Looking to get started in photography but feel overwhelmed at the huge number of different camera models on the market? The daunting feeling can be an obstacle as you try to dive headfirst into the art form, but you have come to the right place: we have selected the best cameras for beginners looking to dip their toes in photography without breaking the bank or getting in over their heads.
Happy World Photography Day! Today is a special day that celebrates the art, science, and history of photography. Here's a look at how it all began and the impact photography plays in our lives today.
Starting out in photography can be really confusing. There is so much stuff to learn, so many things to do, and so many resources to read, not to mention the insane amount of people screaming opinions at you all the time. It’s hard to fight through all the noise.
Photographer Pye Jirsa of SLR Lounge recently put together a video that every budding wedding photographer should watch. It's basically his version of "7 things I wish I'd known when I first started out as a wedding photographer," and it answers some of the most common questions (and dispels some common myths) about this popular genre.
Photographer and occasional PetaPixel contributor Usman Dawood has put together a video and camera showcase that seeks to prove a simple, possibly overlooked point: the best beginner camera for aspiring professionals isn't a high-end APS-C system... it's a used Canon 5D Mark II.
Back in 2017, we told you about a site called WeSaturate that allowed you to download free raw photos for editing practice. Unfortunately, that service has since shut down; thankfully, someone else has stepped in to fill the void.
If you've been looking for a fresh, entertaining take on the standard beginner's guide to
getting out of Auto Mode, look no further. The YouTube channel TheCrafsMan SteadyCraftin has released the strangest (and yet still very informative) tutorial we've seen in this genre.
Photographer Evan Raft recently published a list of 7 helpful, back-to-basics tips for anybody who is interested in getting started with street photography. If you're a beginner, this video is a great place to start before going out and trying to capture your first few street shots.
Wedding photographer Taylor Jackson recently took on what he's calling "wedding photography pricing myths." In a 30-minute video, Jackson tackles some of the most common tips, advice, and outright myths that he found online, setting the record straight for beginners who want to get into this business.
Seeing that it's a new year and a lot of folks have recently gotten cameras, I thought it might be helpful to put down my thoughts and advice for beginners.
Just starting out in photography and want to learn how to blur your backgrounds when shooting portraits? Here's a 4-minute video from Sheldon Evans that looks at how you can create a beautiful bokeh in your photos.
Adobe just announced its new cloud-based Lightroom CC app. If you're looking into get started with this software, Photoshop Training Channel just released a comprehensive tutorial geared toward beginners. You can find the 38-minute training course above.
As with all creative crafts, there are many common pitfalls that photographers fall into when they’re just starting out. Landscape photographer Toma Bonciu runs through 5 of them in this inspiring 5-minute video.
Off the top of your head, do you know how much more light f/2.8 lets in compared to f/5.6? Do you know the f-stop number that comes after 11? This 1.5-minute video reveals the simple pattern used by the scale.
Former DigitalRev host and photo industry personality (do we have those?) Kai Wong is setting aside the gear reviews for a minute to help out the photography "noobs." If you're a beginner, he's got some great tips, advice, and inspiration for you.
Patience is not one of my many virtues and I've always preferred practice to theory. Instead of taking the time to learn the essentials before starting, I usually jump in head-first... come what may! This behavior has caused me disappointment, loss of time and money.
Photography beginners listen up, because we're about to drop some knowledge. This quick video by Mango Street Lab covers three of the most common mistakes photography beginners make, and then turns around and shows you what to do instead.
Simon Roberts, a London-based animator and designer, has created a great photography resource for beginners that is both simple and useful. It's called Photography Mapped, and it allows you to play around with and better understand the manual settings you'll find on a DSLR.
This short little tutorial by photographer and educator Phil Steele might be too basic for most advanced and even intermediate photographers, but you might find it useful all the same. That's because it tackles what Steele calls "the biggest confusion about Lightroom."
Here’s a short 4-minute video in which photography instructor Karl Taylor offers …
In 2011, a modern-day treasure hunter was browsing through an antique shop in Fresno, California. Flipping through boxes, he came across an old photograph. An unsmiling group of men, 19th century Americans it seemed, were playing croquet in front of a wooden building in a rural setting. It was an interesting photograph. He paid $2 for it and walked out.
