So- how do I take a photograph instead of snapping pictures?

[WithTheGrain]

I have been reading DPReview and other photo boards for a year now trying to learn about photography, cameras and lenses. One thing that I have noticed is that we spend most of the time talking about the technical side of the tools, what to buy and then argue about brands rather than how to actually use them. So, I am going to pose a different question-- how do you take a photograph?

I find that I am still new enough so that when I get it set to M rather than Auto, I still end up just setting the fstop to something low and then keep adjusting shutter speed until I think it should be "about right". This is of course stupid, because my hand shakes make the images blurry and i quickly go back to auto. Worse yet is when the flash makes it all go blue or my whites are yellow. So, obviously, I am still just poking around and getting ideas of what I should not be doing.

With this admission in mind, how do you take your photographs? I don't mean exposure alone, but composition. It could be where do you go to get your shots? I am just trying to get some talk about the actual photographic process.

Any takers?

 

[Fnord5]

For composition, remember the rule of thirds.

The main focal point for a photograph(most interesting/the thing you want to take a photo of) should be at the outside edge of the frame.

Imagine taking a photo, and folding it from top to bottom in thirds, and from left to right in thirds.

Your focal point should be in the outer boxes, or close to it.
Here is an example:

 

[Fnord5]

For exposure, I tend to run the f-stop as high as it goes,(f.22 on mine) and then adjust the exposure accordingly. The higher the f number, the greater the depth of field.
Ansel Adams and a bunch of his friends were called the f64 club IIRC, for their use of the f-stop of 64.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_f/64
Of course, I have no clue with a digital SLR, as I only use a point and shoot digital, and a film SLR.

 

[dpm802]

With this admission in mind, how do you take your photographs? I don't mean exposure alone, but composition. It could be where do you go to get your shots? I am just trying to get some talk about the actual photographic process.

When I was in Junior High School, I took a photography class ... one of the first rules that we learned from the instructor was that before you know how to do things right, you have to know how to do them wrong.

To that end, our first assignment was to shoot an entire roll of extremely bad photos ... so we set out to make deliberate mistakes like over-exposure, under-exposure, camera-shake, wrong shutter speeds, out of focus, etc, etc.

From that point on, all of our pictures came out a lot better, and we wasted very few shots trying to get what we wanted in the first place.

 

[dpm802]

One important thing you should look at when you're framing a shot is the background, and move either yourself or your subject to get a better one if necessary.

For example, suppose you are taking a picture of your friend on a busy city street ... would the background look better if the scene is filled with cars and trucks and billboards and random people, or would it look better by moving a few feet up the street to put them in front of an attractive store window, an old brick wall, or maybe on a park bench with an identifiable landmark in the background.

 

[Roman414]

Well, what do you want in a particular photo? Do you want every detail to be as sharp as possible? Do you want to focus the viewer's attention on your subject by throwing the background softly out of focus? What do you want the viewer to see when he looks at that photo? If you have some idea like that in your mind, that will guide you to what F-stop to choose. If you are shooting a subject in motion, do you want to "freeze" the motion? Or do you want a little blur to emphasize the motion? That would influence your choice of shutter speed. My own definition, if I look at a picture and I can see why the photographer thought it was worth shooting, and why he shot it like he did, that is a photograph. If I can't figure any of those out by looking at it, it is a snapshot. I am afraid I still shoot a lot of mediocre snapshots, but I am still learning. I come up with one once in awhile that I am proud of.

 

[cityjim]

Ansel Adams ? Ok moving on ......


You need to know all the tech side , features and how they operate . That is if you want to play in "manual" mode .

For digital shooting try using middle aperature level and middle zoom level on the lense . Most digital camera lenses give the sharpest images there . Don't even move towards f22 like Ansel recommended .


cityjim

 

[Roman414]

Again, it depends on what you want. A lens is usually SHARPEST at or near its middle aperture settings. As you stop it down to a smaller aperture, depth of field increases. So, what is important to you in this particular shot? Maximum sharpness of the subject? Maybe not if you are shooting a head-and-shoulders of your girlfriend and don't want every little skin blemish and imperfection standing out. You might want to open the lens up to soften her image a bit, and at the same time throw distracting background into a blur. The most important piece of equipment you use is your brain. Give Ansel Adams a cheap drug store throw-away camera, and he will take better photos with it than you are I are likely to with Nikon/Canon's latest, most expensive gee-whiz. Because he spent a lifetime studying and learning.

 

[Fnord5]

Ansel Adams ? Ok moving on ......


You need to know all the tech side , features and how they operate . That is if you want to play in "manual" mode .

For digital shooting try using middle aperature level and middle zoom level on the lense . Most digital camera lenses give the sharpest images there . Don't even move towards f22 like Ansel recommended .


cityjim

Actually, Ansel used F/64 most of the time.
And what is your deal, really? You come in, and pick apart everyones ideas, and insert yours that often don't make any sense to those with actual experience.

The OP was asking HOW to take photos, and I was supplying information that is useful for doing things other than what a point and shoot does, which leaving all settings in the middle is turning a dslr into.

 

[dwestenk]

Ansel Adams ? Ok moving on ......

Do you not know who he is? And you roll your eyes at his photography?

 

[Roman414]

If you want to move beyond using "auto" every time, you need a basic understanding of the technical stuff...apertures, shutter speeds, depth-of-field, etc...so you can use them to achieve whatever effect you are after in the photo. A community college class in basic photography is good, but you can also learn by asking questions and by just experimenting. Film for a digital camera is cheap...

