Newbie, where to start?

macmillan

macmillan

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Hi all

Lovely to find such a busy forum, looking forward to getting involved! Just wondering where to start really, I am very amateur, got my first ever DSLR last month which I adore and have tried to take a good photo every day, easier said than done.

I am on a steep learning curve with my camera but have successfully avoided auto mode and pop up flash, although learning manual mode has resulted in 1800 photographs in a month, not as many as I would have have turned out well, but I am getting better and faster with my settings and am starting to recognise what settings are going to be needed in different situations. But I have a couple of questions

1) So, I bought a copy of The Definitive Visual History of Photography to see some historic pictures and I am just amazed by the history of photography, our predecessors were incredible men and women. I would love to learn not just how to take a good photograph but also about photography in general, the history, the people, how it has changed the world, how it has helped or hurt people, what we have learnt through using photography in science, sociology etc. But where on earth do you start with such a broad topic, any suggestions?

2) I am shooting with a canon 18-55mm (3.5-5.6) kit lens, it's serving it's purpose and I am happy with the quality I am getting but I am getting frustrated by a lack of sharpness, I often see beautiful photographs that just have a sharpness I cAn't capture. I will def be getting a 50mm f1.8 STM so I can work close up portraits (and maybe street?) , will that help? And what comes after that? I would like to be able to do longer range outdoor shots and horse portraits/action .. Which lens should I consider? Would a 70-200 do the job? I'm not pursuing long range wildlife photography at the moment.

Oops, sorry for the long post, any quick printers in forum etiquette would be much appreciated, haven't used a forum for years!

Mrs Mac
 
Welcome to the forum.

Lack of sharpness is usually caused by
#1 unwanted subject or camera movement - what shutter speeds are you using?
#2 Incorrect focus
and/or to a lesser extent
#3 flare (unwanted light hittoing the front of the lens). Are you using a lens hood?
#4 Uneeded filters degrading the image or a dirty lens
#5 Shooting at very highISO values (images will be grainy)
#6 and this can be very much lens dependant - shootoing wide open or near wide open - try shooting and f8 and see how you go.
You may need to do some sharpening when doing post processing, especially when shooting RAW.
Post an image of one or two of your soft images (along with the exif data) - it may help us with analysing the problem.

A 70-200 is a very versatile lens when yoiu want a bit of reach.
 
Welcome to the forum, I've been on here for a good chunk of this year and it is a great place. A couple of things that have helped me, firstly pick some genres and "watch" those forums (there is a watch link at the top right), e.g. General photo feedback, Photos people and portraits, that way you get alerts when new things are posted. The other thing is to post some photos for critique, I've learned a lot really quickly by doing that and people are really generous and helpful, just make sure you are in a frame of mind to learn from what people say.
 
Welcome. I only started using a DSLR in January and love it. It's taken me a while to find what my "thing" is. I thought it was wildlife but found that it requires some more expensive equipment that I can't afford at the moment, to get the sort of shots that I'm after,(although I don't do it much I would still like to pursue it at a later time).
At first I just took snap shots (i thought they were the Bees knees at the time) using the semi auto modes. I understood the way the camera worked and what the different setting did quite quickly. But only just recently have I understood how to get what I see in my head into the camera.
I can't help with your question about lenses, that is best answered by people that have used that lens. Having said that I use a Tamron 70-300 sp vc to photograph horse events that I go to with the wife and have had quite good results with it.
 
Welcome to the forum.

My advice would be don't take anything too seriously, worry less and shoot more, relax and have fun!
 
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macmillan said:
I am on a steep learning curve with my camera but have successfully avoided auto mode
Click to expand...

Don't be afraid to use `auto`, even if it's only to compare to a shot you've taken in a manual setting & then decide what the differences/preferences are that you want.
It's just a case of practise, practise, practise....ad infinitum. ;)

Welcome btw. (y)
 
I second what Dominic says about wildlife, wait a year, follow the birding and wild and free threads and think hard about what it takes to achieve what those guys do and then see if you are still keen. Meantime takes lots of photos and post some on here.
 
Welcome to TP. Your passion is refreshing, I'll not knock your ambition, but there's more than a lifetimes work in what you aspire to know.

You'll eventually settle into your stride.

For now, cast the net wide and keep practicing.
 
Set yourself a project/theme. My last one was to photograph some old woodsheds and out buildings where I live. This was a challenge for me because I see these buildings everyday. They don't standout as interesting in my eye. So really had to find some different angles, use shadows and light, close ups of inanimate objects and anything that was different from how I see these builds all the time.
 
Hi and welcome try to post some pictures and also model of camera
 
It does help to know what you are dealing with before offering advice. That way the advice stands a chance of being right
 
For what it worth, I had sharpness problems with the Kit lens 18mm-55mm, my Friend with same Camera and Lens was always saying about it. So I got one of these:-

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equi.../canon-ef-s-18-135mm-f-3-5-5-6-is/sku-605388/

A 18mm-135mm IS, did an exchange by MPB and found it far better and the longer Focal length makes some difference, so perhaps its your Lens.

