Rookies of Photography

jay james · February 2, 2009

Hey everybody out there i am a first year student at a University in Bradford UK. I have a passion for photography and moving pictures. Does anyone have any advice out there for beginners of this art form. Point me to any perticular movies, books, articles or even sites that are about. Its mainly about getting to grips about terminology and technical aspects.

Thanks for taking your time to read this, all the best Jay

Henry Weidemann · February 3, 2009

Hey Jay,

the first advice I can give you is: take a camera and shoot, shoot, shoot. Because this way you can find out if that's really what you wanna do. Try to experiment with the camera and you will learn about its functions and and see how to use them in specific situations. Try as well to experiment with light, just to see how it affects the object(s) you lit and what kind of moods you can create by putting it at different angles. Walk around outside in the nature and keep your eyes open wherever you go. You always get in contact with any kind of light sources no matter if they're natural or artificial, indoors or outdoors. See how it forms the environment and how it shapes the look of things, people, whatever. You will get a feeling for it and it will help you to use it as a narrative tool.

Take a look at paintings and study the way painters used light, colors and the image formation to tell a story. This can be a great source of inspiration (for example Claude Lorraine, Caspar David Friedrich, Jan Vermeer...). Try to study the works of great cinematographers as well. You will find a lot of movies mentioned here in this forum. For example take a look at the works of Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now), Conrad Hall (Road to Perdition), Roger Deakins (The Asassination of Jesse James) or Sven Nykvist (if you are interetsed in B/W).

On the following adress you can find a lot of interviews with famous cinematographers wich is a useful source as well: http://www.cameraguild.com/

I hope I was able to help you a bit. I am a beginner as well, but there are lots of experienced guys around here I am sure they can help you a bit more.

Cheers!

James Martin · February 3, 2009

The internet is a wonderful resource. If you go into your local waterstones (book shop), they will probably have a section on photography books (probably not on cinematography).

I can recommend to you "Perfect Exposure" by Frances Schultz and Roger Hicks. Perhaps pick up a few issues of American Cinematographer (eBay or the AC website) - they give you a good idea of what happens on hollywood sets, a bit more in-depth than DVD extras.

Mark Dunn · February 3, 2009

Although it was written 35 years ago about a man who had bee in the business 50 years I would still read http://www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/qwor...ure%20Cameraman

Freddie Young was one of the greats.- Lawrence, Zhivago, and so on.

Find what you can from John Alcott, usually associated with Kubrick.