[connor1]

Hi All,

I originally joined the forums to gather information about my impending purchase of an LCD screen however I came across this forum and I am totally gobsmacked by the quality of images that you guys take.

There are some outstanding photos in the galleries and obviously some very knowledgable people who post. To cut a long story short you have inspired me to think about having a go myself, the problem is I dont have anywhere near the sort of kit you all seem to have. In fact all I have is a Sony DSC600 which I have on automatic settings all the time. I believe that the settings are changeable but would this be enough to give me an introduction into the world of photography. I appreciate that a good camera doesnt make a good photo, its the material you are working with.

Also is there a rough guide nested in one of the posts that explains what effects you can achieve by changing the settings you all seem to quote in the posts i.e f6.3 ,iso200 and so on.

Anyways keep up the good work and who know I may even but posting a few shots soon myself

[wabbitt]

Welcome to the Forum.

I only joined in this group about three months ago now, and you are right. The quality of the photographers in here are fantastic.

And they are very friendly too... even better

It seems to me that it doesn't matter what camera you have, it's all about what is in front of the lens andhow you compose it. I'm sure that anything you post will be commented on, and it really does help you become better.

Looking forward to seeing your posts and photos!

[grantsteve]

Hi,

I'm just getting into photography myself and found this thread extremely useful.

Hope to see some of your pictures soon.

[ilweran]

Hi,

If your camera has manual settings play about with them- I started with a Sony DSC P-73, and only got a dSLR a couple of weeks ago.

[PeaJay]

Connor

Don't be intimidated by the photography-gods on this site.
They are very friendly on the whole, and give good advice and criticism.
Just get out and shot some pics - post on here, join the fun!!!!
the more you play, the better you become, then when you want advice on what to buy, there will be no stopping us all offering our two-pence worth

Welcome to the forums

[bowenjones]

Welcome to the forums Connor . I was in a very similar position to you only six months ago where I didn't understand much about the different settings on a camera but, with the help of this forum and actually buying a Dslr (canon 350D), I have now learned a huge amount in a reletively short space of time

[itcosthowmuch]

hi and welcome......it really is very friendly place so don't be intimidated about posting your pics, and don't worry about what camera gear your using either because a good lot of equipment doesn't necessarily mean a good photographer. Think about your subject and as many pics that are posted here will testify, a mundane photo opportunity can really made to stand out from the crowd just by thinking about your position and taking a different angle from the norm.

Most of all enjoy yourself and click the shutter at what you like and not what others may like!

[connor1]

cheers all for the friendly welcome. I have just come back from hols in Northumberland so I have quite a few castle shots amongst other things so I will dig out the ones i ("ahem ) are good and post a few.

Thanks all once again.

grantsteve i will take a look at the link you posted too

[WibXL]

I can highly recommend Basic Photography by Michael Langford and Digital Photography in Available Light by Mark Galer.

The first one is very in depth and covers everything that you need to know in a lot of detail, probably more detail than you'll actually need to be honest and some of it is a bit technical but you can obviously just read the bits you need and skip the rest. There's only a small part of the book aimed at digital cameras how ever but the majority of the material is relevant whether your using film or digital. You'll probably want to skip the instructions on how to build a dark room though

The second is a similar type of book which again covers pretty much everything but has been written with digital cameras in mind and isn't as technical but has enough info there to get the job done.

If all you want to do is learn what things such as f numbers do then I'd say get the second book but if you want to know what they do, why they do it and how they do it then go for the first.

[QuietRiot1983]

The best piece of advice that was given to me when i started, little over a year ago, was that it's not the camera that counts, it's the person behind it.