UKC

Hello,

I'm after some beginner photography advice.

My mountain photos don't seem to really come out very well with my point and shoot.

I recently went on an astronomy course and took photos with the instructors camera. I was really impressed ! I used it for long exposures of the sky with a wide view lense. They also showed me how to take photos of stars by attaching the camera to the telescope.

Any suggestions on how I can improve my skills/knowledge?

Obviously I don't want to jump in feet first by buying a new camera. It is something I'd be looking at in the future though.

Cheers.

In reply to zarathustra:

What equipment do you have now i.e. camera, lenses, tripod?

In reply to zarathustra:

Start by reading this http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7489 (there's a part two as well).

Then ask more. Starting's the easy bit; learning is something you should never stop. And generally, the only bad question is the one you don't ask.

T.

In reply to zarathustra:

And a quick google on "top tips for mountain photography" pulled up a number of links (the UKC article linked above was number four on the list), so there's plenty stuff out there to have a nose around.

T.

In reply to zarathustra:

I found it helped to have a couple of fairly simple projects in mind and work on those (a crisp mountain landscape, long exposure of running/moving water, a scene with people working/climbing etc) and then work out what you need (technical skill, kit etc) to achieve them. It doesn't matter too much about composition or the subject itself necessarily, just that you learn why changing certain settings yields certain results.

Kit-wise, any camera that allows you to take control over exposure, aperture and ISO will be useful for exploring an experimenting, and a £15 tripod will perform well enough for a beginner. Just the tripod on it's own will dramatically improve any landscape shots, and if you use the timer function you can remove any camera shake that you might get from physically pressing the button.

Look at other people's work and see if they are doing something you aren't, but you could try and copy - are they waiting for a flat-calm day to get the shot of the mountain lake, or only shooting in the 'magic hours' of the day around sunrise and sunset? Using the same camera in the same place at different times of day or different light levels can dramatically change the photo you get.

Astrophotography is a specialist field in its own right, so it might not be the best place to learn general photographic skills.