Photography as a hobby/interest General Chat

Ok everyone knows what a camera is for and what it does, but how many actually know how to get the best out of it?

A camera is a means to an end, it is the person behind it that actually makes the picture. So often one sees a person with a huge camera DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) and great long lens without a clue how to use it, yet you see others with point and shoot (compact) camera taking great pictures.

What photography taught me was to see a subject not just look at it. For example looking at a flower one may see the flower head and stem, seeing it means not only the above but colour -shape- height -any flaws in the flower head and so forth and so on.
next seeing not just viewing from one angle or position but from each side-above and from underneath. That is the difference between looking and seeing.

The next question I often get asked is " which camera should I get?"
There is no definative answer as each person has different needs.
So first of all is type of camera as mentioned above and how much on is willing to spend.
For the holiday "snapper" type a compact camera would be ideal, easy to carry and easy to use
For the more serious photographer a DSLR I would recommend

Next question is which make?

here again modern cameras can produce great photos and in reality there is not much difference between them. Ok may have different button layout and different functions but it is what one gets used to using a particular make..

How do I find out which suits me

Easiest way is to go into a camera shop and see which you find the most comfortable and easiest to use within your capabilities. All cameras have auto settings now but a lot would advise getting the one with less on it. My opinion is get the most expensive you can afford. Why? because with an expensive camera you can start off with auto settings and progress to using others options when you feel capable. That way there is no need to upgrade (like I did at great expense ) when you feel you have outgrown what the camera can do.

So what to photograph?

I find it best to have a main subject to concentrate on be it wildlife- portrait- architecture- landscape or what ever and the rest as a side interest. Again why do I say that? the reason is the more (in my case wildlife) one gets into a subject the more there is to learn.

How do I learn about taking photos?

Many would say go to night school or college and learn that way, I disagree. By going to college you learn how others want you to take photos not develop your own distinctive style. Take all your great painters they developed their own style and their pictures can be worth millions, those who are taught by them are hardly heard of, if at all. I would say go out and practice and learn by your
mistakes, digital photography allows this without any extra cost one can just delete what is rubbish.

So what is the answer?

It is all around you, adverts -billboards- magazines even flyers through the door all have photos by professional photographers, and by studying them on how the photo was taken is a good pointer and free.

Take for instance a car advert, how was the camera positioned? looking down on it?no. Looking at just the grill?no , maybe the rear light cluster? no. Most car adverts are taken at low level showing the front and side of the car to make the car look longer and wider and taller. Other photos may show the inside etc as a follow on. So look how the picture was taken and place yourself in that position

Ok I have bought a camera and kit lens now what?

Say you decide on landscapes mainly do I go to the top of a hill and take shots of what I see? no, there is no focal point which is important.
There may be a bench or tree or something that can be introduced into a photo or a lane leading into the distance, these "props" are free and can make or ruin a picture.
A sunrise or sunset can also make a lot of difference and worth considering, A big no no is not having the horizon level ,something to watch out for. Quite often by just moving a few feet to the left or right can improve a shot.

Portraits have different things to consider such as lighting-positioning of the person- background- clothes- props. Each has its own considerations and problems to overcome. As I said portrait is not what I am familiar with ,which is why you should have just one main interest

Ok photos taken and off home to put them on a computer, oops the colour looks terrible or there is maybe an unwanted object in the photo, Help what do I do as I want to keep that particular shot as it brings back memories.

Editing

So now this is where an editing suite come in handy, oops but they cost a lot of money! no not
necessarily so. Yes there are those costing hundreds of pounds and ok for those making a living out of photography, but if like me I just want to "tidy "up a photo there is one I use called Adobe Elements which have updated versions so older versions tend to be cheaper but just as good. Often found on auction sites ,you know which one.

Ok you have a so so picture but can you make it better by editing? yes and no is the answer depending on editing skills. First off one should really try and get it right when taking the photo but not always possible.

Before doing any editing always make a copy and work on that not the original , if you make a mistake no harm done.

So with an editing suite one can remove anything unwanted ' alter brightness-contrast colour -sharpness and so much more. OOPS doing all that does not make the picture any better so better scrap it!?wrong, so many photos can be "saved" by converting to black and white and well worth trying first.
Ok now the picture is how you want it and saved on the computer, what next? just leave it there or make a hard copy. The cheapest way is to send the photo away to be developed but hang on a minute.
You have gone out bought a camera-bought a lens-bought a memory card- been out and taken a photo gone home and edited it to your liking then letting a stranger produce it for you? why not have a go at doing your own printing and completing the finished product. ok more expensive with getting a photo printer and paper and ink, but the satisfaction of seeing your own work coming out of the printer is worth every penny and you don't have to wait for the photo to be sent back.

