Posted by Kromey at 2:36pm Jan 20 '10I'm reviving an old hobby of mine: Photography. Really old, actually - I haven't done anything beyond the occasional snapshot and vacation photo since I left my 4-H group way back... 3rd grade? Thereabouts...
Anyway, I've got a real nice point-and-shoot camera (Canon PowerShot A710 IS 7.1MP Digital Camera
), and I've just ordered an entry-level DSLR (Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera
) to start cutting my teeth on. Friend of mine has the same one, so I got some hands-on experience before I bought it. Actually got a kit that includes a Nikon 55-200mm Nikkor zoom Lens
, which I've also gotten hands-on time with thanks to the fact that said friend also has that lens.
So that's all well-and-good - moving up in the world of equipment and all that - but it's been ages since my days of die-hard photography. Hell, I was a young'un, but I could mix all the right chemicals in the right order to develop my own film, and I was "Photoshopping" images by hand before Photoshop even existed (need to find that nifty one of myself dressed up as Steven Spielberg giving stage directions to a "life size" T-Rex...).
What I'm looking for is tips and guidance - for example, I remember that adjusting the aperture one way or another will decrease the field of depth in the image, giving you that nifty effect of having your subject in crisp focus but the background all blurred out of focus, but I can't remember if that's a smaller or bigger aperture! Any tips y'all can provide directly would be appreciated, as would suggestions for websites where I can learn/refresh more.
And jargon refreshers would be welcome, too. I can remember a lot of terms (e.g. f-stop), but not what they mean (f-stop is not one of those, however) - help me stop sounding like an amateur!
Anyway, I've got a real nice point-and-shoot camera (Canon PowerShot A710 IS 7.1MP Digital Camera
), and I've just ordered an entry-level DSLR (Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera) to start cutting my teeth on. Friend of mine has the same one, so I got some hands-on experience before I bought it. Actually got a kit that includes a Nikon 55-200mm Nikkor zoom Lens, which I've also gotten hands-on time with thanks to the fact that said friend also has that lens.So that's all well-and-good - moving up in the world of equipment and all that - but it's been ages since my days of die-hard photography. Hell, I was a young'un, but I could mix all the right chemicals in the right order to develop my own film, and I was "Photoshopping" images by hand before Photoshop even existed (need to find that nifty one of myself dressed up as Steven Spielberg giving stage directions to a "life size" T-Rex...).
What I'm looking for is tips and guidance - for example, I remember that adjusting the aperture one way or another will decrease the field of depth in the image, giving you that nifty effect of having your subject in crisp focus but the background all blurred out of focus, but I can't remember if that's a smaller or bigger aperture! Any tips y'all can provide directly would be appreciated, as would suggestions for websites where I can learn/refresh more.
And jargon refreshers would be welcome, too. I can remember a lot of terms (e.g. f-stop), but not what they mean (f-stop is not one of those, however) - help me stop sounding like an amateur!
Photography tips? - Kromey