Hi Chris,
Yes, taking lots of photographs is helpful, but what is really important is that you study your
worst pictures and figure out what went wrong!
I rarely learn from the few good shots I get. The bad ones teach me so much more about my bad habits, mistakes, and misunderstandings.
Sometimes I am amazed at how good the automatic modes have gotten on these cameras. Spend a day mixing automatic and creative modes. Does the camera do better than you? Study the settings the auto-mode selected and try to turn those decisions into some kind of guideline that makes sense to you.
One thing I have found is that the camera does better than when the lighting is good or conditions are reasonable. The automatic modes don't forget to change the white balance or ISO or even the shooting mode, but I can and do forget at least one setting when in a rush.
Conversely, when the lighting is poor (strong backlights, odd lighting, low lighting) I can sometimes do better than the camera automatic mode at anticipating what the worst effect will be. In other words, it might be better to have more noise and less motion blur in a low-light concert shot.
I also find that some of the focus failures I used to assign to the camera were where I had selected a scene that was likely to fool the auto-focus. High contrast features in the background yet horizontally very close to the intended focus point are one example. Study where the camera actually placed the focus as compared to where you intended it. Sometimes the focus points are actually just a little outside the "box" in the display.
And of course if I select the wrong focus mode for the scene (one-shot focus when somebody is walking/running towards me) I will get burned.
Finally, I suggest that you make photographs every day. I often find my worst shots happen when I pick up the camera after letting too much time go between sessions. I forget too easily
.
Good luck and happy shooting!
bob
