Hot answers tagged learning
26
Now is the time to take photographs.
There are definitely some books you can read that go beyond the technical basics. I highly recommended Michael Freeman's series The Photographer's Eye, The Photographer's Mind, and The Photographer's Vision.
But it sounds like you're mostly focusing on book learnin'. A book will never make you step up in your ...
25
You've asked quite a few questions, each that is not necessarily as straight forward to answer, but I'll do my best.
For reference, check out this link for some definitions for key terms often used in photography.
[What are the] basics of photography?
The very basics are:
Adjusting your camera settings
Aiming your camera at something
Pressing the ...
24
I suspect you are trying to treat photography the way you would approach computer programming (your stock overflow profile indicates that you are a fairly advanced contributor on that site). I myself started out my DSLR journey with the Canon 550D + 18-55mm kit lens combo (rough equivalents of their Nikon counterparts that you possess). The lens is quite ...
23
I'd agree with Peterson (e.g. Understanding Exposure). One I've found very useful is Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye - some excellent stuff about the composition of photos, with plenty of good examples, and very helpful diagrams.
23
In art school we used to do 'true' exercise photography by doing things like:
Take n pictures of a single object, making sure that no two were the same (n was generally some large number like '100' or '250') - The exercise was designed to train yourself to begin to see the many ways it's possible to approach a subject...
Find an object and take the exact ...
20
If that's not evocative of a lot of things, you were never a child or a parent in the suburbs of the USA in the '50s or '60s (or, I suppose, the early '70s).
If all you see is a "rusty toy", you're missing an awful lot. It's a racing car, a motorcycle, a space ship, an adventure machine. It's huge and spectacular if you look at it correctly (through the ...
20
I imagine most people would find a 50mm lens on an APS-C body to be too long most of the time. When I was in University I photographed events with a 50 f/1.4 on APS-C, whilst I appreciated the speed I always found the focal length to be a little long for full length shots and I was forever walking backwards...
If I absolutely had to pick between them I ...
16
I think the most important thing I can say is to go out and take pictures.
Take the kind of pictures you want to take (not test, practice or drill pictures) and pay attention to what you are doing and what results you get from what you are doing (I could say "take notes" -- but that doesn't work for everyone). If you do that, you will be learning about ...
16
I own the 40D, and I have all three lenses that you are considering.
The 40mm f/2.8 is fun, but f/2.8 isn't nearly as "eye opening"(literally and figuratively) on a crop sensor APS-C body. The 40D really can only go as low as ISO 1250 or so before it becomes unusable(opinion). Indoors without a flash, ISO 1250, f/2.8, and no image stabilizer isn't going to ...
15
I have to say that the Scott Kelby book "The Digital Photography Book: The Step-by-step Secrets for How to Make Your Photos Look Like the Pros" was a digestible and easy page turner which is small enough for a beginner to lug around whilst still referring to situation specific shot suggestions. A little tongue in cheek in tone in places, but I found it ...
15
Check out Fro Knows Photo.
There is a weekly RAW file you can edit and you can post your result on the forums (they are at edit 81 at the time of writing). Jared (the guy behind the site) then selects a handfull RAW edits from the forum and comments on them in a youtube video. As a plus, Jared and/or Adam will give a full tutorial (again youtube video) on ...
14
It depends on your discipline and self-criticism. If you can truly see the fault in your own work, then yes that is a great way to start.
What goes hand-in-hand with this is going to look at photos that you find awesome (books, galleries, museums, even online gallery of famous photographers). This gives you a baseline to know what is possible and lets you ...
14
I'd expect that virtually all lens design and analysis these days is done with optical design software like Zemax or Code V. Unfortunately, these products are priced for people and companies that make a (substantial) living working in the field. However, I have come across an optical design tool for Windows called OSLO that offers a free version with ...
13
You have all of my sympathy, because a few years back I was in the exact same position as you are (well to be honest, I'm still on the budget). So, with only some point & shoot experience, this is what I did. This might be partially subjective rant, but I think it offers a good beginner perspective when considering the first lens.
After gazillion hours ...
13
F-stops deal with doubling/halving the amount of light hitting the sensor. Everything revolves around twos.
