Amature photographer needing some help

lildizzy6983 · Jan 9, 2012

Sooo. I love love love photography but I need to learn some new things. Like I want to know how to use a photoshop like gimp(for those of us who can't afford adobe haha) I would like to know how people use the vivid looking colors like this one http://wallpapers.free-review.net/42__Lilium_flower_close-up_photography_wallpaper.htm. Or how to get the background to blur

KmH · Jan 9, 2012

Amateur

For a blurred background - Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

and all of their other really good tutorials - Digital Photography Tutorials

As far as GIMP -

Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional

GIMP 2.6 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software

Which version of Adobe Photoshop? The professional version, CS5? The consumer version, Elements 10? The suppliment to CS5, Lightroom 3?

The Photoshop Elements 10 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

lildizzy6983 · Jan 10, 2012

Thank you so much!

DiskoJoe · Jan 10, 2012

Buy a prime lens with a large aperture like 1.7 or 1.4. Take picture. Then increase the color saturation.

Erinw417 · Jan 10, 2012

You can find tons of tutorials for gimp just google it.

KmH · Jan 10, 2012

You don't need a prime lens with a large maximum aperture to get a shallow depth-of-field, but you do need to know how to control DoF to your advantage.

lildizzy6983 · Jan 10, 2012

What about doing inferred pictures?

tirediron · Jan 10, 2012

lildizzy6983 said:
What about doing inferred pictures?

Did you by any chance mean "Infra-red" pictures?

lildizzy6983 · Jan 11, 2012

tirediron said:
Did you by any chance mean "Infra-red" pictures?

Yes lol sorry

KmH · Jan 11, 2012

People cannot see infrared (IR) light.

A digital camera can be modified so it only records inrared light, which can be made into an image we can see. Or, you can put an IR filter on the front of your lens, the only trouble is, if you look through the camera's viewfinder it's enitrely black to your human eye. So you have to set up the shot, focus, put the filter on, release the shutter. Then rinse and repeat for each new shot.

lildizzy6983 · Jan 12, 2012

KmH said:
People cannot see infrared (IR) light.

A digital camera can be modified so it only records inrared light, which can be made into an image we can see. Or, you can put an IR filter on the front of your lens, the only trouble is, if you look through the camera's viewfinder it's enitrely black to your human eye. So you have to set up the shot, focus, put the filter on, release the shutter. Then rinse and repeat for each new shot.

Thank you that really helped I will look into getting an infrared filter!

DiskoJoe · Jan 12, 2012

KmH said:
You don't need a prime lens with a large maximum aperture to get a shallow depth-of-field, but you do need to know how to control DoF to your advantage.

No, but it makes it alot easier to control as what you are implying.

photog4life · Jan 12, 2012

Gimp-tutorials.net - Gimp , tutorials , brushes , downloads, forum. this is used mostly for graphic design but it will help you get used to the tools and they have some tutorials on photo enhancement...

DiskoJoe · Jan 12, 2012

lildizzy6983 said:
KmH said:

People cannot see infrared (IR) light.

A digital camera can be modified so it only records inrared light, which can be made into an image we can see. Or, you can put an IR filter on the front of your lens, the only trouble is, if you look through the camera's viewfinder it's enitrely black to your human eye. So you have to set up the shot, focus, put the filter on, release the shutter. Then rinse and repeat for each new shot.

Click to expand...

Thank you that really helped I will look into getting an infrared filter!

It is also possible to have a camera converted to shoot in infrared but its a bit pricey and that would be all you could use it for then. but the results are much nicer imo.