Need overall help with pictures

[illxpanda]

I purchased the nikon coolpix p80 yesterday and have been taking pictures. Right now I'm not too sure if it was just a bad buy or me taking bad pictures(hopefully it's me). I have been comparing pictures I've been taking with pictures other people have taken with the p80 on flickr and their's always seems to pop and look more amazing.

Here are samples of what I've been taking, they don't give me the feel I want with this camera....

http://flickr.com/photos/26825673@N04/

I've really just been doing everything automatic, haven't changed ISO's, shutter speed, or things of that nature, is that affecting my photos? I'm also not sure if I'm using the right settings anyway, the close-up shots were all shot macro, everything else was shot with the SCENE mode- Landscape. Can anyone give me input on what I'm doing wrong?

The pictures in the flickr photostream are some of the best quality shots I took, and they still don't match up to the photos on flickr........

[Frog]

Too many factors to know why yours don't 'pop'
Are you doing any post-editing?

[illxpanda]

no I have not. I know many people do, but me being a beginner, don't really want to lol but I will get into it later on.

[Xia_Ke]

illxpanda, honestly, I don't really find anything technically wrong with your shots. I took a look at some other p80 photos on Flickr and I don't think they have any more "pop" than you shots do. Some just had better compositions in better lighting. I checked the data listed for a bunch of the other shots and while some used Adobe Photoshop Elements, most were shot with the camera in auto mode with no processing done afterwards. I would concentrate on working on your compositions and your "eye" for now and not sweat the technical stuff til you get more comfortable with the camera.

Here's 2 books that I highly recommend checking out:
Photography and the Art of Seeing: A Visual Perception Workshop for Film and Digital Photography
Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop

[WesternGuy]

illxpanda, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with your images. The flowers, in particular, look really good to me.

I agree with Xia_Ke that you may want to concentrate more on the composition than on the technical stuff. A book that is good for that is Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

[fx101]

Composition+lighting=better pics. Try taking pics near sunset or when the sun is 45 degrees or lower on the horizon. The light will give your images more warmth and saturation.

And you should really look into saving up for photoshop (elements at least). Post-processing is an essential part of digital photography just like darkroom work to the film photographer.

[Wild Wassa]

illxpanda, G'day.

There are 500 different ways to photograph any subject/object and only one way is definitive and several dozen other ways are good but the majority are ordinary. Each time you take a photograph it will describe the next photo to take. Photography is an exploration until you find the perfect image ... and shoot heaps.

The greatest advantage we photographers have over non visual people ... is we see more of the world than they do. We see all the elements of design that others just don't see. Some see images easily, where as most of us need to learn to see.

Take any single one of your photographic subjects that you have on Flikr and explore the one subject deeply with photography again.

I don't mean explore it by just moving or walking around the subject to find the most appropriate shooting angle or the most pleasing angle visually but that is a very good start, but using the inherent elements of photography and your camera, like different shutter speeds or focus, try to enhance the image. This will come with experience.

Don't be hard on the equipment feeling that it had let you down. In you photos on Flikr, I can see that you need to explore your subject far more deeply as a photographer. There is a relationship between shutter speeds and focus and the light that could take up a lot of interesting time. If you gave the world's best photographer the world's worst camera, they would still be the world's best photographer. If you gave the world's worst photographer the best, nothing would change. The camera helps, that's all it does.

Take any one of your subjects on Flika and re shoot it, using 6 different lighting types. Just as an excersise.

Photograph the same subject with front lighting, then side lighting, diffuse lighting, back lighting, texture lighting and flash and maybe even rim lighting a form of back lighting and try to find which characteristics of your subject are enhanced by each of the different lighting types. An excersise like this will teach you to see, light as a photographer.

When I was a student of photography, I did a 4 year course. Each week we were given a different assignment that explored the beauty and techniques of photography and there were many written assignments as well.

One of the best assignments that we were given was the 1st assignment in 1st Year. The task was to photograph 'Sunday'. I had the best 4 photos ever taken on a Sunday, until the Lecturer said, "I could see this happening on Saturday and you can do this type of thing on a Tuesday. None of these images says it is Sunday and only Sunday. If you have an assignment, fullfil it." ... and he was right.

