 BetterPhoto Member |
I Need It All! I have just recently decided to ditch my handy 35 mm camera and attempt to learn the art of true photography. I purchased a second hand Canon AE-1 and a Focal DA-2000 lens. I also bought Canon long lens. My main subjects are my three children and I have lucked up sometimes getting great shots of them but more often than not they are bad. I am truly a novice and would like the "layman's" definitions of aperture, shutter speed, WHATEVER it is I need to know to get great shots of wiggly kids. Your Web site has helped me tremendously in getting started but I guess I need the very basic understanding of what I am trying to do and what these things are for (Remedial Photography 001?) Your response is so greatly appreciated.
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
Not that I don't want to help. I wouldn't come to this site if I didn't. But you are asking for a lot to have someone explain all the basics of photography to you on this forum. I would suggest going out and buying a good basic photography book. There are tons of them on the market. It would be simpler to do that and then come here for help with concepts you struggle with than to look for everything here in one answer. Of course that's just my opinion. Someone else may have a Reader's Digest version they can give you.
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Ken Pang |
Jeff's right, my initial response came to a novel size before I gave up and decided not to post it. The only other piece of advice is to buy cheap film and just shoot shoot shoot. Let the camera's computer do all the work while you get the artistic side of things down. Once that happens, get some decent film, and start playing around with some of the settings. Start asking specific questions - "it looks washed out, why". "The photo is blurry, what did I do wrong"? "I've seen photos in magazines where they do X, how do they do it". Anyway, good luck with your shooting and tell us how you go. Cheers,
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
BetterPhotoJim.com - Jim Miotke  Contact Jim Miotke Jim Miotke's Gallery |
Jim's Take on Great Starter Books: Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson Focus on Nature " by John Shaw (if you are into the nature thing) Photography for Dummies " (if you are using a simple point and shoot camera) Basic Techniques of Photography - Book I " (if you see yourself eventually getting into developing and printing your own film) How to Take Great Photographs With Any Camera by Jerry Hughes
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Christine Nyswaner |
A good place to look for some great books on the subject would be a used bookstore on a college campus. Almost everyplace offers Photography 101 and in lots of schools students take the class to fill the requirement and then ditch the books. I picked up a great used textbook for $2.50 and it's been worth its weight in gold! Happy shooting! Christine
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
David Clark |
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
I know I already responded and basically said to go get a book but I just read DN's response and found it confusing (and I know what he's talking about). No offense to DN but I didn't want you reading his explanation and giving up because you aren't Einstein. So I will give you a basic description of exposure with the best analogy I can think of. Imagine film being a bucket that you are going to fill up with water. Your aperture is how much water you let out of the spicket. You can let a trickle out or turn it on full blast. Your shutter is how long you leave the water on. Now, I can fill up my bucket with a trickle (a small aperture - larger f-stop #) and leave it on for a long time (slow shutter) or I can turn it on full blast (large aperture - smaller f-stop #) and shut it off quickly (fast shutter). Different ISO speed films are simply different sized buckets. Higher ISO's are smaller buckets and require less water. I believe that qualifies as Remedial Photography 001. Now go get a good book and fill in the specifics.
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
John A. Lind |
I also started on a reply and found myself with an epic novel. As you grow in photography you will need additional sources of information. You won't need these much now, so write them down and when you've worked through the beginner topics, then look for these. John's Take on Classic Texts for Intermediate/Advanced Topics: Ansel Adams' classic trilogy: _The_Complete_Photographer_ by Andreas Feininger -- John
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Anand Madabhushi |
Well, search the web for "tips on photography" browse the sites, down load the how to topics and you have all the info you would need to learn to shoot great pictures!
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Tim Streets |
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
1-Clean Kids,[muddy ones are great too]2-Outside in the late afternoon [or early evening] or/and in the shade,[or a cloudy day is the best] 3- Use lots of Film,[right on!] 4-Set Camera to auto (a on lens and fastish shutter speed -AE-i is shutter priorty not full auto)[only do this in the beginning. Get a book and start shooting in manual as soon as possible] 5- focus [not always mandatory. Experiment and have fun] 6-have fun (let the kids have fun too)[that's what I said] 7-Kid wrangler [yeah, with a lasso and a bullwhip]8-fill flash(advance) [reflectors are easier to use and look more natural in most cases]9- repeat[don't forget to lather and rinse first]
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Ed Holmes |
I started learning the art of photography a year ago, and found a series of books by Freeman Patterson to be very inspiring and helpful. So far he has been the best teacher that I've come across. They don't just explain boring techniques and technical stuff, but he also explains what he did to create his own stunning images, which I found really neat.
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Pam |
I began seriously exploring the art of photography about a year ago. I took a couple of courses through our public school system's continuing education program (much cheaper than college courses, and very comprehensive), and found a couple of books which have proved quite helpful. The first book I bought was a Magic Lantern Guide - these are often camera specific, and I did see one listing the Canon AE1 - I believe it's their Guide to Canon Classic Cameras, or something to that effect. I have a Canon EOS Elan IIe, and have found the matching Magic Lantern Guide to be a very helpful companion to the manual that came with my camera. It basically has the same information, only more fully explained, with examples given. The second book is Collins Complete Guide To Photography, by Michael Freeman. I find it to be full of useful information and great tips. Before delving into these books, I took the courses (a beginner's course, and a course on metering), and I'm glad I did - I understand the books much better than if I had started out just by reading. Whatever route you take, be persistent -photography is a fun, creative, rewarding experience. Above all, allow yourself to enjoy the experience, and the learning will be easier. Don't expect yourself to take perfect photographs all the time - even the professionals don't always get perfect results, or so I was told by my teacher, who is a professional photographer! Have fun! - Pam
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Hermann Graf |
My advice: 1) Write down in a small notebook the frame no., the aperture, the shutter speed, the part you have metered on, the lens/focal length, the film type and the occasion/circumstances of every shot you make. When having the photos at hand, reconsult your notebook. 2) Take several shots of one motive, use "bracketing", vary your position towards the object. Sounds old-fashioned, but is more helpful than any kind of overengineered camera.
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||||||||
