Advice for a noob photographer

Hi all,

I've been getting more into photography lately but all I've got is my phone (Oneplus 3). I figured it's time to take the plunge and get a DSLR. The only problem is that I don't know the first thing about cameras so I'm looking for advice on multiple fronts.

First bit of advice I'm looking for is resources to learn about the concepts of photography. Things like how to frame a shot, the artsy eye-training sort of things, as well as how different physical (digital) attributes or settings of a camera will change the shot.

Second bit of sought after advice is what body and lens to buy. I've got a couple older Canon lenses laying around somewhere, so if I can stick with Canon, that would save me a bit of money in the long run, that said, I'm not really married to a platform. I'm looking to spend US$850 or so on the camera (body and lens) and SD cards.

The main reason I'm looking to upgrade is my photos always come out extremely grainy and blurry on indoor or (slightly) low light shots.

I't depends but id also recommend looking at Sony's mirrorless cameras. They're generally very good, can be adapted to almost any lens you might already have, and technology wise are ahead of DSLRs.

You can get a new a6300 for about 850 or second hand (probably recommend this option) for about the same with a lens and bits and pieces. the a6*** series are excellent cameras despite their deceptive size.

I have a a7ii with a Sony native lens, a nikor lens (that im going to give to someone else as they have a Nikon camera without this lens), and a couple of clubman (re-branded minolta style) type lenses (28mm marco, 200mm zoom/marco, super cheap to get a hold of, and still decent glass).

50mm is always a good lens to have, some people don't like them but they're quite divers and you'll be hard pushed t get a bad image out of a 50mm there in a nice spot of relatively cheap and also easy to manufacture without losing sharpness.

But it also depends on what you like to photograph. Wide angle nature/landscapes usually 35/28/18 mm or lower are good. People / closer up stuff, 50/80/100 mm. wildlife/sports 200mm+ with a fast camera.

(keep in mind my advice is .. not professional advice, lets leave it at that lol)

On your first question. I would also like to know this, I'm still new to photography (mainly because i keep being busy and don't get out or make myself go out).

But a few things I recommends just as general interesting things to watch.

we have a community photo assignments ongoing. This months theme is motion. @hutchison15 can probably chime in as well on resources.

A few channels i watch

Are you in Linux? Darktable is excellent once you start getting to know it, ive been using it recently.

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Three things that are important are framing, light and practice.

When one looks through a view finder, most of them are divided into 3 sections like a tic-tac-toe board. This is called "the rule of thirds". What it means is a photo where the subject is aligned with the 1/3 lines will look nicer and more interesting that a photo where the subject is centered. Also make sure that vertical lines (like doorways) are aligned with the edge of the frame.

Light is the key to good photos. Pay attention to where the light is coming from and how it bounces off of your subject into the lens. With digital photography, the more light the better, especially natural sunlight. A good start is to make sure the light is at your back.

Multiple shots. There is nothing worse than taking a shot only to find out later that the photo is blurry or off in some way, then you have to take it again. Always take a few shots, just in case. I usually find that my last shot is best because of the practice I got from the earlier ones.

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Is the sky blue? Haha, yeah. I'm on Linux for everything except CAD. I'm familiar with Darktable and am hoping to start playing around with it. I've switched my phone over to RAW recently, so I'll be able to start getting my head around some of the other aspects of the photography.

Thanks for those Youtube links. I'll check them out when I'm off work. A cursory look says they've got quite a bit of cool stuff on there.

As far as what I'm photographing, I'd say it's going to be a mix of People/closer stuff and Motorsports stuff. I've been really getting into motorsports recently and am going to be going to quite a few events over the summer. Hopefully I can get some good shots there.

I just checked my inventory and I have an 80-300mm Canon style lens.

I completely forgot Sony made cameras. After looking into it, tha a6300 looks like a solid option. I'm going to have to look for deals, since the lens/body combo is a bit more than I'd like to spend.


Yep, I'm hoping to get to shoot a bit (albeit, with my phone) this weekend during the canyon run I'm going on. Get some practice in.

Thanks for the advice. This should get me started!

People can tell many techniques, but you need to learn with experience. A good practice is to do the challenges in the dogowood challenge https://dogwood.photography/52weekchallenge.html. Submitting the images isnt important, but the techbiques give you a new perspective on shooting.

A note on the rule of thirds is angle of shooting, in my opinion, lining the center of the object aligns with the third and the front/back with the center of the frame on an angle to focus the attention in.

For motorsports, motion tends to have good effects, so large aperture lenses will open your abilities to shoot in different conditions. Practicong panning will allow slightly longer exposures and interesting effects but takes a good deal of skill.

Finally, almost anything can be a good photo subject. Play with angle depth of field, saturation, exposure, and zoom. Don't limit yourself.

