Comments on: Gamekeeper turned poacher

By: mupwangle

mupwangle — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:27:46 +0000

I don’t think there is anything there that I hadn’t seen somewhere else before but she writes in quite an easy to understand way. Quite interesting. Especially if she genuinely gives people feedback on the forums.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:45:28 +0000

Thanks Armin, that looks ideal.

By: Armin

Armin — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:21:36 +0000

For a quite good online course which I’ve seen being recommended again and again you might want to give this a try:

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php

Quite a few examples and you even get assignments you can complete if you’re interested.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:13:57 +0000

Hi Sarah. As David says, most of the camera magazines are aimed at amateurs – the one I bought, Digital Camera, particularly so. You can usually tell by the headlines on the front cover – if it’s all “£10,000 tripod supertest” it’s probably too high end, at least for the likes of me :)

I’d disagree with david on the power of fiddling and google, though. It depends on the sort of person you are, so in my case I learn better by actually *seeing* how to do it – eg, an illustrated tutorial – than reading about it. My camera-related Googling tends to land me on sites that assume a certain level of knowledge.

I like the Dummies books (although I bloody hate the title) and at the risk of plugging a publisher I work for, if Haynes Publishing does digital camera books (I don’t know if it does offhand) they’re designed to take you step by step through absolutely everything.

Another option is a camera club, although I’ve no idea what kind of people such clubs attract. Could be enthusiastic groovy people, or it could be sad trainspotterish types who patronise you senseless if you don’t know what an f-stop is :)

By: mupwangle

mupwangle — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:42:25 +0000

>>With most point & click it takes a while until it actually takes the pictures after you pressed the button.

Shutter lag is atrocious on my Sony DSC-P92. You shouldn’t have to take continental drift into account when taking pictures. I did use a new Canon Powershot the other day that had almost no lag at all. I was quite impressed.

By: SarahG

SarahG — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:42:28 +0000

Cheers for the replies. I realise it’s just a case of play and see what does what. I’m just the type of person who likes to learn by reading first, and really understand what’s going on! :)

By: Armin

Armin — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:52:31 +0000

Well, to an extent the SLR is just convenience. I’ve got both: A Nikon D70 and a Nikon Coolpix 3100.

A few years ago I was on holiday when my then SLR (I think I had an Olympus then) broke and I was left with the Coolpix. A large number of the pictures turned out as well as I think they would have with the SLR. It was just a bit more difficult.

I found the electric zoom very annoying, it’s just easier and more precise to use the manual zoom at the lens. The Olympus was a bit slower, but now with the D70 I wouldn’t want to miss the speed. With most point & click it takes a while until it actually takes the pictures after you pressed the button. With most DSLRs there’s no lag. That does make a huge difference if you’re trying to take pictures of salmon jumping up a waterfall…

Apart from all that I’d agree with mupwangle. Just go playing. Take pictures, lots of them. Try out things. And use the delete button frequently. You can also find a lot of free help and tutorials on the web. Take a look at the archives on blogs like Lifehacker, they often have links to excellent tutorials and various tips and tricks for photography.

By: mupwangle

mupwangle — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:13:17 +0000

I forgot to mention – there is no real difference between a high-end DSLR and a high-end point-and-click. The DSLR is a bit more customisable and costs double!

By: mupwangle

mupwangle — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:09:26 +0000

Sarah – personally I would recommend having a play with all the settings then using google to explain anything you didn’t understand. However, if you wanted to know what’s going on before you actually do it then most of the mainstream digital camera mags are aimed at total amateurs. If you know what you ‘re doing (or if you think you do!) then why would you want to read a mag? I found the digital photography for dummies quite interesting but I learned so much more by taking photos and screwing them up. That’s the whole benefit of digital – the only cost is your time.

If you’ve already got the kit – take photos and look back at them and try to work out why they didn’t come out as you thought. Ask other people if you don’t know. I’m not an expert by any means but I’ll help if I can on the technical side of things (david@kasino.co.uk) but artistically you’re really on your own! My pics are on flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mupwangle. Look at other peoples stuff on sites like Flickr and SmugMug and mail the photographer for advice. Photography is an artform. There is no proper right and wrong. The hard part (like music) is converting what you see in your own head into a picture.

By: SarahG

SarahG — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:43:18 +0000

Gary, would you say the mag you bought is more targeted to SLR owners or could a Nikon Coolpix owner/beginner get any info out of it too? I haven’t a clue where to start with my camera, and now my phone has ISO settings on the camera too, and I’m lost!

I’d love to get more use from my camera than basic point and shoot stuff. I’ve been thinking about looking at a magazine and would love to know if it’d be worth the money :)

By: mupwangle

mupwangle — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:53:56 +0000

Won’t work with Nikon. I don’t think there is an equivalent modification you can do to a nikon to have the same effect.

By: Armin

Armin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:30:13 +0000

Sorry, in German only, but I’m sure you can follow the pictures in the guide how to upgrade your camera:

http://blog.beetlebum.de/2007/02/21/wie-werde-ich-profifotograf/

He writes about the “measurebators” (I think there’s an English version somewhere of the page he links to) and how they look down on the people with the “wrong” equipment.

The second part is about how to “upgrade” your standard Canon lens to an “L-Series” (that seems to be the expensive “professional” line). I’ve got a Nikon, so haven’t tried it and don’t know if it helps you to make better pictures ;-)