My main problem/fear as a beginner

[Boutch]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I went on a roadtrip over the weekend and took heaps of pictures. I think that a few of them are even pretty good. I still shied away from setting up and taking what I thought could a great composition, but I have taken note of these places and I will return when I have sharpened my skills a bit.

 

[Vtec44]

is actually taking photos. All I want to do is play with my camera, practice and improve, but at the same time I find myself reluctant to pull the trigger.

All I think is ‘the light could be better’ or ‘I can’t find the best composition’ or even ‘this shot would be better with a different lense’.

Has anyone else been in this position? Any tips for how to break out of it?

You're over complicating things!

IMHO, one of the keys in being a good photographer is to be creative with what you have and in turn produce the best images under any condition.

 

[jcdeboever]

I'd be careful with "just shoot". It can get you into all sorts of bad habits. It may be just me but I prefer to go out with specific goals and a plan. Slow down, stay the course of your goal and plan. If you do, opportunity will arise outside of the plan and goals. I raise my camera and put it down without taking a shot way more than I used to. Practice focusing, framing, exposure in your back yard. Develop a standard so to speak both mechanically, and artistically.

 

[Cortian]

@Boutch, the results of my Sandhill Cranes photo shoot yesterday demonstrates some of what I and others are trying to tell you. I didn't plan that. Nor did I execute it well. I tossed 85% of what I shot, and even some of what I kept ain't that great. (Heck, maybe none of 'em are.) But I did end up with some I felt worth keeping and I did learn a couple lessons.

And I had a heckuva a lotta fun playing photographer shooting those guys

 

[limr]

I'd be careful with "just shoot". It can get you into all sorts of bad habits. It may be just me but I prefer to go out with specific goals and a plan. Slow down, stay the course of your goal and plan. If you do, opportunity will arise outside of the plan and goals. I raise my camera and put it down without taking a shot way more than I used to. Practice focusing, framing, exposure in your back yard. Develop a standard so to speak both mechanically, and artistically.

I understand your point, and I don't think anyone is suggesting the pray and spray method of photography. However, when someone is starting out and feels crippled by worrying if the image is going to be 'good enough', it's useful to understand that it doesn't matter. If it's a clunker, so what? You'll never know what will or won't come out good until you take the shot.

The advice to "just shoot" doesn't mean "keep hitting the shutter until you get something good" - it means "you need to find out what does and doesn't work, and you do that by taking a lot of shots at first to learn what the camera can do, what angles work better, which settings will give you the result that you actually want."

After you learn more, it's easier to predict even in the viewfinder that some scene or angle isn't really working, but when you're still learning, you don't necessarily know unless you take the shot and then study it - the good and the bad. But there's nothing to study if you're too scared to even take the shot.

 

[Braineack]

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering

 

[Derrel]

I'd be careful with "just shoot". It can get you into all sorts of bad habits. It may be just me but I prefer to go out with specific goals and a plan. Slow down, stay the course of your goal and plan. If you do, opportunity will arise outside of the plan and goals. I raise my camera and put it down without taking a shot way more than I used to. Practice focusing, framing, exposure in your back yard. Develop a standard so to speak both mechanically, and artistically.

A careful re-reading of the OP suggests that the OP is in fact, AFRAID to push the shutter release button for fear that the photo in front of him is simply not any good. This is not shooting with a goal nor with a plan, but refusing to shoot due to some form of mental blockage that presupposes that every photo MUST be of high,high quality.

A good strategy would be a tip I read recently in the National Geographic Field Guide, in which one of their film-era photographers mentioned that he had a working method in which he'd use his first 10 to 15 frames as ways to "hone in on" in very-best way to make a good photo; he'd use the early frames to see how the subject moved, how the environment actually was, and what was working,and what was not working, and then after a short time of actively photographing, he would--on the spot!--"learn" how best to photograph the situation.

This is an old strategy,and it's often called "working the scene". I've done it for years, and it works splendidly. Even the best-laid plans can go astray. Plans made for a future event often do not come together in the real world, and so, the photographer often needs to 'work the scene', try different photographic approaches, different lenses, different viewpoints, different camera techniques, and so on, in order to make what's there into photos.

For the beginning shooter, MAKING exposures is vastly more-critical than worrying about the quality of the shot, and ending up afraid to push the button,and coming home with nothing at all. Get out there, and SHOOT photos. Practice is fine for the mechanics of photography; focusing and lens changing and that type of stuff, but there's nothing to show for one's efforts unless the shutter release button is used a bit. No pressy, no piccies!

 

[ACS64]

is actually taking photos. All I want to do is play with my camera, practice and improve, but at the same time I find myself reluctant to pull the trigger.

All I think is ‘the light could be better’ or ‘I can’t find the best composition’ or even ‘this shot would be better with a different lense’.

Has anyone else been in this position? Any tips for how to break out of it?

My interest in photography began in the late '60s early '70s. Even in the days "expensive" film the advice of professionals was to take a lot of pictures because they weren't all going to good but your editor/customer wasn't going to pay for the pictures not taken. In those days National Geographic told it's photographers to plan on one 36 exp roll of film for every day the were on assignment including the "travel days" because the film we now are calling "expensive" they called cheap. Not getting the images was expensive. Gordan Parks, one of the great photographers of the 20th century was quoted as saying if he produced 1 in 20 photos that he liked and his editor actually bought 1 in 36 he was he was meeting his goals.