Here's a simple little GIF that can come in handy the next time you're asked to explain how aperture and depth of field work. Created by Reddit user veedees, it shows exactly how stopping down your lens from f/1.8 all the way to f/16 translates into different depths of field.
‘Where to Start Chart’ is an infographic designed to help beginner photographers work their way through the settings on their camera. Produced by Adorama TV, the PDF is reminiscent of the "skill trees" found in various role playing video games, but instead of having spells and skills, the tree offers photographic tutorials.
If you have a friend who just got into photography and they ask you to recommend a first lens to buy in addition to the standard kit lens, chances are very good you're going to tell them to go prime. Of course, their next question will inevitably be 'why?'
One of the first things that we learn when we start taking photographs seriously is that ‘aperture’, the size of the hole in the lens through which light passes, controls depth of field.
A large aperture creates shallow depth of field while a narrow one creates wide depth of field. But there’s a little more to aperture than that, let’s take a closer look at this most fundamental photographic control.
The question, "how can I take better photographs" never goes away for the photographer who is constantly looking to improve and evolve, no matter how many years they've been doing it. But this question is particularly difficult to answer for beginners who don't yet have the foundation that years of looking through a viewfinder offers.
Thankfully for those people, there are professionals like Jim Goldstein who don't mind condensing years worth of experience into useful tips and advice.
Dean J. Tatooles specializes in fine art panoramic landscape photography, wildlife photography, and indigenous portraiture from remote locations around the world. He also works with top-rated travel companies and fellow professional photographers to lead photographic safaris in Iceland, India, Kenya, and more. Fresh off a trip in Iceland, Tatooles and colleague Tim Vollmer answer some common questions about the eerie natural anomaly known as the Aurora Borealis. If shooting the Northern Lights is on your photographic bucket list, be sure to check out their tips below, which have been gathered from years of experience.
Composition and the rules that accompany it are some of the most basic aspects you learn when first picking up a camera. If you've been a photographer long, it's probably safe to say that the "rule of thirds" and "golden mean" are ingrained into your brain so well that it's second-nature now.
That being said, every once in a while it's nice to take a fresh look at the rules and the underlying concepts behind them -- if for no other reason than because you have to know the rules in order to break them properly.
It's likely one of the reasons Adobe decided to shift to a subscription model was so that they could bring in more beginners and amateurs that had never had affordable access to the software.
For them, justifying a several hundred-dollar purchase wasn't always feasible, but $10 per month through Adobe's perpetually-extended Photoshop Photography Program is more than reasonable, and so we'd bet there are more beginners on Photoshop CC than ever before. Now the hard part... actually using the software.
Super helpful Photoshop CC beginner tutorial to the rescue!
We're not in the habit of reposting things we've covered before, even though at least once per week we run across some post or video from a few years ago that is going 're-viral' and is being covered by everyone who missed it the last go around (and some who didn't).
For this video, however, we're making an exception. And we beg your forgiveness for that but the truth is, our readership has more than doubled since 2012 and it would be an injustice not to share this with those new readers. Plus, those who have already seen it will definitely benefit from re-visiting this motivational message.
If you're just starting out in photography, there are a lot of resources out there to help you understand the basics before you just jump in. And while books and videos are certainly helpful, one of the more fun ways to learn your way around a camera is by using an online DSLR simulator. We've shared one with you before, and now Canon Canada has released a simulator website of its own dubbed Outside of Auto.
For beginners in the world of photography, getting a good grasp on the types of lenses available and when you might want to use them is an important step. So, given that there's a lot of glass out there, we thought we'd share this basic lens intro from Pentax.
Beginners: Ever wonder why your photos don’t look ‘professional?’ Amateurs: ever wonder why you lack consistency? Pros: Ever wonder why you lose your edge or drive? Wonder no longer. This article deals with some of the most common oversights by photographers of all kinds, and how to avoid them.