A little bit about photography...

Well, I've seen tons of the same question on this forum, other forums, been pm'd about this particular subject etc so I decided to address it in a post. I'm not sure if anyone has made something like this on here, but I felt the need to rant about something inconsequential and figured I'd share some of my experiences. If you don't like long posts or think I'm a total tool, that's fine. You don't even have to like my photography I'll show in the post. Just click "back" on your browser. I guess this will be my mini Photographers manifesto.

The number one question (or any variant of) that drives me nuts is, "What camera can I buy that will make me awesome pictures of (insert whatever here)..? The true answer is.. none. Let's face it, photography is an art and a science. If we could all just buy a camera and take amazing shots, we'd all be professional photographers. I'm not saying I'm an Ansel Adams, Nick Brandt or anything remotely like that. I never went to school of any kind for photography. I'm just a guy who happens to love taking pictures and spends some time behind a camera. Let's take a few shots from varying types of photography.

A shot of my wife, in an artsy, fashion kind of way



A wildlife type shot..



And one of my favorite corn snake shots..




This brings me back around to a variant of that old question I get a lot, "What kind of camera did you use to do that?" Would it matter if I said it was a Nikon D200, an $8000+ Canon 1ds Mk III with some $2000 L series glass on it or if I said an 8mp point and shoot? (Not that it matters but these were all snapped with a 6.3mp Canon 300D that's 5 years old.) Really, it could be any of the above because the equipment only really matters to a small extent if you don't know anything about the basic principles of photography or what constitutes a "good" photo. Is it the "bokeh" you got by choosing a certain aperture value? Is is clarity and color? Or does composition make you think of a good photo? How about lighting? My point being that any number of these variables can come together and either make or break a photo. So here's my personal viewpoints on how to get better photos, equipment completely aside in a step by step fashion.

Step 1- If you don't have a camera, buy something inexpensive to get you started. You can get plenty of 8 to 10mp+ point and shoots or non-SLR's for just a couple hundred $$ that will serve you well for quite a while. If you have a camera, stick with what you have. Most point and shoots manufactured in the last few years even give you some options for manual modes, shutter priority, aperture priority and the likes you can play with.

Step 2- Do some light reading. You can find tons of things on the internet as far as tutorials for FREE. I like Luminous Landscape, the Strobist and things like that. You can about everything from what your camera does, to advanced features, post processing, lighting, whatever and have a look at some amazing photos and techniques as you go along. Or go buy any number of well written photography books. Study what you consider to be amazing photos and hypothesize on how you think they achieved it. The idea here is to learn things like: What does Av, Tv, M, P and all these modes do? What does aperture value mean? What is the difference of ISO 100 vs. ISO 800? Learn some basic composition theory ie "the rule of thirds", when to use portrait vs. landscape orientations, etc. Maybe even dive into a little post processing such as using Photoshop. Photoshop is a whole different subject with me as I think some people nowadays overuse it to try and compensate for lack of being able to take a good photo in camera. Maybe just basics like level/curves, white balance/tone, and sharpening. Don't overwhelm yourself with this step, just try to learn some of the basic principles of photography and techniques to enhance on as you take more photos.

Step 3- Get out, apply what you've learned and take pictures. Lots of them. Hundreds of them, heck, thousands of them. It's a digital age and you don't have to pay for processing like when I started on film. You can even look in the viewfinder on your cam and see what your picture looks like instantly! Experiment with all your different settings on you camera and see what happens. When I started I took tons of photos with most of them being absolutely terrible. I mean, *terrible*. But I was having fun doing it and I was doing something constructive with my time which led to experimentation. (not in the college sense of the word) I started to think, what would happen if I did this? Or wouldn't it be cool if I tried this.. There comes a point where you will start to see a difference as you mess with things. You'll start to notice you're not taking so many bad pictures. Things are starting to come together.

Step 4- Now that you've got some semblance of an idea what's going in inside that camera of yours when you hit the shutter button alternate between steps 2 and 3 for a while longer. Read, shoot, read, shoot, repeat basically. Things will really be clicking now. Maybe you've noticed now you can use every feature on your camera, change the way your photos look by altering some of those settings and things like that. This is the point, and only at this point, where you've taken your point and shoot or beginner camera to it's limits and not only want, but need more from your camera that I recommend upgrading. Maybe an advanced point and shoot like a Canon G or S5is series, higher end Finepix with the 12x optical zoom and image stabilization, or even an entry level dSLR if you really want to go further. Go back to steps 2 and 3 and learn about your new camera, refresh on what you learned before and take tons of pictures again.

This is pretty much how it goes. A cycle of learning and applying what you learned. I'm not saying this is the be all, end all way to do things, but it worked for me. The whole point of all this is that there is no magic, easy way to take genuinely good photos. You can't just buy a camera one day, take 5 shots with it and win an International Photo Award or Pulitzer prize in photojournalism the next. If you really want to get better, you'll have to learn some things and practice. If you just want to post a decent photo on some forums of whatever it is you take a pic of, then just stick with a decent point and shoot and post away. No one will care. But the next time you see that 1 photo which just makes your draw drop, and you stop and stare wondering, "how did they do that??" as I often do just know that it's not instantaneous and it probably had little to do with what equipment they were shooting with.

Hopefully someone out there will get something out of this post. Mostly, it was just something I want to present to people as an option if they really want to take better photos. The other option is to go to school and study photography, but we can't all do that. Any feedback or criticism you have on my methodology or ideas, feel free to let me know. And enjoy..

First let me say that those are some beautiful photos. I especially like the one of your wife. People photography is an area where I am continually striving to improve my skills. Especially since I seem to get suckered into shooting a lot of weddings for friends/family!

