Advice For A(nother) Beginner

[Doofus]

I have a reasonably decent bridge camera, and a good tripod. I'd like to learn a bit more about taking photos, in order to justify buying a better camera

So, armed with my camera, my tripod, a book about what all the settings do and a belief in my ability to compose a shot, what else do I need to enable me to take some decent pre-dawn/dawn/magic hour landscapes this winter?

[Yellabelly]

A good alarm clock, then Practice, Practice, Practice. Then look through your shots and try to analyse what the images look like and what hasn't pleased you about them. Don't forget that you will have a sky that is 2-3 stops brighter than your foreground which most of us try to balance out with ND Grad filters. The other thing to consider is the composition, it is only with reflections over water that you will tend to split the image midway otherwise tend to use the thirds rule for the horizon, it works most of the time. Oh, and post your images on here so that we can give you feedback and hopefully encourage you.

Good hunting.

YB

[Doofus]

Yellabelly said:

A good alarm clock, then Practice, Practice, Practice. Then look through your shots and try to analyse what the images look like and what hasn't pleased you about them. Don't forget that you will have a sky that is 2-3 stops brighter than your foreground which most of us try to balance out with ND Grad filters. The other thing to consider is the composition, it is only with reflections over water that you will tend to split the image midway otherwise tend to use the thirds rule for the horizon, it works most of the time. Oh, and post your images on here so that we can give you feedback and hopefully encourage you.

Good hunting.

YB

So I don't need to spend any money at this stage? That's a shame

Thanks for your advice, otherwise.

[Mr Will]

Your bridge camera will have some limitations, but the tripod will go a long way to overcoming most of them. Don't worry too much about settings and buttons at this stage, focus on light and composition instead.

I'd also suggest reading this and trying a few of the exercises: http://www.r-photoclass.com/ it's the best online introduction to photography that I've seen.

[steveatesh]

Doofus said:

So I don't need to spend any money at this stage? That's a shame

Thanks for your advice, otherwise.

You're doing this wrong. Of course you need to spend money, and lots of it!

As above practice with different settings, with sunset/rise I still take a number of shots at different exposures, then pick the best. I'm not good enough to do it in one take 100% of the time so take advantage of the digital SD card and delete key.

[Doofus]

I bought a book with the basics, and some exercises, and armed with that, I'll get out over the next couple of weeks and see what happens

[LongQ]

www.cambridgeincolour.com

Always a good reference point.

[RobDickinson]

Big keys for landscape photography...


Passion. without this you wont
Do your research on the location. without this you wont
Get up early. without this you dont
Get the good light. without this you wont
Capture the magic

A good landscape is
being in the right place
at the right time
getting a good composition
having the (mechanical) skills to get the exposure you want for processing
process the image. regardless of what people say this is a big part of the end result.

Work on each bit - they all feed into each other

[DibblyDobbler]

RobDickinson said:

A good landscape is
being in the right place
at the right time

Photography explained by Haiku - love it