Good Web Sites for Novices?

[Phil Monahan]

So anyway, if I’m going to have to become a freelancer–something that looks increasingly likely given this disastrous time in print media–I’m going to have to improve my digital-photography skills. Anyone know of good, basic Web sites for this?

I found http://digital-photography-school.com/ , any opinions?

Thanks,

Phil

[lee church]

Here’s some reading for ya. http://strobist.blogspot.com/

[dusty montgomery]

Phil,
This would be as good a place as any to start:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/

Also, any books by Scott Kelby may be of some help. Here is his link:
http://www.kelbytraining.com/

Some help with Flash Photography:
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

And just in case you use a Mac:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/aperture/?CMP=ILC-orm_sponsor_footer_links&ATT=aperture

Hope this will get you started.
Dusty

[John Bennett]

Luminous lansdscapes is good as are both naturescapes and Nature Photographers (incidentlly IAs Richard Bernabe has a big hand in).

I lurk on both Nature Scapes and Nature Photographers.

Stay away from DP review. Fred Mirandas is ‘ok” but different from the above

Other things sites similiar to IA exist. I lurk on quite a few and participate on 3 or so to varying degrees. Basically what i find helps with these kinds of sites is that they deal with the subject matter
For me, thats hunting and fishing. You pick up tidbits, see other peoples photography, etc, etc. What I’m finding very helpful is how hunters/anglers who arent photographers react to different types of images. Getting techincally correct, well edited images is only part of the equation.

Ask away here. You know us, we’ll be glad to help 🙂

J

[john michael white]

Here’s a couple more in addition to some of the excellent ones mentioned above:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

[anonymous]

Hi Phil

I had a poke around on the DPS site and there is certainly lots of info there some

[Chad Simcox]

Strobist has some good info in there. I read a lot of flickr group discussions, but there is a lot of crap to wade through.
Radiant Vista was a good one, but it seems to be gone now.

http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.

http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram

[Buzz Bryson]

Phil,

I suspect you have the artistic look (composition & lighting) part of the equation wired, from years of editing.

And getting there is just boning up on the other half, the how’s-that-done, part.

I’d suggest starting with articles/books by some of the better travel photographers.

[anonymous]

Buzz – I know that was directed at Phil but ty for the links- you just popped my eyes

[Buzz Bryson]

Will,

U’r most welcome.

[David Anderson]

I think Luminous-landscape is very good because the subject matter is very similar to fishing photography.
The forum is a bit dry, but very good – lots of top photographers there.

DPReview is ok for gear tests, but the forum is a joke – full of nasty know it all’s & GWC’s who know nothing.. 😉

www.dsaphoto.com

A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.

[John Bennett]

The problem with DP review is two fold.

As David A said, the forums are a joke to be avoided like the plague.
Phil and his team (the technical end of DP review) are ok I guess but imo he has too much vested interest in writing positive reviews.

Luminous Lansdscape is a site I frequent quite a bit. I dont bother with the forums but I like (to a degree) Michael Reichmann. If I had the coin for such things I’d love to shoot with him for a day or two. It helps thats hes a Toronto native 🙂

If you want seeminlg unbiased reviews and such I like Rob Galbrath.
He has alot of vested interest, and yet he almost single handly took Canon to task and hounded them non stop over the Mark III fiasco.
That kind of credibility is rare for online pundits with vested interest.

[Zach Matthews]

Phil –

Honestly, the best tutorial for the holes in your knowledge, which are obviously more technical than editorial, would be one of National Geographic’s awesome digital photography guides.

[David Anderson]

The thing about Ansel (my favorite photographer) is that his zone system and the way he took pictures is more for geeks than artists.
His photos are, for the time, perfect in almost every way.

The same level of skill and knowledge if applied to digital would get the same sort of quality, but would, like Ansels stuff, require great commitment and a high level of geekery..

I’ve never had the patience for it myself, but I have always admired the people who shoot with that sort of commitment and attention to detail.

www.dsaphoto.com

A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.

[Phil Monahan]

Thanks a lot, everyone. That’s a ton to digest, and I plan to. The first thing I have to do is get a DSLR; lost mine when I got canned.

[Zach Matthews]

Nikon D40x is the best bargain going right now.

[John Bennett]

Phil.

Given everything thats going on, nows a good time be a buyer in the used markets. There’s a fair amount of hardware being sold at good prices.

New.
Both Canon and Nikon are flying in the face of logic and raising prices substantially on alot of their product. Theres another hefty increase coming on Canon stuff in april, atleast up here.

Id look for a 2nd gen body (Nikon or Canon) meaning 1 step below *current* in whater line. Then a nice lens or two on the used markets.

If fishing buddies already have Canon/Nikon you might want to let that influence which you get. Normally I wouldnt but you want to springboard yourself as much as possible and being able to “borrow” a lens a friend has, while out together will help a fair bit as you amass your arsenol.

Your probably already aware of this, but any hardware you buy can be written off as a Capital expediture. Up here, it’s amortized over 4 years (CCA) bu dont forget that when shopping.

[David Anderson]

I now rent my camera bodies because the payment is 100% write-off every month and it also allows me to have the latest & greatest.

After the two year rental, I normally pay two additional months rent to buy out the cameras.
Both times I’ve done this my old bodies sold for much more then the pay-out when I’ve upgraded.

*not sure if this is good advice for tax in the US.

www.dsaphoto.com

A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.

[Phil Monahan]

Thanks again to all. My decision to go Nikon or Cannon might be decided for me, on account of I already own 2 lenses for my Nikon N60 (which I haven’t used in years). However, if the lenses are crap, then the field is wide open.

So, are these worth keeping?

1. AF Nikkor 35-70mm (1:3.3-4.5)
2. Sigma 072 28-70mm (1:2.8)

Don’t worry about hurting my feelings. If it’s crap, I’d rather know now. (I suspect the Sigma is low-budget, based on appearance alone.)

My life was a lot easier when I could let you guys worry about this stuff.

[John Bennett]

Wish I could help more Phil. If they are old they may not be the best and at some point you will want to upgrade them.Dunno

On the upside the “kit” lens you get with a Canon/Nikon body isn’t bad. Its made cheaply, meaning it mightdie if it gets wet or fall apart if they get banged around but the glass is surprisingly pretty decent for “kit” lenses.  The focal range tends to be 17-55mm…So no different than what you have now really. Might be 6 of one, half dozen of another.

You don’t have to have the best of the best lenses and there are plenty of good lenses that are “poor” cousins.

Canon 85mm f1.8. Retails for around 4-500.

The 85mm f1.2 L retails for $2,300

The focal ranges you have are in my bread and butter zone. For hunting/fishing my 24-70 f2.8 is glued to my body.

So I would start there, you want 1 decent lens that give you decent coverage from 17mm (landscapes) out to around 55 to 100mm. You either have 2 right now or if you bought a body + kit you’d have 3.
***********

from there you’d want to fill focal range gaps, maybe get out 200mm or get something thats fast for narrow DoF and low light shooting options like a 85mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8.

Before buying you could probably go to a store and take some shots with those 2 lenses and the kit lens…bring your memory card home, load them up an see if theres any appreciable difference.

1 last thing…With a crop factor body 1.6 or 1.7 those lenses probably won’t give you a wide enough field of view on the wide end, which is why aside from potentially little difference in optics you might want a kit lens (17mm) anyways.

[Author]

Posts