Teaching my Spouse to shoot?

Ok... I'm preparing to upgrade my equipment to a 7D, upgrading my flash to the 580, etc etc etc.....

Instead of selling my old setup (Gripped 40D with 430 EX II), my hubby and I are talking about him learning the trade. He's listened to me ramble on about exposure, lighting, shadows, contrast, white balance, yada yada for several years LOL. So now he's interested in learning. Pretty much the only thing I've taught him is how to focus correctly. I'm still an advanced hobbyist/semi-pro myself. I've done some hired work, but mostly shoot for my own benefit, and am mostly self-taught.

Did your spouse decide to pick up your gear and start learning? How did you teach them? His line of work leaves little time for browsing the internet and reading tutorials as I have done, so most of his learning is going to have to be hands-on alongside me. We think it will be a great way for us to spend more time together We used to play MMORPG's together, but I no longer play and he doesn't spend much time doing it anymore.

I'm mostly looking for stories and advice I'm constantly learning new things, and love photography. It's been my life's passion most of my life, and I seriously dove into it a couple of years ago when I got my first DSLR. I shot with a Canon Rebel G 35mm SLR before that, but didn't start learning the technical aspects of photography until I went digital. Started an NYIP course, that helped me to grasp exposure, but didn't go any farther than the 2nd "lesson". Unfortunately, I loaned that first crucial lesson out and have never received it back and the guy I loaned it to fell off the face of the earth, so I can't let my hubby read it. I will spend more time browsing the web for good beginner sites as I have time, but thought I would ask you awesome folks for your favorite things. He just doesn't have time to sit and go through these forums and look at all of the stuff, but I'm going to try to encourage him to!

Also, the only good lens I have is my Sigma 30/1.4 and I plan to buy the Sigma 85 when I upgrade as well. So, I'm not really going to have a "spare" lens... For him to learn, the standard kit lens should be fine, shouldn't it? I mean, we're not necessarily after IQ as much as experience and knowledge right now, right?

I wonder if this falls into the same class of tryin' to teach a spouse/loved-one how to drive a car or how to operate a computer. In both cases, it's highly recommended that you have someone else do the teaching. Do you have a local college where he could take some photography classes?

Must better to teach the kids, as they can capture some of the BEST private movement between you!

GJim wrote in post #11694698
I wonder if this falls into the same class of tryin' to teach a spouse/loved-one how to drive a car or how to operate a computer. In both cases, it's highly recommended that you have someone else do the teaching. Do you have a local college where he could take some photography classes?

LOL! That could definitely be true for most folks, but lucky for us, we have a pretty laid back relationship. He's a pretty teachable guy, so maybe it won't go so bad! Don't quote me on this when I come back in a few weeks screaming at how he's ticking me off not listening

That would be awesome! I do have a 10.5 year old that I homeschool, and am contemplating going to Adorama and buying him an OLD used DSLR to learn on. I'm thinking I want him to prove to me he can take care of his equipment before I do anything more than that. I would prefer to get him used to the controls of a DSLR right off instead of giving him a P&S with manual settings.

FWIW-He does know how to "operate" this DSLR He's captured some decent images on it over the past few months when I've asked him for a headshot. I had to edit, of course, and I think that is going to be my biggest challenge: teaching him pp!

If he is really interested then OK. I've made zero progress in teaching my wife anything photographic as she is not really intersted to learn. Just a bit of polite interest and then she moves on.

Green Box was invented for her.

JeffreyG wrote in post #11694775
If he is really interested then OK. I've made zero progress in teaching my wife anything photographic as she is not really intersted to learn. Just a bit of polite interest and then she moves on.

Green Box was invented for her.

LOL. It could very well turn out the same for us, but I figure I'll give it a shot. We're moving to Florida (hopefully within the month) so he'll have plenty of beautiful landscapes to practice on. Not sure just how intense his interest is yet... we shall see!

Well, the book "Understanding Exposure" is a good way of getting someone underway! That and reading the Manual so he understands how to do things without asking you questions he should know the answer to.

Also, there are a couple outfits that publish "expanded User guides" for Canon cameras -- Magic Lantern and David Busch.

From there, a lot depends on how well he can learn from you. I've passed on older gear to my daughter and she does like photography but is a bit technophobic and has a short "span" when it comes to listening to her loving father! So, I'll share things with her occasionally, pass on a book to her occasionally, and she asks me if she has a question or a problem.

Thanks Tony! That's all great info! He's not technophobic at all, and will probably snatch the user manual up right away. He is the kinda guy who doesn't do ANYTHING without reading the instructions first (and I'm the total opposite! I don't pick up the instructions until I'm peeved from failing at my own attempts!) I will look for those books! Maybe I can kill two "birds" with one stone and try to teach my 10 year old alongside him? Or maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew?!

JeffreyG wrote in post #11694775
If he is really interested then OK. I've made zero progress in teaching my wife anything photographic as she is not really intersted to learn. Just a bit of polite interest and then she moves on.

Green Box was invented for her.

Living this one! She loves my camera and uses it a lot but calls it making the camera easy. To be honest one of my favorite pics of our daughter was shot by my wife on green box.

