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Websites (or Books) for the Camera Novice? 43

Posted by Cliff from the for-budding-shutterbugs dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I've just purchased a new 4 megapixel digital camera after always having a simple point and shoot for years. It has all the functions and controls for full manual operation of aperture, shutter, etc. Things that I know little about. I'm looking for information on websites (or books) that will help a novice like me learn how and when to use these features, not just define what they are."
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Websites (or Books) for the Camera Novice? More

Websites (or Books) for the Camera Novice?

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  • Photo.net? (Score:3, Informative)

    by FattMattP ( 86246 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2003 @07:51PM (#7214619) Homepage
    What about photo.net [photo.net]?
  • There is so much to know about photography that it is impossible to pick up one book to cover all the important aspects. I would absolutly start by learning about film photography because most of the digital camera is based off of the film camera, even though mechanically they are very different beings.
    I would check out The Camera [amazon.com] by Ansel Adams for starters.There is a whole series of these Ansel Adams books but if you absorb The Camera you will be on your way to understanding stops and shutter speed
    • hear hear!
      the adams series is the best intro on photography (albeit focused on analogue technology) - and the above mentioned 'the camera' is an excellent resource.

      f64 : there's a reason for the 'f64'

  • Take a class (Score:3, Informative)

    by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2003 @08:00PM (#7214701) Journal
    If I'm understanding you right, it sounds like you are looking for an "Intro to photography" class more than an "Intro to digital photography". Check your local community colleges, and the better camera shops in your neighborhood for someone offering classes.

  • One online reference and some classic texts (Score:4, Informative)

    by muonzoo ( 106581 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2003 @08:14PM (#7214833)
    The best references I've seen are:
    • Philip Greenspun [greenspun.com] runs and excellent photo site [photo.net]. It has been around for years, and the tutorials and/or comments are hard to beat.
    • In print, the best starting point, in my opinion are four of Ansel Adam's books. In particular:
      1. The Camera [amazon.com];
      2. The Negative [amazon.com];
      3. The Print [amazon.com], and;
      4. Basic Techniques [amazon.com]

    You don't have to subscibe to the "Zone System" but you would benefit greatly from understanding the material. Certain tips are just timeless and it won't matter if you are shooting 20x24, 8x10, 4x5, 6x6, 35mm or some sort of digital thingy. The basics stay the same.
    • However, I'd suggest skipping the Ansel Adams texts altogether and get the Basic Techniques book right off the bat. It distills all three Adams' books into a larger and frankly more interesting text than its sources. It's also cheaper to get the one Schaefer book than to get the three Adams books. It would be redundant to buy all four. So either buy 1,2,and 3, or buy 4. After finishing these books you will have an experts understanding of what your camera can do and how to make it do it.

      However, despi
    • I concur, the Ansel Adams books are classic. I have a BFA in photography, and I learned the Zone System from a student of Ansel Adams, it was the most useful training I ever had on the subject.
      The best thing about the AA book series is that it teaches you how to SEE photographs without a camera. You have to learn to look at light, and how that shapes what your camera can produce. Adams is big on the "previsualization" theory, you have to mentally imagine the photograph you want and then you know what you ha
    • Agreed about photo.net. But I was under the impression that Greenspun no longer ran the site. As for the Adams books, I think they are too much for the beinner. John Hedgecoe's books are more beginner oriented, while Adams's are for more experienced amateurs.
  • Open Photo [openphoto.net]

    Free Media [unt.edu]

    Both links found at Creative Commons [creativecommons.org]

    I hope these will help. They're just collections of photos licensed under creative commons licesnses which will probably allow you to use them freely.

    Also check out the wikipedia page on photography [wikipedia.org]

  • Consider buying a monopod or tripod, that's all I'll say. The greatest thing about digital is that you can take a crapton of shots and learn how to compose your shots. So get out and get shooting, take a couple hundred a week and see what you like.

    Also, try to get in the practice of learning how to take good pictures at any time or place. Getting an interesting shot of the commonplace can be a very difficult thing to do.

    I'd also try out your cameras different modes, take tiffs, macro shots, buy an infra

  • While a book would be nice - a class is structured around taking 100s of pictures and figuring out which ones are good. This has relatively high cost for film photography, but in the digital world - there is the wonderful erase button.

    Go out and find a subject you like - a flower, a person, a mountain (a combination of these ?) and take about 100 pictures of it with the different settings (ok, don't go crazy on the way over/under exposed settings) find out which ones you like. This will help you with th

    • I agree. I played with a 35mm SLR some 20 years ago, back when pressing the shutter meant I spent about 20 cents to find out what happened. After blowing a few hundred dollars in developing, I decided that this wasn't the way to learn.

      When the Nikon Coolpix series came along, and broke the 1 megapixel boundary, I got back into shooting stills (after diverting into the video realm for a while). I've now gone through six Coolpix cameras, and just recently graduated to the Canon Digital Rebel D-SLR 6-mega

  • Go to an old books store, and you're nearly guaranteed to find a book by Canon or Nikon on "intro to photography". I prefer Canon, since that's what I shoot with (a 1970's AE1-Program, usually set to all-manual) but either are good.

