Photography for beginners

I walk/hike a lot and I take lots of photo’s but I end up deleting most of them. So I would like to take a look at photography, particularly landscape photography, but I have no idea where to start.

Any advice please?

What are you taking them with? Camera or phone.

A good beginner book would be a great place to start. Obviously there is a mine of info on YouTube but easy to get carried away on that. A book gives you time to read and try one core technique at a time.

Bear in mind a BIG part of landscape photography is light. If you want the picturepostcard images, anyway. You can hoik a mega-expensive camera around all day and if the light is rubbish, so will your photos be. But rock up to your vantage spot at sunrise and you can pop off a stunning shot with a ten year old phone.

There is/was a member on here that teaches photography so he should have some sage advice – @colournoise I think

Bear in mind a BIG part of landscape photography is light. If you want the picturepostcard images, anyway. You can hoik a mega-expensive camera around all day and if the light is rubbish, so will your photos be. But rock up to your vantage spot at sunrise and you can pop off a stunning shot with a ten year old phone.

This is very true.

You can learn about composition of the picture and the settings on a camera (or phone) from YouTube.

But a lot of of my best shots have been on my phone as the light was right and I was in the right place at the right time. I’ve had plenty of times when I’ve gone out with all my kit looking for a shot and the light has given a poor outcome.

If you’re shooting street stuff, or urban stuff light is less important, but landscapes are heavily reliant on light and timing.

Take 10,000 bad photos copying everything else and photo 10,001 will be be interesting and original.

Only slightly joking. Photography and other creative arts need practice. Just enjoy the process along the way.

Camera doesn’t matter.

Buy this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Exposure-Fourth-Photographs-Camera/dp/1607748509

You can use any camera but for creative control, get a used DSLR or mirrorless.

Expect disappointment. Light and composition is key. As mentioned, best times are early mornings and evenings generally but not always. The conditions have a habit of not doing what you want.

Learn about shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

Borrow, buy or read some books. Or find some good photographers websites and see what they do. Get ideas and inspiration from them.

Practice taking photos and editing. Whatever anyone tells you, photos need edited especially if using raw format. Photos have been edited since the dawn of photography- see Ansel Adams for example.

Buy a tripod. Low light / small aperture/ low ISO means shutter speed of 0.5 seconds or longer.

Practice some more.

Don’t do it!

I personally detest digital photography. By that i mean I do not enjoy the process. At all. So as much advice you get remember its up to you how you go about it/what type of equipment to buy etc.

I would agree that its useful at some stage to get to grips with ISO, aperature and shutter speeds but everything on auto and practicing composition still counts.

Bear in mind a BIG part of landscape photography is light.

Which is both the joy and the curse. Just schlepping about without a plan on your usual walk/bike with a camera in your pocket/bag is all very well but it’s just pot luck that you’ll get the light and composition needed to take a keeper.

My particular fetish with landscape photography is planning where and when good shots can be had and to find shots that can only be taken if you stay out overnight to take them – so sunset shots that are too far back to the car to get back after taking them or sunrise shot that you need to camp out to be there in time to shoot them in the morning. I use a couple apps (currently Golden Hour and Sun Position on Android) and OS maps to work out where and when. Glens that only get a sunrise down them a couple of weeks a year or bit of river in a gorge that only get golden hour evening light in October for example.

My other fetish is long exposure – and particularly with water. Using ND filters to get 5, 10 or even more second exposures to do devilish things to moving water.

Get a book or two – Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers by Richard Garvey-Williams is quite good.

Or subscribe to a few landscape orientated photographers. Thomas Heaton and Nigel Danson are both good.

My tip is to buy a film SLR camera. You have to adjust everything or it won’t work, which means you’ll get to understand what’s going on. It also means you have “lessons” or “workshops” of 24 frames with plenty of time for reflection in between. Read books. Try stuff. You’ll learn more from the shots that didn’t come out like you hoped because you can take time to forensically work out why they are the way they are, so you’ll love those shots because they make you better. Health warning: It can be more obsessive and frustrating than golf. You will never be good enough, but you’ll get better all the time.

I’d suggest picking up a couple of mainstream photography mags. It’s always a good way to absorb general information around new hobbies I find, and they’re typically aligned towards landscape photography and always contain tips on fairly rudimentary stuff.

For actually taking photos and producing results, I’d just start on your phone but download some editing apps and learn how to edit them. It’s a fairly fundamental part of the process for most photographers these days but will also get you thinking about the finer details of the images.

Once you start to establish an idea of the things you want to learn about, take a deep dive into YouTube..

My tip is to buy a film SLR camera. You have to adjust everything or it won’t work

Not quite true. You can stick it on a mode just like a DSLR and it’ll work just fine. They’ll likely be crap though 🙂 and expensive – have you seen what a roll of film costs these days?

Instant feedback from digital is why they’re great. The hipster film phase comes later.

Instant feedback from digital is why they’re great

+1 to that.

And editing is part of the process…and unless you have a serious setup back at home that’s not a thing for most with film.

Not saying film does not have it’s own charm, but not convinced it’s the best first step now digital is a thing.

