recommend me an introduction to photography

Felix E

Felix E

Felix E

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Joined
25 Apr 2004
Posts
870
Location
Devon
I recently purchased a Pentax K100D Super for £280 (brand new) which I thought was a pretty good buy, Cnet reckoned it was the best buy in their 'Best digital SLR for beginners' roundup, which is why I chose it over a more popular Canon or Nikon.

Anyway, my main reason for buying the camera is that I have an interest in photography that I'd like to explore and that in September I'll be cycling 930km over the Pyrenees for charity and I think it would be a real shame if I was not able to take some good photo's from high up in the mountains.

However, I know almost nothing about photography - both from a technical and theoretical/artistic perspective - so I was wondering if someone could recommend me a good introduction to the subject?

Thanks for any help,

Felix
 
book wise.. Understanding Exposure gets recomended often. i have never read it though.

I just started playing with my camera, and working out what does what - I had a flick through of this as well http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php

other than that, just experimenting - putting photos up for C&C and thats it really.
 
Really? I've not seen anything approaching constructive criticism of entries into the Photo Comp for ages; it seems to be a case of stick your effort in the entries thread, announce its submission in the discussion thread, have a few people say "great picture" or "amazing, wish I had a camera that could do that" and then wait for the results.

I appreciate the work that the organisers put in, but without detailed feedback how are you supposed to improve? You know your numerical scores but not the reasons why you received them. I'd like to see a standardised comments sheet completed by all the judges - nothing crazy, just a few lines on each scoring aspect - to help the entrants improve on their work and understand why they received the points that they did.

Going back to the OP: another recommendation for Understanding Exposure. Combine that with the manual for your camera and some free time and you'll soon see results.
 
Taking the time out to compose a shot for a theme is always going to improve someones photography even if you dont get detailed feedback, you can critique your own work to find the perfect image to enter! but if you wish detailed feedback then catching some people on this forum on a good day with a selection of shots you will receive some.
 
thanks for the replies guys, those websites look useful and I think I will definitely get Understanding Exposure as soon as I have some time to read it :)

Will think about entering the photo comps too if I get something worth entering.

Can I ask quickly... so far I just have the camera body and kit lens - now I don't want to spend any money on more lenses until I know that I'm actually enjoying the photography and would benefit from it, but are there any essentials I should get? I think someone mentioned a UV lens filter or something somewhere else, and can anyone recommend me a good memory card as I just have an old and slow 512mb one at the moment.

Thanks again
 
Well i think it is a great dlsr. Im now wishing mine was a 'super' ;)

I dont know about the books, but maybe have a look at some of the DSLR magazines. The few ive bought have been very good.

Once youve got the basics id suggest maybe making an account on http://www.deviantart.com/ or something similar. not all will agree with me, since getting decent constructive criticism on there is very tough. But the fact that you can find some really inspirational photographers on there once you get through all the other junk is really worth it.


* one reason for getting a UV filter is to protect the glass from scratches. I think a few from here would recommend one.
 
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