Idea's?

Babyblue5290

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#1
So I haven't really done much of any manual photography at all, other than manual focus here and there. But I decided while I'm on a break from school I need to pick it back up. So I did, but it's hard to find things to take pictures of when it's freezing outside >_< Anyone have any good idea's for beginners to start using manual mode? I'm trying to think of things that would help me get better at using the aperature, shutter speeds, etc

These are the pics I took today (I don't have an editing program), it's obvious I need some ideas/work lol


DSC_2375 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2377 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2381 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2390 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2398 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2444 by babyblue5290, on Flickr

I don't know how, but I deleted the JPG versions of these two and only had them in RAW format, and since I don't have a good way to convert I ended up having to download a stupid converter that puts a watermark on it. >_<


DSC_2362 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


DSC_2364 by babyblue5290, on Flickr


Suggestions, Ideas, etc always welcome!
 

RBark

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#2
The one thing I notice is you're pretty much shooting with your aperture wide open on those shots. Either that, or you're really zooming in on all your subjects while having the aperture open pretty wide.

In my experience with photography, some people seem to be technical learners, others seem to be hands-on learners. I don't know which you are, so I'm not going to bog you down with a million books to read.

One nice thing to do is, take a picture of something with the aperture wide open. Then take another picture with it closed as possible, but keeping the light the same. The difference is tremendous.

That being said, while knowing all those is important, knowing how to compose your shot is pretty important. A photo being technically perfect is great and a skill to strive for, but being perfect on that front doesn't matter if the subject is boring.

Have an idea in your head about what kind of image you want to show off, if it's a boring subject matter. The shadows? The colors? And so forth.

All that said I'm not an expert at all. I just play with things and figure out what caused the effect.
 

Babyblue5290

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#3
That is really helpful! Today I got my camera out and played with the shutter speeds and aperature just to see how it would affect the photo's and I think it helped. I think I'm going to take out the camera at least 3x per week just to play with it.

I doubt I'll ever be really good at composition, it seems I just don't have "it" lol but I'll be happy if I can take decent quality pics at least :)
 

Oko

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#4
It helped for me to shoot in auto, and look at the pictures stats for the ones that I liked, to try and figure out why the camera chose those settings. Same thing for the ones that went wrong too, but to try and figure out where the camera had gone wrong. Also shooting in priority modes...but mostly just pushing myself to shoot manual and make it all work. I would not recommend manual focus though. After the AF broke on my lens and I shot manual focus for three months until I got it fixed, well, dear god never again. ;)
 

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