Not saying film does not have it’s own charm, but not convinced it’s the best first step now digital is a thing.

I generally agree.

But i don’t agree that rattling off thousands of photos is that good either. Very small memory cards or very strict limits on number of attempts definitely help focus the mond on putting effort into taking A good attempt rather than throwing enough shit that some of it sticks.

You can stick it on a mode just like a DSLR and it’ll work just fine.

The olympus om1 up there has two modes… Light meter on, light meter off.

Well in reality its lightmeter off and lightmeter doesn’t work.

If it’s landscape photography you’re after, read up on composition and practice that on your phone. Learn the rules, understand them and when and how you can break them. This will help your every day phone photography no end.

Once you’re getting better at that then look into what camera system you want.

You cannae beat a Canon. Just sayin’.

Don’t listen to anyone telling you to get a film camera as a beginner.

Learn exposure, learn composition, learn the rest. Cherish your keepers, bin the rest, keep on learning.

Then when you’ve mastered that, learn some more

The kind of stuff that inspires me:

Alex Nail
Joe Cornish
Colin Prior

Even the old timers like Joe Cornish and Colin Prior have transitioned completely to digital.

Don’t listen to anyone telling you to get a film camera as a beginner.

How about 50 year old glass plates?

How about 50 year old glass plates?

I hear they’re de rigueur these days.

Composition

Exposure

Focus (see composition)

Technology – whatever works for you

If you are using digital everything else you can deal with in ‘post’.

Biggest thing is ‘what kind of pictures do you want to take’?

Like any skill the important things are practice, reflective learning, and more practice. When you take a good picture make sure you critique its qualities – what makes it good? Is it the subject? Is it the framing? Does it match or break the rule of thirds? How does the exposure work with the subject? …

It is NOT the gear – full frame, prime lenses with ‘big’ glass only guarantee high costs and heavy loads. They do NOT guarantee great pictures. Great pictures are more often the result of luck, thoughtful practice, opportunity, and more luck.

Way BITD my radiographs [sic] were not always perfect. After much practice I managed a very good first time ‘hit’ rate in most situations. I applied the same learning process to my snapshots. The ‘hit’ rate is not as good but the consequences of multiple shots and ‘misses’ are negligible. Especially now with digital images.

To illustrate, of 95,000 digital images I have 37,000 ‘picks’ in Lightroom. Many did not make it to the 95,000. Some picks were chosen not for their artistic merit but for their subjects. A blurry, poorly proportioned, badly exposed picture of a pivotal event can be more meaningful and more exciting than any well composed non-event.

When I consider some of my old film/print photos, some ‘disposable’ camera images are far more entertaining and valuable than some ‘great’ portraits I’ve taken on DSLRs with fat prime lenses.

In terms of ‘where to start’. First consider the landscape pictures you like. What do you like about them? I realise this gets into art criticism, but the critical eye and the language used can provide insight into what you want to achieve. For example, (early google hit) https://independent-photo.com/news/a-brief-history-of-landscape-photography/

As a contrast, here’s one of my images of a flooded valley in Yosemite, taken nearly 20 years ago with a Minolta Dimage camera I subsequently lost outside the NIH in MD, with next to no ‘fiddling’

And this file is one my father took back in the 1950s when he was travelling for reasons 

Are these the best ‘technical’ photos? Unlikely. But both have aesthetic value. And both have content and meaning. Clearly, not equal content and meaning to all. But then that is what art, and photography, are about.

It is NOT the gear – full frame, prime lenses with ‘big’ glass only guarantee high costs and heavy loads. They do NOT guarantee great pictures.

This is so true. Unfortunately (like mountain bikes) it’s always too much about the stuff. It’s tough making a good landscape photo even with the best camera in the world.

A Quick Look on eBay and you can get an older DSLR with a kit lens or two for around 100 quid. An absolute bargain as everyone else wants mirrorless cameras. It will still have all the creative controls and although it won’t have the megapixels or dynamic range of a modern camera, so what? Use it to learn then if it’s something you enjoy, upgrade later.

Do not expect the photos to look as impressive as your iPhone initially which just apply a lot of computational HDR, sharpening, saturation etc.

Take your photos in raw rather than jpeg. Raw will always looks “flat” out the camera so you need which is part of the fun and another part of the artistic process. I use lightroom which is subscription based but there are others out there.

I always like to leave something out of a photo to let the viewer’s imagination add it.
That might be something simple like colour or it might be giving the impression that there’s something just out of shot. Or perhaps that you’re only going to see the full vista once you walk further into not the picture.
It doesn’t always work, but when it does I like it.

I followed this course (normally on special offer), started off with the intro stuff then modules that interested me but have finished all the course now

https://www.udemy.com/course/photography-masterclass-complete-guide-to-photography/?couponCode=BFCPSALE24

I hear they’re de rigueur these days

Brilliant

Challenge yourself to take pictures you can’t on your phone

Is this the best picture I’ve ever taken – no

Is it one of my favourite pictures – absolutely

Could I have taken it on a phone – absolutely not

f1.7, 1/30s, 50mm, ISO3200

That’s me told, then.

