What's a good professional photography guide book for beginners?

by cowfish

I want to buy a Digital SLR camera, but first obviously I need to know how to use it before I buy it. I am completely clueless on the subject, in fact I just learned the term SLR the last week! Delight anyone know any excellent books on the subject? Thanks in enhancement!!!

Answer by FotoZ 4 FX
http://www.betterphoto.com/photography-articles/Beginning-Photography/

Learning photography requires some reading and getting to know your equipment. I would suggest that, once you have made your buy choice (*Nikon*) based on ergonomics and lens quality (*Nikkor*), you will want to sit down with your Owners Manual and Camera together and get to know the controls.

The additional reading will help you to know to an increasing degree, how the gap and shutter integrate with each other to produce special compositional considerations when making photography decisions on how to best present your images to others (getting the reaction, stimulating response… promotion your work).

There are a digit of books so recommending an Author without compensation is something I will not do… why should I make them richer if they aren’t paying me for promotion?
..

Answer by Jermaine A
youtube.com

Answer by Ara57
As a beginner, you don’t need a professional level book. Here are a couple of sites to get you started:

http://asp.photo.free.fr/Composition/photoProgramCompMainClass.shtml

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=38/13915&pq-locale=en_US

http://digital-photography-school.com/got-a-digital-camera-for-christmas-learn-how-to-use-it-here

Your camera manual will be an vital book for some time. Learn some of the basics of exposure and what the terms mean, then plot on spending a lot of time with your new camera and manual to learn how to access the features and menus. When choosing your camera, visit the store and hold numerous models to see which one feels excellent to you. Each camera manufacturer makes fine gear, although Canon and Nikon are the huge two, Pentax, Sony/Minolta, and Olympus are also worth a look.

Taking a class or joining a camera or photography club is another fantastic way to learn. experienced photographers are ususally keen to help a novice get started.

Kodak used to have a fantastic SLR handbook, out of print now and geared toward film use but the principles of exposure and composition have not altered. Any book by Bryan Peterson or Scott Kelby will also be excellent, especially “Understanding Exposure”.

Have fun with your new camera!

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THE JEANIE JOHNSTON


Image by infomatique
Original Ship

The original Jeanie Johnston was bought by Tralee, Co.Kerry-based merchants John Donovan & Sons, as a cargo vessel and traded fruitfully between Tralee and North America for a digit of being. The trading pattern was to bring emigrants from Ireland to North America, and then to bring timber back to Europe.

Famine voyages
She made her maiden ?migr? voyage from Blennerville, Co. Kerry to Quebec on April 24, 1848, with 193 emigrants on board, as the effects of the Famine ravaged Ireland. Between 1848 and 1855, the Jeanie Johnston made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore, and New York. On average, the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever carried was 254, from Tralee to Quebec on April 17, 1852. To place this digit in perspective, the replica ship is only licensed to carry 40 people.
Despite the digit of passengers, and the long voyage, no crew or passenger lives were ever lost on board the Jeanie Johnston. This is generally attributed to the captain, James Attridge, not overloading the ship, and the presence of a qualified doctor, Richard Blennerhassett, on board for the passengers.
In 1855, the ship was sold to William Johnson of North Shields in England. In 1858, en route to Quebec from Hull with a cargo of timber, she became waterlogged. The crew climbed into the rigging, and after nine days clinging to their slowly-sinking ship, they were rescued by a Dutch ship, the Sophie Elizabeth. Even in her loss, she maintained her perfect safety record.

Replica

The building of the replica ship started with in-depth research in 1993, and culminated in the completion of the vessel in 2002. An international team of young people, linking Ireland North and South, the United States, Canada and many other countries, built the replica under the supervision of experienced shipwrights.
The ship was designed by Fred Walker former Chief Naval Architect with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. The recreation project was modelled meticulously on that of the 17th century ship, the Batavia.
The ship is built with larch planks on oak frames. To comply with current international maritime regulations, some concessions to modernity had to be made. She has two Caterpillar main engines, two Caterpillar generators, and an emergency generator that is located above the waterline in the forwards deckhouse. She is fully compliant to the highest standards of modern ocean-going passenger ships, with steel water-tight bulkheads, down-flooding valves, and fire-fighting equipment.
In 2002 the replica Jeanie Johnston sailed from Tralee to Canada and the USA. She has taken part in the Tall Ships Race and is now in commission as a sail schooling ship.
Other notable Irish tall ships or sail schooling ships are the Asgard II, the Dunbrody, the Lord Rank(N.I.) and the Creidne(I.N.S.).

