Practice...Practice...Practice...

[joel28]

Practice...Practice...Practice...is what everyone is telling me.

So I asked my wife today to help me in the office, and I went outside babysitting, pushing the stroller with one hand, and my Nikon D5100 in the other hand.

I'm walking and walking.. passing by parked cars, and boring streets. and i keep thinking to myself "What can I shoot interesting to practice and improve my photography skills"?

Can you please help me with this?

Your help would be highly appreciated!

 

[SCraig]

Shoot the FIRST thing your eyes rest on. No cheating and looking for something else, it HAS to be the very first thing your eyes see. It can be as simple as a nail sticking out of a wall or a blade of grass sticking out of a joint in concrete. The trick is not in seeing something but rather FINDING the photograph that is in everything. Look at something, anything at all, and then find the way to make that "Something" interesting.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

It depends.

What exactly are you trying to practice?

 

[joel28]

My main goals now are to take nice photos of products (electronic small gadgets) for a online website, and photos of my baby.

But i figured to start practicing first the Exposure Triangle as i'm new to photography.

 

[KmH]

Practice is usually unproductive unless you do it with some goals in mind.

The key to pleasing photos is good composition. So undertaking an in-depth study of visual image composition is a great way to see the world in a way you haven't before.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

And product photography is more about controlling your light. So get the book "Light, Science, Magic" and practice lighting (and exposure).

For composition, get "The Photographers Eye" and as you learn new compositional elements, go out and look for them!

Then come back and show us what you've learned!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

As you learn composition (google photographic composition for some primers, while you wait for your book to arrive ) you can challenge yourself with things like: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...eresting-things-within-10-feet-challenge.html

 

[joel28]

Craig, KMH, Jeweler, You guys have really great points! Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it!

To conclude, What comes first or last in this curriculum?

Composition? Lighting? Exposure?

or should i learn a lesson a day from each subject?

 

[480sparky41 41]

The best advice I've ever heard about 'learning' is to go out and find photos............ without your camera.

Yeah, it sounds counter-intuitive. But most people 'see' something and immediately raise the camera to their eye.. click... time to move on. If you don't have a camera, you're forced to 'study' the subject more.

 

[KmH]

To conclude, What comes first or last in this curriculum?

Composition? Lighting? Exposure?

As far as cirriculum, composition is #1. Composition and the Elements of Visual Design
Advanced Composition -- Part I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)

As far as a photograph, all 3 are #1.

 

[Skyclad]

Practice...Practice...Practice...is what everyone is telling me.

So I asked my wife today to help me in the office, and I went outside babysitting, pushing the stroller with one hand, and my Nikon D5100 in the other hand.

I'm walking and walking.. passing by parked cars, and boring streets. and i keep thinking to myself "What can I shoot interesting to practice and improve my photography skills"?

Practice is usually unproductive unless you do it with some goals in mind.

The key to pleasing photos is good composition. So undertaking an in-depth study of visual image composition is a great way to see the world in a way you haven't before.

You can start really simple. As KmH said, go out with goals in mind. For example, make each day a theme. I.E. one day while you're out. Take pictures of windows; old ones, interesting ones, vines around the frame and so on. Then the next time you're out. Take pictures of round things, be it windows, truck wheels manhole covers. And while you're doing those, you can keep in mind the rule of thirds, or is it something that would look better centered. It will be a good task for you to practice your composition on, as well as exposure.

Here is an example using a truck and a car




And another idea




More creativeness




Taking pictures of letters




And just build up from there on.