next to something. If the person or people in the photos aren't looking at the camera or if they aren't standing next to something cool (like Mickey Mouse, for example), then a photo just isn't worth taking. My sister and I LOVE to take various photos around the WDW area of all of the scenery, and our parents constantly complain that they don't understand why we're wasting film when no one is featured in our photos. And when we try to take candids of them, they gripe because we're wasting memory cards on photos where they're not doing anything "cool." Also, they are notoriously bad at paying attention to the details such as framing, red-eye, flash, focus, etc. When they frame pictures, they try to get too much in one shot, and the result is that the main focus of the picture is often lost to too much background. In short, they don't seem to have developed an eye for new photo opportunities outside of the standards or learned some of the basics for taking good shots.

I understand you can't FORCE someone to take an interest in anything, but I feel that because they do enjoy taking photos of our family on their cameras, teaching them some basic techniques would be beneficial. We're taking a family trip to Hawaii next month as kind of a last family trip before all of the kids are moved out (I'm already moved out, and my sister will be leaving their home in the fall for college). There are going to be so many awesome opportunities for photos, both posed and candid, of our family and the beautiful scenery on this trip.

What I am hoping that you photographers can help me with is recommendations for any books or other inexpensive programs to help them learn some of these basics. I'm not looking for anything too fancy, since we are still on the point-and-shoot cameras and not the amazing ones that you all use. But if you know of anything that could help them learn more about how to use their cameras and develop some basic skills for taking the photos that they want, I would be so grateful! I intend on taking tons of photos on this trip, and I'm hoping that they can learn to enjoy photographing some things on their own and come back with some great shots that we can all treasure. I'm hoping for something geared towards amateurs that would be easy for them to follow to make the most out of their digital photography.

Thank you all so much in advance for any help with this! And I apologize for this beast of a post.

 

[VVFF]

I'm afraid my answer doesn't match the detail of your question but I say let them take the pictures they want. Not everyone cares about framing and little details. Some people just want a record of where they were on what day and their snapshots accomplish that. If they aren't complaining that their photos are no good I see no reason to try to force technique on them.

 

[tink774]

I'm afraid my answer doesn't match the detail of your question but I say let them take the pictures they want. Not everyone cares about framing and little details. Some people just want a record of where they were on what day and their snapshots accomplish that. If they aren't complaining that their photos are no good I see no reason to try to force technique on them.

Thanks for your input, and I guess I should have mentioned that they ARE interested in learning better ways to take pictures. For example, for my birthday my dad gave me a framed photo from a recent WDW trip, and he apologized that the framing on the picture was off and said he wasn't sure how to properly use the zoom features and get the photo he wanted.

Like I said, I understand that you can't force an interest on anyone. It's not like I looked at their photos, thought "Gee, these suck," and decided to not-so-subtly push my ideas on them.

 

[tink774]

Maybe I should post an example of what I'm talking about.

Back story for the photo: We were at the MK for my birthday, and I specifically wanted to get my picture taken on the Dumbo ride. I'm a bit sentimental, and it was my favorite ride as a kid so my father wanted to ride it with me and take my picture. I didn't give him any specifics, just asked for a photo of me in the elephant. I know that everyone frames photos differently, but this wasn't quite what I wanted.

Now I admit that this was a selfish instance because the picture was one that I personally wanted, not just one that my father wanted to take. So it doesn't really fit under the "they only want posed 'Cheese!' photos" description from earlier.

 

[YEKCIM]

Something simple like a little cropping and red-eye removal would help a lot in the example you posted. Picasa is a free download and is a pretty comprehensive little editing program that will do what I suggested above, and more. My personal experience is that taking the photo is only the beginning of the process. Editing is often the key to making a so-so photo, a good photo.

~Y

 

[pyrxtc]

I do ahve to say that taking a picture in the dark wiht a P&S camera is hard to do. I can still tell you are in Dumbo. If he had moved back or taken it more from the front then chances are the flash would not ahve lit you up enough to see you and it would have just been Dumbo in the picture and a black spot sitting in him.

Eliminating red eye ina dark picture is hard even wiht the camera doing all the work.

 

[YesDear]

Why not plan a family outing one day if they are close by and go to a park etc and have a photo event. Everyone take their cameras and try taking pictures together. Since you can see the shot after it is taken, you take one you like and help them take the same shot. You get to spend time with them and they get hands on instruction in a fun setting. You might want to learn their cameras. Also a good hint is to make sure they have the same camera as you so you can share tips!

