If you are just starting out in photography, what overwhelms you?

[Addisonjones]

When I was first starting out in photography I had so many questions. There were so many different numbers and  people didn't explain it in a way that I understood it. After learning the camera, the next step was figuring out how to shoot with people and where to just start.

I have met so many people that love photography, want to start shooting photography and then just don't do it.  I would love to help share how to breakthrough those overwhelming thoughts so you can move forward doing your passion.

I am curious- to the people just picking up the camera. What is the most overwhelming/intimidating part for you?

[Tronhard]

I think most of us had a bias towards either the left brain, which is inclined more towards the technical, or the right brain, the more abstract or creative side.  I think there is a strong need in many of us to engage both. I am lucky in that both by nature and nurture I have used both, pretty much in balance.  It doesn't mean I have mastered either - far from it, and as I get older I struggle with some of the former, but it helps to keep my mind active.

[Tintype_18]

As I mentioned, I pair the camera with the manual. Read, try, experiment. I also like to take photos and compare, checking the different settings for the best photo before any editing.

[Tronhard]

There is one area that I find challenging, and that is the digital darkroom.  When I started it was transparencies, so one was judged on what came out of the camera as a slide, rather than with a layer of manipulation in the darkroom.  I shot that way until I went digital, and have not become sophisticated in using PS or LR.  I can make corrections, change the basics, but I don't manipulate layers, or add or remove things.
Don't get me wrong, from the beginning I have seen post processing as a very valid stage in the creative process.  Ansel Adams likened the negative to a musical score and the PP as the interpretation of it by the conductor, and I think that is an elegant analogy.
Still, I am OK with that level and am concentrating my studies on the art side, both for photography and across the disciplines of painting as well.