Photography Help

www.texasphotoforum.com is a good place. Many times, members will meet some place to shoot photos. That would be a great opportunity to learn.

There are a ton of tutorials online and on youtube. Just search "photography tutorial".

Here's a Canon tutorial site: http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2266

On some sites you can see the settings of the camera that might help you when taking photos. The sooner you can get away from shooting everything in auto mode the better.

 

what camera did you get?

 

Just go to the library and pick up a basic photography book first or find online articles. Basic technical stuff like aperture size, shutter speed, depth of field and basic framing tips you can pick up by yourself through reading easily. Only after that, go for classes if you still feel you want to learn more/improve. Paying for a basic class would be a waste of $$$ imo.

 

This will all apply to any camera:

Read the entire manual. I read my T1i's manual in about 4 or 5 sittings in the can. You will familiarize yourself with the instrument you're using.

It's often I have people asking me questions on how to use something I have no knowledge about, and the first thing I ask is "can I see the manual", and then I point out how to do something with it. Believe me, you will know how to use it. "Oh, so it was right there in the manual?" is always overheard.

There's from creativity to practice to just knowing how to take a good photo. I am no expert in photography, but I continue to learn. There's no RIGHT way to take a photo if that's your style, but you must take into consideration the purpose or goal at hand.

Look at YouTube videos of peeps using or reviewing the product.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

 

What do you mean by great camera? What'd you get?

I say learn the relationship between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. And shoot everyday. One of my mistakes was to only read and learn in the beginning, forgetting that experience can make you better as well.

 

just bought an Olympus E-Pl1, a micro four thirds format camera. so far, i'm really enjoying it. the kit 14-42MM lens (effective 28-84MM) is pretty good. just bought a Panasonic 20MM/1.7F (40MM effective) for low light shots, but haven't played around with it enough yet to really have a good feel for it.

i'm still a novice, but wanted something that offered DSLR quality, and interchangeable lenses, in a more compact, lighter weight body. the Olympus fits the bill nicely.

also, check out dpreview.com for reviews, tutorials, discussions, etc. photographyblog.com is also good, as is digitalrev.com. the latter has some great videos, with tips and reviews.

 

I agree, just get a basic photography book and learn isos, apertures, shutter speeds, etcs. And practice !

I wouldn't recommend taking a class for photography either. I had to take a photography class for my major; ended up wasting a lot of money on supplies like paper, matting, and film...

 

I don't want to make it sound like classes are useless either. For example, depending on who you are learning from, a basic studio course that provides the studio equipment could save time and be cheaper than trying to figure things out yourself while renting a studio and lights.

Mathloom, when I started out, I found shooting in black and white very helpful in learning to get exposure right. It was much easier for me to visualize the end product when I only had to think in terms of light/dark. Especially on film, it's important to try to keep the details you want within each frame w/o underexposing or overexposing, because the range of light film/digital can handle isn't as good as our eyes. So it's important to be able to visualize how the end product will look on the printed photograph as opposed to how it looks to our eyes. With digital dslrs now, this probably isn't so important as you have instant preview, but you might still find it a useful exercise.

 

I bought a Canon T2i in April and love it.

 

just start snapping pictures everywhere- be that guy with the camera.

Take your photos home, upload them, then figure out how you would want them different. WIth that in mind, figure it out. Eventually you'll master plenty of tasks.

(think shooting in low light, action shots, portraits, landscapes etc.)

 

I'm assuming you got an SLR here, so shoot your pics in RAW once you get the gist of how to shoot among the preset modes like Av, Tv and manual. Get some sort of photo editor like Adobe Lightroom (there's a billion but I use this) and it should let you "compensate your skill" by allowing you to edit settings you may have missed on your camera.

From experience, I started out shooting in only jpg format. Then I realized I could shoot in raw, and edit ISO's, exposure, color balance, etc. Stuff I couldn't edit when I was shooting in jpg. Been shooting RAW ever since.

There are a billion little things that add up to the "bigger picture" (pun intended), so be sure to read up as much as you can, and like swoly said, "practice practice practice"

 

Mathloom, like I said, you don't need to go for a course for basic technical knowledge, all the stuff listed on the schedule, you can learn from a basic photography book. Or if you have any friends that use slr cameras, they will be able to show you.

But if the course is cheap, or you are in a hurry to learn quicker, that course looks like it covers all the basics you need.

 

Free live online courses I think.

http://creativelive.com/
http://creativelive.com/courses/

 

that was a gift? lucky b*stard.

 

No kidding!

 

Phase 1: turn camera on
Phase 2: tell them to get naked
Phase 3: take pictures
Phase 4: ???
Phase 5: Profit


seriously though, any thing you need to learn about anything, you can learn on the internet.

just dont be this guy...
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