Morning.

I'm wanting to learn and get into photography a little more and I'm wanting some advice on where to start.

I work full time as a web designer so there's no time through the day, but I'm considering going to a college and doing an evening class etc.

My question is, has anyone been on these courses, are they worth my time, I'm a technical and creative professional who's very quick to learn. I just don't want to waste my time by learning about how to copy photos from a camera to a pc etc... (as you can probably tell I'm quite impatient).

How about self studying, can you recommend any books which are good for beginners?

I currently have a 300D, but I'm not using the camera to its full potentional by a long shot as I'm only using the automatic modes rather than controlling and understanding what the camera is actually doing etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers, MikeyB!

Here's my gallery of some of my amature shots: Public Home | MikeyB | Fotki.com (http://public.fotki.com/mikeytt/)

EDIT: I've found the "Understanding Photography" thread which is an ideal start.... oops!

I was in a hotel room last weekend, baby asleep, and we wanted to understand white balance.

So I put the camera on the floor, pointed it at a pair of slippers, and took one shot for each different white balance setting.

Result - a whole load of different tones of the same photo.

Outcome - next day wife took a fantastic pic (we think) of midday-sun-bleached hills - looked golden rather than bleached as she'd changed the WB setting.

You want to learn about aperture and depth of field - set up a line of objects on the floor, put the camera at the end of it pointing down the line, take 10 shots with varying aperture settings.

You want to learn about shutter speed - you need something constantly moving. A waterfall or fountain is perfect (even a little one in a park), a busy road not too bad. Again, 10 shots from slow to fast. Look at the results.

Digital photography is bloody amazing.


(Wish I had the patience to do the above :o)

i asked the same question 4 months ago and learned each feature of the camera

i found the instruction manual just as useful as any book

now i have gone back to using auto for 90% of my photos - reason being i needed to learn what needed to be in the view finder to make a good photo rather than what settings it was on

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/carsington%202007/IMG_1788e.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/carsington%202007/IMG_1788e.jpg)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/carsington%202007/IMG_2122e.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/carsington%202007/IMG_2122e.jpg)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/Fishing/IMG_2221e.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/Fishing/IMG_2221e.jpg)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/Fishing/IMG_2136e.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/wrx_rich/Fishing/IMG_2136e.jpg)

these are just a few from recently all using auto not all mine sadly as the girl friends much better than me but hope you get the idea

The word your looking for Rich is composition, and yes your right, you cn have the best tech knowledge in the world but without composition its useless and vise versa.


When I started I just went out and took pics, cam back and analyzed them to death, picking up my own flaws. When I'd done that I'd go and redo them and see if the same flaws came up.

Then I asked on here, and the nice helpful people here gave me pointers. I'd go shoot and analyze them to death again.

See the pattern emerging??

Slowly I got to the sub-standard I am now. I still analyze my pics to death, still not happy with 99% of what I shoot, but am happy I'm improving. The results are noticeable if you compare stuff I did 12 months ago to what I produce now.

Get out there and shoot.

I was in a hotel room last weekend, baby asleep, and we wanted to understand white balance.

So I put the camera on the floor, pointed it at a pair of slippers, and took one shot for each different white balance setting.

Result - a whole load of different tones of the same photo.

Outcome - next day wife took a fantastic pic (we think) of midday-sun-bleached hills - looked golden rather than bleached as she'd changed the WB setting.

You want to learn about aperture and depth of field - set up a line of objects on the floor, put the camera at the end of it pointing down the line, take 10 shots with varying aperture settings.

You want to learn about shutter speed - you need something constantly moving. A waterfall or fountain is perfect (even a little one in a park), a busy road not too bad. Again, 10 shots from slow to fast. Look at the results.

Digital photography is bloody amazing.


(Wish I had the patience to do the above :o)

Excellent advice, already printed out the "photography guide" off here so thats this evenings reading, and I'm going to read the camera manual from cover to cover!

Wish me luch!! Can't wait!

I found the best thing was to set yourself challenges. Messing around taking the same photo using a range of different f-stops to see the effect of depth of field, or trying to copy a photograph someone else has taken

Good Luck :)

I set about playing with 'depth of field' last night, took some good shots and was pleased with the results, I'll get them uploaded later to see if I'm on the right tracks.

OK, I've had a play with depth-of-field, is this the right term for this type of photo:

http://www.mikeyb.co.uk/images/mia.jpg

Spot on, focus on the eyes :thumb: