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Websites (or Books) for the Camera Novice?
An anonymous reader asks: "I've just purchased a new 4 megapixel digital camera after always having a simple point and shoot for years. It has all the functions and controls for full manual operation of aperture, shutter, etc. Things that I know little about. I'm looking for information on websites (or books) that will help a novice like me learn how and when to use these features, not just define what they are."
What about photo.net?
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There is so much to know about photography that it is impossible to pick up one book to cover all the important aspects. I would absolutly start by learning about film photography because most of the digital camera is based off of the film camera, even though mechanically they are very different beings.
I would check out The Camera by Ansel Adams for starters.There is a whole series of these Ansel Adams books but if you absorb The Camera you will be on your way to understanding stops and shutter speeds a whole lot better.
Dave
If I'm understanding you right, it sounds like you are looking for an "Intro to photography" class more than an "Intro to digital photography". Check your local community colleges, and the better camera shops in your neighborhood for someone offering classes.
You don't have to subscibe to the "Zone System" but you would benefit greatly from understanding the material. Certain tips are just timeless and it won't matter if you are shooting 20x24, 8x10, 4x5, 6x6, 35mm or some sort of digital thingy. The basics stay the same.
Free Media
Both links found at Creative Commons
I hope these will help. They're just collections of photos licensed under creative commons licesnses which will probably allow you to use them freely.
Also check out the wikipedia page on photography
Also, try to get in the practice of learning how to take good pictures at any time or place. Getting an interesting shot of the commonplace can be a very difficult thing to do.
I'd also try out your cameras different modes, take tiffs, macro shots, buy an infrared filter mayeb, b&ws etc...Learn your gear.
Chris DiBona
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Go out and find a subject you like - a flower, a person, a mountain (a combination of these ?) and take about 100 pictures of it with the different settings (ok, don't go crazy on the way over/under exposed settings) find out which ones you like. This will help you with the technical workings of the camera (playing with depth of focus, over/under exposing the overall picture to get a certain part into clarity, etc). By having a simple subject you can attempt beginning on composition (where do you put the subject of your picture... turns out it is almost never in the center of the picture) and focusing techniques. One of the things I hate about simple cameras is they tend to auto focus to the center of the picture which is where your subject SHOULDN'T be.
Then go back and take 100 more at different times of the day (or under different lighting conditions if you are doing indoor) and figure out what you like. Here is where we will learn about lighting effects - back lighting, shading, etc. Lots of fun to play around here and see what you can do and what it will do to the end image
I have a friend who drives to the coast a couple times a month after work, because he likes to photograph sunsets - he'll take a couple hundred pictures a month - every sunset is different. Honestly MOST of his pictures are crap - but every once in a while WOW
Once you get "good" you can reduce the number of experiments you do (number of pictures you take) and hope the quality of your pictures has gone up so that you still get the same number of great shots
By the way - this doesn't apply to sports photography, probably not animal, or kid photography (there it is subject manipulation that makes the picture - you have to know the technical details to start with, after all you may only get one shot at a certain picture)
End result - go play with your new toy... you will get more out of it than any book can impart - take a class if you want too, but expect the class to basically be - here are some things to try, go out and take 100 pictures and show me the best ones.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Go to an old books store, and you're nearly guaranteed to find a book by Canon or Nikon on "intro to photography". I prefer Canon, since that's what I shoot with (a 1970's AE1-Program, usually set to all-manual) but either are good.
Look for a 9x12 hardcover "Time-Life series" style book, about half an inch thick. Flip through a few of what you find, but the 70's Canon and Nikon intros are the absolute best I've ever seen (for beginners).
mindslip
However, I'd suggest skipping the Ansel Adams texts altogether and get the Basic Techniques book right off the bat. It distills all three Adams' books into a larger and frankly more interesting text than its sources. It's also cheaper to get the one Schaefer book than to get the three Adams books. It would be redundant to buy all four. So either buy 1,2,and 3, or buy 4. After finishing these books you will have an experts understanding of what your camera can do and how to make it do it.
