Complete Noob to Photography

UrFavSigma · Dec 27, 2010

I recently decided to pick up photography as hobby. I bought a Photography for Dummies book and I'm reading it to get a grasp on the main concepts of photography.

Short Term I want to take photos in this quality range and these type of pictures:
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/1.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/4.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/2.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/5.jpg

The Camera I plan to start out with is the Canon Powershot SX30IS:
Canon introduces PowerShot SX30IS superzoom: Digital Photography Review

So I have these questions:
1- At my school there are not any photographers and people always want pix taken. Are those type of pictures and that quality something an I will have to be an expert to take?
2- Is the Canon Powershot SX30IS a good camera to start with?

sobolik · Dec 27, 2010

No you do not need to be an expert. You need to be an enthusiast.

What is it that enthusiasts do? They pursue what turns them on. You can pursue photography with any camera ever made so yes your cited camera is good enough. And it will take photos as good as those you provide as samples.

Talent trumps equipment every time. I have seen awesome photos all over the web taken by people who could care less about good photography but just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have seen self proclaimed "photographers" take lousy photos over and over and over.

Develop your talent with what you have. Study photos for what makes them good and what makes them bad. Unless you sell photos to National Geographic or Arizona Highways the good and bad will be revealed by what people ooh and aah over. They will ooh and aah over great compositions/framings and not the great technical qualities imparted by a camera or lens. Most people including me would have a hard time with the naked eye determining whether a photo was taken with your camera or my D90.

I have been doing SLR photography for 30 years. I expect about 30% of mine to be keepers. So expect a lot of failures it just comes with the territory. If a person brags about a very high success rate like 90% or whatever then they are not discriminating and just accept flawed results. Pros shooting for NG mag probably have a 90% plus reject rate. Don't be discouraged at all by screwed up photos that did not work out. It is the way it goes. Keep shooting.

UrFavSigma · Dec 27, 2010

sobolik said:
No you do not need to be an expert. You need to be an enthusiast.

What is it that enthusiasts do? They pursue what turns them on. You can pursue photography with any camera ever made so yes your cited camera is good enough. And it will take photos as good as those you provide as samples.

Talent trumps equipment every time. I have seen awesome photos all over the web taken by people who could care less about good photography but just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have seen self proclaimed "photographers" take lousy photos over and over and over.

Develop your talent with what you have. Study photos for what makes them good and what makes them bad. Unless you sell photos to National Geographic or Arizona Highways the good and bad will be revealed by what people ooh and aah over. They will ooh and aah over great compositions/framings and not the great technical qualities imparted by a camera or lens. Most people including me would have a hard time with the naked eye determining whether a photo was taken with your camera or my D90.

I have been doing SLR photography for 30 years. I expect about 30% of mine to be keepers. So expect a lot of failures it just comes with the territory. If a person brags about a very high success rate like 90% or whatever then they are not discriminating and just accept flawed results. Pros shooting for NG mag probably have a 90% plus reject rate. Don't be discouraged at all by screwed up photos that did not work out. It is the way it goes. Keep shooting.

Thanks alot! So with the samples that I provided, is it mostly editing in Photoshop/Photoshop elements that make them look like that?

sobolik · Dec 28, 2010

UrFavSigma said:
sobolik said:

No you do not need to be an expert. You need to be an enthusiast.

What is it that enthusiasts do? They pursue what turns them on. You can pursue photography with any camera ever made so yes your cited camera is good enough. And it will take photos as good as those you provide as samples.

Talent trumps equipment every time. I have seen awesome photos all over the web taken by people who could care less about good photography but just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have seen self proclaimed "photographers" take lousy photos over and over and over.

Develop your talent with what you have. Study photos for what makes them good and what makes them bad. Unless you sell photos to National Geographic or Arizona Highways the good and bad will be revealed by what people ooh and aah over. They will ooh and aah over great compositions/framings and not the great technical qualities imparted by a camera or lens. Most people including me would have a hard time with the naked eye determining whether a photo was taken with your camera or my D90.

I have been doing SLR photography for 30 years. I expect about 30% of mine to be keepers. So expect a lot of failures it just comes with the territory. If a person brags about a very high success rate like 90% or whatever then they are not discriminating and just accept flawed results. Pros shooting for NG mag probably have a 90% plus reject rate. Don't be discouraged at all by screwed up photos that did not work out. It is the way it goes. Keep shooting.

Click to expand...

Thanks alot! So with the samples that I provided, is it mostly editing in Photoshop/Photoshop elements that make them look like that?

"So with the samples that I provided, is it mostly editing in Photoshop/Photoshop elements that make them look like that"

There are several elements that go into a good photo that "look like that"

1 Obviously in or out of focus as planned

2 Exposed properly with out any weird color casts or light and dark areas that are undesirable.

3 Proper framing angle of view etc. This is probably 90% of the battle. Anyone can take a photo using the same settings that you are using. Getting the right amount of close up, distance angle etc. is an art form.

4 Doing corrective actions using post processing software

5 Doing enhancement actions using post processing software

If you want to produce great photos then focus on #3. Spend all your effort studying and working on that subject. The others I mention will just fall into place naturally.

