Hi,
A beginner again at 68... Almost 40 years ago I was an avid hobbyist with a selection of 35mm and 120 format equipment. I gave up the hobby for a number of reasons and have only taken pictures occasionally since, mostly with inexpensive digital cameras in the last few years. Now, I have a Nikon D3100 (sadly under used) and a new Lumix DMC-fZ300 I purchased to use while traveling out of the country. I am trying to get back into taking pictures regularly and hope to learn from the people in this group who have more expertise and experience.
That's pretty close to a description of me a couple of months ago. What I have learned is to get shooting with a purpose and post some pictures. You will get plenty of great advice if you ask for it. One big aspect of the change to digital is post processing. It is pretty well universally accepted wisdom here that you should be shooting in RAW format and be able to do some PP. Lightroom seems to be the most popular program.
Oh - Welcome.
I have a story very similar to yours...very active in 35mm and 4x5 B&W photography in the 70's ('souped' my own negatives in my own dark room setup) but then, went to sleep on photography for a lot of reasons until 2014. I felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up after a many year sleep only to find that 'digital had happened'.
I started w/ a Nikon D750 and read a few things I could find about digital basics but I found that the single thing that helped me the most was John Greengo's 'Fundamentals of Photography' at
www.creativelive.com. It cost a bit of money but the content is comprehensive and the graphical way of presenting it that John has developed makes learning interesting and entertaining. I REALLY commend that course for your consideration.
I have learned also that some way of cataloging your growing collection of digital photos so that you can find any one by certain criteria is a necessity. After a good deal of research, I settled on LightRoom. The 'post' photography 'work-flow' is a whole new and entertaining aspect of the digital photography world today.
One last hint that I gleaned from two different presenters at a local photo expo last Fall was that not NEARLY all of your photos are worth keeping much less spending time in 'post' to key word and tweak. Culling is a necessary part of the post photography process and the similar remark by two of the presenters that 'I only keep about 10% of what I shoot' took away a lot of the guilt I first experienced as I did my initial culling sessions.
Welcome to the forum. You'll like it here.
MikeMck
Loc: Southern Maryland on the Bay
Welcome. You are never too old to learn and the only dumb question is the one not asked.
Do not worry for age , i have one year more than you and i joint this forum one month ago with much pleasure , there are so many friends with our age , good shooting
Welcome to the group and welcome back to photography, enjoy!
Welcome to the Hog Dalljens, enjoy.
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