TR Forums

I'm getting to the point where I feel like searching for freebie articles online have hit their limits. Has anyone gone through a particular photography book, targeted at the complete novice that help you get through to some "Advanced" intermediate subject matter? Maybe even a book with practice assignments to help you learn what your reading would be ideal.

Here's an online photography class (with assignments):

http://www.michaelthementor.com/

You could also check out the "...for dummies" series. I believe they have one specifically for digital cameras (though their information may be out of date).

Be aware that there is a lot of bad advice floating around on the internet. When I was starting out in digital photography, there were several big sites who advised people to "expose right" (ie overexpose), with the theory that you get more information and less noise. In reality, that is a surefire recipe for blown highlights and clipped channels.

This is a book that Hoser suggested to me and it has helped me out drastically.

Exposure Photo Workshop by Jeff Wignall. It has a big Ferris Wheel on the front with streaking lights.

I'll second the book lex mentioned. I still refer back to it now & again for some tips. Link The website gives you an opportunity to see how your shots compare to others who are going through the book also. The pro's who frequent the site do give you good feedback to help you along without getting really technical on you.

Went to Barnes and Nobles today and they had to look high and low for the book, but they had one copy.. WOOT I got one . I'll get back to you guys with some photo's to show the progress. lol

A friend found this very interesting/dry/technical document by Zeiss about DOF/Bokeh:

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_35_Bokeh_EN/$File/CLN35_Bokeh_en.pdf

Worth a look for anyone trying to understand the concepts involved.

Any photography workshops in your area? If you don't mind mingling, plenty of opportunity to learn new things, and a teacher who can give you instant feedback when you hit a snag.

If not, one of my favourite books is Within the Frame. It explains composition, various camera techniques etc. It doesn't get too technical on you, yet gives you insight into different things like if you were to shoot the same scene with a wide angle or a zoom lens and the kind of effect it gives you.

Yeah, there are a few photo workshops, one in may out at a very beautiful lake we have here locally. Its only $30.00 for the days worth of going and they will have a setup with photoshop on sight so that they can go over that there too, pretty nifty. However the website thats doing it are some forums that haven't had anyone post in there in about a year, once every year maybe twice someone says something and people actually talk..... all 7-8 of them . We will see though, I may show up with $30.00 if its worth it.