I can't take photographs. I give up.

I

ianjmatt

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Ian
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Sigh. I got all excited when I got my Canon 500D last week. But the last seven days have proved to me that I just cannot take a decent shot.

I spent this evening at my sons guitar lesson taking some shots - it seemed to be the perfect environment to capture something. But, without putting too fine a point on it, every single shot was crap.

I don't know why I bother :'(
 
why are they not good???

Post a pic up and let us see where you are going wrong if at all and we might be able to point you in the right direction

spike
 
OK

Here are a couple I took of my daughter:

5912757677


5912754063


And these are the ones of my son:

5912694619


5913312954
 
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youre probabley using the wrong settings,if you post a couple of shots there will *** on ere who will be more than wilin to point in the righyt direction i didnt put stars what gives
 
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I can't work out what I did wrong. POsted them to flickr, and put the links into
brackets.....

I'll have check in a bit (got to pick daughter up from youth club)
 
ianjmatt said:
I can't work out what I did wrong. POsted them to flickr, and put the links into
brackets.....

I'll have check in a bit (got to pick daughter up from youth club)
Click to expand...

Shot in the dark, but did you take the URL of the flickr page instead of the URL of the image itself?

I've found you on flickr, the shots look fine to me.
 
ianjmatt said:
I can't work out what I did wrong. POsted them to flickr, and put the links into
brackets.....

I'll have check in a bit (got to pick daughter up from youth club)
Click to expand...

as adam says you need to link to the actual url of the pic (right click on it and select properties if you cant find the url on the flickr page)

like this (quote to see)

5913312954_cf16611c83_b.jpg


Picture wise its not too bad, but you need to think about your backgrounds a bit more - try to get them less confused , or failing that use a larger aperture to blur them with bokeh - also eye contact would improve it, if he'd turned his head slightly and looked at you.
 
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Is it me or does the picture that's been posted the ear looks the sharpest part, if you use the central af point and when your son/daughter is looking at you frame the focus point in between the eyes, I may be wrong but I think that's what I read
 
ianjmatt said:
I can't work out what I did wrong. POsted them to flickr, and put the links into
brackets.....

I'll have check in a bit (got to pick daughter up from youth club)
Click to expand...

What you need to do is right click the image in flickr then you'll get image size options (I usually go for medium for posting on forums) once you've done that right click the image on that page and the option "copy image url" will be there. Click that and past that between the image tags.

They look fine to me. Just get shooting. Practice makes perfect.
 
What camera did you have before and what were your expectations?

Apologies if I have got this wrong... but you may have fallen into the common trap of thinking an SLR will suddenly make your photos a lot better, when in fact it can go the other way sometimes. The thing is you see so many shots online that are excellent and come from an SLR that it is easy to think new gear will give instant improvements.

But don't give up. If this is your first SLR 7 days is no time at all and I can assure you it will take longer before you are getting shots you will be truly happy with.

If you can identify what parts of a shot you are unhappy with then you can get advice on how to change that.
 
Hi Ian

Hope you don't mind, I've linked to the images below. To see what I did just quote this post and you'll see how to do it. The bit between the IMG tags needs to be a link to the actual photo. To get that, click on "view all sizes" under the actions tab, then right click the image and choose "copy image location" or whatever it says in your browser. Or if you want just copy the bit below into your post

As for the photo's, you've had the camera a week, nothing worth having comes easy. Practice, practice, and practice some more. There is potential here. You have a son who plays guitar. Take photos of him from every conceiveable angle, fill that memory card. Expect to find 1-2 keepers out of 500 images at first. As you get better you only need to take 50 shots and you get 20 keepers (I'm still at the take 400 and get 5 keepers stage, but it's progress). I like the BW shot of your son playing, possibilities there, just need to work on background selection.

