The best way to learn how to use your digital camera is to learn how pinhole cameras work! Pinhole cameras get you to the basics of photography. The aperture (f/stop) is fixed. That takes away one variable of fancier digital cameras. You have to actually calculate (sometimes it even takes a pencil and paper) the proper exposure time. That makes you aware of the relationship between f/stop and shutter speed. Since pinhole cameras do not have zoom lenses, you have to actually move the pinhole camera in closer…a good idea for all photographers.
Once you take a pinhole picture, the chances are that you are going to actually make a print. You don’t want to go to all the trouble in taking a pinhole picture and then not seeing how it turned out. You can scan the negative easily (if you are using black and white film).
By studying your picture you can usually figure out how you can do it better next time. When you use a digital camera you usually take so many pictures that you forget how you created them.
Pinhole photography slows you down and makes you think.
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