Wasted opportunity

Craigus

Craigus

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Craig
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I have been out on two separate trips today, one you could call a photography trip this morning with my brother to catch the frosty conditions at dawn and then a nice walk with the Mrs this afternoon, but took the camera and tripod along hoping to catch some good conditions in a lovely surrounding.

I'm still fairly new to this, but I've come home to look through quite a few photos, none of which I am happy with. Most are just a bit boring, blown out or not very sharp, but some are well out of focus.

I'm sure this happens to everyone every now and then, and I'm sure many of you have had worse days that you can recall, all you can do is learn from it I guess. I'm trying to go through each one and identify what went wrong, technically, compositionally or whether I should just not have bothered taking the picture in the first place. Just feel like I've wasted my time (except enjoying being outside with old company of course)

No purpose to this other than to share my frustration!
 
Happens to all of us ... another day tomorrow :)
 
Aĺl had those days Craig, just happens, but they are balanced out with those times when it all goes well.

No point analysing, put it down to experience and look forward to the next time. If you are concerned try resetting the camera to factory default, then you are starting from a known base point.
 
Have you considered going out on your own? I always felt rushed going out with the other half - mainly because she kept walking :)

Being able to stop, take your time, take a photo, review and persist 'till you get it right is much easier if you haven't got someone hanging about tutting & sighing. It seems like you have a few issues from what you say. Concentrate on one at once.

Not sharp/out of focus : Find a subject in your frame. A rock, a fence, a pole, whatever. Something you can focus on and check later. Use your tripod so that if you have a low shutter speed, you're not getting camera shake, or wobbly hand syndrome.
Blown : There could be a huge number of reasons for this, but look at your scene. Do you have lots of bright skies and dark shadows? The camera will struggle to expose it all correctly. Try a cloudier day, or shooting when the sky isn't bright. These issues can be fought with grad filters later, but for now, get used to what your camera can manage in terms of light through to shadow (dynamic range). If you're comfortable on manual, take 3 or 4 photos of the same scene and evaluate them at home.
Boring : I think this is probably the last thing to tackle. Once you have control over your camera with focus and exposure, you can concentrate on being creative. Your results will improve because you'll be getting sharp, well exposed, boring pictures which is better than blown, blurry boring.

Just take it one step at a time. Finding a subject for your photo and making sure your focus is on that will improve boringness as well as sharpness, because for me, my boring photos were where I didn't really have a subject.
Good luck!
 
We've all had those days, believe me. Keep going at it. Try going back to the same spot (at a similar time), with a couple of the pics on the memory card, that you can and want to improve upon. Then you'll have all the settings on the card, instead of trying to take notes, mentally, or otherwise (which I use to do, then couldn't remember). When you're there, look at the pics and change settings, angles, etc and take some more.

Good luck. (y)
 
Thanks for the replies. I feel like I've got a decent grip on how the camera works and understand the principles pretty well (despite todays mishaps). The point about being out on my own I think may be a very valid one, my Wife is very good and patient but I feel under pressure to get moving when I have been faffing with the tripod and gear etc for 5 mins in one spot.

Looking back over them, some of them are nice and sharp and those are the ones where I have taken my time and figured out my the hyperlocal distance etc. The ones with blown skies I think needed bracketing as I was expecting too much from my camera, or in some cases any camera...
 
Don't feel bad. I spend two hours on top of a very cold hill overlooking a castle yesterday waiting for the sun to set. It set behind a very large cloud that appeared out of nowhere.
 
gremlin16 said:
Not as bad as last Tuesday when I went to Scotland for the day, got some great light, went to the boot and found I was without my camera!
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The same happened to me last Tuesday; brilliant morning fog on the commute to work, sun shining through the trees as a back light, and I'll I had was my cameraphone. Aargh.
 
Sounds like a pretty standard day to me! ;-) I find i have very few keepers, but that's probably because i'm staying within my comfort zone, which is very boring!
 
You ought to post a few in the critique forum otherwise it's hard to give specific advice. Sometimes a place doesn't look good in pictures though, most of my county is a nice place to live but mainly too flat and undramatic for interesting photos, it may be the same for you
 
I have had the same happen to me, you are not on your own.
Firstly i would advise going on your own so you feel no pressure from others as to how long you want to take, just looking at things from different angles etc, unless you go with another photographer friends and family just dont seem to get why your taking so long.
Photography is personal to you, to see the shot you want to take and compose it how you think is best.

The oof shots could be down to different factors so try getting sharp shots at home, garden or local park etc, that will just confirm that your camera/lens is giving you the quality of photos required.

Good luck and keep trying.
 
Harlequin565 said:
Have you considered going out on your own? I always felt rushed going out with the other half - mainly because she kept walking :)

Being able to stop, take your time, take a photo, review and persist 'till you get it right is much easier if you haven't got someone hanging about tutting & sighing. It seems like you have a few issues from what you say. Concentrate on one at once.
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^ This.

