I`m Struggling :(

DJMorgan

DJMorgan

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Daniel
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To find a technique, I`m taking pictures etc but I`m trying different angle`s, etc but I just cant see to get any good pictures, could anyone help me maybe?

Some of you may know I just bought my first camera Nikon D3000 :thumbs:

So would anyone be able to help?

Thanks :)
 
time and practice first of all - it'd be good to understand what you mean by a good picture? once thats known then help and advice is a bit easier
 
give it some time and take the camera everywhere...snap everything that catches your eye even if you think it's gonna make a rubbish picture, you'll eventually learn what works and what doesn't.

As long as your camera settings are set to expose everything correctly and keep everything you want in focus, the picture will come out good - that doest make it a good picture!
 
Find the type of pictures you enjoy taking then work at refining them into good pictures.

For instance I enjoy taking Macro shots and children at play - but that doesn't mean I don't take landscape etc when I see a good subject.

Also look at pics in magazines newpapers etc - there are milions (literally) of great photographs on the Internet - also look at the great photos on here - in other people's galleries.
 
From one newbie to another, I can only offer you limited help, but I'll share with you what I have learnt.

First off what is this "good picture" that everyone talks about, what defines a good shot....

1. If you are comparing your shots with pics that you have seen taken with a D3 and a 1K lens, you will never be able to achieve the same results no matter how hard you try. You are only as good as your equipment. When I bought my Sony A200 with the standard kit lens, I was posting portrait pics for comment, and the response was always that the pictures looked soft. However, I know understand that this is a common problem with the lens, and it was not really anything major that I was doing wrong. I bought a Minolta 50mm F1.7 on recommendation s/h for £88, put it on my camera, took some shots exactly as I was doing before and the improvement was huge. Nice sharp images, good colours with good bokeh to boot....:) Best money I have spent so far.

2. The experience of the photographer.... I met a guy purely buy chance while taking a few shots in the park, he also shoots Sony. We got talking, and he explained to me some of the more basic things that I was missing, I.e white balance, ev, dynamic range, day light flash. With his help I was already shooting better within minutes. He was also shooting with a Sony
A200 which is an entry level camera, but over me he had knowledge of film 35mm shooting and made me realise what my camera was capable of. But more importantly what it was not. Therefore, you shoot within your limits.

3. Photoshop et al, this is another very weak area for me. My knowledge is still very little. However, I have a friend who has started to help me get to basics with it. I was truly amazed at how he took a fairly "ordinary shot" and I use that word liberally.... Spent five minutes max on it, and I ended up with something that I was really chuffed with it. Therefore, the end result was there all the time, I just did not realise it, and more importantly how to achieve it. Now with simple tools like sharpen, brightness etc my final results are much better. A lot of what we see and love on these forums are from guys with good knowledge of both taking shots and pp.

To conclude, I have found that trial and error is the only way, I was afraid to use buttons on my camera for fear of not knowing. This is off course, was wrong..... I have even changed settings so far and not known how to get it back, so needed to reset the camera to factory settings:bonk: The beauty *** is with a DSLR, you just simply delete the many hundreds of shots that do not come up to scratch and you are left with a few keepers:thumbs:

Hope this helps

Regards
Paul
 
DJMorgan said:
To find a technique, I`m taking pictures etc but I`m trying different angle`s, etc but I just cant see to get any good pictures, could anyone help me maybe?

Some of you may know I just bought my first camera Nikon D3000 :thumbs:

So would anyone be able to help?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Post some pictures on the forums here and explain what advise you are after.
View pictures that others have posted and try and see why you like some and not others.
 
You just need to learn. It's confusing at first, all the numbers and settings and jargon, but it's actually straightforward enough. This tutorial was written specifically for folks like you. Give it a try and stick with it - there is a lot of solid information packed in there :) http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=99841

Then I would advise setting everything on the camera to auto, shooting as much as you can, then looking at the pictures and checking what settings have been used. When you begin to understand what is going on, pick one setting at a time - perhaps shutter speed or lens aperture - and make some changes of your own and see the difference. You'll get the hang of it pretty soon.