5912757677_b9d8563fcf_b.jpg


5912754063_c8bb195767_b.jpg


5912694619_34913e696f_b.jpg


5913312954_cf16611c83_b.jpg
 
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Hi Squark - thanks. Ignore my last post - it makes sense how you explained it whilst I was fiddling with my last reply.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. Practical help is really so helpful!
 
ianjmatt said:
OK - when I go onto Flickr, click on the little arrow and choose the 'grab link' it gives me a URL like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64962491@N06/5912694619/

This is what I put in between the brackets. If I right click (or actually a two-fingered click on my MacBook) I just get copyright info and size options. Where can I find the correct link?[/QUOTE]

you need a link that ends in .jpg

Right click on the image , then scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select properties

in the properties box cut and paste the url and put that between img tags

(incidentally you might find it easieer to resize your images to a max 800pix wide hen upload them to the galleries here and just copy and paste the linked image line of code)
Click to expand...
 
ianjmatt said:
OK - when I go onto Flickr, click on the little arrow and choose the 'grab link' it gives me a URL like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64962491@N06/5912694619/

This is what I put in between the brackets. If I right click (or actually a two-fingered click on my MacBook) I just get copyright info and size options. Where can I find the correct link?[/QUOTE]

Go to the little drop down menu for sharing options and select "grab the HTML/BBcode", then change it to BBcode and copy and paste that.


I think those photos look OK! There's a limit to what you can achieve in a confined space with the kitlens
Click to expand...
 
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with regard to what i was saying about backgrounds i've cropped this one a bit (and added some gausian blur) to illustrate the point

ianjmatt_pic.jpg
 
Another tip, go outside and take photos without the onboard flash. You'll get far more pleasing results and a much better understanding of the ins and outs of the camera. Go read "understanding exposure", which after which you'll walk around saying "I set my exposure and recomposed", or words to that effect, and you'll be off to a flyer.

Just been looking at the exif for your daughter, on the non-flash image you had a shutter speed of 1/13 and an ISO of 1600. Gonna be very hard to get good results with those kinda numbers. Half the battle early on is learning which images you can take.
 
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ianjmatt, there's a lot more to this photography lark than there seems.

Stick with it and I promise you, in 6 months you'll look back at this thread and smile. :)
 
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ianjmatt said:
Sigh. I got all excited when I got my Canon 500D last week. But the last seven days have proved to me that I just cannot take a decent shot.

I spent this evening at my sons guitar lesson taking some shots - it seemed to be the perfect environment to capture something. But, without putting too fine a point on it, every single shot was crap.

I don't know why I bother :'(
Click to expand...

7 days? are you serious :D
Your not going to get great in 7 days! talk to some who have been doing it 40 years and they will still say they have a lot to learn ;)

Keep playing, dont be afraid to experiment and dont be afraid to get things wrong! you can learn to do things "A Way" from a hand book but nothing beets getting it wrong, then the joy of getting it right when you learn :)
 
I think for having the camera for 7 days these shots are very good. Ok they might not be bang on the money but lives and learns. Plus you already taken a step out of the comfort zone and gone straight into an event to shoot. I spent 1st 7 days taking pictures of things round the house and the missis (she hates cameras now...oops). so keep on and keep manual to hand to read as you shoot.
 
No one ever picked up a camera for the first time and immediately produced great art. I have it on good authority that that Henri Cartier-bloke's first roll was proper rubbish!
 
Ian.....you might have a far superior camera to the one you had before, but learn how to use it properly before you get too disheartened because your pics dont come out how you expect.

It takes time. Read the manual inside-out, and then read and read and practise and practise.
 
I would like to than everyone for their encouragement here. You are right - I was expecting too much. I was getting frustrated that what I could see in my in a possible shot wasn't being translated.

Thanks so much everyone!
 
nil Desperandom Ian.

Stick the camera on fully auto and a high ISO, say 400 if allowed, and get taking pictures.

The alternative settings can be used later as you gain experience.

Take pictures and yet more pictures, look at others pictures.

It'll come, sure It'll come, but it takes time, practise and learning by your mistakes.

I've been at it for years and do I still produce 'crap' sure do lots of it. Only difference is that now I recognise WHY it's crap and try not to do it again.

As the London cabbie said when asked 'How do I get to the Albert Hall' he replied 'Practise my son'

nil Desperandom Ian.

D in W
 
I'll give you a Zach Arias tip 'head in a clear space' what he means by that is that even with a busy background if you can keep the head in a clear space you can get with it.

7 day with a DSLR and you are not yet 'Lord Snowdon, David Bailey, Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, 'insert portrait photographer of choice' do you always give up so easily?
 
