Restarting old hobby

[JCGammack]

Hello to all:
I am getting back into a hobby I got away from years ago. For Christmas last year my wife got me a Sony Nex-3N with the 16-50mm and 55-210mm set-up. I am finding myself being a bit bewildered at the number of options and setting this thing has. I grew up when film speed was fixed by what you loaded in the camera and you just played with f-stop and shutter speed. In my "poke & hope" method of learning, it seems to me that some options have a lot of impact and others not so much. I am working my way through the tutorials here to learn some of the background information. My main interest in photography are family pictures and my other hobby motorsports primarily road racing. Any tips or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Chris

[NorthernFocus]

Welcome to CIC, Chris. If you were competent with film you're off to a good start. All of the basics are the same. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO in place of film speed function the same. One difference is that you can change "film speed"(aka ISO)with every frame. The old f16 rule still applies. Unless you're a techy/gearhead I recommend sticking to the basics until you come back up to speed a bit. The only thing you really need to learn a bit about that is different is white balance. Have fun.

[Shadowman]

Welcome to CIC, Chris. If you were competent with film you're off to a good start. All of the basics are the same. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO in place of film speed function the same. One difference is that you can change "film speed"(aka ISO)with every frame. The old f16 rule still applies. Unless you're a techy/gearhead I recommend sticking to the basics until you come back up to speed a bit. The only thing you really need to learn a bit about that is different is white balance. Have fun.

And noise reduction, either in-camera or in post-processing.

[Geoff F]

If you are familiar with shooting by adjusting aperture and shutter speed, Chris, do the same and ignore all the auto options. It's the best way in the end and you now have an option to instantly view what you have shot instead of wasting a whole roll of film with the wrong settings, or even with the lens cap on!

Your biggest challenge will come with digital processing. More complex than simply taking the film to a chemist or photo shop then collecting badly printed 6 x 4 prints. You can now be in total control. Although I'm afraid that most people still take their camera card directly to a shop and get back those poor quality prints.

So, upload some examples and ask questions specifically about anything which you find troubling. Don't worry about posting poor quality 'mistakes' because it is often that sort of question which 'develops' into the more interesting subjects here.

[JCGammack]

To NorthernFocus
Thank you for your reply. I did stumble onto the usefulness of changing the ISO while attending the 24hr of Daytona in January. I think that was the first "trick" that I found that I thought this digital stuff may be kind of cool. I will look more into the issue of white balance. My early years was mostly in B&W (I guess I should pitch all the darkroom stuff I still have for more shelf space) so color temperatures are somewhat new as well. It kinda reminds me of enlarger tricks I used to do to get better prints out of over/under exposed negatives. As I say I have a lot to learn and I enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

[JCGammack]

To Shadowman
Of what is now called noise reduction looks like what I used to call grain. I remember pushing Kodak Tri-X to an ASA of 1600 and hoping that the shot had enough contrast you could make something printable in the darkroom. Thank you for the input.

[JCGammack]

Geoff F
Thank you for your reply. I must say that I didn't know that I needed a feature that would trigger the camera when it thinks someone smiled. Seems like a solution to a problem I didn't know existed.
Digital processing will be a challenge I still have my B&W darkroom equipment and enjoyed that almost as much as taking pictures. That will come in time, first I want to gain a mastery of the operation of this camera and how to make adjustments efficiently.
I will work on posting some of my pictures.

[Shadowman]

I shoot far more images using digital than I ever did using film, the record for one trip was twenty rolls and I can't remember how long it took to get the film developed. Shooting digital can lead to a backlog of images you'll feel you'll never get around to post processing. I like it when I return from a trip and can pull at least forty or fifty images that can go straight to the print shop, no additional editing on my part, let the print shop do their thing.

[Joan]

Chris,

I come also from B&W era. I bought an amateur photo lab when I was 18 during a student trip to Poland (yes, still communist) and I remember spending during a long time most Saturday mornings preparing the liquids, making some copies and then cleaning everything again just to end with a couple of "decent" pictures (five or six hours later).

People coming from this "analog" or "chemical" world do appreciate the charm of digital photography and processing....

[JCGammack]

Joan,
You jogged a memory in me that I would work in my home darkroom mostly on Saturday nights. The closet I modified to be my darkroom was not perfectly "Light Tight". So I did my work at night with outer rooms lights off especially when I was loading film. It was simple and crude but I did enjoy the time I spent at it. Of course I never put out prints to the quality of much better equipped labs but at the time I was pleased with what I could do.
I must say that I am warming up to (as you put it) the "charm" of digital photography.
Thank you,
Chris

[nkpliangjk58]

welcome to this forum!