Advice to a Newbie Photographer - Introductory Photography Lesson
I don't have as much time as I'd like to be able to reply to the messages I get through the site, but I just had to reply to this one. Hopefully there's something here for you, too:
Dear benjamin evans, i am writing to you to tell you that i find your work absolutely fantastic and just wanted to know your opinion, do you prefer to use the dark room to develop your work or develop them using the computer? also my brother shares exactly the same name as you benjamin but he is 8 years old. my name is lauren and i am 12 years old and i want to become a photographer just like you!!! thank you for reading my e-mail. hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Lauren, Thanks for your email, it's lovely to hear that you have
enjoyed my work. You raise an interesting question with the film/
digital debate and there is no easy answer. For the control, speed and
range of effects, a computer is hard to beat and it's really worth
getting to grips with. There's a free software program called 'the
Gimp' - http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ - that has almost all the
functionality found in Photoshop, the industry standard software. I
highly recommend downloading it, and learning from their tutorials.
However, my personal preference to all of this, which I think strays a little far from 'photography', is a good old fashioned smelly darkroom! I use a medium format camera (which can be found on ebay relatively cheaply) because the quality is remarkable, and the negatives are much easier to work with. No amount of retouching on the computer can compare to the satisfaction of using a totally mechanical camera (as after all, any camera is only a light-tight box with a roll of light-sensitive film/ sensor inside) to capture something in the world that has moved you, then having the image reappear in the peace of a darkroom!
You said that you'd like to be a photographer - good! It's certainly enjoyable! THE way to get better at photography, as with anything else, is to practice, practice, practice. Happily, it's not boring French grammar, but just taking a camera with you when you can, and taking pictures of whatever takes your fancy! I'd recommend an older digital camera - one with manual controls (I had a Sony V1) to learn on. The fact that taking digital photos is free and you have immediate results means todays photographers are able to learn much quicker than before. So, lots of photos!
Photography, I think, can be two things - recording and expressing. Commercial photographers spend much time photographing watches, bikes, etc. in studios - the only thing present in the photograph is the object itself. However, No one sees the world in exactly the same way as you do, and the photographs which you take are unlikely to be identical to others' photographs. Photographers call this the 'eye' for a good photo and it's what makes the photographer, not the amount of camera equipment, the location, the subject... A photographer who is able to 'see' good pictures, can make good photographs of almost anything. So, start looking!
Look at everything, whether it be the ripples in a puddle a car has just driven through, the raindrops running down a window, the play of contrasting coloured shirts - everything! Then, with a photograph, share with others what you've seen. Observing light, how it's colour (warm inside, cool outside usually) and brightness interacts with the world is very important too. The National Geographic Magazine is great for this - look how they use certain things to suggest - like focussing on a single detail that someone else may just ignore as boring/ normal. Also, by taking the photograph from above or below, or making it darker or lighter, you can suggest things to the viewer. So, if I were taking a picture of a racing car, I might tilt the camera to suggest speed or, in a portrait, wait for the subject to do their characteristic expression. Try and express your ideas, thoughts and feelings in your pictures. If a photo can raise the emotions you had when you took the picture in the viewer, then I think you've succeeded in creating art, which is fantastic! So, express yourself in your photos!
I hope that this hasn't been very boring! I suppose I could have said it all in three statements - start looking at the world afresh, think how certain things in the world can suggest ideas and emotions you've had, and then take lots and lots of photos of them! Good luck, and Happy New Year to you and your brother,
Ben
Let me know if you've got any comments,
or would like a specific photo explained at ben@benevansphotography.com,
or here 
on Twitter.
