my general thoughts about photography

OK so you want to take photos? This is how I went about it

1 = Set a budget on what you want to spend , this should at least include the cost a memory card and lens, some cameras come with "kit lenses". learning about memory cards ands what is written on them is useful see appendix *

2 = think about what type of camera ie, small compact point and shoot type- mirrorless- DSLR (digital Single Lens Reflex) or any other tpe availabe. If going for on that has interchangeable lenses check out these costs as well

3 = pick out two or three different makes within the price range, there is always one better but more expensive in each make

4 = Look at what the camera has in the way of features .Are they easy to understand and follow

5 = A must is to go and have a" hands on " in a proper camera shop, what might look good on paper may not be so good then holding it.

6 = go onto youtube and check out the videos on your particular choice of camera you can learn a lot from them

7 = where to get the camera from. Main dealer costs more but with warranty- import not main dealer "grey import" usually a lot cheaper but beware of warranty offered . Finally used camera the cheapest of any of the above BUT do find out how many shutter actuations it has done. The higher the number the more wear inside so will be a lot cheaper and best to avoid.

ok so now you have a camera and discover it has more features than you can get your head around? Don't panick.

I would suggest starting off with the camera in fully automatic "program mode" it is the easiest just let the camera do the working out. Then you can concentrate on what you want to get a picture of .

Later on try a different setting one at a time. this way learning I found a lot easier.


Anyway that is my thoughts,.others may disagree, every photographer has there own ideas. There is so much to learn as well depending on what you want to take.

PS

Lighting plays a huge part be it indoor or outdoor. The golden hours outside are sunrise and sunset where shadows can creat a marvellous effect. Lighting is a huge subject within itself . too much to put on here


A lot of photographers have main interests in a couple of things with a working knowledge of some others. By this I mean there is landscape- architecture- portrait- wedding- animal-transport even motion etc. Each brings its own challenge like lighting -position - framing the picture the list is endless.

Moving on a bit the picture may not be exactly as you want or imagine, this is where editing comes in, yet another learning curve. There are several editing suite to choose from fron easy to more advanced, it is down to personal choice.

If you are more interested in videos the definately go for a dedicated camcorder which will also take pictures. My interests are heading in this direction at the moment as I find there is so much more that can be shown than just a photo

AS I SAID IN THE HEADING THESE ARE MY OWN IDEAS HOPEFULLY AS A ROUGH GUIDLINE.


* memory cards there is a lot of information on them, not only capacity GB but also speed transfer rate from card to computer MB/s and class of card ( more important when doing videos)

One problem I found and a mistake I made was getting a card with a slow transfer rateMB/s. what happened was I wanted to take a lot of photos in a "burst" mode.
Great UNTIL the camera stopped taking photos. The camera could take the photos ok but transferring them to the card the card could not keep up, so the camera stalled until there was more space on the memory card. So I would recommend nothing slower than 90MB/s to over come this issue.
Another thing not often realised is that by just deleting the photos from the card they can still be recovered, as the data is not wiped. There are recovery programs Sandisk usually provide a code with their cards for this purpose.

Re: my general thoughts about photography

My general thoughts are:

1.Pick up your smartphone

2.Swipe the screen to open

3. Press the camera icon to open the app

4.Point the camera towards what you want to photograph using the screen as a guide

5. Press the button and hey presto a photograph

Re: my general thoughts about photography

that is ok Barry if you have a smart phone which I don't

Re: my general thoughts about photography

Yes, i was going to say what about people who don't have a smartphone. Besides, there's a quality to camera photos, that I don't think phone cameras can capture (without the help of filters and apps and suchlike).

Re: my general thoughts about photography

I guess it depends whether you want to take a photo or whether you want to take up photography as a hobby.

Personally I have a phone which cost less than a hundred quid which takes excellent everyday photos, and to my untrained eye are on a par with most photos that I see from many sources, including many on here from more avid photographers.

To each his own poison of course, but personally I have never felt the need to spend thousands on equipment just to get photos maybe a couple of percent better...

Re: my general thoughts about photography

It also depends on the situation doesn't it? Its easier to grab your phone and take a few shots of something random as it happens, or you could take a camera with you and set it up for a perfect shot. I have to admit that I'm using my actual camera (with lenses and tripod) less and less often nowadays, and favouring towards my phone camera. I feel a bit bad about it, and sometimes take my sony cybershot as a compromise if I'm going somewhere nice.

Re: my general thoughts about photography

I bought a compact camera a few years ago, a Lumix TZ8, but even lugging that around used to annoy me especially in good weather when clothes and pockets are few, and as I always had my phone with me anyway, I thought why bother with the Lumix when the phone was virtually as good...

Re: my general thoughts about photography

I haven’t used my camera for years, I always take photos with my iPad.

Re: my general thoughts about photography

As I said in my original post I am at the moment more interested in video work. with editing= swapping sound tracks -slow motion- old time film- joining up -fading in/out= just to name a few of many things one can do from the video taken.
To me this is more interesting than just taking a photo. Adobe Premier Elements opens up a whole new world and not over hard to get to know the basics . you can't do this with a stills photo for example



or even show how to sharped drill bits as a tut



Still have a lot more to learn but very interesting learning curve. Not just taking a video but how what and why are subjects on their own. Even down to stablising the video is an art form finding what works best in the way of equipment. on top of this is sound and how to get the best with microhones etc,

Yes a complete change from just plain still photography

Re: my general thoughts about photography

I know almost nothing about new technology when it comes to photography, so that was an interesting read, realspeed. While it's unlikely I will take up the craft, I do admire it and your passion for it.

As for smart phone photography, Barry, you forgot one step. Make sure you wipe of the lens first. Condensation or whatever else can result in everything looking like it has a cheesecloth effect .