UrFavSigma · Dec 28, 2010

Thanks alot guys

lildlege1 · Dec 28, 2010

sobolik said:
No you do not need to be an expert. You need to be an enthusiast.

What is it that enthusiasts do? They pursue what turns them on. You can pursue photography with any camera ever made so yes your cited camera is good enough. And it will take photos as good as those you provide as samples.

Talent trumps equipment every time. I have seen awesome photos all over the web taken by people who could care less about good photography but just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have seen self proclaimed "photographers" take lousy photos over and over and over.

Develop your talent with what you have. Study photos for what makes them good and what makes them bad. Unless you sell photos to National Geographic or Arizona Highways the good and bad will be revealed by what people ooh and aah over. They will ooh and aah over great compositions/framings and not the great technical qualities imparted by a camera or lens. Most people including me would have a hard time with the naked eye determining whether a photo was taken with your camera or my D90.

I have been doing SLR photography for 30 years. I expect about 30% of mine to be keepers. So expect a lot of failures it just comes with the territory. If a person brags about a very high success rate like 90% or whatever then they are not discriminating and just accept flawed results. Pros shooting for NG mag probably have a 90% plus reject rate. Don't be discouraged at all by screwed up photos that did not work out. It is the way it goes. Keep shooting.

Very well said that was inspirational for me!! Thanks!!!!

UrFavSigma · Dec 29, 2010

Is Photoshop elements a good program to start with?

Skyclad · Dec 29, 2010

I actually got an SX130IS for Christmas and was looking at hopefully getting SX120IS several months back before the 130 came out and I think its a great camera to start off with. While it may not be a DSLR camera, I don't think you can go wrong with the SX130IS, especially with its new fisheye and miniature effects in this new model. Really a great little camera!

sobolik · Dec 29, 2010

UrFavSigma said:
Is Photoshop elements a good program to start with?

I have the full blown Photoshop and a few others. I seem to always end up just using Elements 5.0. It is easy, simple and straightforward and does everything I need. Particularly the correct camera lens distortion feature which is essential. So what ever you get make sure it has that feature. I have seen it on eBay for TEN yes 10 dollars with free shipping. I paid I think $70 from Adobe and download it every time my computer dies or what ever. If it were cheap back when I bought it I would have got it on eBay.

jcrob33 · Dec 29, 2010

Why not get a used DSLR? If you could spend the money, I'd go that direction where you can better understand how to use the camera. Manipulate Shutter speed and apature.

Skyclad · Dec 29, 2010

jcrob33 said:
Why not get a used DSLR? If you could spend the money, I'd go that direction where you can better understand how to use the camera. Manipulate Shutter speed and apature.

I'm not disagreeing that a DSLR is not superior, but you can also do that with the SX130IS from 3.4 to 8.0 (depending on zoom level).

Though with a DSLR, you will be able to do a lot more (Provided its within your budget).

UrFavSigma · Dec 30, 2010

So the SX130IS is good enough for me to acheieve images like the ones I provided at the beginning of this thread? Short term I just want pix like those. And event/party photos like these:
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/4-1.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums..._589405609916_64505085_32396696_4021365_n.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/3.jpg
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/UrFavSigma/1-1.jpg

See short term I'm not trying to be all that "Professional". I just want to be able to take pix of my female friends in way that I provided in the examples and take the same quality pix I just provided from that party. Just a hobby for now.

Question: In the images I provided, is most of that just software editing? If so, is it complex editing?

OrionsByte · Dec 30, 2010

UrFavSigma said:
Question: In the images I provided, is most of that just software editing? If so, is it complex editing?

People were taking pictures like that long before there was software to do editing with.

Your particular camera will do most of the processing for you, and you can always tweak it afterwards. When you get better at it and get a DSLR, you'll want to do the processing yourself, which is exactly what they did before software was involved, except they did it with chemicals and paper.

Skyclad · Dec 30, 2010

The ones in your original post you probably wont be able to duplicate. Those are obviously taken with a DSLR camera and im sure theres a good bit of post processing done to them as well.

In your post above this one, you would be able to do with the SX130IS and a little PS skills.

dandaluzphotography · Dec 30, 2010

sobolik said:
No you do not need to be an expert. You need to be an enthusiast.

What is it that enthusiasts do? They pursue what turns them on. You can pursue photography with any camera ever made so yes your cited camera is good enough. And it will take photos as good as those you provide as samples.

Talent trumps equipment every time. I have seen awesome photos all over the web taken by people who could care less about good photography but just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have seen self proclaimed "photographers" take lousy photos over and over and over.

Develop your talent with what you have. Study photos for what makes them good and what makes them bad. Unless you sell photos to National Geographic or Arizona Highways the good and bad will be revealed by what people ooh and aah over. They will ooh and aah over great compositions/framings and not the great technical qualities imparted by a camera or lens. Most people including me would have a hard time with the naked eye determining whether a photo was taken with your camera or my D90.

I have been doing SLR photography for 30 years. I expect about 30% of mine to be keepers. So expect a lot of failures it just comes with the territory. If a person brags about a very high success rate like 90% or whatever then they are not discriminating and just accept flawed results. Pros shooting for NG mag probably have a 90% plus reject rate. Don't be discouraged at all by screwed up photos that did not work out. It is the way it goes. Keep shooting.