There are loads of books and magainzes etc, but I think places like this are perfect for people like you. Just ask a specific question, one at a time preferably with an example pic, and you'll get the answer :)
 
i know where you are based...and you went into manchester etc to shoot some shots

i would select a building of interest...not tesco's...:D

a national trust one would do like dunham massey

shoot it as if it was a project for a magazine..
shoot it from a distance...close...detail
surrounding environs...the kitchens...stables...the old mill house..the gardens with their fresh winter/spring blooms coming out

and some landscape and deer shoots in the park...and the birds on the ponds now the ice has gone

concentrate on picture quality in terms of exposure and composition..move around a lot and 'spy with your little eye'...the camera lens

you may want even to join up with the nat trust...lots of stuff round here



dunham massey...the way in
 
Paul Kettless said:
...

1. If you are comparing your shots with pics that you have seen taken with a D3 and a 1K lens, you will never be able to achieve the same results no matter how hard you try. You are only as good as your equipment.
Click to expand...

I'd like to give the other side of this. At web sizes, it's difficult or even impossible to tell the effect of in-camera resolution or even the difference between APS-C and full frame equipment. Every DSLR is capable of producing gallery-quality art. There one chap in the North West making fanatastic black and white art with a D40 and consumer zoom. You do have to learn your equipment and technique to make the most of it of course. Don't blame your gear for bad photos. Just as you shouldn't rely on Photoshop to rescue your photos. Photoshop will make a bad photo a different colour, brightness or contrast, but it won't solve bad lighting or composition.

The trick to a good photo is to find an interesting subject and compose well. There's a lot of books about composition, you might enjoy reading one. Just don't make any technical errors when you're taking the photo - if you think you might, just use auto mode until you're a bit more confident.

The photos you've posted do look a bit soft, could either be a problem with focusing or camera shake. However, if it's a well-composed photo of a good subject, I'd forgive that.

Try taking your camera with you wherever you go (I always manage to squeeze mine into the bag I take to work with me.) Go out every lunchtime and look for compositions. It can be an ordinary scene, but try to look at it in a different way. Use auto mode if necessary, just hold the camera still. You might be surprised what results you start to get.
 
The first one focusing error. The thorns are nice and sharp but the thistle head is out of focus. Check out using spot focusing or focus lock in your manual or probally someone will explain better.
Second shot I am guessing is camera shake. Even though you were using a 50mm lens a shutter speed of i/40th of a second is too slow.

Dai
 
Here's what i think "could" help. (all in my honest opinion as an observer)

the second shot doesn't contain anything exciting or a focal point...

how about
1: shooting straight up the steps from ground level ?
2: placing someone or something at the top of the steps to draw the eyes up, as if climbing them.

the first shot i think has a slight focus issue and the light / time of year isn't helping the colourations.
i think the focus could be improved by taking the picture from slightly further back and thus giving you a greater depth of field. (you can then get the framed image you want by cropping later)

also, the first image 'might' look good in a grainy monochrome high contrast format.

i also think the branch behind the thistly head doesn't help, would be good to have the head of the thistle in stark isolation against the wintery sky.

just my take on what i have learned, but would love to hear other ideas!!!

dont be disheartned........ read, look at galleries on here, magazines, and dont be afraid to TRY !!

good luck
 
Don't panic :) Been there, done that, got the Tshirt......

Take time to look at your subject, and I mean really look. Picture it as your camera would see it. Work out how to frame it, where you want the subject to appear, work out how much depth of field you want and check the background. Your first pic has something else in the background that does not work. Did you see it? Slow down and take your time. Good shots rarely happen with no planning.

You have tried to use a diagonal with the stairs. Not bad thinking but with diagonals there are ways of strengthening a composition one being to anchor the diagonal in the corner of the frame. Yours sort of meanders in half way up. Have a look at pics you do like and try to work out why you like them, chances are they will follow some kind of compositional receipe that you can learn to use yourself.

Oh and keep your chin up, we've all been there :)
 
Thanks for the help! At the moment I am doing most photo`s on Auto, and I want to be able to use them on manual, But yeah, I mean with the thistle, I actually did not notice the blur on the thistle strangely enough.

Any idea how I can take it so I can make the thistle and thorns both the main focus?
 
