Originally Posted by Keith B
I like this advice.
I particularly like this line haha.
I like this advice.
I particularly like this line haha.
I'm pretty new (one year) to slr photography too, but I have learned a lot by reading books. I tried to just start shooting, but all I got was garbage. And confused by all the buttons. So...
1. Get a book on the T1i. I have a XS, and Ben Fong wrote a great book on it. It covers every single button and setting, and in English, not owners-manual-poorly-translated-engineer-speek. Without this book, I'd probably still be on auto.
2. "Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby. After downloading trial versions of the Adobe software, I decided LR2 was for me, and almost immediately got this book. It stays by my computer. Postproduction work can make your photos pretty bad if you don't know what you're doing.
3. "Digital Photography" by Scott Kelby. I borrowed this one, so I'm paraphrasing the title, but it is an awesome book. Now that I'm typing this out, I don't really remember what I learned from it, but I read it at least four times, and really enjoyed it. He has a pretty corny sense of humour, which works for me.
4. Take lots of photos! Move around when you shoot. Move your subject around (if you can). Never take just one photo.
5. Look at other photographers work.Decide what you like, and why, and try to figure out what they did to get that look.
Enjoy!
Lewis
Go shoot fires. Work with your local fire department (or find a website or scanner that'll let you follow them independently, but working WITH them will help grease the skids with the cops) and go shoot fire runs. At sporting events, you can get to the shoot as early as you want. At fires, you'd better have your bag/kit well laid out, memory cards loaded, settings preset, etc. If it's a house fire, you have at best 30 minutes of good shooting; after that, it's time for candids of the weary faces of the crews because your original subject no longer exists.
I used to manage a mini-website that tracked San Antonio FD's live dispatches (they now do most of what I was doing then at http://epay.sanantonio.gov/activefire/). I saw this apartment fire come in as I was getting ready to leave work. A ten-minute drive in evening rush hour (plus a few minutes of head-start for the FD) meant I wasn't as early as I wanted, but here's what I got: http://www.sanantoniofire.org/scene/...ec28/index.htm. Another night, I was leaving the bar at 0130, and saw friends of mine in a ladder truck heading the same direction I was going. Here's what I got: http://www.sanantoniofire.org/scene/fire_scene/2008_nov09/index.htm.
If you can shoot a fire in progress in crappy light (expect orange/red glow from the fire, red/blue glow from the warning lights, halogen scene lights, and lots of reflective striping to annoy your flash), sports will be easy.
We're a Canon/Profoto family: five cameras, sixteen lenses, fifteen Profoto lights, too many modifiers.
Shoot lots and lots. It is digital and is virtually free to take as many shot as you like.
Next look at your shots and see what worked and did not work. Learn from your shots and learn your tastes and style and build from there. Have fun and play with lighting and points of view.
Reading 'how-to' books will get you 10% of the way there. Reading forums and analyzing photos will get you another 10%. Practicing photographic principles, lighting techniques, and software will get you another 10%. Doing in day to day situations, playing and having fun will get you the last 70%.
I have generated some impressive shot by just 'playing' and having fun.
im very new to photography, and the little advice i can give is what i've applied to myself.
1.Learn the camera and all it's functions. I've found it very anoying when i just shot something in manual mode with 3" of shutterspeed, iso of 1600, aperture of 2.8, no flash, and thungsteen WB.. and 2 second of auto shutter to avoid the hand shake. then i turn off the camera, and move to a different place hence a party, or a room in a house, or anything of that nature, and ppl want a fast picture, those settings need to go back to normal in less than 2 seconds to take a quick shot, and ppl dont wanna pose like 4 times for 1 picture.
2. Train your eyes, and your notions. I've found flickr to b quite helpful. I've seen the work of MANY, and they have inspired me to do something different. Always look at the exif data, since that's what u need to get an idea of what the photographer was thinking about when the shot was taken.
3. Put a tape on my flash, NOT literaly, but avoid using flash, specially at night. After you get the right colors and the nice shot, then play around with the strenght of the flash in order to light up certain things u want ONLY.
4. WB is not there to b auto, that's something that needs to b changed ALL the time when you change scenarios, so USE IT.
This is a little bit of what i've applied to myself in starting photography. It's not 1, but it's something that has helped me accomplish shots that im particular proud of.
always like to refer tho the Robert Capa quote:
"If your pictures aren't good enough,you aren't close enough"
Agreed & don forget Subject,subject,subject,Angle,
Shoot everything. Anything that catches your eye. Look at boring things, and see if you can make them interesting by narrowing down to a feature, coming at it from a different perspective, whatever. When you find a picture you like, try to figure out what it is that works. When you don't, try to figure out what fails.
Take criticism. Value it. Even if it's wrong, if you learn by identifying what you value and what you don't.
Exposure- Aperture/Shutter/ISO. How it affects depth of field, time lapsed during the exposure, what moves, what doesn't, and what that implies.
Think about light. Color temperature, where it's coming from, and how it affects what the camera sees (vs. what you see, it's not the same).
Field of view, how it affects what you can do with perspective, and what you capture versus isolate.
Just play with everything. Don't worry about taking pictures that suck. It's part of the process, even with experience. The more sucky pictures you take, the more good pictures you'll end up with. The more pictures that you end up with that are good, the more you can identify why they worked, and apply that to other things.
Just do it, ask questions when you've got them, and the path will unfold by itself.
My best advice (aside from the excellent suggestions so far)...
If you see a good shot - take it!!! Never let an opportunity to capture a great image get away.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben_taylor_au/ www.methodicallymuddled.wordpress.com
Canon 5D Mark III | Canon 5D Mark II | Samyang 14mm f/2.8 | Canon 35mm f/1.4L USM | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM |Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II |Canon 2 x Teleconverter III | Canon 580 EX II Speedlite | Really Right Stuff TVC 34L | Really Right Stuff BH55 LR | Gorillapod Focus | Really Right Stuff BH 30
This is great advice, I have some crap that sits and collects dust because I thought that you had to have it to be a professional photographer.
Learn your camera, learn what kind of pictures you want to take, then figure out what toys you need to buy to make it happen.
I want to thank everyone for the fantastic advice given! Looks like the #1 best advice overall is shoot...shoot...shoot and I am taking advantage of every chance I get and keeping in mind all the other wonderful suggestions given.
My #1 advice to myselfis learn something new every day by visiting the TDP website at least once a day without fail!
Thanks again and have a great night everyone! [
Denise
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