Hi guys. For those of you who don't know me, I am Ketul, 26, from UK. I guess you can call me an TL old-timer as I've been posting/lurking (more of the latter than former) on-and-off since 2002 or so.
I was in highschool around TeamLiquid's 'era of mensrea' when Nazgul was going to Korea and NaDa was the new hotshot kid in town killing everyone in the proscene. At that time I loved few things more than getting home from school, 6pooling my homework and getting on the computer for some quality starcraft time with my awesome uk/europe based clan VdP, and interlinked communities such as GBR-1 and MB clan. And who could forget the excitement and rush every sunday as WGTour Clanleague rolled around?
As with all things that part of my life had to fade out over time and come to an eventual end as I found myself at university, Imperial College London, studying some Computing and living some life. I was never the most conscientious student and during my final year at the age of 21.5, for better or worse, I fell into the life of professional poker. A story you've probably already heard many times here and I'm not really here to talk too much about poker. All I'll say for the purposes of my introduction post is that I'm still playing poker professionally today but I've changed and grown up a lot from the kid I was when I started this chapter of my life, and things are good.
I recently decided to get into photography. I've flirted with the idea for brief moments for months if not years, but dismissed it just as quickly as I've not really found the motivation. Before now the only cameras I've ever owned were a cellphone and a compact, and neither received any sort of regular use over the years. My appreciation for photos is twofold. Firstly the brain seems to work in mysterious ways and I find when looking at old photographs from many years ago that dormant buried memory is often invoked pretty powerfully by the image even if it has little directly to do with the memories invoked. But this is a pretty personal thing and not something you can really share with others. I wish I took more pictures in the last 5 years. Secondly I think it's the only form of "art" I really seem to appreciate, far more so than traditional art which does nothing for me, or even music. I've often witnessed scenes before my eyes and had fleeting thoughts of "what I'm currently witnessing can be interpreted as beauty and would make for a really good picture", and sometimes I've even idly taken a picture with whatever poor excuse for a camera was on me at the time, never once thinking to buy a good camera or pursue this activity more often. I didn't even realise I was enjoying it or it could be a hobby.
Only in the last few days a couple of incidents happened. We just finished having Snow Chaos in the UK which, aside from being an infrastructure disaster, was also very novel and beautiful. At night a lot more of the lighting from street lights and the city in general is reflected off the ground due to it being blanketed by a thick bed of brilliant white snow, and reflected back from the air to the ground by the large volume of fresh snowfall creating an enchanting effect in the middle of the night of permanent dusk with a dull purple sky and enough light/visibility in the dead of night to stand in the middle of an empty park and comfortably see 200 metres away. I've never seen anything like it and I quickly dug up my underused compact camera before heading out to play in the snow. For the first time I wished I actually had one of these "SLR camera" things to better capture this, and when my compact camera fell out of my pocket at some point during a snowball fight with my housemates and lost into a spongy depth of snow it was the perfect excuse to start googling. During this googling I did some searches here on TL and found out there are def quite a few photography enthusiasts, which is what made me decide to make this blog post here today. Quick shoutout to minus_human who's blog and photos I found on here during this, awesome work!
After a few hour long googled education on what DSLRs are, how they work and what to buy I was at the big shopping centre the next day to pick one up. All the shops in Bluewater were closed for the day due to snow. Nobody seemed to be leaving their houses during the snow chaos except for work or wanting to risk driving anywhere. WTF, fail. No problem, I went again the day after and picked up my new camera: a Canon 550D (rebel T2i) with just the 18-55mm standard kit lens for now. Googled a couple of quick guides to learn how to operate the camera, what aperture size, shutter speed and ISO all mean and read a few tips for taking photos. Armed with some basic knowledge I went out this afternoon to the park across from my house to practice taking some pics and play with the settings. Think I took maybe 78 pics today which included quite a few epic fails and repeated attempts at the same shot trying to change settings to rectify aforementioned fails. Most of the snow has melted by now though
Here are some of my favourite ones from today:
All taken with Canon EOS550d with 18-55mm kit lens, all have ISO 100
Would def like some critiquing and tips from resident photography gosus. Noob here. Also I did use img tags but they don't resize right to fit the window width on the forum so I'm just linking to the direct photo links as it seems the next most convenient thing
the most difficult thing for new photographers is finding something interesting or original to shoot. most of us have the same surroundings regardless of which part of the world we're from ... buildings, trees, cars, people, etc ... the trick is finding that right spot, the right angle, the right lighting so that those common-every-day-things stand out.
