Starting to take photies (1 Viewer)

[Ciansy]

I'm considering starting a mild obsession with photography, in an inexpensive way. I just keep seeing things that'd make fucking great photos. Anyhoo, can yez spill any advice on what to buy? T'would be much appreciated.

 

[billygannon]

Well, a camera for a start.

A mate of mine is a photographer and has had exhibitions around Europe and all that malarkey.
Anyway, she says the only thing you need is a piece of cardboard with a hole in it. I'd go along with that.
You just need good light and a good subject. All the rest is just show-boating.

 

[Ciansy]

I suppose tis' true. In that case, the main attribute I'd look for in a camera would be reliability. My father has bought a couple of digitals for home and work that turned out to break at the slightest opportunity.

 

[RSJ]

Well, the first thing to consider is if you want to go digital or film? Film cameras are cheap and give great bang for buck as far as quality. Plus you can fuck around with different films and such, and the black and white out of them is amazing. Digital means you can have your photos straight away, pop them into photoshop and fuck about with them and so forth, but you need to spend to get good quality. A deciding factor (at least for me) would be that you have an ongoing cost with film (processing) that you don't have with digital.

After that it's a case of what's your budget and what can you afford. What do you want to take pictures of? Either ways, ebay's your friend for cheapo cameras of any and all sorts.

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

get this or this
the phenix is basically the same as the pentax but is cheaper and the camera exchange on georges st has tonnes of them.
if you wanna get obsessed with photography i reckon you should get an slr.
stick with film for starters and also buy a decent book on an introduction to slr photography.

 

[magicbastarder]

i'd go secondhand for an intro to cheap film SLRs. an OM1 would set you back about 200 quid and cannot be faulted.

 

[RSJ]

Oh and join a liberry and read as many photo books as possible. Sounds boring but it can be class. john hedgecoe's new photography manual is probably my favourite, covers pretty much everything you could think of. People swear by the ansel adams books, though i've never got around to reading them.

 

[Ciansy]

Ansel Adams is one of the reasons I'm considering getting into it, we have a couple of amazing photos of his at home. I think I'd prefer to go with film rather than digital, the Phenix looks good and I want to develop photography rather than messing with Photoshop if I can. Thanks for your advice, everyone. I think I'll check out the exchange next time I'm in the big smoke.

 

[Goff]

i'd go secondhand for an intro to cheap film SLRs. an OM1 would set you back about 200 quid and cannot be faulted.

OM1's cost HOW much? I thought they were free! (As in, that's where I got mine. Hand me downs are great).

Oh and join a liberry and read as many photo books as possible. Sounds boring but it can be class. john hedgecoe's new photography manual is probably my favourite, covers pretty much everything you could think of. People swear by the ansel adams books, though i've never got around to reading them.

The thing about Ansel Adams is that it's all about large format photography. Imagine a negative the size of an A4 page (more or less). Expensive. VERY expensive. Not very easy either. And part of the process of making an "Ansel Adams" is in the development.

In the olden days, I'd have said go with it and get a cheap development kit, but nowadays I say just go digital. Try and get a digital SLR if at all possible. It makes a huge difference.

Much as I enjoy the wait for getting films developed and being surprised at the results (Venice - colour film developed as Black and White and fucking ruined - FFS! - Thank jasus I had taken them with the Digital as well (and probably better)), you can't beat the immediacy of digital. And the processing after the fact. The digital darkroom is much better than traditional. It's nice to have a film camera too. You can pick up a (film) EOS 650 in Conn's Cameras for about 60 quid these days. Deadly camera (Another hand me down). But I'd plump for digital first. Back in the day, if there was digital and film to choose from, I would have went for digital. (If you get into it, and you really want the perfect quality of film, you'll want a medium format camera anyway). The thing is to enjoy it. And you'll get instant satisfaction from digital.

All of John Hedgecoe's books are great. And the ken rockwell link that RSJ posted yesterday on the hints and tips page is brilliant. The Library has rakes of brilliant and inspiratonal photgraphy bukes.

It's great fun. And you'll end up having the maddest people in the world just come and talk to you for no reason except you have a camera. It's cool.

Get whatever you can afford to start off. Try and get a cheap D-SLR, but if not, at least get something that allows you to manually set the exposure and shutter speed. And then just use the program modes for 90% of your photos anyway.

 

[Ciansy]

Thanks, Goff. I'll be looking into these D-SLRs of which you speak. Seeing as it looks like I'll keep my minidisc player rather than going mp3 I might be able to afford a decent one. There's a possibility of a hand-me-down film camera, it'd be shite but it'd give me an idea of what it's like.

 

[magicbastarder]

OM1's cost HOW much? I thought they were free! (As in, that's where I got mine. Hand me downs are great).

my OM4Ti was a hand me down. my OM1 i had to pay for...

 

[Goff]

There's a possibility of a hand-me-down film camera, it'd be shite but it'd give me an idea of what it's like.

No matter the film camera you get, it will probably have better quality than most digital cameras.

It really depends on the lens.

 

[Ciansy]

No matter the film camera you get, it will probably have better quality than most digital cameras.

It really depends on the lens.

Right. I reckon it'll take me another couple of months to afford a DSLR, so I'll fiddle with the film one for now. Whatever it turns out to be, I don't actually know yet.