I'm struggling

U

Uhuru

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I've had my DSLR for well over a year now. I was a complete novice when I purchased it and sadly so many months later, I still am a novice.

I've attended a couple of beginners workshops, I've bought a couple of recommended books and I feel I do know the basic theory. I just cannot put it into practice!

I have an image in my mind's eye, but when it comes to translating it to the camera it just doesn't happen. I'm so frustrated with myself as I've had so many wonderful opportunities to come away with great photos and I just seem to fail time and time again. I may as well carry on with my compact!

What am I missing?

I really don't want to give up.
 
Just keep practicing!. We all have times where we feel its just not working. In fact Ive sold up all my gear for that reason before now.

Keep shooting and before long you'll take an image that really jumps out at you and gives you a whole load of confidence. Maybe also try and find someone a bit more expeienced and ask if you can "shadow" them for a bit, see how they work and what they can teach you.

Also, post some images up on here. Maybe they arent as bad as you think, or there is something that can be done easilly in PP that will make the images shine. Ive seen examples of images on here that I would have binned, but then someone has given it 5 minutes in Photoshop and it looks stunning. Usually no one is more critical of a shot than the person who took it. Someone with fresh eyes might be able to point out the good bits and tell you how to improve the not so good bits.
 
Hi, as already stated, don't give up, keep practicing.

Silly question, but is what you have in your mind's eye something that you can photograph in the way you want to.

Might be an idea to post a few with a few comments stating what you were after?

I'll keep my eye open and offer any support I can...

Cheers.
 
Thanks guys.

posiview, the images in my minds eyes when I am looking at a scene are pretty simple so there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to capture it on camera. I think my problem is technique.

I have an understanding of the basics, ie ISO, apperture, exposure, shutter speed, depth of field etc, but I just cannot seem to manipulate the camera to do what I want it to do.

I could put up some photos I've taken, but seriously they are rubbish compared to the standard of work I see on here even from novices.

:bang:
 
You need to get out there, take some shots, publish them here and get advice in return to help you improve.

You have been a member for over a year yet only made 35 posts in the discussion areas of the forum. ( no criticism of the number of posts you have made it's a free world after all). Try to make 2011 a year for posting in the phtoo sharing sections.

Try and get yourself into a habit of taking the camera with you and start recording the image you see in your mind.

It will only come with practice.
 
one good thing to look for is on flickr have a look at some local groups because you may find someone who is willing to go out shooting with on the weekend.

it is always frustrating being able to see the shot and not getting it, ever trip i feel like i've missed something, practise practise and bounce ideas off other people. the critique is great for getting feedback on how to improve your shots or as you say get them to the image your minds eye sees.

2011 i am going to help out more over there, my shots are never perfect but everyone sees the world differently :D
 
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My advice to you is, shoot everything in manual mode.

This means for every shot you are having to set shutter, aperture & iso (although iso will probably stay the same). By doing this you are going to get used to manipulating this on your camera without thinking about it. It will also give you more of an insight in to what settings effect the outcome and how it does so.

Also as suggested, post more, take and GIVE critique and see about joining a local camera club :)
 
Ok, I'll nip over to one of the photo sharing threads and post some of my photos.
 
Ok I'll stick an example here.

1742.jpg
 
Harvey nikon, I mostly shoot in aperture mode and occasionally I will use manual. I find aperture mode easier when I need to get a shot pronto. With manual mode, it takes me a while to figure out the correct settings by which time I've lost the shot.

But I guess its all practice.

I'm working tonight unfortunately, otherwise I'd have met up with the others in Leeds.
 
BandyQuill said:
what lens/camera combo was it taken with, also do you have the exif info?

to me it looks like its just a little bit soft...
Click to expand...

I used my Canon 450d with a 50mm prime lens. f1.8 I used an ISO of 100 as it was bright mid day sunshine.
The camera set the exposure at 1/4000
 
Can i suggest Just using Av mode then? The image looks soft, But its a nice image, you could improve it a little in Photoshop,but its all about Practising :)
Are you just using the Kit lens that came with the Camera?

Edit: just read your post above.it might be cause the Apertures so wide,the 450's max speed is 1/4000. so i think you could have closed the aperture down and got abit of a better image :)
 
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ahhh, that might be the issue with that image, with the 1.8 lens having such a small DOF (depth of field) its very difficult to get all of the image in focus, in bright situations like that its sometimes worth putting the aperture upto about F6.3-F8 ishh, it should give you a wider DOF for capturing faces...

i had this issue with some portraits i was taking where one eye was in focus and the other wasnt, the helpfull people on here pointed out that at F1.8 its very shallow and wont allow focus on both...

do you set the focus point manually or do you alow it to pick for you (if it picks for you generally the 450 will choose the closest point...
 
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Thanks guys.

So just to check I understand this right. The shutter speed was way too fast because I selected too wide an aperture hece the soft image? Or is it soft because the focusing was wrong?

