Getting into photography

rancid-a

I was recently looking through Dad's photos (he was the photographer in our family 45+ years ago!) and wishing there was more, especially of me and my Mother - not one, even as a baby. A few of my sister and Mum, but none of me and Mum. We weren't rich, Dad was a miner, Mum worked in a Chocolate factory. I guess a roll of 24 had to last my Dad, I don't honestly know if film was considered expensive back then. And to be honest, If I were to critique my Dads photos (the ones in focus anyway), I'd say they weren't that good, but it doesn't matter, I simply don't care if he didn't use a spool with a high enough ISO rating or if he chopped my hands off one of the shots.

I took over 1500 photos (Mostly D5300, about 20 on my Pixel 8) on my last trip to India, I can't wait to go through them all then It comes to choosing favorites for Flickr or a Blog, I might even delete a few I'm not happy with. And in 20 years time, when I might not be able to visit or even remember my favorite city Varanasi, I'll be so glad I've captured all those photos. Memories.

If if anyone out there wants to restrict themselves to 24,36 photos to try and improve their photography, go ahead

https://www.flickr.com/photos/james8arthur/albums/72157696955294911/with/43107777562

FreeBear

Newcad said:

If you realy want to learn photography then go back to 35mm film.

You can pick up what used to be very expensive old 35mm cameras and lenses for next to nothing, and 35mm film processing/printing is still available if you don't want to get into doing your own. (Also cheap SH kit available).

The main thing about using 35mm film is that you usually only have 36 shots on a roll of film - so you are careful to get things composed right before you press that button.

I miss the smell of fixer.... Need to set up my darkroom again. There is a certain degree of magic and wonder watching the image appear on a sheet of paper that you just can't get with digital.

As for shots, I only get one per sheet, so you have to take your time. But no tiny little viewfinder to squint through.

madlyn

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

DullGreyGuy

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

If you want to get into photography one of the first things you need to do is stop talking about Xx zoom as it's meaningless. All it's saying is its longest focal length is 60x the shortest focal length when considered at 35mm equivalent. 

So there is one CoolPix thats a 24-1440mm optical zoom so is "60x" however if it was "10-600mm" it would still be 60x and yet the long end would be "less zoomed in" than the 1440mm. 

If you were to take Sigma's crazy lens and stick it on a APS-C camera it would give you 640mm-1,600mm which is a 2.5x zoom and yet would get your subject larger in the picture because its a longer. Would however look something like:

oldernonethewiser

madlyn said:

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

You can start by taking pics on the phone to learn about composition and exposure, for example.  You can get closer to some wildlife easier than others.  Start experimenting with your phone and see what you like and dislike about the results and try and analyse where improvements could be made.

There are lots of videos online of helpful tips and tricks to improve phone photos.

Albermarle

madlyn said:

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

There are lots of these types of cameras second hand at cheap prices, although most do not zoom quite as much as the Coolpix one mentioned.
Although they have a long zoom, they have small sensors, which can affect picture quality and you need good light conditions.
As an example. At £35 you can not go too wrong. 
Fujifilm FinePix Digital Bridge Camera S5800 | eBay

FreeBear

madlyn said:

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

The longer the focal length, the greater the chance of blurred images. You can counter that to a certain extent with a faster shutter speed. Image stabilization can also help, or you switch to using a good quality tripod. But using a tripod requires planning and a degree of luck to get a good shot.

DullGreyGuy

FreeBear said:

madlyn said:

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

The longer the focal length, the greater the chance of blurred images. You can counter that to a certain extent with a faster shutter speed. Image stabilization can also help, or you switch to using a good quality tripod. But using a tripod requires planning and a degree of luck to get a good shot.

You can also use a monopod as a middle ground... still isnt as quick to reposition as handled but generally more flexible and quicker to deploy than a tripod. 

Farway

madlyn said:

twopenny said:

I then found for me it was the zoom I needed to take wildlife, came on here and found a good second hand Coolpix with a 60x zoom. It has a view finder which I found was better for me to frame the shot. Also I'm shakey and it helped me to steady the thing having it up to my face, elbows into my body. Second hand £200+ but I've had so much fun with it.

I too would like a decent zoom for wildlife shots and I'm also shakey.

Another shaker here, as mentioned look out for cameras or lenses with Image Stabilisation

Some cameras have it, and sometimes it's in the lenses. It comes under various names but boils down to the same thing.

Many of the mirror less cameras have it built in, and with mirror less you can use nearly any make of lens with a suitable [£20ish] adaptor

JohnB47

I would not recommend using a mobile phone as a camera if starting out in photography. Not enough manual control. Also, a film camera would introduce too much ongoing cost with no real extra learning potential, compared to a digital camera. (Have you checked out how much film and film processing costs?)

Just search for Canon Digital SLR in fleabay. Really good cameras that are really cheap. I have a very old Canon EOS350d. It's still going strong and takes great pictures. Other makes are good too of course.