If he's actually interested, go for it. I'm doing the same with my wife. She has basic recollection of a past photo course in school but not much since. Here's my approach:

1) Intro to basic controls of this camera. What happens in green box. What Live View is. What you can see in the viewfinder.

1a) Intro to the lenses I have. AF and MF.

2) Aperture/shutter relationship with exposure. How ISO picks up the slack. Basic stop-counting.

3) Back to the camera, Av and Tv modes. How certain lenses allow wider apertures. All of the other items on the LCD.

At this point there's just a lot of shooting, experimenting with different apertures. She's using the tripod with flowers, shooting outside some, thinking about composition. We take photo walks every other day or so. Next will be something like:

4) Basic flash

5) Advanced exposure (deviating from what the camera thinks is right).

6) Advanced flash.

ByTheBrooke wrote in post #11694602
Ok... I'm preparing to upgrade my equipment to a 7D, upgrading my flash to the 580, etc etc etc.....

Instead of selling my old setup (Gripped 40D with 430 EX II), my hubby and I are talking about him learning the trade. He's listened to me ramble on about exposure, lighting, shadows, contrast, white balance, yada yada for several years LOL. So now he's interested in learning. Pretty much the only thing I've taught him is how to focus correctly. I'm still an advanced hobbyist/semi-pro myself. I've done some hired work, but mostly shoot for my own benefit, and am mostly self-taught.

Did your spouse decide to pick up your gear and start learning? How did you teach them? His line of work leaves little time for browsing the internet and reading tutorials as I have done, so most of his learning is going to have to be hands-on alongside me. We think it will be a great way for us to spend more time together We used to play MMORPG's together, but I no longer play and he doesn't spend much time doing it anymore.

I'm mostly looking for stories and advice I'm constantly learning new things, and love photography. It's been my life's passion most of my life, and I seriously dove into it a couple of years ago when I got my first DSLR. I shot with a Canon Rebel G 35mm SLR before that, but didn't start learning the technical aspects of photography until I went digital. Started an NYIP course, that helped me to grasp exposure, but didn't go any farther than the 2nd "lesson". Unfortunately, I loaned that first crucial lesson out and have never received it back and the guy I loaned it to fell off the face of the earth, so I can't let my hubby read it. I will spend more time browsing the web for good beginner sites as I have time, but thought I would ask you awesome folks for your favorite things. He just doesn't have time to sit and go through these forums and look at all of the stuff, but I'm going to try to encourage him to!

No spouse, but my MOM recently broke her camera and asked me to help her shop for a new one. I made sure to ask her specific questions about what she wans out of a camera, she ultimately ended up with one of those "superzoom" cameras that's sort of "almost" an SLR except for the fact that it's totally not.

I then tried to teach her how to use it, and she didn't learn anything. And then she constantly complained about how it's too big, even though I addressed that when asking her what she wanted out of a camera.

My point being...I asked her what she wanted. She told me what she wanted in a camera, and then complained when she ended up with a camera that offered her exactly what she said she wanted.

She said that she wanted to learn more about photography when she was LOOKING FOR a camera. Then as soon as she GOT the camera, she decided that she didn't really want to learn how to use it.

So...it's at this point where I say that you can't teach someone to do something that they don't WANT to learn. I think the first thing to do is to just start out with some basic lessons and then gauge his interest. Does he seem interested, or does he seem bored as hell? Does he actually care about the PHOTOGRAPHY? Or does he merely THINK he cares about the photography because YOU care about photography, and sharing that interest with you provides potential for more common ground on which to form another social bond?

I'd recommend not thinking out too much at first. Just start out really simple, then see how he reacts. If it ends up looking like he has a serious interest, then you can proceed from there after he's started learning. But if it looks like he's gotten bored with it and doesn't really care to learn, then why bother?

I started teaching my ex...by just going out and showing her what some of the settings do and the immediate real-life product...she ended up getting a Rebel XS...then we broke up. Then I bought myself a 1D3. Overall, I came out ahead.

AntonLargiader wrote in post #11700914
If he's actually interested, go for it. I'm doing the same with my wife. She has basic recollection of a past photo course in school but not much since. Here's my approach:

1) Intro to basic controls of this camera. What happens in green box. What Live View is. What you can see in the viewfinder.

1a) Intro to the lenses I have. AF and MF.

2) Aperture/shutter relationship with exposure. How ISO picks up the slack. Basic stop-counting.

3) Back to the camera, Av and Tv modes. How certain lenses allow wider apertures. All of the other items on the LCD.

At this point there's just a lot of shooting, experimenting with different apertures. She's using the tripod with flowers, shooting outside some, thinking about composition. We take photo walks every other day or so. Next will be something like:

4) Basic flash

5) Advanced exposure (deviating from what the camera thinks is right).

6) Advanced flash.

GREAT tips! Basically the order I learned in myself He already has a reasonable grasp on the basics of exposure and lighting because of me talking about it all the time haha... but doesn't know how to ACHIEVE those basics He can look at an image and say "that's overexposed/underexpos​ed" but of course he is clueless as to what I screwed up on to make that happen hah. Thanks I like someone's earlier comment to hand him the manual and let him at it in that sense. He's an instructions kinda guy (Me, I've barely opened the stinkin book in 3 years!)

@Lowrider-LOVE it! haha... you definitely came out ahead on that one