Tips for photographs
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I started photography back in the days of genuine 35mm SLR cameras. The one piece of advice I would give is to photograph in black and white. I say this becasue it will help you to understand composition as well as how both light and shadow affect an image. Also some pictures just come out better in black and white.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
GuyThiebaut wrote:
Also some pictures just come out better in black and white.
Penguins playing the piano?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Hi, I'm trying to learn to take better photographs than just point-and-shoot style pictures. Any tips you could share for a novice photographer? :) Especially if you have something in mind for moving targets (people) and/or in low light conditions since I find these quite challenging.
As most people have said take a lot of pictures! Practice, practice, practice! I bought a decent camera (Nikon D5000) and it has a Manual mode so that you can adjust all the settings yourself but if you get in a situation where you're not sure it can be put in auto take a picture and see what settings the camera uses. Use it as a learning tool! Would also recommend a Photoshop, Gimp or Paintshop program to edit your photos. I use Lightroom 4 and Photoshop. Good luck and most of all enjoy!
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1 -
Hi, I'm trying to learn to take better photographs than just point-and-shoot style pictures. Any tips you could share for a novice photographer? :) Especially if you have something in mind for moving targets (people) and/or in low light conditions since I find these quite challenging.
Learn the thirds rule and use it!
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Hi, I'm trying to learn to take better photographs than just point-and-shoot style pictures. Any tips you could share for a novice photographer? :) Especially if you have something in mind for moving targets (people) and/or in low light conditions since I find these quite challenging.
Most of what I would have suggested has been stated anyway. But: Learn the relationship between shutter speed and aparture (ie slower speed -> smaller apature and faster -> larger). And how you can use the ISO to control this a bit more. Closing the apature by one f-Stop requires half the shutter speed (see http://photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00Kp9A[^]) and doubling the ISO halfs the required shutter speed. One of the things to get to grips with is depth-of-field: a small apature works like a pinhole camera, where it is all effectively in focus (good for Landscapes) a large apature reduces this drastically (good for portraits, especially against fussy backgrounds). 2) In low light high-iso helps but in general the higher the iso the coarser the grain, though this can add to the atmosphere. Most digital cameras do not deal with very low-light/long exposures well and tend to speckle/have noise. For film cameras a tripod/ Shutter release is much better for static scenes. I have some nices shots of Paris at night I couldn't take with my Digital camera. Natually moving targets need a higher shutter speed, or you'll get blur. The faster the movement, the higher the speed. People running should easly be frozen at 1/250th. My dad regularly photos racing cars, and he has to set the speed even higher, with the result that the depth of field os poor. What he does is focus on a point dead ahead before the car comes, and follows the car he wants to photo in the viewfinder until it gets to that point. This takes a bit of practise. Moving objects in low light are a headache, fast isos are pretty much the only way to go, unless you want blurring for an artistic effect.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
Hi, I'm trying to learn to take better photographs than just point-and-shoot style pictures. Any tips you could share for a novice photographer? :) Especially if you have something in mind for moving targets (people) and/or in low light conditions since I find these quite challenging.
Lots of good tips, with good photo samples: http://www.photographymad.com/[^]
it´s the journey, not the destination that matters
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Hi, I'm trying to learn to take better photographs than just point-and-shoot style pictures. Any tips you could share for a novice photographer? :) Especially if you have something in mind for moving targets (people) and/or in low light conditions since I find these quite challenging.
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i'd start by asking camera types - not nerdy programmer types. :) Bryce
MCAD --- To paraphrase Fred Dagg - the views expressed in this post are bloody good ones. --
Our kids books :The Snot Goblin, and Book 2 - the Snotgoblin and Fluff The Snotgoblin for the Ipad -
Composition for taking pictures isn't much different than composition for painting and drawing. Don't center your subject. Look for parallel or slightly converging lines and capture those as they will tie the picture together. Movement of the viewer's eyes should go diagonal for upper left to lower right or lower left to upper right. Get a good book on pictorial composition. Good luck.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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I started photography back in the days of genuine 35mm SLR cameras. The one piece of advice I would give is to photograph in black and white. I say this becasue it will help you to understand composition as well as how both light and shadow affect an image. Also some pictures just come out better in black and white.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I am not really a seasoned photographer but there are few things I try to follow. Hope that helps you too. 1. Take pictures. A lot of them. It really helps. 2. Be brave. Try all the modes available with you camera. Canon Australia's website had/has around five beginner's tutorial kind of videos which provides very basic information about different modes. For moving targets, fast shutter speeds and continuous capture. For low lights, high ISO values (this also works for moving objects). Take multiple pictures of same thing with different settings to find the best one.
"The worst code you'll come across is code you wrote last year.", wizardzz[^]
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Hi Mika, My first principle is whenever possible use a tripod, and a remote release shutter (I use a wireless one). For macro-lens, close-up, photography of small Asian "sacred art" objects, or detailed study of complex reflective patinas on metal, this is absolutely required (as is carefully controlled indirect lighting, light-tent, etc.). Of course there are contexts where that's not possible, like when you are in a crowd at some sporting event, etc. For low-light situations I always want to have the camera on a tripod, or firmly mounted in some way, and use a remote trigger release. A lot depends on what features your camera supports. If it supports use of "automatic exposure bracketing:" that takes a number of pictures in quick sequence, each time increasing,or decreasing, the exposure (bracketing), that's a good way to have a wider choice of shots to post-process. I'm still using what is now a rather old Canon D350, and still feel I haven't mastered half of the features it offers :) Use of flash can be altered by making your own cheap "diffusers" for the flash unit (assuming you have built-in flash) out of several commonly available materials, like a semi-transparent plastic milk container[^]. Happy snapping ! best, Bill
"Humans are amphibians ... half spirit and half animal ... as spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time, means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation: the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.” C.S. Lewis
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As most people have said take a lot of pictures! Practice, practice, practice! I bought a decent camera (Nikon D5000) and it has a Manual mode so that you can adjust all the settings yourself but if you get in a situation where you're not sure it can be put in auto take a picture and see what settings the camera uses. Use it as a learning tool! Would also recommend a Photoshop, Gimp or Paintshop program to edit your photos. I use Lightroom 4 and Photoshop. Good luck and most of all enjoy!
