Please advise for better photos, technique, photographer, and etc

[TonyUSA]

Deleted.

 

[astroNikon]

What is your objective at these events ?
I looked extremely briefly, and I basically saw a bunch of snapshots of bunches of people at the event and very few of the swimmers actually swimming.

You may want to carefully select a few photos that you want critique on and post here for more critique.

 

[TonyUSA]

Hello astroNikon,

My objective is to take our family team members that attended this event. Didn't focus on any swimmers at all but this coming swim meet this month I will focus more on swimmers.

You may want to carefully select a few photos that you want critique on and post here for more critique.

Okay, I will do it very shortly.

Thank you very much,

 

[table1349]

First Read this from beginning to end: http://www.art.ucla.edu/photography/downloads/Canon_50D.pdf
Next read it again with your camera in your hands and practice what you read.

Second read this. Every article: Digital Photography Tutorials
Then practice what you learn.

Once you actually understand photography and the aspects that go into the art of photography you will be able to take the kind of photos you want as you will have the knowledge of what to do.

If you need more practice start with this: Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera: Bryan Peterson: 9781607748502: Amazon.com: Books

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you.

 

[astroNikon]

Hello astroNikon,

My objective is to take our family team members that attended this event. Didn't focus on any swimmers at all but this coming swim meet this month I will focus more on swimmers.

You may want to carefully select a few photos that you want critique on and post here for more critique.

Okay, I will do it very shortly.

Thank you very much,

With that, I would first advise then is to Take photos of people's faces, not the back of their heads. Also during the event like this try to get them looking at something when their heads are turned (subject in a lower corner). Otherwise other people looking at the photo that weren't at the event won't know if it was tennis, swimming or shuffleboard.

Also, research perspective, angles, etc. Considering your mobility at this event, don't always take the photo when you are standing all the way up and everyone else is sitting down. Lower yourself to shoulder level.

I've never done a swimming event, so I'm sure a Pro would have much more valuable insight.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you.

 

[Evan55T]

Also, research perspective, angles, etc. Considering your mobility at this event, don't always take the photo when you are standing all the way up and everyone else is sitting down. Lower yourself to shoulder level.

Struggling to do this atm, finding the correct angle to shoot @ is hard for me.

Such as i'll look at the scene with my own eyes and then look through the viewfinder and try to shoot it and it comes out completely different then how i actually saw it before taking a photograph. I'm using a prime lens mostly so i don't have the zoom capability.

 

[astroNikon]

Also, research perspective, angles, etc. Considering your mobility at this event, don't always take the photo when you are standing all the way up and everyone else is sitting down. Lower yourself to shoulder level.

Struggling to do this atm, finding the correct angle to shoot @ is hard for me.

Such as i'll look at the scene with my own eyes and then look through the viewfinder and try to shoot it and it comes out completely different then how i actually saw it before taking a photograph. I'm using a prime lens mostly so i don't have the zoom capability.

What focal length prime are you using ?

I think the 50mm on a Full Frame or 35mm of a APS-C would be similar to the field of view of what you see through your eyes. Read this ==> The Camera Versus the Human Eye

but your vision has a far wider dynamic range (able to see in shadows in bright light which a camera sensor has problems with) than a camera. Thus one uses software to correct highlights and shadows. Then color corrections to make everything more "as you see it".

 

[Evan55T]

What focal length prime are you using ?

I think the 50mm on a Full Frame or 35mm of a APS-C would be similar to the field of view of what you see through your eyes. Read this ==> The Camera Versus the Human Eye

but your vision has a far wider dynamic range (able to see in shadows in bright light which a camera sensor has problems with) than a camera. Thus one uses software to correct highlights and shadows. Then color corrections to make everything more "as you see it".

Thanks for responding

Yeah a 50mm prime on a D7000/APS-C sensor camera. (Not sure if i should for a full-frame?)

Well i just have a really hard time trying to fill the frame, what a good angle to shoot from would be, and yeah stuff like that and i end up with some lopsided photo that is poorly composed and might as well taken a picture with my iphone with.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you everyone for your reply. I received pm today that somehow I posted this one in the wrong forum. Who ever be able to delete this one please do. Again, please accept my apology.

 

[astroNikon]

What focal length prime are you using ?

I think the 50mm on a Full Frame or 35mm of a APS-C would be similar to the field of view of what you see through your eyes. Read this ==> The Camera Versus the Human Eye

but your vision has a far wider dynamic range (able to see in shadows in bright light which a camera sensor has problems with) than a camera. Thus one uses software to correct highlights and shadows. Then color corrections to make everything more "as you see it".

Thanks for responding

Yeah a 50mm prime on a D7000/APS-C sensor camera. (Not sure if i should for a full-frame?)

Well i just have a really hard time trying to fill the frame, what a good angle to shoot from would be, and yeah stuff like that and i end up with some lopsided photo that is poorly composed and might as well taken a picture with my iphone with.

50mm for FF
35 for APS-C

D7000 is nice. I had one for a few years. It has all the flexibility to learn about everything.

the problem is, when you use a wider lens you get into perspective distortion.
Derrel posted a great video about focal lengths in relation to distortion in some thread about 105 vs 135 primes or something like that.

 

[Derrel]

I really think one of the best authors was John Hedgecoe. He wrote 32 books on photography. His books are all over amazon.com, used. ALL of them have lots of pages, and many hundrerds of small diagrams, and sml sample photos, on 100 to 150 different "lessons". He was a master at taking a technique, and showing you how to "Do that method", Like side lighting, or front-lighting, or backlighting, with three or four diagrams, and then three sets, of four photos each. Like a fantastic How-To author or book teaches.

I really think the Complete Photography Course book would help you immensely. or, any one of 10 or 15 of his other books. YES, these were written 20,30 years ago. But light, lighting conditions, and lenses have not really changed much since about 1975. Speedlights and studio strobes, reflectors, all that is still applicable. His digital book (not the one I am referring to here or below) is one of the last ones he wrote.

I learned a TON from this book in the 1981-82 period.

John Hedgecoe's Complete Photography Course: John Hedgecoe: 9780671475017: Amazon.com: Books