Hi,

I think you have gotten a lot of good advice, but I will add a bit more about lenses. The 18-55mm kit lens is a good place to start, but not with a 10D. It won't fit on your camera. Instead I would get three inexpensive lenses to start. A Tokina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5, a Canon 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 MKII, and a 50mm f/1.8. Together these will cost less that $300 and give you some decent lenses to start. A good place to look for such lenses is by taking out a Want to Buy add on the Buy and Sell forum. You can also look at www.keh.com, www.adorama.com, and www.bhphoto.com. These are all decent retailers with good stocks of used lenses for sale. I hope this helps.

I'm a total beginner as well. What I found helped me is to bring a notepad with you and shoot in manual while taking notes of your settings. You'll quickly learn what different settings do to the image. It takes longer but you get more "quality" learning expeience rather than quantity. (still try to shoot a ton of shots tho)

Another thing is to bring your camera with you as much as possible. Great photo ops are everywhere. (I have been seen taking pictures in the produce section of the supermarket while my wife spends 15 minutes deciding between 2 brands of chicken stock)

I totally agree with "you really don't need super fancy equipment" but it sure is tempting! (I really don't "need" a Porsche but if I won the lottery, guess where I'm driving the Toyota?)

With digital, we get the advantage of reviewing our image immediately with no additional cost. I give major props to the people that learned with film!

Even with this advantage, I still have a lot to learn.

Good luck and have fun!

I'm not sure why people always seem to make the 50 and normal assumption when the 50 is suggested. Simply put, the 50f1.8 is probably the best $76 lens purchase on the planet and opens up a lot of low light/portrait shooting options. For all intents and purposes the prime it could be a 28mm, it really could be anything.
The point is that while learning, start with a prime, any prime (the 50f1.8 is cheap and optically good that's why it's recommended often for beginners). Start to shoot stationary objects, statues, works of art. Shoot them from 17 different angles. Take your time, think about what you are trying to create and how the camera adjustments you are making will impact your final photo. Learn how to shoot something stationary before trying moving targets or kids...
After you have done your shooting, take time to review each and every photo. Don't delete anything while you're shooting. You can learn a lot from a bad photo. Pull up the exif data and look at your settings at the time of capture. Have someone else who knows a little about photography also look at your work and ask them to be brutally honest. Critisism is tough to hear at times, but if it is constructive it can really help us grow. The last point and most important is not to be afraid of making mistakes. Nobody died from taking a bad photo...

Wow, thanks for all the advice. I guess I will hold off on more equipment. And I think I definitely need to run and get a copy of the book recommended 20 times over.

As for shooting a lot, I have been. When I started I had no idea about depth of field or how to control it. I now understand how it works and why (more of a math person, so the equations made the most sense to me). But I still couldn't choose it on the spot without having a printed chart. (Which was one reason I wondered if a prime might be easier to learn on, one focal length to have printed.)

I'm also learning about exposure. I'm an electronics hobbyist so I built a shutter trigger to do long exposures in bulb mode. Last night I kept getting zapped by static electricity so I decided to try and photograph it. I got some decent shots, but nothing worth writing home about.

Again, thanks for all the advice.

george malamis wrote:
I'm not sure why people always seem to make the 50 and normal assumption when the 50 is suggested. Simply put, the 50f1.8 is probably the best $76 lens purchase on the planet and opens up a lot of low light/portrait shooting options. For all intents and purposes the prime it could be a 28mm, it really could be anything.
The point is that while learning, start with a prime, any prime (the 50f1.8 is cheap and optically good that's why it's recommended often for beginners). Start to shoot stationary objects, statues, works of art. Shoot them from 17 different angles. Take your time, think about what you are trying to create and how the camera adjustments you are making will impact your final photo. Learn how to shoot something stationary before trying moving targets or kids...
After you have done your shooting, take time to review each and every photo. Don't delete anything while you're shooting. You can learn a lot from a bad photo. Pull up the exif data and look at your settings at the time of capture. Have someone else who knows a little about photography also look at your work and ask them to be brutally honest. Critisism is tough to hear at times, but if it is constructive it can really help us grow. The last point and most important is not to be afraid of making mistakes. Nobody died from taking a bad photo...
AMEN!!! Add me in for another vote for the 50. Shooting with a single prime focuses the attention on the elements of the composition. If you want to learn the most and learn most quickly, read the book - but even more important, follow the advice above, think about what you are shooting and shoot and shoot and shoot. - good luck.

I didn't read all the posts above, but I suggest this book by Peterson.

Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography (Updated Edition) (Paperback)

I have read the understanding exposure also, and the "learning to see creatively" is better in my opinion. Buy both, and judge for yourself.

