Sharing with other new photographers...

DeVore

For anyone who is thinking about taking the plunge and getting into this, I have to say I've really enjoyed it and it wasnt nearly as tough as I thought it would be once I learned a few things. So I thought I'd start a thread for us N00bs just to put in the few things I learned (remember, not everyone knows how to white balance a RAW file etc... some of us are still working out which way to point the thing!)
So, offered without prejudice here are some things I learned on my recent trip.

1. Dont try and force shots, the best shots are just ones I was lucky with! (Like the dog).

2. Take lots of shots. You can pick out the fantastic looking shot and Recycle Bin the other 563 and noone will know. Honestly if you saw some of the utterly headless, blurred muck I deleted without a second glance, you'd laugh me out of the forum

3. Get Picasa2 from google, Get a gmail account, Get a flickr.com account. They all work together and make it a total doddle to group, edit and post pics.
I will explain in detail if anyone needs it. Seriously, this was a godsend.

4. Dont try and pose stuff, it will look posed (this was hard for me, I'm a control freak for stuff like that), get creative, get wacky and see point 2.

5. No-flash is your friend. I'd say I barely used the flash on my Canon 350D 2 dozen times. The colours just seemed richer and a bit of Gamma in post processing seemed to give me a more even light.

DeV.

Ruu_Old

I found myself very frustrated at the start with regarding the amount of shots taken. I would snap away, go home and look at them "WTF! One shot out of 200!". Then just came to realise that I can do more with one or two pictures. I consider myself more of an experiemental digital artist. I only have an old point and shoot but should have myself a nice SLR in the near future which I am looking forward to using.:) Good advice.

DeVore

Cant believe you took your shots with an old point and shoot. I thought you were using top gear!! Wait till you get an SLR, it changed the way I thought about photography. It possibly made me lazier and I now shoot a load of shots hoping to catch one

Please explain how you "added clouds" to Off The Rails. Some of your post processed stuff is sick, man!

DeV.

Ruu_Old

Simple enough and there is probably a much easier way to do it but anyway I just used the magic wand tool (in Photoshop 6.0) and that pretty much selected most of the sky. The rest I had to do manually with the lasso tool (think you hold down the Shift key to keep the current selection). Then with the sky selected, find a stock photo of some nice, fluffy clouds and Edit->Paste Into. Any other bits from the original sky showing, I just go around after with the clone brush best I can.
I have my eye on a nikon d50 with some nice beginner stuff that will get me going for a decent enough price on eBay and being in the US helps with things being a bit cheaper.

Zillah

DeVore wrote:

2. Take lots of shots. You can pick out the fantastic looking shot and Recycle Bin the other 563 and noone will know. Honestly if you saw some of the utterly headless, blurred muck I deleted without a second glance, you'd laugh me out of the forum

Thats how everyone works I just got back from NY, and had taken about 500 photos, theres about three or four I really like.

Thats one of the best things about digital. You can snap ten shots of something interesting while knowing that you're wasting nothing.

3. Get Picasa2 from google, Get a gmail account, Get a flickr.com account. They all work together and make it a total doddle to group, edit and post pics.
I will explain in detail if anyone needs it. Seriously, this was a godsend.

Alternatively, get Photoshop by any means neccessary. Brilliant program if you're willing to learn. I'm also a fan of DeviantArt, flickr seems a bit bare.

311

Don't do what I did ,and keep buying lenses and accessories .
It's possible to take pictures with a disposable camera that you will cherish for a lifetime ,a digital SLR makes it even more fun.

Don't take it too serious or it will eat you up

mikeanywhere

And it also costs nothing to decide which ones to keep/use as all you do is add it to the computer and view & recycle (as mentioned earlier).

Beef

Thank God! I thought I was the only one who took 200 pics to get maybe 2 or 3 that I think are okay! Ruu, I recently got the D50 (last week) and I'm delighted with it. Working with the kit lens but while I'm learning tis enough! Good advice guys btw...

colmranger

Thanks nice advise, nice to know there are others out there in same boat as myself,

For the last year i read www.dpreview.com every day. There are mostly experts on that forum its so nice to read posts from local starters bit like myself.

