Anybody into photography?

[Ugoff]

I'm thinking about doing a little photography as a nice hobby. I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to it though but I'm sure I'll catch on. I was wondering if anybody else does photography for fun or even as a living?

I have GIMP and I have an older copy of Photoshop (it's for mac though.) I was wondering if is there any other software out there I can use to touch up photos or are those two going to be enough.

Also, I was looking at cameras and I was wondering what I should get. My price range is around $225-300. I want a camera with enough quality (atleast 6.0 megapixals.)

[telewhore]

i'd go film, but that's just me.

[Robert Crumb]

I took a photography class, but we worked with film cameras. Addictive hobby, but pretty damn fun. I even started to enjoy all the darkroom work after a while, which is pretty tedious stuff.

As far as digital photography goes, I'm a noob myself pretty much. I'm really looking into getting a nice digital SLR for myself so I can start playing around in that area. The price range is a bit steeper than what you're looking for, around $500 to the lowest end models. If you're really just getting into it and getting the hang of things, you'd probably be fine with a point-and-shoot model. But if you're already considering seriously pursuing photography as a long-term hobby, a SLR will generally produce higher quality pics and provide much, much greater control, so it might be worth going that route considering the savings compared to buying a cheaper model and then deciding to upgrade later.

[Dinosawesome]

I photograph girls when they least expect it...






...On theme park rides.

[ArtVandelay]

I'm thinking about doing a little photography as a nice hobby. I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to it though but I'm sure I'll catch on. I was wondering if anybody else does photography for fun or even as a living?

I have GIMP and I have an older copy of Photoshop (it's for mac though.) I was wondering if is there any other software out there I can use to touch up photos or are those two going to be enough.

Also, I was looking at cameras and I was wondering what I should get. My price range is around $225-300. I want a camera with enough quality (atleast 6.0 megapixals.)
GIMP can do pretty much everything photoshop can do. But if you want to just touch up photos, use Google's Picasa. It's really easy to use and has a nice few features.

Also, unless you're planning on making high res prints, 6MP is a bit much for a camera in the 225-300 dollar range, It's probably best if you went with a really good quality 3 or 4 MP for that price. I have a 400 dollar 3.2 MP camera and I can make prints just as good quality as a friend of mine with a 7 MP camera for about the same price.

But if you do want a good camera in that range with high MP, I suggest you get a Canon A620. You should be able to find one for about $240, 7.1 MP and 4x zoom.

[Lionheart1827]

Check out http://www.dpreview.com

It's a very helpful site on digital photography, has lots of reviews.:thumb:

For a noob, I wouldn't spend more than 500 on a camera, simply because it could be just something that you want to do as an impulse.

If you dont want to take my advice, then check out the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Canon makes the best optics and I've never had any problems with Canon.

[StreetlightRock]

If you can't get your hands on PS, I'd advise you guys to check out Adobe Lighroom, it's dubbed to be the 'photogrpahy only' part that Photoshop was originally intended to be. It's avaliable free in beta as well: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

If you're serious, go for a digital SLR, if you want to try it out, begin with any high-end nomral digital on the market and see if it really is your thing - you don't wanna be spending the hard cash on stuff you arnt sure about yet.