This is to say what others have said above, go ahead and press the shutter even when you are just playing around the controls at your desk or in the your easy chair. Then evaluate the results.

AC

 

[snowbear]

Yes - it's digital. Once you've bought the camera and lens, it's basically free. I have more of a problem trying to make the ordinary stuff around me a little more interesting.

 

[zombiesniper]

Worry about composition. Didn't take the shot. Didn't improve on composition.

Worry about the light. Didn't take the shot. Didn't learn about how to use the light.

Not taking a perfect shot......that is every image ever taken. There is no perfect shot. Only the shot you took and the lessons learned from it.

 

[john.margetts]

Every photograph you take doesn't have to be a masterpiece, it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't even have to be good. It only has to be something you like for whatever reason.

I rarely show my photographs to other photographers as I get complaints that my images are not "sharp", are not straight, are not exposed "right" and other similar comments. I do exhibit my photographs publicly in art (as opposed to photography) exhibitions and no one ever mentions those things.

When I started in serious photography, I had a 1930s folding Agfa with a wire frame viewfinder and one fixed lens. I was amazed to be able to fix the pictures I could see - it never occurred to me that they might not be good enough - good enough for what? They amazed me and that is the only part that matters.

 

[Braineack]

For the beginning shooter, MAKING exposures is vastly more-critical than worrying about the quality of the shot, and ending up afraid to push the button,and coming home with nothing at all. Get out there, and SHOOT photos. Practice is fine for the mechanics of photography; focusing and lens changing and that type of stuff, but there's nothing to show for one's efforts unless the shutter release button is used a bit. No pressy, no piccies!

Worry about composition. Didn't take the shot. Didn't improve on composition.

Worry about the light. Didn't take the shot. Didn't learn about how to use the light.

Not taking a perfect shot......that is every image ever taken. There is no perfect shot. Only the shot you took and the lessons learned from it.

this. nothing is better than experience.

 

[Cortian]

A careful re-reading of the OP suggests that the OP is in fact, AFRAID to push the shutter release button for fear that the photo in front of him is simply not any good.

That's the impression with which I was left, as well.

I have more of a problem trying to make the ordinary stuff around me a little more interesting.

I posted some photos I took of some Ornamental Grass my wife grows in some of her gardens. Just looking at that grass: It's very pretty when it's all tan like that, with its wispy tops and all.

Knowing that the eye and the camera often (usually? always?) see things differently, I took lots of photos--from different angles, with different composition, from different distances, etc. And because the wind decided to come up just as I decided to do this: Two or more of each shot. (I was pushing the limit at the shutter speed I was using. [Again: I should have bumped the ISO.])

As I expected: Nearly all of them came out mostly uninteresting. I kept one photo of the entire plant for the purpose of context. Picked two sets of two each of nearly identical macros, and cropped one of each into at least into interesting (IMHO) macros.

I rarely show my photographs to other photographers as I get complaints that my images are not "sharp", are not straight, are not exposed "right" and other similar comments.

Complaints or comments/observations?

Personally, I appreciate critical review of my photos. I don't necessarily have to agree. Whether I agree or not: I get other perspectives on what I've done, which may lead to my doing something different, perhaps (probably?) better, another time.

I was amazed to be able to fix the pictures I could see - it never occurred to me that they might not be good enough - good enough for what? They amazed me and that is the only part that matters.

Fair enough. But then why are you so averse to critical review?

Maybe some of your efforts aren't as sharp or straight, or exposed as well as they could be? Maybe, by taking-in and considering honest criticism, you could make your efforts even more amazing to yourself?

Just a thought. ICBW.

I've posted a fair number of photos here since I joined less than a month ago. I've received a few "likes," a couple "winner"s and some pointers on how to improve. The complements are rewarding and the suggestions educational.

It's all good

 

[john.margetts]

I rarely show my photographs to other photographers as I get complaints that my images are not "sharp", are not straight, are not exposed "right" and other similar comments.

Complaints or comments/observations?

Personally, I appreciate critical review of my photos. I don't necessarily have to agree. Whether I agree or not: I get other perspectives on what I've done, which may lead to my doing something different, perhaps (probably?) better, another time.

Sharp is a bourgeoise concept, to quote HCB. Sharpness is an inconsequential aspect of a picture which gets seized on as a sine qua non of photography. No one would dismiss Monet as being unsharp or too bright. I want people to look at my picture, not my photography.

I was amazed to be able to fix the pictures I could see - it never occurred to me that they might not be good enough - good enough for what? They amazed me and that is the only part that matters.

Fair enough. But then why are you so averse to critical review?

Maybe some of your efforts aren't as sharp or straight, or exposed as well as they could be? Maybe, by taking-in and considering honest criticism, you could make your efforts even more amazing to yourself?

My pictures certainly are not as sharp etc as they could be. They don't have as many cats in them as they could, either. If I see a picture that has no cats in it, I photograph it without cats. If I see a picture without sharpness, I photograph it without sharpness. Etc. I am not adverse to critical review, but I am adverse to 'standard' unthinking comments that have nothing to do with the picture presented.

 

[ShutterVan]

How about this for a thought from a digital noob: I learn as much from looking and trying to correct my "not so great" photos if not more than I learn from getting a great shot.

I used to not want to delete the not so great photos because of so many "what if"s but now I delete if I can't correct -- and, it's second nature. So I snap, try to correct, delete and learn why the photo didn't turn out as I wanted. And yes, I have a lot of time invested in learning.