However, despite having read the excellent books recommended by muonzoo, I found that they skimped on the topic of composition. At least they were very vague and 'mysterious' when discussing composition. The National Geographic Photoguide series does a really good job at introducing the basics and techniques of composition (at the cost of skimping on camera basics). In combination with the Adams/Schaefer recommendations, the Burian/Caputo books can really jump start your photography hobby.
Barring all this reading, you can spend a few bucks and take some photography classes at the community college. That's always a possibility, but it's also hit or miss as to what level the teacher is ready to take you. If you focus (as so many geeks do) on the techniques of photographing you may find yourself a technical wiz, but without an artistic sense your pictures may be lackluster. The technical aspect is really the least important part of taking a picture and one that you can learn in a couple weeks time. The artistic sense takes a much longer time to develop and much more intellectual energy to tune.
Check out his review at Dan's Site :D
Fellowship 9/11
You'll find the technical aspects of the camera easy. The artist aspects of a good photograph are a little more difficult and will take time. Don't be discouraged.
.. you know those "vacation" pictures where there's some landmark and then in the corner are two folks in sunglasses with their arms around each other? (Your parents, etc). Those are annoying.. is the subject the landmark or the people? All that vague space. Find a way to get just their faces and an interesting part of the landmark in the picture, for instance. Shoot each flower on an interesting plant, not the whole plant, etc. Makes for great pictures.
.. your pictures will stand out if the background is out of focus.
The first thing to do is not be afraid to take LOTS of pictures. Take everything 100 times from different angles. A lot of photo novices don't want to "waste" their film/storage and take just a couple pictures of something. And among experienced photographers it's a sign of an amateur who doesn't know what he's doing. That's fine, ignore those feelings. Even the pros will usually burn a few rolls of film before leaving a subject.
When you come across something interesting, don't just stand there and shoot. Get up close and tight. Put the subject on the far left of the frame. Shoot it's reflection in a nearby window/puddle/policeman's mirrored sunglasses. Get down on the ground. Lie on your back. Hold the camera at arms length and expose the shot while jiggling your hand around. THERE ARE NO RULES. Just start shooting.
When you push the button though, THINK about what you're shooting. Don't shoot indescriminantly. There's a zen moment just before you push the button where you should be completely aware of what is in the viewfinder, what's in focus, what's exposed, etc. In time this moment will come faster and faster until it just takes a few seconds to "see" the shot.
You know the feeling of taking a shot and then developing it later and then there's something wrong you didn't see? Learn to "see" BEFORE releasing the shutter.
You're not done once you shoot. When you get back home, study all these shots. Try and figure out what's good or bad about each one. Discard all but the 2-3 that are your best. Be hard on yourself, don't settle for anything less than the shot that makes you happy. I'm not talking becoming Ansel Adams, I'm talking learning to "speak" through the process of seeing something and capturing it on your hard drive so others can see it.
Joining a photography club is a great idea as well. Different people see different things in photos, you might learn something. Watch out for the professional (as opposed to artistic) photographers, a lot of them are really arrogant. Just my experience. Check the forums on dpreview and others if you don't believe me.
Some easy tips on taking good pictures (i.e., better than your friends):
1) shoot tight
2) shallow depth of field -- cheapo point-and-shoot cameras have small lenses and DoF
3) polarizers -- to make your skies deep blue instead of washed-out cyan like most "snapshots"
4) rule of thirds -- imagine the viewfinder divided into thirds, then concentrate on the intersections of the imaginary lines that divide the thirds. it's very easy to get a pleasing shot if you put the main point of interest on one of these intersections. putting stuff in the center of your viewfinder leads to boring, static shots (not all the time though, when you see a good photo that's done this way, study it to understand what makes it "work").
Finally one technical thing you should learn is how to meter with your camera. getting the right exposure is more important than focus (but always make sure people/animal's eyes or in SHARP focus or the pictures doesn't work) there are many systems, here's an effective one: http://spotmetering.com/
good luck
Check out what other people are doing online at Photoblogs.org.
Check out what other people are doing online at Photoblogs.org.
the articles and particularly the forums at http://www.dpreview.com
First a bit of background.
