New to the forum/looking for advice

[CDragon]

Hello everyone,

I'm Andy and I've just joined you forum! To give you a quick introduction, I'm 24, I come from Edinburgh in "sunny" Scotland and I've only been doing digital photography for a few months now. I took up photography by complete accident actually! I was looking for a new interest to get me through a difficult time in my life and after finding that photography was quite relaxing I was hooked.

Six months down the line and I've now got myself my first digital SLR camera (a Canon 350D) and I few bits of equipment, but I am still very very new to everything.

I was actually looking for a bit of help to get me started. My friend has asked that I take some portrait photographs of her but as I am so new, I really do not know anything about the best way to photograph your subject. I'd read into lighting and I know my camera capabilities but I really could do with some serious inspiration here.

Bearing in mind this would be my very first attempt at portrait photography (hell, I'm not even sure if that's what to call it) so I don't expect amazing results (I guess the best way to learn something is to get in and do it!). Everything else I have done has been outdoor/landscape etc.

Anyway, it's really great to be here and regardless of the outcome of this little project, I am enjoying photography so much (even if I don't consider myself to be very good!) so any help offered would be a bonus.

Speak to you all soon,

Andy

[BytePhoto]

Andy,
Welcome to BytePhoto and I hope you enjoy the site.
A good way to improve, and get advice, is to shoot some shots and upload them to your free gallery here. To get the most views on your photos enter the weekly Photo Contest and you will most likely get some good advice and critiques from the excellent photographers here.

BTW I know Edinburgh very well. Lived there for ten years Is there still the one o' clock gun ?

[CDragon]

Hey there RVB,

Thanks for the warm welcome mate! Yeah, I'm quite lucky to live in Edinburgh as there is plenty of inspiration almost everywhere, I really have it all on my doorstep!

And as for the advise, I think that's a great idea! I'll post up few of my photographs for everyone to have a look at and tell me what they think. I'd really like to be given as much advise as possible so I may post up a few of the ones I am not totally happy with as well.

Yep, the gun is still regular as always

Andy