I received my first serious camera when I finished high school: a Canon T50 that used film. It captured college memories and the early, adorable years of my children. I loved that little camera—right up until it stopped working. It opened the door to photography for me, even though I left it on the Automatic setting for years.
A few years ago my husband surprised me with a Nikon D3100. One of my goals was to stop relying on Automatic and learn to shoot in manual. I tried to teach myself from articles, but grappling with aperture, shutter speed, ISO and histograms felt overwhelming and confusing. Reading about the concepts didn’t make the practical choices any easier, and I often felt lost.
So I signed up for an in-person class with a local photographer. That class gave me the basics I needed and the confidence to switch off Automatic. Since then I’ve practiced constantly—blogging has been a great motivator, giving me reasons to use my camera almost every week, sometimes every day. Most of my practice, though, involves still subjects and interior spaces. When it comes to photographing people I still get nervous. I don’t want my subjects waiting while I fumble with aperture, shutter speed or ISO.
To overcome that nervousness I went back to learning. Sometimes a bit more knowledge is exactly what you need to replace fear with confidence. I’d been watching an online photography course since it launched and finally decided to enroll.
The program I chose—Shoot Fly Shoot—offers two video-based courses. The video format was crucial for me: I learn far better by watching demonstrations than by only reading text. Photography 101 covers the essentials for shooting in manual mode. The course breaks topics into short, focused videos, each explaining one element such as aperture, shutter speed or exposure. Seeing the instructors demonstrate examples cleared up many misunderstandings I had, and the ability to replay segments made learning much less stressful.
One of my favorite lessons walks you through scouting locations for an outdoor shoot. The instructors demonstrate how to find the best light for a portrait by showing how they evaluate angles, backgrounds and shade as they walk or even drive to different spots. Those practical, real-world decisions are exactly what I’d struggled to picture when reading theory.
Photography 102 builds on those basics, going deeper into portrait techniques, indoor lighting, landscape shooting, histograms, white balance and shooting in RAW. Those are precisely the topics I’d been trying to master, and the step-by-step demonstrations made practical application clear.
Shoot Fly Shoot often offers a combined price for both courses (at the time I took them, both were available together for $99), which made the investment easy to justify for a DSLR owner who needs a structured, visual way to learn. If you have a DSLR and want to move beyond Automatic—whether you’re shooting interiors, portraits or landscapes—video lessons that show you how to change settings and why will speed up your progress.
The morning after I finished some lessons, I tried a few of the tips. The sky was waking up and, after many gray West Coast mornings, the sun suddenly lit the distant mountains. I grabbed my tripod and camera, padded out to the deck in my bathrobe and took several frames while the light was right.
Both of those images were SOOC—straight out of camera, with no edits—and they show how understanding light and exposure can immediately improve results.
Next on my list is to find willing friends or family to practice portrait sessions. I’m much more comfortable now picking settings and anticipating light, so I expect the next steps—posing, directing subjects and refining composition—to be less intimidating.
I participate in the Shoot Fly Shoot affiliate program. If you enroll in their courses through my link, I may receive a portion of the fee.
