Hello from South Carolina.

[Staychillin22]

Hey there. I live in south carolina and just started to have an intrest in photography. My buddie got me a nikon N50 with two lenses, an AF Nikkor 35-80mm and a Sigma DL Macro Super 70-300mm. So far i love it. Any tips or advice would be great. Thanks.

 

[pgriz]

Welcome.

Tips? Well, photography is a bit like learning to play the piano - practice, practice, practice! Try to join a local photo club - there's nothing like seeing lots of different kinds of work to allow you to see where you can improve. Take classes, workshops, courses - few things are as effective as watching (and trying to duplicate) a master photographer. Read books - tons of good stuff available. But, start with the basics (equivalent of playing the scales on the piano): aperture control (depth-of-field, selective focus), shutter control (freeze/blur options), ISO boosting (at what point do you get excessive noise)... Do you know your hand-held limit for each lens? Do you know the dynamic range of your camera? Do you know how to spot-meter a scene and figure out the optimal manual exposure? Can you change the exposure compensation without taking your eye from the eyepiece? What's the closest focus for each lens? etc., etc. etc.

I'm a newbie too - and there are lots of really good people here, I'm discovering...

 

[Irrok]

I would recommend that you pic a genre ( ex: HDR ) , then get out there and try to re-create it in the real world. After you feel comfortable then you can move on to the next topic, like low light photography and before you know it you will become better and better...

Good luck!