I love my wife and kids dearly, but they're not very condusive to photography outings. They never complain when I try stop to take shots, but I feel guilty that my interest (none of them really gives a damn about photography) is holding them up, or they've walked so far in front that I have to stop what I'm doing to avoid losing sight of them. And so I end up rushing shots or just missing stuff that, had I been alone, I would have taken the time to photograph properly.

I explain it to my wife as the situation being similar to the occasions that I've been with her when she's been shopping for new clothes or something. I never tell her to hurry up, but she always comes away saying she felt rushed nontheless.
 
I have exactly the same situation with my wife to the point that we both get frustrated so if we are going somewhere nice like York or Haworth etc we will split up at some point so she can go shopping which I hate and I can take my time with the pictures and then meet up an hour or two later.

Works much better.
 
There should be no wasted time on a photo trip. Even if you are not happy with any of the shots. You can go through them and work out what is wrong with each one and what you can do next time to improve them, You can learn more that way. Than just looking at the ones you like.
 
Craigus said:
The point about being out on my own I think may be a very valid one, my Wife is very good and patient but I feel under pressure to get moving when I have been faffing with the tripod and gear etc for 5 mins in one spot.
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This is how photography is for many of us, except it's more like a 30-60sec without a tripod than 5min with. Take a camera only for grab shots on the way, or take a tripod when you're alone or plan the trip to be about the photos.
 
Unless you're shooting in really low light, a tripod isn't really necessary for general landscape stuff (the blown skies are a good indicator of that!). Also are you shouting raw and processing in something like Lightroom? This will help bring down the highlights in the blown sky. Alternatively, use a graduated filter?
 
UaeExile said:
Why the tripod? was it necessary to get the shots? If not, don't bother next time.
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If you aren't particularly steady, like me, get yourself a monopod as it doubles up as a walking stick and is very unobtrusive but so useful.
 
@Craigus - it happens. When I first started I used to go out expecting to loads of great shots, I soon realised that if I got one photo from each outing that I felt was good enough to share then it was a great day!

No experience needs to be a waste though, it's only a waste if you choose not to reflect on it and learn from it - as you say, look at the ones you are ready to discard and work out why you don't want to keep them and also study the keepers to understand what it is about them that works.
 
It's bizarre, I don't understand the expectation.

When I started a decent shot out of a roll was an achievement.
 
ancient_mariner said:
This is how photography is for many of us, except it's more like a 30-60sec without a tripod than 5min with. Take a camera only for grab shots on the way, or take a tripod when you're alone or plan the trip to be about the photos.
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That's what I do, except I normally don't use a tripod. But when walking alone I can stay at one place for 5 , 10 minutes or even more, just checking the possibilities or waiting for the clouds. Walking with some accompaniment, I do not expect anything and so each shot done while 'walking by' is a win and if I got nothing, I don't care. ;)
 
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lemo said:
That's what I do, except I normally don't use a tripod. But when walking alone I can stay at one place for 5 , 10 minutes or even more, just checking the possibilities or waiting for the clouds. Walking with some accompaniment, I do not expect anything and so each shot done while 'walking by' is a win and if I got nothing, I don't care. ;)
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I must admit, being with another person can be a distraction, the company is nice but can take your concentration off from what you want to achieve, not so much in street photography but certainly landscape stuff.
 
I went out this weekend to photograph some sea stacks and the wife asked to come along. I warned her I wasn't leaving until it was dark and would be sitting on to of a cold cliff edge for a few hours.

She started grumbled a bit after 2 hours on the cold cliffs but she managed. I came home with three great shots and she swore blind never to go out with me again.

WINNER.
 
Looking through my fave shots, I would say they are about 50/50 - 50% when wifey and I have been out together (mostly travel stuff) and 50% when I've been out alone (architecture stuff). Even then my architecture stuff has usually been shot on my way to or from a meeting or appointment so been hurried. Looking forward over Christmas to hopefully getting into town to shoot for a day just for the sake of shooting and no other reason :)
 
I'd be another voting for changing your expectations.
If you are going out with your wife/family, you won't feel like you can spend lots of time on one particular shot, so don't expect to come away with lots of amazing shots. If you're going out with your wife, expect to get fewer shots.
If you go out on your own, you'll have the freedom to take whatever shot you want and spend however long you want trying to get the shot.
I went out on Sunday to Leeds Castle with the family, I only came back with a few shots and most of them were of the kids not idylic seasonal images I'd thought I might get.
I will however go out for a morning on my own and take lots of photos, many of which are of similar scenes trying to perfect the composition and it's great being able to do it without the pressure of other people around.

If you have a day off with your wife, make time to spend with her, take your camera, but don't bother with a big kit, save that for another time. When you have another day suggest to her that you want to go on a "photography-trip" rather than just a walk, warning her that you'll likely spend more time photographing things than actually walking. She'll eventually realise that it's better this way round and that you'll make more of the other time with her.

Everyone has days like these, so don't worry about it. Learn from the experience; apart from going on your own, review what you did shoot and work out what you would do differently, how does the photograph work/not work.
If you're not sure want some tips, post a few on here.

Get out again and keep shooting.
 
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