    Look for a 9x12 hardcover "Time-Life series" style book, about half an inch thick. Flip through a few of what you find, but the 70's Canon and Nikon intros are the absolute best I've ever seen (for beginners).

    mindslip
  • Check out his review at Dan's Site [dansdata.com] :D
  • First a bit of background.
    20 years ago I got my masters degree in fine art photography after spending a few years as a professional photographer in NYC shooting for the likes of Rolling Stone, some other magazines, and record labels. Somehow I got into software development after playing around with writing my own art making software and closed my studio a dozen years ago.

    The one piece of advice I can give from 25 years of being a student, practitioner and teacher of photography is to take a lot of photogr
  • It's been mentioned already, but www.photo.net [photo.net] is pretty good.

    I also found www.photozone.de [photozone.de] a few days ago. A bit basic, but the stuff under teqnique should get you started.

    Just remember that the sight on your camera isn't a gun, think of it more as composing a picture in the view finder. Pay attention not only to your subjects but what else you can see behind/around them. Don't be afraid to ask people to move closer in group shots, try crouching down or standing on something to get a different view

  • There's a recent book called "Shooting Digital" that you might find helpful; it pretty much starts from the basics, but contains practical advice for all sorts of photographic situations. I reviewed it the other day, here [dansdata.com].
  • Also recently got a digital camera with manual controls (Olympus C-740), I found this site to have some useful "basic" info: www.shortcourses.com [shortcourses.com]
  • but this place [digitalsecrets.net] is basically an ad for quite a good book which goes into the digital-photography techniques, rather than only the basics etc..

  • Try out photo.net [photo.net] -- this is the biggest english-speaking community in the field.
  • Last year, I bought a Nikon. I joined the several mailing lists.

    One of the guys on one of these lists is an older professional photographer. He's patient and eloquent, always answers questions, even if the answers can be found anywhere. He knows a lot, and he's a great guy to have around.

    He also has a very informative website. It is found at http://www.larry-bolch.com/ [larry-bolch.com]

    Give it a look, it will help you greatly, as it did me.
    • Any current or prospective Nikon owner should immediately sign up to the Nikonians [nikonians.org] site and start reading the forums relevant to their model and interests.

      Ade_
      /
  • The National Geographic, Michael Freeman, Bryan Peterson and John Hedgecoe books are widely recommended for beginning photographers.

    But whatever you do, spend more time shooting than reading. (And don't get trapped into buying gear instead of taking photographs.)

    Ade_
    /
  • I second the comment about taking as many photo's as possible and would suggest looking at as many as possible too! Best books I ever encountered were I think John Hedgecoe's Basic and Advanced photography which covered pretty much everything. Last thing - photo editing software is your darkroom and needs as much attention as taking the pictures! Best book I've found on the subject is "Photoshop for Photographers" [amazon.com]
  • Photo.net has been mentioned a few times already, but I'd like to add read the static content - start here [photo.net] and work your way through the tutorial. You can also search the archives for answers to specific questions.

    You should note that photo.netters have a fairly low tolerance for newbies who post questions to the forums without searching the archives.

    Apart from that, shoot loads and when you see the results try to analyse which pictures really work best and why

    My final recommendation is to see other

  • Trial and error. Depends why you are taking the photos. Photography is still an art.

  • Many have suggested photo.net [photo.net], and I agree and second the commet to be sure to read the static content as well as the boards. I also like Usefilm [usefilm.com], particularly as a place to post pictures and get comments. The three Ansel Adams books (The Camera, The Negative, and The Print are classics and loaded with useful information, and The National Geographic Photography Field Guide [nationalgeographic.com] is hugely informative and inspirational as well.

    Speaking of inspiration, spend time looking at the sorts of pictures that you like an

  • Time-Life produced a famous series of large-format photo instruction books, they're from the analog era but will be useful for anyone learning any type of photography. They have lucious printing in photogravure, to show you what photography can REALLY do in a high quality printed format. Some of them focus on developing and printing so they'd be less useful for digital guys, but there are several books on shooting techniques and composing shots, etc. I don't think I'd recommend buying these sight unseen, bu
  • These two books were given to me by my grandfather, a professional photographer, when I got my first 35mm camera. He gave me some encouragement and critiques, but all the hands-on technical knowledge came from these books.

    To answer your direct question, Kodak's Guide to 35mm Photography [amazon.com] is a fantastic reference to how to operate manual camera settings. Nevermind that you're using digital and not 35mm film, the manual controls on your camera are meant to emulate a 35mm camera. So, there won't be a chapte
  • Here's a good book that should be able to get you started:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN% 3 D087985801 x/104-6799284-9159958

    But be warned, that asking the question "How do I get to be a good photographer" is equilvelant to asking "How do I bench press 600lbs?". You really have to work at it.

    Also check out the Amatuer Photography Yahoo group:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amateurphoto graphycl ub/

    It's not a very high volume list, but they've got plenty of pictures you can look at.

  • There's some useful information (and excellent photos) at Northlight Images [northlight-images.co.uk], including a pretty extensive collection of links [northlight-images.co.uk], and good advice on setting up colour profiles so as to get consistent image representation on the journey from camera through monitor to printer, particularly for black and white photography [northlight-images.co.uk].

  • Of course photo.net [photo.net] is the ultimate photography website, but there are several good beginners' articles at Megapixel.net [megapixel.net]. It's more than just a camera review site.
  • I like it, the technique section is well explained and written.

    Good examples highlight the point of the article.

    I think the section on Canon/Nikon is good too.
  • One of the best place I can think of is photo.net's "learn" section, particularly the "Making Photographs" tutorial.

    http://www.photo.net/learn/ [photo.net]

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