Stuff Beginner Photographers ACTUALLY Need...

i'm i'm not really the kind of guy who uh typically buys candles but when i was in the shop walking past this it smelled like what i think the home alone house probably smelled like so i had to buy it just uh leave that there in there wonderful hello everybody and uh welcome to what i think is probably about my 50th video that i've attempted to film outdoors and failed filming outdoors i was out in the mountains yesterday beautiful morning got some nice photos tried to go up a mountain got about halfway up and then uh well basically became a white out bit of a blizzard which wasn't ideal for sitting and talking in front of a camera to be honest so i decided to come back here and um i'm afraid that means that there aren't mountains behind me that you can kind of look at when i get boring it's quite overpowering put that back on later right this is a video that i've put off making for a long time i've wanted to make it for a long time but there's been a big part of me that's thought it's quite obvious a lot of the stuff that you're gonna say and therefore you just shouldn't bother now about 18 months ago i made a video about all the things that you shouldn't waste your money on when you're starting out in photography and this is basically the opposite of that it's the things that you should spend money on when you're starting out in photography thing is one of the things i'm going to mention for example is a camera which is incredibly obvious but uh i think there are enough talking points to justify uh this video and hopefully it'll be of interest to beginners but yes you will you will need a camera now in my defense when it comes to talking about needing a camera i do have more to say than you need to buy a camera chiefly i think when you're starting out photography the most important thing to look for when you're shopping for a camera is to make sure that it's an interchangeable lens camera in fact actually it doesn't really even have to be an interchangeable lens camera phones for example now have in some cases more than one lens and point and shoots i've got to a point now where they're pretty good across a range of different focal lengths and the sensors in them are really quite capable as well so yeah actually it doesn't have to be an interchangeable lens camera like this one it just needs to be capable of shooting at different focal lengths now again i made a video uh about a year ago maybe just earlier this year again i failed to film it outside but that was all about how i think your second lens when you're starting out photography should be one of these which in the case of micro four thirds is a 25 millimeter but what most people will consider to be a nifty 50 is what you might have heard it called basically a 50 millimeter lens this is 25 because the micro four thirds to 35 mil conversion is half in focal length that doesn't really matter for the time being but basically it's a standard focal length prime and i suggested that you could use one of these because the limitations created upon you when you use a prime lens that can't zoom that forces you to get more creative you have to zoom with your feet you have to think an awful lot more about composition than you otherwise would do when you've got a zoom lens i stand by that i think this is an absolutely fantastic practice tool and i use this all the time even with just zoom lenses i force myself to use one specific focal length to really hone in on my composition and really think much more about how i'm taking photos than i otherwise would if i was letting myself use all kinds of different focal lengths so if it's a good idea to just use one focal length to really get to grips with your skills why am i suggesting that you should get a camera that can achieve lots of different focal lengths uh well it comes down to boredom when you start out in any hobby it's crucial that you really really enjoy the first 10 12 15 times that you do that hobby you know if you go fishing and for the first 20 times you go fishing you don't get a single bite i'd suggest if you're anything like me chances are you won't go fishing anymore and to be honest i think it's the same with photography you need to give yourself at the very start the best possible chance of getting some photos that you like of having some success whatever you define success in photography as and if you're just shooting with one focal length there's a good chance that that limitation could mean that you get bored you get frustrated that you're not fulfilled by trying to get good photos because you're struggling to get good photos and if that happens you're probably just going to put your camera away and never use it ever again that is what we're trying to avoid when we're just starting out photography and having the option of using different focal lengths can help to get more photos and therefore more enjoyment from the process which can in turn i'm looking for i don't know what i'm looking for i don't know why i started looking around then anyway that can in turn mean that um you're more likely to keep taking the camera out also just learning how different focal lengths affect images is a huge part of learning photography and finding out how something looks when it's framed at 24 millimeters versus when it's framed at 100 millimeters and comparing those two that teaches you an awful lot about photos and how you can use focal lengths to impact your photos in future and so i would suggest that being able to shoot with those different focal lengths is a crucial skill to learn early on in your run your photography journey and whether that's with a phone with its different lenses and therefore focal lengths or whether it's with a point-and-shoot and it's hang on it's zoom options like so i mean you know what zoom in looks like or whether it's with one of these which uh you can change the lenses on and uh it also has a viewfinder which i think makes this package the most engaging of the three whatever it's with i think you should have the option of uh zooming basically is what i'd suggest you should look for in your first camera i don't really care about megapixels when someone's picking out their first camera i don't think you should care about things like dynamic range or sensor size it's not important that's not going to improve your photos from the off what's important is i mean i've said it enough times now you know what i'm trying to say lenses yes so chances are when you buy your interchangeable lens camera it will come with a lens which often is referred to as a kit lens now in times gone by people often couldn't wait to upgrade their kit lenses