How to practice

kpizzle

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Hello,
So I got my 1st dslr, read a book about exposure, and have been taking a lot of photos. I've woke up early to shoot some old barns and stuff, took some Christmas photos of kids, other things around the yard to "practice". When I do this I have a hard time focusing on the learning process. What I mean is that when I go out to take photos and try to develop my skills I feel like I am all over the place. Should I be worried about deep of field and sharpness, should I isolate the subject, where to take light reading to make the most creative shot, etc..?

Any suggestion on methods used when you were in the beginning stages to really develop yourself as a photographer?
 
Take ONE (or a few) subject(s) at a time, or it is overwhelming.
Then slowly build on that.
 
It's all learning. Take notes. Critique your photos after shooting, then again after some time has passed, then again after even more time has passed. Try, of course, to make every shot count but realistically if you get 1 in 20 that's worth a 2nd look that's really good for a beginner. Have fun. It's only photography.
 
It's all very overwhelming, but the more you shoot the easier things will get. Focus on one thing at a time and it'll become second nature after a while. Keep a portfolio on Flickr and you'll see your pictures evolve and your editing style change. It's fun to go back and look at your first images to see how much you've improved. Just keep shooting!!
 
I've woke up early to shoot some old barns and stuff, took some Christmas photos of kids, other things around the yard to "practice". When I do this I have a hard time focusing on the learning process. What I mean is that when I go out to take photos and try to develop my skills I feel like I am all over the place.

Well honestly it does sound like you are all over the place.

Pick one image to try and make. Picture what you want it to look like in your mind and then set out to make the image you see in your mind.



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Thanks everyone for the input. I appreciate it. :)
 
As per my suggestion, take a shot and learn from each and every of the shot you take. Focus on your subject and it will be better with each new day.
 
Failure is the greatest teacher. I saw that line delivered in a Star Wars movie. And ya know what? That is true!

Maybe you can learn a bit from Master Yoda, and learn from your photographic failures, after the shoots? Look through your shoots, and pick out the absolute WORST shots, and look at them carefully, and critically. WHY were the bad shots so bad? What were the issues that went wrong?

Now...one thing people often do is to simply immediately kill-file the dud shots...just hit Delete, and send the shots down to the recycle bin or trash can...and that is a mistake!

LOOK at the duds! Learn from the duds what NOT to do!
 
When I was first starting out, I made a cheat sheet that listed the important things to consider. This sounds a little silly, but it slowed me down and made me consider what I was doing and why. I can't find a copy of one that I was using, but it was based on an article by Todd Vorenkamp at B & H Explora and some other things I read. The article is here:

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Take a Photograph

This is a checklist I found on line that was similar to what I used:

http://digitalswapneel.com/photography-checklist/

It is learning through organized repetition. You eventually do it automatically and you can forget the cheat sheet.
 
When I was first starting out, I made a cheat sheet that listed the important things to consider. This sounds a little silly, but it slowed me down and made me consider what I was doing and why. I can't find a copy of one that I was using, but it was based on an article by Todd Vorenkamp at B & H Explora and some other things I read. The article is here:

30 Questions You Should Ask Before You Take a Photograph

This is a checklist I found on line that was similar to what I used:

Photography checklist - how to prepare before photographing anything

It is learning through organized repetition. You eventually do it automatically and you can forget the cheat sheet.

This is good stuff. Thank you!
 
There are some good concrete steps listed here and I'd like to expand on a few of them.

1. Keep the bad shots - at least until you know exactly why it was bad, and then you can delete it. But keep a few of them so you can look back in a year and realize how far you've come. Building a skill can be slow work and many times, your attention will be on how much you still need to learn, but it's important to always keep sight of what you have already learned so you don't get discouraged too much during the plateaus.

2. Keep a cheat sheet - but be specific. You said you have read a book - what parts of it do you think you understand? Do you know how aperture settings affect the image? Shutter settings? If you think you get it then start there and spend some time making sure that you really do get it in a practical sense and not just a theoretical way. For example, you may understand the concept of how the aperture works, but go out and do your field testing so that the conceptual understanding can reliably be put to practice with the camera. Use your cheat sheet to keep yourself focused on that one concept that you are testing. Take notes to remember what your field test results were. Some of these tests will be quick ("Wow, I really did get it!") and some might take some time ("Huh, I thought I understood that...") Do this for the basics and then keep moving on to more advanced cheat sheets.

