Resources

[Emma]

Well, my incredibly talented sister Jennifer spent some phone time with me tonight to help me start taking better photos. Just thought I'd share some of the great tips she gave me.

1. First, to BUY this book: Understanding Exposure. Don't bother checking it out, she said it's one of those that every photographer ought to just have in their library. Can't wait until mine arrives.

2. The camera basically does two things. How wide the shutter opens and how long it opens. How wide is F-stop or aperture. How long is speed, 1/125 etc. The combination of these two is exposure, or how much light is hitting the "film".

3. Turn off an auto function on your camera! She suggested using Aperture Priority, which is telling the camera how wide to open the shutter, and then let the camera decide how fast to open it (shutter speed). Try different apertures (F-stop) with a series of photos. And a good way to remember what the numbers mean: a big ZERO is big and round 0, so smaller numbers are larger apertures. Larger numbers are smaller apertures...get it? Counter-intuitive, but just remember the wide open zero 0.

Lots of other good stuff too, but this is where I'm going to start my journey!

Hope this helps a newbie like me! First I have to learn how to set my aperture manually, maybe next week or next month I'll learn how to do something else! One baby step at a time!

Have fun!

[valeri]

Thanks Emma, I am going to see about getting that book, maybe it will help even me! lol

[TsMom]

The book, I think, is a must have. Understand Exposure is written by Bryan Peterson and is available on Amazon, though I bought mine at Borders. I am a beginner with a new Canon Powershot A70 (digital) and I'm also trying to figure out how to take pictures with an older model Minolta SLR my MIL gave me. The book is written in everyday language and is easy to understand. He writes a lot about choosing an aperture based on the kind of photo you want to take and then metering for a correct shutter speed. He goes into detail about depth of field, metering, and techniques like panning. Before I read this book, I didn't even know what any of that meant!! The best part is that he provides examples of his work and explains how he achieved the kind of photo he wanted. One thing that is very neat is he talks about presetting focus via the depth of field scale and about using the depth of field preview button (I didn't even know my SLR had these, but they do!). It really simplifies everything.

LaWanna

[kim]

Thanks for the tip, Emma! :) Another book for the massive collection I have going! LOL!!

:)

[Emma]

I just ordered my book, thanks for the author's name, Lawanna, I couldn't find it under the title!

He also has the same book in Windows/Mac version and in Digital/Film version. The one I got is from before the advent of mainstream digital, 1990. The revised is from 2004. I wonder if that'll make much difference.

As far as a huge library, I need to purge some books we never use. For hobbies I try to keep the library small, just the main, basic, must-have books. This is my first photography book!

[grindavich]

Hi, I have some suggestions for some books that are in my library and I have found very inspiring:

Shooting Digital - Mikkel Aaland, this book's chapters are set for situation specifics, ie,portraits, landscapes, interiors, etc. This is one of the books I use to teach photography.

Digital Photography Expert Light and Lighting - Michael Freeman
This book is an absolute must have. This book is set up with case studies for all lighting situations and explains how digital reads light, which is very much different than film.

Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques - Barry Huggins
This one is very well done, and shows some great tricks of the trade.

The photoshop 7 or CS Book for Digital Photographers - Scott Kelby
I can't say enough about this book, He shows you all the shortcuts and tricks to fix all those "bad shot day" photos and enhance the good ones.