Trying something different....................

[AMOMENT]

Went to speak to a local photographer who was very helpful. Basically he told me that shooting complete manual is a lot of the times, unecessary; especially in my case. I realize I was taking on too many choice/control at once. It was next to impossible to not only work on my focus, but also to completely get exposure right with having control of the ISO, shutter, aperture, all at once. When shooting moving kids; my fave, doing all is a lot for a beginner.

I know you guys have recommended that I work on one thing at a time but one was creating problems for the other. I'm wondering if I should shoot Program, shutter, or aperture for a while. I found that I took some photos indoors with a shutter speed WAAY slower than I thought I could handle and they came out much crisper! YEAY! I also found that I did some in program mode, as advised by this photographer , and my photos were still blury. He actually looked at my hand and said my tremble was not bad at all! He looked at some of my photos and said I wasn't totally missing focus as well but that I should sometimes let the computer, the camera, do some of the work. I know amny of you have told me some of these things but it was nice to have someone in person do it. I really want to take a class but not sure if I have the time right now. I called Nikon for some specific D7000 advice and they said that while shooting in AF-C I should auto select ALL the focus points so that if need be, the camera can use them. I wasn't doing that but rather was selecting the points in the frame that I wanted to be sharp. I will post some practice shoots in the gallery and I am STILL getting some soft focus but I feel like I am trying something new. I also need tor eally work on my PP because I ofte don't do enough/right stuff.

Where does everyone get/like their photoshop elements actions from? I've tried coffee house but am not thrilled.

....I refuse to give up, lol I love this too much!

 

[BlackSheep]

I don't typically post on your threads because I am not a people photographer, but I have read some of them, and I did want to say one thing - if you want to learn exposure, then I very much suggest that you don't try to learn while using kids as your subjects, because as I'm sure you know they move around alot. If they just move by a couple of inches, the exposure changes and then you aren't able to learn what works.

Set up a vase/brick/anything stationary, and then yes as suggested practice shooting with aperture priority/shutter priority/etc so that you can get an understanding of what your camera does. Then, once you have a handle on it, use what you have learnt on the kids. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary of course.

 

[e.rose]

Honestly, I wouldn't even WORRY about PPing.

Using actions isn't going to make bad images look better... it's just going to make bad images look like they have been put through photoshop.

You said you wanted to work on one thing at a time...

So work on one thing at a time, and forget photoshop for now.

Set your camera in Aperture Priority... or Shutter Priority if you're shooting something where the shutter speed is more important... and learn how your camera works that way.

THEN.............. worry about photoshop.

 

[MTVision]

Honestly, I wouldn't even WORRY about PPing.

Using actions isn't going to make bad images look better... it's just going to make bad images look like they have been put through photoshop.

You said you wanted to work on one thing at a time...

So work on one thing at a time, and forget photoshop for now.

Set your camera in Aperture Priority... or Shutter Priority if you're shooting something where the shutter speed is more important... and learn how your camera works that way.

THEN.............. worry about photoshop.

^^^^ this

Actions aren't anything magical/great. Most of the time they look like crap when you run them without tweaking them at all. Also, they usually work best on photos with good exposure and color. The actions you mentioned agree actually pretty good - I use some of them but.....you can't just run them and be done with it. You have to go in adjust layer opacities and mask things off, etc.

Honestly if you are having difficulties maybe you should either go back to JPEG or shoot RAW+JPEG so you don't have to worry about post processing all your photos. That way you can focus on the most important aspects such as exposure, focus, etc. When you have the camera part nailed down take some time to learn how to edit properly.

Manual can be a PIA when you are first starting out and shooting your kids. Especially when they are running around and the light is constantly changing. Then again changing to aperture or shutter priority isn't going to necessarily fix your focusing issues but it may let you focus more on that instead of worrying about changing your settings. You still have complete control over your exposure in the priority modes so go for it. Don't forget to still check your histograms to see if you need to add + or - exposure compensation. I believe the priority modes will meter everything to 0 so that may not give you the best exposure. You probably don't want to use spot metering either otherwise your camera will always meter for whatever you are focusing on.

 

[SCraig]

... I'm wondering if I should shoot Program, shutter, or aperture for a while.

I recommended that several weeks ago in This Post. Did you even try it then?

