Good stuff! Just a quick note on a few things though that may or may not help. You really shouldn’t need to do much to an image in Photoshop if you get it as right as you can in-camera; that means having a very in depth understanding of how your camera works and having the experience to know how to adjust settings according to the conditions you’re shooting in, which will take years, not months. This isn’t a bad thing though, because the plus side is you don’t actually need to understand every function of Photoshop to get very good results. If you start working your way through those 2000 pages it will probably put you off for life! Not only that, but you’ll be taking information in that you’re never realistically going to use when you could be concentrating on getting the fundamentals right. If you have a decent shot right out of the camera (assuming no special effects are required) then only basic adjustments to the brightness, saturation and sharpness should be necessary, which are easy to go through either here or on MSN. One thing I will say is read the manual cover to cover, then read it again! Pay particular attention to learning the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Understanding how the three work together will allow you to tell the camera exactly what you want it to do and help you get infinitely better results than you would in Auto.

That said, there’s no real ‘correct’ way to learn. If you’re happiest learning by fiddling (which is a good way to learn) then by all means do so, and pick up whatever tips and tricks you can from people along the way. If you want to get into it seriously then there really is a huge amount to know and it’s a very steep learning curve, but time spent learning will reward you in time with infinite amounts of enjoyment. Photography can be a very satisfying and enjoyable hobby, so I’m happy to see another forum member getting into it!

Feel free to drop me a PM if there’s anything I can help with. 🙂

Paul

Thanks for your advice Paul,

I have just re-watched the DVD which came with the camera giving you the basics of the functions and how to use it…. off to bed now with the manual! 😮

The PDF i got off a mate is pretty good, and picked up some tips…. (been playing with layers tonight) and i pick up things fast, (im an IT Infrastructure Developer so im used to reading manauls cover to cover… and then again!! )

Any questions i have.. i will drop you a PM..

Cheers

Rick