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1 -
I actually just 'upgraded' my old SLR to DSLR. That's a good tip, thanks :)
The need to optimize rises from a bad design.My articles[^]
Ooh you lucky man - any chance of a link to the camera :)? I am a big fan of b&w photography - if you like portraits and have an eye for light and composition then b&w portraits can be much more interesting than the colour equivalents...
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
-
Learn the thirds rule and use it!
-
Lots of good tips, with good photo samples: http://www.photographymad.com/[^]
it´s the journey, not the destination that matters
-
Most of what I would have suggested has been stated anyway. But: Learn the relationship between shutter speed and aparture (ie slower speed -> smaller apature and faster -> larger). And how you can use the ISO to control this a bit more. Closing the apature by one f-Stop requires half the shutter speed (see http://photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00Kp9A[^]) and doubling the ISO halfs the required shutter speed. One of the things to get to grips with is depth-of-field: a small apature works like a pinhole camera, where it is all effectively in focus (good for Landscapes) a large apature reduces this drastically (good for portraits, especially against fussy backgrounds). 2) In low light high-iso helps but in general the higher the iso the coarser the grain, though this can add to the atmosphere. Most digital cameras do not deal with very low-light/long exposures well and tend to speckle/have noise. For film cameras a tripod/ Shutter release is much better for static scenes. I have some nices shots of Paris at night I couldn't take with my Digital camera. Natually moving targets need a higher shutter speed, or you'll get blur. The faster the movement, the higher the speed. People running should easly be frozen at 1/250th. My dad regularly photos racing cars, and he has to set the speed even higher, with the result that the depth of field os poor. What he does is focus on a point dead ahead before the car comes, and follows the car he wants to photo in the viewfinder until it gets to that point. This takes a bit of practise. Moving objects in low light are a headache, fast isos are pretty much the only way to go, unless you want blurring for an artistic effect.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
Ooh you lucky man - any chance of a link to the camera :)? I am a big fan of b&w photography - if you like portraits and have an eye for light and composition then b&w portraits can be much more interesting than the colour equivalents...
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
After a thorough thinking I ended up buing this Canon EOS 600D[^]. The main reasons were: - I can use my old gear (flashlight, filters, lenses etc) - The processor is quite good (at least that's what I think :)) - I can take FullHD video - it has a turning display However at least one downside is that in order to take vide I must acquire a separate microphone since the auto focus sound is coming to the video quite loudly (via the body) I must admit that I haven't read more than 10 pages of the manual yet. I'm currently trying to learn by experimenting :) One really good thing was that I'm able to use my old polaroid filter. Even though it's a simple filter it enhances the pictures a lot at day time. I'm trying to learn to take good portraits. So far I have had to use plants and trees as a learning tool since my kids are so fast that I'm still thinking about the setup when they're already gone :)
The need to optimize rises from a bad design.My articles[^]
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After a thorough thinking I ended up buing this Canon EOS 600D[^]. The main reasons were: - I can use my old gear (flashlight, filters, lenses etc) - The processor is quite good (at least that's what I think :)) - I can take FullHD video - it has a turning display However at least one downside is that in order to take vide I must acquire a separate microphone since the auto focus sound is coming to the video quite loudly (via the body) I must admit that I haven't read more than 10 pages of the manual yet. I'm currently trying to learn by experimenting :) One really good thing was that I'm able to use my old polaroid filter. Even though it's a simple filter it enhances the pictures a lot at day time. I'm trying to learn to take good portraits. So far I have had to use plants and trees as a learning tool since my kids are so fast that I'm still thinking about the setup when they're already gone :)
The need to optimize rises from a bad design.My articles[^]
Nice Camera! One tip I can pass on regarding portraits is that, as a subject of a photographer, sometimes it can be intimidating to have someone looking through a viewfinder when your portrait is being taken. People generally prefer interacting with a face rather than someone squinting behind a camera with one eye closed. So if you can, use the LCD at the back so that you can have eye to eye contact with your subject and you should get good portraits. Also don't wait for the perfect shot as it will always happen 0.5 seconds before you can respond - take lots of photos in succession as another poster mentioned. There again you probably know all of this and much more - enjoy the new camera :)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Nice Camera! One tip I can pass on regarding portraits is that, as a subject of a photographer, sometimes it can be intimidating to have someone looking through a viewfinder when your portrait is being taken. People generally prefer interacting with a face rather than someone squinting behind a camera with one eye closed. So if you can, use the LCD at the back so that you can have eye to eye contact with your subject and you should get good portraits. Also don't wait for the perfect shot as it will always happen 0.5 seconds before you can respond - take lots of photos in succession as another poster mentioned. There again you probably know all of this and much more - enjoy the new camera :)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
That's a good hint. I've tried to learn to shoot with both eyes open while using the viewfinder. When taking video this is extremely beneficial since you can see much wider area but at the same time you see how the picture is going to look. But for some reason I'm not able to do this with still shots :confused: Probably it's an old habit or something like that. Although the viewfinder in a camera and in a vid camera are quite different. It's easier with the video camera since the viewfinder typically has a full rubber edging so there's no extra light coming from the sides. I'll try to take a lot of pictures on the weekend. Eventually some of them are going to look nice, either by default or 'by photoshop' ;)
The need to optimize rises from a bad design.My articles[^]
