Photography

[8squared]

When I got my first bridge... learning the technical side of things seemed like it would be a long and frustrating thing, but I went about learning ISO, Appature and Shutter speeds first then went about taking photos of just one thing as much as I could for one week...

Doing it this way I found most enjoyable as I only had one thing in my head to remember and I found I quickly became comfortable with the setting/subject.

Best of luck, look forward to seeing your photos.

 

[lurker]

Bang it on auto and concentrate on composition

Bother about the fancy stuff if you need to later
I could bore for Britain on the other stuff but generally auto would make a better choice

 

[Eric The Viking]

I'd agree, except that you don't learn anything, and you'll never realise why the pictures that do and don't work are like that. You need both technique and an eye for composition, and both can be learned, although I'm nt convinced both can be taught.

I can get quite reasonable pictures with the cameras on my 'phone and tablet, but i've got getting on for fifty years photographic experience (started aged seven, taking, developing and printing), and to get anything decent that's not a picturesque outdoor scene with a blue sky involves a lot of farting around with lighting etc. It's not 'automatic' by any means.

My SLR spends almost all of its time on aperture priority, but even then I'm thinking about what I want to achieve all the time, and usually overriding its exposure meter.

It was amusing last year going on holiday to southern Utah with my son-in-law*. He's a young pro, and in my opinion pretty good. When I took three or four pictures, he took several dozen, and was initially quite amused by my approach.

He's never really had the discipline (or cost) of an Ektachrome roll of 24 or 36. I guess like many on here I used to bulk load to keep costs down (and there's still some specialist stuff at the bottom of the freezer).

E.

*wasn't then, is now