Trainee photographer here

ruthwebb

ruthwebb

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ruth
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Hi everyone. I am starting college in September 2013. I have been taking photos now for about 4 months and I love it. I was looking for more training/help with my camera and taking photos. I am willing to learn. I am in the Liverpool area. Hope someone can help. Thank you
 
What kind of things do you shoot? What course, and what level? Are you a raw beginner, or do you already have experience?
 
I am still shooting in jpeg at the moment. I am starting college in September.
 
What course are you doing at college Ruth?
 
Ruth,

When just starting out, photography is a pretty steep learning curve as so much is inter-connected and you have to take in lots of information all at the same time. It's probably the reason so many people never get beyond the "auto" setting on their camera.

Have a good look around this site - there are plenty of excellent training and tutorial threads in the tutorials forum. If you're looking for a more personal learning experience then pop into the "Meeting Place" forum and post a request in the tog buddy thread at the top of the forum list.

Between now and the start of your course you should be taking as many pictures as you can of as many subjects as you can find to increase your experience. Take note of the settings for each shot and try to understand why they are what they are and what the result would be if you changed them. Think about what you're trying to achieve with each shot and what settings will give that result ... then see if you're right :)

Good luck with the learning :thumbs:
 
Read up on using your camera manually. Using it on auto teaches you nothing whatsoever, and you'll not have full control. When you first start using it manually, your photography will probably get a little worse before it gets better, but that's normal... stick with it. If you don't know how to expose manually, you'll run into all manner of problems later when you come to shoot in a studio, or use external studio flash, especially flash with daylight.

Using manual is the best way to get the camera to do exactly as you want it to do.

Learn how to shoot and process RAW files too... JPEGs are a lossy format and quality can suffer, especially if you re-save a JPEG, as each time you re-save it, it gets worse.

Have a read of this....

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=440126
 
Learn the basics of depth of field (dof)

1. Effect of aperture on dof.
2. Effect of focal length on dof.
3. Effect of distance from subject on dof.

It's easy with digital to just take a lot of photos of the same scene and just change the aperture for each one. Then compare them on screen to understand how to get what you want to be in focus or blurred by changing the above factors.

You will soon learn what aperture to select for any given lens/distance to get the effect you want.

Learn the basics of shutter speed. ie what speed you need to deliberately freeze or blur different motion.

Again, get someone to jump around and another of a tap running and take pictures at different speeds and compare them on screen to see what different shutter speeds do.

Then understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed in getting the correct exposure.

This will give you the basics to understand the building blocks of photography. The joy of digital is that it is cheap and easy to experiment and takes little time too.
 
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