I have a Sony A200 and I’m looking to get a fisheye adapter for it, a new lens, the UV filter, and a sparkle. On amazon this is my check out list,
1. Zeikos ZE-FLK55 55mm Multi-Coated 3 Piece Filter Kit (UV-CPL-FLD) – $ 8.52
2.Opteka SB-1 Mini Universal Studio Soft Box Sparkle Diffuser for Canon EOS, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony, Sigma, & Other External Sparkle Units – $ 9.95
3. Bower Economical Dedicated Digital Zoom / Bounce / Swivel Shoe Mount Sparkle for Sony DSLR Cameras, Guide Digit 99 – $ 46.50
4. Tamron 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 with Precision Design 0.25x Fisheye Lens Kit for Sony Alpha A230, A290, A330, A390, A380, A450, A500, A550, A850 & A900 Digital SLR Cameras – $ 89.95

I wanted to know if these are all the right things I should be getting , and I also wanted to know if I have to buy the hotshoe piece to connect the sparkle? I just want to make sure I’m not wasting my money.

Answer by Zee Vizz
being that i’m more of a canon guy, all i can tell you is that you don’t need to get the hotshoe piece being that the camera already has it (the hotshoe is the part that the sparkle goes onto).

Answer by Hondo
I will take up then in the same order you have them listed:
1) Complete junk. Excellent filters cost at least $ 40 each. Putting cheap filters on your lens will adversely affect your images.

2) A diffuser is a very excellent thought for an external sparkle. Though, do you need the studio diffuser? In other words, are you plotting to use it for studio work? If not, look into an omni-bounce diffuser instead.

3) Third party flashes are OK, but not fantastic. The gain on that is not too high, which means it will not be nearly as powerful/helpful as one of the better Sony flashes. Sure the Sony flashes cost more, but it will work better with your camera and be more powerful.

4) While Tamron does make some excellent lenses, that particular one is not very excellent. It is as cheap as they come. Lenses are the most vital part of a DSLR camera system, and excellent (not even fantastic) lenses cost at least $ 300. Export cheap lenses will generally give you terrible photos. In addition, that fish-eye lens it comes with screws onto the front of the lens and is complete garbage. Screw on lenses, especially fish-eye ones make heavy distortion. This paired with the very cheap 28-80 lens will doubtless not give you a single excellent photo.

I despise to say it but you have listed a bunch of cheap/gimmick equipment. You have bought a DSLR camera, and are about to outfit it with total garbage…can you estimate what the result will be? This would be about the same as purchasing a state of the art sports car and then by wooden wheels because they are cheaper than the $ 200 name brand tires.

You have two choices at this point. 1) Start saving each penny and buy excellent equipment and lenses for your DSLR. OR 2) Sell the DSLR and get a high quality point and shoot that has a bunch of the features you don’t want to pay for already built in.

Just to be very clear, if you buy the stuff on your list you will be spending money on stuff that you will NOT be pleased with. While the cheap prices might be striking, spending ANY quantity of money on stuff you will not be pleased with is a total waste.

Answer by the_camera_guy
I agree, those arent the kind of lenses you want to hamper your DSLR camera with. Excellent lenses costs $ 300 and only gets more expensive there. Real fisheye lenses? You’re looking at $ 800 or more.

Answer by keerok
Get your A200 and take off the lens cap. Place the camera down and see under the lens cap. Take note of the digit there. It could be in mm or Pi (an O with a barbecue stick). That is your lens filter size. When choosing anything that goes to the front of your lens, get it with that filter size. The semi-fisheye adapter, the UV filter and other filters should all be at that filter size. Check that your lens indeed has 55mm filter thread size.

For a lens, just get anything that says Sony mount. If you already have the 18-55mm kit lens, it will overlap the 28-80mm you are plotting to buy nearly completely. I would rather recommend a 55-200mm or a 55-300mm lens instead for more range.

For the sparkle, it’s the same with the lens. It must say for use with Sony dSLRs. I reckon you are on the right track here. The sparkle diffuser will help you if you know how to use it but first check if the sparkle itself already has a diffuser with it.

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Tiffen 67mm UV Protection Filter

• Most standard protection filter
• Provides basic reduction of ultraviolet set alight
• 67mm diameter
• Helps eliminate bluish cast in images

Tiffen 67mm UV ProtectorProtects lenses from dust, moisture, scratches, and other hurt. These filters can be kept on the camera at all times.

List Price: $ 26.79

Price: $ 15.95

Export a digital SLR camera means higher megapixels, external sparkle for hot shoots, and more features and settings. Learn all about the future of SLR cameras and photography in thisfree photography video. Expert: Cody Davis Bio: Cody Davis earned his second-degree black belt in 2006. He is a fantastic teacher of the Shaolin/Kenpo arts. Sifu Davis has been a student of the arts for more than 13 being. Filmmaker: MAKE | MEDIA