Question by jackie5016: I’m interested in starting photography. Any tips?
Keep in mind — I’m only 15 years old. I absolutely love photography and I’m thinking about making it a serious hobby/career.
However. I don’t know much about it at all. I looked some things up online, but I figured coming here would give me real answers from people who know what they’re doing. What is a good camera to START with? Right now, I have a Kodak digital camera that’s 8.0 mega pixels (I’ve heard that’s pretty good for a digital camera. Is that true? Most that I’ve seen are around 6.0 mp.) It works fine for me, and I’ve heard that it’s a good thing to start out with. I’ve taken a few pictures here and there with the settings that are already programmed into the camera. What I really would NOT want to do is get into taking pictures having to do with journalism, newspapers, etc. I’m more interested in the artistic view. Does that make sense?
Can anyone tell me some general things I’ll need to know? Ways to go about getting better?
Best answer:
Answer by kcdude
I’d recommend starting simple. 8.0MegaPixels is good. Perhaps you should consider getting a deviantArt account, I love deviantART. http://www.deviantart.com Also remember, practice makes perfect!
Give your answer to this question below!
Post some of your photos on Flickr.
Megapixels don’t really matter. They are really just a selling point. Yes, a good amount of megapixels are needed to get good looking images, but the key to understand, with point and shoot digital cameras, the more pixels packed onto the tiny sensor, the more noisy and grainy an image will be. A good megapixel count is anywhere from 6 to 8-with point and shoots.
With Digital SLR’s, it doesn’t really matter. A good starting point there is around 10. 6 is alright, 8 is better. Anything higher than 10, and your seller probably just screwed you over. This is because 10 megapixels are usually all you need.
As for the rest of your question, the best way to learn about photography is to first pick up a book and/or get in a class in school. Since you’re 15, there will probably be a lot of chances for you to get enrolled in a photography class.
There is literally so many things in photography, it would be nearly impossible to tell you all of them. Along with taking classes, you must go out and experiment yourself. Go on a photo shoot, and mess with reciprocity-that is the way shutter speed and the aperture coincide with each other. Another key to remember is the aperture controls the depth of field. Smaller apertures=high f-stop values. Wider apertures=smaller f-stops. Wide apertures=shallow depth of field. Smaller apertures=deep depth of field. DOF is how focused or out of focus the background will be.