Your first picture and how you would now improve knowing what you know now

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kilbofragins

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Adam
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Hi All
I have spent many hours looking through the forums at some quality pictures, but just wondering in any of you have got some shots in the depths of your achives from when you had just started out, and knowing what you know now, what would you have done if you could have retaken that shot today?

I think this would be great for people just starting out, and hopefully help me to learn a few tricks :)
 
Nope, you can only get a year's experience in a year. (Thanks for that saying Dad!)

I look back on what I shot LAST WEEK and I can see how and where I should improve.

You simply have to learn at your own pace and direction, there are no real short cuts in life :)
 
AliB said:
Nope, you can only get a year's experience in a year. (Thanks for that saying Dad!)

I look back on what I shot LAST WEEK and I can see how and where I should improve.

You simply have to learn at your own pace and direction, there are no real short cuts in life :)
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Hmm this is true, but if you was to look at some of your first shoots surely even the best ones would probably been worse than a shoot you consider to have gone badly last week. (this phrase made sense in my head at least)
 
Quite a strange one, as I just uploaded some of my older/first shots into flickr tonight....my first shot, that really got me into photography, was taken on a Sony Cybershot compact, about two years ago....and the only thing i'd change about it, is the fact I wish it was taken on a DSLR just to give it that little bit extra something.

(Only had my SLR a month though, so still learning, quickly, how to make the wrong decision on settings lol)
 
Well I just had a quick look at the first shot I have in lightroom (taken in October 2009), and it's arguably the most boring shot imaginable.

Inbuilt flash on the 300D, indoors, of a mate looking glum staring off into space in probably the most uninspiring bar in the world. Why I pushed the shutter release I have no idea.

Now, back to that first day. It was a wedding and I spent much of the day shooting at 1600 ISO (on a 300D), indoors, getting 1/15s shutter speed. Results were, err, lets go with mixed...

What would I change about the day though? Nothing. First day out ever with a DSLR, took about 300 shots, learned more from those mistakes than I could ever do reading books. Only real regrets, need to take more photos.
 
That's very true. We would all change our first ever images if we were shooting now but without that experience we'd still be shooting at that level.

All you can do is take shots and look to see what you like/don't like and perhaps post for critique. If someone says just good or bad, ask for more detailed responses.
 
It's a never ending and a ever changing process which you continue to learn from even pre digital.

If like me you do not keep every image you shoot but cull them for the best, then you will be suprised when you go back over them a few years later at why you thought they were good and kept them (barring family pics)! But a good shot remains a good shot how ever old it is or early on in your photographic learning curve.:)

The only thing I regret is that in my film days I threw a lot of good images away just because I never notice that ciggey packet or bit of litter on the ground, these days they would be kept and one click of the clone tool would save it.

At least pre digital/photoshop made you more aware of what was in the frame.;)
 
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kilbofragins said:
Hmm this is true, but if you was to look at some of your first shoots surely even the best ones would probably been worse than a shoot you consider to have gone badly last week. (this phrase made sense in my head at least)
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Well I was only four and it was 41 years ago!

It depend what measure you use regarding quality. Techincally probably not but aesthetically they were probrbly better. Sometimes the more technical your knowledge becomes the less aesthetic (though not always) Trying to marry the two is not easy either. :)
 
my first photographs were taken when i was a kid, but tbh not much would change with them... they were snapshots of family back then... and at parties etc i still just take snapshots. The only difference is that my friends have better haircuts now and don't wear shell suits :D

Actually i think i took far more pictures back then... i have a small samsung nv4 now but i hardly use it... i really should. I used to take pictures of anything and everything when i was growing up.
 
Squawk said:
What would I change about the day though? Nothing. First day out ever with a DSLR, took about 300 shots, learned more from those mistakes than I could ever do reading books..
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I have found this recently, great advice and some would say obvious, but you can read may posts/books (i have been reading alot :() and you never really get the same feel as you do messing up several hundred pictures :)
 
Strangely enough a few weeks ago I came across an albumn with the first ever photograph I took. Given that it was shot on a Hanimex 110 when I was about ten, I don't think there is much about it I could reasonably improve with hindsight.

When I do play the hindsight game, the piece of advice I'd probably give myself most often is to slow down and think about the shot a little longer. Which might mean that if there's time pressure on the shot to start thinking about it a little earlier.
 
I've just spent the last month going through the last four years when i properly started taking photos as a hobby with my first dlsr. and I'm amazed that even though I didn't know what the buttons did and I took far too many pics the consistency is amazing and I love the editing style.

it a shame it seems the more I learn the more technical but drab my images seem :(
 
I was lucky enough earlier to discover a folder full of original files from my first digital compact - I was over the moon as it contained a photo that was the most popular photo I sold, even though looking at it it's not anything special, it does though show up most of my 'better' cameras!

I thought I only had this low res version left that I used in my parents' website:

area06.jpg


(For sale it was cropped down and levelled off, I think that image really is gone!)

The EXIF information in the original file was:

Aperture: F2.8
Speed: 1/500
ISO: 50
Camera: olympus C170
 
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AliB said:
Nope, you can only get a year's experience in a year. (Thanks for that saying Dad!)

I look back on what I shot LAST WEEK and I can see how and where I should improve.

You simply have to learn at your own pace and direction, there are no real short cuts in life :)
Click to expand...

Best answer to your question.
 
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