Essential Photographic Skills Needed for Beginning Digital Photographers... by Charlie Davis o Learn the basic terminology used by photographers. As a start, see "Glossary of Photographic Terms and Abbreviations". o Read and understand these rules for buying a digital camera (if you don't have a digital camera or you are wanting to move to a better camera): 1. Buy the biggest piece of Silicon (sensor) you can afford. 2. Buy the FEWEST number of pixels you can put up with. 3. Buy the best lens(es) that you can afford. 4. Buy the cheapest body you can put up with. 5. Buy a camera that fits your hands and is not too big or heavy for you. 6. Buy a camera that is intuitive (ie, don't have to read the manual). 7. Read the @#$%ing manual anyway! 8. Ignore your friends' advice. 9. Find new friends who like you because of something other than the brand of camera you use. If you don't understand or believe any of these rules, read them again and study them word-for-word. Also, after you buy your new digital camera, you will REALLY like it, because all cameras are pretty good nowadays…BUT avoid thinking that you and your camera are special. Don't turn your @#$% camera into a religion! Don't get a big head! A camera is just a tool and others can use these tools better than you ever will…trust me. But it's a LOT of fun trying to be one of the truly great photographers of all time… o Study the basic concepts of digital photography. As a start, see the "Important Concepts for Beginning Digital SLR Photographers". Even if you don't have or expect to be using a dSLR anytime soon, most of these ideas apply to photog- raphers using other type cameras. o Learn how to ask questions of experienced photographers. Much of this is just learning the strange words they use. Learn how to post a picture on-line so that others can comment on your style and discuss any problems that exist. Learn what EXIF data is. Learn how to ensure that it is not stripped from your photos when you post them. The EXIF data tells experts how you took the pictures and lets them quickly understand what you are doing wrong (or right!). The most common cause of missing EXIF data is the many free photo posting sites…some strip this data to make the picture files smaller. Also, some photo editors have hidden features that strip this information; as an example most versions of Photoshop have a feature called "Save for Web…" that strips EXIF data for some reason. o Learn to play and experiment with your camera. With a digital camera, it's FREE! If you wonder what something does, try it. If you find the results interesting and/or confusing, ask someone (on-line). o Learn to save bad pictures (ones that you can't figure out what went wrong). Learn to keep notes about what you were doing when you took that bad picture. These are invaluable later when experts try to help you decipher what happened. When you learn more, you can go back and try those shots again to see if the advice solved the issues you had. If the expert advice doesn't make the pictures turn out right, then you might need a different "expert". Often quite good "experts" are not at all good with language, so you need to find someone who is BOTH an "expert" and can write explanations well. o Familiarize yourself with good on-line forums, such as www.dpreview.com and learn how to get advice there about special problems. Avoid asking, "What camera should I buy?" type questions until you have narrowed it down to a few comparable models. Even then, watch out for "fan boys" who only recommend what they accidently bought last week…they are just like you, except they bought a week or a year earlier and are overconfident. They got a "big head"… o Learn how to clean the sensor if you get a dSLR. It's really not hard to do. Read about it here. Most modern dSLR cameras have effective self cleaning systems, so manual cleaning intervals are long anyway, but eventually you will need to at least blow dust off the sensor. It's important to not be paranoid about dust.