Learning Photography
Out of context: Reply #8
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- mg330
I think that for me, "learning" photography was sort of similar to how I learned guitar: lots of time figuring things out, using existing reference points as influence and inspiration. The best thing with both is that you can never know too much, and you should always be learning.
At first with my DSLR, I used P mode all the time. Then a friend and I talked about aperture mode, so I started practicing with that, taking photos around the house, learning about how aperture affects landscape photos, up close photos, etc. As I started to get better at aperture mode, I advanced to Manual mode to have better control of exposure / avoiding shots that were too blown out. I don't use manual mode that often; usually only at night and if I have a tripod.
I think the most fun is figuring out how to emulate the quality in photos by other people. It's easy to look at things like contrast, exposure, shadows, etc. in "good" photos that you like, then go find similar situations and be conscious of how you might achieve the same.
Funny enough, I don't know of that many good instructional sites. I don't really look at photo mags for tips and stuff; I don't know... I'm usually kind of put off by that stuff.