How do I improve my photography?

I have a canon EOS 400D digital, which is my pride and joy. I take it everywhere, photo everything and generally my composition is good, (if I may say so myself). I've even had the odd photo accepted in photo libraries. I've had my camera a year and I'm a self taught photographer, who probably has learnt quite a bit. I work in raw format and use the TV, AV, M, and A-Dep modes and manipulate in Photoshop when I need to.

My biggest problem is my photos, more times than not, are rejected due to focusing on the wrong point, not enough depth of field, or too much noise etc etc.

Basically, I'm saying I'm a frustrated amateur photographer with an obvious need to improve.

Can anyone help and point me in the right direction of some books which will give me exercises to try out, explain lenses, ISOs, settings on the camera and when to use them. Alternatively, recommend a photography courses in London UK, (South if poss), where you thought you got something from the session.

Many thanks in advance.

Have a look at http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=TipsAndTechsAct The Canon EOS site has lots of useful info for beginners.

Also, go through this course, it's good: http://web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/index.html

Read your manual that came with the camera. I don't think that you need to go to a course. It took me a while to learn, but it's quite simple, the best way is to get your manual and try out the features as you read it.

For ISO, lower ISO = less noise. Ideally, in sunny weather you should use ISO 100, in darker situations ISO 400 up to ISO 800. ISO 1600 might be too noisy. A friend of mine purchased an EOS 400D as a first camera and shot everything in Auto, it was terrible, camera automatically selected ISO 1600 in conditions where ISO 100 would have been enough.

Aperture = the opening of the lens. Search around on google and you'll find lots of info about it. The smaller the aperture (f), the larger the opening = more light can come in = shorter exposure time. A small f also has a depth of field, so it's important to focus correctly. There are lots of things to write about, eg, if taking a portrait, sometimes, you might focus the eyes, but the nose is blurry due to depth of field, so you need to ease of on DOF. If you are taking a photo of something moving fast, you need as short exposure as possible, so you'll use as low f as you can.

Lastly, the best way to improve your photography is to take lots of photos, you'll improve with time.

Macsimum said:

My biggest problem is my photos, more times than not, are rejected
due to focusing on the wrong point, not enough depth of field, or too
much noise etc etc.

Click to expand...

Well, focusing is a basic requirement. You achieve focus or not. Depth of field - it's pretty much user controlable. Noise - is ISO dependant and camera dependant.

With a modern camera you it's pretty difficult to get bad results. I'd guess that you missed the basics.

Macsimum said:

Basically, I'm saying I'm a frustrated amateur photographer with an
obvious need to improve.

Click to expand...

LEARN the basics. Start with the camera manual. That should fix the missed focus. Learn about exposure. That will probably solve the noise problem. You should have a DOF preview button on the camera. Use it when you are not sure.

Macsimum said:

Can anyone help and point me in the right direction of some books
which will give me exercises to try out, explain lenses, ISOs,
settings on the camera and when to use them.

Click to expand...

For the technicals, start with the fine manual.

For the "exercise" part, first educate your eye. Look at photographs. Start with some albums, then look on the net. Try and judge other's photos, it's easier than judging your own work. When you feel more secure, examine your older work - the fresher a photograph is, the harder is for the author to evaluate it.

Imposed work. On this site there are weekly challenges, on an imposed theme. Join. Design your own themes. Wide angle. Lines. Triangles. Colors. There is no limit.

After an year of extensive usage of the camera you should be able to control it good. No focus/DOF/exposure problems. Since you don't, my guess is you skipped the basics. Go back there.

d/n

I guess you are both right. I'm going back to basics.

Thanks for the tips.

J

... is to make sure that your photo tells the story.

This is actually more important than anything else. Emphasize the true point of interest: a person's beautiful eyes for instance, in a landscape go for the sense of awe, tranquillity, balance etc. ie. the special quality that makes it attractive to you and find a suitable secondary subject whenever you can as well.

Next get the technical aspects spot-on so that they doubly emphasise the point you're trying to make: separation of subject from background, perspective control, sense of tension (where appropriate) etc.

Then ensure that the camera settings are optimised for the kind of shot you're aiming to create. Take the shot... then take more cropped in ever more tightly.

Chances are it will now begin to work.

