I'm very interested in photography as a hobbie. What can I do to learn about it? What the best way to start? Any book or cd that you'd recommend? Thanks.
2007-09-29 21:29:21 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
Invest in an inexpensive digital camera. Start with pet or nature photography. Use the book that comes with the camera and start taking pictures that interest you. Grab interesting angles of tall buildings, photos of toes of shoes. Life Magazine (now not in print) had marvelous photography, as does National Geographic. Granted they have top of the line equipment, but just look at the angles of what they're catching . Check out the news websites (www.abcnews.com) and they usually have a photo news section. It's not that any one thing is right or wrong - it's the opportunity of the shot!
2007-09-29 21:35:10 · answer #1 · answered by Empress Jan 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Enroll in a photography class at your high school or community college. Learn about light, shutter speed, ISO, f-stops and composition. You might also consider enrolling in the New York Institute of Photography (nyip.com). They offer correspondence courses and have been in business since 1910.
Learn using a 35mm film camera. You will have a better
understanding of photography then you'll ever get using a simple "point and shoot" digital camera. You will learn to take your time and actually think about each image before you take it. 35mm film cameras are inexpensive on ebay or at keh.com or bhphotovideo.com or adorama.com. Buy a known brand - Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax. A good working body and a couple of lenses (a 50mm and either a 28mm wide angle or 135mm telephoto) are all you need to get started. Actually, just a camera and a 50mm lens will be enough.
If there are no classes available in your area and you don't want to take correspondence courses, search ebay and amazon.com for the book "Object & Image: An Introduction to Photography, Third Edition" by George M. Craven. If you decide to follow my suggestion and buy a 35mm film camera, search ebay and amazon.com for the HPBooks "How To Choose & Use _________ Cameras" (fill in the blank with the brand of 35mm camera you chose).
I also believe its a good idea to read biographies of famous photographers. Margaret Bourke-White. Edward Weston. W. Eugene Smith. Walker Evans. Dorothea Lange. Ansel Adams.
What janlascko suggested is how to imitate, not how to learn. IMO, unless you understand light, f-stops, ISO, shutter speed and composition you aren't going to take good photographs. You may occasionally take a good photo but you won't know how you did it and its unlikely you'll repeat it very often.
Good luck and welcome to the fascinating, frustrating world of photography.
2007-09-29 22:23:38 · answer #2 · answered by EDWIN 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