Set your camera on f/8 in aperture priority and ISO 800. Turn that dynamic / 3D / moving-focus garbage3 OFF, and lock the focus point in the center so it does NOT move. Set focus mode to AF-C and shutter mode to Ch. Point camera at daughter, zoom as desired leaving room around her to crop, push shutter button halfway down until focus is locked, push shutter the rest of the way down and hold it there. Pan with daughter until buffer fills up (11 shots in RAW, 15 in JPEG). Repeat until memory card is full.

And don't you DARE tell me she's moving faster than This!

Yep, it really is that simple.

 

[AMOMENT]

Scraig, I DID..and posted the photos. Actually, i got positive feedback on them; thanks!! However, as per your advice I shot in aperture priority and this time around I played around with Program mode. =)

Wierd, but I actually went to Best Buy, I know terrible but it's the closest ANYTHING with ANYTHING photgraphic in my area except for the city which I'll have to find time to do.......and one person there, an actual passed photographer could not figure out why my images were not sharp in a lot of modes. She actually took the camera and did test shots. That was discouraging because she said on her camera, she never has these problems. I have a new body so, no way is it the camera! Just wierd..............

 

[AMOMENT]

I don't typically post on your threads because I am not a people photographer, but I have read some of them, and I did want to say one thing - if you want to learn exposure, then I very much suggest that you don't try to learn while using kids as your subjects, because as I'm sure you know they move around alot. If they just move by a couple of inches, the exposure changes and then you aren't able to learn what works.

Set up a vase/brick/anything stationary, and then yes as suggested practice shooting with aperture priority/shutter priority/etc so that you can get an understanding of what your camera does. Then, once you have a handle on it, use what you have learnt on the kids. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary of course.

Thanks....that was really sweet of you. I sincerely thank you. I agree that I shouldn't shoot kids ..especially mine when practicing. In all honesty it is SO hard for me to shoot still life because I don't have a creative eye or interest for it. I guess a simple vase in sight could work for exposure learning but what drives me to my camera is my love and enjoyment with it and I LOVE to photograph kids, people, etc. I actually enjoy photographing other people more as my 3yr old is a tough customer, but that is not always possible with my schedule of 4 kids...etc....etc....etc.

 

[cgipson1]

Learn to use your camera, and get decent shots.. before you start worrying about some dumb actions!!! And I believe you have been told repeatedly to use aperture priority, and shutter priority for your shooting. Just like Scott mentions... I know I told that you that starting months ago! LOL!

 

[MTVision]

Scraig, I DID..and posted the photos. Actually, i got positive feedback on them; thanks!! However, as per your advice I shot in aperture priority and this time around I played around with Program mode. =)

Wierd, but I actually went to Best Buy, I know terrible but it's the closest ANYTHING with ANYTHING photgraphic in my area except for the city which I'll have to find time to do.......and one person there, an actual passed photographer could not figure out why my images were not sharp in a lot of modes. She actually took the camera and did test shots. That was discouraging because she said on her camera, she never has these problems. I have a new body so, no way is it the camera! Just wierd..............

Just because it's a new camera doesn't mean there couldn't be issues with it. Not saying there is issues but new doesn't necessarily mean perfect

 

[SCraig]

Scraig, I DID..and posted the photos. Actually, i got positive feedback on them; thanks!! However, as per your advice I shot in aperture priority and this time around I played around with Program mode. =)

Excellent. Then here is what I recommend that you do if you are going to try and use manual mode (and actually I strongly recommend that you do NOT):

Shoot one shot in manual the way you think it should be. Take the same shot in aperture priority or shutter priority and match the aperture or shutter speed to what you used in manual. Compare the shots and then decide why the one in automatic is better than the one in manual. The automatic shot is going to be better the vast bulk of the time and this is the only way I can think of to convince you of that.

90% of the time your camera is a better photographer than you are, just like mine is a better photographer than I am. It is only that other 10% of the time, such as when the view is unbalanced or the subject is oddly lighted, that we need to convince it to do something else. You seem determined to change something 100% of the time and then not understand why it isn't working. Do your job, worry about the composition and the lighting, let the camera do its job and worry about the exposure. I am honestly telling you the truth: That's ALL you need to do. If you will do that you'll start to get better shots most of the time.

Once you get that down pat, and ONLY once you get that down pat, can we start to work on the other 10% of the time. You're bouncing all over the place and trying everything under the sun except the one thing that will resolve most of your problems: Let the camera do its job. You change things so fast that nobody can keep up with what you are doing. We can't help that way.