Cheers.

Wez

I'm roughing it, sticking with film for a while.. Going back to the roots!

I'm planning on getting a proper digital slr in the very near future.. I have an Olympus sp-500uz at the minute, which is good, but I wanna get something decent. I'm trying to decide between the 400d (maybe even waitin for 40d) 350d 300d or 30d. I'm being realistic and I don't wanna spend an extra couple hundred on something I'm not gonna get the use of, in fairness, a 6.3mp dslr is more than enough for the amateur! Although I'm planning on trying to get into photojournalism eventually. But then there's the arguement that I can get something 'rustic' like the 300d and then when I get serious, upgrade to the latest. I'm in college at the minute, studying photograph and absolutely love it! Have to give major thanks to Paul aka Cambo_gueno for giving me his old film camera, which I was really stuck for when I was starting this course and he met me outside college that morning and gave me the camera. I'm finding it absolutely brilliant! Really helped me get into photography after seeing how friendly the people are.

Fajitas!

EVERYBODY takes loads of shots.

I think it was Ansel Adams that had a phrase...can't remember the exact one, but along the lines of "7 excellent photos in a year is a good crop".

My advise...don't be afraid to experiment. Just because the book says one thing, dosn't mean it has to be done that way. Just as long as you know what the book says

DeVore

Elven's recent post made me think of posting things I'd learned in the last while. Perhaps others can identify with learning these things or suggest things they've learned themselves.

Disclaimer: I am a n00b. I know less then some people here have forgotten. I mostly work out which way to point this thing and regularly forget to take the cap-thing off. Here is what I have discovered lately:

1. Doing things you're own way rocks, but the cumulative wisdom is wisdom because it generally works better. Give it a try too.

2. Try not centering your subject or shooting it straight on. "Funky" sometimes works (though sometimes it doesnt!). Shoot both, decide later.

3. Crop is your friend. It can make you look like an artist when really you deserve a smack upside the head. So long as you dont point the camera directly at something wrong, you can always crop it out and if you REALLY have to crop a lot, claim you were "experimenting with macro"
Shooting in hi-res is a good idea, you can crop more without losing image size. Yes its cheating. The ends justify the means and besides, noone is watching.

4. Horizons at 1/3rd from the bottom or one third from the top look great. But you can break those "rules" and get away with it too. Middle of the photo horizons tend not to look so good.

5. Like cooking if you start with excellent stuff, theres only so far you can screw it up. Light is incredibly important, overcast days seem to make a huge difference and early or late seems better then actually during the day. Go figure. Starting with bright contrasting colours seems to work for me. Be Warned: this will produce pictures that will probably appeal to DeVore, possibly not to you.

6. I avoid sentimentality but sometimes fail. I find I include pics I shouldnt because they mean something to ME. Thats great and pictures should but there is a difference between holiday snaps and artistic photography in my opinion. The two can exist in the same picture of course, but consider why you like the picture and what others will see in it, thats if you are shooting for others... if you arent then to hell with them

7. Twiddling things at random on the camera can lead to completely black screens. Often I feel like a caveman with a jaw bone.

8. Good workflow and tools are paramount, you'll get more done and enjoy it more, not to mention you will have better post processing results. At least half of the pics I have now were garbage before PP. You dont need mad skillz, just crop, levels, contrast, saturation and some shadows and highlights at most.

DeV.

Backtoblack

YaY! Encourage & some tips!
On behalf of the people that can't focus their cameras yet (oops!), thankQ!

GristlyEnd

Come to a boards.ie photography meet. They are also a great boost when you lose the mojo for taking pictures.