Do you know any one that you can check the Lens with, a friend or even your Local Camera Club.
 
Wow, thank you everyone! I'm using a Canon 750D.

I am using shutter speeds around 1/100s, it's so dark everywhere at this time of year and I never seem to catch bright days, perhaps I need to go a bit faster and sacrifice some ISO? Also, it do 't have a lens hood, never even considered it! What effect does a hood have on image quality?

I like the idea of a project Nostromo, thanks for that, I did consider doing something on abandoned houses, there seems to be a huge amount in my area, even though we are fairly rural, will think about that. And thanks for the lens suggestion stryvya will go and investigate that one now.

Really appreciate the comments and feedback, I have posted some pictures in the general forum, took me forever to work out how to resize them, kept getting a message saying the files were too big, is there an optimum file size for the forum?
 
A lens hood hood may help prevent unwanted light hitting the front of the lens and causing flare which degrades the image.

#1 Notice the light streaks on the floor and the general degrading of the image near the light sources (a lens hood did not help with this image).
Uploaded for a tutorial. by Richard Taylor, on Flickr

A lens hood can also help keep fingers, and rain, away from the front of the lens.
 
Welcome to the forums.

1. It's a massive subject. I'd find an area that interests you, street maybe, and just read around that first. As your skills and knowledge improve, then move on to other parts of photography that interest you.

2. Dont be scared to use the auto modes. They may actually help in understanding what works and what doesnt with your equipment. Hard to know where to start with lack of sharpness - maybe post up a picture or two (with exif intact) so you can get some feedback.

There's a lot of help in these forums, both from the photos and from the members, so dont be afraid to ask about anything.

And enjoy it
 
Many rarely if ever usemanual mode it does not make you a better photographer if you use manual.

Semi auto modes of apperture prioriy or shutter priority are used by most.

Keep shooting and show images as then people can explian what went well and what went wrong and how to fix it.
 
alfbranch said:
Many rarely if ever usemanual mode it does not make you a better photographer if you use manual.

Semi auto modes of apperture prioriy or shutter priority are used by most.

Keep shooting and show images as then people can explian what went well and what went wrong and how to fix it.
Click to expand...
Just so you know, they have posted photos in the general section. So you can take a look there.
 
I couldn't say how much I do use it manual mode. I use what ever gives me the best results, whether that be Av,TV or manual. Sometimes I'll use auto ISO other times I'll Set it to what I want or set a maximum.
It is wise in the long term to understand how to use manual mode but not a necessity as a beginner.
 
I do probably use Av,tv and manual equally, especially when I have lots of time to practise a shot I like to try manual and see what works and what doesn't. I do try to use my own iso though because my camera tends to default to 3200+ when left to it's own devices! Would be interesting to know what other people do.
 
OldCarlos said:
Wonder what the % of users do. (I do 95% of the time)
Click to expand...

I'm so old I learnt my photography before cameras had any kind of auto anything, so I'm perfectly happy using my camera fully manually, especially since there are now so many in-camera aids to getting it right. I no longer have to carry a light meter, for example. I only use manual when it's the quickest way of getting the camera to use the settings I want, which is maybe 1% of the time. Otherwise I use one or other of the priority modes plus exposure compensation and exposure lock, simply because it's faster. I'd use fully manual exposure more if I could use it with auto ISO or if there were a third control wheel for spinning through the ISOs.

I usually shoot RAW + JPEG, with the JPEG contrast and saturation turned down to give me more tweaking leeway editing the JPEG. That halves the amount t of time I need to go to the RAW for my post processing. How often I process from RAW is hugely variable depending on the kind of photography. In total it's probably somewhere between 1-10%.
 
I don't know your camera but if it is defaulting to and ISO of 3200+ then you'll need to find out which setting is causing this. It isn't often you will need an ISO of that high. I feel sure your camera can be set up to use Auto ISO but with a setting that limits maximum ISO to a level you want.

I use Manual when necessary, for me it is while taking shots of stars and sometimes while creating panoramas, but most of the time I use Av.


Manual has its place but if a camera is set to Manual and the indicator is moved to the middle of the exposure scale in the viewfinder then the result is the same as using either Av or Tv, depending on whether the aperture or shutter speed is chosen first.

Dave
 
macmillan said:
I am using shutter speeds around 1/100s, it's so dark everywhere at this time of year and I never seem to catch bright days, perhaps I need to go a bit faster and sacrifice some ISO? ?
Click to expand...

Definitely turn the iso up (or put it on auto iso) - a sharp noisy picture is generally better than a noise free blurred one , plus modern cameras handle high iso better anyway - if its defaulting to 3200 on Auto this will be because you are setting too narrow an apperture (if the shutter speed is only 100/sec). Also you might want to think about a flash gun or two
 
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