Relatively new at photography! Advice please!

[Lady707]

Thank you TamiAz! We are on the same page. lol....I have taken a beginner course at Henry's Photography, I have the videos by Mark Wallace as well. I usually watch it a few times then I practice what I learned. I also view YouTube and other videos on the internet. I learned about light painting and tried that as well--wasn't perfect but not bad for my first try. I agree with you about the triangle. I need to get a better understanding of how it all works together. I sometimes get impatient. ...lol ... I want to capture what I see and get something totally different. I do understand that it takes time and practice. Over the last few months I've been feeling a bit more comfortable with my Nikon. The best way for me to learn is by practicing what I learned....then I move on to another technique. Thanks for your help!

 

[Lady707]

As a Noob myself. I ordered a couple books . I am also going to look into a class at the local school. I figure every little bit helps.....and of course read this forum

Yes this forum is awesome! That's for sure!

 

[Lady707]

Hi amolitor,
lol....I used those settings from a cheat sheet I got off the internet. I kinda know where I need to go to change my settings. I just need to understand when I should make changes and what type of changes to make in different conditions. Right now I write things in a book and I need to refer to that but hopefully I will be able to make decisions on my own. Thank you for your advise. I will try adjusting the exposure compensation when I'm using the A mode. Thanks!

 

[weepete]

I'll pitch in. Get a speedlite.

It doesn't have to be expensive, I've got a yongnuno 460 which was really cheap and I use it just fine. Noise is one of those trade offs that we make in situations where we can't use external lighting, so we bump up the ISO. Unless you have a really good reason to not use one (indoors and in low light) you should use one. Good flash photography is excellent but a lot of beginners get a bit scared of it for some reason.

Oh and use a flash, it will sovle your problem.

 

[Lady707]

Thank you bratkinson! Your last paragraph is exactly how I feel...."zillion numbers/combinations/settings to be memorized. You made some good points in getting away from that mindset. I'm still learning how to navigate in this forum. I look forward to posting a few pictures to get folks to critique and advise.

 

[Lady707]

Thank you! will check out the flash.

 

[Lady707]

You can also try painting with light aka light painting...setting the shutter to a LONG exposure, like say 30 seconds, and twirling lighted objects, like flashlights, or LED lights, and so on, to illuminate the scene and or to create interesting light trails.

A smallish shoe-mounted flash, bounced upward off the ceiling, or sidewaysm, or backwards, of of walls or celings, or wall/ceiling junctures, or off of a corner indoors--that is called "bounce flash", and can work near miracles.

I have tried light painting using an apple. I made it a smoking apple. Wasn't perfect but I was pleased for my first try. Thanks for your great suggestions.

 

[jewleeanne]

#1 piece of advice: Learn manual mode.

Learning how to use manual mode really helped my photos. It gives you complete control over the look of your images. It may seem difficult at first, but it really is the easiest thing. You may get overwhelmed with all the terms, but you get used to it!

Try to keep your ISO as LOW as possible. The higher the ISO, the more noise/grain. Aperture pretty much means how much you want in focus. If you are photographing people, I usually set the apreture to match the amount of people in the photo. Example: I am photography two people, I would have my apreture at f/2.8. The lower the apreture, the less in focus. As for shutter speed, the lower the shutter speed, the shakier the photo. I don't like to go below 1/125. The lowest I will ever go is 1/60, as for anything below that you would need a tripod. Shutter speed is "the amount of time that the shutter is open". To freeze movement in an image you’ll want to choose a faster shutter speed.

I learned everything I know from this amazing blog: How to Shoot in Manual Mode-The Basics - Click it Up a Notch
This post is amazing, and you will learn so much. There are many more things you will be able to find online, this is just my favourite. I also recommend checking out Pinterest for tips, tutorials, and ideas.

 

[dubiousone]

KISS...Keep It...Simple!

I still shoot lots of film. I do because I enjoy that media. It also forces me to be a more...not careful, contemplative photographer. When I use film I find myself thinking more on exposure and the factors that govern it. I don't always bracket my shots, but that is useful when you're trying for something specific and are unsure of the exposure. Take one 'normal' one plus a stop or whatever and then one under. (That doesn't always work either) P gives you more control over certain parameters such as ISO, white balance and such. Depending on your camera in P mode you might be able to scroll through different combinations of shutter and aperture combinations. For example, the camera is in P mode and selects a shutter speed of 250 with an aperture of F11 but you want a narrower depth of field. Scrolling with the control wheel you can choose another combination such as 2000 and F4 or, if you wanted a deep DOF 60 and F22 would give the same exposure. One thing that has been very useful for me when I was learning exposure is an old fashioned light meter. Not the newfangled ones like the Gossen Digisix that simply reads out on an LCD but an older one with a wheel that lets you see, at a glance, what combinations are available.

I like aperture priority mainly but it does depend on what I'm doing. If I'm trying to catch moving things, shutter priority is what I'll use however this might get tricky when I want a specific depth of field. (You can't have both sometimes)

Instead of using auto ISO, use a fixed ISO. 100, 400, 1000 whatever. This will help you develop a sense of what exposure is needed for a given scene. If the camera is constantly changing ISO on you, you'll get widely different combinations of shutter/aperture.

Instead of taking 'nice pictures' and worrying about composition or 'what', go out and just focus on depth of field. Find that combination with the lens you are using that gives the DOF you are looking for. Then work on shutter speeds in stopping motion. My neighbor as one of those half size windmills and one afternoon I spent a half hour just taking pictures of that. Stopping motion when the blades are spinning like a top or getting them to look like they are going real fast when it reality they were going slow. The nice thing about digital is it doesn't cost anything unless you print it!

Another day take on exposure. I took a whole roll of crummy, poorly exposed photographs when I forgot to check what metering selection I had. It was on spot metering not matrix. Those early morning deep shadow shots and bright sunlight with a person's face hidden in shadow by a wide brim hat...yuck. There's LOTS of things in a photograph that effect exposure and the only way to learn is to TRY different combinations of shutter/aperture and learning what works and what doesn't. Manual helps with that and using the aperture priority and shutter priority modes will help you prepare for that. Then there's exposure compensation. A subject that's backlit might need to be over a stop to get the person in shadow. But of course the bright background will be over. How much is up to you and you learn that by...practice!

 

[minicoop1985]

Like everyone says, learn your manual mode. Learn about spot metering and metering for your subject, not whatever the camera decides is your subject. Learn single point focus (still trying to figure out how to do that in One Shot on my 7D... my last DSLR was a lot easier). Learn... anything you can, really. One of the best ways to learn is with an old manual film camera. Forces you to think more with nothing to fall back on.

 

[anila]

I have started photography as a hobby and learning from different online resources. I dont know from where else I learn photography. Anyway trying to follow some of tips given in this post and someday may be I can take this as a profession!