TelePaul

DeVore wrote:

2. Take lots of shots. You can pick out the fantastic looking shot and Recycle Bin the other 563 and noone will know. Honestly if you saw some of the utterly headless, blurred muck I deleted without a second glance, you'd laugh me out of the forum

Funny ya should say this. I started with film, so I was always gonna be limited to 24/36 shots anyway. Plus I'm a student, so another oll sometimes means another ten euro or thereabouts, which I can't always afford. Digital convenience is amazing. It's probably made me lazy too!

DeVore

No offence to the obvious pros here, I love to look at their stuff and think "some day I'll take a shot like that" but sometimes the whole "75mm-telephote lens, with the 3 stop optical zoom is fine but I prefer the DSLR saturation filter for my macro work" is a little daunting when you're still at the "so I shouldnt point the roundy bit at the sun then?" stage.

I would say that any fellow n00b's out there should put their stuff up and link it.
Firstly, no one is going to go "God your photos offend my sensibilities, be gone gone I tell you before you infect us with your poor focal skills!". Well, not while I'm around anyway
Even if they do, so one person on the internet doesnt like your photos. You'll live I'm sure.

Secondly you will take better shots because of it. I dont mean you'll get lots of help and hints and tips and advice, though you will get that too, I mean that the very act of putting together a set of photos for display will concentrate your mind though sheer fear and you will get stuff I'm sure you never thought you were capable of.

When I put together my Malta set I think I spent about 5 days polishing 30 out of about 600 pics but at the end of it I was happy and proud of them. Some had obvious flaws that even my PS skills couldnt eradicate (is there a PS filter for "put head back on?") but they were mine and I liked them and that was enough. If it had been 5 pics, I would have just put up 5.
Doing it escalated my enjoyment of photography to near addiction levels.
(warning it may lead to you looking like a mentaller, wandering around looking for cool angles even when you dont have a camera with you)

So give it a shot and maybe we should have a once off n00b contest and have the pros judge it.... ? Just a thought.

DeV.

DeVore

I've just realised I posted this over a year ago. A stint without my company DSLR led me to take the plunge and invest in a second hand 400D. So, what have I learned recently...

Lenses are like totally important d00d! I took my first baby step into the frankly scary and bewildering world of glass. I dipped a toe in and bought the nifty fifty for my Canon and after a few weird days of "why the hell doesnt this zoom" and learning the limitations and benefits of the lens, I've discovered that all those pros are cheating bastids who just use savage lenses

I jest of course but only partly! I couldnt achieve some of my recent stuff with the kit lens, the camera just wouldnt give me that lovely bokeh feel. (I have gone completely mad for bokeh now, I'm addicted to that soft out of focus look and sharp focal point).

Having your workflow even vaguely sorted out takes a lot of the pain out of post processing (which is where I have been being very very lazy lately!).

That photography is really a mix of two art forms... one in camera and one in computer. You can take awesome shots and never post process or you can take fairly mundane shots and still PP something fairly awesome out of it. The reason people get cranky about this subject is that they simply havent identified that they are different but dependant art-forms.

Dont drop your camera, its not a ball.

Shoot as big as you can so you can crop a shot and still have res to play with. I have a few shots where the main subject simply didnt work but in the background I caught something and being able to crop to that and PP it turned a crap shot into a great one (if somewhat unexpected!).

I shouldnt point this thing at the big bright yellow thing in the sky. Its not good.

Get a good kit bag. Mine is awesome and nice and compact with lots of thought having gone into it. Its made things a lot easier and certainly beats putting lenses in your pocket!

I'm sure theres more but I cant think of it off the top of my head!

DeV.

sineadw

DeVore wrote: »

Dont drop your camera, its not a ball.

DeV.

Zip up your suitcase containing your beloved 5D *BEFORE* you stand it upright in the airport lounge and send glass and body clattering to the floor and making horrible horrible sounds you never want to hear again..

Great thread though

Borderfox

Some great tips reading this thread.

