How to take great photos - can't miss !

[flomaster]

today when I finally left the house to go to the store I went with the in laws so I didn't drive. the clouds and sky looked amazing and I had no way to capture it I was not a happy camper. lesson learned bring camera with you ever where.

[wulf]

Actually, I would argue that is good to not always have your camera with you. Always seeing things down the lens of the camera runs the risk of developing "tunnel vision". Some time observing the world around you (including smell, sound and other senses as well as sight) helps you to see deeper rather than just to snap randomly.

Of course, you need enough camera time that you are not left fiddling with the controls when out on a shoot and opportunity presents itself (and that you can quickly make good technical choices to capture the light you are after) and I am not suggesting that frequently having a camera to hand is a bad thing.

However, fitting in with my mantra of "self-imposed limitations encourage creativity", I think passing up a few lucky shots (and hundreds of average ones) from time to time is worth it in order to build up the artistic skills that more reliably capture the heart of any given scene.

Wulf

[Liquid Cheese]

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

kirbinster,

It isn't how many photos you take. If you're still getting 499 unsatisfactory shots, you haven't been paying attention. Practice is essential, but it has to mean something, as a source of learning. Otherwise you're just burning up batteries and wasting your time.

I have to agree, just because of past experience.

I often go to the stay at a bungalow my grandparents own, right next to the beach. It is very isolated, but I often find it very hard to take good photos there. Conveying the general atmopshere is very hard. Normally when I go down there my memory card allows me to take almost limitless number of photos, I can never fill it within a stay there and also something I found is that usually I take hundreds of photos there and non of them are up to scratch, however, last time I went down, I accidentally took a tiny memory card, only allowing me to take around 10 photos. At first I was very disappointed but I soon realised that this motivated me to get every single shot just perfect. Instead of taking multiple shots of the same subject, I spent a good 5 minutes thinking about exactly how I would compose it, the exact apeture values... etc I came back with 10 photos I was very happy with, instead of 100 or so ones I didnt like.

The good thing was that some of the subjects in these photos were things I'd photographed in the past, and created poor images of, but these new sets of photos were much better. So I think the lesson I learnt here is take your time. It makes more sense to take just 1 well thought out photo, than 10 from different apetures, angles, distances etc. I think.

[thekevinmonster]

Last summer, I had my first 'real camera' (my little P&S) and I decided to take a ton of pictures on vacation. At first, I was just trying to take pictures of what it looked like out in the bay. Well, that didn't work so well.

I was sitting on my family's pontoon boat and trying to take pictures of what I saw looking out around the lake. to me, i'd see these vistas of sky, water, and the shore. But when I'd take a picture, I'd either get a boring (and blurry) zoomed shot of the shore, or a boring picture of endless water and sky with a little smidge of land.

I've much later figured out why it didn't work. When I was actually looking out at the scene, I was kind of 'assembling' pictures in my head out of what I was seeing, but my camera was just recording the whole thing. You weight things by importance in your brain, your camera doesn't.

That's why practicing, just in quantity, won't work. You can sit and take those pictures for hours and hours, take hundreds of pix, and unless you make the connection that what your camera sees isn't what YOU see, you'll take crappy photos until you accidentally take a good one.

[jdepould]

IMHO there's a balance between quantity and quality. It's a given that some shots you take just aren't going to work, for whatever reason. I always shoot redundant frames, just in case a file gets corrupted, or the AF doesn't get it right the first time, or whatever. I'd rather take 1,108 pictures and be sure that I got some great ones than take 10 that look good in camera, but turn out to be rubbish when I get back home. Part of the equation is also subject matter. Shooting sports and action requires you to shoot on instinct and review and critique later. You'll see something and change your shooting next time out, but there really isn't always time to review while you're shooting.

[Saralonde]

I agree with JC, Liquidcheese and Kevin about taking time to consider the shot. Just taking shot after shot without considering what and how you're shooting defeats the purpose of learning to be a good photographer. What is it they say about monkeys typing? Eventually one will write something good?

I have mixed feelings about taking your camera everywhere. I understand Wulf's point, but there are so many times I wish I had thought to bring mine with me, and not always for a beautiful shot either. Sometimes for the memory (I don't have a camera phone). I get the tunnel vision thing though. When I spent more time painting than photographing, I often viewed the world through colors (Ah! That sunset looks like Alizarin Crimson mixed with some Cadmium Yellow and a hint of Cobalt, or maybe Aquamarine). I can do the same with photography (Hmm, what could I capture in the foreground, will I be able to eliminate that telephone pole?). Sometimes you just have to enjoy the sunset, not analyze it.

Kirbinster has it right on the money though with #2: Think outside the box. To move from snapshot to photographic image, think about how you can be different. Here's perhaps where taking a lot of shots (although maybe not hundreds) may be worthwhile. Once you have considered the different possibilities (angles, lighting, dof, etc.), try them out. Just think while you take them. Looking at these different types of shots may help you see what works and what doesn't. As you analyze, check the histogram and exif info to see why. And hopefully, improve.

Interesting discussion.

[kirbinster]

Saralonde: Thanks, that is what I mean by a lot of shots. Obviously I did not mean one should wear a blindfold and spin around pressing the shutter button hundreds of times in the hopes that the camera might be aimed at something worth taking a picture of.


Maybe everyone else is just better than I am, but it takes me quite a few shots to catch a bee like this:



click for larger image

[smc1377]

Personally, I kind of agree with everyone and it just depends where along your personal development you are in terms of photography that determines your point of view.

As a beginner, I found myself taking lots and lots of pictures, then analyzing them and learning from them once I get home and upload (or download if you prefer). Then as I look at each one, I decide what I like and what I don't like and then decide why it is I like the picture or if I didn't like it, what I could have done to improve it.

Then once I learned more about what I like and how to use my cameras properly, I then started challenging myself to be more discerning in my shots.

Case in point, I was just at a museum this past weekend and I took very few select photos. There were some that I wanted to take, but new the limitations of the camera to know that it would be a wasted attempt (very poor lighting). A year or two ago, I would have taken a picture of everything I was allowed to take a picture of. But now, I've learned to be more discerning.

[Sime]

I take my camera everywhere (I mean everywhere... it comes to work with me) I find myself constantly looking at things as a photo - weird, whatever. For me, having my camera with me means the ability to capture my world as it takes place... Means I can attempt to express my creativity whenever I like... and also means that I understand my camera more for when it really matters (who needs all these buttons anyway!) I still take lots of photos, but my average is coming up slowly - I like about 20 shots in 50 these days and love 1 or 2...

I had my camera with me last night and was asked to shoot a clients (I fix computers after hours) restaurant / bar for a publication that they had to submit some photos for, today... Didn't have my tripod, had some interestingly yellowy orange light going on, but I had my camera with me and I'm glad I did...

- I realise the white balance is warmer than a hot dog at an english footy match, but, this is what I came up with off the cuff... innit -> beep (only if you're interested - on with the thread!)

[Nicole]

I like the idea of taking my camera everywhere, and in reality, I take more pictures when I have my camera with me. The only thing that keeps me from having it with me though is the size and weight. My backpack just isn't large enough for my study stuff and camera bag unfortunately. So the camera comes with if I can remember and have the room to take it.

So, I do agree with the idea of taking my camera with me in case an opportunity arises, I don't have to take it out of my bag if I don't want to, but it's good to know it's there, and it goes a long ways towards inspiring me to take a shot here or there. I don't think that it causes me "camera" vision though