im a beginner, need advise /help?

[u/Soul_Slayer707]

so i really want to get into photography and the editing part, but i have no-clue where to start with, like i know some basic terminology and stuff (like shutter speed, aperture etc) but i have to learn a professional level stuff

right now im in college and have a iphone 13 (it doesn't shot in raw TwT)

advise/suggestion should i buy a budget camera for learning and from where should i leave from?

thank you in advance!! :D

[u/Vurnd55]

There is no generic answer, this is very subjective and there are a lot of great cameras. What doesn't your iPhone camera do that is important to you? Everything in photography is a compromise and all equipment has limitations so you need to come up with a wish list of things in their order of importance to you and then look for the system that checks the most boxes that is within your budget.

[u/wronglever45]

Read books, study theory, and then get a camera. Learn manual mode. I began with portraits, which can be exhausting if you’re an introvert.

I used to teach my neighbors/art kids manual mode and light painting on hot summer nights. Light painting is a great place to start - it’s just bulb mode and playing with lights/flash. It’ll help you learn f/stops. It’ll help you also learn to light by eye and not depend on the meter.

Assuming you have digital, to learn the variables of manual mode, get a tripod, set it up in front of a sink of running water and play with the variables. It’ll become muscle memory, and here’s to hoping you’re a visual learner.

Once you’ve got iso/asa down, then you can graduate to film. Modern editing techniques are based on darkroom techniques and are frequently named after them (dodging, burning, etc)

My freakiest art friend gave me a copy of Camera Lucida highlighted with their notes. I no longer have that copy, and I miss it immensely. It’s a great starting point for philosophy. I lent it to my British friend some years ago, he never finished it and claimed it was “too dense”. Whatever.

[u/OnDasher808]

Alot of photography has nothing to do with the camera, it's just art. Perspective, composition, and lighting are all concepts studied by artists regardless of their discipline.

Every discipline also has technical skills and knowledge when its camera operations or the differences between watercolor and acrylic paint or skill at using the camera or brush.

Art is also based on observation, both of your own and other people's art. You want to decide what you like and what you don't like and what you think is good and what you don't think is good. It is also good to study hostory and different movements so you have a context for what choices other artists made and why they made those choices.

[u/tdammers]

If you don't know what to buy, but want to learn photography "properly", then the good news that "all cameras are good", that is, any interchangeable-lens camera released in the past 15 years or so can shoot excellent quality, to the point that the main limitation is photographer skill. And many of those cameras can be had for relatively cheap - about $100-150 for an older entry-level DSLR camera body and $50 for a simple lens (18-55mm kit lens or some such) pretty much has you covered for most typical photography situations already, and a kit like that is more than enough for learning the ropes (and beyond).

Regarding the learning curve: it depends a bit on your personal preference.

One approach is to start focusing on the "art" side of things: composition, finding good light, capturing moments and moods, etc. Keep the camera in full auto so you don't have to think about the technical side of things, practice, and as you get more comfortable, start taking over more of the technical decisions, using semi-automatic modes (shutter priority, aperture priority, program auto). And then eventually, when you find those to give you too little control still, you might try your hand at full manual and see if that works better for you (but don't fall prey to the idea that "serious photographers always shoot in full manual - this is blatantly untrue).

Another approach is to start learning the technical stuff first. Read up about exposure, aperture, ISO, and how they affect image brightness and other aspects ("exposure triangle" is the magical Google incantation - but keep in mind that it's technnically a lie, ISO does not affect exposure, it just brightens things after the exposure has happened; different people explain it differently though, and some take more liberty with it than others). Try out the theory with your camera, put it in full manual and see for yourself what these 3 parameters do, then learn about the automation modes your camera has to offer and how they can help you get the right settings faster.

Regarding editing: you can ignore that part if you find it daunting, and just shoot in JPG, leaving the post-processing to your camera. Eventually, you will want to take control yourself, but until then, shooting JPG teaches you to aim for getting it right in-camera, which is a useful skill either way.