Advice for a beginner

[This_Beautiful_Grace]

Hey everyone,

I've never really had much of a chance to give photography ago but I've always wanted to give it a go. I just need a little help getting started. Is there any specific camera I would need? Are digital ones alright to use? Is there any advice you can give to a beginner?

Any replies would be appreciated. Thanx! God bless

 

[Piano Player]

Hey everyone,

I've never really had much of a chance to give photography ago but I've always wanted to give it a go. I just need a little help getting started. Is there any specific camera I would need? Are digital ones alright to use? Is there any advice you can give to a beginner?

Any replies would be appreciated. Thanx! God bless

You are not far from the age when I started photography. A rewarding life-long expression.

No specific camera is necessary, and a digital one is excellent for a beginner. There is a lot to learn about exposure, contrast, focus, depth of field, lens choice, perspective, shutter speeds, apertures, and composition. You can learn from others --in a school or photography club--or from books and magazines.

Above all, learn to be self critical. Always think of a way to improve a picture. What are you tying to communicate with the picture? Can its message be made clearer? Good evaluation skills will let you grow.

 

[Deamiter]

Digital is probably best for a beginner simply because you save a TON of money when you don't have to pay through the nose to get all your early pictures developed. You can (and you should in my opinion) develop the best of your photographs professionally from digital files so you still have long-lasting copies of all your favorite shots!

As you grow in experience, you can either move toward digital or film photography. Both are valid as formats are good enough to allow huge blow-ups in both areas. Film can be cheaply and easily scanned into computers, and digital files can be cheaply and easily professionally printed. Many people still swear by film, arguing that it has greater depth and better tone, but others are convinced that digital photography allows greater versitility and that any advantage to film is produced by inaccurate film which creates the illusion of depth where digital is much more accurate.

I do both. I have some old SLR cameras which work wonderfully for my purposes, and an expensive SLR-like (most I could afford) digital camera which saves me money when I'm experimenting with different techniques. For now, find yourself a digital camera with as many options as possible so you have room to grow. Things to look for are aperture and shutter priority settings, manual controls (as many as possible) manual focus, white balance adjustment etc...

Check out http://www.dpreview.com and do some of the feature comparisons of the newer digital cameras. It's an invaluable site that compares all possible features (even those you might not care about) and gives prices and in-depth reviews on all the major cameras. Find the best camera in your price range (remember you'll have to buy decent memory, extra batteries etc... which your camera won't include) and feel free to ask any questions you come up with on the way!

 

[mannysee]

for something a little different, have you heard of pinhole camera's? they are a very simple do it yourself type of camera. There's lot of things on the web.

 

[This_Beautiful_Grace]

Thankyou very much all of you. I appreciate your replies. God bless you all!