Blurry Photos Newbie Here

[Dao]

May I put a STOP here for the drama?

Thank you.

 

[SabrinaO]

You know, I spent five minutes trying to phrase a reply that wouldn't be rude, and I realize that it simply isn't possible, so I deleted it all. I will just say this, no one in this forum (save perhaps the moderators and owners) has the right to tell someone not to post in their thread, or to give them information in the way that they want it. You may get made fun of in this forum, or mocked, or harassed. There are rude people here who will take every chance that they can get to try and get under your skin, simply because that's what they like to do. They're allowed to post on here as long as they follow the forum rules like anyone else. If you're incapable of researching an answer to your question, reading your camera manual, utilizing the awesome power of Google, maybe this isn't the beginner forum for you, because eventually someone will tell you to stop being so lazy and go figure it out yourself. If you're lucky, someone with an infinite amount of patience, such as Orions, will come forward and give you more than enough clear and concise information to start with first. That is all.

Well I'm glad you finally admitted to why you are here. Being such an "amazingly awesome" business owner/photographer I was wondering why you trolled the beginners forum. But if you were infact amazingly awesome... You wouldn't feel the need to make other BEGINNERS feel bad about their work and business practices...So keep doing what you do I guess. I understand now...

 

[pixilstudio]

if you are out side just put it on 125 shutter priority and youll be fine inside put in night mode or flash mode

 

[Neiby]

G-fi, your first post in this thread was "Oh, boy." That doesn't seem like 50 feet of rope to me. Whether or not you meant it that way, can you see how that comment might have come across as unnecessary, unhelpful, and a little rude?

 

[g-fi]

In my real job, I do a fair amount of training. One thing I've found extremely important is to never forget what it was like when you didn't understand the subject matter at all. If I try to remember the problems I encountered when learning my job as a beginner, it helps to put me into the right frame of mind to answer questions from people with less experience. I answer questions entirely differently based on the experience of the person asking the question. What might seem like a really absurd and obvious question if it came from an "expert" might be an entirely reasonable question to expect from a beginner. And since I am a total noob when it comes to photography, being a beginner is definitely fresh in my mind!

And generally speaking, I just try not to be a jerk to people. I'm not always successful, but it's at least a good goal.

I do appreciate your opinion. I don't hold anyone to a standard that I don't hold myself to, and I've spent hundreds of hours reading and studying and visiting forums and reading what other people have asked and answered. It just seems common sense to me, and though I do try to be tolerant of those who don't put forth a mighty effort before asking others to help them, it's easy to get impatient. *shrugs* I think it's OK to be jerks to the jerks

 

[Neiby]

In my real job, I do a fair amount of training. One thing I've found extremely important is to never forget what it was like when you didn't understand the subject matter at all. If I try to remember the problems I encountered when learning my job as a beginner, it helps to put me into the right frame of mind to answer questions from people with less experience. I answer questions entirely differently based on the experience of the person asking the question. What might seem like a really absurd and obvious question if it came from an "expert" might be an entirely reasonable question to expect from a beginner. And since I am a total noob when it comes to photography, being a beginner is definitely fresh in my mind!

And generally speaking, I just try not to be a jerk to people. I'm not always successful, but it's at least a good goal.

I do appreciate your opinion. I don't hold anyone to a standard that I don't hold myself to, and I've spent hundreds of hours reading and studying and visiting forums and reading what other people have asked and answered. It just seems common sense to me, and though I do try to be tolerant of those who don't put forth a mighty effort before asking others to help them, it's easy to get impatient. *shrugs* I think it's OK to be jerks to the jerks

Believe me, I have no problem being a jerk to the jerks. But the OP didn't seem like a jerk at all. She's just inexperienced like all of the other beginners who come here for help.

I think this horse may have been thoroughly beaten to death. I'd like to see the OP's photos, so we can give a more educated opinion. I think we've probably derailed her topic enough.

 

[g-fi]

G-fi, your first post in this thread was "Oh, boy." That doesn't seem like 50 feet of rope to me. Whether or not you meant it that way, can you see how that comment might have come across as unnecessary, unhelpful, and a little rude?

There was a previous thread started by the OP where a snide comment was made about the fact that I don't spam Facebook for clients. It probably WAS wrong of me to not just let the rudeness go, maybe I should have saved my mild snark, but in light of that I think I was pretty restrained. It's just too easy (and OK, I admit it, amusing) to poke at someone's ignorance after they've been derisive to you. In comparison to how some people in this forum act, I think I was pretty restrained.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

If you're incapable of researching an answer to your question, reading your camera manual, utilizing the awesome power of Google, maybe this isn't the beginner forum for you, because eventually someone will tell you to stop being so lazy and go figure it out yourself. If you're lucky,

Why should they be polite to you? You added nothing constructive to the thread. You just made a little comment and then disappeared. People come here to learn, sure she could have done more homework, but now she has more direction to aim that effort as opposed to just searching blindly on google. Yes, this is a public forum, and people are entitled to do what they like, but if you are going to do nothing but make smart comments and lecture people, why not just move on to the next thread? Do you think you are doing a service to this forum? I would argue not because I am sure the people making money off of it would like ALL BEGINNERS to come here not just the ones that meet your knowledge quota. Everytime someone comes on here with your attitude, it simply twists a thread into 10 pages of arguing which is disrespectful to the people that are actually trying to give some help. I don't have time to read 10 pages of bickering before getting to the root of a problem. I know it probably feels great to you to bully a newb, but its really just you pissing all over everyone else on this forum. So why don't YOU START BEING POLITE TO "THOSE PEOPLE".

