Need to improve my pictures

[Vinny]

I won't speak for anybody else but when I was a newbie I did some stupid things and I still do stupid things whenever I do something new; I doubt anyone is immune to that. Heck, I do stupid things when I know what to do ... but that's another story :lmao:.

When I was first starting out I metered wrong and I had a whole roll of 36 exposures of - a black bear, deep in a cave, at midnight ... my excuse for not loading the film in correctly and not realizing the rewinder wasn't moving when I advanced the film .

I think the problem with some newbies is like I said - put a camera in their hands and they are great photographers. They don't know it takes years to become great, if you can become great. My son has a friend with a Nikon 300 and he was going to be a pro photographer because he has a great camera. All he knew was that he takes "great " photos. My son saw some of the photos I have taken in the past and the few I took with my new camera and said his friend isn't that good compared to me - and I am NOT professing that I am great. I have also seen photos from "pros" that I consider crap and wonder how they survive in that business.

Your suggestion of a photography class is a good one, I suggested to read and play around with the settings ... the truth is more knowledge is needed in order to take better photos.

This was not a spray and pray as you suggest it is but a take a photo with your meter reading "correctly" and learn from what happens when you deviate.

From the photo he posted, it looks like he is not metering "correctly", so why would it matter what it reads?




p!nK

 

[BRIANxJDM]

I like learning things on my own, but if it come down to the case of me needing classes then I will pay for them. When I change my ISO to a 3 or 4 as someone suggest I did, it took a long time for a photo to be taken and then picture came out to be crap.

 

[emh]

I like learning things on my own, but if it come down to the case of me needing classes then I will pay for them. When I change my ISO to a 3 or 4 as someone suggest I did, it took a long time for a photo to be taken and then picture came out to be crap.

You set ISO to 3 or 4? :er:

I'll repeat what I said earlier -- put the camera in shutter priority (S on Nikons) or aperture priority (A on Nikons) mode. That way you can change the aperture or shutter speed and let the camera figure out the other half of the equation to get the right exposure. At least you'll get some usable pictures that way.

 

[KmH]

I like learning things on my own, but if it come down to the case of me needing classes then I will pay for them. When I change my ISO to a 3 or 4 as someone suggest I did, it took a long time for a photo to be taken and then picture came out to be crap.

You set ISO to 3 or 4? :er:

I'll repeat what I said earlier -- put the camera in shutter priority (S on Nikons) or aperture priority (A on Nikons) mode. That way you can change the aperture or shutter speed and let the camera figure out the other half of the equation to get the right exposure. At least you'll get some usable pictures that way.

You need to tell him that exposure is controlled by 3 settings, not 2:

• aperture
• ISO
• shutter speed

However, ISO can be put in auto mode so with the shooting mode set to a value in S or A, only the last remaining of the 3 exposure settings needs to be selected by the shooter.

 

[emh]

I like learning things on my own, but if it come down to the case of me needing classes then I will pay for them. When I change my ISO to a 3 or 4 as someone suggest I did, it took a long time for a photo to be taken and then picture came out to be crap.

You set ISO to 3 or 4? :er:

I'll repeat what I said earlier -- put the camera in shutter priority (S on Nikons) or aperture priority (A on Nikons) mode. That way you can change the aperture or shutter speed and let the camera figure out the other half of the equation to get the right exposure. At least you'll get some usable pictures that way.

You need to tell him that exposure is controlled by 3 settings, not 2:

• aperture
• ISO
• shutter speed

However, ISO can be put in auto mode so with the shooting mode set to a value in S or A, only the last remaining of the 3 exposure settings needs to be selected by the shooter.

Very true, but bringing ISO into the discussion seemed to confuse the issue even more.

For the brightly-lit type of shots he has on Flickr, I don't really see a need to get the camera off it's base ISO (I don't know what it is for a D3000 -- probably 200). So keeping that unchanged seemed like a good way to get started.

 

[KmH]

Very true, but bringing ISO into the discussion seemed to confuse the issue even more.

:lmao::thumbup::lmao::thumbup::lmao::thumbup:

 

[BRIANxJDM]

I just look and my iso is at 1600, what do you guys recommend me changing it too and what should I leave my the number that you change with the rolling thing on the right top?

 

[BRIANxJDM]

Here is a close up I did the other day
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4625244065_0c365225f9_b.jpg

 

[Vinny]

Brian,

You NEED TO READ the manual ... that's the first step in learning on your own.

You have to gain some understanding of camera terms before you can seriously know what people are talking about. Then you need to know how to expose a scene correctly to get decent results.

