Being a bit of a newbie to things and wishing to learn more, could you recommend some books and websites for a new user to digital photography that will explain the basics of photography, how to get decent pictures, what settings to use, and things like that.

Would "Digital Photography for Dummies" be any good?

Stating what I intend to take pictures of and what camera I have would probably be a good start as well :D

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8
Areas of Focus: Landscape, pets, sailing, motorsport

Thanks for any advice :)

Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson often gets quoted as a good introduction.

Otherwise check out your local library or bookstore.

Andrew

I have ordered my Understanding Exposure book, should be here in the next day or two :thumb:

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, along with 'Learning to see creatively'. I'm just waiting for the 'round tuit' to arrive and then I'll read it :thumb:

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, along with 'Learning to see creatively'. I'm just waiting for the 'round tuit' to arrive and then I'll read it :thumb:

So that was you who bought them two on Amazon then :D

I was going to ask what the Learning to see creatively one is like, but as you havent read it yet you wont know :)

Well ask MissyC, I'm not sure if she's read that one but she knows Brian much better than I do, having done one of his courses & been on a couple of his workshop tours. She did introduce me to him once in Prague and he seems a nice chap :)

Have it, liked it - worth a read IMHO.

Another bump as I've purchased some books at the recomendation of you lot.

I ordered "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kellby and "Understanding Exposure - Revised Edition" by Bryan Peterson. Can't fault amazon, ordered them on monday @ 5:30pm, turned up about 10 mins ago.

Thanks again for the advice.

I now have the Understanding Exposure book (revised edition of course ;) )

And also the Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby

And as I have begun to realise PP is an important part of Digital Photography, I took the liberty of getting another Scott Kelby book

Photoshop CS3 book for Digital Photographers

I have been reading up quite a bit on the net lately, but nothing beats having a good book in your hand

And as I have begun to realise PP is an important part of Digital Photography, I took the liberty of getting another Scott Kelby book

Photoshop CS3 book for Digital Photographers


Any good? Although I'm only on CS2. Post Processing is the 'Electronic Darkroom' of digital photography, so it's quite important and is no less part of the creative process than dodging, burning & double exposure was in the old days :thumb:

I like some of the things which are easier to achieve in digital but, apart from a decent wide gamut & calibrated monitor, you don't need much specialised equipment. You no longer need to convert a room in your house into a darkroom and gets lots of chemicals, papers etc. to get the desired result :D

I do need to go on a decent Photoshop course, although I do know some of the basics. Can anyone recommend a good photoshop technique book or even better a decent practical course? I'm not after doing anything too silly, just getting the best out of an image.:wonder:

From what I have flicked through upto now it seems pretty good, and also for my ability too whilst I learn more about PP

I have seen a big difference in just a quick basic sharpening, but there is a whole section on it in Scott's book which shall be an interesting read

Its quite a thick book and some 470 pages too :)

But the first chapter is all about using Bridge to get your pictures in to the PC/Mac

I would say for me it is worth the money, and that is just based upon the initial flick through :)

TVM:thumb:

I've been using RawShooter Premium up to now, and still prefer it over the Adobe RAW stuff (and my 'free' copy of Lightroom will not download :mad:)

Bridge just seems to be another level of complication to me, not being a Mac flashy graphics addict ;)

I still use Rawshooter too (I think that was a suggestion of yourself too) preferred it over Breeze Browser

Only used the ACR once or twice just to try it, but for the time being I am back to shooting jpeg again as I am only experimenting again :)

Havent tried Lightroom, apart from a quick early release, but i didnt want to get myself bogged down with learning too many new programs, Ive always previously used Paint Shop Pro, but finding CS3 much better, and daresay easier to use for some things now, as it does seem to be the defacto standard in any of the mags or online stuff

Yup, RawShooter still does the best job for starters:thumb:, although I was quite impressed with the Lightroom Beta. I was looking forward to my free copy of Lightroom 1.0 but can't get to it :rolleyes:

Does anyone know what the significant differences are with CS3 over CS2:confused: Not so much bothered about the extras as I'm sure it's hardly worth bothering for what I do with it

this might help explain the difference :)

http://photoshopnews.com/stories/downloads/whatsnewinPSCS3.pdf

From memory, I think the Camera RAW plugin is included with Photoshop CS3 whereas I think it was an extra for CS2 (might be wrong though). For me the main advantage of CS3 is that it's a universal binary on Mac, thus it runs way, way quicker on my Intel Mac than CS2 did as that was running via rosetta emulation.

I used to be a bit handy with Photoshop in my typesetting days, cutouts, retouching, creating photo montages and what not, but I'm a bit rusty (same deal with QuarkXPRESS, used to be a devil with that thing) as I've not really used it for < checks date > crikey, since 1994!

I've also got Lightroom, and will be having a play with it to see exactly what it does as I don't see much advantage of it if you have PS.

CW - Why can't you download your free copy of LR? Adobe site being pants?

I like Rawshooter too :) Prefer it to Lightroom.

CW - Why can't you download your free copy of LR? Adobe site being pants?

Er, yup, download link they sent me just doesn't work :rolleyes:

Er, yup, download link they sent me just doesn't work :rolleyes:

Did they give you a licence code for it? If so then you should be able to just download the normal trial version of LR and enter the licence key into it.

I was using Rawshooter Essentials (the freebie, not Premium), but now much prefer using the Adobe Bridge and Raw 4.0, save as tiff, then open in PS to (attempt to) do some final tweeking/cropping etc.

Still only barely touching the surface with it, though, and it's very much trial and error rather than knowing what I'm doing :freak3: