Any photographers out there?

[OutComeTheWolves]

For a long time now I've been wanting to learn how to take 'proper' photographs, by have never got around to it mainly due to the cost.

Anyway, the other week dh came in with a proper dlsr camera for me as a gift. I was over the moon as he's not one to surprise me like that anyway.

So I've been practising and practising, reading the instructions and trying to find stuff on you tube and my photos are still shit. I'm getting disheartened already because I can take nicer photos on my phone.

My questions for any photographers out there are how long did it take before you were taking decent photos and is it actually when you edit it on your computer that it becomes good? Which editing software should I be using?

Thanks in advance- any tips at all will be gratefully received!

Anyone?

What type of photos do you like to take? And what don’t you like about your dslr photos?
Your phone processes your photos automatically, switching to a dslr you may need to do some of this processing yourself - especially if you are using raw files and not JPEG’s. Put your camera in auto mode and it will do this processing for you.
Lightroom is good - it will organise your photos and do more than basic edits. I use it to improve my photos rather than anything very arty.
Phlearn in YouTube is very good.
If you are in Facebook there are many beginner photography groups where you can ask advice on your photos.
Don’t jump straight into full manual mode but experiment in Apature and shutter speed modes whilst you learn your way around the exposure triangle (useful to google if you don’t already know what this is).

Thank you snaffle I think I'm just feeling disheartened because on my phone I can take a pic, stick a filter on it and it'll look good!
I think it's just so long since I've learned a new skill, that I was surprised that it didn't just happen straight away. I'm going to stick at it though.

Our local camera shop does 2hr (or it might be 4hr) sessions for people New to dslr cameras. It might be worth asking. Maybe ask for that for a Christmas present.

If you like the look of phone filters then look into the photo editing side like learning Lightroom or similar. All a phone filter does is apply a preset of adjustments - like tone adjustment / brightness / shadows etc. You can easily learn these yourself or if you want to Lightroom to do it automatically there are presets you can click (or download custom ones) which do this same thing for you on one click too.
But you’ll get better results in the long run once you have a better handle of your camera. Keep practicing! :-)

Keep taking photos. I would definately recommend a course so that you get to know your camera better. If you've got kids and like to take photos then I would recommend doing an online course with Photography for Parents- this has improved my photos no end and is easy to understand with no jargon. I would also upgrade your lens, I adore my 35mm prime.
Happy shooting.

I've some of Dan Eitreim's photkgraphy ebooks that I like. If you have a lookin the kindle store there's usually one for free you can have a look at. And yes yes to using photo editing software.

Choose a field that interests you (action, landscape, wildlife, children etc), there are different techniques for each and trying to learn them all in one go is hard.
I know it sounds odd, but start using the camera initially in auto mode as the first thing to learn is how to frame and compose your shot through the view-finder, once you have got used to this then you can start experimenting. If you can find a local course use it, otherwise there are lots of on-line tutorials about focus, aperture, exposure control, shutter speed, depth of field etc.
Unless you are blessed with the skill to easily compose and envisage what the final image will look like, slow down. 1 good shot in 1/2 hour beats hundreds of images fired-off with no thought (unless you are doing press/action shots, but that's a specialised field in its own right)

Learn how to use your camera. Shaw academy do online courses for free or relatively cheap. Or you can pick up a "how to" type book for digital photography.
There's a book called "how to take great photographs" which will help you with composition and light at a basic level. It's a good jumping off point, once you know how your camera works. Learn how to take photos in manual mode, where you control all the settings. Take photos in RAW format and you'll need to process them with software after, but you'll get much better quality photos.

Lightroom and Photoshop are the industry standard, but there are free softwares out there too. Aperture is one I know some people use (I'm not sure if it's free or not). Google NIX (or it might be Google NIC, can't remember) is free and pretty cool.
Lightroom and Photoshop is difficult if you've never used it before, but you can do a course or watch YouTube tutorials. You can also get presets for lightroom, which is kinda like Instagram filters - all the editing work is done for you, depending what effect you want.