Learning Photography

It has been four years since I started my journey on photography, after getting a used D60 with twin lens kit. Although I was very enthusiastic, I didn't do it systematically as most hobbyist. Learning and picking up bit and pieces along the way.

Only a few weeks ago, I started borrowing books on the fundamentals then I realized that it could have been easier if I read books in the beginning of my journey.

In conclusion, if I were asked to provide advice to beginners, I would recommend the following approach:

Read the followings books:

Mastering composition by Ian Roberts
Composition by David Prakel
Exposure by David Prakel
Lighting by Chris Weston

Almost any beginner would start with subject oriented approach as we want to capture the beautiful items, scenes, moments, people. However, while focusing on the subject, we could only see the subject and ignore the other items appearing in the view finder. Reading Mastering Composition would give us an idea how painters paint their pictures and focusing on the shapes and distribution of tones and balancing the content within the frame. After reading Ian Roberts, it would be easier to understand Composition by David Prakel.

As photography is both arts and crafts, reading the first two books would cover the arts aspect of photography. Then we would need to have the basic understanding of the crafts aspect of photography. So we need to read the other two books to have the fundamentals covered.

Of course the last thing is to read the boring user guide of your camera. Try reading the basic operations and the function of the buttons and settings. Go back to the manual as you go along. It would be tough to read cover to cover and be able to understand all that in the user guide. However, it is advised to refer to the manual every now and then, as some functions and features are product specific.

It is recommended to start with Aperture priority and spot metering. Today, almost all cameras be it point and shoot compact camera or high end DSLR, you can use spot metering. I think it is faster to control the exposure using spot metering.

It is also recommended to use a zoom lens to see the effect of wide angle and tele. Of course one can always move forward and backward, left or right to get the right size in the picture but you can compress the objects in the picture.

To prevent taking pictures with undesirable extraneous objects on the edges, check the four sides of the frame or view finder/Live View LCD a few times before pressing the shutter.