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 AnAppleSnail
   
Location: Charlotte, NC
Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
 |  |  |  | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 20 on 4/25/2009 2:33 AM >
|  | | | I hate to make broad statements about art without examples, so let's talk about -my- experience with photography. Yes this will be long, no I didn't deliberately use several pictures to piss guys off, maybe there's something worth having here lol. I'll begin with the earliest exploring photo I have online. If you don't like drains, skip without malice please ;)
I shoot drains, and often the only light you have is what you bring. Without lighting technique, you either get flat and washed-out flash pictures or this:
Before I got a tripod, it was hard to do off-camera lighting in dark places. You will want a tripod, as it's a tool that lets your camera do more things. I spent $110 on a little point-and-shoot, so what's $8 for a tripod? These are in chronological order, with increasing practice, skill, and lights.
 ">">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/3066518917_93e5f1e48d.jpg">
After having my camera for a whole month, a small meetup happened - and I encountered BATTERY TROUBLE! Missed out on a lot of sweet locations thereby.
Indiana, glowing tower.
Lots and lots of more practice, and I was able to compose these by natural light. I'd gotten tons of practice with using natural lighting and framing by now. If there was a picture count, it'd be in the thousands.
During MAMU, I took over 950 pictures. Now, you 'shoot fewer' people definitely have a point, but I am even now learning better composition techniques. Having a large preview LCD and the knowledge of to use it (check noise, washout etc) means I can hopefully learn from each picture. During MAMU, I started really fighting the inherent limits of a cheap p+s: Lens quality and limited control of aperture, field, depth, and exposure time, as well as digital noise.
I started thinking about the sweet low-noise shots Siologen, ULiveandYouBurn, and dsankt get with their sweet rigs, and desiring better gear. But I still don't shoot the limit of my camera.
Back from MAMU, I started applying some of the multilight and processing tricks I'd learned. That's right, I was now spending equal time fixing the handful of well-executed pictures as going in drains. My camera only shoots RGP JPGs so I'm limited in what tools I can use - Early on I had to remove most color to keep noise and grain down. Improving my lighting techniques and postprocessing are about the only way to make the camera I have better now - I'm nearly at the limit of what can be composed in the dark on the poor thing. Compare the first to the second, where I had enough light to reduce noise.
One light
At least 4 lights
A month or two later, I'm starting to kinda like my own pictures because I'm finally learning to choose subjects better. I tend to not put my daily life pictures online, so I'll share a good UE example from a few months ago:
DJCraig knee-deep in a local drain, probably two lights in this shot. It's composed so that noise isn't a huge issue, and I finally had the tools to really take out noise without damaging a picture too badly.
With one light and careful technique, you can get even lighting. I've since got a much smoother light, but this shows how my lightpainting made a shot much better than any other easy light method would.
You above-grounders may appreciate this one. Now, a common rule I'm breaking is 'rule of thirds.' Ideally this would be refit so that the intersection is at the lower-right corner, except I think I've learned when to not follow it - that would remove the reflections I like. Here's some examples of more light technique, but I won't waste space here lol.
My first non-pocket-torch light! A single light tends to give good shadows if its away from the camera. Another one, using Avius' 3D mag lite and a secondary light for lighting a shadowy face. Standing in frame, holding a light behind you is surprisingly fun...as long as you're not wearing a bright pink respirator! Someday I'll learn not to stand like it's a posed photo but throwing light around in a classroom-sized underground space gets fun. Backlighting is hard to work with, but worth it:
 ">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3300/3424834065_dac7577eb3.jpg">
Till next time:
Thanks for reading, if you did. If not, please don't stalk me to my house and kill me.
Achievement Unlocked
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anathema
 
Gender: Female
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 21 on 5/5/2009 4:42 PM >
| | | | I think I learned the most about photography when I somehow broke the camera and it wouldn't work on the auto setting. I had to learn all about exposure just to take a photo. That's when I learned all the cool things you can do with exposure that you totally miss out on in auto.
It's all trial and error. It's frustrating as hell, but once you learn what works and what doesn't, it will become intuitive.
