Any photographers (pro or amateur) in the house?

[gmanxiii]

An expensive hobby perhaps? Been wanting to learn for ages but dunno how to get started... just want to learn to take decent pictures for fun and also so i dont have to spend hours at work, just looking through a gazillion stock photographs for the perfect image to add into my designs (can just go out and take them instead ).

Should i look for a dedicated course? or just get a book? Not got a camera either yet, dunno the first thing about them. Always just had high techy compacts with decent zooms to just point and click.
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I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[_Will_]

First things first do some searching on google and buy a decent camera, then read up - theres a mag called digital camera magazine which will help a lot.

If you're getting into it there are courses you can take ranging from simple to very immersive.

As far as hobbies go it can get VERY expensive, if you get into it and want perfect pictures a high end professional digital slr costs into the thousands.

To begin with look for the amatuer/enthusiast market for a Bridge or Slr camera, these give you manual functions, you should expect to spend around £300-£600.
These should cater for you unless you intend on building a carreer out of photography.

Have fun
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Past -Honda qr50 | 2004 Peugeot Tkr s 50| | 1996 Yamaha XJ600s Diversion|

[divuk83]

How much experience do you have at the moment?

Not sure I would recommend any particular books or courses. My brother stared GCSE photography, but stopped as it was rubbish and wasn't really teaching him anything that useful. With digital its much easier to teach yourself as you don't have the wait or expense of processing before you can see the pictures, this allows you to be more creative and fiddle with all the settings on the camera to see what works well and what doesn't.

I rate Practical Photography as the best of the photo magazines. Lots of good info written in a very easy to understand way.

If you search around the internet there are lots of good guides and information on the basic principles of photography. I rate the photography are on overclockers forum quite highly as there is a lot of good info and advice without it being to advanced/difficult to understand. There is also a decent FAQ on there.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=28

A bridge camera might be a good buy depending on how much experience you have, though I would have though that your better off skipping that step and just getting an SLR as the entry level ones are very easy to use.

Dave

[DEN MONKEY]

Ditto to using the net to get yourself started.
Once you feel you are ready to take the next step then maybe a course of some description.

I have a canon 350xt dslr and love it. As with bike there is brand loyalty so make sure you go in with an open mind.

Find a few you like the look of, then google for the functions and see if you really need that for what you want to do with it and the types of photographs you wish to take.

Factor into that some processing software once you get them on to your pc. Its not cheap unless you can source it else where

Youtube is also useful for instructional vids.
Even better if you can join a forum and just ask for what you need.

Ive found if I spot someone at an event with some equipment they are often also willing to chat and share a few pointers if you ask nicely.
Best to avoid those doing it to make a dollar.
Sometimes they are just too busy looking for THE shot and dont have time for chit chat.
The guy who is doing it as a passion it more likely to talk about an interest you both share.

I use this forum and they are very helpful.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

Have fun
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meh

[Edicap]

Just to add to what others have said. I've been interested in photography for about the last five or six years, starting off with an old Pentax SLR and working my way up to a semi pro Canon digital SLR.

My advice to you would be to sit back and think where you want to go with it. There are so many things to consider when buying not only the camera but the one hundred other things you might need. My camera equipment now costs well over what my bike did (£2500) so as you can see, you dont want to rush into anything.

Once you have your camera you got to think about the other stuff you'll need. Camera bag (£50-£80), editing software like photoshop (£60-£400), filters (£10) and a few different lenses (£150).

All in all though, its well worth the money if you get the right results. I've managed to make a few quid out of it in the last two or three years by doing work for a few magazines which isn't bad considering you do it as a hobby.

I'd reccomend you have a browse through these two sites. Some very good info and honest reviews from them on all makes and models of camera.

https://www.dpreview.com/

https://www.steves-digicams.com/
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[heth]

I was interested in this a few years back and did a night school course in college for it ............. was very interesting and learnt loads of things, more than I got out of the books I had.
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[snapperslappe...]

get yourself a cheep Nikon ( i am a brand whore when it comes to the cannon vs nikon argument....nikon wins, the shots have a slightly less blue bias....)if you can get a D70 ( just been replaced with the D80 so should be dirt cheep) as this will accomodate amature to professional standards.......

Also, get hold of a copy of photoshop cs or cs2 (drop me a pm) and the book Adobe photoshop for photographers (begginers edition) by martian evening, and your set for everything ( the book comes with a tutorial cd if you want to take it that far).

As for courses, i'd steer clear of the basic gcse/a level type and go down the vocational qualli route......this will show you how to use your kit rather than teach you the history of the photograph and the language of semiotics......

you can very eaisliy do it on the cheep, or spend thousands on top end stuff, only to produce a similar result ( bar the quality issue ).

[Kickstart]

Hi

Yes it can get very expensive. But can be fairly cheap to start. Old Canon D30 for example is now pretty cheap (early 3mp Canon dSLR, over £2k new, now about £150 or so, can easily produce A4 prints).

To an extent buy a camera and play. Get a few different lenses (and they do not have to be that expensive, cheapest Canon lense is the 50mm f1.8, and it is surprisingly good although some other lenses are junk).

To be honest, not much to choose between Canon and Nikon. Don't worry about the colour cast (you can change it in camera on a load of the Canons anyway). Tends to be that they leapfrog each other in technology, and also tend not to compete directly.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[gmanxiii]

Cool cheers for all the help guys, there are two things im likely to use it for, work and play.

i do design for a living. Everything from illustration, websites, stickers, tshirts etc. Been wanting to put more photography in my work for last year or so. At the moment i rely on stock images to find picture closest to what i have in my head then chuck them into the adobe suites to jazz them up.

The problem i have is that it can take days to find the "perfect" image, most of the times i have to settle for the closest instead. so i thought it'd make more sense to take them myself and save the clients some money too. So probably best to go down the digital route as i wont need to worry about transfering the pictures over. Although i dunno if it is true but ive heard that with digital, you cant get some shots that you would do with film?

As for experience I've not got a clue, with all these numbers and different lenses and things. All jargon to me I tend to just stick my current compact on auto at the moment as i dunno what half the features do!
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I kills hondas

VFR400NC30 > ZZR600 > CBR600FX > CBR1000rr

[stinkwheel]

Well, I'm a luddite and still use film.

You can get a top quality SLR film camera from the 1980's/1990's for under £100. Processing is more expensive but you can get them to burn the images onto a CD in a variety of resolutions along with the prints.

You don't necessarily need to spend an absolute fortune on kit. I've seen some awesome landscape pictures taken using large format film in a pinhole camera made out of cardboard and gaffa tape. You can have a £2000 camera and take a shite picture if the composition is off. Equally, a simple point and press one can produce a brilliant picture.

Here's a picture (not a particularly good one) in the big size, 400ASA so probably the graniest film you'd normally use, not my favourite brand of film either but I can't find my other CDs just now.
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