you must also consider post processing. grab some photo editing software and play around with color saturation, vignette, brightness/contrast, maybe even black+white for some photos - anything that can add just that bit more depth to otherwise boring photos.
once you get a hold of composition you can start thinking about other lenses to increase the breadth of your capabilities.
you had a beautiful sky, most of your pictures ended up from being the same angle (the same eye level/height). remember that if you are shooting, your object is not the one that should be moving (most of the time anyway, when you're shooting inanimate objects). you should be the one moving. try to shoot from different angles.
for example, the last picture had a beautiful view but the lack of sky makes it feel too "filled". zoom out/move back, make the sky be exposed more in the frame. you may want to follow the "rule of thirds" (google it up) (edit: nvm it's the first response post lol) to help construct a better picture.
for your third picture, you could have used the open gates and the long empty path to your advantage, such that those two are aligned together, making it seem like there's this long empty lonely path in the snowy country.
for some of your shots, i recommend trying to shoot from a lower angle. bend down, lie down, squat, try everything. do NOT always stick to shooting from just standing up. get closer. get further. move around. that's what you should be doing. don't worry, the trees won't run away, take your time.
loving to see more people into photography, hoping for more photos in the future!
The deliberate over-exposure is a bit annoying. The last picture is very nice though.
for example, the last picture had a beautiful view but the lack of sky makes it feel too "filled". zoom out/move back, make the sky be exposed more in the frame. you may want to follow the "rule of thirds" (google it up) (edit: nvm it's the first response post lol) to help construct a better picture.
Disagree, I think "fill the frame" pictures can look quite nice and I like the perspective.
This is a better example of centered imagery being unappealing.
Read, learn, and practice. You will improve in no time. Also, I would recommend looking at other's works for inspiration. You can visit your local library and pickup some acclaimed photographers' portfolios or just explore the photography blogosphere (PM me if you are interested in some good photoblogs), alternatively, you may also choose to take a introductory photography course at a local college.
You may also want to look into learning post processing. Skills in software such as Photoshop is almost a requirement for most decent photographers nowadays. Learning to be fluent in these programs can help make one's photos look a lot better. For example, basic problems in some of your photos (clipped highlights, crooked horizons, etc.) can be easily fixed with a few clicks.
The popular choice of software is Adobe Photoshop (or, depending on your budget/moral obligations, Photoshop Elements, or even GIMP). Although these programs may seem a bit overwhelming at first, they can be learned pretty quickly. Once you mastered these programs, you could look into shooting in RAW and buying/acquiring Adobe Lightroom.
Lastly, I would recommend you finding more varied and interesting subjects for your photography. Take a walk around your town and I'm sure there will be many things that inspire you.
The most glaring problem I saw with your photos is the blown out highlights, your skies are completely white and its not interesting especially since landscapes generally need to include the sky. You can avoid this by either using a graduated filter or taking seperate exposures for the sky and foreground and blending them in photoshop. However you are shooting a decent time, with good light.
Post processing is a pretty big part of photography, even if you want to keep your photos looking natural. I definitely recommend picking up a copy of photoshop or atleast lightroom and learning your way around it.
