Ask HN: How to get started with photography?

[gsastry]

Hi. I've been interested in photography for about a year now but I've never gotten around to actually doing something about it. I've looked up a couple tutorials, checked out a couple cameras, but I'm not really sure how to start. So, I turn to you all for advice. How would you advise a photography-newbie to start off? Equipment? Pointers? Thanks!

[eznet]

Well, I am far from an authority or expert, but really all it takes is getting a half decent camera with a hand full of manual settings, a half decent tripod and start clicking. Click a lot. Luckily with a digital camera and a 2GB memory card, you can click until your finger is sore and all you have spent is time. You will learn a LOT from doing just this. Play with macros and landscapes, day and night, still and action - just shoot. Load em up in Gimp or Photoshop and go to town (might I suggest playing with Shadows and Highlights (PS) to get some instant gratification).

Since you say that you have been interested for a year, but have not taken the steps to start, I definitely would not recommending running out and snatching up a thousand dollar camera - for all you currently know, you might not like the process as much as you do the idea. I can personally recommend the Canon S3 IS as a decent entry level point and shoot with some nice manual settings for under 300 bones - I bought this camera a couple years ago, so if anyone knows a better comparable inexpensive one, by all means chime in. First thing you will want to do is get the CHDK AllBest hacked firmware and familiarize yourself with it - it lets you do a LOT with the camera that the default Canon firmware will not. As a bonus, it will not hurt your camera or replace your Canon firmware - just turn it back off and on and you are back to normal (see CHDK website).

My next camera will hopefully be a Nikon D300, but I definitely would not run out and grab one as a starter. You want something that has some nice automatic functions as well as the manual options - without this, it will be easy to get discouraged.

Also, a fun thing that will whet your appetite is to grab the aforementioned tripod, set your CHDK settings to take multiple exposures of the exact same thing and load them up in PhotoMatix (Mac/Win) or Qtpfs (Linux - I use this). HDRs can be really fun to work with and you can get some interesting pictures with the modern HDR programs (they do the leg work for the lazy.. coughmyselfcough).

Like I said, I am not a pro, just a dude who likes to take lots of pictures. Get bored, check out some of my pics I am most proud of: http://flickr.com/photos/mattezell/sets/72157601781859375/ http://flickr.com/photos/mattezell/sets/72157605580120812/

[uzi]

What's your end goal? What do you hope to achieve? For me, I wanted to get to be good before I had kids, so I totally immersed myself for a little while for fun. Now I have a 2 month old little girl and I've backed off, but I'm happy with the photos I'm taking of her.

The suggestion of http://photo.net/ is a good one. I'd also recommend http://dpreview.com/ for gear and http://photosig.com/ as a place that you can see other peoples' work, critique and be critiqued.

The "National Geographic Photography Field Guide, 2nd Ed." was an amazing book that got me started in terms of understanding photography. (And it looks like it's been replaced with the "National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography".) The book essential is in two halves. The first half talks about the mechanics of photography... how shutter speed relates to aperture relates to film/sensor sensitivity (ISO) relates to focal length relates to distance to the subject relates to... etc. All of that is half of what I think you really need to know in terms of the mechanics. The other half is light. The second half of the book talks about a myriad of photo subjects and the approaches to photographing them, rules of photography (in terms of composition) and so forth.

As you get to know more, you'll see that your question is kind of like "How to get started with computers?" There's so much to it, it's hard to say. Perhaps your goals warrant a Digital SLR, perhaps they don't. I can tell you this, though... a good photographer with a bad camera can take better photos than a bad photographer with a good camera.

[tjr]

Read http://photo.net/ Most especially the introductory "textbook" and the product reviews. This will give you a decent foundation of basic terminology and available equipment.

I would suggest starting with an SLR camera, even if financing restricts you to getting a film SLR camera. Add a prime lens, possibly 35mm or 50mm. There are pros and cons all over the place, but that's why you should read photo.net. :-)