About focusing, sometimes I choose a focus point myself and other times I let the camera choose.
 
yeah your just about bang on, i believe the maximum shutter speed for your camera is 1/4000 anyway so it may have needed a higher speed over that at 1.8 but couldnt go there...

it looks like the focus is around the bottom right hand side (there left boob area) but with such a shallow DOF its obviously thrown everything else out :)

hope thats of some help to you :)

as for focus points i generaly set it to the centre one and move it as needed myself, only takes a moment to set and can be done without taking your eye down from the viewfinder (they light up red as you move them :))
 
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With that image, you were in strong light, so you could have easily shut down the aperture to maybe even f/8 and still got a fast enough shutter speed to get a nice sharp shot.
The only reason the image appears slightly soft is because the aperture was so wide, only a tiny portion is in focus. To me it looks like you have focused on the knot on her shawl thing, for standard portraits, always focus on the eye.
 
I'm also having an 'every photo I take is crap' phase too :) I relate totally to the mind's eye thing. I seem to find that the photos taken with my bridge camera do relate more closely to what I was thinking of. Ones taken with the dslr feature the same issues - focussed on wrong thing or aperture too wide and DOF a bit too shallow so things you actually wanted sharp, aren't. They always look ok in the image preview but then you see them full size and instantly you see where it's wrong!

Just got to keep practising and improve the hit rate.
 
I've had a play with the image and it can be much improved quite easily. i can't post a comparison because your edits is crossed out.
Correcting the exposure makes a big difference.
 
As well as practicing, try reading Understanding Exposure by Peterson - will explain the basics well.
 
You have to learn from somewhere what the shutter and aperture do - it's essential to understand these things if you are going to be able to produce good work. This was an almost stationery subject but you used a shutter speed that would have stopped a bullet (almost)! Your aperture was very wide so your depth of field was very small and you missed focus. If you don't know what these terms mean - google them or use wikipedia - and learn the basics. Try some more and post some more. Don't try to run before you can crawl.
 
Uhuru said:
I've had my DSLR for well over a year now. I was a complete novice when I purchased it and sadly so many months later, I still am a novice.

I've attended a couple of beginners workshops, I've bought a couple of recommended books and I feel I do know the basic theory. I just cannot put it into practice!

I have an image in my mind's eye, but when it comes to translating it to the camera it just doesn't happen. I'm so frustrated with myself as I've had so many wonderful opportunities to come away with great photos and I just seem to fail time and time again. I may as well carry on with my compact!

What am I missing?

I really don't want to give up.
Click to expand...

Hi Uhuru

i was struggling with my camera as well.I went for a course in manchester for 2days last year.The tutor was very good.It was hands on training and you will comfortable using manual settings.i can atleast handle manual setting comfortable now.I am not sure if i can mention the name of the course here.if you are allowed to send me a pm,then i can let you know the course.

thanks
 
Hi Uhuru
Looks like a very good subject you've got and the composition looks fine too.
It does look soft - not quite in focus.
Can you set your camera to only take a shot when in focus ? Then at least something in the shot will always be in focus.

With the bright conditions, as said, you could have shot at around f4 and still had a fairly blur background.
At f1.8 you really need the focus point right on the guy's eye.

Try putting the camera in programmed mode and let it do the work on getting everything right and then take note of the settings and change to manual and adjust just one of the setting slightly and take the same shot again and check the results.
Experiment changing the one setting greater / lesser and see what happens to shots.
That will give you a good idea of wht changing the settings will give you.
Or as has been said just stick to aperture priority and again experiment a little until you're familiar with what changing settings will do.

There's a lot of info in the eyepiece when you look into it and it takes time to get used to taking it all in - just keep at it.

Probably the best thing would be to go along to a meet an get some hands on help from a sympathetic TP member.
Good luck with it.
 
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The main problem with the photo you have posted is actually the lighting. You have taken it in the middle of the day, when the sun is really high in the sky. So the top of his head is very bright, the rest of his face is dark, and there are unflattering shadows on his eyes and below his nose. You would have had better results if you had moved him into the shade. I know it's not always possible but it makes things easier.

Hang in there, learning to use the light available will get easier with experience.

H x
 
Has he given up replying as well:)?
 
Thank you all for your suggestions.

I'm definitely not going to quit. Just going to keep at it. I've spent most of the day reading through tutorials on here and another website I've found and playing around with the camera. I'm also considering booking onto a local DSLR workshop so I can actually speak with and work with someone knowledgeable about it all. I think part of the frustration for me is not being able to actually speak with someone about my camera.

I'm also going to start taking it everywhere with me so hopefully it wont be long before I start posting some half decent photos.
 
Have you tried following one of the tutorials on here or in a camera mag?
I was struggling with a cityscape shot at night and followed their procedure to get the image I wanted.
Also learnt to slow everything down a bit and think about the camera equipment I was going to use rather than have to recompose while I added/removed filters.
 
Should have tried it with a film camera, either spend a night developing and printing or sent it off to a processer taking a week to come back, then bin all your prized images :(

<edit>BTW set apature mode to f8, you had a short lens and nice light, try to keep it at f8 for now, much more forgiving for dof, forget about shutter speed till it gets below 1/50
 
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