You can learn so much by just googling shit, there a lots of decent youtube tutorials too. Infact I made a quick tutorial on how to blend 2 exposures in photoshop
Don't try and blame your lenses - especially for landscapes, the 18-55 is a great lens and only gearfags will tell you differently. Lenses can help but wont drastically change your photos. Pretty much every landscape on my flickr is taken with the 18-55. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfenner/
Gl anyway, I'm sure you'll pick it up fast since you were so good at poker.
I think the biggest issue you have is with your lighting. Composition is something you have to get a feel for. There are no rules, and sometimes ignoring them will get you the better shot. Use them as guidelines. The best way for getting better at composing, really, is to just go through tons and tons of photos others have done and critique them on your own. Look at the photo and figure out why it looks good and why it looks bad. What areas of the photo draw your eye? What is the subject of the photo? How do the colors appear? Are they balanced? Is it weighted in any direction? How is the contrast? How much negative space is there in the photo? Does this contribute to the shot? etc etc.
When you're going off to shoot on your own, this way, you can look at something you want a shot of and figure out the best way to really capture it the way you want it to.
The second thing is that all of your photos seem to be greatly blown out. Use a smaller aperture to compensate for the light reflecting off of the snow unless you want a significant amount of DoF, then you have to try and compensate with a faster shutter speed. You want to be in the ballpark of a few steps in either direction, or else fixing it in post will get more and more difficult (if you want to keep a natural look).
Always run ISO100. ALWAYS RUN ISO100. NEVER run anything higher unless you ABSOLUTELY need to. This is ESPECIALLY true if your composition is going to have a significant amount of negative space. In indoor and low-light situations, you will have to inevitably go up, but resist this as much as possible. The image quality suffers greatly.
Since you're starting out, I'd suggest using Av, or aperture priority mode. This way, you get to set your own aperture and the camera will automatically compensate the shutter speed for you. Aperture will affect not only the shutter speed, but the DoF of your images, so this is a very fun setting to play with. The 18-55 kit lens that Canon cameras come with produce beautiful bokeh (the blurry look of things out of focus in the background in a shot), so take full advantage of that.
The last thing I suggest you work on is how to post-process your photos. When you're going out shooting, it's difficult to get your camera set perfectly for every shot. It takes too long. Generally, photographers will set up a few presets and just run around shooting as much as they can. Then once they're back home, they'll open up photoshop or lightroom or whatever and patch up little tweaks in the photos to make them ready for print. I personally just use photoshop. My workflow generally consists of opening the photo and checking to make sure the composition is good and that there are no annoying artifacts (I don't believe in cropping to make up for a bad shot and avoid doing it as much as possible, and publish 99% of my stuff with 2:3 original aspect ratio). If the composition is good, then I'll look at the color and light in the image. I'll adjust it however I need it to in Levels and Curves until I get a look I like, or until any issues with the original capture have been ironed out.
After this I save, resize to whatever works best for wherever I'll publish it, and be done.
That's just me, though. I like doing as little as possible to my photos in post, but having a post-process is very very very important nonetheless.
So to reiterate my advice: do "research", or look at other people's works and figure out why they're good and why they're bad. Learn how to mess with Levels and Curves in photoshop (avoid color balance and contrast and whatnot. Those are very imprecise tools that actually only apply changes in a mask over your image, I've heard). Eventually learn how to use your camera with as much manual control as possible. ALWAYS USE 100 ISO.
I really disagree with the notion that you must "ALWAYS USE 100 ISO." Sometimes, even the very slight risk of camera shake (even minimal shake can make a difference) would be way outweighted by the benefit of bumping the ISO to up to 800. On my 5D, ISO 50-400 is virtually indistinguishable, even at 100. I am not familiar with 550D but I've heard its noise characteristics should be nearly as good as 5D.
I also don't see the reason for your beef with cropping. Exclusion of unimportant details is a hugely important skill in photography and sometimes the only way to do that is by cropping.
To the OP: I think your photos are tehcnically lacking, since you are just starting out. But I see some thought in them, which is rare in these times where the flashiest photographs seem to garner all the attention.