--
John.
Please visit me at:
http://www.pbase.com/johnfr/backtothebridge
http://www.pbase.com/johnfr/digital_dartmoor

If you want to learn and are cheap, then hit your library and read most of the books they have, don't worry if the older ones are film based, it really doesn't matter.

Then take out all the past issues of photo mags they have and read them. Go back a year latter and re-read some of the books and mags.

Probably the biggest bang for the buck is the "camera club." Often these clubs put on very interesting courses, on the cheap or free for its members. The image critiques are priceless and will move you along quite quickly. Good clubs long ago learned to be gentle in these critiques so don't be afraid to display your work; just remember you are entering your work for critique - not praise - which is usually the closet agenda of many here who submit work for "critique."

Here is an agenda page from a local camera club in my area:

http://www.nsps.ca/meetings.html

Here is the home page for the camera club:

http://www.nsps.ca/

--
Rationally I have no hope, irrationally I believe in miracles.
Joni Mitchell

If you're running into complaints about DOF and ISO noise, you probably need to learn lighting.

I'd start by getting a cheap silver reflector and learning to fill shadows with it if you do portraiture, then learn to use off-camera flash (check out http://www.strobist.com for tutorials, look at portfolios for mine for examples, etc).

-Matt
--
http://exnophoto.com

The blog: http://Exno.Blogspot.com

Matt,

I think you could be right. I tend to take pictures mainly of my kids who just don't keep still for 2 seconds, and so make it nearly impossible for me to get the focus, DOF or lighting right. Most of my photos are taken inside, so I definitely think I need to invest in a reflector. Why do you suggest a silver reflector? What's the difference between this and the others? I think I also need to get myself a flash too.

I recently bought myself a sigma 24-70mm lens to help with indoor shots. Not sure it was the right move or not?

Regards
June

ps. I really liked your web site and images. Very inspiring.

that you may find useful, I know I did

http://luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics-1.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/composition-2.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/composition-3.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/composition-4.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics5.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/determining-exposure.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/keepers.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/portfolio-8.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics9.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics10.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

A lot of reading but I think you will find it all very useful.

James
--
http://www.pbase.com/carrhighlander

Whay is it that we always seem to get the important informtion well after people have worked hard to privide answers to the wrong questions?

Have you EVER seen sharp, noise free, deep depth of field, well lit, non-flash photographs of moving children indoors in poorly rooms?

You're compaining about not being able to take pictures that are impossible to take in the first place.

Photography is a set of trade-offs. High ISO ov ercomes (to some extent) poor light, but adds noise. Faster shutter speeds overcome motion blur but force wide aperetures, which means shallow depth of field. And so on.

Working fast means you neglect to work carefully. You don't need a course to tell you to slow down.

THREE LESSONS:

1/ get a tripod. Put the camera on it, so that you can easily set all the knobs and buttons and easily read the screens to see that the settings are what you want.

2/ learn to see the light. This just takes the payng of attention, squinting, and making a little tunnel with your fingers.

For instance, look at a chair, and a pillow on it, that are near a window on a sunny day. (Doesn't relly matter if the sun is coming trhough the window; it hjust needs to be bright outside.

See how new side of the chair (facing the window) is brighter than the side away from the window. Make a tunnel with your fingers, and look at the darker side. Note how it seems lighter and more detailed now that you can't see the bright side. (that's because you eye is openingup, just like a wider aperture in a camera) Imagine you are a light meter. How would you set the camera in order to get good exposure under these circumstances?

So your job as a learning photogrpaher is to figure out how to solve this problem.

Which leads us to point three, already advocated by an earlier poster.

3/ Get a reflector. Still using the chair set-up, just get something white and flat (a towwel placed over a baking sheet works) and hold it toward the dark side of the chair ahd pillow. Notice how the dark side gets lighter.

You can employ this principle for lots of different types of pictures.

Once you see what happens by using some household objects, go to a store and buy a better reflector. Several brands are circular, and twist in a weird way so thay are a lot smaller for storage than they are when untwisted and in use.

Silver or white? Try some aluminum foil on that baking sheet, and see what the difference is. My reflector has a white side and a silver side)

Books? Go to a big store and look for John Hedgecoe books and pick one that appeals. He's got lots to choose from, with varying eamounts of attention on technology, techniques and composition, and he writes in the Queen's English.

