Beginner Books for Beginners

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swains

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I recently bought a fuji x-t1 (not sure if the camera matters in this instance?) and would like to get a book to help me get to grips with the basics (and I do mean basics) of photography, as I am a complete novice! Ideally I would go on a course or two but having just moved to China this isn't really an option unfortunately. Any suggestions?;
 
Technical - just really basic info really. I have the internet incredibly useful, but would also like a physical copy of something too ideally
 
I personally like the book by Tony Northrup - How to Create Stunning Digital Photography, which comes in paperback or as an ebook (the latter can link you to how-to videos on the internet). Obviously it's horses for courses so you may want to look at youtube first to see if you like his teaching style and then go from there.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look into both!
 
Most technical books that are wide circulation competently handle beginner stuff. As do the common photography mags (although these get horrendously repetitive once you know the basics and aren't of much interest to anyone who isn't a novice). Once you know what your camera does and how it does it, I recommend getting Michael Freeman's "Perfect Exposure". This is a fantastic, easy-to-read, book that covers some of the more complex or nuanced technical considerations. It goes beyond the often inappropriate "rules of thumb" and quick-fixes that you get in beginners texts, and gives you the intellectual toolkit to solve exposure problems for yourself rather than getting frustrated with "rules". It really gave me a few genuine "ah-ha!" moments when I was starting out. However, it assumes prior confidence in the basics.
 
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For the technical stuff relevant to your X-T1..
  • Check the Fuji owner threads in the Talk Equipment section, pretty much everything that's written for the X-E2 will be relevant to the X-T1, and most of what's been written for the X-Pro1 and X-E1 will also be relevant.
  • Join the FujiX forum - it's a Fuji X series specific forum, TP isn't really set-up for a large volume of single manufacturer threads.
  • The answers to the most common technical questions relating to Fuji cameras are:
    • You've got silent mode switched on - in answer to "Why is my flash not working?" (no one has yet suggested a practical use for silent mode, or why it has such a misleading name)
    • You've got exposure preview mode on - in answer to "Why is everything dark in the viewfinder when I'm trying to use flash?" (for everyday use it is useful to have exposure preview mode on)
    • You need to switch to M on the focus mode dial - in answer to "Why are the manual focussing aids not working?"
    • Focus peaking LOW is more accurate than HIGH - in answer to "Why do I keep missing the focus when focussing in manual?"
    • There is no PASM dial, it's in the manual - in answer to "Where is the PASM dial? How do I choose aperture priority, shutter priority and programme modes?"

There are lots of decent books on the basics. It's a bit Marmite (someone will be along soon to point out all the things the author doesn't include and what he does wrong in their humble opinion) but I actually liked Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It's going back a few years, but after about four hours I understood aperture, shutter speed and ISO and that's pretty much all there is to know of the technical side to be starting out with. Get that into your head and you can start to explore the really interesting stuff that will genuinely improve your photography - composing the image, telling a story, capturing emotion and mood, etc.

As an example of how Marmite photography authors can be - I can't stand Tom Ang, but maybe that's because the first photography instruction book I bought was by him and despite the title it was completely unsuitable for a beginner. It confused me for far too long before I realised it wasn't helping and got something more useful to me.
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time and providing some incredibly useful advice.
 
Im new to photography to and was recommended to get a copy of Understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson. he really explains the basics of exposure in simple to understand language and the book has a series of practicals for you to try out and learn as you read. well worth a look in my opinion.
 
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