As a Poor Novice:: Where do I begin?

I'll keep my post brief, as the title pretty much says everything I need to say.
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For the last two years, I have taken photographs without the use of any kind of artificial light source. To be very honest, I've never even used a hot-shoe flash!
Obviously I am looking to change all of that, but I don't know where to be begin my quest for knowledge...
Can anyone recommend literature geared toward absolute beginners?

Furthermore, how did you learn all of this stuff?
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I think it might be important to know what you want to do and what equipment you use. TTL? Manual? Off camera flash? How many flashes?

The Yongnuo flashes are budget friendly flashes, but again you need to know what you want to do.

Review site to learn more on various flashes:
http://speedlights.net​/in-depth-speedlight-reviews/

For me a significant part of photography is about seeing light

Learn about light Light Science and magic

Learn why you wanna take your light off camera Strobist

Decide what you want to shoot. Decide if you want more light than is available.

It's all about the light and the shadows.
Learn to see them, control them, predict them.

Honestly, I shot for years and never gave light a second thought. I just thought I only needed enough so my f1.4 or f2.8 lenses could take a picture.

Start today by ordering the book mentioned above and looking at the light in your everyday life. Look at the light and shadows and how they fall on everything. How multiple lights lining a walkway at night interact with each other, etc...

Once you start seeing the light your whole life will change as a photographer. It's not even a matter of any kind of flash...just learning to see light.

You've been here, right?

BrandonSi wrote in post #12294935
You've been here, right?

I have. It's a great little place, but there's only one problem:
I'm too stupid for it! Honestly!

The creator of that site admits it is geared mostly toward advanced amatures. I am not one of those people.
I know aboslutely NOTHING ABOUT FLASH. Nothing at all. Zip. Nada. I can mount one on my hot-shoe and after that, I'm lost.

That's why I've requested some literature or other sources of information that walk you through the very basics. Does anyone know of such a resource?

SimplyShane wrote in post #12295766
I have. It's a great little place, but there's only one problem:
I'm too stupid for it! Honestly!

The creator of that site admits it is geared mostly toward advanced amatures. I am not one of those people.
I know aboslutely NOTHING ABOUT FLASH. Nothing at all. Zip. Nada. I can mount one on my hot-shoe and after that, I'm lost.

That's why I've requested some literature or other sources of information that walk you through the very basics. Does anyone know of such a resource?

In my opinion the only way to learn about flash photography is to buy one and start using it. I started off with a manual flash years ago, but I think an ETTL flash would be great to start off with. I am just getting back into manual flash and I just took the plunge, bought a couple more good flashes and some radio triggers and just started to experiment. Once you start messing with it all of the stuff they talk about on that blog will make sense.

I would reccomend, if you have the time, to listen to some podcasts. Camera Dojo has some great podcasts on starting out with strobes and what to look for and how to learn to use them. Check out Syl Arena and his Speedliter's Handbook. Syl has it going on with strobes.

Biggest thing to remember is that your shutter has to stay within sync speed, which on most canon cameras is 1/250 or lower unless using high speed sync in ETTL mode. Other than that flash exposure is controlled ONLY by aperture in the camera. You can learn the inverse square law and learn how to do the math for how to set your aperture vs. the output of the flash but to me nothing replaces just plane ole experience with knowing what your settings need to be at.

agreed with DM. the best way to learn is by trial and error.
The motivation for me to keep going was coming to POTN and looking at photos, understanding that the awesome photos are not made of magic, but completely possible.

digital photography school is a great online resource.

Just like music. You can read a book and practice by yourself but until you play with others you will not learn nearly fast enough. Once you start using strobes you will see how easy it is once you get the basics down and experimenting with them becomes really fun. I set up strobes in my back yard when my kids are playing, in my house when I am practice shooting my family, in my garage on makeshift still life's, you name it I try it. I just got a bunch of gels... That is my next experimentation projects.

I just got Syl's book and it is really comprehensive! There's a lot of good info on the forums, but can still be confusing without some trial and error practicing (like mentioned above). I've been reading, reading, reading, then I'll watch a few you tube videos, and then read and read again. Once my head stops spinning, I'll try to apply what I've learned and take some photos. good luck!

I went out tonight and decided to experiment a little bit with a nice sky so I shot a local landmark. I set up a strobe on each side and one inside of the structure. I took one with the inside light bare, and one with it geld to try and match the sky some. Remember I am a novice at this and what I got was this. I had to add in some fill light in Lightroom, but after thinking about it I could have upped the ISO to work within the needed shutter speed to remain exposed for the background, and kicked the interrior strobe down to about 1/3 and probably would have gotten better results. Either way it was salvageable and I am now a little more educated on the subject. It really is this easy to learn, you just have to do it.

And don't think you need to buy expensive strobes either. Old cheap adjustable power Vivitars will work perfectly. I use cheap Chinese YN560 flashes and they work great at about $100 a piece with power comparable to the 580EX.

Yongnuos are hard to beat for the price! And for first strobes, hands down the best value.
DM1975 hit the nail on the head, you just have to get out there and practice.

BrickR wrote in post #12302201
Yongnuos are hard to beat for the price! And for first strobes, hands down the best value.

I agree. And the Cactus V5 is hard to beat for a manual radio trigger as well.