Beginner begging for resources/advice
Discussion
Shameless scrounge. I have been given my first ever non-snapshot camera, an Olympus PEN E-PL2. It has the standard kit lense. The only accessories I have area tiny tripod, cheap ND, UV and circular polarising filters and the Olypus macro adaptor. But this doesn't concern me too much - I really want to learn the basics and start practising.
Rather than go and buy very expensive stuff, I'd rather learn what I'm doing first. So does anyone have any advice for online articles, e-books (preferable to normal books for me as will be on the laptop accompanying the camera on my travels) or just general advice?
I have no particular discipline I want to specialise in - in reality, my shots will be a mix of group portraits, landscapes, macro work and urban features (I live in London and will carry the camera with me as much as possible)
The second part of this is post production - I have absolutely no idea which product is the best, which is the best value for a beginner like me, and how to learn - again any resources or recommendations would be really appreciated. I haven't used any photoediting software before.
I am hoping that this thread will be useful to all beginners/novices jealously looking at your photo threads and wanting to post on them!
And as ever, if a repost, apologies, and please just point me to the relevant thread!
Best regards,
Harry.
Rather than go and buy very expensive stuff, I'd rather learn what I'm doing first. So does anyone have any advice for online articles, e-books (preferable to normal books for me as will be on the laptop accompanying the camera on my travels) or just general advice?
I have no particular discipline I want to specialise in - in reality, my shots will be a mix of group portraits, landscapes, macro work and urban features (I live in London and will carry the camera with me as much as possible)
The second part of this is post production - I have absolutely no idea which product is the best, which is the best value for a beginner like me, and how to learn - again any resources or recommendations would be really appreciated. I haven't used any photoediting software before.
I am hoping that this thread will be useful to all beginners/novices jealously looking at your photo threads and wanting to post on them!
And as ever, if a repost, apologies, and please just point me to the relevant thread!
Best regards,
Harry.
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a great starting point.
Get yourself a flickr account, bang some shots up and stick them up here, there are all sorts of very good photographers on here, from automotive, aviation, portrait, landscape, all sorts of genres.
Flickr is also a useful learning tool, have a look around (Explore is a good starting point) and see which photos you like, then work out what you like about them. At the top right of the majority of photos it tells you which camera it was taken with. If you click that link it takes you into the exif data which shows you all the settings used, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash (if fired from the camera), the lot.
Finally get out and take lots of photos, of things, people, places, during the day, at night, everything, you'll soon pick it up, from there you'll find out what you enjoy shooting and begin to develop your own style.
Get yourself a flickr account, bang some shots up and stick them up here, there are all sorts of very good photographers on here, from automotive, aviation, portrait, landscape, all sorts of genres.
Flickr is also a useful learning tool, have a look around (Explore is a good starting point) and see which photos you like, then work out what you like about them. At the top right of the majority of photos it tells you which camera it was taken with. If you click that link it takes you into the exif data which shows you all the settings used, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash (if fired from the camera), the lot.
Finally get out and take lots of photos, of things, people, places, during the day, at night, everything, you'll soon pick it up, from there you'll find out what you enjoy shooting and begin to develop your own style.
Harry Flashman said:
The second part of this is post production - I have absolutely no idea which product is the best, which is the best value for a beginner like me, and how to learn - again any resources or recommendations would be really appreciated. I haven't used any photoediting software before.
tim-b said:
I think the best option is probably Lightroom - cheap, effective and covers the whole workflow to a pretty deep level. Takes a while to figure out but there are loads of online tutorials (on youtube for example).
It is best to try a few, I know a lot of photographers (myself included) who don't get on with Lightroom. Most of the big applications are available for free trial.Take lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures.
I'm slowly dragging myself up by doing that, and not just deciding that I don't like such-and-such a picture I took, but trying to understand why I'm rejecting it.
But mainly, taking lots of pictures (for me, "taking a picture" means "deciding what I want the outcome to be, before looking through the viewfinder, then working out how I'm going to do it") seems to be the route to success.
My most successful pictures (as in "the ones that I like the best"; photography is something I do for me, first and foremost, although I do like making things that other people like to look at) are the ones where I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve before pressing the shutter release, rather than just going "ooh that looks interesting must take picture of it".
I've got Understanding Exposure on my iPad, and I also have The Digital Photographer's Handbook (dead-tree edition) by Tom Ang. Both have been very useful to me.
I'm slowly dragging myself up by doing that, and not just deciding that I don't like such-and-such a picture I took, but trying to understand why I'm rejecting it.