 

[sigmasix]

Firstly dpreview is a pretty good forum overall, but I'd check out http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/ and look at the various forums that interest you in particular, as there are much more photos posted here than the other site.

Also take a look at the Weekly and Monthly Assignment to see how people interpret the various 'themes' for each competition.

The rule of 1/3rds is something you should use because I personally think photos taken like this are easier on the eye. Where if you took a photo of that bee that Fnord5 posted that was completely centered on the flower, it just wouldn't look as nice. It'd look more 'scientific' in my opinion ...

I focus more on 'aperture' which is depth of field to start with, over both shutter and aperture modes (which is basically Manual). If you take a look at the photo I've uploaded of the brush, you can see that the text is in focus, where the rest of it is pretty blurry. I purposely did this and used a very low aperture of F1.4 for that specific effect.

I was trying to capture the text obviously and find that it's more natural to the eye to have the rest blurry. If perhaps someone wanted to see the bristles and the handle because they were interested in buying one themselves based upon the look of the brush, I'd use a high aperture as explained below.

In other photos where I'm trying to capture say someones face, or a I want to see more of the picture in focus for whatever reason, I'll use F8 or F11. As you go up in aperture though, the camera needs more time to capture the photo, so you need a tripod, lots of light, or a good camera (it's more complicated than that, but that's the basics). If you are getting blurry photos, get a cheap tripod, or rest your camera somewhere to start with.

There's no right and wrong way to take a picture, it's really up to how YOU see things and interpret the scene. I've seen two photos of the exact same place a year apart from two people, and they've captured it completely differently and they were both good shots!

What I would suggest is finding what you like perhaps, then trying to copy it so you can get the technical aspect of it and learn the camera etc. But mostly I'd say take lots and lots of photos, reading and learning will only get you so far, and you can always get critiqued on friendlier forums on your photos and what to improve.

If you could provide some photos you've taken, or more information on what you like to capture, I could give you more advice, but there's a world out there to photograph and the light is different every day, so the combinations are endless ...

I find that I am still new enough so that when I get it set to M rather than Auto, I still end up just setting the fstop to something low and then keep adjusting shutter speed until I think it should be "about right". This is of course stupid, because my hand shakes make the images blurry and i quickly go back to auto. Worse yet is when the flash makes it all go blue or my whites are yellow. So, obviously, I am still just poking around and getting ideas of what I should not be doing.

I'd start with Auto first and learn how to 'compose' a scene, so you may not get the effects you're after, but at least you'll get clear shots (important) and learn how to frame and improve your eye. As said above you can also use Aperture mode, and let it automatically select the shutter speed, but you may need tripods, better cameras/lenses etc. to achieve exactly what you want.

Flashes generally 'blow out' a photo and never look as good as natural light, depending on your set up of course and your intentions. The best thing to do is to 'bounce' the flash off the ceiling or wall if possible but again this comes down to your camera and flash equipment. The photo I've taken of the brush is using 3 different desk lamps, and no flash, this is why it looks more warm instead of blinding white or yellow.

 

[ItalianGA]

Composing shots is a personal preference. What are you trying to convey about the scene? Do you want the entire shot in focus, usually more with landscapes/scenery, or do you want a nice, sharp focal point with backround blur to bring the viewers eye where you want such as in a portrait.

There is no right or wrong f-stop, there is no right or wrong shutter speed. They are related. A higher number f-stop (smaller aperature) will bring more/all things in focus, but the appropriate shutter speed must be selected to get the proper exposure. As you increase the f-stop number, you are making the opening that light comes through smaller, and therefore need a slower shutter speed to allow more time for the proper amount of light to enter.

It all depends on what you are trying to do. A larger f-stop number might bring more things in focus, but because you need a slower shutter speed, it also has the potential to create problems if your subject is moving or show camera shake if you are not using a tripod. But, there may be times you purposely want to do this to convey motion. But, a lower number f-stop with the appropriate faster shutter speed will allow you to take more 'stop-action' photos such as in sporting events.

Instead of going fully 'M' to start, Digital SLRs usually have two other options (check your camera manual) usually shown as Tv and Av (at least on the Canon DSLRs). They allow you to set either the shutter speed (Tv -timing value) manually and let the camera choose the appropriate aperature setting, or let you set the f-stop (aperature value - Av) and let the camera select the appropriate shutter speed. This will allow you to start understanding how changing the one value will also change the other.

A good starter book that explains exposure and the relationship between aperature and shutter speed is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson wich can be had from amazon for under $20.

The 'rule of thirds' that I saw someone else post is a very valuable thing and a good thing to keep in mind when you're starting out composing shots.

As far as your flash photography turning things all blue, or whites showing up as yellow, that has to do with 'Color Tempature' aka 'White Balance'. Different types of light have different color tempatures. Incandescent light is a different temp than flourescent, sunlight is different from either. Even sunlight outdoors has different tempatures depending on time of day, cloudy vs. clear. Our eyes compensate for this so we generally don't notice this visually, but cameras are not as forgiving. However, check your camera manual with regard to adjusting temperature/white balance. You may have it manually set to one type of light which isn't appropriate for another type. There is usually a setting to have the camera auto adjust to the proper tempature. The auto setting on most cameras usually does well with daylight, but some are more 'off' when it comes to auto adjusting to indoor, or especially mixed lighting (flourescent overhead, incandescent in the lamp and then throw the flash into the mix and it's not sure exactly what to do).

Many of the photographers that I know break the 'rules' constantly to acheive certain effects or convey certain emotion, but the key is you have to KNOW the Rules first in order to know the Correct way to break them.