New to Photography

[Jennee]

Hi all, I have always enjoyed taking pictures for the hell of it, i did some modeling, but i find i enjoy taking the pictures instead of being in them... I would like to get more into Photography and need some advice on what to do, what kind of camera would be best for me... I have an older digital camera Fuji finepix camera, i have been using that and my cellphone has taken many good photos...I am a point and shoot kind of person and trial and error....I also loved to sit and edit photos as well.... I seen this website and thought id give it a try and see what everyone thinks. Thanks in advance for taking the time for reading my post and hope to hear from you soon...

Jenn

 

[bazooka]

Howdy! When you say that you are a "point and shoot" kind of person, perhaps you should expand on that. What do you mean exactly? Proper photography is the opposite of point & shoot and requires much thought, preparation, practice, reading, etc.... So you cannot have fine photographs without taking your time (occasionally we get lucky). So a camera recommendation comes down to if you want to really get into photography, or you just want a camera that will do better at quick snapshots of family, friends, occasions, etc...

 

[Jennee]

A lot of my photo's are taken when I am out walking or if I'm out driving some where and my eye catches something and i want to capture it, usually taking many shots of the same thing with different angles, lighting etc. I am looking to go beyond just snapshots.

 

[cannpope]

I was never interested in photography until I was at my son's one year old photoshoot. From that day on, just knowing photography could be both challenging and rewarding, I decided to purchase my very first DSLR. I started with an Olympus E620, then made the switch to a Canon T1i, and I now have a Nikon D7000. I think you will find taking photos to be addictive. I have. Anywho, I would recommend starting out with an entry level DSLR. Even though I now have a Nikon and will NEVER go back, the Canon was more user friendly. I would say to get a Canon T1i (can be gotten relatively cheap) and a prime lens (50mm) and start learning the basics. I only started a year ago and still have SO MUCH TO LEARN. Just my thought

 

[bazooka]

Would it bother you to have to carry a bag with an extra lens or two and having to change them fairly frequently? Also, dslr's are quite large to be just carrying around on a walk. I would recommend you stop by a camera shop and play around iwth a few of them... look at the size differences.

You also might be interested in a bridge camera... they fit between a point-and-shoot and a smaller dslr. Their biggest drawback in my opinion is that you do not have an option to control a hotshot or off-camera flash. Had you asked me if I would get into flash photography when I was camera shopping for my first dslr 2 years ago, I would have told you no. But it's hard to know what kind of photography you like the most until you try out many different genres. Having a background in modeling may hint to me that flash photography may be very important in the near future to you, in which case, you would definitely want a dslr.

 

[Joel_W]

I opted to go the Bridge camera route with a Nikon Coolpix P500 when I got back into photography a few months ago. I didn't want to go back to the big bag with several lenses, and misc equipment like I had in my old Minolta SLR days. The P500 has served me very well, but my primary photography interest is florals, and insects, where a true macro lens is really needed, so I've put it up for sale, and will be making the move to a DSLR.

If you're most interested in various subject matter, are on a budget, a bridge camera would be a good option for you to consider. There are numerous videos on YouTube on the P500, and more reviews then you can read in a day with just a few Google searches.

 

[DiskoJoe]

how much do you want to spend? This will determine what you can actually get.

 

[GnipGnop]

Hey there! I was much like you a year ago (minus the modelling haha). To ease my way into photography and not get caught up in the techy side of things (buying lenses, worrying about technology), I bought a Canon S90. Other manufacturers make similar cameras, but I only know the Canon (inside and out).

They are absolutely fantastic to shoot pictures with, and I think it would suit your initial style. Although they shoot in full manual mode, they also have shutter priority and other modes that dSLRs have. The images they produce rival those of some dSLRs on the market today.

When you feel ready, you can switch to manual controls to start learning about shutter speed, ISO and aperture. It even shoots in RAW mode, and the bundled software the comes with the camera Canon Digital Photo Professional, is a great first RAW editor. It's easy to use, but still pretty powerful. Once you've outgrown the camera (I doubt you will very quickly if you take it seriously), than you can move up to a dSLR of your choice. The best thing about it is that it's so tiny compared to how powerful it is, so you can literally take it everywhere and not look like a dork when you put it on the table at dinner or during lunch.

That's my advice!

(if you want to check out the picture quality that the S90 can produce, you can look through my flickr account from about page 2 and onwards. All are shot with the Canon S90 unless otherwise noted.)
I should say that the S95 and the S100 are both great cameras. They are the newer models of the S90. I believe you can get S95s for around $250 in some places.

Don't mean to sound like I'm schilling for Canon (I just bought a Pentax ), but it really is a fantastic camera to learn on.

 

[Jennee]

Amazing photo's you havethere!!! I am just very excited to get started and move my passion for capturing not only memories but capturing what others might not see when looking at an object ...Many are telling me Nikon and Canon ...either of them are very good camera's that i have read up on. Now it's to do more research before my big purchase..... thank you for your advice i have been taking everything in and writing things down...

 

[bazooka]

If you have decided on a dslr you cannot go wrong with either a nikon or a canon. Just figure out which brand feels better to you. They will have basically the same features for each price category.