Wow, what a variety of answers and outright conflicts of advice to the questions posed.
Looks like everybody is experiencing different answers to these problems themselves and as such are presenting their opinions from a variety of different points of view. I am not saying they are wrong at all but some may or may not apply to you MikeNannie.
In my opinion...
Is it all about the camera and equipment? No.
I would say perhaps that this could be 20% of the potential, 5% sensor and 15% lens quality.
Skills are the rest... 80% of the image quality and visual impact is talent. Some of this talent is natural and some can be learnt, all can be improved with practice, training and education.
Is a better sensor important.. A little. It will receive more light per pixel and improve the quality but it is not critical. This will be more apparent on larger prints etc, but it also does have a bit of an effect on the image presented on the web.
Dont buy a new lens yet, consider what the flaws in your lens may be and ignore these issues, does it vignette a lot, does it not really have crisp focus, too short or too long.. Understand this (in time) and then work around it, work with it and generally avoid this as an issue. Later you will use this info toward the reasons for getting a new lens and what decisions this will involve.
Postprocessing is something that improved my photography over the last year, also in return my photography has improved and the amount of corrections I do in post are now minimised. The post software I use (lightroom) and the way I use it contribute to my style and photographic results.
Skills..? Well i wont go into these too much, that is practice and reflecting on your results and making changes to the process.
I would add a dose of patience. Take the time to go out to your subject, think about a shot, plan it, think about it (again) and how its looking within the environment, how is the light affecting it and how is this changing as the day passes...
Challenge yourself: Example task, go out with a meetup group and do some landscape, evening/night photography. Do this a few times and make some new friends.. Then when your comfortable with that challenge yourself. Task 1 - Take 1 (One) shot. Go out in the evening cold or whatever and get 1 good shot, use the whole night to do it.
OK, I am rambling, have fun with the above and photography, do what you do with what you have. Chase Jarvis: The best camera is the one you have with you.
Looks like everybody is experiencing different answers to these problems themselves and as such are presenting their opinions from a variety of different points of view. I am not saying they are wrong at all but some may or may not apply to you MikeNannie.
In my opinion...
Is it all about the camera and equipment? No.
I would say perhaps that this could be 20% of the potential, 5% sensor and 15% lens quality.
Skills are the rest... 80% of the image quality and visual impact is talent. Some of this talent is natural and some can be learnt, all can be improved with practice, training and education.
Is a better sensor important.. A little. It will receive more light per pixel and improve the quality but it is not critical. This will be more apparent on larger prints etc, but it also does have a bit of an effect on the image presented on the web.
Dont buy a new lens yet, consider what the flaws in your lens may be and ignore these issues, does it vignette a lot, does it not really have crisp focus, too short or too long.. Understand this (in time) and then work around it, work with it and generally avoid this as an issue. Later you will use this info toward the reasons for getting a new lens and what decisions this will involve.
Postprocessing is something that improved my photography over the last year, also in return my photography has improved and the amount of corrections I do in post are now minimised. The post software I use (lightroom) and the way I use it contribute to my style and photographic results.
Skills..? Well i wont go into these too much, that is practice and reflecting on your results and making changes to the process.
I would add a dose of patience. Take the time to go out to your subject, think about a shot, plan it, think about it (again) and how its looking within the environment, how is the light affecting it and how is this changing as the day passes...
Challenge yourself: Example task, go out with a meetup group and do some landscape, evening/night photography. Do this a few times and make some new friends.. Then when your comfortable with that challenge yourself. Task 1 - Take 1 (One) shot. Go out in the evening cold or whatever and get 1 good shot, use the whole night to do it.
OK, I am rambling, have fun with the above and photography, do what you do with what you have. Chase Jarvis: The best camera is the one you have with you.
I'll review my images for the white balance corrections. I find getting the right WB difficult in LR for some reason. I wish the eye dropper tool would just let you click on something that should be white instead of something gray.