Tom Ang has several good books, too, written in colonial English.

bAK

I know you shoot Canon, but I suggest you take some seminars or courses from Nikon School. It's the best money I've ever spent. I took my first one in the early 70s and continue to take them every now and then.

It doesn't matter what brand of camera you use. It a fantastic resource and a lot of fun. You can take the same Nikon School course over again and still have fun and learn more. The instructors change and the multimedia presentations change and get better each time.

http://www.nikon.co.uk/training/

Macsimum said:

I have a canon EOS 400D digital, which is my pride and joy. I take it
everywhere, photo everything and generally my composition is good,
(if I may say so myself). I've even had the odd photo accepted in
photo libraries. I've had my camera a year and I'm a self taught
photographer, who probably has learnt quite a bit. I work in raw
format and use the TV, AV, M, and A-Dep modes and manipulate in
Photoshop when I need to.

Click to expand...

I'm actually pretty similar to you. Same camera, self taught, almost the same time having it. I know about the technical side of photograhpy, I don't think my composition is that good though. I'm not very creative.

Macsimum said:

My biggest problem is my photos, more times than not, are rejected
due to focusing on the wrong point, not enough depth of field, or too
much noise etc etc.
Basically, I'm saying I'm a frustrated amateur photographer with an
obvious need to improve.

Click to expand...

Auto-focus should nail it, unless you're tricking it and it has to hunt.

Macsimum said:

Can anyone help and point me in the right direction of some books
which will give me exercises to try out, explain lenses, ISOs,
settings on the camera and when to use them. Alternatively, recommend
a photography courses in London UK, (South if poss), where you
thought you got something from the session.

Click to expand...

This is very short, but I feel like posting it

With exposure, you can do a lot of experiments on your own. Head over to M mode and try out individual settings, and taking a picture after each one, like 1/100 F5.6, ISO400 / 1/100 F6.3, ISO400 / 1/100 F7.1, ISO400 / you get the point. Keep two of the variables the same and change one thing. If you want to see the exposure not change so drastically, try exposure compensation instead in Av/Tv modes. Since these are pictures to only look at, you can delete them if you want.

ISO - the higher you go, the more noise you get, but you can shoot faster or use smaller apertures. There's no "good" ISO, but as a rule, keep it as low as possible. Possible is whatever exposure is okay until the image becomes blurred from camera shake.

I meant to advise a reflector for outdoor work... can't give you many tips on indoor shooting as I don't do it very often, but for starters learning how to use a bounce flash is good.

Silver? Just because silver gives nice, clean, white reflections.

Thanks - glad you liked my portfolio!

--
http://exnophoto.com

The blog: http://Exno.Blogspot.com

ExNihilo said:

I meant to advise a reflector for outdoor work... can't give you many
tips on indoor shooting as I don't do it very often, but for starters
learning how to use a bounce flash is good.

Silver? Just because silver gives nice, clean, white reflections.

Thanks - glad you liked my portfolio!

Click to expand...

A silver reflector will give the most intense reflection for more light, but the light won't be as even as using a more diffused reflector.

With kids runnig around, positioning any reflector will probably be next to impossible.

--
Cheers from John from Adelaide, South Australia
John Harvey Photography http://johnharvey.com.au
Canon 40D, Canon 20D & Fuji F10

Macsimum said:

I have a canon EOS 400D digital, which is my pride and joy. I take it
everywhere, photo everything and generally my composition is good,
(if I may say so myself). I've even had the odd photo accepted in
photo libraries. I've had my camera a year and I'm a self taught
photographer, who probably has learnt quite a bit. I work in raw
format and use the TV, AV, M, and A-Dep modes and manipulate in
Photoshop when I need to.

My biggest problem is my photos, more times than not, are rejected
due to focusing on the wrong point, not enough depth of field, or too
much noise etc etc.
Basically, I'm saying I'm a frustrated amateur photographer with an
obvious need to improve.

Can anyone help and point me in the right direction of some books
which will give me exercises to try out, explain lenses, ISOs,
settings on the camera and when to use them. Alternatively, recommend
a photography courses in London UK, (South if poss), where you
thought you got something from the session.

Many thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Hi June. As you've said elsewhere, you want to photograph your kids inside (low light) and they won't stay still. That's a real challenge.

You might choose to prefocus, ie focus at a particular distance and then try to photograph your moving kids when they happen to be at that distance, eg as they run into that 'focus zone'.

