How did you learn?????

[2WheelPhoto]

I'm still learning, hope I'm always a student of photography

Suggestion: get a nice, patient assistant. Even when you forget to turn the lights and pocketwizards on setting up at a shoot she'll not throw the light meter at you.

 

[Geronimo]

By reading and interacting with some talented photographers. The more seasoned and talented the photographer, the more I was able to learn from them. I also tried to not just find others with the same interest for photography but all the different genres, to explain my own knowledge.

 

[cgipson1]

Hi,

In addition to on-line training, another option would be to sign up for a local "photo safari", workshop or seminar in your city. Don't know where you live but most large metropolitan areas usually have something like this where local photographers take groups of students around the area to teach different subjects.For some other on-line resources take a look at www.photographyxfactor.com which has listings for various photography schools and other offerings.The Mentor Series also offers photography training and tours for all levels and have found them to be very helpful and informative. Hope this helps.

Nice subtle way to slip in some SPAM there......! reported!

 

[KmH]

It is permissible for active, involved members to post links to their personal or business web sites.

 

[cgipson1]

It is permissible for active, involved members to post links to their personal or business web sites.

I apologize.. based on the page, and the verbage.. it just looked like typical spam to me! I didn't see anything pertinent for the topic of the thread "How did you learn".. only someone selling an E-Book with "Secrets" of successful professional photography!

My mistake!

 

[xposurepro]

My dad was a photographer so I was taught about medium format by the time I was 12 .. I was a spoiled lil brat LOL .. Learned from shooting with my dad, books, magazines, experimentation and lots of free time.

 

[480sparky]

I attended both the School Of Hard Knocks as well as Trial and Error University.

As there wasn't any innernets back in the 60's and 70's, and the local library had nothing but "pretty picture" books without any 'how-to', it way pretty much seat-of-my-pants learning.

 

[gsgary]

I went from a regular guy to a PRO right when I stepped out of Best Buy.





LOL jk.. I think just understanding the basic technical stuff really helps. Everything just come together once you understand how the camera works.

I'm sure it was 4 month after you stepping out of Best Buy

 

[analog.universe]

Trial, error, and the interwebz.

(mostly the second one)

 

[Alex_B]

no books, no internet, just trial an error from pre-teen age onwards ... and a general physics understanding + a tiny bit of artsy education.

 

[Derrel]

I taught myself 35mm photography in sixth grade with an adjustable lens 35mm rangefinder camera. I then learned how B&W printing was done by watching a master B&W printer hand-print custom enlargements in a commercial studio on weekends. Later, I studied photography in 9th grade, then journalistic photography in high school, and then all through my university years I studied photography in both the science and art departments, as well as being involved in photojournalism. I also took two years of community college commercial photography classes,and assisted a pro shooter. After that I went to work full-time as a portrait shooter. Beginning in 1975 and moving forward a couple decades, I managed to read about thirty years' worth of Popular Photography,Modern Photography, and Shutterbug magazines. And lots of books. I used to hang out with photographers as well. And in the more-modern era, Usenet and then later, the world wide web became pretty valuable learning sources, and still are.

 

[Hardrock]

Mostly this forum and juza. Understanding exposure really helped me in the begining. Its never ending as far as the learning goes , well at least for me.

 

[Catchmo]

For myself I started with cinematography and have been gravitating to the still image since IMO it is a more individual art than cinematography...anyway most of the ideas and techniques are the same. I have learned, however since beginning my foray into photography that some of the artistic knowledge is merely inherent in the person doing it.

Case and Point: My girlfriend has become very interested in photography since I've made my move from moving to still. Now she has always been a shutterbug but the kind that bugs me frankly, you know the kind, the ones that take pictures of everyone smiling at the camera at any gathering she might be at. However when she got her hands on a camera that allowed you to actually make decisions on the final outcome of the image, it opened up a whole new world to her. She suddenly realized why her pictures from before looked "amateur" and the ones she takes now with the better camera look more "professional." She would say things like, "I want that blurry background thingy" and then just try everything she can think of to get that effect. If she failed then she went on the internet and "GTS" as we say(google that sh**).

Knowing what looks good is not really something that can be learned per se, it's really in the eye of the beholder. If you do know what looks good, then you try to achieve that and I guess that is a mix of trial and lots of error and simple research, like this forum here.

Wow that was long, I'm sorry guys.

 

[ShootFL]

trial and error, and then took a digital photography course in college to learn more about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lighting, etc... the basics pretty much.

 

[Buckster]

Started in the late 60's with library books, magazines, lots of shooting and notebooks filled with shooting info to compare to the developed shots later. Kept that same pattern of learning up until the digital age, when information via the internet began to supplement the learning resources, and chimping, histograms and EXIF took over the notebook's work. Still buy and read a lot of books and magazines, but now I do that on a tablet.