because kit lenses were just a bit boring not particularly good not particularly sharp at all the focal length and to some extent that will always be the case because kit lenses typically are made to a budget however cameras have got so good in the past five ten years that lenses have had to keep up with them because nobody's gonna sell a good camera with a really duff lens anymore so for the most part in my experience kit lenses are actually pretty good and they represent really good value also they're incredibly versatile so this one for example zooms from 12 millimeters or 24 millimeters if you've got a full frame camera to 60 millimeters or 120 millimeter full frame equivalent and that is a really good focal range to um to be practicing with now like i said in the video that i was referencing earlier the 25 or a 50 and nifty 50 or just a standard focal length prime is an ideal second lens to get because it gives you a point of difference a it forces you as i said to use one single focal length at the time that you're using this lens b it'll probably be quite a bit sharper than your kit lens c it'll be fantastic in low light because it opens up much more than your kit lens and d because it's probably got a wider aperture you can throw subjects in and out of focus much more and you can get bokeh [Music] which is a word used to describe the soft out of focus lovely creamy um basically the nice blur that you can get when things in your frame are out of focus now the downside of getting a lens like this is your second lens is that the chances are the focal length is probably already covered in your kit lens and therefore the main point that i've tried to raise with a lens like this that you're basically constrained to a particular focal length and that's good for creativity is mute to some extent because you can achieve exactly the same thing with this by just saying to yourself well i'm just going to keep the lens at one particular focal length and i'm not going to move it you don't actually need to have to physically constrain yourself with a prime to be able to do that you just need to be disciplined with a zoom lens and so it comes down to personal preference really as to what should be your second lens there are arguments that suggest a prime is a good way to go i could also make a strong argument to suggest that you should get a telephoto lens as well primarily as you might expect because it'll increase the focal lengths that you can operate at compared with just your kit lens that won't necessarily be as good in the dark as a prime lens for example but it will give you more opportunities to experiment with compositions different compositions and therefore it'll increase your chances of potentially getting good photos or more photos which will increase your chances of continually going out with your camera which ultimately as i mentioned before is the aim of the game at the point where you're just starting out in photography so yeah that's lenses after your kit lens i'd suggest you either look out for a prime a standard focal length prime or a telephoto lens you don't have to spend the earth you don't have to get the most expensive version of a fixed focal length prime and you definitely don't have to get the most expensive version of a telephoto lens there's typically a whole range of lenses to choose from regardless of the system that you've bought into and yeah i'd suggest not spending the earth with either of these options photography bags are hugely expensive typically really expensive and i would suggest that when you just start out in photography it's probably a bit excessive to get a bag specifically just for your camera gear particularly if you've not really got all that much camera gear yet however as i alluded to before the aim of the game with photography when you just start out like any hobby is making sure you do it continually making sure you want to go out the next time and the time after that and the time after that and a bag or storage or access to your gear is crucial to that process so if you get into a habit of taking out whatever bag you use typically a messenger bag a backpack whatever it might be and you just stuff your camera at the bottom of that bag then i would suggest there will be times when you're walking past something that you might think constitutes a decent photo and you might think oh i'm not going to get my camera out my bag i can't be bothered getting out the bottom that means taking it off my shoulders that means digging to the bottom pass my coat past my lunch past my water bottle whatever it might be that is exactly what we're trying to avoid so i would suggest that either you get a really cheap camera bag and i've made a video about cheap versus expensive camera bags i'll put it here you'll hear i can't remember which side it is or you should get something like this which is like a little insert that you can put within a bag that just stores your camera gear so you can stick this at the top of your uh your rucksack and you can take all your camera gear out all in one go if you need to get stuff under it or you can just make sure that your camera get is super accessible when you don't and within here you can stick dividers so you can put like a lens in that bit you can put your camera body in that bit it just makes your stuff easier to get at which hopefully will mean you're more likely to take photos and that will mean that you're more likely to go out and improve your photography and get further and further nestled into the the hobby nestled invested emotionally invested it's probably a whole load of words that can be used then would have made more sense than unless it doesn't matter on a similar sort of note and in line with trying to cut the resistance between you and getting to your photography gear i'd suggest you have a system in place that enables you to carry your photography gear outside of your camera bag namely either a really good strap which i definitely think is money well spent typically the straps that come with cameras are rubbish they're not comfortable they don't stretch far enough and they're just not very good so yeah i'd suggest a padded strap that's easily removable this one is from peak design and i think it's very good it's made out of basically what is i mean seat belt material really that's the only other place i've come across a strap like this very comfortable very easily adjustable and uh it's red this one so quite pretty so yeah straps are a good way to go or you can get hold of something like this which is a clip or a peak design capture this particular one is called and it goes on your rucksack strap or a messenger bag strap and