New to photography? Read this.

Elmo

I always wondered what that view was for on my FZ8.

Many thanks

Miss Mandy

Excellent advice thanks, PCThug. I'm just starting out in my new hobby so I'll use these pointers as I practice. Hopefully they'll help me get some half decent shots.

Beximus

Great advice, thanks

My composition had always been my weakest point (among many), and it's good to see advice written down simply.

supahoops

Great thread, thanks for some useful tips, do you have any advice on the best ways to crop a photo and also do you recommend any decent photo editing software.

Ive heard of Photoshop elements and lightroom but not sure which is best for adding effects or post processing?

senu

Thug

Cropping, to be honest, your best trying to get it right in the camera first off.
However, this isnt always possible, so when you do crop just make sure you follow the above pointers when you compose it.

Some people talk as if cropping is a dirty word, and if your a decent photographer you shouldnt have to do this, but i think that is rubbish. Even the greatest photographers cropped in the darkroom stage by using the enlarger. So its nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Try to keep the ratio of the new photo 6x4 (5x7, 10x8 etc), this is so it will fit most frames easily. You can still crop different sizes, but you may need to get a mount cut to fit your photo and frame. If your not going to frame it, it doesnt mater.

I use Photoshop CS4, but this is extremely expensive, and still costs a few hundred off Ebay. It may also be a little advanced. You could try any of the above as both are great.

Killwilly

One thing I have always found useful when I see photographs of this quality, is to be able to read the exif data. Perhaps that could be provided in future tutorials and many thanks for sharing.

senu

Ill make it a sticky for a while

Thunderbird_010

Many thanks for that like others I always wondered what the grid was for firstly on my Panasonic Digital camera and now Nikon DSLR so now I know.

Looking forward to the next one

nikonuser11

thanks pcthug, very informative and nicely written.
look forward to lesson #2