Its all in the details DJ. :)

For me; Your thistle is an ugly one, its in shadow and the colour isn't 'nice' the whole thing is out of focus (maybe to close for your lens to focus) …the background is cool, But its full of bits and bobs and the thistle branch in the background totally cuts through your main thistle and ruins your original idea (That good Idea, being a simple thistle composed with space against a blurred background)

Now if you'd taken exactly the same shot slightly differently you might have got a beautiful shot.

For instance...
If your thistle had been perfect.
If your thistle had been catching some low winter sunshine. Golden sunshine maybe.
If you'd composed it perfectly lined up with the left 'third' intersection and gotten all of it in frame.
If it had been in perfect focus. (much easier to do that in good light too)
If the background had been cleaner, no other branches and the horizontal as straight as possible all the way across.

If you'd done all these things, got the thistle in nice light but the background as you have it but clean. ..The thistle would be the main point of eye focus and the picture would have been close to nailed.
Just my view, something along those lines... :)
 
DJMorgan said:
Thanks for the help! At the moment I am doing most photo`s on Auto, and I want to be able to use them on manual, But yeah, I mean with the thistle, I actually did not notice the blur on the thistle strangely enough.

Any idea how I can take it so I can make the thistle and thorns both the main focus?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter whether you are on auto or manual, the result will be the same in terms of exposure. The difference is that you may want to moderate either the shutter speed (to create or control blur) or the lens aperture (to alter depth of field). Of course, changing one also changes the other in order to maintain correct balance of exposure, so you have to compromise, but you can do that equally well in any mode. It depends on how you prefer to do it, rather than on the result you will get.

With the thistle, you don't have enough depth of field to get everything in focus, so you have choices. Depth of field is very shallow at close distances so you must either choose to have the head or the stem in focus, not both. Or you can use a higher f/number to get more depth of field, and that will get them both sharp. The compromise there is that the shutter speed will then get longer to compensate, and the likely question then will be is it still fast enough to avoid camera shake.

There is another control you can use in all these situations, and that is the ISO. Again there is a trade off. Using higher ISO is usually beneficial and makes things easier, but you will lose some image quality and noise will increase.
 
You're going to get loads of advice, but what I would say is a quick way to improve composition is to think about things like this when composing:

1. Rule of thirds
2. Space around the subject
3. Leading lines

Rule of thirds is probably one of the easiest ways to make you think about where to put things in the frame. It can be used in conjunction with point 2 as well.

Space around the subject refers to what's in the background? Should you put more space to the left or right of the subject? Should you have the subject low or high in the frame? etc etc. A good example is if a person is looking left it can make it more visually pleasing to leave a little more space to the left of them.

Leading lines can be anything from a road, a river, a fence, lights lined up, etc.

Once you've conquered the basic "rules" of composition... you then try to learn how to break them :). After all, rules are there to be broken ;)
 
I still dont understand the shutter speed and aperture etc, I mean i have it on guide sometimes to help me out a bit but then it gives me an option to increase or decrease the shutter speed, or the aperture. So this is also confusing to me =[
 
How many shots have you taken with your camera DJ?

Thing is theres this idea out there that "he must be a good photographer, hes got a great camera". It takes practice before you get "good", and the camera certainly doesnt make you better. Give it time, take it step by step and keep asking questions. Practice lots and don't be afraid to use the manual settings - hey it wont cost you anything if they're all over/underexposed.

Don't be downhearted if you don't get good results often, just ask yourself why each shot isnt as you thought it would be and then try to remedy it.

You'll get there :thumbs:
 
The D3000 guide mode is great for beginners, a little odd once you know most things about it but great for beginners. So its good to keep it on that till you learn. For the shutter speeds and apertures take a read of this - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=185536.

For ideas, buy some magazines, the digital photography slr has ideas of stuff to do every months. So check out a few of them. Step by step guides to get certain effects.


  1. Car trails
  2. Spinning coins
  3. Lemonade, lemon and lime macro close up, (this is quite good, chop thin pieces of lemon and lime, fill a clear glass up with ice-cubes. Place the lemon and lime pieces in, fill up with lemonade and loads of bubbles start to appear and stick the the lemons etc, then you can take really good macro shots.)
  4. Macro shots around the garden or park
  5. Take part in 52 thread
  6. Do one of these themes from each letter - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=30760
The list goes on and on.