Secondly - that is some great advice. I know I get a lot of the same questions and I couldn't agree more with your suggestions. I belong to an online photography forum and it doesn't matter what type of camera people are using - great photos can be taken with any of them. From a cheap little point and shoot to the high end $10000 set ups.

I also have no schooling in photography and have learned everything I know from trial and error as well as reading online tutorials and step by step guides.

Photography is an art - what one person considers a fantastic photo - someone else may hate. It isn't necessarily always the "technical" aspects that make a photo stand out.

The best advice I can offer someone just starting out is practice practice practice. The more you shoot, the more you will figure out what works and what doesn't.

Great post - rep points headed your way!!

Fantastic advice! I too have never had any photography schooling. I just practise until I snap the image I had exactly in mind. Everyone asks me what camera I use, and to their astonishment I use one of the cheapest entry level SLR's on the market (Nikon D40). I would recommend it hands down to anyone who wanted to delve into photography at an amature level as that particular camera allows you to manipulate everything from exposure to aperture to shutter speeds to ISO etc etc etc. Everything you need really. I don't plan on upgrading until I have got everything I possibly can out of my camera, which I am very far from. Although it does have it's limitations...

I hate when people buy expensive cameras, take crap shots and blame the camera. LOL. It makes me snort really. Ken Rockwell done a fantastic article on why your camera doesn't matter. As I have always said, the camera is only as good as the person behind it.

Oh and I have tried the white background thing recently too, but my lighting was poor and it's not nearly as white or contrasty and effective as I wanted it to be. Any tips on lighting?

Thanks for the comments. I wasn't sure about posting my own photos as examples as again, I'm no professional but I figured they could at a minimum illustrate my point.

ArpAngel- I feel you on the photography forums. I frequent a few and see the same thing. I saw one the other day with a guy who had just went out and dropped a lot of money on a Canon 5d and 24-70L lens and couldn't understand why his pictures didn't turn out like other peoples with that setup. His were underexposed, OOF, and poorly composed. It may have been one of the things that led me to posting this. I also agree that photos are not completely about technical aspects but I find it's good to at least understand that side. I'm always breaking the "rules" while taking photos.

Tula- Elle is it? For the lighting on the corn photo it was actually very simple. The background is just a piece of 24"x36" poster board. For lighting I used a Canon 580ex mounted on camera and bounced it off a 24" silver reflector I have. I don't know if my exif is intact, but if I recall it was shot at ISO 200, manual mode 1/60 sec @ f8. I manually set the flash to 1/16 power and just fired away using the camera to meter exposure. Only other light was ambient through my window blinds.

Well done! You've hit on the key elements of photography with clarity and grace. I am afraid I would NOT be as gracious nor kind with my words. But that's the "drill instructor" portion of my personality.

The most important point: fill up those memory cards! The more photos taken by a new (or old) photographer, the more they will learn IF they are looking, really looking, at what and how they are doing something. Hmmm, practice, practice, practice comes to mind. But practice with a purpose. Mindlessly doing anything won't improve SKILLS. And don't try to improve everything at the same time. Egads, that's the road to ruin and disappointment.

Pick out a single element on which to work. Me? I'm still working on lighting at the macro level. Your lighting approach is simple, but NOT easy to achieve. Good advice here. Then move on to another element, etc. This is the same approach I offered while teaching writing for twenty years. It works for any skill if accompanied by serious thought and the application of proven techniques.

BTW, Jason. Now that you are a confirmed field herper I have a bumper sticker for you. I'll have it in my office the next time you drop in.

Shannon

Very good advice. I have a simple nikon d60 and it is a great starter camera for sure. I have found like you its not the camera, but usually the person and how willing they are to play around. I started with the starter kit and have bought additional macro lenses and external flashes thats where the money part comes in the body itself is easy to obtain cheaply. I began by shooting the same subjects from different distances and using different settings manipulating them one at a time until I understoof what each setting actually did. I am still new and don't have the time I wish I did, but in days I was able to learn a lot and looking back at only the last few months my photography has improved a lot. Patience is the best tool!!

Originally Posted by Tula_Montage

Oh and I have tried the white background thing recently too, but my lighting was poor and it's not nearly as white or contrasty and effective as I wanted it to be. Any tips on lighting?

It looks like because alot of the scene is white, the camera is being fooled and underexposing to make the white look grey.

I'd recommend getting an incident lightmeter. And run the camera and flash in manual mode. Barring that bump up the flash exposure compensation. I'd try a full stop at first and see how it looks.

If the flash gets to full power and it still isn't bright enough you need to either open up the aperture or increase the iso. Lowering the shutter speed won't help, it will only bring in more ambient light.

I've been taking photos with a Point and shoot Nikon coolpix S230, and they've come out wonderfully.. Sometimes I do things and wonder later on "How the heck..where did that come from?" Some of those examples are as follows. In about nine months or so, I'll be graduating from (But still keeping) my point and shoot, and purchasing a Nikon D5000 with a few lenses to get me going with DSLRS, in the mean time, I'll be practicing with what I have.

I dont really do photos myself - hubby does it so well that there doesnt seem to be much reason to, lol! But I have been helping him for years, so some has soaked in through osmosis, I guess.

Your advice is pretty much what he always tells people. He tells them to get any SLR that they want - it is not that important. He always focuses on composing and lighting - says that is what takes the patience and the eye for a good photo. The rest is not that difficult - pretty much what everyone here has said, as well. This post should be a great help to those wanting to get started, or to improve, their photos.

Those pictures aren't very good. Too bright,not enough contrast. Too many focal points.