Fun with exposure
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." ~~Steve Jobs |
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IanJ
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 22 on 5/5/2009 7:53 PM >
| | | | There has been a lot of info posted in this topic. Your best bet is to first master the technical stuff; exposure, shutter speeds, aperture, and etc. Once you get those handled then you can work on the artistic side of things.
Once you've mastered the technical you need to focus on the composition of the image. Composition includes a lot but there are 5 rules you can use to get better images.
#1. Always try to have a line in an image that is parallel to either the horizontal or vertical border of the frame. Pictures without this tend to feel disorientating. (Unless you want them to feel disorientating)
#2. Look at things from a different perspective. Don't walk up to something and just snap a picture. Try kneeling or laying on the ground, jumping in the air, or hovering above it somehow.
#3. Remember Depth of Field. Don't be afraid to experiment with the depth of field in an image. Sometimes it's what isn't in clear that makes the image interesting.
#4. You may have digital access but treat everything like you're shooting film. While it is great to take thousands of images of something and not worry about paying for each shot it can cause you to be too relaxed about what you shoot. Because you buy film and have to pay for it to be developed(chemicals or your local photo shop) it forces you to be more discerning in regard to what you shoot.
#5. Tripods are your best friend. I have seen WAY too many pictures ruined because someone didn't use a tripod or was too lazy to bring one along. Camera shake can ruin even the most finely focused shot. I can not stress enough the importance of a tripod in low light. If you are shooting in low light or at night without a tripod (unless you have your own lighting) you're an idiot.
Also this isn't a formal rule or anything but take your time. Too many people rush though an area taking pictures of the most obvious stuff but not enough people slow down and actually look the stuff around them. The most important thing to remember though is to just have fun with it.
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anathema
Gender: Female
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 23 on 5/6/2009 12:11 PM >
| | | | I highly recommend the Gorillapod. It's a small bendable tripod that can be wrapped around poles or otherwise affixed to something stationary. It fits in your pocket, too.
http://www.joby.com/
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." ~~Steve Jobs |
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cryogenic
Location: Sydney
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 24 on 9/9/2009 1:41 AM >
| | | | I would also recommend checking out the articles on http://www.digital...ography-school.com
There's a lot of REALLY well-written & informative articles on there about all types of photography. Would recommend the ones on low-light & night photography for urban exploration shots, as well as some of the light painting ones for more advanced photographers.
http://www.flickr....os/disinteresting/ |
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IIVQ
   
Location: La Sud-Est du cité majeur du North-Holland (Bijlmer), .NL
Gender: Male
Back in Urbex!
| |  |  | | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 25 on 9/9/2009 5:09 PM >
| | | | Posted by Crumpet
Good idea. You mentioned you have a point and shoot earlier - whatever you do don't feel compelled to get a DSLR just because a lot of urban photographers shoot with them. I had a little 5MP Canon IXUS for about four years before I got a DSLR, and I still use it occasionally for situations where I can't just carry around a DSLR in my pocket. In those four years I took a few really good shots with it, stuff I'd be lucky to replicate even now with a DSLR - so it was great practice for me, learning what worked to achieve a desired effect and what didn't.
Now I've got a DSLR and I'm *still* learning stuff about it five months later. I've yet to take the time to sit down and read the manual cover-to-cover, but I know I should 
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I've just bought a Canon EOS 450D (or digital rebel, I think XSi, as it's called in the USA), after my trusty IXUS 430 died on me.
However, we haven't had the time to get aquinted to each other. I'm sure that at this moment, I'll make far better pictures with the "point and shoot" 430 (if it still made pictures, that is) than with my 450D. However, in a few months, I'll know the 450 inside out and make better pics with that one.
And do it a lot.
Posted by MapMan | 18/9/2005 19:25 | Hedy Lamarr made porn?
Posted by turbozutek | 20/9/2005 2:29 | Dude, educate us! |
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IIVQ
Location: La Sud-Est du cité majeur du North-Holland (Bijlmer), .NL
Gender: Male
Back in Urbex!
| | | | | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 26 on 9/9/2009 5:10 PM >
| | | | Posted by Shutchatrap
***THREAD HIJACK***
How do I do this on a P&S?
