Photography Magazine Suggestions

chris miss

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I was thinking of subscribing to a photo magazine. Amazon had a link to some on sale. Any suggestions on a title that's not too technical for a fairly new photographer. Here are the choices:

Popular Photography & Imaging
Outdoor Photographer
Shutterbug
PC Photo Pro
Digital Photo
American Photo
Photo Techniques

Or do you have other suggestions? Thanks.
 
National Geographic is about the only one that I know of that is worth reading. The photography is outstanding; the articles varied and interesting (and they don't recycle old stuff either its all new material) and its well written. It is true that its not a pure photography mag, but they do have articles on the subject on the occasion as well.

The majority of the photography magazines these days are very poor pickings - especaily if you have internet access. Many are aimed at the lower level learners and will also have alot of article recycling and general recycling of the same material over and over again -- with little new material. My expereinces are also that many have fallen into being gear reviews (no bad thing in that if that is what you want) which is limiting for the learner wanting to get better.

Also dispite being aimed at learners most of them give editing advice which requires one to have full photoshop (all £500 of it) which is very pointless if your average content and reader just has basic photoshop elements.

In the end one can generaly get far more info, and more advice from online forums and websites - sadly the magazines have not risen to raising the quality of their content to remain in competition with free online advice. I know this is not idea and I myself very much prefer reading from a book than the internet, but the info in mags is just not good enough. Better to spend the money on a good subscription or a few good photography books.
 
digital photo, it been good no complaints yet regarding the the contents tutorials in this mag. after your done reading, just keep the mag and cd for future reference.
 
Overread: I tend to agree with you on this. I try to scan the photography magazines when I go to the library. They do seem to be more ad oriented--trying to sell equipment, rather than what I'm looking for--techniques, tips & tricks. I think I'll pass on subscribing for now and just read them at the library. Then if one title stands out, I'll think about a subscription. I never thought about National Geographic as a photography magazine, as such. I'll check them out at the library as well. Thanks.
 
inspiration is a key (and often overlooked) aspect of photography - if you aspire to something then that can be a great learning tool as you have a focus to direct your attentions at - rather than just the general "get better at everything" approach - which can get a bit borning if you feel you are not going anywhere special with it.
 
I dunno, I've always been a fan of Photolife (it's a Canadian mag), but I have pretty much stopped reading it now with working in the photo industry, I get enough info thrown at me on a day to day basis :p I do like their contests though.
 
Well, if reading the magazine on a computer is fine with you, you can go here to get 1 year subscription of some major magazines including those mentioned above.

(One email address per subscription in case you wonder)


Featured | The Read Green Initiative

I tried and it worked. It go right to your Zinio magazine subscription account.
 
This works as I just tried it.
The only problem I see is you can save it for later reading, but you can't save as a PDF file, so I believe you would need an internet connection to read it (no good if you are at the park or somewhere there is no internet)
But it is free none the less.
And if you want to subscribe to magazines, the online part is cheap.
Shutterbug-14 issues for $9.00. I would imagine this is a PDF file.


Well, if reading the magazine on a computer is fine with you, you can go here to get 1 year subscription of some major magazines including those mentioned above.

(One email address per subscription in case you wonder)


Featured | The Read Green Initiative

I tried and it worked. It go right to your Zinio magazine subscription account.
 
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This works as I just tried it.
The only problem I see is you can save it for later reading, but you can't save as a PDF file, so I believe you would need an internet connection to read it (no good if you are at the park or somewhere there is no internet)
But it is free none the less.


You can download the reader. The reader will download the magazine to your computer automatically. In that case, you can read the magazine anywhere as long as your notebook has power. (AC or battery)
 
You can download the reader. The reader will download the magazine to your computer automatically. In that case, you can read the magazine anywhere as long as your notebook has power. (AC or battery)


My bad-there is a offline reader on the Zinio site-:)
 
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National Geographic is about the only one that I know of that is worth reading. The photography is outstanding; the articles varied and interesting (and they don't recycle old stuff either its all new material) and its well written. It is true that its not a pure photography mag, but they do have articles on the subject on the occasion as well.

The majority of the photography magazines these days are very poor pickings - especaily if you have internet access. Many are aimed at the lower level learners and will also have alot of article recycling and general recycling of the same material over and over again -- with little new material. My expereinces are also that many have fallen into being gear reviews (no bad thing in that if that is what you want) which is limiting for the learner wanting to get better.

Also dispite being aimed at learners most of them give editing advice which requires one to have full photoshop (all £500 of it) which is very pointless if your average content and reader just has basic photoshop elements.

In the end one can generaly get far more info, and more advice from online forums and websites - sadly the magazines have not risen to raising the quality of their content to remain in competition with free online advice. I know this is not idea and I myself very much prefer reading from a book than the internet, but the info in mags is just not good enough. Better to spend the money on a good subscription or a few good photography books.


This is good info, but it seems like he wanted a magazine about photography. However I agree that NG is amazing!
 
I dunno, I've always been a fan of Photolife (it's a Canadian mag), but I have pretty much stopped reading it now with working in the photo industry, I get enough info thrown at me on a day to day basis :p I do like their contests though.

I agree! And not just because I have a photo published in this current edition!!
 

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