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Awesome, thanks! I'm definitely going to start knocking things off this challenge list.

Alright, I'm definitely going to be playing with this all weekend at autox. I wonder if I can steal my friend's T3i so I can play a bit more with exposure...

I like how this panning shot at Watkins Glen (done on film with an old Minolta) came out.
It's doing about 150 MPH.

The car is pretty much on the third point.

The YT resources @Eden posted are fantastic and channels I watch as well. Really though, the best you can do for yourself is never stop shooting and take critique if you're given the opportunity. Shadow other photographers. Challenge yourself. Be willing to learn. I went to college for new media, but minored in photography -- a lot of photographers I encountered never developed their skills because they refused to see things from a different perspective or didn't want to break their habits. Admittedly, I have some habits I am trying to break but I atleast know of them and try to better my work.

I would also recommend the Sony A6*** series for your price range as well -- Sony has been bringing the heat to the market with their latest innovations. Canon and Nikon have unfortunately been falling behind, I'd maybe only recommend them at this point if you're looking for fast autofocus performance but admittedly Sony's been catching up with the A6500, A7RII and the A9. Otherwise, going Canon or Nikon you wouldn't be getting things like a EVF, sensor stabilization, or 4K video. Also, being they're all mirrorless, you can get adapters to put your Canon (or really just about any) glass onto Sony bodies.

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Thanks for the advice. I'm linking up with one of the guys in the super modified class to shoot autox next time we meet out there.

I'm keeping an eye out for good deals on it. I'll grab it next time I see one.

That's what I've noticed with them from my research as well. I wound up talking to a friend who's into youtube and the likes. He said I can use his t3i for the summer while he's in the area, so I'll be taking advantage of that for the next couple of months. I know it's not the best camera, but it's free and will definitely save me a boatload of money. Throwing that cash into an index fund should give me 1200 to spend by summers end if wall street continues the way it has been.

I didn't have a chance to shoot as much as I'd have liked to this weekend since it was raining and I didn't want to risk the camera. It's supposed to be sunny this week so there are some nice opportunities for video and stills. (although, it's still damn cold for San Diego)

That's impressive. I'm definitely going to have to practice quite a bit to get this good. Still, it's an awesome picture.

I would recommend not to buy such an expensive body. [EDIT]I am referring to the sony a6X00 series here.[/EDIT] For pure photography there are no bad sensors anymore and that is basically the important thing. So any body that can be set to full manual and shoots raw is fine for a beginner. Way more interesting is all the other stuff of a camera system, mainly the lenses of course. Personally I don't like the lens selection for the sony and I also think they are a bit expensive.

Also at this point I would not recommend buying into a classic DSLR system like Nikon F or Canon EF. Huge, heavy, expensive dinosaurs.

Right now the best deal in my mind is a used panasonic G7/G70. You can get one of those for 300,- to 350,- here in Germany and it does everything you need plus a lot more. It takes great pictures and shoots insane quality 4K video for the price. Pair it up with a 12-60 3.5-5.6 kit lens and you can do a lot. Or get a fast prime like the 25mm f/1.4 or the 15mm f/1.7 panaleicas for around 350,- used each. (That 15mm is a steal for the quality!)

If you want a purely photography focused camera the fuji X-E2 is around the same price as the G7 when you buy used. Slightly bigger sensor (APS-C vs micro 4/3), different aspect ratio, better high ISO, basically no video (it has video but ... that sucks). Fuji raw files are a bit fiddly to deal with though, lenses are on the pricey side and overall a bit bigger. I actually am in the process of switching from fuji to panasonic myself, mainly because of video.

I might make a video or two on beginner photography at some point but to start out just get the exposure triangle in deep your brain so that you never have to think about it. After that everything else is easy.

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In the same phrase: Photography tips and tutorial for beginner I would like to introduce some of my tips here:

I hope you will find something interesting in there that would definitely help you to improve your photography skills.

All the above. Tony and Chelsea have definitely got you covered if you want a learning resource. Plus, imo, Lightroom and photography pretty much go hand in hand. There is a photographers subscription to the Adobe Creative Suite, which I'd recommend if you've not got already. It's not unreasonably priced. Or just buy an earlier edition of Lightroom, version 5 I think?, and be done with it. Anthony Morganti has a nice youtube channel for Lightroom tips.

Lightroom 5 might already have problems supporting some newer cameras. Lightroom 6 is the current full price release but I would go for the subscription. I think it is 12,- bucks per month for Lightroom and Photoshop. As much as I would like to go full on open source but those two programs are hard to beat.

Still, if you start from scratch I would check out RAWtherapee, Darktable, Krita and Gimp first. Simply because hey, it's free! And you can do a lot with those programs, too.

