Magazine/books

lovelylass77

lovelylass77

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Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good photography magazine? ideal for beginners if theres such a thing lol

Also are there any good books worth getting?

Thanks
 
Mags are not ideal for beginners in that you'll need to buy a lot of them over many months to get all the info.
Better a book or have a look in WHS. They have some large softbacks for about £15. Pretty sure I recall one "Digital photography for beginners".
Also - don't forget .............. all the info on here is free so don't hesitate to ask.
 
+1 for the above advice but if like reading mags then .....If you have a Nikon then the N-photo magazine is good for beginners and the equivalent magazine if you have Canon is Photo Plus.
 
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Digital Photo and Practical Photography magazines have currently got an offer on for 12 issues for £12 if you pay by direct debit. You get a CD with tutorials on with Digital Photo which may come in handy for you.
 
Im a noob too and i have to agree with the reply regarding magazines. Even though i love looking at them 90% i find is aimed at the people who already know the basics as most of it goes over my head. N-magazine is good and w.h.smith have a good selection of books covering the basics as does waterstones.
 
I know there are plenty of Photography magazines out there,
However I am now into my second year of subscription.

Over the last few months they have had a bit of a face lift and do quite a bit for budget photography and new comers

Lee
 
lovelylass77 said:
Also are there any good books worth getting?
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It depends what you want to read about.

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Petersen gets a bashing from some people, but it's a simple and straight forward explanation of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. It doesn't cover (or at least earlier versions didn't, don't know about the latest) some of the tools that a digital camera offers (histogram, highlight alert, exposing to the right) but these are things that you can find explained on the web after you've learnt the basics.

Aside from the technicalities (which the trained imp in your camera can do perfectly well on its own anyway) a couple of books about how to think about taking interesting images are The Photographer's Eye by Freeman and Hot Shots by Meredith. Both of which I'd recommend and bothe of which I keep returning to myself. Otherwise, buy/borrow books of photographs by photographers and work out what you like and why you like it.

My bookshelf is linked in my signature..
 
I found Digital Photo very good for getting to grips with image editing. You do find that most of the magazines cover the same articles a few month out of sync with each other, especially ones by the same publisher.
WH Smiths always have a good range of Photography Book-a-zines, the chunky £10+ magazines, they tend to be reproductions of magazine tutorials all bundled together.

The best source of knowledge by far, is here though :-)
 
Digital SLR magazine is worth a look at, they had an offer on recently for 3 issues for £1,

I've read the Canon PhotoPlus magazine and it's not bad at all, but you will find over a 12-18 month period, things get repeated and if oyou have a couple of magazines, it's even more noticable...
 
andyred said:
Here you go http://subscribe.digitalslrphoto.com/subscription-offers/?utm_source=DSP/%3f&utm_medium=KAC&utm_content=sec&utm_campaign=1393_google+ppc&gclid=CMru24bBmLECFRMgtAod2gESRQ

And they are also doing the 3 digital copies for £1 and 3 digital + Print magazine for £1.

You get a free lens cleaning pen as well...
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I've tried 3 or 4 digital publications and the above one is the one I've settled with and purchased the last few months. However it does not pitch at absolute beginner. I would recommend Digital SLR user (link below) as a entry level magazine. All of the featured photos projects and tutorials are done using entry-mid level cameras and the focus is on core skills. This was the first mag I bought and still do from time to time of there's something interesting in there. Once you start to get to grips with that then is look at moving on to the above publication.

http://www.dslruser.co.uk/
 
I've read most magazines at some point, and buy 2-3 per month. I go through phases of getting different ones consistantly, and then they start repeating themselves too much, they change their design, or they put the price up. :shrug:

I like reading them though, as I do a lot of bus travelling, and of course there is always the porcelain throne to kill time on. ;) :lol:

When people talk of magazines they always talk of 'you can learn it all on the internet', and yes you probably can, if you know what you want/need to learn. But the magazines are about more than that, there are images/portfolio's to view there is image appraisals, interviews, guides to photography, guides to image editing, gear reviews, gear comparisons, software reviews. They may have something that you may have not known existed, such as a bit of gear or software that you may never heard of, or a new technique. Yes, they same information may be on the internet, but how do you know it exists unless it appears in front of you at some random point? :shrug:

Yes, if you are just buying a mag for what you can learn about the technicalities of photography, then maybe it may not be that cost effective. :shrug: Some of the publishers do photography books covering a lot of what has appeared in the mags for about £9-£15 if you just want all the technical and theory stuff about photography. :shrug:

The thing about learning things from mags, is that they all cover pretty much everything over a year, so after a years subscrition you'd know quite a lot imho. Some magazines like Practical Photography have had a really good basics/bootcamp series over the last couple of years to have a structured learning of the basics, with interactivity with the mag, and their website.

What I wouldn't say that using a camera mag for generally is learning the basics of image editing. Yes, some of them do cover it, but some of them seem to feel that while they can show the basics of photographic technique pretty much annually, they cover the basics of image editing and then start to go on to more outlandish photoshopping, as they must feel that they can't repeat those types of basics as often. :shrug:

Like I said, I've read almost all of the mags, and there are a lot of them, about 16 the last time I counted. :eek:

At the moment my mags of choice are DigitalSLRPhotography and Practical Photographer, but I have the odd different one if they have something interesting in it. :shrug: Normally if you go into a shop and browse through them, one or two catch the eye.

