The best place to start is to go out and buy one or more beginners books on photography and start reading them..

Go out and take lots of shots of everything. With digital this doesn't cost you anything. Look at the shots that are good and try to work out what you did right. Same for shots that are a total disaster - try to work out why they are wrong..

Best of luck.Chris R..

You need to first understand how to operate the camera. The extent of your success is directly related to your ability to understand the consequences and control of the cameras functions. Use the book that came with it. Find someone that you can learn from one on one or take a class or just read books. Experiment, study, learn, grow, happy...

Just go and enjoy yourself, take photos of everything. You will then see what you are not getting right and start to find out how to improve. As an example you will find that just using auto on the camera wont get good results all the time, a few motion blurred images and then you learn what camera settings to use. Reading books first tends to bog people down with technical information, even reading about composition before having a go tends to stop just shooting and enjoying yourself..

Tony..

Hi Mathew..

Not sure if you have bought your camera yet. The 5700 is a fine machine, however if you are still at the looking stage try and get your hands on a 6500fd, it is generally recognized has having the better sensor and can be bought for around 150. You will have to search around because they are now a bit scarce.Anyway, which ever camera you get you will have fun. May I suggest :-1. learn how to use the aperture, shutter and change the ISO.2. Set ISO to 100 and leave it there for the whole of your first shoot..

3. Set a wide aperture and with the camera in aperture priority mode take 3 shots of say trees with a lot of distance to the next object behind them, then with a narrow aperture take the same three shots again. make sure you focus on the same point ie the trees, for each shot. Also notice how the shutter speed automatically changes when you adjust the aperture.4. Go and download the 6 shots and notice how the background focus has changed..

5. Pour a glass of drink and sit back in a comfortable chair. Relax in the knowledge that you are starting to understand what the aperture control does.6. Post the results.Good luck and enjoy.Richard...

Ok. I know that's not easy. But do take a moment and think about what you want to do. Before people here can help you much you need to be able to express what sort of photos you want to take. Have you given that much though yet?.

If you are serious and (obviously) excited about photography I wholeheartedly reccommend you get a camera that allows you full manual control over the exposure process. (I have no idea of the specs on the camera you mentioned.) Manual focus is not nearly as important, but can be interesting..

Make yourself learn how to manually expose for desired effect (notice I didn't say correct exposure) using the built in metering system and adjusting the aperture and shutter for the desired effects they bring. Understand that for any given exposure there are a number of combinations in aperture/shutter speed/ISO that give different results and how to achieve each and every one of them if need be..

Then you can use the auto and priority modes with comfort and know how to override them when need be..

Otherwise it's mostly luck. *grin*.

Good luck!Chefziggyhttp://www.pbase.com/chefziggy/lecream.

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Matthew Sims wrote:.

Im hoping to get my camera either today ortommorrow and was wondering wether or not to make a trip to somewhererural the weekend to get me started?.

No...