New to this, I need a LOT of help!

[Mango17]

I am a highschool student and I have taken two classes in film photography. Although I prefer doing digital because I don't have access all the time to a dark room (besides school). I love taking pictures and I especially love doing portraits and really up-close shots. I love animals too, so naturally I enjoy taking pictures of peoples dogs and other pets. I eventually would love to start a small business in pet photography or even just keep it as a hobby. I don't know a lot about the terminology of lenses and cameras, but I do know how to take a good picture. I have a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lense. What would be a better lense for my hobby? Do you professionals out there edit you photos in photoshop or some other type of program? I love adjusting brightness and contrast and darkening edges occasionally. Do you guys do that? I want to learn more and better my photography skills. Any advice?

 

[TheBoombaGnome]

I am a highschool student and I have taken two classes in film photography. Although I prefer doing digital because I don't have access all the time to a dark room (besides school). I love taking pictures and I especially love doing portraits and really up-close shots. I love animals too, so naturally I enjoy taking pictures of peoples dogs and other pets. I eventually would love to start a small business in pet photography or even just keep it as a hobby. I don't know a lot about the terminology of lenses and cameras, but I do know how to take a good picture. I have a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lense. What would be a better lense for my hobby? Do you professionals out there edit you photos in photoshop or some other type of program? I love adjusting brightness and contrast and darkening edges occasionally. Do you guys do that? I want to learn more and better my photography skills. Any advice?

Well, Mango, I will start with this - I am far from professional...

First thing i'd do is get familier with the terms of photography. If you head here (http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ery/167288-camera-terms-acronyms-dummies.html) Some of the admins of the board have posted a short list of terms and acronyms thats I have found to be very helpful...

Google is your friend. This forum has helped me with a lot, but Google has given me some of the basics, and there will be times where the forum users will just tell you to google....so make it your new best friend...

As far as editing, I use Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Lightroom 2.7. I believe lightroom has a demo you can download on Adobe's site, and it really does a great job making the changes you were talking about doing...

Lens I don't know much about, as I am still saving up for my first dSLR, and still using a point and shoot, so I will llet someone else hop in and help you with that one...

But anyway, welcome to the Forum, and just stay active...you can learn a whole lot from these ladies and gents!!!

TBG

 

[ifi]

Welcome to the forum

There are many software available to process photos, Photoshop and GIMP are most popular.

What is your budget for the lens? Do you want to buy one or multiple lenses?

 

[KmH]

The least expensive, quality lens you can get is the AF 50 mm F/1.8D. They are $130 or so new and about $100 for a good used copy.

It is sharp, and it will work in low light much better than your 18-55 mm kit lens.

It won't autofocus on your D40, but it will light up the in-focus indicator in your D40's viewfinder when you have manually achieved focus. You just have to operate the focus ring on the lens by hand. With a little practise it will be easy.

Photographs have been edited since cameras were invented. There are limitations, like digital image sensor anti-aliasing filters that make editing most digital photographs necessary.

GIMP (www.GIMP.org) though free, is limited to what it can do. The consumer version of Adobe Photoshop, Elements, costs about $75.

www.cambridgeincolor.com has some good technical tutorials and I would suggest you undertake a self-paced program of studying the guidelines for image composition.