Paging the photographers

For those on the group who are good at taking piccies is there a book
you would recommend as an authoritative guide / manual on how to develop
good photographic / camera handling skills?

All recommendations much appreciated.

 

Haha - bless you mate - but I'm only professional in the sense I (sometimes)
get paid for it - I've more than a long way to go before I'm professional in
the quality sense.

 

Paul,

Send me your home address to sorby 69 at gmail dot come and I'll post you a
few books.

They're not specific to digital photography - but that shouldn't be a
problem.

Unfortunately I've have yet to find the photographic equivalent of 'Twist of
the wrist'.

There's tonnes of good resources on t'internet too....
Here are two I'd thoroughly recommend :

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ (great tutorials)

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/index.asp (the forums are especially
useful)

 

Paul Corfield proposed

Go down to Spain a book a session with Carmichael. You may even enjoy
the pool. ;-)

 

"The photographers handbook" by John Hedgecoe, is very easy to read and
use and covers the basics well

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679742042/102-6244425-9546510?v=glance


--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, sorby

http://www.lorshasworld.com/

Oh wait... You meant...

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

I think it better to look at books of great photos, rather than "How to"
ones. Look at Bob Carlos Clarke stuff from the late 70's to mid 80's.
Pretty much anything by Bailey. The merkin Pete Turner recorded some
memorable landscapes. Yonks ago so did Ansel Adams. If you can find a
copy of "The World's best Photographs" published for a good few years
either side of WW2 - the images there are timeless.
Look at where the light is from in a great photo, look at the
composition, ask yourself why you think a photo is good. Think about
these things when you see an opportunity and it becomes second nature.
Think about depth of field - lots for a cityscape or landscape, minimal
for a portrait or figure?
Rules of photography:
1) There are no rules.
2) See rule 1

Enjoy.

 

There is one rule: develop self criticality and be ruthless with
chucking out the crap.

Snapshotters don't do that and never learn anything.

Yes.

 

The Photographer's Handbook is as good a place to start as any I've
seen.

Main thing - take loads and loads and loads of pix. Look at them all,
analyse them, try and improve every time.

When you experiment, try and remember the settings you used instead of
"I'll just turn this button and see what happens".

Digital makes this a lot easier and less costly than it used to be.

 

The Older Gentleman scribbled on the back of a napkin:

Don't forget to get other people - who presumably know a bit more about
photography - to look at your best shots and provide some constructive
criticism.

Also, much like playing an instrument, at the beginning it may make
sense to try and copy/reproduce the style of photographers that you
like.

Not if you print them out...

 

Big fuckin' huge *DING!*

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote

Good advice but.... before you can do either of these two, you have to
take loads and loads of photos in the first place. "The more I practice
the luckier I get."[1] Digital cameras rock for practising with.


[1] Attribute that to the hero of your choice.

 

Very good point.

 

But there will always be the one or two photos which other people who
know better will look at and not understand why you have a slight silly
grin on your face. They do not know why you took this particular photo
and why it is so special.[1] Always keep these photos, they will always
stay special to you.

[1] That's the cove I where shagged Britney Spears in after I pulled her
out of the surf when she was drowning. OK I made that up, but *some* of
you must have had some wonderful experiences that you are reminded of by
a photo.
I could post a few and you could guess..............

 

Definitely. I think www.photosig.com [1] is one of the best places for
turnover, quality (of photos & critiques).

What works best for me is to view, absorb and critique the photos on there
before reading other contributors' critiques - rather than being swayed by
the majority view.

Another thing that has occurred to me is that there is always something in
every photo that can be found fault with - subjectively speaking.
Likewise, there are a couple of guys on PhotoSig who seem to delight in
fawning lyrically over fairly mediocre submissions to the point that even
the most cynical snapper is won over.

And *reading* a photo is good fun too - working out how the photographer
achieved the balance of light in the foreground, subject, background etc;
studying the catchlights in the eyes (or other reflective objects) to
establish what shape diffuser was used or how many lights were used; looking
for signs of oversharpening / oversoftening / photo-shopping etc; Guessing
the likely shutter speed, aperture value & film speed based on the apparent
depth-of-field or motion-blur for example. This sort of detective work is
helping me to learn and improve, for sure.

[1] I can still dish out invites to that if anyone's interested. Email me.

 

Can't think of anything off hand. I could give you a few pointers, but I
don't want someone else getting the limelight. Specific stuff - like
swede photography - just can't be taught. You have to be born with it.

HTH.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24

 

<Emailed>

 

But if you're going to take a pic of the cove you shagged BS in, at
least take a good pic of it. A pic that stands on its own, as it were.

 

Thank you very much indeed.
--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

My pleasure!