With my 40th looming this year I was thinking of treating myself to a nice DSLR.

It’s more of a whim at the moment, as I’ve never been a big photographer. Are the techniques needed to take quality photo’s easy to pick up, or does it depend on the individual?

I’m quite anal about things when I get into them, so reading up and learning won’t be an issue – dedicating the time to actually getting out there and capturing the shots might be.

A bloke in my village does courses, he is ace and a nice chap!!

http://www.ravenseyegallery.co.uk/aspx002/article.aspx?CID=8&SID=89008d8f-c334-4c4c-8106-35b1759efe90

Join a club, do a course, play with cameras before you buy and say good-bye to whatever money you have left after biking.

Not sure where you are based but a friend of mine (and fellow MTB’er) based in Glasgow runs courses as well as having a leaning toward “adventure” and landscape photography…

http://leadinglinesphotography.net/portfolios/adventure

Welcome to another hobby that seems cheap at first!

I was thinking of treating myself to a nice DSLR.

Before you splash out loads on the latest trendy ‘must have’ gadget, buy yourself a cheapo digital cam, and just snap away at whatever takes your interest, visually. Think about why you want to create an image from whatever’s in front of you. What is it about that scene, that makes you want to capture it?

Then, when the limitations of the cheapo cam start to frustrate you, it will be time to upgrade.

Alternatively, buy a Nikon D700 and 24-80 f2.8 Nikkor zoom, use it about three times, get bored and sell it to me for £100. 🙂

Sorry to hi-jack this thread but i’m in a similar boat in somuchas wanting to get into photography. I have done what ‘elfinsafety’ has suggested and bought a fairly decent compact to get me started. I am hoping that this will give me enough features to play with but not enough to baffle me and discourage me.

But my question is this: Where do you photo-hobbyists get your inspiration from? Do you look at websites and see what others have taken (and if so which ones) or do you just snap away and see what comes out? What do you photograph (portraits/landscapes/buildings/abstract etc) ?

In the past i have taken some fairly decent photos and I think I have an ok eye for what makes a good photo but haven’t yet taken photos as good as others i’ve seen. I would classify my ability level as advanced beginner. Do you think I should go on a course or should I just play with the settings and see what photos I get?

What about software – other than something advanced/expensive like Photoshop is there any software I should get to enhance my photos even further?

Sorry again for the hi-jack.

Start shooting in RAW.
Get Photoshop Elements – it’s a good place to start.
Perhaps join Flickr or any of the other photography forum sites.
and try copying some of the ideas for yourself.

before fannying around with RAW files and hoping that will make your photo great, practice framing pictures & thinking about the content of that image, rather than the technical ins and outs. Just take jpeg images, review them on a computer afterwards… critique your own stuff. See what works & what didn’t & next time you go out, learn from those reviews.

I take inspiration from all sorts of places – without specifically going looking… photos from on here, in mags, on event websites etc…). Mine aren’t great, but are getting better.

Don’t worry about all the settings, just use full auto to begin… then you can start experimenting with aperture & shutter speed control as you progress. There will be a dip in the perceived quality of picture when you start doing this, but ultimately it will allow you more control to get the effect you want.

Once you start getting the content right, then you can start learning about the post processing…

Just go take some photos 🙂

It’s probably not too late to join the STW/FLickr group “One Photo Every Day”.
OPED

I did it last year and if you commit to taking one photo every day (I didn’t quite make it truth be told) you’ll be surprised how differently you look around you, always thinking “can I make that a cool photo?”.
Or…you end up photographing kitchen implements at 11.50pm… 🙂

Here’s my effort to give you an idea of the variety:
OPED by Beanum

I spent the last year using a bridge camera. I bought it second-hand to see how I got on. I enjoyed and started to find it limiting so just bought a Nikon D5000 with an extra Nikkor 55mm-200 lens.
I’m reading through the instructions slowly but getting to grips with it. I am also using it daily and love it.
I’m not sure where you would find inspiration. Maybe looking at a bit of art history and let the pictures come to you?

+1 getting a compact or bridge first before splashing out on a DSLR and hoping the ££ and PS will create the photo’s for you.

I’ve only got a Fuji bridge camera and after a year with it, I am still learning how to get the most out of it.

That’s after a serious amount of use.

I’ve only just started using a basic editing suite and will not rely on that to make a photo great, more to recover a badly taken image.

You’ll get much more satisfaction from a well taken photograph. One that’s straight from the camera without any editing, not even a crop.

Get a camera with a great lens, and don’t be lured into something with mahoosive amounts of zoom.

Experiment with the full range of a fixed lens.

With a DSLR you’ll end up wanting such a range of lenses. A macro, a wide angled, telephoto, something massive, etc..

Think about why you want to take up photography, what subject matter interests you. And look at what makes a good photo great.

Some people have an eye for a photo, and see it before they raise the camera, others don’t.

Don’t force a photo, let it come to you.

Most of all enjoy it.

Taking a photo is like cooking a chiken.

ISO / film speed = size of chicken.
Apperture = Oven temperature.
Shutter speed = Time in the oven.

uwe-r – does that mean that they are the important parts of taking a photo? They are the things i should be concentrating on? Otherwise, I don’t get you metaphor.

Even before you start thinking about technical gubbins, just get to understand basic framing, simple shot rules, using grids and ratios for composing the shot in the frame.

The Fibonacci sequence is a good start to help you understand how to split up a shot.

Good article here

Divine Composition With Fibonacci’s Ratio (The Rule of Thirds on Steroids)