A LITTLE HELP FOR A BEGINNER??

[**MESHA**]

Hello everyone,
i am a total beginner in photography! I would love to get to know as much as possible here in this forum..hope you guys can help me out

*how should i start off?
*what are the best tips to start with, the easiest exercises, what kind of
pictures?
*How did you start? did you teach yourself, did you go to college?

I would be very thankful for any ideas and help
thank you very much

 

[maulrat]

I think you should be posting this in the beginners forum. Come with me, I'm heading there right now =D

 

[Harmony]

I would just shoot - as many photos and as often as possible. Then post them here, and get critiqued.

Also, just reading around TPF is how I learned most of my photographic knowledge.

Welcome to TPF, btw!

 

[Overread]

There are no easy subjects to start with

Best thing is to go out and photograph what you want to photograph - then come online and get crits on those photos. That way you can get guidance on a specific area of interset to you - such as wildilfe, people, studio, street, sports etc....

As your starting out I would recomend reading these 2 books - they helped me when I started a year ago

1) The Digital Photography Book - Scot Kelby - this is a starters book, it gives you guidance on what settings and modes to use for different subjects, but does not go into the specific details of the why of those settings - good when you need a place to start from

2) Understanding Exposure - Bryan Peterson - this is the why book - it explains how shutter speed, aperture and ISO interact together to give you an exposure, IT also goes into explaining how to be creative with your exposures as well.

 

[jenn76]

What part of NC are you in? I'm in NC too...

 

[tsaraleksi]

The first thing you need to get a handle on is composition: once you've got a good idea on composition you can start making some real progress in whatever area of photography you enjoy. Luckily, you can learn composition with any camera, and any subject. A great place to start is the rule of thirds.

 

[maulrat]

*how should i start off?

well you came to TFP. that's a great start IMO. i've learned so much here.

*what are the best tips to start with, the easiest exercises, what kind of
pictures?

I would recommend starting off by learning photography terms. Here is one of my favorite links. Focussing on the "exposure" section would be good idea too.

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/

*How did you start? did you teach yourself, did you go to college?

I am teaching myself. You can learn a great deal from the internet, books, and other photographers. If you plan to make a career out of photography, I'd definitely suggest college.


BTW, what camera do you own? How long have you had it? What type of subjects are you interested in photographing; people, landscapes, animals, flowers, etc?

My last recommendation would be to do a good amount of research before spending tons of cash on a dSLR and/or lenses. I've known few people who were quick into buying a camera and spent buku bucks only to sell their equipment on eBay and craiglist because they didn't research the products.

hope this is a start =D

 

[**MESHA**]

thank you all very much for your tips

well, i just signed in the photo forum yesterday so i gotto figure that whole thing out lol
btw:JENN76 i'm from clayton, near raleigh

 

[zone]

1) The Digital Photography Book - Scot Kelby - this is a starters book, it gives you guidance on what settings and modes to use for different subjects, but does not go into the specific details of the why of those settings - good when you need a place to start from

Would this book be helpful to a beginner using a film based SLR as well?

 

[Overread]

Whilst many film books still stand solid for digital cameras - the reverse is less true. Exposure for film cameras is slightly different than for digital and you also cannot change your ISO the way that a digital user can (one of the biggest differences) since your ISO is defined by your film in the camera.
I am sure, though, that there are a lot of good film camera books out there

 

[monkeykoder]

I started by teaching myself using my dad's old film SLR enjoyed it started learning composition and everything from there and took an introductory B&W class eventually in school and that is where I REALLY got hooked. My ideal on how to start out (and it surely isn't everybody's is to get a basic film SLR (I have a Nikon FM10 (which I enjoy shooting with a lot more than my Nikon D50) other suggestions might be a Pentax ME really whatever you can get cheap with a lens (preferably a 50mm)) shoot a couple of rolls of film and have them developed. Just this experience actually made me a much better photographer as I noticed after the long absence from taking the image that I had no clue what exactly was the subject in most of my pictures.

One benefit of the film SLR approach is now you'll have a film camera around for when you want to try out a B&W photo class or just do some B&W work (which never seems quite the same when done digitally) There is a cost trade-off there it costs about $500 for about the cheapest DSLR setup you can find film SLR setups for around $100 without looking too hard (it is possible to find them for free) that $400 difference in initial cost can be rapidly taken up with film and development if you're not careful (most recently expired film is still good) but I think that lack of instant gratification can and does improve your photography.