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I would say, focus more on composing your shot than learning the technical stuff. All the stuff about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, can be learned fairly quickly.
Being able to see a good picture is something that comes from taking lots and lots of photos with different perspectives (or a really amazing artistic sense). Try taking pictures from high spots, from low spots, zoomed out, zoomed in. Try getting closer to your subject, etc. I think at this stage, shooting in Program mode is fine. It lets you get a feel for how the camera sees things without you having to worry about all that technical stuff (heck Ken Rockwell shoots in auto most of the time). For me, composition is one of the hardest things in photography. It still puzzles me why some of my pictures turn out well while others are very uninteresting.
Also, a word on the overexposure. When the image is too bright, you lose a lot of details in the darker parts of the picture that can be very interesting (like the sky), so don't over do it!
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I see how it is Ket. Leaving us over at LP for the new hot TL. We will remember this... 
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Goshdarnit. It's late, but I want to post. Remind me to edit, and I"ll link you to a bunch of useful stuff tomorrow, when I have time.
one hint: Try the two semiautomodes before going full manual.
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Ugh ... Many already pointed that out but just to reiterate:
-) Lighting and what objects are lit or dark in the picture is VERY important. Usually, it's a very bad idea in a proper lit picture to set the focus on something in the dark like your picture of the fence gate. There are exceptions though like this shot i took with a bridge cam a few years back:
http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/5816/dscf5022.jpg
-) Shooting against the sun is usually a bad idea. If you want to do it, be sure to include dark areas and or areas that provide enough color to make the shot interesting (also shot with a bridge cam):
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2470/dscf5899b.jpg
Since this is kind about scenery photos i can't add much here, since i don't usually do that. But you really gotta get in touch with the technical basics of your camera (how iso, shutter speed, aperture and focal length change the picture) and do some basic research about how lighting and composing a frame works.
This usually should take you less than a month and the rest is practice, deep research and creativity.
/edit:
changed to urls since most of you won't know how to resize the pictures in the board options of their profile
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Nice blog
I remember you from GBR-1. Good old times.
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About the ISO issue,
I already head talked with PH about it on I think konadora's getting into photography blog
The way he words it is a bit too crass and a little exaggerated but I still disagree with apm66.
ISO 100 will still always look better as long as you still have sufficient shutter speed.
like phosphorylation pointed out though, it's hard to spot the difference in the ISO50-400 range.
However, if you shoot indoors you quickly have no choice but to switch to higher ISOs. (Depending on the quality of your camera + lens)
Just to show you the effects of having high ISO so you know what the issue is in the first place.
http://ghostkey.smugmug.com/Photography/Korea/10213762_zhgmQ#703984551_cFKNg
This is taken with ISO1600, if you take a closer look you can clearly see all the fuzzy red and green dots.
I still think it was the right ISO to take this picture though, but id would definitely look better with better lighting and lower ISO.
This is another one but in BW
http://ghostkey.smugmug.com/Photography/Korea/10213762_zhgmQ#703981592_52XEk
Because of the high ISO it looked really bad in its original colours.
But I agree that the technical stuff isnt even the most important part.
I think the most important part for you right now is that you just play around a lot.
Take a lot of photos, not mindlessly walking around taking random snapshots but for example, pick one object you see you find interesting and shoot different photos of it from different angles with different settings, dont be afraid to get up and close, or down on your knees, get a feel for it.
Also agree with PH about using AV for now, so you get a feel for that, depth of field (DOF) is a very important part of photography.
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Wow someone who plays a decent once went to Imperial College? I'm fucking amazed.
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wow lots of great replies, lots to take on board. thx all and stay tuned for my next attempt in the coming weeks
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
Welcome :D I was actually reading the advice in the blog too. So thanks guys ^^. I miss photography, but right now my camera is still dead (and I might borrow Susie's at a later date.) It would be fun to take some Seoul snowy season photos.
P.S. I know composition is important, but tbh as someone who photographed semi-pro for two years (for me) it's also very much about pushing yourself to find those moments that will translate well into a photo and/or tell a story. That advice is more applicable to human/animal photography, but in terms of lighting and plant-life it is also pretty essential imho for landscapes. To get those shots you have to be willing to play dirty sometimes (aka going places no one else would/literally getting into the mud etc.) and you can't focus on anything else when you are shooting. (I've literally ditched friends/family etc to get *that* shot.)
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OT @NeverGG
How did you first get into portrait photography? Did you go up to your friends and be like "hey, want to model for me?" I want to try to get into it, but past from shooting while hanging out with friends, I don't know how to get someone to actually model for me because I have zero experience with it T_T
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On December 06 2010 20:02 7mk wrote:
About the ISO issue,.
ISO 100 will still always look better
that is wrong
depends of the native coded iso of the captor
most small format captors have a native design of 200 iso and for the best image quality, you should always be shooting with the native iso of the captor unless you own a D3, 5D or 1D where you get perfect results at almost any ISO and don't feel the computer emulation.
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
On December 08 2010 14:49 mapignon wrote:
OT @NeverGG
How did you first get into portrait photography? Did you go up to your friends and be like "hey, want to model for me?" I want to try to get into it, but past from shooting while hanging out with friends, I don't know how to get someone to actually model for me because I have zero experience with it T_T
Replace friends with Firebathero and that's basically it. Prior to doing my first shoot with him I basically had no experience whatsoever (If you look back at my older work it really is shite lol.)
I think asking friends whom you think might be interested is a good idea to begin with. Also if you can get involved with any local photography clubs they might be able to hook you up with people looking for test shots or just wanting the experience of doing some portrait modeling. Candids are a wonderful thing, but depending upon how confident you are/whether people are liable to get mad at you for taking them it's always a good idea to be careful when shooting people without permission (Especially kids.)
My usual set up was kind of unique because of the language barriers, but I'd always consider the following when doing a shoot;
1) What resources do I have? (aka. location, props, etc. Specifically in an SC sense this extended to using keyboard bags, uniforms and even glasses as posing tools.)
2) What image does this person have and what mood do I want to provoke from my photos?
3) Color/Texture/lighting and how this can promote a certain feel to a set of photos.
4) Telling a story (This is harder when you have only about 10 minutes for a shoot like I usually did.)
5) Will this shoot earn me death threats from STX fangirls? (Yes, this actually happened.)
In the end it's all about finding out what works for you set up wise, and also what style of photography you can really jam with (for me it's close ups and portrait work, but I could have improved even further if I hadn't retired and I'm about as technical when it comes to my cameras as a potato.)
Good luck and I hope you post your results here :D
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On December 08 2010 18:29 NeverGG wrote:
5) Will this shoot earn me death threats from STX fangirls? (Yes, this actually happened.)
hahaha
www.modelmayhem.com is a good place for finding amateur models, although most of them just want to do bikini shoots so it doesnt let you practise many dffierent areas, but it still practise.
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EPT
