Seeking a (camera) mentor / course (7)

I'm always happy to meet up and discuss photography with people, I LOVE to talk photography. I do catalogue fashion for a day job and shoot glamour, nudes and motorsports in my free time, so I'm pretty varied in my skill set.

To be honest though, as soon as you understand "aperture", "shutter speed" and "ISO" you should be able to start shooting more creatively with regards to the technicalities. That should take you about half an hour to get your head round. The rest after that is down to your own artistry, and a camera course won't teach you that - a trip round London to the galleries might help though (my favourite way to pass the time!).

Portraits aren't difficult to start. Just find a willing subject, notice how the light falls on them and then start shooting. Human interaction is important here.

Studio lighting is trickier. Buy a single monoblock head (Elinchrom or Bowens are cool) at about 400W rating and just start practicing. It's as easy as that, you'll soon figure out what works.

Landscape photography - total innate talent. Couldn't tell you anything about it, I suck at it so badly.

Night photography - sturdy tripod and long shutter speeds.

All of the above require a creative thought process though, that is the one thing they have in common. That cannot be taught.

Edited 30 Jul 11, 5:12 PM by ConsciousnessJunkie

Another thing that I discovered is that shooting in RAW (or RAW and JPG at the same time) is definately worth it. The major camera manafacturers supply free RAW processing software, and GIMP is free and can handle them all well too, it means you can correct things you might otherwise not be able to, or struggle to.

I have always been around photographers and previously modeled for them and helped them out. Also been involved in numerous photographic projects. I never really took up photography seriously. For the last few years over the Xmas and new year period I like to travel to SE Asia back packing around the countries. I love to take pictures of the places I have been too and the people I have met along the way.

Last Xmas/new year period I was in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. I did my research and looked at pictures I wanted to take I brought a Nikon cool pix 6000, a bridge camera and put it on auto mode. I could not understand why my pictures did not look like those in the National Geographic magazine. I met some photographers and they gave me some tips on what camera to buy. ( I now have a Nikon D200 which I brought from ebay).

When I got back to London I did my own research and I was pleasantly surprised as to how much information there is on the Internet. My advice would be to look on 'You Tube', there are so many photographers on there explaining the basic concept of photography. The best thing about it is that you can play the videos as many times as you want. In my opinion it is an extremely valuable resource for any budding photographer to learn their craft.

I did a one day DSLR course in London, I thought that the teacher would explain the functions of the buttons on the camera. He explained to us that you just need to know ISO, Aperture and shutter speed, also where to find them on your camera. Once you truly understand these, then you can put your camera on manual and start shooting.

From my experience so far I have learnt that there is no substitute for practice. If you want to be called a photographer, rather than labelled A Guy with Camera (GWC). You have to practice, practice and more practice.

I have a local park in my area that I use to practice and sometimes find a willing model who will allow me to take pictures of them. I feel I have improved a lot. Now I understand what makes a good picture, it is all about composition. What you leave in or out of the frame.

Like Little felicity says, creativity can't be taught. How ever you can look at the work of others to inspire you. The good thing about the web is that it has given people a platform to show case their work online. There are some seriously talented photographers out there.

You mentioned you like portraiture and landscape photography. There is a lot of information online on this style of photography. You can also go to the library to borrow books. I have no experience of online courses. I much prefer some one to show me.

Edited 8 Aug 11, 8:57 PM by SDWsdw

Especially for landscape, study articles on composition, that's the first big thing to get right.

Studio work/portraits, you need some parient and tolerant models who are happy to let you experiment with them. Here lighting is a huge difference between snapper and someone who wants to get better results. Get at least 1 flash head, 2 if you can manage. The bowens or elinchrom mentioned are great units, but being high-end of the market and will likely last a lifetime, they are a big investment. I just bought a replacement set from a high street store - Interfit 200W, 2 heads, brolly, soft box, stands, for £300, nice little units and fine for a home studio. This is something I prefer to buy from a known, reputable business - last year I bought a pair of cheapies online. One went up in smoke 2nd time out, the other started giving me shocks after 6 months, luckily the seller honoured their warranty and gave a full refund on both, but was a lesson!

I also back up the suggestion to shoot in RAW or both RAW and JPG together. You will have far more scope to adjust the images and correct dodgy exposure, color balance, distortion etc etc. If you don't have it, get a trial version of Photoshop Elements, and go onto the adobe website, find their TV learning area and look at the videos to help you understand how to use the program. They are very good. You can also download their programs for a month before you decide to buy - always good to give confidence.

I'm quite tolerant of heterosexuals, so long as they don't flaunt their sexuality or try to convert others to their way of life.

Good advice, although you might want to look at LightRoom rather than or as well as Photoshop or Elements. Some software that can parse RAW files doesn't do a very good job, in particular I've noticed that Picasa, while free and otherwise excellent, doesn't apply geometry correction to raws from my camera leading to distorted pictures, not what you want.

Choice of lens makes a difference as well - for portraits you're best with a decent telephoto or natural prime (a natural prime is, IIRC, one where the focal length is about the same as the diagonal size of the sensor, so for a 35mm film camera around 50mm, for a micro 4/3 like mine closer to 28mm). Wide angle lenses, while helping you get the subject in the frame, are generally not great for portraits unless you want a distorted effect. Obviously for landscapes wide angle or even fisheye lenses give you more flexibility.

You can also get 'creative' lenses - I've been playing with a LensBaby, a selective focus tilt lens and it's loads of fun Not for every use, but great for picking out a particular part of your subject and highlighting it.

I have been doing photography for 33 years and still learn new stuff all the time, it's part of the fun

Happiness is a warm bum