But mainly, taking lots of pictures (for me, "taking a picture" means "deciding what I want the outcome to be, before looking through the viewfinder, then working out how I'm going to do it") seems to be the route to success.
My most successful pictures (as in "the ones that I like the best"; photography is something I do for me, first and foremost, although I do like making things that other people like to look at) are the ones where I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve before pressing the shutter release, rather than just going "ooh that looks interesting must take picture of it".
I've got Understanding Exposure on my iPad, and I also have The Digital Photographer's Handbook (dead-tree edition) by Tom Ang. Both have been very useful to me.
Hello, HarryFlashman,
What I have found is there are some styles of photography I am better at than others. You just need to go out and take pictures to see what works for you.
Get a simple guide to photography that explains the bsasics about exposure, depth of field, ASA/ISO settings etc. Also Composition basics such as the rule of thirds, not sticking the horizon in the middle of a photo, not chopping anything off, "space in front of the face" etc.
As with most things you can read up on the theory, but you need to do it for real to get good. Just take your time thinking about what you are doing.
I still use Photoshop Limited Edition software that I got twelve years ago for photo editing, though mainly because I'm a skinflint.
What I have found is there are some styles of photography I am better at than others. You just need to go out and take pictures to see what works for you.
Get a simple guide to photography that explains the bsasics about exposure, depth of field, ASA/ISO settings etc. Also Composition basics such as the rule of thirds, not sticking the horizon in the middle of a photo, not chopping anything off, "space in front of the face" etc.
As with most things you can read up on the theory, but you need to do it for real to get good. Just take your time thinking about what you are doing.
I still use Photoshop Limited Edition software that I got twelve years ago for photo editing, though mainly because I'm a skinflint.
CommanderJameson said:
Take lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures.
I've actually gone past that stage and have gone the other way recently. I'm trying to take less shots but spend more time composing them. Before I'd spam out photo's with every which angle/variation of settings covered whereas now I'm trying to work out before I hit the shutter button what I want the shot to include.(Still very much a beginner though, and my biggest area for improvement is composition.)
markmullen said:
It is best to try a few, I know a lot of photographers (myself included) who don't get on with Lightroom. Most of the big applications are available for free trial.
That's very true, I tend to get a bit fanatical about LR although I'll happily concede it's very difficult to get into - I gave up on it initially, until colleagues pestered me into giving it a 2nd chance - but for a beginner it's still probably a good 'one-stop-shop' at a reasonable price. As you say the best plan would be to take advantage of the free trials.Harry Flashman said:
The second part of this is post production - I have absolutely no idea which product is the best, which is the best value for a beginner like me, and how to learn - again any resources or recommendations would be really appreciated. I haven't used any photoediting software before.
Free.
central said:
Fairly hateful for photo editing, though, where the ability to twiddle exposure, curves and white balance is what matters.For seventy-odd quid, Elements 10 blows it into the weeds.
I'll reccomend Lightroom as well, at least the free trial. I've found it excellent for pretty much all the editing I need to do. Main down side is that you can't cut/paste bits of the image and no layers.
Whichever package you opt for there are loads of tutorails online, YouTube and Google are your friends
Read the threads on here in the 'Talk Basics' section, most topics crop up quite frequently.
Whichever package you opt for there are loads of tutorails online, YouTube and Google are your friends
Read the threads on here in the 'Talk Basics' section, most topics crop up quite frequently.
Thanks chaps! Have read now read "Understanding Exposure", so have a grasp of basic theory/ Took a lot of photos at the weekend - some good results, some appalling. So am going to practice getting things right in-camera first (shooting in jpeg). Once I am getting better results, I think I shall start on software and editing!
My problem at the moment is that it is taking me too long to adjust the "exposure triangle" to get my shots - so at an event this weekend I had to stick the camera into automatic to get any shots at all. But I had a bit of practice at landscapes etc, and found that in an unhurried environment, I could play around and get some nice results.
Also, I need to reporgramme my camera buttons so that I have things like a depth of preview button, to make thingsa bit less hit and miss. Buggered if I can work out how to do this from the manual, though...
One thing - this is addictive. Lady F is already claiming that she's lost me to the camera.
My problem at the moment is that it is taking me too long to adjust the "exposure triangle" to get my shots - so at an event this weekend I had to stick the camera into automatic to get any shots at all. But I had a bit of practice at landscapes etc, and found that in an unhurried environment, I could play around and get some nice results.
Also, I need to reporgramme my camera buttons so that I have things like a depth of preview button, to make thingsa bit less hit and miss. Buggered if I can work out how to do this from the manual, though...
One thing - this is addictive. Lady F is already claiming that she's lost me to the camera.
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