DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I gave my son and grandson DSLR's and I worried about how to excite them into learning about exposure so they would enjoy what I love so much. We happened to make a trip to Big Bend, one of my favorite venues. They agreed to go shoot the stars with me one night. I set them both up with spare tripods, put them in manual mode and suggested settings. When they saw images they could make with long exposures they started asking the "whys" and it seemed like their brain lights kicked in and they had a wonderful experience. The next day I gave them the "sunny 16 rule" and things just seemed to come together. Understanding exposure is the essence of photography and when you grasp that YOU, the photographer, control or create your images, you will enjoy it more. Make lots of images and learn to understand how you make them. Have fun.

Harry_in_England

I see you've been given a lot of helpful advice and I would like to add another suggestion: See if you can find a photography club near to you. I looked on Google and found several (I am lucky in that I live in a large city) so I went to the first one on my list, liked it and joined. I was also very lucky because the club I joined runs an annual photography course that is aimed at beginners. I booked on the course and learned a lot from the experienced photographers - both amateur and semi-professional.
I was made very welcome when I attended my first club meeting so I did not need to look any further. Even now I have finished the course everyone there is happy to pass on hints and tips. If you find a club like mine you'll gain huge benefits. If you find a club but find the members 'stand-offish' or too keen to brag about their expensive kit, then look for another one but I doubt you'll have any such problems. Virtually all the photographers I have met are delighted to give a beginner help. Just don't be shy!
And as everyone else here has said - read, practice, experiment and practice some more. As you're using digital, all you'll be wasting is some time which is yours to do as you want with anyway. Take loads of shots, varying settings, angles, time of day etc and evaluate the results on the computer screen. Then make note of what worked and what didn't. I had been pointing cameras at things and pressing the shutter buttons for more than fifty years but it wasn't until I did the course, joined the club and really thought about what I was doing that my photography began to improve. Until then I was still getting lamp posts and trees growing out of peoples' heads and chopping off their toes!
I still have a lot to learn but I get inspiration from seeing what others are doing.
So keep at it, good luck and - above all else - enjoy photography for its own sake. Don't try to please anyone else. Just please yourself and others will like what you're doing because they will see how much it means to you.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

A lot of "Newbies" soon feel overwhelmed by advice that may be beneficial long term, but too much all at once. Your camera will give pretty good exposure advice, probably better than you can in the beginning, so let it do it's thing. Monitor f-stop, shutter and ISO so you can see how the changes affect your image, but concentrate on composition, focus and timing, things your camera is not so good at doing for you. (Yes, your camera has auto focus, but you will be surprised at how many times it will focus on the wrong item.) Start in AUTO, then try different scene modes, like moving subject or macro, to see how the camera adjusts. You may want to eventually try manual, but at first simplify things.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

THAT is a very tall question. I'm thinking that the answer could well be different for every one of us here on the Hog.
On top of that, it depends on the camera you use.
For example: with our grandkids behaving like quicksilver most of the time, I wish I had known about back-button focus from the beginning. It worked great with the camera I was using when I learned about it (Olympus E-5), but could not be done on either of the two cameras I used before that (yes, I checked the manual).

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I need to get a book, too. I'm taking the Photography course on Coursera.org, $49 a month, self-paced more-or-less. Not much handholding to get me through the difficult parts but it's cheap and it's taught by U of Michigan professors of photography. I'm learning the very basics, with practice homework and student reviews to help some. There are LOTS of you-tube videos and forums like this, too, and when I'm stumped I google.
My trouble seems to be that I've been relying on intuition to make these skills automatic, but it doesn't stick, so I have to practice, practice, practice. And read, read, read, and google google google. And then there are the dishes, but they can wait until later.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

You make a good point.

Toment Loc: FL, IL

The Great Courses: Basic Photography by Joel Sartore
A very basic and fun introduction to photography
Get it on sale and watch it carefully and do ALL the other things people here have advised, and you'll know a little and understand that learning will continue indefinitely. Most of all, have fun😃

photonutt1970

simple.. the bigger the # the greater the depth of field

asiafish Loc: Bakersfield, CA

Put a cheap and fast prime lens (35/1.8 G or 50/1.8 D) on your camera and the go out and shoot. Walk around, get low, shoot in the dark and play with different aperture settings. Zoom with your feet.

williejoha

Lots of great advise. The only thing I want to add is. Take plenty of antacids to ward off GAS. Remember, a lot of great shots have been made with some pretty basic tools. Work the heck out of what you have until you know it forward and backward. Be critical of your own work while constantly improving. Use all the resources you can find ( most of them are free) and keep working the shutter. Welcome to the forum and above all have lots of FUN.
WJH

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Shoot like each shot costs you $4; like you are sitting a Polaroid. That will put more thought into each image.

leftj Loc: Texas

$29.99

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Heck load that PDF manual on all your devices! Then study it.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Practice practice practice (digital film is cheap 😜) and know where your computer puts stuff and how if you don't already know that. DSLR's are just another computer accessory. And have fun.

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

Much of the advice has been about the technicalities of photography. A deal of my training at university on photography was based around seeing what other photographers had done. Studying Cartier Bresson, Parkinson, Karsh, Bailey, Adams and many others. That develops your eye. Makes you aware of light and composition.

Most can learn to take a technically accurate image. Becoming an artist is a whole different thing.