The Way I Learn

[allenlennon]

Hey all, i thought i would tell you how i am learning photography.

I have not been to any type of school, tafe, uni, or done any courses on photography. I learn by a few different ways.

Learn by doing- where i basically teach myself by playing around with the settings, this is how i taught my self about aperture, shutterspeed and exposure(Before CIC)
The net, especially CIC- you can get a great education here. Everyone helps you out by their suggestions and advice, although you dont need to follow their advice but i do, and it helps alot. Thank you guys and gals, your top notch. It basicly a family, or close nit community, or bit of both.

If your into portraiture photography you cant go wrong with School of Portraiture in the People & Pets forum done by Colin Southern. You will learn alot.

Over all CIC is a great place to start.

[Donald]

Allen

I think that is very helpful from the point of view of reminding everyone that we all learn in different ways and finding the way that works for us is one of the important parts of learning.

[allenlennon]

Thank you Donald. Yeah everyone learns differently, i can’t afford the photography school(courses) so i learnt be doing with what I got, meaning i just mucked around with different settings, and also the net and this site has been a great help, since joined I have a greater understanding of how the aperture, shutterspeed, exposure, compensation, iso, ect works, just got to put it to practice than im set. right now about 75-80% of my photos are decent(including with PP work) and the rest isn’t worth anything cause i screwed up the settings, so i just try again till i get it right. That percentage is way better compared to my first month or 2 of using a DSLR. So i am improving.

I also find a handy learning technique is to first take your photo with the auto functions, than look at the settings the camera deemed fit, than do the exact same photo in Manual with those settings and have a look, than from there i just tweak the settings to see what will happen if i did this or that, so on so forth.

So in conclusion, because of learning by doing and CIC i am where im at right now, and as with everything, keep practicing, so i made it a habit to bring my camera with me majority of the times, basicly the only time i do not bring it with me is going to the head. Or i forget. You have no idea how frustrating it is to me that when i do forget to bring my camera, there is great shots i could do, for example, the other night i was driving home from work, and it was such i crystal clear night, and this lake i pass all the time reflected the local power plant in all of its lights and glory splendidly. Would of been a great photo. The only thing is crystal clear nights happen every now and then, and most of the time im at home cause there is no need to go anywhere.