Site for advice/tips on getting most out of setting modes

[irishgrizzly]

I'm very new to photography – only used point and shoot with little room for adjustments. I bought a Canon G9 and would like to get the most out of these shooting modes – full program mode, aperture/shutter priority and full manual. Can anyone recommend a site that will explain why to get the best out of these settings? I will of course be playing about with them myself and reading through the manual, but I'd like so read something that could explain simply these settings with practical examples.

 

[147798]

There are a number of levels to photography you need to learn

1. Composition and subject -- what to shoot, how to think about what is in your viewfinder, etc.
2. How to photograph -- the basics on exposure, aperture, lighting, etc.
3. How to use a digital camera to take those photographs
4. How to post-process those photos for best effect (using Aperture, Photoshop, other tools).

There are tons of resources on line for #s 3 and 4. Here's one that addresses #3 http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm. But without #s 1 and 2, you'll get well produced but perhaps poorly shot or boring pictures.

I'm not at my Mac, so I don't have my bookmarked links handy, but I know there are some really good sites for #2 and possibly #1. Here's a web page I just googled on composition: http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/composition.htm

A good site for talking to other G9 users is http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php, though it's currently down for maintenance until 1700 GMT.

I used to take pictures with a film SLR about 20 years ago, so I'm just getting back into the hobby now. I've picked up some good books on composition, lighting and shooting at my local bookstore. I also dug out my old film SLR, and was playing around with it. Once I put it in my hands, I remembered how I used to use it (like riding a bike), then I picked up my G9, and transferred my old thought processes onto my new equipment. That helped a lot.

If you've never shot with an SLR camera before, and you want to get serious about photography, while the G9 is a very nice camera (IMO the best for what it is -- compact, full featured and RAW), you would probably learn better on a DSLR, because the range of settings is much greater on a DSLR, so you can see more dramatic impact on your images when you do things like change the Aperture. Of course, a DSLR is a problem to tote around.

Lastly, look for a local community photo club or photo class. A brief time in a class or with a group of photographers will get you off to a strong start, and then start shooting.

 

[147798]

Here's a nice little PDF with some basics: http://www.gatewaycameraclub.org/documents/IntroToDigitalPhotography/TipsToMakeBetterPictures.pdf

 

[ChrisA]

I'm very new to photography – only used point and shoot with little room for adjustments. I bought a Canon G9 and would like to get the most out of these shooting modes – full program mode, aperture/shutter priority and full manual. Can anyone recommend a site that will explain why to get the best out of these settings? I will of course be playing about with them myself and reading through the manual, but I'd like so read something that could explain simply these settings with practical examples.

The Library or bookstore is the place to go. No one could answer this here and even most web sites on this subject don't cover it all that well.

The #1 thing how ever is to know what you are trying to do. What effect is it that you want. You can't make a decision about how to turn some dial until you what you want to photo to look like. You have to first have a goal like maximizu=ing depth of field, freezing motion or showing it... Only then do you have a reason to move out of automatic mode.