You do get better with practice, right?

Saturday was another bone chilling day here in Minnesota, so we headed to the mall for a little play time with DD. I wanted to play with my new lens some, and just practice in different locations with her doing different activities. I am so dissapointed with how all the pictures turned out. I tried different settings and nothing seemed to help much. And it seemed to take so long to figure out what to even try to use, that the moment was usually lost before I got anything.

I know you can't really give me suggestions without seeing any of the pictures, but can you at least tell me it gets better with practice? And I just need to keep doing the same thing, right? Trying out different places, different activies, different lighting until I see what works and what looks good?

If it does help any though, I can pretty much sum up what all the shots look like. Either too dark or blurry... I think a bigger flash might be in order? Right now I am just using the one attached to the camera - nothing purchased seperately. I guess what my question really comes down to - is do I just need more practice or should I be looking at more equipment? Thanks for the replies if you've made it this far - I tend to get long winded!

Rita

Don't get frustrated Rita, we all go through it. Whether it be photography, or anything else in life, there will always be a learning curve. Just keep on shooting and you will see the more you shoot, the more things will start to sink in. Don't be afraid to post some pics either. Who cares if they're not the best? This is all about learning. By sharing them, other members here might be able to point things out or offer settings advice to help speed up the learning process rather than battling through it alone and just getting frustrated :thumbsup:

Just remember, this is about having fun :D
Aaron

PS - If it makes you feel any better, your experience can't be any worse my Embarrassing First Attempt. See, we all go through it :)

Well you didn't post any examples. So check the camera's manual and see if your are asking to much from the flash. Even the most powerful flash made will not light up a very large area.

As far as the blurry images how was the camera set up. You just may of not had sufficient light for the auto focus to work, or the auto focus was focusing not on the subject. Doing micro photography that is a big problem you almost always have to be in manual focus mode.

Thanks Aaron. Of course I just want all my pictures to be perfect RIGHT NOW! I'll try to upload some of them tonight and post some examples so I can get some suggestions. Some of them are embarressingly bad!

freygr - I think that I am expecting too much from the flash. If I recall, it only goes about 8'? The worst and most dissapointing pictures were while DD was on a carosel, and I couldn't get close enough. And I didn't even think about the auto focus - I just figured I didn't have enough light so I'd try to reduce my shutter speed, but then it would be blurry... There are so many things you can change to make a difference!

Good advice above. I would add that you may want to instead of shooting in various places with different settings, you may want to shoot ONE place with multiple settings.
That will give you an idea of what works best in that kind of light.
Check your lcd to see how it is and then make adjustments. Do I need faster shutter, bigger aperture, higher iso,etc?
Post some pics, tell us the circumstances, and you'll get some expert advice.

Practice does help...Shooting in the mall would be tough since the light sources are so mixed, and it's overall very dark.

Practice over more equipment is always better, imo. You need to understand that if your shots are too dark and blurry it's because of what? Not enough light (open up the aperture to f/2.8 or f/4 instead of f/8. Blurry, it's because you shutter speed was too long.

You can fix this several ways without having to buy anything different. Pick an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/125, and an aperture of f/2.8. Pick a subject in any light and then adjust only one of the above to see the difference. After enough practice you will be able to adjust the camera to meet your enviroment and vision.

Loren

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Originally Posted by Frog

Check your lcd to see how it is and then make adjustments. Do I need faster shutter, bigger aperture, higher iso,etc?

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This is how I am going at it now, it is just frustrating because it always seems like my window of opportunity is so short and I usually miss the shot I wanted! Maybe should shoot more landscapes and less people... :)

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Originally Posted by racingpinarello

Pick an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/125, and an aperture of f/2.8. Pick a subject in any light and then adjust only one of the above to see the difference. After enough practice you will be able to adjust the camera to meet your enviroment and vision.

Loren

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That is a good idea, I'll try that. I think part of my problem is a start out all willy-nilly with whatever mismatch of settings I think might work. And then I don't even know what to begin changing. I'll try to make this my habit. Thanks!

I have a couple of examples posted in another thread now if anyone is interested.

Thanks!

Be prepared. In every situation meter the light ahead of time, then when something happens you don't have to worry about it. When you walk into a room and you think something will happen, meter and set your camera. When positions or lighting change, do it again. It only takes a second, and every image in that context will be consistently the way you metered, so all you have to worry about is focus and composition.

That method works for me.

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

Thanks Aaron. Of course I just want all my pictures to be perfect RIGHT NOW! I'll try to upload some of them tonight and post some examples so I can get some suggestions. Some of them are embarressingly bad!

freygr - I think that I am expecting too much from the flash. If I recall, it only goes about 8'? The worst and most dissapointing pictures were while DD was on a carosel, and I couldn't get close enough. And I didn't even think about the auto focus - I just figured I didn't have enough light so I'd try to reduce my shutter speed, but then it would be blurry... There are so many things you can change to make a difference!

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Just remember I've been taking photos for going on 40 to 50 years and I will take stuff for granted. You can get good but noises photos by upping the ISO, opening the F Stops, but the new kit lenses tend to be one the slow side F3.5-4.7. For inside work you need a minim of an F2.8 or faster lens and many time will have to use manual focus as the auto focus is almost always my down fall. The problem is it looks good on the small screen but on a full size monitor - the subject is out of focus and the background is in focus!