Hope you enjoyed this very brief outline into photography. If not at least it was something to read and comment on

I really admire you. I can sketch and cartoon above average but photography no. I think I still have my little Kodak 110 tucked away somewhere. Like opera, photography is something I wish I could wrap my head around but I can't.

One of the problems for anyone wanting to do photography is most sites get too technical and so boring. Trying to find out the basics anywhere is nigh on impossible.
They go on about "rule of thirds" shutter speeds -flash guns -depth of field and other stuff which a beginner does confuse and quickly put them off even trying.
All one wants to do is take a half decent photo that can be shown to others.

My first attempts looked as if a monkey was using the camera, yes they were that bad so I have been there and suffered it..
I have friends in photography who did belong to photographic clubs but soon left as it was a case of my picture is better than yours and no help to a beginner.

So why bother? well it is something one can do without relying on others and also provides a record of where one has been

A typical type landscape shot



what grabs the attention straight away?
answer the stream going into the distance? yes?
or in other words a point of interest

If taking a photo of a moving subject give it room in the photo to go into



AS in the picture the space does not have to be on one side, it can also be in front of as well. Notice how the fence also adds depth to the photo

Just a couple of pointers easily understood without any highly technical talk

@tumbleweed - I have always enjoyed the photographs/video clips you posted on Dogsey, but tbh my camera [just a Canon PowerShot SX 150 IS] does what I need.

It probably will do a lot more that I use if for, which is just to take simple photographs, but for me, just using the auto setting it suits me.

This does not mean that I do not appreciate and enjoy your pictures - I do and thank you for posting them, but having grown up when a Kodak Brownie was considered to be the ultimate in cameras [and I dropped Father's in the lake in Regent's Park ] to me cameras were, and are, just for taking pictures of the moment. Mostly now being of De Dawg.

Malka that is fine , the thing is to enjoy first and foremost. My first camera also was a Brownie which I save 6 pence, old money, a week until I could afford one which then cost £1 and 1 shilling £1.1.0 pence. That must have been way back in early 1950's if my memory serves me correctly.

As I said it is the photographer that makes the picture the camera is just a means of getting it.

I does not matter a hoot about anything as long as a photo can bring back memories for people like you and me.

I would say 90% of people who own a camera only use it for family -holiday or pet -wedding shots .

That is how I started out, even when I progressed to a more advanced camera
a Voightlander Vito CL I had for my 21 birthday present from my late parents.

My problem was I was an apprentice way back then and earned very little money and having a film developed took almost all my wages after I has paid my parents a small rent each week and cost of travel to work etc. So photography took a back seat to every thing else

It was only much later on, infact what digital photography took off I had a dip into it with about the cheapest digital compact on the market by Kodak which was a 2mp camera. Yes you did read that right only 2mp. I had that for over a year but started getting very frustrated with its limitations. For example taking a picture of a duck on a small island in a lake looked like a dot on the picture Totally useless it was for that kind of work but ok for people type shots. What it did do is make me realise that with a better camera I could get such shots with the right size of lens. Then the whole world of digital photography opened up for me.
So the better camera gave my the interest I have now several camera models further down the line and now my main interest.

Quite rightly so you have a camera which suits your needs, at the moment, and you no doubt enjoy using it. However you may, just may, get more interested in photography later on like I did which I why i posted a couple of picture pointers to possible help

Can photography get too involved to put you off?

Yes Yes and Yes again, I don't like at those know- it- alls that criticise anything you post picture wise. They will nit pick the slightest thing yet in 9 cases out of 10 they are afraid of posting their own pictures which tells me a lot.
I have had a photo torn to bits on one site yet won an international competition with it, which is why I hardly go on that particular site now.
One of the biggest arguements is colour calibration, that is getting the computer screen to show the correct colours via a colour checker which scans a screen. They even go as far as doing it after every few photos, absolutely crazy to me. If you have a good monitor there should be no real need to have it calibrated.
to me if a picture looks right on a monitor then it is right and no need to play about with colour.

As I said this is how deep some people go yet I often doubt if they really know what they are doing.
Keeping it as simple as possible is always the best.

Ok hands up I did take it a little further by hand building my computer with my son strictly for photographic work and spent 3 months or more on selecting the right componets to go into it.

Shop bought computers are ok for all purpose use but I have to wonder how good the components are inside which is why we built my own.

But that is going off subject sorry.
So back to the beginning as I tend to wander onto other things.