Besides learning what the terminology is and how to set up the camera correctly, a DSLR is much more complicated than a film camera and you need to know what buttons affect what settings. This is something that a photography forum can't teach you. I've read my D90 manual twice already and I still forget how to change some things "on the fly" and refer back to it regularly.

I was the one that told you to set the ISO to 200 or 400 or what ever, it was in writing and you didn't understand - your camera shouldn't even read 3 or 4 as an ISO like you said and you didn't question yourself or double check what was written. If you didn't understand what "what ever" was, you could have just stuck to 200 or 400. Do you know how to change the ISO on your camera? Maybe not - that's OK - read the manual.

You must read the manual, then: read a book, use Google, go to photography lesson websites, take photography lessons, experiment with what you have read, learned and saw on-line and learn how to take photos.

 

[BRIANxJDM]

Brian,

You NEED TO READ the manual ... that's the first step in learning on your own.

You have to gain some understanding of camera terms before you can seriously know what people are talking about. Then you need to know how to expose a scene correctly to get decent results.

Besides learning what the terminology is and how to set up the camera correctly, a DSLR is much more complicated than a film camera and you need to know what buttons affect what settings. This is something that a photography forum can't teach you. I've read my D90 manual twice already and I still forget how to change some things "on the fly" and refer back to it regularly.

I was the one that told you to set the ISO to 200 or 400 or what ever, it was in writing and you didn't understand - your camera shouldn't even read 3 or 4 as an ISO like you said and you didn't question yourself or double check what was written. If you didn't understand what "what ever" was, you could have just stuck to 200 or 400. Do you know how to change the ISO on your camera? Maybe not - that's OK - read the manual.

You must read the manual, then: read a book, use Google, go to photography lesson websites, take photography lessons, experiment with what you have read, learned and saw on-line and learn how to take photos.

Alright man, Thanks I do know how to change the ISO I had it at 1600 since the beginning.

 

[mrpink]

Alright man, Thanks I do know how to change the ISO I had it at 1600 since the beginning.

But do you know why you need to change it? Do you know what affects it has on the other settings when you do change it?

It is the old "give a man a fish" lesson.





p!nK

 

[tron]

Fellow Honda owner on here? What are you driving? Im just about to finish a built turbo d16 swap in my ek

Okay im going to step in and play resident camera god even though some people might liken me to a narcoleptic chimp

1. Read the manual. There is a ton of information in there on WHY shutter speed, aperture, and ISO change an image.

2. Shutter speed. This is how fast and/or slow the cameras shutter opens and closes. Small number = slow shutter speed, Large number = fast

3. Aperture. This is how open/closed the camera diaphragm is before you press the shutter button. High # = small hole, Low # = large hole

4. ISO. This is how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light. High ISO = more sensitive which is good for indoors, wanting a very fast shutter speed, etc.

Start googling, theres a ton of information on the web about this stuff. We could tell you the exact settings you need to fix the photo of the white SI but what happens when you get into a different situation?

My advice is to start shooting on auto. Look at the EXIF data and see how different photos have different settings. This is a good way to learn the correlation between shutter speed, iso, and aperture. Then move to program mode, then shutter priority, aperture priority, and then full manual.

 

[KmH]

I just look and my iso is at 1600, what do you guys recommend me changing it too and what should I leave my the number that you change with the rolling thing on the right top?

Which "rolling thing on the right top"? There are 2 of them. One in front and one in back.

 

[BRIANxJDM]

Fellow Honda owner on here? What are you driving? Im just about to finish a built turbo d16 swap in my ek

Okay im going to step in and play resident camera god even though some people might liken me to a narcoleptic chimp

1. Read the manual. There is a ton of information in there on WHY shutter speed, aperture, and ISO change an image.

2. Shutter speed. This is how fast and/or slow the cameras shutter opens and closes. Small number = slow shutter speed, Large number = fast

3. Aperture. This is how open/closed the camera diaphragm is before you press the shutter button. High # = small hole, Low # = large hole

4. ISO. This is how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light. High ISO = more sensitive which is good for indoors, wanting a very fast shutter speed, etc.

Start googling, theres a ton of information on the web about this stuff. We could tell you the exact settings you need to fix the photo of the white SI but what happens when you get into a different situation?

My advice is to start shooting on auto. Look at the EXIF data and see how different photos have different settings. This is a good way to learn the correlation between shutter speed, iso, and aperture. Then move to program mode, then shutter priority, aperture priority, and then full manual.

I have me a 96 accord sedan and my H swap is almost going to be drop it!