Tutorials for cheap cameras?

tseo · Oct 9, 2006

Hi all
This is my first post here. I was wondering are there any books or tutorials out there that explain for us not fortunate enough to have a good camera the basics which we can master even with "crappy" cameras. My camera is Nikon Coolpix L4
Thanks to all that will reply

Torus34 · Oct 9, 2006

No matter what the camera, the problem remains the same; subject selection, lighting and composition.

tseo · Oct 9, 2006

You are right, ofcourse.
I was just seeking for tips&tricks for cameras which don't have manual focusing and other things that I don't kniow yet

EBphotography · Oct 9, 2006

Digital Photography for Dummies covers all the basics, if thats what you are looking for.

Written by Judith Adair King.

Eric.

tseo · Oct 9, 2006

I'll check it out, thanks
I hope I find answers in there because most of the books refer to functions of the camera I don't have

darin3200 · Oct 9, 2006

tseo said:
I'll check it out, thanks
I hope I find answers in there because most of the books refer to functions of the camera I don't have

Have you just looked in your manual for the manual modes?

tseo · Oct 9, 2006

darin3200 said:
Have you just looked in your manual for the manual modes?

Yes, I did
But except setting the White color, everything else is just modes - Landscape, Portrait, Night Portrait, Museum, Fireworks, Close Up, etc. and I can't quite get the hang of it since nowhere is stated what each of them does and some of them act quite unpredictably some times...

Digital Matt · Oct 9, 2006

Your camera doesn't offer a lot of features for creativity. What you can do is, turn your flash off, make sure your ISO is set to the lowest setting, probably 100, and white balance manually, for the type of lighting you are in.

Oh, and get a tripod, and use the selftimer, so there's no camera shake.

tseo · Oct 9, 2006

Digital Matt said:
Your camera doesn't offer a lot of features for creativity. What you can do is, turn your flash off, make sure your ISO is set to the lowest setting, probably 100, and white balance manually, for the type of lighting you are in.

Oh, and get a tripod, and use the selftimer, so there's no camera shake.

Thank you

I was starting to realize that the flash does nothing good to most of my shots...
This ISO thing is a setting I think that I don't have and but I am not sure and will check it out.
And I will get a tripod as soon as I can afford.
Thank you for the constructive advice

Rob · Oct 10, 2006

Turn the camera vertical for vertical subjects.

Don't centre horizons (google "rule of thirds")

Avoid high contrast scenes.

Turn off flash or stick five rizla papers on it.

Think about what you're trying to achieve.

Rob

tseo · Oct 10, 2006

Rob said:
Turn the camera vertical for vertical subjects.

Don't centre horizons (google "rule of thirds")

Avoid high contrast scenes.

Turn off flash or stick five rizla papers on it.

Think about what you're trying to achieve.

Rob

Thanks, Rob
As a matter of fact I tried to soften the flash with my finger and some other materials but didn't reach some satisfiying results. I'll try this and I'll keep my mind on what I am doing

Rob · Oct 10, 2006

I use a badly vandalised whiteish film canister on my pop-up flash and rizlas on compacts. It entertains everyone anyway!!

One other great tip - clean up the scene. Clutter is bad - blur it out with shallow dof, or fill flash (light it out), or remove it. One of the biggest signs of clutter is when a photographer has seen a "thing" and shot it, but without thinking about the thing's context in it's environment. HCB was the king of context - all his portraits (and indeed most of his shots) were shot at f8, infinity focus, 1/125(ish), BUT the background added to the shot rather than detracted.

Think about a shot of a person in their bedroom, you don't want to be wondering what the white thing under the bed is... you just need to see a bit of bed.

A great tip I learnt from TPF (from ksmattfish perhaps? - claim it?) was to try and have your subject touch three sides of the frame. This ensures involvement with subject.

A good thing to do with this forum is take ONE picture with a result and motive in mind and ask how other people would have done the same shot. A bad thing to do with any photographer is take a picture which you think is really f'ng brilliant and then ask people what they think, expecting the answer "great". Crit is great, but you've gotta be strong to take it on board. Get crit on a shot which you think is great and accept it and develop and you can actually become great.

Rob