New to photography, help please?

[MirKz]

Hi guys,

I've just recently made a purchase of a Nikon D5100 that I should hopefully receive in the next day or two.
I've never really done much photography in the past, and looking for some help/advice on how to get started.

Please let me know if you've got some good tips or advice or even websites to do some reading up on to learn things that might help get me on my way ?

Cheers!

[YOUR MATE]

There is endless things on youtube on how to use your specific camera, but really the best way I found was just getting out there and seeing what each mode and adjustment does. Start off with the program modes like aperture or shutter priority, and then go to manual mode and combine all the elements.

It seems like there is a lot to it and I myself am still learning, but there really is only a handful of options to come to grips with. ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed are the main ones.

[Halle Terry]

Just take a LOT of pictures. No if's buts, it's a digital camera just fucking lay into it and take as many photos as you can.

Then try taking pictures on manual and playing with each setting, take a shot, adjust one setting, take another shot repeat. It's all good and well being taught things, but actually doing it will help you understand what each function does.

Honestly I learnt very little from the internet, I had a few people teach me some fundamentals and eventually it all comes together.

[tinto]

This looks like it will get things rolling for you with some fundamental concepts.
http://photography.about.com/od/introduction/a/photointro.htm

Try not to get caught up in gear hype.
The Internet will always have something to sell you that you don't need and won't make you a better photographer :)

[POH73]

I've done a number of the UWA Extension courses over the years and rate them very highly: http://www.extension.uwa.edu.au/courses/leisure/photography

Groups are usually between 10-20 people with plenty of time for 1 on 1 plus you get to meet like minded people. Depending on courses there's classroom content, out and about shooting and a small assignment. I've picked the Nick Melidonis ones mainly and found him to be an excellent lecturer.

[Halle Terry]

www.flickr.com

&

www.tumblr.com

Endless pit of inspiration.

[Crispymk2]

www.flickr.com

&

www.tumblr.com

Endless pit of depression that you will never be as good as you wish you were.

Fixed.

Team Digital and Camera Electronics both do the odd info session/training and Venture Photography Workshops are great for small group/hands on training combined with a little theory.

http://venturephotography.com.au/

[DT95WA]

whats your location? Myself and YOUR MATE usually head out every now and then to get random pics, can tag along if you want. im new to it also, still learning the basics

[vbroom]

time for another photowalk perhaps...

[YOUR MATE]

whats your location? Myself and YOUR MATE usually head out every now and then to get random pics, can tag along if you want. im new to it also, still learning the basics

Speaking of which, I found out some new things that should clear up long exposure shots by locking mirror up before taking the shot. Keen to try out when you're back.

[morgazmatron]

time for another photowalk perhaps...

Keen

[mod]

trial and error take pics like a mad pingpingpingping - change the settings composition etc until you get it right
learn with the gear you have then once you know which "type" of tog you wana get into then you can the lens to suit.
and watch youtube how to vids really helps
download some editing programs like lightroom

[Skipmaster J]

If you're really keen carry a laptop or ipad with you so you can inspect your pics on a proper screen.
So many times stuff that looked good on the LCD turned out to be completely out of focus and unusable.

[MirKz]

Thanks for the suggestions and info.
Definitely plan on pumping out some pics to get to know it and playing with the settings. Have had a read over a quick 'basics of photography' info site that quickly ran over the basic functions/settings you can usually choose from on a camera, and then gave a brief run down on aperture and lighting etc. Was good because it gave me just that little bit of extra knowledge.
Hoping the camera rocks up tomorrow so I get to play around with it over the weekend and can hopefully get some decent shots of my bike now its stopped raining.

I'm located in Vic Park
a photowalk sounds interesting, I've never tried one of those.

[mod]

how do you tether pics to ipad?

[Halle Terry]

Using an Eye-Fi card, basically it's a wireless SD card.

http://www.eye.fi/

[Skipmaster J]

or use the sd card reader. not as seamless but works.

[mod]

Using an Eye-Fi card, basically it's a wireless SD card.

http://www.eye.fi/

Interesting... learn new thing every day, for $100 US might give it a try

[YOUR MATE]

There is also a cabled version I'm fairly sure. The eye-fi's need a WIFI network to run on? Either way there's a few on youtube. I think it'd be a great idea as it's not as bulky as a laptop so is somewhat practical. I must of shot 100 unusable landscape shots last week. So heartbroken lol.

[manna_85]

http://500px.com/

Another awesome site for inspiration. But yeah just read the shit out of you user manual and learn basics first but to be creative you will have to think outside the box. Good thing to do is set up a flickr account. chuck your photos from this year and compare next year to see how much you have improved :)

[Crispymk2]

There is also a cabled version I'm fairly sure. The eye-fi's need a WIFI network to run on? Either way there's a few on youtube. I think it'd be a great idea as it's not as bulky as a laptop so is somewhat practical. I must of shot 100 unusable landscape shots last week. So heartbroken lol.

Eye-Fi cards can run on an ad-hoc network, ie. just need the eye-fi card and your iPad and away you go, nothing else required.

[mod]

http://500px.com/


Some of those pics on that site is absolutely amazing.

what you see on that back lcd screen may look good until it goes on a computer screen then looks like fucking turd..

[MirKz]

Woohoo it arrived!

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/Mirkz/aef5e18e.jpg