Need Advice

[loser101]

Hello,

I've been playing around with photography for a while now, but just recently have been getting into it more. I have been getting really frustrated because none of my pictures turn out the way i want them to, and I think it’s because I don’t really have a focus. I was wondering if any of you guys could recommend some books or articles I can look over.

heres a link to my pics http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s300/olegyef/ they havent really edited any of them or took any of them out.

thanx,

oleg

 

[DSLR noob]

What do you mean when you say you don't have a focus? You camera cannot focus or you have no motivation.Just try and find beauty that others simply walk by and do not notice. Like the way light reflects off of an object at juuuuuust the right angle.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

avoid central compositions, when you take pictures, look for balance, use exposure compensation to avoid blowing out highlights.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

a lot of this lack that you're feeling probably has to do with lack of subject. The pictures in the park at just pictures of random trees with no strong subjects. The more interesting the subject is the more it helps your picture. What sw1tchfx has said about the composition is true as well. for the first picture in your park's gallary the dirt path is right in the center. You want to move that over to the side so that it follows the rule of thirds.

 

[martinez_81]

Hi loser101,
Get yourself dSLR for Dummies (Amazon:
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Digital-SLR-Cameras-Photography-Dummies/dp/0764598031[/ame])

It was my first book on dSLR, a great introduction for newbie and also a nice day-to-day handbook. It covers everything from basic settings on your camera, through lenses up to photo editing and right composition. In addition it's got quite a lot photos (in colour) to halp you better understand different techniques.

 

[LaFoto]

Hallo Oleg, welcome to ThePhotoForum! Good to have you here.

As to your photos.
Well. Several things have already been said.
Like the mere fact that photos that observe the Rule of Thirds more have a strong tendency to engage the viewer more. "Rule" sounds like it must never be broken, which is not the case, but in order to break a rule you must know it first. Then you can - where it fits - break it DELIBERATELY.

However, for a beginner it is advisable to observe this thousand-year-old understanding of beauty-in-art, so if you plan a photo like 315 (I think it was, from "Park"), where you quite nicely play with detail (you picked out that one wet twig with leaves) and a shallow DOF (= depth of field) by opening up your aperture, plan for your subject (twig with wet leaves) NOT to be in the "bull's eye" of your frame. Move the camera so it moves out of it a little. If in learning process you still find focussing much easier when your subject is smack in the centre, work on it in post processing by cropping your original so the end photo has an off-centre subject.

You are - so I could see - playing with POVs (points of view) and light (night photos) and different DOF, that alone shows that you are on the right track. Get more and more familiar with the camera, read many posts in here, or in books (I am not too well versed in the American book market, if that is the one that would apply to you?), find out about composition rules ...

...AND ... and here is a pet peeve of mine: learn to choose! Learn to select. Read your own photos so you KNOW which one's going to make it online in the end. In the world of digital photography you can easily take ever so many different takes on the same subject ... but learn to discriminate and say: this one's my winner, the others were the test runs, and the WINNER (and only the winner) will make it into Photobucket.

To develop an eye for the motif is one thing.
To develop an eye for the best take is another, and I find that equally important.

 

[ksmattfish]

Photograph what you are interested in. It's easy to think "I'm into photography, I'm going to take photos of everything!", but finding good subjects randomly is a lot harder than it may seem. You will probably do much better at creating interesting photos if you apply your efforts to subjects that you have an interest in. Ansel Adams was into hiking around in the mountains first, and later learned photography because he thought his nature snapshots sucked.

The technical fundamentals of photography are easy. You may have to read and reread a book a few times before it all sinks in, but there are thousands of decent how to do photography books (and websites) out there, and they almost all say the same stuff.

I like to look at, and find a lot of inspiration in other photog's and artists' work. Libraries usually have a selection of books on photographers. A lot of times they have the big, over sized versions I could never afford. Check out local art shows, galleries, and museums. Visit often, they are always changing out the work.

Here are some of my favorite books sorted by subject. Many of the photographers cover several of these subjects, but I'll only list them once.

Landscape:
"Examples: The Making of Forty Photographs" Ansel Adams
"Landscape, The Library of World Photography" Hill & Company (publisher)
"The Inhabited Prairie" Terry Evans
"The Legacy of Wilderness" Robert Glenn Ketchum
"Photographs of the American Wilderness" Dean Brown

Street/Urban"
"Weegee's World" Weegee
"The Man In the Crowd" Garry Winogrand
"Three Seconds of Eternity" Robert Doisneau
"A Propos de Paris" Henri Cartier-Bresson
"Central Park" Bruce Davidson

Portraits:
"Immediate Family" Sally Mann
"Five Decades" Arnold Newman
"Airborne" Lois greenfield
"Steichen: The Master Prints 1895-1944" MOMA
"Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work" Dover Publications

Abstract:
"Harry Callahan" National Gallery of Art, Bullfinch (publisher)
"Paul Caponigro" Aperture
"Rites & Passages" Minor White

Botanicals:
"Flora" Imogen Cunningham
"The Plant Kingdoms" Charles Jones

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

Hi Oleg!.
Firstly a warm welcome to you. Any problems, this is the place, Ask , and a whole heap of talented people will rush to your aid... And me as well.

Your post was right ... You don't have a "Focus". But that is not a bad thing... You are doing what we have all done at one time or another. You have picked up your camera, and are taking pictures of anything that you like the look of. Frankley, photography doesn't get any better than that. But YOURE photography will. You will find that one set of images really get into your head in a way in which others don't. That is the avenue that you will persue .... Untill something else comes around the corner and knocks your sox off.Then you will do that for a while. As you are doing all this and having a lot of fun into the bargain, you will be learning about your kit, composition and all that techy stuff.
If you have any friends who are into photography talk to them and bounce ideas around (Just a hint but there are a few hundred of us here). Read books if you like, Pick up magazines if you want (Photo mags and others that you have an interest in), Look at the photos in the quality press, And when you get the urge, try to replicate some of the pictures that you have seen. Put your work up to critisism (don't take it personally, some people have all the tact of the red army in Afghanistahn).
If you see someone while you are out, who has a camera with them, go and have a word. Photographers will talk for hours to anyone and everyone, And will be so surprised that someone WANTS to talk, that you may have difficulty getting rid of them. Bounce ideas around again, and again. If you talk to someone in the street who looks at you as though they are a little unsure of you, They are probably a really nice, well brought up person who is really out going, but not used to such open approaches. If they just accept you and join in with help, advice ideas etc. They are probably as bad as we are.... So, you can't loose then...

Listen to ideas and help. But forget the Bull ....

ENJOY IT.