Another kety consideration is achieving a fast enough shuuter speed (short enough exposure period) to freeze the action enough. You need a combination of enough light, a fast enough lens and the right settings on your camera. To achieve a higher shutter speed for a given amount of light, you need a small enough f-stop and a high enough ISO. A faster lens (smaller possible f-stop number) can help, even if the depth of field ends up being small. You also need to consider how much noise is acceptable as you increase the ISO speed.

For any given lens, if the exposure time is too long to freeze the action enough even at the smallest f-stop number available for that lens (at the focal length you wnat to use) and at an ISO value that gives you acceptable noise, then you need either more light or a faster lens (or a better camera).

More light might mean shooting closer to a window, choosing a brighter day, using flash, etc. If you prefocus on a particular area, you might be able to use a reflector as someone else suggested to try to reflect some light back to light up your kids more as they move through your target zone. other than that, using reflectors is probably next to impossible for moving subjects.

--
Cheers from John from Adelaide, South Australia
John Harvey Photography http://johnharvey.com.au
Canon 40D, Canon 20D & Fuji F10

John down under said:

Hi June. As you've said elsewhere, you want to photograph your kids
inside (low light) and they won't stay still. That's a real
challenge.

You might choose to prefocus, ie focus at a particular distance and
then try to photograph your moving kids when they happen to be at
that distance, eg as they run into that 'focus zone'.

Another kety consideration is achieving a fast enough shuuter speed
(short enough exposure period) to freeze the action enough. You need
a combination of enough light, a fast enough lens and the right
settings on your camera. To achieve a higher shutter speed for a
given amount of light, you need a small enough f-stop and a high
enough ISO. A faster lens (smaller possible f-stop number) can help,
even if the depth of field ends up being small. You also need to
consider how much noise is acceptable as you increase the ISO speed.

For any given lens, if the exposure time is too long to freeze the
action enough even at the smallest f-stop number available for that
lens (at the focal length you wnat to use) and at an ISO value that
gives you acceptable noise, then you need either more light or a
faster lens (or a better camera).

More light might mean shooting closer to a window, choosing a
brighter day, using flash, etc. If you prefocus on a particular
area, you might be able to use a reflector as someone else suggested
to try to reflect some light back to light up your kids more as they
move through your target zone. other than that, using reflectors is
probably next to impossible for moving subjects.

Click to expand...

John,

Thank you for this. I have found this very useful. You suggest a faster lens. Any suggestions?

Regards
June

• Add a flash for fast moving kids inside. Or,
• Get a 50 f1.8, best bang for the buck, Or
• Canon 5D + fast, fast lens (35 f1.4L, 16-35 f2.8L, 50 f1.2), then you can shoot iso 1600 with fast shutter speed.

I am aiming for the last option, one day...
--

• Johnny

http://tuxbailey.zenfolio.com

don't shy away from longer lenses either - the 85mm f1.8 is pretty sweet focal length and ap.
--
http://exnophoto.com

The blog: http://Exno.Blogspot.com

Macsimum said:

Thank you for this. I have found this very useful. You suggest a
faster lens. Any suggestions?

Regards
June

Click to expand...

Hi June. You were thinking in the right direction with the Simga 24-70/2.8 as f/2.8 is fairly fast, but low light is low light.

As someone else suggested, the best bang for buck is the Canon 50/1.8. the 50/1.4 is better build and image quality (at wider apertures like f/1.8) and still not exceedingly expensive. As someone else suggested, the 85/1.8 is also worth considering. f/2 would be a whole stop faster than f/2.8, and anything less is even faster, so you could at least halve the exposure time with one of those fast primes, all else being equal. Primes aren't as flexible as zooms (obviously primes don't zoom), but there aren't any zooms for Canon faster than f/2.8.

Flash is problematic. I enjoy flash, but I have plenty more to learn. It can add plenty of light, but can also look terrible, like the deer in the headlights look. It can also be a cost-effective solution for lighting. Lighting is one of the most tricky, and rewarding, challenges in photography.

--
Cheers from John from Adelaide, South Australia
John Harvey Photography http://johnharvey.com.au
Canon 40D, Canon 20D & Fuji F10

ExNihilo said:

don't shy away from longer lenses either - the 85mm f1.8 is pretty
sweet focal length and ap.

Click to expand...

What's the difference between the 50 and the 85.
Or should I ask, what are the pros and cons?