Ok you have a camera now great let us rush out and take photos, hold back a minute what are you rushing out to take photos of? then you have to start thinking about camera lenses and that is another mine field entirely.

So many brand and third party lens makes which do you choose .

I have seen posts where members want a do it all lens, well these just don't exist. Get one that has a large range and at one end or the other the lens can't cope and shows up in a photo. Won't go into what where and why as I am trying to keep things as simple as possible. I started a with a kit lens which covered 18-70mm which is a good starting point. After that only buy what you really need.

memory cards is another trap those new to photography can easily fall into.

One of the questions I often get asked is which memory card should I get?
Good question and needs a good answer which hopefully I can give.

The first thing people look at is price and amount of memory a card will hold. Have to say it is the wrong approach.
What should be looked at is the transfer speed from camera to memory card, This is on nearly every card shown as MB/s.
Why do I mention this when I can get a cheap card with a load of storage memory? stupid idea!
Actually it is not for a very good reason. if you are taking photos continuously without stopping "gunning a camera" there come a time when the card says to the camera, hang on a minute I can't accept that number of photos so quickly you will have to wait for me to catch up.

So there you are happily taking a lot of photos one after another then suddenly the camera stops, this is the reason why.

I would suggest the minimum MB's should not be below 45 MB/s and my preference is 95mb's to prevent any camera stall. yes you pay a lot more but against loosing that vital shot ???
The other thing to look at is card class especially now both DSLR and compacts can take videos as well. Class 4 is the absolute minimum and preferable class 10 for video work for the best reproduction.

Ok that is something to think about when buying memory

How about how do i keep a camera steady in a wind?

Simplest way is to use a support nearby, such as a tree trunk or wall that works most of the time but what if those are not nearby?

Then you start coming onto tripods and monopods (leg numers to you and me).

Gosh where does one start, that is just as confusing as getting the camera in the first place. There are a thousand and one on the marked and double that with the type of head to put on it.

So again keeping it as simple as possible first check what weight a tripod and head can carry ,you don't want a camera to start pointing downward or skywards . Second check stability. You again don't want one that is going to fall over in the slightest breeze, so the best way is go into a camera shop with your camera and heaviest lens and try them out. The best way is to fully extend the tripod and check movement. Even a shutter clicking can cause movement and blur a picture.

I wonder myself quite often why I got so deeply involved, must need my head examined. where is that nice DR.

Think I have about covered the basics except flash photography which I will briefly cover next.
so that is camera -lens -which subject to specialise in- a couple of tips to hopefully help- monitors and printers - memory cards- tripods/monopods. how to get inspiration free. Oh don't forget spare batteries , nearly forgot.

Wow I didn't know there was so much in it I hear you say

Just working with a flash gun is a completely different way of taking photos. You can point the flashgun direct at a subject which more than likely cause a shadow behind, or point it to a wall/ceiling and bounce the flash off that , obviously called bounce light flash.
Then you can have the flashgun divorced from a camera and get the camera to fire it remotely or several at once. there is other ways to use lighting to soften a light or cover a greater area or even create a continuous light.

One of the small gadgets I find useful is what is called a remote trigger which can be wired or wireless depending on choice. Why one of these? well it means the camera will be more steady Than one pushing down to shutter button causing a camera movement

To end with a little true story to make you smile.

My ex manageress and I sometimes took a break from working in the kennels we owned to go to a zoo or something. Yes my wife was glad to get me out of her hair for a day
So off we toddled to an owl sanctuary for a day and spent most of the day photographing the owls. When we had finish we went into the little cafe they had and sat down for something to eat and drink.
Shortly afterwards in came a middle aged man and his wife and he was in a right mood cursing his new Nikon camera he had bought the day before ,saying to his wife "I told you I should have got a Cannon camera these Nikons are rubbish they don't even work"

So Dawn my manageress lent over and asked could she help as I had Nikons and she often used mine in the past.
So this man virtually threw it at her cursing all the time.
Dawn looked at it and asked where he had put the battery as it was not in the camera.
Well you can imagine how the guy felt, a right idiot, and stormed out of the cafe blaming his wife for not telling him about charging and using a battery in the camera.

We both smiled at each other as we were lost for words.

if anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them, but I admit I am always learning as well so some questions may be beyond my knowledge

For me a camera is just to take pictures that either I want to keep or to share. Nothing special which is why my Cannon suits me fine. The only thing I have against it is that it does not have a viewfinder, which is not the end of the world. But it is basically a point and shoot camera although it does do a lot more than that, and tbh that is all I need.

