I’m really getting into photography. What book should I get to get some great pointers to start?

You learn by shooting not by reading. Make sure you know what all the buttons a dials on your camera do and then SHOOT. digital cameras have taken the cost of film away and the only thing that limits your shooting is the size of the memory card. When I was 11 my UNcle gave me 3 rolls of film and his olf Nikon FM2 and after he showed me the basics of f/stops and shutter speeds and how to ficus the lens he turned me loose. 25 years later I am a USAF Combat Aerial Photographer and have won many awards and have had my images pubished worldwide. How many classes have I taken, books have I read? Not many. The Air Force didn’t even send me to school for photo because of my portfolio and the books I have read I can count on 1 hand. Once you know your camera go shoot. Shoot shoot shoot. Look at magazines and see different angles and views and try to make replicate them and when you have the technique down make your own images. Shoot what you see then try different angles and speeds. Look at a scene and thnk of how you can show that to someone who wasn’t there and have them understand what was there and what happened. You are the story teller, you just use images to tell the story.

I am an amature digital photographer who has a lot of natural talent and would love to start my own business as a digital photographer without going to college. I want to do nature, outdoor, portrait, and artistic digital photography for people or businesses where I live in Kalispell, Montana. I have already taken over 200 outdoor digital photographs to build my own portfolio so my future clients can see my talent and skill with a digital camera. What I need to do now is market my skills and talents, find a need and demand for digital photographers in my town, find clients, and make a living with my own digital photography business. Does anybody have any good advice or suggestions for me? Please let me know. Thanks!

Get a website. Create a portfolio. Create an advertising sheet, perhaps with a collage of your best photos. Title it, including your # and business name. Many cafe’s (starbucks) have bulletin boards, post them there. Ask other small businesses if you can place these in their windows.

My friend just did this, in a very small town in Oregon. She is already starting to get some interest.

I have been looking at Picture Magazine, the photos are excellent, but I want to be sure that I will learn something…I want to learn new light techniques etc.

I suscribe to Popular Photography and Shutterbug. They do inspire, but they really don’t offer much in the way of instruction. If you really want to learn more about photography, I suggest taking a class or buying a good book. You can look for books on Amazon and read the reviews to see if they’re any good.

I am interested in improving my DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY techniques … where is the best place (ONLINE) I can learn … and much better if it is free .. hehehhee

Any suggestion for a good reference book?

I know some interesting sites. Maybe you find help there.

I dont even own a camera yet but photography has always been a passion of mine. There are so many times where i see something and i wish i could just take a shot of it and know what i’m doing. Whats a good camera to get for someone who is just starting? and where can i take classes on how to use the camera?

If you really want to learn about photography, get a manual camera. It’s true that you need to do all the work, but getting a cheap, worthless point-and-shoot isn’t going to make that work easy at all, and in some cases not possible. So if it seems like a hobby you seriously want to go into, then look for a range-finder or SLR.

At least one good reason to get a film camera is for classes if you take them. Most of the time, they want you to have a film camera. Another good reason is because it puts your focus on taking the picture. Generally you’ll pay more attention to what you’re doing if you don’t have the luxury of digital instant preview and a huge memory card.

So, now that all that is covered, let me suggest a few different models. This isn’t a full list by a long shot. Just a manageable one, of the cameras I like personally.

Minolta X-700
Pentax K1000 SE
Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL
Fujica ST801
Canon AE-1 (or A-1)

All are 35mm SLRs and will be used. eBay, Craigslist, KEH.com, Flea Markets, and estate sales – all good places to look. Out of all of them, be most careful with eBay. Keep looking until you find one of those for at most $100. You can probably find a deal for $50 or less, including a lens. Unless you get it at KEH.com, because they’re a business. You can be assured of what you’re buying, though.

As for classes, you can find them at a college. Otherwise I’ve heard of some "community centre" classes, but never seen one first-hand. As such, I can’t recommend one outright. Granted I haven’t taken a college course either, but it’s kind of hard to believe they wouldn’t teach a good class.

I am looking to start a portrait studio. I will be taking pictures of families and children/babies. Maybe even senior pictures. I have a 8mp SLR Canon Digital Rebel XT. Is this good enough to start out with? Also, I read that the Tamron 90mm macro lens is good for portraits. Is this true and what other lens will I need? Will I need the following things and if so what kind do you recommend: studio lamps/lights, bounce cards, light reader/meter? Is there anything I’m leaving out? As for backdrops. I’m thinking of having my white background be the kind where the wall curves as it meets the floor..is there a certain name for this? Should I also get a backdrop system for muslins? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!!

First of all, I do wish you good luck on your venture.

So, you are going to open a photography studio, but don’t have any idea whether you have the right camera, or lighting, or meter, or backgrounds, or lenses.

I think the first thing you need is some education in studio photography. It ain’t brain surgery, (or even wedding photography) but you need at least to have some notion of the things you will need for start-up and more importantly, how to use those things to produce images that customers will treasure enough to pay for. Just having the equipment is not enough, you need the knowledge to use it!

Also, another important thing you will need is business savvy.