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EdBray said:
I'll give you a Zach Arias tip 'head in a clear space' what he means by that is that even with a busy background if you can keep the head in a clear space you can get with it.

7 day with a DSLR and you are not yet 'Lord Snowdon, David Bailey, Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, 'insert portrait photographer of choice' do you always give up so easily?
Click to expand...

Haha - no, not always. I spent a few years with a film camera back twenty years ago or so, and probably overestimated my abilities then.

I guess I am stepping outside of my confort zone for the first time in a while. I have worked in my line of business for 15 years now, know what I can do and do it. With photography I am trying something new and forgot what it is like having to start at the beginning. Good lesson for me!
 
I've got back into photography after 15 years and had pretty much forgotten everything I knew and the bits I did remember was mostly to do with using a selenium light meter and fixed iso.
In three months I've got 10 photos I am happy with, although I have a feeling that only two of them will stand the test of time in my head and not be retaken.
Still can't get my head around not having the camera set to the lowest possible iso at all times though.

Stick with it, eventually in all of the "god I sucks" there will be the first photo you are truly happy with - it's that moment that starts making it worth it
 
It took me almost a year to learn to fly an aircraft properly ..... a year :) Taken much longer to fly it knowing I am as safe as I can be ... and the passengers.

It takes as long as it takes. Practice and time spent knowing your kit is the only way to get to where you want to be.

There is no pill you can take; you just have to do the time at the shutter. Do this and you will get the shots you want.

As my instructor used to say, any crash you walk away from is called a lesson :)

Ditto with photos. Look at them, find out what 'you' don’t like and learn how to change it.

This is a great place to start :)

as you can see ... its started already
 
The camera is an idiot and it's up to the photographer to add intelligence. That's why so often you will hear people say "It's not the camera; it's the photographer.".

- The camera does not know where to position itself to pick the right background;
- The camera doesn't know how to place the subject within the frame;
- The camera doesn't pick the moment to take the shot;
- The camera has no control over the lighting for the shot;
- The camera doesn't know what perspective you require;
- The camera doesn't know how much DOF you should have;
- The camera doesn't know what sense of motion you wish to convey or control;
- etc. etc.

Instruments don't make musicians. Pots and pans don't make cooks. Paintbrushes don't make artists. Saws and chisels don't make carpenters. Cameras don't make photographers. A good tool is often better than a poor one, but knowing how to use either one of them is the key to success.
 
Stick with it Ian, it does take time. My advice would be:

- Start with composition. Interrogate a scene and look for a picture then visualise that finished image in your mind. Look at distracting backgrounds, the angle you are shooting at. Select the appropriate focal length (zoom) to fill the frame with subject or include the location to match your visualised image.
- Learn about exposure and the relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO and the effects each have on the finished image.

When you are comfortable with these basics is when you really start learning and improving.
 
Hi Ian, I think your photo's you are putting up are looking a lot better than the ones I started out producing. I have a DSLR since late November and I am only now just begining to produce images that represent what I want to produce. On a recent trip I took well over 300 photos, of which 100 were 'acceptable' and 10 or so were 'good'.

One thing I have found has improved my photos is shooting in RAW and editing them in Lightroom. By editing them in Lightroom I start to understand the limitations of my camera, and as such I now know that shooting at ISO1600 on my camera does not do my photos any favours. I also realise that my 'soft' images are often due to focus points being out. In Lightroom I can zoom up to the image at 100% or 300% and see where the focus points were and from this I can try and adjust my technique for the next shot.

Another beginners mistake I learnt from a friend was not to buy too much kit. I started off with a 450D and a single lens, and I have only just started adding telephoto lens and primes to my equipment. Don't be tempted to buy too much kit early on as it will only confuse you.

I hope that helps!
 
EdBray said:
I'll give you a Zach Arias tip 'head in a clear space' what he means by that is that even with a busy background if you can keep the head in a clear space you can get with it.
Click to expand...

Just want to underline how good a tip this is. Every time I point my camera at someone now, I hear Jack Arias saying, "head in a clear space, head in a clear space". It's could be really annoying but that little voice has made a big difference to my photos.
 
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