Over the last year or two I’ve got more and more into photography. I’ve learned a little and read a bit, so when friends mention they’re thinking about getting into photography, I’m keen to pass on all of the things I wish I knew when I was getting started. The truth is: photography can be easy or devilishly tricky, depending on how deep you want to go and what you want to do.

So: ultimately, there’s trial-and-error. However, here’s some useful notes I’m collecting that might clear things up in the early days, or save a little headache / regret.

Note: I’m simplifying here and some things aren’t technically true, or sometimes phrased in a misleading way. There might be genuine mistakes (halfway through writing this sentence, I spotted one in the paragraph below) but writ large this is written with an aim to giving you a leg up, understanding a field with tricky terminology and lots of technical detail. Photography is quite an intense blend of science and art. I deliberately sacrifice some accuracy for accessibility, because if you do get into all this, you’ll be able to discover the subtleties for yourself. Getting bogged down in detail early on is a great way to get bored and lose interest, and then the detail doesn’t matter anyway! In my opinion, what’s important is making good decisions early on to accelerate learning on one’s own.

So, this should help you make good decisions for a beginner, even if for reasons that might have — occasionally — been white lies.

What are you shooting?

The camera you actually use, until you’re getting quite into things, rarely matters more than getting out there and practicing, and learning what you can from more experienced folk. There’s a real trove of tutorials and photography edutainment on YouTube. Search around and find somebody you like. Try to resist the urge to get Fancy Gear. Play with different types of photography. Maybe you find landscapes calming and enjoy getting out into nature; maybe you want to capture little everyday moments; maybe you want to find scenes on the streets and snap little urban moments; maybe you want to practice for special moments, the weddings and graduations and first-time-house-buyings; maybe you like abstract shapes and colours.

To find the type of photographs you like to take, I think it’s best to experiment. You’ll quickly learn what’s fun and what’s dull. Personally, I’m never satisfied with landscapes, but portraits of loved ones and everyday moments are fun to take. Turns out I love food photography. But if you can’t get out that much, finding photographers whose work you like might be a good way to see what inspires you. Think about why they’re inspiring. Some photographers I quite like, for starters:

• Ali Bosworth was the first photographer I found myself really enjoying
• Om Malik absolutely rocks the black-and-white-landscape vibe
• Sam Hurd’s wedding photography is endlessly inspiring. So creative! So clever!
• Yoshito Hasaka does brilliant stuff with shade; right now I’m trying to learn how they get such strong atmosphere in their photos.
• Tom Smith gets lovely colour out of food photography
• Craig Mod is my photography idol. His photos aren’t the most technically complex and intricate of this set, but I’m enthralled by them every time a little newsletter pops up like a gem from the swampy depths of my inbox.

The point is this: if you wanted to learn to write, you’d be reading, and getting a feeling for the genre you want to write and the kind of writing that speaks to you. Poetry, short story, non-fiction? Stephen King, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry? Doing the same will focus your photography practice. You won’t actually take photos if you don’t like the results, so it’s a good use of an afternoon to think about what you like.

Gear

Gear! What about gear? What camera to buy? That’s the exciting stuff.

Man, phone photos are great these days, even if — as noted in the recent editorial at the beginning of this essay — you can get better shots with a Big Big Camera. There are tradeoffs with these things. Excellent cameras can get expensive, bulky, and heavy quickly, and so often (if you like to shoot, say, urban scenes or everyday personal moments) you need to have it with you to get the shot! So: avoid the expensive purchases early on. Your phone’s probably great.

That said, just using a phone doesn’t teach you some things that are kind of interesting. Also, you’ve got a phone, so if you wanted to use that to get into photography you’d not be reading this anyway. So. I’ve bought a few rounds of gear and learned a little about what I like (and don’t), here’s some quick tips.

• The photography community say you “date the body, but marry the lens”. Meaning: over time, your investment in lenses will trounce that of any body, and the body’s likely to break first too. Early on, a cheap mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses is brilliant.
• Get something used from a reputable site. Cameras break easily in subtle ways, so people who know cameras will sell you reliably good gear. I use MPB, personally.
• The biggest differences between your phone and a dedicated camera are computational photography and sensor size. Bigger sensors capture more light (which, very bluntly, translates to better photos, not that it’s so simple). Computational photography lets you do more with less.
  • Your phone’s computational power is what lets its take a relatively unremarkable bit of kit and get incredible photos out of it, especially in low-light and other challenging conditions. You’ll likely be disappointed the first time you take photos of a dark scene with a strong camera. (But, with only a little photography and editing knowledge, you’ll begin to overcome this — don’t give up!)
  • That bigger sensor will be a huge boost as you get deeper into photos of, say, people or food. Take a photo of a loved one’s face reasonably close-up with a low “f number” and you’ll see the benefit; it’ll look a little like your phone’s portrait mode, but likely more natural and professional.
• Sticking with sensors — they’re important! — be aware that a bigger sensor generally means something heavier, bigger, and pricier, with larger, heavier lenses too. It’s no joke. A standard setup for generalist photography with a “big sensor” is about 1.2kg vs a “medium sensor” at 0.7kg or 0.5kg with a “small sensor”.
  • (That’s a Sony A7iv with FE 35mm F1.4 vs Fuji X-T5 with XF 23mm F2 vs OMSystem OM-5 with Panasonic 20mm F1.7, if you’re fact checking.)
  • A sensor size explainer:
    • A “big” sensor is “full-frame”, or “35mm”. It’s the same size as the sensitive area of photographic film. Common brands are Sony, Canon, and Leica.
    • A “medium” sensor is “APS-C”. They’re about two thirds the area of a full-frame. Common brands are Fujifilm and, weirdly, also Sony.
    • A “small” sensor is “micro four-thirds”. They’re half the area of a full-frame. Common brands are Panasonic and Olympus, now OM-system.

Lenses

Lenses are quite tricky to figure out and make a surprising difference, so here’s some useful info.

• Assuming you go for an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera, you’ll also need a lens. A low “f number” is good. There are two types of lens: zoom and prime. Prime lenses don’t zoom, but they’ll generally give you lower “f numbers”, so there’s a trade-off.
• If you’re learning, picking up a prime makes you actually think about your photos. You “zoom” with your feet.