Best 2 tips for beginners

[Firephoto]

For me the fastest way to pick up techniques was to read about them and try it and then try it again.

Places I got tips are The Digital Picture.com, Adorama Learning Center, Scott Kelby's DTownTV, Moose Peterson's Webite, and Syl Arena's website for speedliting flash tips.

I agree with the Kingb "Get a good book like Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, read it and try out the techniques".
Bryan has a whole series of books out there. I also read and enjoyed Scott Kelby's series Digital photography, a great place to start.

Check the local library. Photography is very popular and they will most likely have a good collection.

[Sean Setters]

The people on this forum are excellent about giving advice or suggestions

...whether you want it or not! :-D

[DLS]

A lot of excellent advice already:

+1 for what Sean said about 'light'. Learn how to deal with the different types of light - hard light, soft light, the color/temp of light (sun, cloud, indoor tungsten, indoor fluorescent). Light is the key.

You have a great kit weewillo. Practise, practise, practise and keep learning. This site has been indispensible for me - use it often.

Cheers and happy shooting.

Damian

[weewillo]

Some fantastic tips there - thanks a million.

It's still absolutely p$@#ing down in Sydney so I am still yet to get out and about!

I must have looked at 100,000 pics over the past few days on your flickr sites and photography on the net which have pics from all lenses and I am slowly but surely starting to understand when you use different exposure times etc!

I was looking for a neich' little hobby and I have definitely found it

[Sheiky]

Great tips so far!

What I want to suggest is to think outside the box. Bend the rules a little
If you only take photos by the rules or ideas other people have about photography(or what they like), your photos will not be so special. Try different things.
Try shooting a landscape with the longer end of your lens or try shooting a portrait with the wide end of your lens. Change perspective, lie on the ground for once or climb a tree. Those things will make your shots more special. You can also try making panorama's or HDR's. Shooting an extra photo does not cost any more, so use that as an advantage.

I must admit that I personally also tend to grab the wide angle on my lens to capture a sunset or sunrise, but the fact is that the photo can be just as nice or maybe even better when you use a longer focal length. For example, the sun looks a lot bigger when you use the long end of your lens.

Just an idea. Good luck!

Jan

[Dr Croubie]

Great tips so far!

What I want to suggest is to think outside the box. Bend the rules a little
If you only take photos by the rules or ideas other people have about photography(or what they like), your photos will not be so special. Try different things.
Try shooting a landscape with the longer end of your lens or try shooting a portrait with the wide end of your lens. Change perspective, lie on the ground for once or climb a tree. Those things will make your shots more special. You can also try making panorama's or HDR's. Shooting an extra photo does not cost any more, so use that as an advantage.

I must admit that I personally also tend to grab the wide angle on my lens to capture a sunset or sunrise, but the fact is that the photo can be just as nice or maybe even better when you use a longer focal length. For example, the sun looks a lot bigger when you use the long end of your lens.

Just an idea. Good luck!

Jan

Hmmm, you've just described pretty much my whole shooting style.
Tip 4, Buy a lensbaby control freak, all the accessories, optics, apertures, a Skink Pinhole with extra disks, adapters to every lens mount ever made, and scour ebay every day for Manual Focus Lenses. Or don't, that's my thing . Choose your own path, there's a lot of them out there.

ps, perfect timing Jan, I was just looking at some shots I took from Scheveningen just before I left NL, here's a sunset at 207mm:

[cls]

Being maybe not an absolute beginner, but still not very experienced, I've learned a few things during my years of photography. If I would pick the top two of these it would probably be:

1) Don't bother too much about photography gear. More or less any DSLR body and lens combination is capable of capturing great images. Focus on the images, not on the equipment.

2) Basic photography books are a great source of knowledge. Of course, www forums and similar sources are also great, but they don't beat a good book. Get a few basic books covering the technical stuff as well as the more artistic sides of photography.

[iND]

Tip
get the 70-200 f2.8
I have both (started with the f4) quickly moved to the 2.8.

[Sheiky]

Hmmm, you've just described pretty much my whole shooting style.
ps, perfect timing Jan, I was just looking at some shots I took from Scheveningen just before I left NL, here's a sunset at 207mm:

It's not always the easiest way, but it sure works great and it will get you different looking photos.
Glad to help out with the timing by the way

Tip get the 70-200 f2.8
I have both (started with the f4) quickly moved to the 2.8.

I know I wouldn't trade my 70-200 f4L IS for the f2.8 version. Well the new version perhaps, but definitely not the older ones

[erno james]

1. tripod. this slows things down and allows one to really look at what they are trying to convey in the photograph and why. composition, depth of field, and story telling can be better achieved when one has time to go through these step by step.

2. go outdoors and shoot twice a day; once near sunrise and the other near sunset. this is called the golden light hours and everything from landscape to portrait photography tend to have a magical glow about them. this is the best natural light of the day in general and photography is all about capturing the good light.

-now go out there and post us some of your winners! and perhaps the best tip is to HAVE FUN! -Erno