All the gear, no idea....

[Nigel_O]

That's me!

I know I'm at the very bottom of a long and steep hill, but I rather fancy getting a metaphorical lift at least part-way up it. Despite some decent kit, I'm still very much an absolute beginner, so I want to be taught how to do this photography lark properly

I'm more than willing to pay and obviously willing to put some time in, so does anyone have suggestions about where best to look for some guidance - night class?, clubs?, some kind of course?, a Pro? (or even a knowledgeable and patient amateur?)

I'm located in the Midlands - about 25 miles north of Birmingham, so if anyone has any recommendations, I'd be most appreciative

FWIW, I'm currently into motorsports and airshows, but I'd also like to look at landscapes, architecture and maybe even some wildlife

[MikeOxhard]

Check out David Rann from Foto Club - he's moving this weekend back to the Jewellery Quarter.

He's a real nice person, with a great sense of humour and loads of experience - well recommended :-)

[Colin RedGriff]

Check your local colleges they usually do evening classes

[TheRainMaker]

Don't forget youtube, some really good and helpful people out there.

Just some of the people I follow (and in no particular order)

Matt Granger https://www.youtube.com/user/thatnikonguy
Serge Ramelli https://www.youtube.com/user/cmoeu
Tony Northrup https://www.youtube.com/user/VistaClues
Jason Lanier (bit of a plum) https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonlanierpros
Adorama TV https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonlanierpros
Philip Bloom (more for video) https://www.youtube.com/user/philipbloom
DigitalRev TV (the TopGear of photography) https://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom
Gary Fong (likes Sony A LOT) https://www.youtube.com/user/GFIGARYFONG

That should keep you going for a few days

[GetCarter]

Someone once said:

"What you teach yourself is worth ten times what you are taught by another."

[Super Slo Mo]

Practice, practice and more practice.

However, you're not too far from me, I don't mind taking a bit of time to talk you through some of the technical aspects and answer questions if thats any use to you.

[RobDickinson]

Start with learning the basics, the mechanics.

Then start looking at good photos you like and trying to figure out how they were taken, learn from this!

[rich888]

TheRainMaker said:

Don't forget youtube, some really good and helpful people out there.

Just some of the people I follow (and in no particular order)

Matt Granger https://www.youtube.com/user/thatnikonguy
Serge Ramelli https://www.youtube.com/user/cmoeu
Tony Northrup https://www.youtube.com/user/VistaClues
Jason Lanier (bit of a plum) https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonlanierpros
Adorama TV https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonlanierpros
Philip Bloom (more for video) https://www.youtube.com/user/philipbloom
DigitalRev TV (the TopGear of photography) https://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom
Gary Fong (likes Sony A LOT) https://www.youtube.com/user/GFIGARYFONG

That should keep you going for a few days

Great selection but you forgot Weekly Imogen https://www.youtube.com/user/WeeklyImogen

[DibblyDobbler]

1. Take shots
2. Post on 'Random' thread asking for feedback
3. Improve

That's more or less what I did

(let's set aside that fact I'm still largely clueless )

[jurbie]

If you don't mind travelling up to Stoke then there is a pretty active photography community up here who meet up once a month and attracts photographers of all abilities with a few coming up from from Stafford and Cannock which I'm guessing is your area.

Meetings are in a local studio and it costs £5 to attend but you will get a chance to play with the studio kit as usually a few models turn up however it's very informal, one person will set up the lights and then everyone piles in. If that's a bit daunting as a newbie then you're welcome to turn up just for a chat and meet a few people. The emphasis is on studio photography but there are plenty of people who shoot other stuff including wildlife, motorsports and whatever else you fancy.

If you are on Facebook then there are some details here.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stoketfcdnights/

[Rogue86]

Self-teaching has its merits but its difficult to know how to progress if youre not sure where to progress to. Even being shown what order to learn things in can make a huge difference.

I dont mind helping out with any questions or advice you might want, just drop me an email if you're interested.

[rich888]

I forgot to ask, but what camera and lenses are you using?

I'm still learning tons of new stuff mainly from this forum, plus various YouTube tutorials (thank you Imogen) and some very useful books from Amazon.

There are just so many things to take photographs of, whether it be the moon with a decent zoom lens, or a hairy bug at the macro level, and the more pics I see posted on here and on Flickr, the more I sit back in awe over what can be achieved with just a little bit of thought and ingenuity.

[RobDickinson]

You will find its a very circular process, feeding back on itself.

You shoot, you see, you process, you think about it, change how you shoot then process etc.


So make sure you shoot a lot, at the start take in as much of the basics as possible ( exposure, mechanics, focusing, composition) look and think about your shots afterwards find out what you did right/wrong, get criticism ( constructive..), learn and grow!