 

[tink774]

Something simple like a little cropping and red-eye removal would help a lot in the example you posted. Picasa is a free download and is a pretty comprehensive little editing program that will do what I suggested above, and more. My personal experience is that taking the photo is only the beginning of the process. Editing is often the key to making a so-so photo, a good photo.

~Y

Thank you for your suggestion! I've been using Photoshop 7.0 for a couple of years now, so I'm very familiar with the basic editing of photos whereas my parents are not. I tried to show my dad how to use some of the editing features, and he just found it daunting. But I will be sure to suggest something like Picasa to them in case they ever want to try editing their own photos again. Thanks!

I do ahve to say that taking a picture in the dark wiht a P&S camera is hard to do. I can still tell you are in Dumbo. If he had moved back or taken it more from the front then chances are the flash would not ahve lit you up enough to see you and it would have just been Dumbo in the picture and a black spot sitting in him.

Eliminating red eye ina dark picture is hard even wiht the camera doing all the work.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I guess I should have found a daylight picture to use as an example. But I was referring less to the red-eye (I have blue eyes, and I rarely ever don't get red-eye) and the darkness (could possibly be fixed in a photo-editing program) and less to just the framing. I don't know what specifics I could have given to suggest anything different, though. Thank you!

Why not plan a family outing one day if they are close by and go to a park etc and have a photo event. Everyone take their cameras and try taking pictures together. Since you can see the shot after it is taken, you take one you like and help them take the same shot. You get to spend time with them and they get hands on instruction in a fun setting. You might want to learn their cameras. Also a good hint is to make sure they have the same camera as you so you can share tips!

I'm grateful for the suggestion! Unfortunately they live in a city where there aren't many parks left, but we might be able to find something. I owned a camera very similar to the one that my mom uses a few years ago, so maybe I can personally help her with it. But I'm as new to my dad's camera as he is, so unless he finds the manual we're both going to have to learn it from scratch. As I said, I don't live with them anymore and I'm over eighty miles away so we haven't had the time to discuss much regarding photography for our trip and I've only seen their cameras once or twice. I wish I had the $$ to give them cameras like mine so that we could all be working with the same information, but right now it's just not a possibility. Thank you again for your suggestions! I will try to find somewhere good for practicing with their cameras so we can all get a better feel for them.

 

[saturndb]

have you looked into the digital photography for dummies book? This might be a good way to start.

 

[tink774]

have you looked into the digital photography for dummies book? This might be a good way to start.

Haha, no I haven't. I was in a bookstore a few days ago and saw one titled, "How to Photography Absolutely Everything" or something like that. But I have no idea which books would be good and which would just be a waste. So that's why I'm here! But good to know that the Dummies book might be helpful. My sister used one once to help her with her guitar-playing (she was already taking lessons but wanted some extra help) and concluded that it was a waste of her money. Thanks!

 

[jann1033]

how old are your parents? i ask this because of a child of the 60s/70 evidently i killed a lot more brain cells than i imagined and had a really difficult time when i made the switch to digital...it just seemed so different and lots more complicated so it was impossible to worry about things like composition till i got the hang of the digital aspect. i have an obsessive interest in photography or i probably would have just said
"forget this". i don't really know what made it so, it just was. i felt totally overwhelmed and i had used slrs for yrs previously but that all went out the window.
1) i'd look online and see if maybe the camera your father has had a manual there that you could look at.
2) do they really care about framing etc or are they just saying that cause you think it's important(spoiler alert, sometimes us parents just agree with the kids to shut the kids up)...they have had a lot of yrs to take photos and really I would think they would have learned by now if they really had an interest. are their pre digital photos better or do they "stink" just as badly? if they are see if you can find a maybe a basic photography book directed at p&s camera( barnes and nobles has all kind of basic ones) or look at adorama .com. they have a few series of "100 tips in a 100 days", some are really basic some more advanced but one thing a day to learn isn't overwhelming.
3) some people concentrate more on the whose in the photo aspect than the technical aspect. it they are like that then just let them happily inhabit their own little world along with my stepfather who hasn't even progressed to using the P&S digital he has in his drawer and uses his 30 yr old film camera and always tells everyone to say "cheese". i tried but now just let him alone with his (not so) "Instamatic"

 

[NateNLogansDad]

First off, congrats on having parents that use digital cameras My mom loves her disposables and I've tried to get her to use a digital but it just won't happen. Personally, it seems to me that the problem is really just a difference of opinion. You want the pic to say "This is me on my favorite ride" They want to say "This is my daughter, look at her" Tell them to back up a little and crop it later if they want. Or just figure out how to disable the zoom and your set