With the shutter speed, it's easy to understand, as you say. Every shutter f-stop is (roughly) half/double the amount of time as the previous one. Personally, I don't even bother paying attention to the numerator ("1/") part of the shutter speed; I've ...
13
In the UK, I would look at certification by BIPP (the British Institute of Professional Photography). Like other major national professional associations (PPA in the USA, PPoC in Canada), full membership is juried and contingent on both photographic competence and viable/ethical business practices. Training is available if you want it. Individual ...
12
There are a number of options for how to start learning photography. I suppose it depends on where you're coming from -- what you want to learn, where you live, how you learn... these sorts of things.
A few options for a total beginner:
Take a class or a workshop. I took my first photo class when I was in middle school. It was an after-school class, ...
12
Well, one way of remembering the f-stop scale is to remember that every other value is a multiplication by two, or in more photographic terms...every four-fold jump in light availability is twice the f-stop number. As an example:
Double-stops starting at the beginning: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
Double-stops starting skipping the first stop: 1.4, 2.8, 5.6, 11.2 ...
11
Have a look at "The Photographer's Eye". I found it superb and contains all the rules you can think of.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/1905814046/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292253318&sr=1-1
10
You should focus on taking pictures!
Don't worry too much about the gear. If you're really interested in this as a hobby, I suggest budgeting a significant chunk right off (See this slightly-tongue-in-cheek article) and buying some decent mid-range gear.
I don't mean you need to buy a ton of stuff without knowing what you need, but if you jump in at higher ...
10
I think the popularity of that image comes from its historical context. Up to then, the most highly regarded photographic work was black and white. Ansel Adams landscapes for example. Eggleston took images of everyday things, and in color. Reminds me of Andy Warhol, whom he seems to have been affiliated with.
He seems to have influenced a lot of other ...
9
I found Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting really good book for photographers. After all photography is nothing but managing light. The chapters mostly use artificial lighting, but it is the concept building of why a particular setting was used makes the book informative.
9
First off, throw away all the advice about what make of camera to buy, photography is a creative act, not a tribal loyalty..
The plain and simple truth is that great photographs are made with all major makes of camera.
What matters is to find a camera that fits you, ergonomically and emotionally (and financially). You can only do that by trying out a camera ...
9
If you want well-known masters of photography, then here are two sites.
Profotos has a lot of narrative about the photographers, with links to photographs.
Masters of Photography has a lot of images, but the site is littered with pop-up ads, so may put you off
Atget Photography is a good combination of image galleries and short biographies on a number of ...
9
It sounds like you're expecting the model(s) to make the difference, going by the road map you've laid out. At best, the model is the final couple of percentage points. There are some differences a model will make to your photography, but that's mostly about taking proper advantage of facial structure and so forth in your lighting. You don't need a certified ...
8
No. An SLR is not a must when learning photography.
In fact, I'd even say that an SLR can be a real hindrance. There are so many controls and functions that it can be overwhelming, and it's pretty discouraging to spend $500+ on a camera kit, and turn bad photos. So much that it might make you want to switch back to full auto-mode.
A camera is a tool. ...
8
An SLR is not a requirement. In fact, a high end point and shoot in not even required, but either will make the process easier.
The PowerShot SX20 IS, or the PowerShot G11 are two extremely good point and shoot cameras, and both have a majority of the features included in a entry level DSLR.
The main features that a high end point and shoot will miss are ...
8
The "best" answer to your question is not going to provide a full tutorial of the D7000 and how to use it. I would recommend becoming familiar with basic photography techniques and skills, then simply reading the manual or the Magic Lantern guide on your specific model if you have any questions on the actual execution of the techniques you are interested ...
8
My learning process was: buy camera, shoot a lot, work out why I wasn't happy with my photos, go read up on the specific things I thought were wrong, go back and shoot a lot more photos, have more happiness but still some faults, go back and learn a bit more. It got me comfortable with the camera and the process.
Then when I was getting a reasonably decent ...
7
Scott Kelby's "Digital Photography"
A great book to really improve your photography is Scott Kelby's Digital Photography.
It's a hints and tips book, not a thorough working through of the principals, but I came away from it with a lot of really good solid practical things which I now include in my photography, so I'm sure it would be helpful.
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