 

[BlackSheep]

I don't typically post on your threads because I am not a people photographer, but I have read some of them, and I did want to say one thing - if you want to learn exposure, then I very much suggest that you don't try to learn while using kids as your subjects, because as I'm sure you know they move around alot. If they just move by a couple of inches, the exposure changes and then you aren't able to learn what works.

Set up a vase/brick/anything stationary, and then yes as suggested practice shooting with aperture priority/shutter priority/etc so that you can get an understanding of what your camera does. Then, once you have a handle on it, use what you have learnt on the kids. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary of course.

Thanks....that was really sweet of you. I sincerely thank you. I agree that I shouldn't shoot kids ..especially mine when practicing. In all honesty it is SO hard for me to shoot still life because I don't have a creative eye or interest for it. I guess a simple vase in sight could work for exposure learning but what drives me to my camera is my love and enjoyment with it and I LOVE to photograph kids, people, etc. I actually enjoy photographing other people more as my 3yr old is a tough customer, but that is not always possible with my schedule of 4 kids...etc....etc....etc.

I get what you are saying. BUT if this is what you really love to do, then you HAVE to do the crappy boring "homework" to be good at it, plain & simple. For any profession, if you only do the bits that you love and enjoy (as you said), then frankly you would not be competent to do the job. If you are serious about being a paid photographer, then get over it and do the work that is needed to be good at it. If you just want to get good pics of your kids, than great! Have fun!

ETA - I just looked as some of your other past posts, and you say that you worked as an ECE teacher - now I especially want to emphasize even more how important it is to do the boring basics- this is no different than teaching the kids, no? The stuff they learn early on in itself is useless and boring, but it's the foundation of what they need later. Same deal with what I'm saying.

 

[Solarflare]

[...] Basically he told me that shooting complete manual is a lot of the times, unecessary; especially in my case. [...] When shooting moving kids; my fave, doing all is a lot for a beginner. [...]

Whow, why didnt it occured to you that autofocus was invented because of fast moving subjects ?

Well lets just say that my rate of failed pictures went up quite a bit since I got my first SLR. Whow, I just checked, its still just 6 weeks ago ! Purely from feeling, I would have guessed more like 3 months.

Either way, I already gained increased respect for the AUTO mode. I am trying to keep my camera on it every time now whenever I pack it away so I dont lose snapshots. I'm a politically active person, I need snapshots of events sometimes.

I am still contemplating to get a KatzEye screen. That apparently is the way to go if you want to be actually able to actually manually focus well. So far any of my attempts to manually focus failed unless I went aperture priority and yanked it up to F5.6 or F8.0.

 

[Tee]

Set up a vase/brick/anything stationary, and then yes as suggested practice shooting with aperture priority/shutter priority/etc so that you can get an understanding of what your camera does. Then, once you have a handle on it, use what you have learnt on the kids. Just my thoughts, your mileage may vary of course.

Your advice has been reiterated time and time again. The OP refuses to take it. You will only become frustrated. The OP feels better post processing is the key to better photos. If she only took the time to concentrate on improving her craft by shooting static objects, her skill level would be much further ahead than where she is now. She has a website and is offering photo shoots. She's not really interested in learning.

 

[KmH]

I believe she is interested in learning. I think the root problem is she does not know how to learn by logically connecting related technical and artistic concepts.

 

[fjrabon]

Scraig, I DID..and posted the photos. Actually, i got positive feedback on them; thanks!! However, as per your advice I shot in aperture priority and this time around I played around with Program mode. =)

Wierd, but I actually went to Best Buy, I know terrible but it's the closest ANYTHING with ANYTHING photgraphic in my area except for the city which I'll have to find time to do.......and one person there, an actual passed photographer could not figure out why my images were not sharp in a lot of modes. She actually took the camera and did test shots. That was discouraging because she said on her camera, she never has these problems. I have a new body so, no way is it the camera! Just wierd..............

Just because it's a new camera doesn't mean there couldn't be issues with it. Not saying there is issues but new doesn't necessarily mean perfect

The issue is that the problems she is having are the same problems she's had on like 4 different lenses and two different camera bodies. I guess in theory she could have gotten bad samples multiple times, but in reality, that's extraordinarily unlikely.