I strongly disagree with the "ALWAYS USE ISO100" as well. It's the digital era. All kinds of ISO are being handed to you on a silver platter, why not use em? ISO100 is usually softer then anything else above. ISO 400-800 ( depending on whcih model ) usually provide sharper images ( Based on the cameras that I currently own - Canon 40D/5dmk2 ), but then it also depends what you want to achieve. Some photographers like to shoot at ISO1600 to create this old film feel.
OP: Not sure what kind of critiques you're looking for. The images you posted are just snapshots, and technical aspects don't really matter at this point. Creativity comes first. You can learn how to operate your camera later on.
Based on personal experience: I started photography in 2006, and did not bother reading a single book, because I'm extremely visual and the only way for me to learn is hands-on experience. I keep shooting random stuffs for over a year then finally got serious, and now I run my own photography company. Mind you that I still haven't read a single book about photography. I'm not bragging, but I believe that in order to learn something like that, you need to actually do it trial & error. Such as any sports, reading books won't make you a better player.
Here are the rules of composition I've always used.
1) The rule of thirds, as described earlier in this thread.
2) "Everything looks better at a 45 degree angle" - If you look at a person straight on, for example, you get the old wives tale of "the camera adds 20 pounds" because you're looking at them flat, without expressing their figure. The same goes for objects. Dimension and depth are what make for, in my opinion, the best photography. It's one reason why I prefer candid photography rather than "smile at the camera!" photos
3) "Leading lines", which are objects or lines that start on the border of the page, and continue to draw your eye inwards. In the Ansel Adams photo shown above, the river would be the leading line. Other commonly used leading lines could be fences, railings, streets, or something like that.
4) Repeating shapes or patterns. You've accomplished this in the 2nd photo you listed, with the repeating trees in a line. Adds a lot of dimension and depth to the photo, and is really helpful if you can find places to use it.
5) In most cases, you don't want the horizon line to be in the center of your photo. I don't remember the exact reasoning, but to me, it seems like it cuts the photo in half.
As for some other tips not related to composition (and things you haven't necessarily went against, but I am simply suggesting for the sake of giving you something to think about)
Don't use flash unless you are photographing a model. Controlling your aperture and shutter speed to get just the right amount of exposure allows you to incorporate shadows in to your photos, which help a lot. Granted, all the photos you've shown here are outside, but this is simply a tip I'm throwing out there.
Also, experiment with duotones (black and white, or blue and black, or red and white, etc). Color is very important, but if the colors of your scene don't compliment each other or aren't very pleasing to look at, sometimes no color speaks louder than poor color. In the case of the giant muddy snowball, the color of the mud is taking away from it (something I have always hated about winter photography.) In regards to my color, my favorite is experimenting with color removal, if you have Photoshop anyway.
Personally, I'd teach yourself how to shoot in Manual, not aperture or shutter priority. I've always used manual, since I ever started learning, and I think its the best option to give you the best artistic control over something. Of course, you can use shutter priority if you want to catch things fast without motion blur, or aperture priority if you want to do things without movement, but I still love manual anyway. Challenge yourself, you might like it.
Also, I try my absolute best to avoid photos that have bright white skies. Sometimes its unavoidable if you're not doing HDR (which requires static figures and a tripod) but white skies are really unappealing to most people Using manual and/or duotones can help combat this.
Also, you don't need to go over 1/30 shutter speed if you are capturing a still image. As you can see in your 1/20 photo, its a little bit blurry. The shutter is open longer and, without a tripod, everyone's hands shake just a little. The longer its open (even in fractions of a second) the more your hands will move. Similarly, there is no reason to go to 1/80 capturing a still image when you can lower that to get a better exposure or better aperture (unless you have artistic purpose to do so).
That's about all I have for now. Here's some photos I took at the National Cathedral last year, for the sake of showing you my credentials. I am far from amazing, but I'm happy with my photos anyway.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3003/photog0.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1793/dpp0005.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Adams_The_Tetons_and_the_Snake_River.jpg)
