New to TPF and Photography!

[customflashdrives]

Hello there! I am fairly new to photography but hoping to learn more. I studied multimedia journalism in school, so I got to play around with DSLR and photoshop a bit, but I didn't learn much about how to take high quality photos, just how to make them decent and try to capture some aspect of the news story.

I bought a used Nikon D40 before I went to India and Nepal last summer thinking I would play around with it and learn loads while I was there. In reality I took a ton of pictures with the camera set on auto and they all came out passable at best.

I haven't used my camera much since then, but I just moved to Miami and I want to spend some time learning and experimenting with the beautiful scenery here before I plan my next big trip (hopefully South America)!

I don't plan on becoming a pro, but I want to be able to do more than use the auto setting. I'm planning on buying a lense, but first I want to learn about the different kinds and what they're used for.

 

[DorkSterr]

Welcome!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome aboard, you've come to the right place.

The first thing to do, should be to learn about exposure. Learn about the shutter speed, the aperture and the ISO...and how they work together to determine the exposure of your photos. Once you learn that, you can learn about metering and how to get proper exposures, and not just rely on what the camera is trying to do.

There are plenty of good resources for learning this material. Books, websites, videos etc. A book that often get's recommend is 'Understanding Exposure' by Peterson.

I'd suggest starting down that road, before you rush out and buy another lens. Because once you learn about exposure, and get some 'educated experience' under your belt, you will have a much better idea of what lens might be a good choice for you.