As Devore has said above us pro's are cheating basta**s that have a bag full of savage glass just waiting to come out when its needed but it still doesnt take away from the fact that taking more pictures helps you improve.
Meeting up with like minded people helps a lot.
You can get lucky shots but if you place yourself well and read situations or the subject you will increase your chances of hitting the mark more often
And yes Sinead good advice about zipping up before you go-go

mikeanywhere

sineadw wrote: »

Zip up your suitcase containing your beloved 5D *BEFORE* you stand it upright in the airport lounge and send glass and body clattering to the floor and making horrible horrible sounds you never want to hear again..

Ahh yes, that noise is quite disturbing especially in front of a group of people at a wedding as you are about to get them together for their shots.

Weidii

Yeah, I've been shooting since the end of the summer so all the technical lens relaed jargon (and even some simple camera stuff) still goes over my head. I think doing is the best way to learn these things, you might find that your lens doesn't do something you want it to, then you try out a new one and it feels different. Well if you compare the specs on them you will get a feel for what all those strange numbers mean. Kinda like with aperature, iso, etc. I find that messing around with them and paying attention to how your picture changes with the numbers is a great way of getting a grip on what they mean.

sasar

DeVore wrote: »

2. Take lots of shots. You can pick out the fantastic looking shot and Recycle Bin the other 563 and noone will know. Honestly if you saw some of the utterly headless, blurred muck I deleted without a second glance, you'd laugh me out of the forum

I would dissagree with this one.
You need to think about each shot that you take.

DeVore

I think about each *setup* I take, like the lighting the angle etc... but once I've done that, I run 10+ shots of each just to be sure

I must admit something awful though. A confession so heinous I fear you will shun me in future... I'm still shooting on Auto
I've managed to find ways of getting it to do what I want and then I post process anything else in later

I really really must get my head around ISO and apeture and all that malarky but every time I try I get a white or black screen
My goal for 2009 is to get myself off that crutch!

DeV.

dakar

DeVore wrote: »

My goal for 2009 is to get myself off that crutch!

Just do it!

I made a September resolution last year (hate New Year's resolutions, never stick to them!) to go cold turkey and give up auto and haven't looked back.

Of course it helps that when I upgraded to a 2nd hand D300, there is no auto, but I'm glad I had a few months shooting under my belt with my trusty old D50 without a safety net (unless you count taking loads of shots at different settings as a safety net!)

You'll be amazed at how quickly it becomes second nature not letting the electronic gremlins in your camera make your creative decisions for you.

DonkeyStyle \o/

DeVore wrote: »

I really really must get my head around ISO and apeture and all that malarky but every time I try I get a white or black screen
My goal for 2009 is to get myself off that crutch!

Try shooting in aperture priority (Av)... you just pick what ever aperture you want and the camera will adjust the shutter speed for you... great way to get used to using the different apertures and still getting usable pics.
It's pretty cool actually with the nifty 50(f1.8)... try taking some portraits at f2.8, it's God damn sharp and you get a nice soft background... just try it for the day, it's the bizzle shnizlle.
I had a boner for using Manual all the time, but I found it took way too long to set everything up... especially if you're moving in and out of shade all the time, or a cloud comes over.

I don't use f1.8 much any more, since the depth of field is so thin, I find the whole photo looks out of focus... the thing I still haven't gotten my head around is what DOF I can get using different apertures at different distances... like I experimented one day using f1.8 to take a landscape shot... it looked pretty fcked up.
Then if I bump it down to f10 I'm back in camera-shake land again.

I also had a boner for stupidly using ISO100 all the time, even indoors, but I learned my lesson when most of my shots were destroyed by camera shake.

I wouldn't poo-poo using the built-in flash either... it can be cool sometimes... lately I've taken to sticking the camera on a tripod and holding a blank sheet of A4 in front of the flash to diffuse/bounce it... really gets rid of the harsh look.

DeVore

yeah, I think my next purchase is going to be an upgrade to the flash system. the 400D tends to make everything look like its caught in the headlights of an articulated truck.

DeV.

dreamer_ire

Folks

This is soooo useful, thank you! I'm about to buy my first dslr and it's great to see people talking in English about how to make it work.