For the record, you could shoot portraits with a digital Rebel, although that camera isn’t exactly awe inspiring I would rather have a medium or large format camera for studio photography, though, or at least a professional level DSLR.

i went to a creative arts festival today and i saw a style of photography ive never seen before (im not an expert on photography or humanities). the artist imposed the picture on a sheet of glass so that you had to see through the glass to see the image. the front of the sheet was cut with grooves that refracted the light and made the image appear to shimmer and flicker in a beautiful way.

does this sound familiar to anyone and if so, can you give me more information on this technique? for the sake of a humanities paper. thanks!

There is a antiquated photo technique known as wet plate collodion which was used back in the mid 19th century all the way up until the first part of the 20th century. A photo sensitive emulsion was poured onto a sheet of glass and then exposed and developed while still moist. Now you mentioned that there was a front sheet, meaning that more than one sheet of glass was used which makes sense. When you do wet plate collodions it is really important that the glass is as free from defects as possible, grooves or scratches would make the pouring process a living nightmare(trust me I have tried collodion, and it is by far one of the hardest techniques I have tried. Dagguereotypes especially using the Bequerrel process is much easier) Anyhow it sounds like the person sandwhiched over the top of the photo a sheet of etched glass, which is not standard practice in wet plate collodion, but the artists own touch of creativity. The only other process I could imagine this to be is a new type of Woodbury process using glass instead of porcelain, but without seeing the image, I couldnt tell you which process was used.

i’m a beginner when it comes to photography.
I want to take shots of people jumping, walking or simply moving so i set the shutter speed to 500(or any fast shutter speeds) but the picture always becomes dark.. why is this happening? any help?
well, let’s say i don’t want to use flash, what should my f stop or ISO be like?
I’m using a D90 camera.
shutter priority or manual

Exposure is a triangle composed of three variables: ISO, shutter speed and f-stop. Changing ISO affects one or both of the other two. Leave the ISO at a set value and changing the f-stop affects the shutter speed just as changing the shutter speed affects the f-stop.

Lets look at this using the "Sunny 16 Rule" which states: "On a sunny day, set your f-stop to f16 and your shutter speed to 1/ISO." So if we’re out on a sunny day using ISO 100 here is the shutter speed/f-stop relationship:

f16 @ 1/100 sec.
f11 @ 1/200 sec.
f8 @ 1/400 sec.
f5.6 @ 1/800 sec.
f4 @ 1/1600 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/3200 sec.

Now if we’re indoors its a whole different situation. Suppose we’re in a room with average light. If we try to use ISO 100 we will get very slow shutter speeds – perhaps as low as 1/4 sec. at f2.8. Obviously we won’t be stopping any motion. As we increase the ISO our shutter speed will increase (leaving the f-stop at f2.8): 200 = 1/8 sec.; 400 = 1/15 sec.; 800 = 1/30 sec.; 1600 = 1/60 sec.; 3200 = 1/125 sec. If your lens is slower than f2.8 (maybe f3.5 or f4) your shutter speeds will be even slower than our hypothetical example.

What we need is a faster lens, like a 50mm f1.4. At ISO 100 with the f1.4 lens our shutter speed becomes 1/15 sec.; at 200 its 1/30 sec.; at 400 its 1/60 sec.; at 800 its 1/125 sec.; at 1600 its 1/250 sec.; at 3200 its 1/500 sec.

NOTES:
1) To be honest, I’ve really no idea what constitutes a room with "average light". Perhaps 2 lamps with 150 watt bulbs? A room with a large north-facing window?

2) The shutter speeds I used for the indoor examples are from my FotoSharp "Day & Night Exposure Guide" and are based on a mechanical shutter. Since the shutter in your D90 is electronically controlled your shutter speeds would be different but similar. The ISO/shutter speed relationship at a constant aperture is still valid.

3) I used shutter speeds based on an electronically controlled shutter for the "Sunny 16" examples. Back in the day of mechanical shutters we used the shutter speed closest to the ISO: 1/125 sec. at f16 using ISO 100.

Where can I go for a degree or diploma in photography? Are there any colleges in Malaysia other than Universiti sains malaysia??

Try to post your question to these forums:

http://www.photokaki.com

http://www.photomalaysia.com

http://www.lensamalaysia.com/forum/

I need to write an explanation of shutter speed and aperture in photography.
Also need to explain how Aperture effects an image taken in portrait and landscape modes.
Have to give an explanation and some examples of when adjusting shutter speed would be useful.

Aperture is the lens opening, which controls how much light comes through the lens.

Shutter speed is how long the shutter exposes the sensor/film to the incoming light.

The aperture, along with the lens focal length and sensor size, affects the amount of area in focus in front of and behind your subject, called "depth of field."

Depth of field is important because of those times you may want a large area in focus (a landscape shot) or a shallow area in focus (say, for a portrait). A wide aperture or big lens opening makes for shallow depth of field, while a small aperture makes for more depth of field or more area in focus.

As for adjusting the shutter speed, it could be useful for stopping action (a fast shutter speed) or for creating special effects (motion-blurred water) or to achieve a particular aperture to get the depth of field you want (shutter speed and aperture together control the exposure. Change one variable and you have to change the other).

So, for your homework, you now have to hope I told you the truth about everything or you can copy and take the risk that everything I said or some of what I said is a lie…Or you could just double-check what I said and then re-write it into your own words.