Originally Posted by Sinh Nhut Nguyen
Oops ...guess I should have asked this question earlier!
Oops ...guess I should have asked this question earlier!
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.
+1
And take lots and lots of pictures, and rarely center the subject in the picture. Use the rule of thirds. []
Experiment. Take lots of photographs in different ways. Photograph anything and everything. As you build up a collection of photographs, your own innate sense of artistry will begin to differentiate between pictures that satisfy you and those that don't.
Don't be afraid to be different. Just because it seems that one group of photographers favor a certain way of doing things doesn't mean that you need to do the same. Find your own voice, one that pleases you.
I always like to refer tho the Robert Capa quote:
"If your pictures aren't good enough,you aren't close enough"
Along with that, get a book that will teach you all the elements of exposure; aperture, shutter speeds, depth of field, etc. Then teach yourself the rest by shooting lots and lots of pics. Keep it simple and have a lot of fun.
1. Read your owners manual, understand how your camera operates. Once you do this you will understand what everyone else is talking about.
2. Learn to see as your lenses see. As Bryan Peterson suggests----put any lens on your camera, then shoot, shoot shoot, crawl on the floor, shoot from high above, shoot from knee level, try all kinds of different perspectives with each of your lenses.
3. Ask questions--lots of questions---I have learned more from sites like this than any book I have read.
Bob
#1 thing: Learn, understand, and constantly manage your color (i.e. white balance). If you can't take a subject from outside to shaded to indoors (and in let's say four different rooms) and have the subject's skin look the same, you have more work to do.
(#2 is to constantly believe that you can do better, and strive for that.)
(#3 is to have a reason for every element of the composition and every value of the settings. It's OK to decide that something should be automatic, such as shutter speed, but you should decide that.)
We're a Canon/Profoto family: five cameras, sixteen lenses, fifteen Profoto lights, too many modifiers.
Here's my two cents..
Be one with your camera - know everything about it - it's capabilities and limitations...
And shoot lots and lots - there's no "wrong way".. - be creative... and try to have fun..
Soe ( Portraits )
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.
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