20 years ago I got my masters degree in fine art photography after spending a few years as a professional photographer in NYC shooting for the likes of Rolling Stone, some other magazines, and record labels. Somehow I got into software development after playing around with writing my own art making software and closed my studio a dozen years ago.
The one piece of advice I can give from 25 years of being a student, practitioner and teacher of photography is to take a lot of photographs.
How many are a lot of photographs? Back when I was a student and was using a 35 mm camera I would average about 60 shots a day , and would make about 50 prints a week. When I was pro, I shoot a lot more for work and my personal work was large format so I didn't take as many pictures, although I probably used a lot more film.
In March, after I got laid off from Cisco I decided to go back to photography. ( I started a project at one company, it got sold to Cisco. Cisco moved the development to India , and "reorganized" the two original developers on the project out of the company. ) I've made about fifteen thousand exposures since March basically getting my chops back. One of the advantages of using a digital camera is that it is so fantastically cheap compared to conventional photography. I spent about $5,000 on new gear to go digital compared to spending probably three times that for film and lab fees alone if I were shooting chromes, and maybe ten or twenty times that to shoot black and white.
Another advantage of digital is you have almost instant feedback as opposed to a few hours when you are shooting film. A couple days of shooting digital can conceivably teach you as much as a couple weeks of shooting film.
You should be able to shoot a couple hundred photos a day just to "see what things look like in photographs"
Try out all the features you don't understand until you understand them. Shoot for a few days at a tenth of a second until you can hold the camera still.
Shoot a few hundred shots guessing where the camera is framing the picture without looking , until you get pretty good at it.
I was using a Canon G2 for about a year. It was a pretty good tool and has specs similar to what you are describing. I got a digital SLR in march when I decided to get serious because the auto focus and shutter lag was so awful on the G2 even though the canon G* series is about as good as you can get in those respects. The SLRs are quicker and you can focus them manually although I miss using the G2's fold out LCD to compose at waist level. On the $2,000 + cameras auto focus still sucks though. I shot for years with a Hasselblad and rarely had an out of focus shot , and I have used pro cameras where you just have to guess where to focus with more consistent results that the out-of-focus systems on the newer cameras.
Anyway, back to your situation. Once you get some momentum, show your work to other photographers or somebody who you respect and talk about them. Photo classes are a good venue for this. Musicians, actors and writers often start groups to do this, maybe you can get together a group of artists or photographers where you live.
The most important thing is to practice and experiment. Do lots of things "wrong", and see what happens.
I also found www.photozone.de a few days ago. A bit basic, but the stuff under teqnique should get you started.
Just remember that the sight on your camera isn't a gun, think of it more as composing a picture in the view finder. Pay attention not only to your subjects but what else you can see behind/around them. Don't be afraid to ask people to move closer in group shots, try crouching down or standing on something to get a different view on things, don't be afraid to move around rather than just standing and clicking.
There's a recent book called "Shooting Digital" that you might find helpful; it pretty much starts from the basics, but contains practical advice for all sorts of photographic situations. I reviewed it the other day, here.
Also recently got a digital camera with manual controls (Olympus C-740), I found this site to have some useful "basic" info: www.shortcourses.com
Usefilm.com has Excellent Photo Projects that teach you various aspects of photography.
but this place is basically an ad for quite a good book which goes into the digital-photography techniques, rather than only the basics etc..
-- Mod me down. I am not a karma tart. ffs,gag
I am have several pictures with Randal on his site.
Yep, those pics are still up there!
ObviousGuy (Randal had wings and beer with my alterego)
Try out photo.net -- this is the biggest english-speaking community in the field.
Last year, I bought a Nikon. I joined the several mailing lists.
One of the guys on one of these lists is an older professional photographer. He's patient and eloquent, always answers questions, even if the answers can be found anywhere. He knows a lot, and he's a great guy to have around.
He also has a very informative website. It is found at http://www.larry-bolch.com/
Give it a look, it will help you greatly, as it did me.
the pun is mightier than the sword
The National Geographic, Michael Freeman, Bryan Peterson and John Hedgecoe books are widely recommended for beginning photographers.
