Photography

[Liquid Blue]

Hey hey, LB here. I'm interested in trying out photography, and was wondering if any of you could give any tips or info. I know of a few artists that swing by here (Spider, Torn Wing), but don't know if they dabble in photography or not. Whatever though, you guys can just lay on me any info or tips you have.

What kind of cameras are good, good distances to take shots from, best times of the day to shoot outside, best indoor lighting conditions, all that jazz. I'm going to probably invest in a digital camera soon, so some advice on those would help also. Thanks ahead of time.

[Ashlee]

Ohhhh

oh oh oh oh oh

This is totally my area of expertise

Alright, with photography there's no real trick to it, it's basically developed as you go along and become more experienced

Also, it would be good if you learn how to use photoshop or PSP to adjust lightings, resizings, colors, greyscales, axis, tints, blurs, etc. after scanning or uploading.

Most of the factors, like distance etc., that all depends on what kind of shot you're taking. Digital cameras are like vital if you're serious about photography.

[Troll King]

I just purchased a new digital camera myself for a photography course I'm taking. It's a Kodak Z740 and at $399 CDN it set me back a bit, but it's a great camera. It's a 5.0 MP camera with a 10X optical zoom. It can easily be used by amateurs as a point-and-shoot camera but you can customize settings such as the f-stop, ISO if you want more control over your images. One cool feature I love about my camera is the viewfinder. Most digital cameras have an LCD screen and a regular "peephole" viewfinder for you to frame your images. The Z740 is nice because the viewfinder is also an LCD, only smaller than the main one. It's a good camera for beginners, intermidiates and experts.

When you're shopping for a digital camera, the first thing you should ask yourself is how much you'll be willing to invest into it. I don't just mean that in terms of money, but also in terms of how "into" it you think you'll want to get. Generally speaking, Megapixels is the first thing you'll want to consider. The higher, the better the resolution, but also the more expensive it will be. Beyond that, an optical zoom is nice to have. Be careful when looking at optical vs digital zoom. Optical zoom is like a conventional camera's zoom while digital zoom is like taking an image in photoshop and stretching it out to make it bigger. Other things to consider are battery life, storage media (e.g. SD, Memory stick, etc...) and sometimes, weight.

[Troll King]

This is a great site for digital camera reviews: http://www.steves-digicams.com/
It has very detailed reviews of lots of different cameras and accessories.

Click here if you want to see some of the pictures I took at a family party the day I bought the camera. You don't need to sign in to view (or at least, when I tried, you didn't), just click on the "view photos without signing in" link. I hadn't had a chance to learn how to fiddle with the camera's features then, so most of the shots were made using some of my camera's built-in presets.

[DoCk>]

Reccomend Canon cameras for general usability and quality.

[Theif of Time]

You talking digital or classic (using film+negatives) Photography (or both)
btw, congrats in making DoCk> post.

[Cops]

Hey hey, LB here. I'm interested in trying out photography, and was wondering if any of you could give any tips or info. I know of a few artists that swing by here (Spider, Torn Wing), but don't know if they dabble in photography or not. Whatever though, you guys can just lay on me any info or tips you have.

What kind of cameras are good, good distances to take shots from, best times of the day to shoot outside, best indoor lighting conditions, all that jazz. I'm going to probably invest in a digital camera soon, so some advice on those would help also. Thanks ahead of time.

Pictures that strike me are ones that aren't ordinary, you probably know about deviant art if not search google and the site will come up there's quite a few under-rated artists on there which offers a lot of artistry for someone to observe. As far as digital editing goes like anyone said photoshop would be the best place to start.

[Theif of Time]

www.deviantart.com
Quite a good site whatever style of art you're into, although its good to know what you're into. The artistic skill level there varies greatly. If you look around even, linking through the daily deviations to different artists personal pages, you'll find a good collection.
My only problem is how damn long it takes to load on my slow computer.

[Liquid Blue]

Awesome, a good amount of quick replies.

Ashlee- I've been using Photoshop for a few years now, so hopefullly I won't have to learn PSP, whatever that is. What kind of camera(s) do you use?

TK- Nice pictures man. What's ISO/f-stop all about? I'm thinking about getting a camera for like 100-200 dollars now since I'm a newb, and then maybe upgrading later. Would that be a good idea, or should I use some cheap disposable cameras until I get the hang of things and just buy a 300+ dollar camera?

Dock- Any specific Canon camera that has wowed you? Any set or specific camera that you would rate better than the others? Prcie won't matter, I'd just like to see a comparison of "stats" with some Canoncameras. Don't know if TK's link has some, wanted to post this before I checked it out.