Just more extremely lovely cameras for us Smiffy.

I almost tried to buy a linhof 6×9 the other day ? thank **** they pulled the auction.

olympus om1

Still got mine in the attic, can’t think I’ll ever use it again, but can’t bear to throw it away………………..

I found Michael Langford’s books very good.

The older editions can be picked up for buttons.

Some of the tech may be a little dated but the underlying principles never change.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=32043456418&searchurl=an%3Dlangford%2Bmichael%26ds%3D30%26rollup%3Don%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp0-_-title12

So lesson #1 that I so often fail to heed is ‘the best camera is the one you will have with you’

But it’s true.

I have some reasonably good camera gear but some of my best landscape photos in recent years have been on my phone. The reason for this is quite simple, I carry it all the time.

Yea, if I have a subject in mind, or if I want to plan a shoot then I am absolutely going to take the best camera, lense(s) and filters for the job. But for general bimbling around a phone with a decent camera is enough for most photos. I can still output onto a pretty big canvas from a phone shot if I wanted to.

It does help massively that I understand photography because it means I can work with the limitations of a phone camera to still get results. So the books that have been linked about photography basics are absolutely worth a read. The fundamentals of the exposure triangle apply to all cameras even when much of that fucntionality is masked from the end user.

The problem with specific trips to somewhere remote to catch the perfect light is that it invariably ends in disappointment (well up here it does). You are so geared up for a specific composition that when the light fails, you have no back up plan for the dull greyness and you go home disappointed . I used to make these trips a lot, driving hundreds of miles and that no longer sits well with me.

I’d prefer to make the walk or cycle the priority, make it somewhere photogenic and ideally somewhere local-ish. Bring the good camera along and if I get some good photos, great. Otherwise I still get a good walk / climb / cycle out of it.

Something else to bear in mind is that a great view doesn’t always mean a great landscape photograph.

it won’t have the megapixels or dynamic range of a modern camera, so what?

This. There’s a lot of talk around what goes in, little about comes out. What are you going to do with the photos? There’s little point in dropping four figures on a gigapixel camera if you’re going to use it to share photos on Facebook, you might as well stick with your phone.

A dSLR gives you manual buttons, creative control and changeable lenses for wide/long/macro shots. If you don’t want, need or understand those things then it’s a waste of money.

So lesson #1 that I so often fail to heed is ‘the best camera is the one you will have with you’

Also this. I’ve taken more photos with an IXUS than I’m ever likely to take with my dSLR.

Brilliant

I’m so glad that gag didn’t go to waste, I did wonder. Thank you. 🙂

Digital camera;  (if you can)  remove autofocus. Not because it doesn’t work, AF is brilliant, but by not having it, it slows down your picture taking. It won’t be point and shoot it’ll be point and compose.

Then (if you can) remove auto exposure / program mode or whatever your camera calls it, and set your aperture manually. Again it will mean you have time to compose, and bring depth of field to your photo.

On dark evenings, read up about ISO, shutter speeds and aperture and how they all work together to form your image.

As above. shoot in RAW not JPEG, that said if shooting in RAW, you could probably do with decent editing software, but that’s another topic.

Two most important things are enjoy your photography and take your picture with thought.

Digital camera; (if you can) remove autofocus. Not because it doesn’t work, AF is brilliant, but by not having it, it slows down your picture taking. It won’t be point and shoot it’ll be point and compose.

If I’m taking stills, one of my favourite lenses is a Sigma 105mm macro (f2’ish I think). Actually makes a great portrait lens if you can get the distance to subject.

It has no AF, manual only and the extra input composing the shot feels rewarding in a way

Alternative opinion:

I see little point in making life harder for yourself unless it’s a deliberate choice as a learning exercise, otherwise it’s just one extra thing to worry about. With film sure, but the whole point of digital is you can barrel off a hundred shots with impunity and pick the two good ones even if they were only good by chance. You’re only limited by the size and write speed of your storage.

I see little point in making life harder for yourself unless it’s a deliberate choice as a learning exercise, otherwise it’s just one extra thing to worry about. With film sure, but the whole point of digital is you can barrel off a hundred shots with impunity and pick the two good ones even if they were only good by chance. You’re only limited by the size and write speed of your storage.

Alternative opinions noted

I guess it’s where to draw the line

Firing off hundreds of shots and hoping you get a keeper probably isn’t giving the OP anything over and above what they said they were already doing

All aspects of photography are ultimately important – the general consensus is to learn exposure first. Of course yes it’s important, but I put composure at the top of the list. Exposure CAN be rescued in post with digital unless you really screw it up – go auto and get the composure right and you might get a decent photo without 100’s that need binning.

Then learn your settings and yeah manual focus is probably the last thing to learn and probably not that helpful to the OP in this instance – went off on a general photography tangent.

I guess it comes full circle to using film if you want to consider absolutely everything when taking a shot, but with digital it makes the learning process easier, as long as you do try and want to learn

Big benefit of digital is you can change the ISO per shot if desired. This helps you learn. Not possible with film.  Don’t get me wrong, I love film (worked on motion film post production for years), but I think starting with digital to learn the technical aspects makes sense.