:)
 
On the resizing part, download Irfanview (google it) open your photo with it and resize it from the menu 800pixels on the longest side, then keep it 300dpi with preserve aspect ratio (ticked) and save at 93% if asked by the slider.
It will keep the original and send this copy to your desktop for uploading to photobucket to link from. HTH.
 
DJMorgan said:
To find a technique, I`m taking pictures etc but I`m trying different angle`s, etc but I just cant see to get any good pictures, could anyone help me maybe?

Some of you may know I just bought my first camera Nikon D3000 :thumbs:

So would anyone be able to help?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Remove the lens cap.

;)
 
DJMorgan said:
I still dont understand the shutter speed and aperture etc, I mean i have it on guide sometimes to help me out a bit but then it gives me an option to increase or decrease the shutter speed, or the aperture. So this is also confusing to me =[
Click to expand...

See if this helps.

CLICKY
 
Lol CT I was reading up on that before, but I will go over it again later lol 12/1 am isnt the best time to be reading lol
 
You know, for ages (and sometimes even now) I'd do a test shot on auto, see what settings it used, then play with those and similar settings.

Take shots of anything and everything, honestly, you'll get there! A then and now of some pics of mine, to show you!

Also, just because you think you've messed up a shot, don't delete it forever, save it somewhere, it may be salvagable later on, down the line. another example I later went back and edited it again to fix the white bit another example!

Seriously, just shoot away, post pics on here and try not to be as huffy as me :lol:, people offer their constructive criticism and really do genuinely mean well and are trying to help to make you a better photographer.

There's a book called the photographers eye, it's worth a read.
 
MagicMynx said:
There's a book called the photographers eye, it's worth a read.
Click to expand...

:plusone:

A great read. Will help with composition. Costs about a tenner on amazon.

Full title - The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
Author - Michael Freeman
 
i used to do this as soon as i got my camera. what you need is to think whether the subject is worth taking a picture and what it portrays, emotion, patterns etc. this will make your images have a reason to belong.

as for the rules, i never tend to use them as the whole point of photography is to give an image a personal touch and following a rule book means no point. i would however still read up on them as they can teach you the ideas (not rules) about composition, lighting etc.

hope this helps.
 
Don't be limited by your eqiuptment that is a load of bull tbh. Obviously a couple of grands worth of equiptment will be superior but will the results be?... Depends who is using it
 
I started with a D3000 at Christmas and decided the best way to figure out what everything does is to play around with the settings and see what effect each adjustment has. I used Guide Mode to explain things at a basic level and then just experimented from there on Manual.
 
Willenium said:
I started with a D3000 at Christmas and decided the best way to figure out what everything does is to play around with the settings and see what effect each adjustment has. I used Guide Mode to explain things at a basic level and then just experimented from there on Manual.
Click to expand...

See, I have tried to use manual, but it just gives me a black image. :|
 
Start on auto, and take a note of the suggested settings (Shutter speed, aperture etc) then do exactly the same only in manual (the resulting exposure will be the same) Then, still in manual, adjust one of the settings (try just shutterspeed or aperture first) by one click (that should be 1/3rd of a stop) and keep doing that so you can see what happens to the result. Then do the same with the other setting (but starting back at the original starting point of the "auto" suggested settings)

What you should end up with is a series of images, one of which will be exposed correctly, the others progressively darker/lighter. Don't worry about motion blur from slower shutterspeeds just yet, you're only looking at the exposures for now.

What this exercise will do is help you to realise how each setting affects the exposure, and that by balancing the exposure using the different settings is how we use the manual settings. If you use aperture priority for instance, when you set the aperture, the camera will automatically set the shutterspeed to provide a correct exposure (or what it thinks is the correct exposure anyhow)

When you have this understanding, you can then move onto using the settings more creatively (for instance using a wide open aperture to get shallow depth of field, or a slower shutterspeed to get motion blur or whatever)

Like I said before, don't lose heart, keep trying and you will get it, we all had to learn this and each and every one of us went through the same period when we just didn't get it, and didnt understand why we couldn't capture a good shot. When you get all this down, theres new stuff to learn, like composition, its all good fun :thumbs:
 
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