What is your best advice for someone who's just starting to learn photography?

I've just started I have a digital Olympus D565, anyone have any good advice for me?What is your best advice for someone who's just starting to learn photography?
OK I am a good fan of Olympus cameras. But What I want to tell you that you should start your photography with manual film camera because this camera will help you to create good idea about lighting, focusing, fov etc. Then go for digital camera which is automatic one. With a digital camera you can get a good picture without any effort and nothing to learn about.


You should creative in this field.What is your best advice for someone who's just starting to learn photography?
First, get to know your camera by studying the manual and by taking lots and lots of pictures as you're reading it (and obviously review the results).





Second, as your skills increase, I highly recommend the book on this review page http://www.outdoorphotoguide.com/gadgets鈥?/a>
I suggest that you just experiment and find what works best for you.
have a steady hand and take your fingers off the flash.
Since it is a digital camera take as many pictures as you can so you can get a feel of what you like and don't like in your pictures. You can easily delete the pictures you don't like and take more trying out your cameras different settings. Remember to save or print the pictures you like. You can easily do this at Walgreens.com or snapfish. Then get help from people such as a clerk at Walgreen's or other photofinishing business (they usually are happy to help and are knowledgeable)
you can read information from http://www.dpreview.com/ a good site with a lot of explainings.Good luck!
first of all read the manual thoroughly so that you know where to find each and every feature your camera has to offer. do a lot of shooting. take a long and hard good critical look at a lot of photographs by famous photographers.
yup buddy... as u hav got nice digital Olympus cam, try to take pics of everything dat u find, may b a glass jar or a distant lamp post.then have a glance at all of them...and u would be able to differentiate them..u will learn ur self from them....
Most photography classes will make you start with film, but will give you a good understanding of how aperature, shutter speed, exposure compensation, ISO, grey scale and ambient light conditions all play into getting a good photo. I think you can actually learn faster with digital because you can instantly see the results and you're not worried about the cost of film and processing. However, to do that, you have to have a basic understanding of all the previous terminology. If your camera has manual control, the owners manual should explain these basics, or you can read info online or at the library. I don't have any specific book references as I took a class and then started teaching myself. Play with multiple settings of the same picture and see which results turn out best.





In a nutshell, aperature (f-stop) is the size of the hole the light is passing through with bigger numbers being smaller holes. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second. You have to have the right combination of these two to get a proper exposure. Modern cameras have a built in light meter that can automatically place these in the proper ratio. Changing the numbers, but keeping the same ratio is called an equivilant exposure and can be used to change depth of field (how much of the photo is in focus) or to stop or show movement. When lighting is difficult or you are trying to get a specific effect, a manual camera can alow you to override what the camera thinks the exposure should be.





If you don't want to take the time to learn all of that, diffuse outdoor light (like dusk, dawn, or an overcast day) with an auto setting should give good results. Backlight and high contrast are very hard to shoot and will almost always turn out poorly (unless you WANT a silhouette) using auto settings. The more manual control you have and use, the better you can make the best of difficult light settings, but it often takes multiple shots to find out what the best will be - hence the advantage of digital.





As far as photo composition - that is all in the eye of the beholder. Shoot what YOU like and try lots of different things to see WHAT you like.





Have fun!
read as many books as possibble and check your local college for any short courses in photography. It really helped me find my niche and discover more about photography and better understand it. Be reminded that not all are good or great at photography and what is good to your eye might not be to others, but stay strong to your eye, for there is always someone who sees beauty as you do.
I took non-credit courses at the local community college. I was taught how to use a camera (SRL 35mm and other formats), darkroom techniques, and photo retouching. The classes were inexpensive and had only a limited number of pupils
I work in a photo center and by playing with cameras all day, I can assure you that an Olympus camera is an excellent choice. You will get awesome pictures from it. If you are not the type of person to sit down and read the owner's manual then just play with the camera as much as you can. I tell people all day long that I can stand there and tell them how to use a camera but they really won't learn until they play with it themselves.





Also, I've heard through the grapevine that Sam's Club and Walmart are holding a Camera Seminar type thing once a month and it is an opportunity for people to bring in their cameras and a photo technician will assist them with using it.





You may also want to try the Olympus Web site. They may have something on there to help you also.