I'm sorry, I believe you have mistaken me for someone else, because I've never said that anyone has to be polite to me. I've never started a thread and told someone that they can't post in it unless they give me the information I want in a certain way, and I've certainly never been rude to anyone without having given them 50 feet of rope to hang themselves with first. But like they say in Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it. Everyone's posting history is easily accessible, and it's easy enough to see who here has a history of being rude, starting drama, and creating 10 page threads full of flame and vitriol. My posts are an open book and anyone is free to form any opinion they like of me! I thought I was being quite polite when I kept my opinion to myself earlier, but you can't please everyone! I think (or hope) that it's pretty clear that I don't need anyone's approval here to validate myself, and that the information I give is worth how much you pay for it: nothing! Those who I respond to are welcome to take my advice or information or not, but in the end it really doesn't matter to me either way. I'll keep being me .

Who are YOU to suggest who should and shouldn't be here? This person has 6 posts. Give them a chance to get some direction and run with it. I understand that if they have 5000 posts and are asking us what an aperture is, thats a bit excessive and warrants maybe being a little blunt. However, lets try and keep things in perspective and not take out anger that has been bottled up from OTHER posters and crush every Newb that comes on the thread. You sound like a drama queen thats just going off on someone for no reason. Ease up a bit. Also, your quote about politeness was as follows "*shrugs* If you want people to spoonfeed you all the knowledge that you need to pick up a camera and operate it, it pays to be polite to those people." I don't think I am confused at all. Ever hear the saying, do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Just to further prove my point, you are up to what 5?....6? posts now? And you still have yet to add a single thing of any use or help to the OP other than your condescending lecturing. Thats all I am going to say about it because I am not going to turn this into yet another 10 page thread. Either heed the advice or keep looking like an @ss and end up on many peoples ignore lists. Its your call.

 

[Neiby]

G-fi, your first post in this thread was "Oh, boy." That doesn't seem like 50 feet of rope to me. Whether or not you meant it that way, can you see how that comment might have come across as unnecessary, unhelpful, and a little rude?

There was a previous thread started by the OP where a snide comment was made about the fact that I don't spam Facebook for clients. It probably WAS wrong of me to not just let the rudeness go, maybe I should have saved my mild snark, but in light of that I think I was pretty restrained. It's just too easy (and OK, I admit it, amusing) to poke at someone's ignorance after they've been derisive to you. In comparison to how some people in this forum act, I think I was pretty restrained.

Well, at least that provides some context. Since I hadn't seen the other thread, your comment here seemed like it came completely out of left field, which seemed kind of surprising. Thanks for additional insight.

 

[OrionsByte]

someone with an infinite amount of patience, such as Orions

Funniest thing I've read all day.

In my real job, I do a fair amount of training. One thing I've found extremely important is to never forget what it was like when you didn't understand the subject matter at all. If I try to remember the problems I encountered when learning my job as a beginner, it helps to put me into the right frame of mind to answer questions from people with less experience. I answer questions entirely differently based on the experience of the person asking the question. What might seem like a really absurd and obvious question if it came from an "expert" might be an entirely reasonable question to expect from a beginner. And since I am a total noob when it comes to photography, being a beginner is definitely fresh in my mind!

And generally speaking, I just try not to be a jerk to people. I'm not always successful, but it's at least a good goal.

To me, it doesn't bother me when people ask a beginner's question, because yeah, I do remember what it was like to not know. What does bother me is when people use the forum as if the only way to learn is to start a new thread and wait for answers, when many of their answers could be found simply by lurking in some of the other posts.

Imagine doing your training in a classroom scenario - and let's just make this about photography so we're not stretching the analogy too far. Let's say you've just finished your lesson, and up pop a couple hands. You call on someone and they say, "How come my photos come out blurry when I use aperture priority mode?" You answer them by explaining about the exposure triangle (most likely elaborating on what you just spent a half hour speaking about during the previous lesson) and telling them to consult their textbook on page 23 for more information. Hands go up again, and you call on the next person, who says, "I always shoot at 1/500 because I want to freeze movement but my pictures always come out dark." You think to yourself, wow I just kind of answered that question, but okay, here we go again, and you explain again about the exposure triangle and refer them to page 23. The next person you call on asks why their pictures are always so noisy. "Are you freaking serious? Were you not listening to the answers I just gave to the last two people? Has anyone looked at page 23?"