But whatever you do, spend more time shooting than reading. (And don't get trapped into buying gear instead of taking photographs.)
Ade_
/
Big Bubbles (no troubles) - what sucks, who sucks and you suck
I second the comment about taking as many photo's as possible and would suggest looking at as many as possible too! Best books I ever encountered were I think John Hedgecoe's Basic and Advanced photography which covered pretty much everything. Last thing - photo editing software is your darkroom and needs as much attention as taking the pictures! Best book I've found on the subject is "Photoshop for Photographers"
Don't look back the lemmings are gaining on you
You should note that photo.netters have a fairly low tolerance for newbies who post questions to the forums without searching the archives.
Apart from that, shoot loads and when you see the results try to analyse which pictures really work best and why
My final recommendation is to see other photographers work for inspiration. Most photo technique books have pretty dull photos in them, and once you master basic technique you'll learn more from studying the masters.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
Trial and error. Depends why you are taking the photos. Photography is still an art.
"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." -- Salvador Dali
Many have suggested photo.net, and I agree and second the commet to be sure to read the static content as well as the boards. I also like Usefilm, particularly as a place to post pictures and get comments. The three Ansel Adams books (The Camera, The Negative, and The Print are classics and loaded with useful information, and The National Geographic Photography Field Guide is hugely informative and inspirational as well.
Speaking of inspiration, spend time looking at the sorts of pictures that you like and thinking about what you like about them and how they might have been made.
Lastly, definitely shoot a lot of pictures. It's especially easy and cheap with digital. Taking pictures takes practice and the more you shoot the better you'll be.
Time-Life produced a famous series of large-format photo instruction books, they're from the analog era but will be useful for anyone learning any type of photography. They have lucious printing in photogravure, to show you what photography can REALLY do in a high quality printed format. Some of them focus on developing and printing so they'd be less useful for digital guys, but there are several books on shooting techniques and composing shots, etc. I don't think I'd recommend buying these sight unseen, but just about every library should have a set of these on the shelves. Check em out.
These two books were given to me by my grandfather, a professional photographer, when I got my first 35mm camera. He gave me some encouragement and critiques, but all the hands-on technical knowledge came from these books.
:)
To answer your direct question, Kodak's Guide to 35mm Photography is a fantastic reference to how to operate manual camera settings. Nevermind that you're using digital and not 35mm film, the manual controls on your camera are meant to emulate a 35mm camera. So, there won't be a chapter on flash cards and you can skip the chapter on loading film, but the rest is all applicable.
But before you do that, let me recommend, also by Kodak How to Take Good Pictures. I doesn't matter how adept you are at setting f/stops and flash levels if the composition isn't great. We all think we know how to compose a good picture intuatively, but we really don't. This book is great for helping to train your eye - when you're done give it to a friend or child, it's not going to be out of date for a very long time.
These two books, as well as practice, practice, practice, are a great way to get started. Digital is a god-send for affordable practice. They were good enough to land me the photo editor spot on both my high school and college yearbooks, so derive what you will from that sample size of 1.
Full Disclosure: these links might earn me a nickel - if you want to buy these from Amazon and think Amazon should keep all the money for themselves, just re-search for the books.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Here's a good book that should be able to get you started:3 D087985801 x/104-6799284-9159958
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%
But be warned, that asking the question "How do I get to be a good photographer" is equilvelant to asking "How do I bench press 600lbs?". You really have to work at it.
Also check out the Amatuer Photography Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amateurphot
It's not a very high volume list, but they've got plenty of pictures you can look at.
There's some useful information (and excellent photos) at Northlight Images, including a pretty extensive collection of links, and good advice on setting up colour profiles so as to get consistent image representation on the journey from camera through monitor to printer, particularly for black and white photography.
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
Of course photo.net is the ultimate photography website, but there are several good beginners' articles at Megapixel.net. It's more than just a camera review site.
I like it, the technique section is well explained and written.
Good examples highlight the point of the article.
I think the section on Canon/Nikon is good too.
One of the best place I can think of is photo.net's "learn" section, particularly the "Making Photographs" tutorial.
http://www.photo.net/learn/