Photography for Beginners: essential techniques and best cameras

There has never been a better time to pick up photography. Beginners today have access to extraordinary consumer technology, from smartphones through to interchangeable-lens cameras, plus an entire internet of resources at your disposal. While previous generations cut their teeth on the big, clunky DSLRs of the early 2000s or film cameras from the decades before, today’s camera manufacturers have hit their stride. No one makes a bad camera anymore. No one. Manufacturers have found ways to pack incredible technology into smaller bodies, streamline the menu systems, and make beginner photography genuinely accessible by giving photographers unprecedented control over the picture-taking process — even allowing you to change your area of focus after taking the image, on cameras like the Canon EOS R5 Mark II and the Sony A7 V. As digital cameras have improved, and the number of camera types has expanded to include everything from compact cameras to...