a little frustrated

[Susan1114]

So I'm realizing that I have no mechanical photographic skills. Sure I can compose well and I love to capture shots. The good ones I take are by accident. But I want to do more.

I'd love to hear how some of you became the great photographers you are. How did all this technical talk make sense? I can understand 1/2 the conversations on here because it's all in acronyms. LOL.

I'm in Colorado and if any of you know of a good photography school/class feel free to send me a note.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to your stories.

thanks again,
Susan

 

[LuckySo-n-So]

I feel your pain. I'm pretty new to the dSLR thing as well. It gets discouraging sometimes when I venture out of the auto mode, but I know I have to to get the most out of my camera.

I'm slowly starting to understand how my camera works, so now it's time to learn when to fiddle with the aperture, ISO, shutterspeed, etc. and how they work in combination with each other.

A lot of people have recommended the Scott Kelby books on Digital Photography (which I have ordered from Amazon--around $30 for both). Hopefully the "light will come on" soon.

Good luck to you!!!

 

[LarryD]

You're on the right track. A forum such as this can infect you with the desire to better yourself and give you ideas.

You can also post your shots for others to critique, so long as you have thick enough skin to read everything with a grain of salt but still incorporate some of the ideas presented.

It's all about the passion.........With today's digital cameras, you can shoot hundreds of shots and toss those you don't like, bracket everything, process until you go bonkers, and except for the equipment, there is very little cost..

 

[ANDS!]

I remember watching an episode of this Japanese program, Densha Otoko. Funny as ****, and it was all subtitled so I didn't need to know any Japanese. However, along the way I started to wish that I could appreciate the subtleties of the show in its original context, and so I signed up for a Japanese class at the local community college.

I enjoyed Japanese, and did my diligence in learning vocab and grammar, but everytime I opened up a "manga" or downloaded a Japanese television show - I felt like a dunce. None of what I was learning was even enough decipher credits.

Fast forward four years. I still wasn't transcribing television shows, but I also had developed a nice foundation to build on. In the beginning I was taking shortcuts, unable to enjoy the journey, instead focused on native speakers and lamented on why I couldn't be that good. My work, confidence suffered as such, however thankfully I was able to stick with it - but had I had more realistic and personally centered goals, I would have taken much more out of my formative training.

 

[rufus5150]

I wouldn't call myself 'good' or even 'adequate' most days.

The book Understanding Exposure will get you 9/10ths of the way there, or at least it did for me. That's the mechanical part. It covers The Triangle (ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture). It brings you into understanding that they're all part of one simple but very touchy equation and that if you modify one, you have to compensate for it to achieve the mechanical correctness that is a proper exposure.

Some of it's an illusion. I only ever really show the 'great' stuff. 90% of what I take is crap.

 

[Amber_Cullen]

I feel the same way, I just bought Understanding Exposure because its highly recommended and its supposed to really help when you're starting to shoot in manual and want to get better. You should check it out!

 

[manaheim]

Photography has so far proven to be a battle only winnable by time and effort. There was a time ... 6 years ago I think ... where it was all mostly foreign to me. I spent a lot of time on here listening, talking to people, understanding... I read a lot, and most importantly I took a lot of pictures and tried to figure out why they didn't work.

Even after 6 years of pretty aggressively chasing this, there are still whole areas of the mechanical element of photography that are a bit elusive to me, but at least I can speak to the majority of it and am quite proficient in most of it.

Definitely takes patience and diligence. Don't get too frustrated... just frustrated enough to keep trying.

 

[Overread]

Keep at it and remember whilst you see all the great shots by good photographers on the site - you never see their waste bins on the computer and those film lot are jsut the same - only difference is that they pay for every mistake, so they tend to learn a little faster by pressure.

As for understanding more, remember one half of the battle is understanding the light and taking the shot - and the other half is processing the shot in the computer.
I recomend getting and reading Understanding Exposure as that will give you a good foundation in the fundementals of exposure. From there its practice - lots of it. Expect to take many failed shots when you start out - it takes experience of different situations and lightings to really be able to shoot shots with full confidence of getting the result you desire (and part of that is understanding the results which are possible in the conditions you are in). Also don't be afraid to experiment with different settings, pros will often take many shots of the same sight with different settings to find the best combination for the scene

 

[Susan1114]

Thank you everyone!!!! The experience you have all shared really put me back on board. I'm certainly going to get the book Understanding Exposure. I just have to remember that this process is just that .... a process. There's no way anyone can absorb all this at once. If that was the case anyone could take great pictures all the time and this board wouldn't even exist.

Once again, THANK YOU!!!!

 

[Samanax]

So I'm realizing that I have no mechanical photographic skills. Sure I can compose well and I love to capture shots. The good ones I take are by accident. But I want to do more.

I'd love to hear how some of you became the great photographers you are.

This is the beginners forum and most of us here are not great (not yet anyway) but there are a few good photographers here. I think most of us are just learning or trying to improve our skills so that we can venture into the Advanced forum. Not sure about everyone else, but this is just a hobby for me and I have no plans to make this a career.

I just have to remember that this process is just that .... a process.

Yes, it's a process...a long process that never really ends.

There's no way anyone can absorb all this at once.

Yes, it takes a long time to learn all this photography stuff. I don't know how long you've been at it but I'm been taking it seriously for a little over a year and my more experienced photography buddies tell me that I won't really be "good" until my third year of shooting. This is a hobby that you have to invest a lot of time (and money) into before you get "good"...but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have fun while you learn.

Just keep shooting, post some pictures for C&C, learn what you can from that C&C and learn how to C&C your own photos so that you continue to improve and grow.