[Craikeybaby]

What do you want to learn?

The technical side? How shutter speed/aperture/ISO etc link together. Or the creative side? Framing/seeing the shot etc?

[dave0010]

YOUTUBE!!!!!I've learnt so much from videos of people posted above its a fantastic resource. Like others have said this forum is great also. Don't worry about having the biggest or newest camera + equipment yet either, concentrate on just enjoying taking photos. After travelling for the last year I've seen some of the best photos taken by others on old simple cameras.

[ukaskew]

I've no idea what level you're at but I've knocked together a Motorsport guide which I know has helped out an awful lot of people. The only copy I have online now is a Fuji specific one I'm working on, but the concepts are all the same regardless of system...

http://www.fujifun.net/motorsport-guide/

On a general note, I got by just from an incredible amount of practice, experimenting, not afraid to make mistakes or come away from a day out with no usable photos etc.

[Bring on the clowns]

Nigel_O said:

That's me!

I know I'm at the very bottom of a long and steep hill, but I rather fancy getting a metaphorical lift at least part-way up it. Despite some decent kit, I'm still very much an absolute beginner, so I want to be taught how to do this photography lark properly

I'm more than willing to pay and obviously willing to put some time in, so does anyone have suggestions about where best to look for some guidance - night class?, clubs?, some kind of course?, a Pro? (or even a knowledgeable and patient amateur?)

I'm located in the Midlands - about 25 miles north of Birmingham, so if anyone has any recommendations, I'd be most appreciative

FWIW, I'm currently into motorsports and airshows, but I'd also like to look at landscapes, architecture and maybe even some wildlife

You are near to Calumet in Birmingham who use a number of pros to run workshops - worth checking them out: http://calumetacademy.co.uk

I benefitted a lot from a Lightroom / Photoshop day run by Andy Astbury (I'd used a much earlier version of PS 15+ years ago and had never used Lightroom apart from a few weeks of trial and error before the course.)

Oh, forgot another - there is a guy, Matthew Osborne, in Coventry who does 1:1 and small group workshops who is really good on lighting control, exposure etc. and has done a few recent articles for magazines who is meant to be very good.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32681588@N03/

Edited by Bring on the clowns on Wednesday 3rd February 19:12

[missingman]

In my opinion there's very little to learn on the technical side.

Once you've nailed down how ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed work together and what difference focal lengths make you're pretty much good to go.

Almost everything else is art.

[Nigel_O]

This is why I love this forum so much - so many great ideas to consider

FWIW, I'd like to think I'm one or two rungs up the ladder already - I have a basic grasp of using shutter priority and aperture priority - I know when I've over-exposed or under-exposed, or gone too fast or too slow with moving objects, I understand that snapping propeller planes is a different kettle of fish to jets. I've got some superb sharp photos of all sorts of stuff, but I've also got way too many that aren't quite right.

It was my conclusion therefore that my good shots were happening as much by accident as by design. Usefully, both of my sons are also into a bit of amateur photography and we often have a three-way comparison of near-identical shots. My eldest son in particular seems to have an eye for a shot and with a better body (Nikon D7100 V D5200) but a shorter lens, his shots are sharper than mine in at least 75% of cases, even after cropping to make up for his lack of reach.

A great example was when we both got a shot of the BBMF Typhoon against a really flat grey sky, on mine the sky was featureless and on my son's, you could see the exhaust haze and lots of cloud definition, as well as some great detail on the Typhoon itself

So - I'm thinking its technique and knowledge that I need to develop.

I've been using a Sigma 50-500 for the long stuff and I've already found that it is noticeably sharper on the D7100 than the D5200. I found myself in the nice position of being able to upgrade just before Christmas, so I splashed on a D810, which is already producing vastly superior results to the D5200, without any increase in knowledge or technique. The Sigma is not great in low light, so I've also bought a Nikon 70-200 f2.8

I'm going to explore some of the options suggested above, but most importantly, I need to get out there some more and take some more photos - I just need to find a winter subject matter, as Motorsports events and airshows seem to be a bit thin on the ground at the moment....

I really like the idea of 1:1 tuition, so I may explore this as well

Thanks for all the suggestions so far - very much appreciated

[Bring on the clowns]

Re. your comparison of jet trails etc. at airshows - I did a lot last year and in 2014 (as with motorsport too , having access to the infield at Donington on test days etc, - just the small matter of needing £25 million public liability insurance!) and never use auto exposure. By using the histogram or even EVF I can get enough detail in the shadows and avoid any important highlight areas burning out. Both Canon and Sony regularly messed up if left to their own devices. Then massage the original RAW files (another definite, for me) in Lightroom.