However, my computer is a different matter! My original and subsequent ones were built for me by someone who is a Microsoft certified trainer and engineer. Actually that last word is probably incorrect but that is the nearest I can get to translate it, but my what he has built for me has been according to what I want/need - actually probably far more than I need, but like my Cannon camera, it does exactly what I want. And like my camera can no doubt do far more than I really need.

And the thing is that the photographs I take are really only for me. Nobody is going to want them when I am gone. There are no world-shattering pictures, nothing really of interest to anyone. I post photographs of Pereg and some of the Moshav for people here, as I used to on Dogsey, but mainly they are just for me.

Some photo's I have taken of my 6 dogs




I have 2 big camera's & an pocket camera & I just grab the nearest one to me, as each one is set on auto.

Tina

thanks for sharing. You don't say which you used but auto settings is ok for most things except for moving subject.

Then you should really change to the shutter setting and increase the shutter speed to "freeze" the action as below




or do what is called panning, ie following the dog and the background is blurred as below



What you don't want is this (yes I do make terrible errors as well)
Totally messed this one up as the camera was focused on the background more than the dogs




Tina
You are attempting what I think is one of the hardest tasks in photography and did well considering

I love the last one Tina. Though all your JRT's are great,I think Zeus is my favourite - it's his Parson type coat, and those jazzy tricolour markings.

Have nicknamed him longlegs as Dottie can stand under him.

My 2 big camera's are Fuji & an photographers ex professional camera which is a Kodak my pocket camera is a Samsung.
I have been given lessons by a professional photographer on how to take action photo's on auto settings this is Ziva running, was told to take photo just before she runs pass me.
Am please with result

Tina

Just a little tip
Do remember dogs have feet as well . Not always the easiest thing as someone viewing does not know what is surrounding the photographer and not be able to get back far enough

Also A lot of hard copy prints tend to lose the edges of a photo, so as you have done get the subject matter well away from the edge.So score yourself 10 out of 10 for that

I did have a little play with that one and did find a little sharpening will make a difference, but leave that up to you as I know you love the photo anyway

Too many people say this is wrong and that should be done this way, but that is not my style. I prefer to point in a direction a picture could be made slightly better and leave it up to the person who took the photo to decide.

I will only post what I think will make a difference if asked, but often the original is what the person who took the photo with likes anyway.

One site I belong to will go on about the background being cluttered- dog at wrong angle- and a thousand other things,I prefer to see a photo as taken and not messed about with too much.

OOH he taught you only on auto settings???? he never mentioned any other settings then to try? strange or at least I think so. Remember a "profession" photographer only means he/she has been paid for their work.
In my humble opinion auto settings are only as good as the camera , but having said that it is a good starting point to begin with.
If I may can I suggest trying some other settings as well, no one else needs to see them so no need to feel stupid. That is what i often felt, a right idiot but no one really saw the cockups I made, but I learnt. So I was exactly the same as you auto settings every time.

One you could try is aperture setting which I found was better that auto. A camera seems to respond better and all the other settings fall in line so no need to try anything else for the second time. I think your work will improve, so give it a go it can't do any harm

One thing that really puts people off and did me for a time is those know- it- alls as I have said previously, we all make mistakes or think we could have done better .

Photography is a constant challange to try and improve, and this is only achieved by constant practice. Those who say there is nothing more to learn are to be avoided, or at least that is what i think

@tumbleweed I have to use the auto settings as my eye sight is poor, everything looks blurry so for the action photos I wait for the vibration as my dogs run by, the stronger the vibration the closer my dogs are (laying on ground can feel the ground vibrate) the Kodak camera can take 10 shots on auto settings

i am always willing to try and help others interest in photography as far as I can, purely because I like to see how well they improve with a little guidance. It is actually something I enjoy. Being self taught I have fallen into every pitfall known photographic wise, believe me. So anything I can do to help feel free to ask and if I don't know the answer I will say so not try and bluff it out.

Tina if you are using a DSLR camera there are optic devices that can fit onto the viewfinder to help correct the eyesight problem

type this in google


Diopters for the Fuji

or

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Diopters for the Fuji&rlz=1C1ASUM_enGB598GB598&oq=Diopters for the Fuji&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.5544j0j9&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8

if that is not your camera email Fugi or the other makers and ask if they make one for your model camera


or look here
http://sale-fire.co.uk/Diopter Correction?p=gcb&gclid=CJ2Pj8T0jMQCFeoJwwodIacANg


this may help
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diaoptic correction for cameras

With really bad eyesight that is a problem obviously but those links above may help a little

@tumbleweed - these three photos were taken on auto - how could I have made them better?

​

[apart from not have De Dawg's bum in the last one!]

Close up of K9 taken with my Kodak camera on Auto