[Noob] Easy way to "cheat" ;)

[dmunsie]

You know what...I have been...cheating. I'll research a bunch of photos taken that are similar in style / subject that I'm interested in and then make a note of the settings (aperture, shutter, iso) for each photo. I'll then apply these settings to my similar shots. It's been a great starting point and has allowed me to get some decent shots with a relatively short learning curve. Especially when it comes to understanding motion blur, night time shots, sunsets, etc. Anyone else....cheat a bit? lol...

 

[Patrice]

That my friend is not cheating! It's called learning.

 

[sm4him]

Well, it's not cheating UNLESS you don't bother to LEARN from it. Hopefully you are also using this practice to begin to understand WHY a certain aperture or ISO or shutter speed was used so that you will get to a point where you won't NEED to just copy the settings from other photos; you'll understand intuitively what you need to do to get the shot you want.

 

[ratssass]

...that's how I made the leap to manual.Started out in full auto-mode,and saw what the camera thought was best in different modes.Then started playing in shutter/aperature modes.Now I play in full Manual most of the time.I'd like to think I learned a few things along that journey and know there is so much more.

 

[ceeboy14]

Does your camera offer program mode? Read up on that feature and see if it doesn't answer your question.

 

[ann]

Nothing wrong, as others have stated, however, just remember, those settings are based on the lighting conditions at the time that may not be the same.

 

[Alex_B]

Hey, guess I am a cheater too! Went to a photography gallery in Berlin two days ago and got inspired by light and composition there!

 

[dmunsie]

Nothing wrong, as others have stated, however, just remember, those settings are based on the lighting conditions at the time that may not be the same.

Agreed. I treat them as valuable starting points. Especially when it comes to learning about shutter speed and iso.

 

[12sndsgood]

As long as your learning thats all that matters. now if your pretending you can make those sshots. making people think you are, then looking it up to make it happen, that i'd consider cheating. but if your just using it to learn then your not much differnt then a lot of others who learned that way.

 

[Joves]

No I started in film there was really no cheating there or possible for the most part. I had to keep a notebook of my shots, which consisted of settings, the films ISO, the type of film and the time of day. That is what my grandfather taught me when he gave me one of his old 120 cameras when I was nine. So I experimented played with the settings, and then would have to wait a week for the photos to come back. Now you can experiment and the camera takes all of the notes, and the best part is it does not cost you squat now to do it. So my suggestion is forget what other peoples settings are, and go out and experiment, and do not chimp it a whole lot either. The one good thing about coming up in the film era, is that film is a very hard master in that it does not allow you to make major mistakes and get away with it.