Things You Should be Doing.

[crownlaurel]

There is a plethora of information online from the very basic to the fairly advanced. I found some pretty useful interactive tutorials for several subjects (I learned a great deal about DOF with Winnie, Taz and Tweety as subjects). Ken Rockwell has very detailed "User's Handbooks" for several of the Nikons.

With four children, one of whom is, shall we say, highly spirited, I do not have much access to libraries or bookstores, but I have read everything I can get my browser on and saved a couple of books on my computer.

But if people aren't even reading recent posts to see if their same question has already been answered, it's not likely they will read anything else. The forum title "Beginner's Place" is pretty much bait for these repeated questions. If you tire of answering them, perhaps it'd be a good idea to practice the opposite of what beginners should do...not read.

 

[Biff]

14 years of racing Radio Controlled cars I learned a few things about high end hobbies. Those that are serious about their new endevor will do alot of research and read everything they can get their hands on. That just wont cut it though. Like anything else, it takes practice.

I also learned over the years that when a noobie spends alot of money on his/hers new gizmos, its a whole lot of fun to share it with others to seek their approval and acceptance, and make new friends hopefully! Afterall, a hobby is supposed to be fun right?

My name is Gary, Im from Houston and I'm sort of a noob to photography. I used to hack around back in the day with a Nikon F4 but forgot everything I thought I knew to begin with. A couple of weeks ago I bought a Sony DSC-H7 P&S. Pretty nice camera, but, on my first field trip I quickly realized I dont want to do the autofocus P&S stuff. (I happened across a baby Racoon and wished I had my act together!)

I spent alot of money since then, and being a noobie with alot of questions, hope yall will be patient with us new guys!

Tomarrow I pick up my new camera. Nikon D80 with a Nikon AF-S 18-200mm lens. For my macro lens I skimped a little. Its the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG.

If Im heading in the right direction so far, speak up please.

Thanks!

 

[jstuedle]

For a long while my most valuable resources were The Life Library of Photography and The Encyclopedia of Photography. Both were given to me by my mother when they first went into print in 1970-71 as a graduation present. My library has grown a great deal since then, but I never tire of reading another authors viewpoint and observe their style. I would advise to study and research, not just read. Memorizing data and trivia is not advancing your craft, but discovering what makes this or that photographers work "tick" is.

 

[PNA]

How can you go wrong developing techniques by reading, understanding and comparing.
As max offers, these are the basics!

 

[Garbz]

Garbz, how does one go about developing a style? How do people develop their "bees knees"?

This comes purely from breaking the rules just learnt. Say you just read a book on lighting which explains the basic front key light and back light arrangement. You go out practice with this lighting setup. It's very easy to setup something like this but the learning turns into development as soon as you say I wonder what happens if I turn the key light off. Now you realise you can create a dark moody sensation using what you just learnt to take a stock standard portrait.

If you look at my gallery You'll notice that most of my photos are low-key and are mostly contrasty. It is an effect that I like a lot and I can probably say this is a personal style I like to shoot. Some people don't like it, tough, go look at someone else's work.