What did you want to learn as a beginner?

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've posted but I'm always lurkin'! I'm in the process of working on a project that's aided towards helping out fellow photographers. You can visit the link in my siggy. One thing I want to hammer out is content to cover over without leaning towards less popular topics or become irrelevant in a sense. I have a few questions to those who want to participate in answering them! Your output is extremely important!

1.As a beginner what was the thing you learned that made you a better photographer today?

2.What part of photography were you somewhat obsessed with learning about? Ex. Mine was lenses, photoshop effects like vintage and lomo and off camera lighting.

3.Have you ever had that, "how the heck did they do that?" photo and what did you do about it?

4.If you could have any sort of information at your disposal as a beginner, what would you have wanted to learn when you started out?

5.As a professional or amateur, what sort of things would you enjoy learning about?


These questions will help me out in determining what sort of specific content I should research and develop for the community. If you have anymore recommendations or questions, feel free to shoot me a pm.

1. Patience and harsh self critique. You wait for the shot you want like you have film and every shot is precious so be harsh with your shots. I'm in the process of going through my site and deleting less than outstanding stuff. I've put too much on there.

2. Certain PS effects that I still haven't learned but I'm not obsess. I want to learn it all but I can take my time.

3. Explained lol

4. Pricing and that this is an investment so why start so cheap? Look for some good deals off the back 'cause you'll just sell and upgrade in no time.

5. Lighting. I'm starting to get into it and there's so much to it so it's something I'd love to learn.

Thank you for your input _aravena!

q1. I found out that having a good cash flow makes you a better photographer.
q2. I was obsessed with the Zone System...this was the early 90's
q3. I just took pictures and let people do their own style. Like some illustrators use oil or charcoal. I didn't want to specialize.
q4. Modern Photography, magazine.
q5. too busy

I appreciate your reply, ckramos! Interesting answer to #2!

Hi EOSboy.

When I first started out (many, MANY years ago...YES/ in the film days
I spent a lot of time learning about DOF (depth of field).
I found it fascinating.

Just my 02c





btw: after all these years, I've never lost the passion of photography...

Toohey Photography wrote in post #11682966
Hi EOSboy.

When I first started out (many, MANY years ago...YES/ in the film days
I spent a lot of time learning about DOF (depth of field).
I found it fascinating.

Just my 02c





btw: after all these years, I've never lost the passion of photography...

Thanks for the input! DoF is definitely an 'effect' noobies notice from the beginning and seek to recreate. Thinking back, it definitely does have a learning curve!

Good to hear you're still in love!

Lightroom and Photoshop.

1.As a beginner what was the thing you learned that made you a better photographer today?

Composition. What story is your photograph trying to tell. Keeping it simple - no clutter

2.What part of photography were you somewhat obsessed with learning about? Ex. Mine was lenses, photoshop effects like vintage and lomo and off camera lighting.

Learning how to resize images for the web. I wanted to get those crisp bird images I was seeing all over the web. It was tougher in 2005. Had to use special actions that I searched for on the web and forums. I think PS has made it much better with the newer versions and it controls mass downsampling much better today.

3.Have you ever had that, "how the heck did they do that?" photo and what did you do about it?

Yes. I think mostly how to achieve punch out of images. Levels/Curves in PS and a little HDR can be included. I took PS lessons for that.

4.If you could have any sort of information at your disposal as a beginner, what would you have wanted to learn when you started out?

I wish I had focused on glass quality instead of the camera. Cameras are like computers and glass can last a lifetime. An expensive learning curve.

5.As a professional or amateur, what sort of things would you enjoy learning about?

Everything about strobe photography. The science and physics of light, how to introduce and control another source of light. The complexity of studio lighting. I took a lighting course and it was by far the best thing I ever did. I may not be great at it but now I understand it and I'm not afraid of it anymore.

1. The effect of exposure on colour.

2. Colour, colour, colour.

3. Yes. I met up with my good friend Google.

4. Buy fast lenses or a prime at the start and focus on what you do, don't try to become an all-in-one photographer.

5. Learning to shoot more often for myself and not only when I "have to" or when a rare occasion pops up. Shooting only when you have to and worrying over technical issues all the time is a fast way to kill passion and make photography as much of a chore as washing the dishes (if you're not getting paid). In short, be more snap happy.

And I used Photoshop when I had access to it (school computer lab), Photoscape more recently.

Nothing yet as I am still learning.
I am a novice and not even at the beginner level.

Thanks for the input everyone!

1.As a beginner what was the thing you learned that made you a better photographer today?
I was told I needed to learn about light. So I did(still learning about it). Also I had people tell me over and over, "Alex, get that horizon straight!" & "Alex, you chopped off a body part". I'm now obsessed with straight horizons and non-chopped off body parts. haha.

2.What part of photography were you somewhat obsessed with learning about?
Composition. Especially with landscapes/nature. Once I learned the rule of thirds I kept imaging the comp. of the photo in my head(Not a good thing when driving)

3.Have you ever had that, "how the heck did they do that?" photo and what did you do about it?
Smile and keep quiet. lol. Photoshop can be a wondrous thing.

4.If you could have any sort of information at your disposal as a beginner, what would you have wanted to learn when you started out?
Well since I'm still "starting out", anything. I mean, I'm eager to learn anything new or ways I can improve my skills - thus the reason I shoot so much. But I'd say studio lighting and all the techie stuff that goes into it(I'm NOT a techie person, just guess and we're good)

5.As a professional or amateur, what sort of things would you enjoy learning about?
A lot. Lighting and composition being the two main ones. I'm always curious how this person lighting the subjects and stuff. And comp...well, I'm still working on my portrait stuff...

Thanks for the feedback, Alex! Those are some good answers

1.As a beginner what was the thing you learned that made you a better photographer today?
Learning exposure. You can't have a good photograph if it's not exposed at least halfway decent

2.What part of photography were you somewhat obsessed with learning about? Ex. Mine was lenses, photoshop effects like vintage and lomo and off camera lighting.
Mine was mainly Film chemistry. I was obsessed with pushing film way past it's limits to see what happened. I even pushed a roll of 400 speed Tri-X to 3200 ISO. I also did a lot of cross processing C-41 film in E-6 chemicals.

3.Have you ever had that, "how the heck did they do that?" photo and what did you do about it?
Mainly it was with texture in photos. Mine always came out very bland and flat. I screwed around in photoshop, reshot some stuff with better lighting and finally came to a point where I felt like I knew what I was doing.

4.If you could have any sort of information at your disposal as a beginner, what would you have wanted to learn when you started out?
Stop obsessing with gear and shoot.

5.As a professional or amateur, what sort of things would you enjoy learning about?
On the film side, I'd love to do some Large format photography, preferably 5x4 but i wouldn't mind 8x10. On the digital side, I'd like to learn more about all the new things in Photoshop CS5. I've heard there is a million different things, I just haven't gotten around to checking them out.