Sites for learning Digital Photography?

[Brett Adair]

Can you guys post some good ones? I am not a wonderful photographer, but I would like to learn more. Especially how to take lightning pictures and how to take good quality pictures in lower light. I know the camera can make all the difference in the world, but you must know how to set the camera up. I don't know alot about the meanings of the camera settings so anything that can go from basic to advanced would be wonderful. Thanks!

 

[Doug Lee]

To learn the basics of photograhy, Chuck Doswell wrote a couple of essays back in the film days. Gene Rhoden also had a couple of pieces on the Web. Check their sites.

For something more recent, Mike Hollingshead has some info on his site. There may be others I don't know about.

You might also be intersted in a book about digital photography by America's Digital Goddess, Kim Komando. You can find it on her website, www.komando.com. She's not a storm chaser, but she does know a lot about digital technology.

Wish I knew more, but like you I don't have much experience in photography. I downloaded the essays from Doswell and Rhoden, as well one I found at www.lightningboy.com in hopes of learning getting some background info before taking a lot of pics. However, things haven't worked out - yet!

 

[Dick McGowan]

Mike H has some really good tutorials here......

http://extremeinstability.com/misc2007.htm

I like the Night photography video tutorial on here....(i am more hands on, rather than reading)

http://www.radiantvista.com/video_tutorials/page5/

 

[Darren Addy]

Understanding histograms:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

Photographing lightning:
http://www.weatherpaparazzi.com/HowToPhotographLightning.asp

Digital photography tutorials:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

 

[B Ozanne]

Luminous Landscape in general is a great place to learn many different aspects of digital photography:

http://luminous-landscape.com/

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Shooting scenes at night, with a digital camera, I think has to be one of the easiest things to shoot. Photography is largely that way. There aren't all that many controls one has to really worry about.

I used to like Luminous Landscape, but I've grown annoyed with some tutorials seemingly worded for the more advanced and/or seeming to leave out important info for the sake of hurrying through it Maybe I just browsed some bad ones, I don't know. I've been interested in finding a different source for color management and really learning how to process things. Most of what I've learned, which is little, has been from playing with things. The great thing about night photography, it's simple to process, like shots indoors are.

Anyway, another option might be this guy's site, a pretty amazing photographer. http://www.danheller.com/

http://www.danheller.com/techfaq.html

 

[Darren Addy]

There are some nice tutorials at Layers Magazine: Tutorials Page

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

There are some nice tutorials at Layers Magazine: Tutorials Page

Thanks, that color correcting one looks interesting from a glance. I really am liking that other site you posted.

One comment on the one here. You'd think a site called Layers Magazine would have more on layers work, or at least something better than this thing: http://www.layersmagazine.com/making-your-digital-camera-see-more.html If one wants to surely kill their wrist trying to get the mask to look ok, I'd use that route...and while you are at it, you'll likely wind up with something that looks a lot goofy, like that one does. Your transition shouldn't glow at you like that, but you often see that with poorly done masks.

I never shoot multiple exposures, but I will use a new layer and mask to open up the foreground some(I never use shadow/highlights tool either, as it likes to open the areas of the sky that should stay darker). It requires a similar step to that though, to "paint" the mask. If you try that one or do that, I would not bother painting it like suggested there. What is EXCESSIVELY easier is to use "Select Color Range", then click on your image/foreground. That will select things MUCH better and quicker. Then you can paint the mask(or use the eraser like I do, to paint the white or black). It sucks I had to stumble onto this route on my own. I'm amazed when someone mentions making the mask for such an image, it's never mentioned. It's hands down my favorite tool. That example of theirs.... *shakes head*. Notice he mentions a walcom tablet is a godsend for making that mask. Because it's a PAIN to do it that way, just maybe a smidge less with a tablet, but the results still suck. Select color range!

Perhaps he only has a cheaper version of photoshop and it doesn't have it, not sure. It alone is worth forking out the extra bucks lol.

 

[Grant Gutierrez]

www.kenrockwell.com has good all around photography tips.
Complete Digital Photography by Ben Long is a great book for learning digital photography.

 

[Jim Hunt]

Learning to use flash will greatly improve your photography skills. (OK, maybe not taking weather photos but for everything else.)

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

 

[Tom Mitchell]

Fred Miranda's forums. They are civil and there is a lot of information floating around.

To become a good photgrapher, you should spend a lot of time looking at other's work, and firguring out how they did it. This seems obvious, but I know many, many people who spend 20 times more time studying and reading about photography gear than they do looking at photography. I also know quite few with cameras that I could only dream of affording that never look at someone elses work. I understand they are achieving the satisfaction they are looking for by studying the technical side of photography (which is great fun, useful, and esoteric: don't get me wrong!), but personally, I believe improving your all around photography and artistic vision will be best suited by looking at what others have/are doing, and asking yourself, how did they do/see that?

If you ever need a book, check out "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It will get you up to speed quickly and can be had for cheap on Amazon.

The most important parts of a picture are the parts in front of the lens, and behind the eyepiece. The camera is not as important as one thinks.

There is a funny cartoon out there somewhere, but I don't know where...but it goes like this...

One guy shows another a picture and the viewer says "wow, nice picture, that sure is a nice camera." The photographer answers, "wow, nice complement, you sure have a nice mouth."

 

[Scott Bell]

One thing I did was take a photography class. I'd used point and shoot cameras for years with ok results, but wanted to pick up the SLR stuff quickly so I broke down and found one at a local camera shop. We met about 3 hours one night a week for 5 weeks and in between had to take photos using a certain concept (flash in a dark room, action shot using the flash to freeze the action, messing with exposure in dim lighting, the effects of front/back/side lighting, etc). It really helped me THINK about what the camera is seeing and doing and how to correct problems as I find them (ok Brian E, I still set the ISO wrong once in a while! )


I think the class got me moving forward more quickly than I would have on my own through experimentation.

 

[Mike Parker]

I shoot with a Canon so I like to look at a site that is basically a "Canon" site. It is POTN.....LINKY. It has almost every type of topic forum you could want. I especially find the RAW, Post processing and printing section to be useful. Most people on there are friendly and eager to teach if you ask nicely. Even as of this post there are over 1800 people on there. They generally have plenty of thoughts and suggestions. Good luck.