3. Limit yourself to a single kind of photograph or subject. Take a gazillion pictures of the same thing at different times of day, different lighting, different settings, different compositions. This gives you a chance to train your eye to "see" certain pictures before even raising the camera to take the shot. You'll see that sometimes the most obvious shot isn't going to necessarily be the best or most interesting angle or lighting, and you'll get a sense of which versions you like better (a start to developing a style.) If you're not sure, take the shot anyway. It's digital, fer cryin' out loud!

4. Don't be afraid to share your results here and get feedback. It can be scary and it may make you feel vulnerable, but it's important because we aren't always objective about our own work so it can be hard to see flaws or ways to improve. Try not to be defensive when people give critical feedback.

And of course, keep shooting! :)
 
Failure is the greatest teacher. I saw that line delivered in a Star Wars movie. And ya know what? That is true!

Maybe you can learn a bit from Master Yoda, and learn from your photographic failures, after the shoots? Look through your shoots, and pick out the absolute WORST shots, and look at them carefully, and critically. WHY were the bad shots so bad? What were the issues that went wrong?

Now...one thing people often do is to simply immediately kill-file the dud shots...just hit Delete, and send the shots down to the recycle bin or trash can...and that is a mistake!

LOOK at the duds! Learn from the duds what NOT to do!
One does not learn from success.

There are two advanced tools you need to think about and develop. But firstly, you have to take your time, slow down and think about the shot. Take your photo book with you and reread a lesson and think about how it is applied to your situation. A DSLR can be so easy to shoot fast, just slap it on Auto Everything and boom, boom, boom ... fini. Put the camera on single frame, even for action, single frame it as a learning technique ... then wait for the peak of action.

1) Previsualization: Before you even raise the viewfinder to your eye, think about the final image. How does your mind's eye see the final photo? In B&W, shallow DOF, stopping motion, blurring motion, low angle shooting up, wide angle, tight cropping on the subject, back lighted, side lighted, et cetera. See the final image than adjust the camera to capture said image. (Camera placement, lighting angle, lens choice, aperture, shutter speed and ISO.) Think about it all and most importantly, previsualize the final image.

2) Harmonize with Your Gear: Shoot, shoot some more and when you think you're finished, shoot again. Harmonize with your equipment to the point where the camera is an extension of your eyes, the camera settings an extension of your hands to the point where you don't have to remove your eye from the viewfinder to make adjustments. Through usage learn how the different focal lengths and apertures affect the image.
 
All the above is good advice, but read books on exposure and composition or you won't know what a bad shot is. I'd suggest using a tripod. It will give you time to think about your picture, looking for things that don't belong or just moving a few feet for something better.
 
I find the same thing, my camera feels like an extension of myself. Of course I've been a photographer for a long time but it's so natural to hold it comfortably it might as well be a teddy bear, I forget sometimes I'm still holding the thing.

It sounds like you're enjoying it, so go with that - roam/wander around and think about what looks like a good subject for a photo. I'd say learn to see everything in the viewfinder or on the viewscreen and think about how that will look as a photograph. Try changing your vantage point (I think people forget their feet move!) and take another picture from a little different perspective, is that better or worse? After being out taking a series of photos go thru them later and see what worked and what didn't - absolutely you can learn from what didn't work and why and try something different.

I'd try looking at photographs by famous photographers from the past and see why their work has been good enough to pass the test of time. I don't think I've seen a video yet that was anything I'd necessarily recommend! lol Some are OK, some are giving suggestions that people might do better to unlearn. I wouldn't bother too much starting out with some of what you mentioned in your post - I'd say learn how to frame shots well, how to focus well, and how to get a proper exposure.

It would probably be good to learn about composition (elements like shape, line, size, tone, etc.) and how to have those in balance in the frame. Make sure you've got an image sharply in focus. Learn how to meter a scene to have a properly exposed image. Keep having fun with it and I hope you experience the enjoyment of photography.
 

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