basically your camera just clips into it i've made a video about these as well that i'll put up here somewhere compared to cheap one to this peak design one and like i said the aim of the game with these is just to cut resistance to make sure that you can take as many photos or give yourself the opportunity for as many photos as possible which in turn should mean you give yourself the opportunity of good photos more than you otherwise would and that should hopefully mean that you end up going out with your camera a lot more time some more can you get addicted to candles i don't know but the last thing that i'd say you need as a beginner photographer is something that you actually don't need to spend any money on thankfully which is always good when you start a hobby hobbies are typically expensive and you don't want to spend loads and loads and loads of cash continue well you do but it hurts to do it it's always fun looking at new gear but yeah a bit painful on the wall anyway i'm talking about goal which sounds like a bit of a strange thing to say but most hobbies when you start them have some kind of objective for example if you start playing golf golf has a scoring system if you go fishing like i was talking about before you probably end up counting the number of fish you get it's quite an easy way to measure how good a day you've had in some respects uh if you take up running you'll probably time yourself if you start playing guitar you'll have an appreciation of how many chords you know but in photography your success is harder to measure yourself and typically what people end up doing is trying to work out how good a photographer they are by things like social media likes and stuff which is an awful way to judge how your hobby is going now a common goal that you'll probably hear a lot that lots of photographers aim for me included is to try and get one good photo every time i go out with my camera and when i say good that's good in your eyes only it doesn't have to be good based on anyone else's opinion it just has to be your opinion that said i think there's a better goal a slightly better goal that requires slightly deeper analysis and that is trying to get parts of a photo that you really like and trying to increase the number of those parts of photos that you like over time for example i might go out on my camera this afternoon and i might get five photos that i think are sort of half decent but i might look at each of those photos and identify three things that i like about each of them an example of that might be the sky in one of them it might be a car in another it might be the way the light plays with a tree in another it might be the fog in another it might be have composed some water in another one it might be how i've played with exposure and another one you get the idea just elements of a photo that you like that you can take forward into other photos so i might end up with 15 from my uh hauler photos this afternoon 15 parts of photos overall that i like from my five photos five times three that is 15 isn't it so then the next time i go at my camera the goal is just to beat 15 parts of photos that i like it's not a perfect system yeah and you can cheat it easily yourself by saying oh yeah i quite like that as well and then you just beat your previous score and it's not always going to be uniform typically photography as an improvement process looks a little bit like this it's not a straight line up it's kind of up and down up and down particularly with outdoor photography because the conditions are always changing and the conditions are a huge part of what makes good photos but i find as a tool for improving that kind of analysis much more useful than just working out whether you like an entire photo or not because if you spend time looking at a photo and you like how you've exposed a certain scene or you like the sky and the scene you can learn from each individual element of that and take that forward into other photography trips and days out and that hopefully should improve your photos and hopefully mean that you continually go out with your camera much more so i think than just working out whether you like a whole photo or not uh yeah so that is five things that i think you need is a a big enough photography to blow this out again last time today no more uh right thank you very much for watching and thank you also to today's video sponsor skillshare so skillshare is an amazing online learning platform full of thousands of courses in all kinds of different creative pursuits including photography so there are loads of different classes all about photography on skillshare and you can learn all about composition color editing all that kind of stuff as well as lots of other creative endeavors this month i've been brushing up on my copywriting skills by taking a couple of copywriting classes which i did quite often in my previous life as a marketer when i worked in marketing i did quite a bit of copywriting and i've been starting to think about next year's book which is probably going to include some copy so i've quite enjoyed getting to grips with their words again rather than just trying to make pretty pictures in my life so that's what i've been up to uh so yeah if you're just starting out in any creative hobby including photography i'd really recommend checking skillshare out and the first thousand of my subscribers to click the link in my description will get a free trial to skillshare premium and after that if you decide to carry on you'll pay less than ten dollars a month to access to all the classes that skillshare has to offer so yeah huge thank you to skillshare i'd really recommend checking them out particularly if you're in the early days of your photography journey and thank you for watching a big thank you for watching and i'll see you next time when hopefully and i've said this so many times before i'll be outdoors because i really don't like making videos indoors i'm an outdoors photographer just doesn't really feel right it is much easier though than than trying to talk to a camera when there are 50 mile an hour winds and there's just snow pelting you in the face i can't take my candle on days like that so see you next time [Music] you

Channel: James Popsys

Views: 352,231

Rating: 4.8954606 out of 5

Keywords: photography gear, beginner photographer, choose a camera, best camera, best lens, camera bag, best lenses, photographer buyers guide, camera strap, peak design, james popsys, landscape photography, outdoor photography, better photos, improve photography, photography lesson, photography upgrades

Id: Xm7wH_LR_Tc

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020