That's kind of what it's like around here sometimes. People pop on and ask a question that's been asked a hundred times this week and expect us to answer them as if it's a completely new and unexplored topic, and it can get a little frustrating. I've personally learned way more from this forum by lurking in other threads than from starting my own, and I really wish other people would figure that out too. I don't use this forum as a research tool, I use it as kind of an information sauna... I just step in and soak up whatever happens to be here, knowing that it will probably come in useful at some point in my photography journey. More often than not, the questions I have are answered before I even know that I need to ask them. I only start new threads when I'm looking for discussion​, not simply answers. After all, that's what forums are for, right? Discussion?

Now, all that said, I don't feel like the OP necessarily fits in to the category of people I'm talking about here. The reason I answered their question the way I did was because it seemed like someone told them to shoot in Av mode but never told them why, and that seemed pretty messed up to me.

 

[KmH]

I'm a type of person that learns only by seeing, not by reading. Wilson

Reading is seeing. As mentioned in other threads, the notion of 'learning styles' that was foisted on the psychology community 40 years ago has been shown by scientific testing to be total bull****.

A book can convey a level of detail no video can approach because of production costs and time constraints.

 

[Gaerek]

Imagine doing your training in a classroom scenario - and let's just make this about photography so we're not stretching the analogy too far. Let's say you've just finished your lesson, and up pop a couple hands. You call on someone and they say, "How come my photos come out blurry when I use aperture priority mode?" You answer them by explaining about the exposure triangle (most likely elaborating on what you just spent a half hour speaking about during the previous lesson) and telling them to consult their textbook on page 23 for more information. Hands go up again, and you call on the next person, who says, "I always shoot at 1/500 because I want to freeze movement but my pictures always come out dark." You think to yourself, wow I just kind of answered that question, but okay, here we go again, and you explain again about the exposure triangle and refer them to page 23. The next person you call on asks why their pictures are always so noisy. "Are you freaking serious? Were you not listening to the answers I just gave to the last two people? Has anyone looked at page 23?"

That's kind of what it's like around here sometimes. People pop on and ask a question that's been asked a hundred times this week and expect us to answer them as if it's a completely new and unexplored topic, and it can get a little frustrating. I've personally learned way more from this forum by lurking in other threads than from starting my own, and I really wish other people would figure that out too. I don't use this forum as a research tool, I use it as kind of an information sauna... I just step in and soak up whatever happens to be here, knowing that it will probably come in useful at some point in my photography journey. More often than not, the questions I have are answered before I even know that I need to ask them. I only start new threads when I'm looking for discussion​, not simply answers. After all, that's what forums are for, right? Discussion?

Yes, yes, yes! 1000 times, yes!

People don't seem to realize the amount of information at their fingertips, just at this forum. You could likely search for just about ANY photography related topic here and find at least a thread or two that has already answered your question. For me, when I don't know how to do something, my first response is to look it up. I'll search TPF, google, or even check out some of the photography reference books I have in my home library. If I find the answer, awesome! I probably learned a couple other new things along the journey. If my question wasn't answered by my research, or maybe I need some clarification, then I might come here and ask. Look at the following two questions, and tell me which one is more deserving of an answer:

1) Ok guys, I have a problem. All of my pictures are turning out dark and blurry! Can you help???

2) Ok guys, I have a problem. All of my pictures are turning out dark and blurry. I'm shooting in aperture priority, and even on my largest aperture, they still turn out the same. I've looked up the problem both here and online, and none of the possible solutions I've found seem to work for my problem. Here are a couple example pictures so you guys know what I'm talking about. Thank you all so much for ANY help you can give!

The difference is profound. In number 1, the implication is "I don't feel like working for my answer, so I'll try to get others to do my legwork for me." In number 2, the implication is, "Man, I've tried everything I can think of to solve this problem, and I'm still stuck. Maybe I'm making a n00b mistake here that I'm missing, but I have absolutely no clue what the problem is. Maybe someone on TPF can help me."

Honestly guys, that's all a lot of us are asking for. We're not wanting you to not ask questions. We're not wanting you to get so frustrated you quit. We'd just like you to at least attempt to find the solution on your own before starting a new thread. I'm not being sarcastic here at all when I say this. Is that too much to ask of you?

 

[Twisted]

Hop on youtube and check out some videos on DSLR photography basics. They will help you understand your camera and how things work.Youtube instructional vids were a huge help to me when I got my first SLR camera.

 

[fauzigarib]

Hey not to sidetrack the discussion on who to help and who not to, but the recommendation of Understanding Exposure is one that should be taken wholeheartedly. Being a complete newbie, that book opened up the world of photography to me, in clear, concise English.

In the first session, you will be comfortable shooting in Manual mode, and have a very strong fundamental knowledge on what this Exposure Triangle is that these forum people keep talking about.

That said, there is no substitute for experience, but this is certainly a great place to start.

*back to the regularly scheduled program.

 

[lenejetlee]

yea it is a hand of a pro photographer to have a nice photo.