Give one piece of advice.

for me one reality was

do not be overly harsh on yourself ... if like me you are self taught and use forums and pro's to compare yourself to .... sometimes those pics you bin and delete as rubbish are the ones that make the album as the most loved of the day ...... odd but true sometimes the public do not care about the rule of thirds or whether it is tack sharp if it means something more to them ....

we all start somewhere ... some higher than others .. some lower but we all have our own style and strengths play to them
 
If you change a setting on a camera, remember to change it back!
 
Dexy101 said:
He said when you are reviewing the picture you have taken. Don't pixel peep. Anyway I wouldn't be using the preview screen for that anyway.
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Zooming right in can be handy for doing macros or fine detail work (assuming you aren't tethered) - it helps you check whether your focus is on or not. If not (with a still subject) you can reshoot.
 
MJWC1 said:
Zooming right in can be handy for doing macros or fine detail work (assuming you aren't tethered) - it helps you check whether your focus is on or not. If not (with a still subject) you can reshoot.
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Exactly what I said earlier.

There is a difference between pixel peeping all the time and making sure your DoF is spot on using the preview and zoom.
 
markmullen said:
Exactly what I said earlier.

There is a difference between pixel peeping all the time and making sure your DoF is spot on using the preview and zoom.
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AAAAAHHH

just popped back in here to discover that Ive caused chaos.

Ok what i meant is on the camera I have (d5100) I can zoom in about 6 times on the photo in the preview screen. This is well above (in my opinion) the zoom factor anyone would apply to a printed shot.

In my opinion i think that 2 zooms is enough to show focus in the right places and verify that the image captured is correct. The reason I apply this rule for my shots is a few weeks ago whilst shooting a landscape I "pixel peaked" and didnt like any of the photos i was taking, cue me going home an unhappy bunny and throwing the camera in the office not even reviewing the photos. 2 days later i chucked them on to lightroom to discover they looked perfectly fine and I ended up printing them 18x12 and they look awesome.

Some people get caught up like this. I was trying to offer some personal advice i give myself.

edit: after having a look around ive discovered that the preview screen in my camera does a 31x zoom. if a standard photo was 9"x6" that means im zooming it to printing at 279"x186". my maths may be wrong but i dont think i will ever print to that size.
 
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ach im not gonna argue with you tbh biggest ive ever printed has been 90x60cm as the better half wont let me put anything else up in the flat. for that my 2 zoom rule works.

should i retract my advice?
 
markmullen said:
So if you were in my shoes, on a beach at 5am for sunrise and didn't want to use the preview screen to check a shot is sharp front to back (important when printing big) how would you check? Bring a laptop and shoot tethered? Up to my knees in seawater?
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Do what you like mate im not telling you how to shoot. :suspect:
 
A tip after this morning's excursion. If you are in the middle of a field at sunrise then keep all your kit with you, do not leave tripod and bag and wander off, there might be no one around to pinch it but the chances are you will turn around, see a shot you want to take and see tripod in middle of it so you have to go and move it :)

~~

Always look all around you, not just in front
 
Know your work- Use lightroom and keep organised, put your photos into sets/collections e.g macro, landscape- it will help you when you have 20,000 images and you're looking for just one specific image
Use flickr too, talk about your work as if you were an artist at his exhibition
And make prints- 6x4, show them to anyone you can to get opinions

That sounds like 3 tips but really it's just one, know how and why you take photographs
 
Don't just learn by reading. Learn by doing. Experiment. Try new settings. Try new perspectives. Lie down, climb up, shoot wide, shoot long, try high ISO, stop down, open up, freeze motion, emphasise motion. Shoot in shade, sunlight, backlight, at night. See what you and your camera can do. Test the limits.
 
Don't accept 'I'll fix that later...' as an excuse for not shooting again :)
 
When you see a shot take it then walk around it and see how it looks from different angles.
 
Don't forget to take the lens cap off...

We've all been there.
 
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