SiWatts90 said:
I'm not sure whether i'm having an early midlife crisis or not and the Mrs say's it's rather gay but a couple of months back whilst out on my bike, I decided I wanted a new 'hobby'. Bought myself a Canon 650d and have started to really enjoy snapping lots of different subjects, mainly buildings of interest.
Anyone else into photography? amateur or pro..
After some recommendations of books etc to help me to the next level
As others have pointed out, no need to buy any books, yet. There are lot of sites with plentiful information, and good forums as well.
http://digital-photography-school.com/ can be a good place to start.
http://www.dpreview.com/ have active forums and lots of stuff and
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/ for good info on Canon lenses.
I don't know what lense(s) you've got, but I would guess you got it kitted with a 18-55 mm. This should be a good lense for buildings and architecture, and a great beginners lense. If shooting architecture becomes your thing you will in time want to consider getting a wider focal length, e.g a Canon EF-S 10-22 mm and ultimately a tilt-shift lense (where you can shift the focal plane(very expensive)). I had the same camera last year, and I used the Canon EF-S 15-85 mm lens on it (a lot). This is somewhat more expensive than the 18-55, but it has a very useful reach and top image quality. Highly reccomended.
Start out by learnig the basics about ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Also seek out some videos about basic composition. After a while you will consider shooting in RAW format instead of JPG. This will enable you to do a lot of work on your pictures in post. (adjusting white balance, exposure, noise reduction etc..) I highly reccomend Adobe Lightroom (much more important than Photoshop). This will control your workflow and give you most of the editing tools you'll need. You can get a 30 day free trial from Adobe. An absolute must IMO.
Seek out the aftermarket scene in UK. The nice thing about buying into the more expensive Canon lenses on the aftermarket is that the prices are very stable. You could have a lens "on loan" for a few years and then sell it on for nearly the same price.
Enjoy!