Cops/ToT- Yea I found out about deviantart back when I had 56k, and the loading times were too long for me. I stopped using it and haven't checked it out since I got cable. No time like the present, I guess. Any specific people on there that you two think I should check out?

[Bob (SRB)]

Remember liquid that digital cameras still do not give you anywhere near as good a picture as normal cameras. Even a 3000 dollar digital camera will not have as good quality pictures as a 200 dollar normal camera. I suggest getting a manual/automatic camera, it basically lets you choose exactly how you want to make the picture, you can experiment with really slow shutter speeds and such to get really artistic shots.

ISO (or ASA) is film speed. You just need to set your ISO to whatever speed the film you are using is. F-stop is more complicated. The two important parts of this are aperture and shutter speed. Depending on certain light conditions you are going to need to make your aperture larger so more light can get in the camera, or make your shutter speed slower, also allowing the proper amount of light in the camera. The problem is that with slower shutter speed you might get blurred pictures (which is sometimes what you want). With really fast shutter speeds you can do things like take a picture of a hummingbird without it's wings being blurred (I'm not sure if digital cameras will be able to do things like this too well).

Ok I'm getting into too much detail here. With digital cameras you don't really need to worry about this too much, but I find that takes alot of the fun out of photography. With normal cameras you have better quality shots and you are going to end up getting more good shots, but the big problem is that you can't see what your picture was like until you get your film developed. On the other hand digital cameras are quick and easy, but you aren't going to get as many great shots, and all of the shots won't be as good quality. Another problem with normal cameras is developing; it's in the dark room where you can turn your shots into works of art by controlling your exposure, putting on filters, using high contrast or low contrast paper, etc. But unless you can find yourself a dark room, you aren't going to be able to do that. If you go to high school or university, you might find one in there that you can use for free.

As for cameras, I suggest lyca (basically the best cameras on the market, they have the absolute nicest lenses, but it will cost you a lot) or olympus. Canons are also nice. If you aren't too interested in photography and you just want to take some nice pictures it would probably best to go out and get a nice digital camera. I know there are some great olympus digitals at around the $400 (canadian) price range. If you really want to get into it and want to make some real beautiful photographs, and if you are willing to spend a lot of time on this, I would suggest trying to find a nice standard camera. If you are lucky you can get a great deal on a really nice used camera.

[Cops]

MY good friend Jenn posts on there not sure if she's done any photography work though. http://dark-and-twitchy.deviantart.com/

[Sarien]

I have to lean with Bob on this one.

Learn to do it manually. Learn to use, and develop film. Learn to use available lighting, and all the settings of a decent 35mm film camera. Home developing is a hobby in and of itself, and has been for years. If you're serious about Photography as a serious artistic hobby don't just jump straight to digital. Using and learning to develop a film camera is like learning to drive a standard transmission, before you get ahold of an automatic. You'll learn a broader set of information and have a greater sense of understanding to create things with good quality.

Digital cameras aren't vital, they're far from it. They're kind of a crutch. If you learn to do things the long hard manual way, the results will show through, whenever you step forward to the ease of a digital camera.

If you think digital tricks you can do with photoshop are fun? It's got nothing compared to developing tricks you can do.

[Saturn V]

I agree with Bob and Sarien. Plus you can get a used film SLR camera for at least half the price of a digital SLR (and you might be more selective about pictures you take using film).

[Theif of Time]

To add another dimension into the f-stop/shutter speed thing, there is a thing called 'depth of field'.
A short depth of field is where the thing you are focused on is sharp, in focus, and things close to it (distance from camera-wise), whereas the background and foreground (ie everything else) is out of focus. Good for if you want to put the focus on, say, a flower. You get this with a high numbered f-stop.
A long depth of field is where everything is in focus, not just what you've focused on. Good for wide landscape shots. You get this with a low numbered f-stop/apperture size.

Also, you might consider taking a community education course in photography. Pros: you'll get to use a darkroom. Cons: the cost could be quite high...

[Ashlee]

Ashlee- I've been using Photoshop for a few years now, so hopefullly I won't have to learn PSP, whatever that is. What kind of camera(s) do you use?

Good, then you can keep using Photoshop. PSP = paint shop pro, but it doesn't matter since you already have experience with PS. I have a sony cybershot, it's a pretty good camera. I recommend it, definitely, especially since you're a beginner.

I dunno about the whole skepticism towards digital cameras that's been posted on here, because it works fine for me, and I'm pretty serious about it. I do intend to experiment with the film cameras, though, so I'll get back to you on that.

Also, I agree with the idea of taking a photography course. That would be really helpful.