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P&S's can make pictures with High (low) DOF - though usually not so dramatic as this one.
Posted by MapMan | 18/9/2005 19:25 | Hedy Lamarr made porn?
Posted by turbozutek | 20/9/2005 2:29 | Dude, educate us! |
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IIVQ
Location: La Sud-Est du cité majeur du North-Holland (Bijlmer), .NL
Gender: Male
Back in Urbex!
| | | | | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 27 on 9/9/2009 5:14 PM >
| | | | Posted by Shawn W.
by getting a digital SLR, which I did slightly less than two months ago. The first thing that I learned when I began using it is that I knew less about photography than I'd thought  , as I'd gotten used to the limitations of the p&s cameras, so I had to start of using full auto.
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I have the exact same experience - my full auto pics come out better than manual (except I use "no flash" instead of full auto. I do not like flash at all, and even prefer a blurry one over a flash pic usually)
However, i've signed up for a photography club, will go there in for the first time in... 47 minutes.
Posted by MapMan | 18/9/2005 19:25 | Hedy Lamarr made porn?
Posted by turbozutek | 20/9/2005 2:29 | Dude, educate us! |
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RailGuy88
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Where you're not...
Gender: Male
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 28 on 9/10/2009 3:00 AM >
| | | | Posted by IIVQ
P&S's can make pictures with High (low) DOF - though usually not so dramatic as this one.
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The Nikon Coolpix L1 can. See my macro pics on my homepage.
Most other P&S cameras can as well, but not as good as the L1 (at least from what I've seen). It also depends on how much you paid for the P&S. The L1 was around $249. Other newer ones are cheaper, which means less options and more presets.
It also helps to have a tighter (or lower mm) lens on your P&S, SLR, or DSLR. 18mm will do it if the camera is built or programmed to take macros at that level, but generally 12-17mm is what you need.
Going where others can't... |
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mesomewierdo
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 29 on 9/13/2009 5:54 PM >
| | | | Tripods can be good in the middle of the day because they're so cumbersome they force you to really think your composition out.
Most digital cameras store info about the shot in their EXIF data, how zoomed in the lens was, how long the exposure was, etc. Though you can strip that info many leave it in; you can snoop on others' photos this way.
You could also look at it as
-- standing in THIS spot, for THIS perspective...
-- pointed THIS way, zoomed in THIS much...
-- with light coming in/from THERE
Figure all that out and the camera is basically irrelevant. You can go through daily life mocking up shots in your head. For example note how midday sun is harsh but clouds and dawn/dusk are better.
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justakitty
Location: The Dirty 'Shwa, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Female
| | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 30 on 9/14/2009 8:25 PM >
| | | | Posted by cryogenic
I would also recommend checking out the articles on http://www.digital...ography-school.com
There's a lot of REALLY well-written & informative articles on there about all types of photography. Would recommend the ones on low-light & night photography for urban exploration shots, as well as some of the light painting ones for more advanced photographers.
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Seriously sweet site... it's already taken a chunk of my time, thanks for the link!!! And it seems to offer great advice and break it down into language that helps to get a better understanding rather than just leaving you saying "ok that works, but I don't know why..."
Really, I thank you cryo!!
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Shawn W.
Location: Niagara Falls, NY
Gender: Male
Optimistic Pessimist
| | | | Re: Improving my photography skills
<Reply # 31 on 9/16/2009 11:36 AM >
| | | | Posted by IIVQ
I have the exact same experience - my full auto pics come out better than manual (except I use "no flash" instead of full auto. I do not like flash at all, and even prefer a blurry one over a flash pic usually) |
I graduated to manual probably around four months ago, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Posted by RailGuy88
The Nikon Coolpix L1 can. See my macro pics on my homepage. |
You know, I think that's one of the few things that I didn't try with my L1 before I switched to a D80, but it can definitely take awesome photos under the right circumstances.
What is a rebel? A man who says no. - Albert Camus |
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