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Another thought awesomesauce, if you do go the creative cloud subs route... Since you're only using mobile at the moment, There is automatic integration between the Lightroom mobile app and Lightroom desktop. Then from desktop to blurb so you can get your photos in a book delivered to your door. Is nice!

People are recommending some nice stuff, but it's easy to get going with really no budget. I started taking photos last summer. Basically all you need is a camera that you feel excited to take photos with and has enough tools to be useful. I picked up a Canon T5i (circa like 2013) with its kit lens (18-55mm) and a zoon lens (55-250mm) on eBay for like $350. Then I picked up a 10-20mm wide angle lens for like $100. That's less than $500 in with a full range of decent enough (for a starter) lenses. Most everything I've taken (here's my page: https://500px.com/mycolorblindeye) has been with this camera and lens setup, though I swapped the 18-55mm and 55-250mm for a 18-250mm lens so as to save space in my bag.

That being said, I'm currently lusting over the Olympus PEN-F, and it's little brother, the PEN-E PL7. The PL7 comes in new around $600 and its reviews are really strong overall. These cameras are both micro 4/3 lenses so you have a great selection of glass. Probably worth a look in your case, as it's right in your price range.

Here's my general new photographer advice to consider (taken from another post of mine, so not necessarily specific to your case).
1) Pick a camera body that will allow you to gradually grow your lens collection. You're going to want to buy fancier lenses as you get into this hobby more. Lenses are more important than your camera body for creating a high quality photo. However, you'll want to be able to upgrade your camera body at some point when you hit a point of diminishing returns. So if you buy $500 worth of Canon stuff to start, then add another $1500 worth of lenses over the next 2 years and you decide to upgrade your camera body to another Canon, then it works out great because you have this catalog of lenses you've bought. However, if you decide to switch to Sony or Nikon or whatever when you upgrade then you're going to be purchasing a newer, nicer camera body which is expensive, but you'll also have to re-purchase all those lenses for your new camera. This is one reason why micro 4/3 is a nice ecosystem. There are two brands that make camera bodies and lenses, and then there are also 3rd party lens manufacturers, so your options stay pretty open.

2) Realize that a better camera won't make you a better photographer. Buy a decent camera but don't break the bank too much. There are tons of videos on YouTube (one example here: https://youtu.be/uv0n52-ncmg) of people taking great photos with absolutely shit cameras. If your photos look bad then you need to work on your skill at taking and processing them, but don't just pour money into a higher quality rig.

3) Speaking of processing, learn it! Adobe Lightroom is easy to use and is absolutely key in creating nice photos. Simple touched to color grading, contrast, etc. can take a photo from meh to fantastic! Also, if you want to get into black-and-white photography, you'll need this. The software looks daunting at first but you can gain proficiency in just a couple hours.

4) And on learning how to take the shots themselves, there are great communities everywhere, but I suggest using http://www.r-photoclass.com/. That website is basically an archive and continuation of the Reddit r/photoclass page that they did one year. It has archives of all the lessons they did, and it's a great tool to help you learn the basics and then enable you to go a bit further. It also talks about basic post-processing, so you'll have guidance as you learn that bit.

5) Back to camera purchasing advice (who said this list had to be a logical order?). But something you'll want to carry on a daily basis. I have my DSLR and 3 lenses that bounce around by bag all day. They're heavy as shit. I carry them because I love them. That being said, many people will hate lugging the extra weight around. If that sounds like you, you might lean toward the micro 4/3 system as a way to save on space and weight so you can carry your camera around on the daily. When you start taking photos, you'll notice that landscapes, architecture, and street scenes start to stand out to you as photo-worthy. In those moments, not having your camera on hand can be torturous.

6) Accessories. The basics. a) Buy a tripod of some kind. I snagged a GorillaPod and a cheap full-size tripod. b) SD cards. At least 32GB. You don't want to have to pull you photos off every 3 days. c) Long-term storage. I'm a fan of never deleting anything ever. Consider getting some external hard drives dedicated to your photos or budgeting a Google Drive subscription into your plan. If you already have a NAS setup then you're lucky and I envy you. d) Don't buy any filters or other semi-gimmicky items until you've found out that there are times you need them. Stuff like that is a money-pit for beginners. e) Buy a camera strap that isn't the one your camera comes with. We get it, every person who lives in NYC: you spent like $4000 on your Canon 5D. You know why I know this? Because you're wearing your camera around your neck and when I'm walking behind you your camera strap says "CANON EOS 5D MKIII" in bold letters across the back of your neck. Pet peeve of mine, but it's just begging for someone to steal you camera, and it's sort of obnoxious. Snag a comfortable adjustable strap so you can keep your camera accessible and secure on a daily basis when you're out and about.