Hmmm, I know nothing of this "light metering" you speak of. But I will look into it. Sounds like a good way to approach things. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

Hmmm, I know nothing of this "light metering" you speak of.

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That explains why you're having a hard time. Metering is the single most important thing to know. Without knowing how to interpret the meter you don't know how the shot will be exposed, hence the dark blurry photo of the baby on the DDR mat.

When you look through the viewfinder there is a gauge reading -2-------0-------+2 with a little triable above it or below it that moves as you change settings. When taking pictures try and get the moving triangle to be at 0, that will get you started. That is if you're shooting on manual.

BTW, you ask if doing things over and over again and trying out different settings makes you improve. I don't think it does. Understanding how to meter and expose the way you WANT with the final image in mind will help you improve. You see, there are no "right" setting for ANY situation, it all depends on how you want the scene to look in the end, whether you want shallow depth of field, or whether you want the highlights blown out for creative effect, the settings are driven by your desire, not by the scene being photographed.

Anyway, start with getting that triangle near zero and you'll be on your way to moving past the hardware hump.

I my opinion just shooting will not be the answer unless yo have some idea what is going on when settings are changed. You may want to read you camera manual if you haven't already and I would also suggest taking a look at the site I have below and start by placing the illustration on manual. As you change the different setting you can instantly see the result of how the picture is effected. To me shooting without some basic understanding is a waste of time and the cause of much frustration.

If you could tell us what equipment you are using and also post some pictures we may be able to help more. I would suggest starting out shooting some static subjects and learn how to get them right before adding the additional challenge of a moving subject, Jeff

http://dryreading.com/camera/index.html

Sebastian - I will definitly take out the camera tonight and take a look at at that. I know I've seen it on there, but I haven't messed with it at all. It seemed like shutter speed and f-stop was what I should have figured out first, but it looks like I really need to take mroe into consideration. Thank you!

Grandpaw - I do understand the basics of what most of the camera features do (obviously not all by my previous paragraph though!). So I can take the picture and know what will happen when I adjust my shutter speed. It seems like the moment has usually passed by the time I get everything adjusted though. I'd love to just be able to pick up my camera and know what settings to start with so no, or very few, adjustments are necessary. And that is where I am hoping that things will get better with practice. I think you are right about shooting more static subjects. At least then I could try a lot of different setting and really see what minor changes on the camera can do.

Doing the same thing over and over again usually winds up giving the same result. Make sure you really analyze the results to see what worked and what didn't work and learn from it. I think the best thing to do is to learn technical aspects (apertures, shutter speeds) and how your camera works well enough that you don't have to really think about either when you're photographing. As you're shooting you decide you want less depth of field so without even thinking you set the camera to a wider aperture, or back up and zoom in (try it and you'll see what I mean, but this doesn't work in every situation). This happens when you have the technical stuff down.

Shooting with everything on an automatic mode without really understanding what the camera is doing won't really tell you much. You may have been asking too much from the flash but it's hard to know. Which flash you're using (built-in, hotshoe flash, etc), subject distance, aperture and ISO speed will all affect how much you can do with a flash (notice I didn't say shutter speed...).

Check out some of the "How-tos" under the Learn Tab at the top right of this page. Pick one thing to learn and really get a feel for it. For example, pick aperture. See what f5.6 does with a wide lens up close and also focused at infinity. See what f5.6 does with your longest lens at it's closest focusing range and also infinity. Also see what f22 does. Stuff like that; experiment a lot. I know it's not a lot of fun to not get the results you hoped for, but hopefully you can learn from those situations. You'll get there!

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

Hmmm, I know nothing of this "light metering" you speak of. But I will look into it. Sounds like a good way to approach things. Thanks!

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Check out our Exposure Guide

It will explain the basics of metering and exposure to you. And make sure to check out all the other articles in our Learn section. There's lots of useful stuff in there.

Thanks you guys, I'll check out the how to's and the Exposure Guide and Learn sections. When I first joined the board I poked around the site a little bit, but didn't have a whole lot of time to read up on everything. I'll go back and check them out. Thanks!

Yes, eventually you should get better.

Here goes...my first shot posted here. Dennis (dsl712, where is he, anyway) told me it would help if I had a properly exposed photo, Sebastian was a little nicer, saying it's tricky to light a closet. Actually, the print isn't this bad, but my photoshop knowledge was worse than my shooting...


and then another, more recent.

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Originally Posted by gracie_r

It seems like the moment has usually passed by the time I get everything adjusted though. I'd love to just be able to pick up my camera and know what settings to start with so no, or very few, adjustments are necessary. And that is where I am hoping that things will get better with practice.

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Believe me, it all gets better with practice. There are quite a few controls on these cameras, and the more pictures you take, the less you have to think before each shot. I have a long ways to go myself, before things get automatic, but each time out, I can feel the improvement.

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Originally Posted by adina

Sebastian was a little nicer,

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Do you have any idea how rarely I hear that? Eh, yeah, you probably do...

It's funny digging stuff like that up form the past. I still remember the first shot I posted in critique. I remember because I need to for my therapy...

It was a white door if anyone still remembers.