Digital cameras ''developed by geeks'' are full of redundant, complicated features amateur photographers do best to ignore, photography tutor Brien Miller says.
A professional photographer who lives in Macandrew Bay, Mr Miller runs an annual digital photography course in Mosgiel, which begins this month.
The six-week course helped amateurs negotiate the ''big revolution'' of digital photography, which did not really take off until about 2005, Mr Miller said.
For a century or so, cameras had three settings: aperture, focus and shutter.
His aim as tutor was to train amateurs to isolate the settings they need, which was about six, and focus on them. Modern cameras were were computers packed with unnecessary settings. Making it more tricky, the settings on most compact cameras were located internally. This made altering them more complex than on large professional-type cameras, known as single-lens reflex, to which they were externally fitted.
He said people now took 10 times as many photos as they did in the days of film, and storage was a big issue. Most people did not know how to organise and safely store photos digitally,which was covered in the course.
People assumed digitising photography had made it cost-free, but they failed to factor in the massive increase in images the digital era ushered in, and the time requirements of processing and storing them. When once a person dropped off their cameras in the store to be developed, modern photography was now more a serious hobby.
The course starts on March 18 at the Mosgiel Presbyterian Church, with both afternoon and night sessions.
For more information, call 476-1453.