Don't buy any gear with the expectation that it will increase your abilities. More gear increases your options, but not abilities.


Paul

Go to the local bookstore and pick up a copy of the KISS book of photography. It has a red cover. That will get you started on the basics of photography & composition.

The truth is a photographer takes a good photo, not the equipment. Expensive professional grade equipment is not required to take a good photos. Learn about photography, buy a good tripod, stop down the lens and you will get good results. As you skills develop, you may decide to get new lenses. I used that zoom lens for years and took good photos with it. The 10D takes nice photos.

Don't listen to these clowns! A hobby is not about getting things right, its about collecting STUFF! Photography is not about good pictures, its about having the most lenses and gadgets. The next time you hear about the (xx) mm f/x.x L lens that you cannot absolutely live without, immediately go out and buy it. If you have to, put it on a credit card. Don't be a communist! This is AMERICA dammit!

Mike

Good post!

Books - Understanding Exposure as already suggested. I recommended this to many (after reading it myself) and I think it does a very good job at explaining the basics and will move you from beginner to intermediate in no time (with practice of course).

Equipment - I agree with others, don't buy any more yet. There is so much value in using a single lens to get started. I started with just a 50mm in my first photo class back in high school, but there's no reason to limit yourself to one focal length anymore. Back then (5th century BC) zooms were expensive and poor, so you'll have an advantage.

If you use the lens to shoot everything you want, you'll very soon discover if you want something wider, longer, or both. I'd agree with the suggestion to get the kit lens if you want to go wider, but don't spend a lot of money on gear.

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You might be one of those people that would benefit from the NYIP home study course. New York Institute of Photography. You can fiind their ads in most photo mags.

Most people that have done any photography find it to simplistic. If you have the money and the time, you might benefit from it.

There is some kind of strange rhythmic beauty in that last post regardless of what size browser window I use. Must be good advice.

Roy Pertchik wrote:
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hey roy....get to the point your trying to make would ya !!

A good advice on order to make it easier to see own progress...pick a subject. Any subject, your wife, a street, a statue, dogs, cats, planes, a building, you know, anything will do as long as it is defined. Thing is that if you randomly shoot everything that comes in your path it will be harder to see how you progress from each time you are out shooting because the subject differs to much.

Pick a statue or the town square, shoot it, go home and browse the images, ask yourself, friends, familiy or better yet, post it here and ask for C&C, what could be done better. Then get out there and shoot it again, as long as you stick to the same subject you end up with "sessions" were you can compare and analyze images to see were itīs going, how light changes, angle changes and most importanly you will see how you refine the shot from each time.

By all means, shoot other things too but picking a "project" to come back to is a good learning excercise as well as a lot of fun.

Tripods are good once you have warmed up. In addition to keeping the camera still at long exposures tripods also forces you to think twice before setting up the shot due to their slightly cumbersome workflow.

Happy shooting!

leadZERO wrote:
As a follow-up, what would a recommendation be for a good book on the basics of photography.

Here is a basic guide I wrote for my son, covers items like the relationship between shutter speed, ISO, aperture, white balance, DOF etc ...

Click here for Photography 101

I also like Photo Idea Index, it's a little green book. It is 1-part "how-to" and one part "what-if." It shows you some examples of how to view a scene in different ways.

For example, he's trying to photograph a historic building and so he looks around for creative compositions besides just a straight-on view. Looking for reflections he can play off of, ways to "frame" the subject between nearby elements. Mixing the belltower on the sbuject building with the geometry of the building next door. Finally he takes a picture from inside the bulding across the street.

Nick

Yes, Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" is excellent, but as another poster mentioned, the "Kodak Guide to 35mm Photography - Techniques for Better Pictures" is the BEST introductory book for newbies I've ever read!

It covers every area of interest, from exposure, to lenses, to composition, to macro, and much more. The book is printed on high quality paper, and the illustrative photos are to die for!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Note: I'm not sure it's still in print (Amazon shows only 1 used copy for sale). Let's all email Kodak to re-issue, or better yet, publish an update to this excellent book.

nathanlake wrote:
You might be one of those people that would benefit from the NYIP home study course. New York Institute of Photography. You can fiind their ads in most photo mags.

Most people that have done any photography find it to simplistic. If you have the money and the time, you might benefit from it.



Yep: good idea.

My advice for a new photographer?

Run away!

Run away now, before you happily lose all of your money, time, sleep, and blissful ignorance of how bad the photographs you took last season were.

And that's just from reading this forum. Actually taking pictures will only make this effect worse.