Reddit mentions of Scott Kelby's Digital Photography

Read a lot, trial and error as well as Scott Kelby's books and online trainings.

A few books to recommend:

David Ziser's Captured by the Light - He's a wedding photographer, but what he covers in this book is universally applicable.

Scott Kelby's Digital Photography books.

Scott Kelby's Photoshop for Photographer books along with his online training videos.

As we as some websites...

Digital Photography School's section for beginners (the whole website is good, but this will probably be most helpful).

Strobist because eventually you'll want to learn to light.

David Ziser's blog gives a lot of good tips, too.

Good post processing isn't necessarily in the post processing. It really does begin by getting it right in the camera, first. Understanding light, composition and the mechanics of your camera will do more for your editing than just about anything you could do in Photoshop (unless you're looking for abstract techniques like cross processing or the other crap that's really popular now).

(shamless plug)

I really enjoyed Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book - Vol 1 -3

It's got a lot of practical information for beginners, and covers stuff like explaining aperture, focus, etc to finishing photos in Photoshop and everything in between. And if you want to save some money, he has Kindle versions of his books. Of course, being a book on photography, it won't look great on the actual Kindle, but it looks great on the computer.

Anything by Bryan Peterson, and
Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Scott Kelby
[http://amzn.com/0321678737]

Also, if you have one of the more popular cameras, see if David Busch has written a book on it. You'll get a LOT of detailed in-depth info on it,and beyond-the-basics photography in general.

A more concise series of e-books can be found here: [http://www.digital-photography-school.com/learn]

My father has been a photographer for as long as I can remember and for my birthday in 2007 he sent me a Canon Powershot A560. I loved the little camera and when I took it to an airshow in 2009 I was happy with the pictures but at the same time frustrated with the limitations.

After some looking around I decided to get the Canon Rebel XS, but my father offered to pay the difference between the XS and the XSI as a birthday present, and that's the same camera I have now.

As for learning, it was a combination of many phone calls to my Dad and reading the four books that I think every aspiring photographer should read:

• Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Books - He presents the topics in the books as if you were on a photoshoot with him, so the tone and pacing is a bit more informal and easier to read and grasp.
  
  
• Bryan Petersen's Understanding Exposure - Another indespensible book... both it and the three Scott Kelby books I mentioned previously are in my camera bag at all times.
  
  As for photo editing, it was something I taught myself, for the most part, with the help of a few online tutorials. I also took a set of Raw images from an airshow I attended in May and processed them over and over, each time getting them a bit better and a bit closer to what I wanted in the final product.

Go buy this.

And, like everyone else...shoot shoot shoot!

I would recommend Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set. 3 books that show a bit of everything and tips on Lighting, Exposure, Basics, and more advanced techniques. http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Kelbys-Digital-Photography-Volumes/dp/0321678737

Very cool. If I can recommend a book or three - Scott Kelby Digital Photography 1-3. Really great books for learning because they are simple lessons - one page, one lesson. No need to read through, you can pick and choose what you want to learn. There are two others, books 4 and 5. I have 4 and found it less useful than 1-3 but some of that is because I moved past it in skills before I bought it. No idea about 5. His blog is great too - lots of free knowledge. Same with Joe McNally.

Good luck!

P.S. What camera did you get?

If you are new to photography, these books are worded in an easy to understand way to get you shooting the results you want quicker. My fav set of books that still give me tips and I have been shooting for years. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321678737

And an excellent place to start it is.


Not sure of your age and whether or not you've never taken a photography course in high school or college. Not even sure if they still teach film photography in high school (gosh I'm old). But if you haven't then I suggest reading one of these books on basic photography principles. Familiarizing yourself with f stops, ISO, shutter speed, basic composition principles will go a long way.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321678737/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0321678737&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwpho006-20


as far as lenses go I would start with a prime lens. For the a6000 I suggest something closer to the Full frame equivalent of 50mm. In this case you'd be looking at the Sony 35mm f1.8 or Sigma 30mm f1.4. Using a prime will force you to move in our out to frame your shot and will prevent you from using your zoom to frame a shot. Old school photographers like my pop says zoom lenses make people lazy. You'll also get the pleasing depth of field and bokeh look out the gate.


One other tip from a non professional photographer to another is to take your camera everywhere and shoot everything. The best way to learn is to do IMO. Mirrorless cameras are light and compact so there is no excuse to not take it with you.

Edit: And if you;re on a budget I would absolutely start with the kit lens then work your way up to a prime lens. But go for a prime lens if you can.

Scott Kelby has a great box set of books. They go through everything you could imagine in a very easy to follow set u.

I bought the set for myself and have since shared them with my girlfriend and mom, both had very little experience with photography, but had no problems reading through the books and understanding how to go about using what they learned.

The set is called Scott Kelby's Digital Photography.

here's a link from amazon,
http://www.amazon.ca/Scott-Kelbys-Digital-Photography-Volumes/dp/0321678737