as the title states, I have new Nikon D50 and I am looking for somene who can give me lesson on how to use this thing, other then the auto mode. I have no clue what shutter speeds & aperture setting i should be using under what lighting conditions. Any help would be much apperciated.
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Have Nikon D50, looking for teacher
- Thread starter jaws01
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I'm happy to answer questions but I can't write a book, I have the D50. There are two aspects to photography one is technical and the other is artistic. It is the later that really maters.
I would suggests reading the basics on-line or better in a book. Go to the library and get the shortest intro to photography book and don't worry if it was written in the 1950s. The basics have not changed in 50 years. But find a short one with many pictures.
I was just looking at http://www.photo.net Under "learning" is some great stuff, light on technical and covers the harder, more important part of making a goon image.
One very good way to learn is to make up a project. Photograph your car. or some flowers or try a portrait of someone. Make some simple shots them try to get creative. Ask questions aong the way and post the images. Doing real projects makes it all lass theoretical and will force you to solve problems and ask for help. For example "How can I get a sharp mage of the car with the wheels and background showing motion blur?" "Or how can I get rid of those hard shadows?"
Both sides matter. Attend any art course and they always teach the basics and technical skills at the beginning. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk.
Good technical + bad artistic = crap
Bad technical + good artistic = crap
Well, I don't think you need a teacher. I never understood why you'd need a teacher to teach you photography. If you want to learn how to use your camera, just use Google and/or Wikipedia and search for terms:
- White balance
- Focal length
- Depth of field
- ISO film speed (yes, I know you're using a digital camera)
- Lens aperture
That's it. That, and learning how to use the light meter (ie: the thing in your camera that measures the available light and tells you whether you're underexposing or overexposing a shot), since you can't really trust light meters all the time. Light meters are dumb and can't tell what you're trying to photograph.
If you really can't do this, buy a photography book of some sort. Many of them are good enough and teach you all of this technical stuff, along with some simple rules.
- White balance
- Focal length
- Depth of field
- ISO film speed (yes, I know you're using a digital camera)
- Lens aperture
That's it. That, and learning how to use the light meter (ie: the thing in your camera that measures the available light and tells you whether you're underexposing or overexposing a shot), since you can't really trust light meters all the time. Light meters are dumb and can't tell what you're trying to photograph.
If you really can't do this, buy a photography book of some sort. Many of them are good enough and teach you all of this technical stuff, along with some simple rules.
I swear that I responded to this question last night...maybe I use too many trade names and it got pulled (or screwed up -- the more likely scenario)...anyway...
I bought my D50 as a first DSLR about 6 months ago and have pretty much taught myself (with the help of this forum, among others), and would make a couple of simple recommendations.
1) Buy a copy of Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". An excellent elementary discussion of the basics of aperture, shutter, ISO, and light. This has been my personal most valuable resource.
2)Get the Field Guide to the Nikon D50 for a very understandable explanation of how all of the gizmos and menus work on the D50.
3) Explore this forum and other web resources as discusssed above by others.
4) Join a local photography club, if there is one.
5) Check you local public school or community college public education offerings. Many have basic digital photography courses that are pretty cheap.
6) Get out there and experiment. Shoot zillions of shots. It's not like you have any film cost to worry about. Trial and error is a pretty good teacher.
Have fun and good luck...now let's see if I can find that submit reply button...
I bought my D50 as a first DSLR about 6 months ago and have pretty much taught myself (with the help of this forum, among others), and would make a couple of simple recommendations.
1) Buy a copy of Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". An excellent elementary discussion of the basics of aperture, shutter, ISO, and light. This has been my personal most valuable resource.
2)Get the Field Guide to the Nikon D50 for a very understandable explanation of how all of the gizmos and menus work on the D50.
3) Explore this forum and other web resources as discusssed above by others.
4) Join a local photography club, if there is one.
5) Check you local public school or community college public education offerings. Many have basic digital photography courses that are pretty cheap.
6) Get out there and experiment. Shoot zillions of shots. It's not like you have any film cost to worry about. Trial and error is a pretty good teacher.
Have fun and good luck...now let's see if I can find that submit reply button...
Is there a community college nearby? You could try taking a class locally.
Also keep in mind you're not going to run out of film. So just shoot away! Play with things!
Also keep in mind you're not going to run out of film. So just shoot away! Play with things!
I'd also recommend going to the library. My local library has at least 20 photography books, and a couple of them were really good. I'd recommend one that focuses on photography, because as ChrisA said the basics haven't changed much in 50 years. Books on digital photography were generally pretty poor comparitively (unless for some reason you actually want to add bright green lines to your pictures in MS Paint to simulate laser battles).
No not 100% true. People who are good can do wonders with technically poor low-tech equipment.
But you all are right. even a great artist can not make art if he has no control over the process. You have to know at least how to capture the image you want. But this mechanical stuff is not hard to learn. Any book will cover it.
There is a school of photography that is intentionally non-technical.
I know of one person who was putting cheap plastic cameras in a microwave oven to partially melt the plastic lens. Ever seen the "holga". It's one of the worst cameras ever made but has a cult-like following among fine art photographers. We are talking light leaks, blury lens not flat film, serious vigneting, parts faling off and so on.
http://shop.lomography.com/holga/
http://www.argonauta.com/html/holga_cameras.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga
Dont think. Shoot!
You should go to a camera store and get a book on basic photography.
And keep shooting.