When I take a photo, I always know the purpose for the shot. So I then think, what is it about the subject that attracts me to the subject? What is the best way that I can show that feature, in a way that best characterises what I want to say? ... and can I revisualize my image to enhance what I've got?

Set yourself small assignments. Don't take on too much initially, go and photograph the one object under 5 different lighting types. It is even hard to find 5 natural lighting types on some subjects without you the photographer, being totally actively involved. Then find subjects that are enhanced by the different shutter speeds fast or slow ... you need to learn more about photography than just pointing and shooting. There is extended depth of field from your nose to infinity through to selective focus where you might only focus on the highlights in a person's eyes ... and their tip of the nose is out of focus.

If you come back and show off more of your photos, I'm very happy to keep chatting and we can discuss camera handling techniques or what ever you think is working well for you. Then there is applied colour theory ... if you want pop? There is nothing like saturated colour against a dark neutral background to zap your neurones.

All the best, good luck.

Warren.

[dumpy]

Warren, great first post!

Damn that was good. Seriously I'm probably going to read through that a few more times and follow your advice.

Welcome to PR!

Again, WOW!

[Wild Wassa]

Thankyou for your nice greeting Dumpy.

I think that I'm going to enjoy visiting this site. I like your first photo in your album where you panned the camera and photographed your pooch. My head is still spinning ... and I had to take my time before standing up after looking closely at the ground in your photograph.

Now I need help. I tried to post an image here by directly linking an image in Photobucket, using the yellow image box in the edit section. It is no good just talking about photography. The image that I want to post is appropriate to my first post, as it is a similar theme to illxpandas' subjects.

What is the process, is there something that needs to be activated before the yellow box is functioning? ... or can you direct me to instructions please?

Warren.

[Xia_Ke]

Hi Warren, welcome to PR I agree with dumpy, an excellent first post. With Photobucket, if you click on the image you want, it will bring up several different codes that can be used on the net for posting your pic. You want to use the "IMG Code" for forums and bulletin boards. Just copy and paste that code into a post here and it will show your pic. Hope this helps.

Aaron

[Wild Wassa]

Thankyou Aaron.

I came back to edit my post, because I solved the problem, exactly how you have suggested.

There are some excellent images here on the site and I've only just scratched the surface. I saw the Platinum print image from fx101 of the building. An extraordinary image and I thought his explaination of the technique used was fascinating. A good repository of skills for all levels of photographers.

I'm not a Photoshop user. I use Canon's old Arcsoft program because it is like how I learnt to colour print, both Cibachromes and conventional chromogenic materials. I think that I might have to have a look at Photoshop. That's one of the beautiful things about an art and science like Photography ... it is possible to be a perpetual student of the craft.

Warren.

[jkriminger]

I think warren is many different people..the effects ..are brillliant

[Wild Wassa]

That's exactly right jkriminger. I've been influenced by many photographers ... I carry their legacy and hopefully it shows each time I pick up a camera.

The main influences to my photography are Andreas Feininger and Harold Mante', from their thoughts on photography as a visual medium. Ansel Adams and Bret Westen (the son of Eddy) for their influence as practitioners of the craft and their extraordinary level of quality that one can only hope to imitate and from M.J Langford, who's books on the techniques of photography when I was a student, I hardly ever put down. Langford's textbooks on basic, advanced and professional photographic techniques for photographers were bibles. When it comes to colour A.H. Munsell the colour theoritician and Ernst Haas ... well hopefully something has rubbed off.

I've sent a heads-up to illxpanda ... and hopefully illxpanda is still around.

I've added over a dozen shots to my album now.

Warren.

[another view]

they don't give me the feel I want with this camera....

While some really great advice has already been given in this thread, what is it that you are looking for? Can you give us a link to a website (please don't post photographs belonging to someone else) or at least try to describe what you want?

If a heavily stylized (Photoshopped) image is what you want, I think your images should be a good starting place - they seem sharp and well exposed. Starting with a good file is the best way to achieve good results, but I also agree that lighting and composition should be worked on. It's a lifelong process, which is part of the interest to me.