Photography

1,541 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Civilized
cowboypack02
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Are any of you guys into photography? I purchased a camera last year and would love any tips or advice you guys may have
Civilized
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What lenses do you have?
cowboypack02
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Its a Canon Lumix camera.

I can't switch out the lenses for it
Civilized
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I'm very much an amateur but I really enjoy it.

Even if yours is a point and shoot it probably has 'virtual' settings that you can use to customize the look of your photos.

Check out some online/YouTube tutorials and understand how focal length, shutter speed, and ISO work and how they're interrelated.

More than anything, just experiment and take a bunch of pictures in various light conditions and with different types of subjects (moving, still, very large, very small, very close, very far away) and with different focal length, shutter speeds, and ISO's.
Civilized
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Also, many point and shoots have snap-on lenses to create wide angle and telephoto effects; you may see if yours does.
cowboypack02
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The camera has tons of different settings. It amazes me how much i can do with that contraption. I read through the instruction book several times but unfortunately it covers what all of the buttons do, but not so much all of the settings

Do you use any type of photo editing software?
Civilized
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Not anything fancy, I do adjust photos for publication for our business using Mac's native photo editing tool.

After the fact, what I'm paying attention to most is normally white balance and brightness since many of the photos are architectural. Fluorescent and LED lights can sometimes appear to blue or cool, and nobody wants to hang out in a poorly lit cave.

Unless you've got a professional flash or lighting set up, even a nice camera with nice glass tends to understate the feel of a well lit room with regard to its brightness. On paper or on a screen it feels dimmer and more shadowy and sometimes cooler or more blue than it feels in real life so a few quick adjustments to brightness and color temperature make the light in the room feel more representative of the conditions in the field.
Daviewolf83
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Civilized has provided some good advice. The best advice I can give you is this - take the camera with you as much as possible and take a lot of pictures. Photography really is an activity where practice does make perfect. With today's digital cameras, you can do this and it is not nearly expensive as the days of shooting with film. You also have the ability to see what your picture looks like immediately and not have to wait for your film to be developed.

As Civilized pointed out - make sure you learn about the relationship between shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. These are the three keys to properly exposing an image. It may seem intimidating at first (it was to me many years ago), but they are the key to taking really good photographs. The other thing to do is focus on composition. For this, I have a few tips. Watch some YouTube videos (there are lots of them) that will give you advice and some rules to properly composing an image. Find some Instagram channels you like and subscribe to them. Pay attention to what the photographer is trying to convey with the image and where they are directing your eyes. This is what composition is all about - directing the viewers eyes in a way that it tells a story.

Do you have any particular interests or things you like to take pictures of? If for example, if you are interested in doing landscape photography, I can give you some really good suggestions on resources. The same goes for sports, real estate, etc.

Feel free to post any additional questions here and I would be happy to try an answer them or you can direct message me on the site.
cowboypack02
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I've done some pictures with people, but I enjoy taking landscape pictures. I have seen some night time pictures that were awesome and i'd love to try my hand at that, but haven't really had the time
caryking
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cowboy, one place I tell people to start out doing (just above an amateur here) is use the aperture priority mode. Point at a subject, take a bunch of pictures while adjusting the aperture so you can see what that does to "depth of field".

Composition is key with any picture and that's where the good photographers show their stuff. Remember, a great photographer can produce a great picture regardless of the camera being used. That, I learned, the hard way...
On the illegal or criminal immigrants…

“they built the country, the reason our economy is growing”

Joe Biden
Civilized
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pineknollshoresking said:

cowboy, one place I tell people to start out doing (just above an amateur here) is use the aperture priority mode. Point at a subject, take a bunch of pictures while adjusting the aperture so you can see what that does to "depth of field".

Composition is key with any picture and that's where the good photographers show their stuff. Remember, a great photographer can produce a great picture regardless of the camera being used. That, I learned, the hard way...

Agree. I still shoot in aperture priority mode more than any other mode. I like being able to focus on composition and depth of field.
caryking
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cowboypack02 said:

I've done some pictures with people, but I enjoy taking landscape pictures. I have seen some night time pictures that were awesome and i'd love to try my hand at that, but haven't really had the time
Night time may require a tripod. for some night time shooting, i typically switch over to shutter priority. the longer the shutter is open, the more movement you can get, like seeing a cars taillights leave a line behind...
On the illegal or criminal immigrants…

“they built the country, the reason our economy is growing”

Joe Biden
caryking
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Civilized said:

pineknollshoresking said:

cowboy, one place I tell people to start out doing (just above an amateur here) is use the aperture priority mode. Point at a subject, take a bunch of pictures while adjusting the aperture so you can see what that does to "depth of field".

Composition is key with any picture and that's where the good photographers show their stuff. Remember, a great photographer can produce a great picture regardless of the camera being used. That, I learned, the hard way...

Agree. I still shoot in aperture priority mode more than any other mode. I like being able to focus on composition and depth of field.
so do i. full manual is past my capabilities on the fly...
On the illegal or criminal immigrants…

“they built the country, the reason our economy is growing”

Joe Biden
Civilized
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pineknollshoresking said:

Civilized said:

pineknollshoresking said:

cowboy, one place I tell people to start out doing (just above an amateur here) is use the aperture priority mode. Point at a subject, take a bunch of pictures while adjusting the aperture so you can see what that does to "depth of field".

Composition is key with any picture and that's where the good photographers show their stuff. Remember, a great photographer can produce a great picture regardless of the camera being used. That, I learned, the hard way...

Agree. I still shoot in aperture priority mode more than any other mode. I like being able to focus on composition and depth of field.
so do i. full manual is past my capabilities on the fly...

Yep. I care about learning about photography. I care even more about making sure I get the shot.
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