And as has been said, you can get some very good offers to eaither buy them cheaper, or get them cheaper plus a 'free gift'.



If you go to some of the magazine's websites there is a lot of useful tutorials and guides available to read. :thumbs: Some of the websites are very basic though. :bonk:

http://www.advancedphotographer.co.uk/
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/
http://www.thegmcgroup.com/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=698
http://www.bjp-online.com/
http://www.dcmag.co.uk/
http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/
http://www.digitalslrphoto.com/
http://www.dslruser.co.uk/news.php
http://www.f2freelancephotographer.com/
http://www.nphotomag.com/
http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/Home/
http://www.photoforbeginners.com/
http://www.photographymonthly.com/
http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/
http://www.photopromagazine.com/
http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/
 
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the_local_jacko said:
I've tried 3 or 4 digital publications and the above one is the one I've settled with and purchased the last few months. However it does not pitch at absolute beginner. I would recommend Digital SLR user (link below) as a entry level magazine. All of the featured photos projects and tutorials are done using entry-mid level cameras and the focus is on core skills. This was the first mag I bought and still do from time to time of there's something interesting in there. Once you start to get to grips with that then is look at moving on to the above publication.

http://www.dslruser.co.uk/
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Yes, Digital SLR is good for beginners. And since I write for them from time to time, I know how hard they try to keep it simple and avoid jargon ;)
 
Because the photography magazines generally recycle the same materials again and again, it's worth trying your local Freecycle/Freegle/Cheapcycle group to see if anyone has a stack of back issues they don't want. I gave away a box of photography magazines not so long ago.

I went through the usual phase of buying 1 or 2 per month when I first got serious about photogtraphy, but these days I rarely buy any of them - except for a subscription to BJP and an occasional AP when I'm travelling by train or plane.
 
Books for beginners, I just managed to get a hold of Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies ( I know it seems obvious) and I am finding it a great help already not to mention the for dummies self help books are really easy to follow. Managed to even find one for my exact model of camera too which is superb.

EDIT: also if anybody is looking for any camera specific books let me know I have loads and may be able to help you out just send me a PM.
 
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I have stacks of magazines you would be welcome to if you are local to Northampton (too heavy to post).
 
Alastair said:
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Petersen gets a bashing from some people, but it's a simple and straight forward explanation of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. It doesn't cover (or at least earlier versions didn't, don't know about the latest) some of the tools that a digital camera offers (histogram, highlight alert, exposing to the right) but these are things that you can find explained on the web after you've learnt the basics.
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:plusone: I found it a very useful book when I was first learning what the different controls do!

My recommendation would be to go to your local library, I found the one above and a number of other good books there and it didn't cost me a penny! (other than the fact I can never remember to take them back on time and so have to pay the 30p penalty far too regularly :lol:)
 
Nick_1981 said:
I have stacks of magazines you would be welcome to if you are local to Northampton (too heavy to post).
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I've found some more whilst having a clear-out. So if there's anyone in the West/North/Mid Norfolk area wants a carrier bag of old photography magazines, give me a shout. Otherwise I'll pop them on Freegle.
 
TopBanana said:
My recommendation would be to go to your local library, I found the one above and a number of other good books there and it didn't cost me a penny! (other than the fact I can never remember to take them back on time and so have to pay the 30p penalty far too regularly :lol:)
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If you can find a Library open. :shrug:

I know Liverpool has started closing Libraries, and those that are still open are open for less days and hours in the week. Sign of the financial times sadly. :( And very short sighted imho.

You may not be able to take a book back on the day your rental runs out, because it is not open on that day. ;)


Practical Photography are doing a 12 issues for £12 offer at the moment, which is £12 very well spent imho.
 
Kev-B said:
Digital Photo and Practical Photography magazines have currently got an offer on for 12 issues for £12 if you pay by direct debit. You get a CD with tutorials on with Digital Photo which may come in handy for you.
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I get both of these :)
 
There is a huge amount of cheap and even free stuff in the amazon kindle book store thing. Of course you will need a kindle or something that can run a kindle application.
 
There are certain web sites that you can download photo mags for free in pdf format,one mag in particular might be of interest to you it's called photography for beginners.
 
Ebilpirate said:
There is a huge amount of cheap and even free stuff in the amazon kindle book store thing. Of course you will need a kindle or something that can run a kindle application.
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PC, Android, Jesusphone.. odds are anyone reading the forum has something that qualifies :D

There are also a lot of magazines available for free on Issuu.
 
Personally, I like Practical Photography. For me, it focuses more on the actual camera time more than the PP time which I find a better balance (for me, not necessarily for others though). Plus, as it doesn't have a 'free' disc on the front, it's cheaper.

Another option that you may not have thought of is podcasts. I personally listen to 'Tips from the top floor' which has some good stuff in there.
 
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