Thanks again

DeVore

I'll keep going as I venture into the land of "non-auto" shooting (I'll try suggestions above) but do feel free to dump any n00b bits of wisdom you think of here!

Dreamer, I know exactly what you are talking about. I have no idea about that stuff and it intimidates the bejaysis out of me but I'm learning (slowly). I've worked out not to point the roundy bit at the sun so far

DeV.

dakar

DeV, I think the best piece of advice that gets bandied about here to people in your situation is to get your hands on 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. Great book!

Ricky91t

Your first 10,000 photos are your worst
I like that saying

charybdis

For those of you with the 50mm f/1.8 eager to get out of the Green Box:

1. Switch to Aperture Priority (Av)
2. Turn the dial beside the shutter button until the number on the LCD reads "1.8"
3. Make sure you are nailing focus when you hit the shutter

Nailing focus can be difficult if you are using multiple focus points, find out how to just select your center focus point and start taking photos where the most important part of the scene is firmly planted under the center focus point, e.g.: if taking a picture of a person, make sure it's aimed squarely at their nearest eye.

You can worry about framing in post and just crop out the shot you want, make sure you give yourself enough elbow room if you think you're going to have to crop pretty hard.

Eventually though, you'll probably learn how to quickly select the most appropriate focus point for the shot you are composing and will be better able to compose and frame in-camera.

Try to avoid the ol' "focus and recompose" technique at large apertures (such as f/1.8) as the more you recompose, the more out of focus you'll throw your shot.

In short:

1. 50mm f/1.8 Lens
2. Av
3. f/1.8
4. center focus point
5. think of the viewfinder as a crosshair

Freddie59

dakar wrote: »

DeV, I think the best piece of advice that gets bandied about here to people in your situation is to get your hands on 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. Great book!

+1 to that! It changed my photographic life. After shooting in auto for years!

Freddie59

charybdis wrote: »

For those of you with the 50mm f/1.8 eager to get out of the Green Box:

1. Switch to Aperture Priority (Av)
2. Turn the dial beside the shutter button until the number on the LCD reads "1.8"
3. Make sure you are nailing focus when you hit the shutter

Nailing focus can be difficult if you are using multiple focus points, find out how to just select your center focus point and start taking photos where the most important part of the scene is firmly planted under the center focus point, e.g.: if taking a picture of a person, make sure it's aimed squarely at their nearest eye.

You can worry about framing in post and just crop out the shot you want, make sure you give yourself enough elbow room if you think you're going to have to crop pretty hard.

Eventually though, you'll probably learn how to quickly select the most appropriate focus point for the shot you are composing and will be better able to compose and frame in-camera.

Try to avoid the ol' "focus and recompose" technique at large apertures (such as f/1.8) as the more you recompose, the more out of focus you'll throw your shot.

In short:

1. 50mm f/1.8 Lens
2. Av
3. f/1.8
4. center focus point
5. think of the viewfinder as a crosshair

Am I unique because I mainly shoot in M mode on a 450D?:)

charybdis

Freddie59 wrote: »

Am I unique because I mainly shoot in M mode on a 450D?:)

Shooting in full manual is fine, but a fast lens, wide open, without having to worry about exposure or ISO can be incredibly rewarding for a new SLR user as it really lets them exploit the 2 things they probably have been reaching for with the upgrade from a point & shoot, i.e.: shallow depth of field and good low-light performance.

I usually alternate between M and Av, but I spend the vast majority of my time in Av, especially when not in a situation with consistent light such as taking photos at a family/freinds gathering. Manually setting shutter, aperture, and ISO is all well and good, but if you want to capture something quickly I find it much better to just lock the aperture and worry about the focus/focus points.

The only other thing I'd recommend to people who want to move outside the fully automatic modes is to remember to set your white balance in the camera when you are about to start shooting (that or shoot RAW and set WB in post).

I also use a 450D, well "Kiss X2" actually.