Your 3 Top Tips for a Novice

cbarker118

cbarker118

cbarker118

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Hello all and seasons greetings! :)

I'm hoping to become the proud owner of a Canon 550d over the holidays. Having had a play on other people's 20d and 1000d bodies I felt that it was time I got a DSLR too!

Choice of 550d being mainly based on good low-light performance, decent rear screen and the chance to muck around with video if the mood should take me.

Anyhow, the point of this thread was this. If you could pass on only 3 nuggets of advice to someone entering the world of 'enthusiastic amateur' level digital photography, what would they be?
 
Derek W said:
3 tips would be read read read :)
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lol my advice would be almost the exact opposite. I found there is only so much you can learn from reading, which is why I don't bother with mags etc.

Yes read up about the basics, but that was were it ended for me.

Just get out there and shoot. No matter what it is, you will take photos and then when you get home you may realise what's wrong with them, or something you could have done better - so next time out, you'll take better photos :)

Not really a top 3 I know, but for me, you will learn much more outside with the camera rather than sitting in front of your PC or reading a book.
 
Actually my advice would be between you two...

Read Practice Write

Reading is always useful to get the knowledge, then you go out and practice it until you get to a point where you write your own stuff for others to read*... :p

*Afterall half the stuff is wrong!!! ;)

EDIT: But yeah there is nothing better than just shooting and getting some experience in.:)
 
Tip one - A vast majority of amazing photos you see are not real. Learn to photohop.
Tip two - Practice over reading, (although knowing it is step one, doing it is step 2-10)
Tip three - Take photos of what you love because if you force it, you'l end up hating it.
 
Make sure you understand exposure.

And in the early days sometimes it's worth taking a picture, not because you think it's going to be a good photo, but to see if it comes out how you expect it to.
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
Make sure you understand exposure.

And in the early days sometimes it's worth taking a picture, not because you think it's going to be a good photo, but to see if it comes out how you expect it to.
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See even that is a bit hit and miss these days cause even if you get it wrong by a stop or two, it can be fixed in raw. I think my point one is a massive point.
 
cbarker118 said:
Anyhow, the point of this thread was this. If you could pass on only 3 nuggets of advice to someone entering the world of 'enthusiastic amateur' level digital photography, what would they be?
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I'll give you one. Compete.

The best competition to compete in is the one right here on OCUK. It is a level playing field. You have to take the picture in the month of the round, so you are competeing against what other people can do today - not the pictures in their 20 year portfolio.

Join a local club. To compete here, I would recommend getting a printer. An A4 one won't break the bank and is perfectly acceptable. You'll want some mounts too. Only a few quid.

The act of presenting your best work, then having a judge tell you what is wrong with it can be a bit tough to start with but it has worked wonders for me.

And it is good to have local 'togs to chat to. Most are very helpful to enthusiastic beginners.

Andrew
 
Gaffer said:
I'll give you one. Compete.

The best competition to compete in is the one right here on OCUK. It is a level playing field. You have to take the picture in the month of the round, so you are competeing against what other people can do today - not the pictures in their 20 year portfolio.

Join a local club. To compete here, I would recommend getting a printer. An A4 one won't break the bank and is perfectly acceptable. You'll want some mounts too. Only a few quid.

The act of presenting your best work, then having a judge tell you what is wrong with it can be a bit tough to start with but it has worked wonders for me.

And it is good to have local 'togs to chat to. Most are very helpful to enthusiastic beginners.

Andrew
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Thanks ill certainly look at entering the OCUK competition as a minimum.

Some really good advice from everyone. I can see me frequenting this forum. Might temporarily keep me from planning new PC builds ;)
 
1. Carry your camera around with you wherever you can - you never know what'll happen.
2. Learn what effect aperture and shutter speed has on your image (especially aperture) and gradually learn to set these based on what your subject is, rather than just whatever exposes for the light.
3. Practice, practice, practice :).
 
always always always keep checking your settings.. too many times ive been shooting set for one light then move to somewhere with totally different light and forgotten to reset.. lol
 
I can add that I haver learnt a LOT from a photography forum...only by looking on others photos and others comments and advices I learnt a lot....
If you post a photo somewhere, ask others to comment and give you ideas what could be done better - composition, PP and diffeent settings ...

Don't be affraid to be criticised!!!!!! thats the best way to learn ( at least for me )
 
Always check your shutter speed, 1/60 is generally the minimum for hand held BUT you also have to take into account the focal length of your lens and multiply it by your crop factor. For example 200mm lens on a Canon crop; 200 x 1.6 = 320, so 1/320 should be your minimum shutter speed. These are only guidelines, you may still get soft shots due to camera movement so just increase your shutter speed.

Read up on the ISO, F-stop, Shutter speed triangle to understand how each one affects the other.

Don't be afraid to just shoot and see what you get. The beauty of digital means you get instant feedback and can adjust settings to see how it affects the shot.
 
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neil_g said:
always always always keep checking your settings.. too many times ive been shooting set for one light then move to somewhere with totally different light and forgotten to reset.. lol
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I find that more true for film, but that's probably because there's far more settings on a video camera than a stills. Early into doing wedding films I realised about 30 minutes into the ceremony that I was shooting in PAL SD rather than 1080p.

You learn the hard way, and always will :p.
 
Russinating said:
I find that more true for film, but that's probably because there's far more settings on a video camera than a stills. Early into doing wedding films I realised about 30 minutes into the ceremony that I was shooting in PAL SD rather than 1080p.

You learn the hard way, and always will :p.
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depends if you shoot manual i guess :)
 
Don't use auto anything to start with, one day auto-ISO might be useful but until you fully understand it set it manually, then you have to understand it. Shoot in Aperture/Shutter priority or fully manual, always.

Don't get hung up on gear. It won't make you a better photographer unless you have specific, niche requirement. Even then, unless you're getting paid for the images, a slightly less than ideal shot makes more sense than £3k of gear... It WILL NOT make you better, accept that early on.

Umm, check your settings is good, discovering your fantastic landscapes were shot at ISO1600 will teach you that fairly quickly though. Learn something about composure is probably a better long term tip...
 
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