Learning Photography

Originally posted by Biliverdin
What software would you recommend?

Is well worth picking up a couple of books on basic image/photo editing and color theory. I can suggest a couple if wanted. Basic core skills and understanding of process will speed up your post time 500% and get you back out taking photos.

I've seen far too many students throw away perfectly good or sometimes amazing shots that just needed a bit of a rework or color adjustment. Also seen far too many blow money on things their image editor can already do, or get over confident and claim they know the 'best' way of doing everything ... which is a bit like telling an artist they're using the wrong paint.

Everyone is different but for me it really helped realising that digital images are just numbers and pixels. Regardless of tool or application, it's numbers, pixels and color theory.

GIMP is a good free program and is an okay place to start. Interfaces can be intimidating at first, but a really important thing to remember is to learn the tools and theory because interfaces come and they go but image theory is eternal.

Example: Learn what a curve tool does in one application and it's mathematically the same in all the others. Try not to be intimidated by your options either, because that's all they are options or bonuses even. Some artists prefer curves, some prefer levels; they both do real similarish things. Same with selection tools, you can use anything from alpha channels, to magic wands, to pen tools ... Don't let your preference get in the way of using something new, quicker, or more awesome, but don't let others stop you from using what works for you. If it looks pretty and pro, do it!

The only rule I have is if I don't know what the tool I'm using does, I'm doing it wrong. I don't have to understand the maths perfectly, but if I don't know what it's going to do to my scopes/histograms/pixels then I need to learn.

Hope it helps.