7) Last piece of advice. Use https://www.dxomark.com/ to help inform purchasing decision. They have maps showing clarity and degradation for cameras and lenses of all kinds, as well as pretty informed reviews that come from as objective a perspective as possible. It's a great resource for buying bodies and lenses.

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i only have one tip that i wish i knew when i started last year and that is to look at your local used market (generally at least in my limited experience always cheaper than online), find a local camera shops and look into there used lens before buying a Sony for instance, locally the only thing around me that is popular is canon (they can be adapted to Sony i know that), but I went with Nikon for the cheap price for the body at the time(best MP sensor at the time dosen't really matter also first camera isn't the rest of your life.), the D3400 Looks great on paper, but lens are extremely expensive even used. Don't care too much about your first body, care more about Lens, good glass matter more than the body. The body is only good for as long as you feel it doesn't hold you back. Or until you just want something better the glass can be good for a long time by comparison and will be where most of your money will go in the long run. My body recommendation is Sony a6300 if you can swing it, it can use most lens and if you already have canon lens, then great choice just because they are old doesn't mean they are bad old lenses can be great. start using it before getting lens just to see what you really enjoy shooting, a mistake i made was to get the 2ed kit lens with my nikon the 55-200 230$ extra for something i have never used, i found i like shooting a lot of macro of plants and bugs and shit, little weird, but fun. Invest in a good bag when you can, I carry my camera everywhere with me and it a good idea when you start don't be scared to have it out in public it sounds weird before you have a large DSLR and Mirrorless in you hand, but once it is alot of people get nervous about shooting don't give it any mind to what people thing get the shot. that was my big problem up until a few months ago. Also tape up logos if you are scared of being robbed not that big of a concern for some people, but I am a round a decent amount of bikers and bars, so i removed the logos even off my bags just to be safe. It end up being more than one tip didn't think it would be my bad. Sorry for bad English.

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That's what I've heard. I feel like we're at a point where we're waiting for the next batch of bodies to release, so I'm waiting on that to see what comes out. I figure if I can wait until end of summer that will be good, if not, I can buy something cheap like a t5i and upgrade later on.

Absolutely. That's why I'm borrowing my friends t3i. He's given it to me for the weekend and I'm hopefully going to be hitting the canyons on Saturday morning.

I'm trying to stay away from Adobe stuff (trending in favor of Linux stuff. Darktable, RAWtherapee, etc...), but nonetheless, I'm learning how to do it.

AWESOME! Just spent about 45 minutes on that site, totally lost track of time. Damn it, I'm at work right now!

Currently, I've got the t3i and an 18-55mm lens. (3 batteries and a 16GB card) It's definitely easy to carry. I just put it in the secondary compartment in my laptop bag and call it a day.

Regarding 6. I don't have a tripod, but I really do need one. I'm going to be getting one at some point soon, just trying to find a decent one that won't break the bank. Accessories add up and suddenly you've blown past your budget by $250.

On long-term storage, I've got a nas with 6ish TB available right now. I'm good for the forseeable future. (It's backed up with crashplan, so I don't really have to worry too much about shit hitting the fan)

Honestly, I don't mind pulling images off every day. I prefer it that way because I don't trust SD cards, but I do trust a hard drive that's been backed up to multiple locations.

That's a good point. I suppose I'm not really the kind of person who'd be walking around with a camera in a place that people would steal it, but it's definitely on my radar.

Totally agree on Linux stuff. I just haven't found a Linux solution I really like yet. Lightroom is one of the few things I still use my Windows rig for, along with gaming and SolidWorks.

Couple of simple things

  1. lenses are the things you buy, the body is just to be able to use the lenses, as the lenses can easily cost many time more than the body

  2. because of the 1. the body can be inexpensive and old as long as it can take the lenses

  3. to learn fastest one must drop all automation and embrace failure, because in the beginning you will fail, often. So set the camera to Manual mode and have a cheat sheet handy, like this one https://imgur.com/a/3YmYR .

  4. if you go for a big dlslr, go for something like a Canon 50D or Nikon D90 instead of a 500D (known as the EOS Kiss X3 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T1i in North America) due to the small settings display on top of the camera, meaning you can change settings roughly 10 times faster than with a 500D

  5. when training for the first time, use a prime lens, giving plenty of light and forcing you to think of your framing and not just zoom in and out.

I also suggest watching Digital rev TV cheap camera challenges to see how much you can do with very little, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ECB90D96DF59DE5
The same youtube channel has a video on which is more beneficial, a cheap body with an expensive lens or a expensive body with a cheap lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk5IMmEDWH4 and how much you can get for 100$ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ZvAFCt5Sk

tl:dr buy a cheap body and plenty of lenses

I would always advise to just buy one lens and learn it before buying the next one.